Kansas City leadership, told through local work.
Banking on KC follows the people shaping Kansas City’s business, cultural, and civic life. Its conversations move patiently through downtown redevelopment, architecture, sports tourism, community journalism, philanthropy, law, and homelessness outreach.
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Banking on KC is a community-minded interview show focused on the people and organizations shaping Kansas City. It is steady and purposeful. The format gives guests enough space to tell the longer version of a project, a career, or a civic mission, while Kelly Scanlon guides the conversation with direct questions and practical follow-ups. The show is especially interested in work that changes daily life in the city. Downtown redevelopment becomes a discussion of parks, housing, the North Loop, freeway barriers, the West Bottoms, the riverfront, and how neighborhoods connect. Architecture becomes a way to talk about collaboration, parking lots turned into useful places, mentorship, AI, and human-centered design. Sports tourism becomes a question of readiness: volunteers, buses, hospitality workers, airport planning, multilingual information, Big 12 tournaments, and the pressure of hosting the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The business conversations stay grounded in service. A law firm episode examines client access, communication, and the limits of AI-generated legal drafts. A community journalism episode follows Joe Arce’s work with KC Hispanic News, Hispanic heritage, young journalists, scholarships, and local storytelling. A philanthropy episode connects business education, faith, Spark Tank, and economically viable enterprises in under-resourced communities. A homelessness outreach episode begins with a personal downtown encounter and follows the practical impulse to bring socks, bags, food, and help through Street Support KC. Banking on KC rarely chases argument. It builds context. The show’s recurring strength is its belief that civic progress can be explained through specific people doing specific work. It is promotional at the edges, but its best moments come from concrete local detail. For listeners interested in Kansas City’s civic fabric, it offers a useful map of who is building, serving, organizing, and adapting.
Made for: Banking on KC is for listeners who care about Kansas City’s neighborhoods, institutions, entrepreneurs, nonprofits, and civic future. It especially suits people who prefer practical community stories over hot takes.
What sets it apart: The show stands apart by treating business, culture, public space, sports, journalism, philanthropy, law, and outreach as connected parts of one city story. Its interviews stay close to names, projects, numbers, and neighborhoods.
Banking on KC – Presented by Country Club Bank, a division of First National Bank of Omaha (FNBO), features interviews and conversations conducted by KC’s champion of entrepreneurs, Kelly Scanlon. Guests include makers, innovators and community leaders who have changed the business, cultural and economic landscape of Kansas City.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Banking on KC turns conversations with local leaders into concrete accounts of how Kansas City institutions and community projects operate.
Kelly Scanlon gives local leadership a practical shape, moving from each guest's beginnings to the choices behind a business, institution, or civic project.
City hall, dog grooming school, newsroom, stadium: Kansas City's civic machinery comes to you without a committee meeting.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
Bill Dietrich maps Kansas City's downtown revival as a long effort to reconnect neighborhoods, public spaces, and civic life.
Kansas City's downtown is framed here as a civic repair project, not a run of separate developments. Bill Dietrich, president and CEO of the Downtown Council of Kansas City, talks through Imagine Downtown KC 2030 as the next step after an earlier push to save the core.
A grounded architecture conversation about leadership, mentorship, collaboration, and community-minded design work.
This PlayNext review follows a leadership conversation in architecture that feels grounded in practice rather than theory. The Helix president's path, from Kansas State University to Blackbird Design Studio and the 2016 merger with Helix, gives the episode a clear professional…
Kathy Nelson discusses Kansas City's World Cup preparations and its college sports ambitions.
Kathy Nelson talks with Kelly Scanlon about what Kansas City has to do before the 2026 World Cup. Nelson helped lead the bid and now serves on the board, but her focus here is on the work of hosting: securing buses, preparing for airport arrivals and making sure drivers and…
A grounded look at client access, entrepreneurial lawyering, and the limits of AI-generated legal work.
The episode finds its shape in the practical realities of building a law firm like a business. Its subject moves from insurance defense into an in-house role with a serial entrepreneur, then carries that business-first lens into a model built around clearer client priorities and…
Joe Arce reflects on local journalism as a way to preserve heritage, serve community, and open doors.
Joe Arce's work at KC Hispanic News reads as community journalism with memory, purpose, and a clear sense of service. As publisher, he has covered Hispanic businesses, culture, and local heroes while mentoring young journalists, supporting scholarship programs, and making room…
Natasha Herdman explains how dog grooming training can turn employment barriers into a community-funded route toward family stability.
POSPERITY opens on a blunt economic trap: adults can take work and still lose housing, child care, and food assistance within weeks, sometimes leaving them to quit just to keep their children supported.
Interview with Professor David Geenans about the Thompson Center for Integrity in Finance and Economics and the Spark Tank initiative supporting economically viable enterprises in under-resourced communities.
Interview with Matthew Entringer about founding Street Support KC to help people experiencing homelessness in Kansas City.
Natasha Herdman says POSPERITY began with her work with homeless families 14 years ago and a call from her mother, a dog groomer in Iowa, who needed "a warm body who walks through the door." The organization now pairs grooming instruction with about 23 weeks of soft-skills training, social workers in the grooming room, and support around budgeting, parenting, and domestic violence.
Bill Dietrich says downtown Kansas City moved from 6,000 residents to 34,000 and from 500,000 visitors to 11.4 million in six months.
Erika Moody, president of Helix Architecture Plus Design, links her path from Hutchinson and Kansas State University to Blackbird Design Studio and Helix’s 2016 merger.
Kathy Nelson says the World Cup will bring 650,000 visitors to Kansas City, with half expected to be international.
Kelly Scanlon interviews John Kennyhertz, co-founder of Kennyhertz Perry Attorneys at Law, about building a 15-lawyer Kansas City firm on a production-based compensation model rather than the traditional big-firm equity-partner track.
Joe Arce, publisher of KC Hispanic News for its 29th year, describes founding the Kansas City metro paper in 1996 after mainstream outlets like Fox 4 declined to prioritize Latino community coverage.
Host Kelly Scanlon interviews Professor David Geenans about the Thompson Center for Integrity in Finance and Economics and the Spark Tank initiative supporting economically viable enterprises in under-resourced communities.
Interview with Matthew Entringer, founder of Street Support KC, discussing his inspiration and work helping homeless individuals in Kansas City.