Kansas City, considered from every angle.
Up To Date turns Kansas City’s questions into patient, informed conversations. Recent episodes move from urban farming cuts and immigration enforcement to women-led restaurants, classical music programming, presidential history, and a musician’s creative path.
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Up To Date is a Kansas City interview show with a broad civic map. It is not confined to political headlines. Recent conversations span federal agencies, local farms, women-led restaurants, Catholic reactions to national politics, classical programming, hip-hop craft, presidential history, and a research fellow’s long bike ride into town. The show’s center is Kansas City, but its reach is national when the subject demands it. A discussion of ICE becomes a question about federal power and enforcement tactics. A segment on USDA funding cuts becomes a story about land access, small farmers, development pressure, and the fragility of local support systems. The pace is deliberate. Guests are given space to build an answer, and the interviews tend to move from a plain question into wider context. That suits the show’s range. Douglas Brinkley can talk about why visiting historical places changes how a writer thinks. Food guests can move from restaurant recommendations to workplace culture and customer safety. Classical KC guests can explain programming through students, archives, and musical associations. Jamel Thompson can trace a Kansas City musical ambition from an arena concert to collaborative studio work. The show is strongest when it translates big topics into local consequences. It assumes curiosity, not expertise. It also assumes that arts, politics, food, religion, science, sports planning, and neighborhood life belong in the same civic conversation. For PlayNext listeners, Up To Date offers a grounded way to sample Kansas City’s public life through interviews that are calm, specific, and willing to linger.
Made for: For listeners who want thoughtful Kansas City conversations about local culture, public affairs, food, music, history, and policy without a shouting-match pace. It suits people who like interviews that explain the stakes before moving to judgment.
What sets it apart: Up To Date’s strength is its local range: it can place federal immigration policy, urban farming, restaurant culture, and classical music inside the same Kansas City civic frame. The show makes room for complexity while staying accessible.
What Kansas City cares about. Up To Date brings people together for daily conversations about what’s happening in our region and how it affects our lives. Featuring interviews with artists, lawmakers, experts and everyday residents, plus original reporting from the KCUR newsroom, Up To Date keeps our city connected. Email the show at [email protected]
Based on 5 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Its Royals coverage connects baseball to ballpark decisions, field operations and the civic life surrounding the team.
Up To Date treats Kansas City as a web of institutions, personalities and public questions, with Steve Kraske using extended interviews to pull practical detail from the people closest to a subject. Its sports coverage follows that local instinct.
A Royals ground ball looks different when you hear what the groundskeeper is watching.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A thoughtful history conversation that makes place do a lot of the work.
Douglas Brinkley makes a Kansas City appearance feel bigger than a one-off event. He moves from Route 66 to Lincoln, then to Miles Davis, Antietam, Gettysburg, and George Washington Carver, and the piece works best when it lets those stops build on each other.
A local food conversation that finds culture and taste in the same room.
Kansas City's women-led restaurant scene sits at the center of the episode, but the discussion reaches beyond a simple list of places to eat. Brian Ellison moves through ownership, kitchen culture, and the ways women shape both the workplace and the dining experience.
A Kansas City music story about early inspiration, collaboration, and the move into full time work.
The episode follows Jamel Thompson, better known as the Royal Chief, from a childhood Kansas City concert where Kanye West opened for Usher to an early invitation into studio sessions that helped shape his music career.
A measured look at the Revolution and the research behind it.
Rick Atkinson's talk about the Revolutionary War stays close to the scale of his trilogy and the research behind it, with Steve Kraske leaving room for archives, libraries, battlefields, and the slow work of attention.
A grounded Royals Opening Day segment that finds its best detail in the work behind the field.
KCUR's Opening Day segment treats Kauffman Stadium as more than a ballpark, using John Sherman's remarks to frame what the day means as fans come in for the home opener.
Nebraska athletics, close up and week by week.
Cubs recaps with bleacher-level patience.
On KCUR's Up To Date, Missouri Representative Carrie Ingall describes her priorities in a competitive state Senate race against John Patterson.
On Up To Date, Missouri House Speaker John Patterson makes his case for the competitive Senate District 8 race.
Up To Date speaks with historian Douglas Brinkley ahead of his appearance at the Truman Library's Wild About Harry gala.
Up to Date's monthly food segment turns to Kansas City's best women led restaurants.
This episode explores how Kansas City Catholics are responding to President Donald Trump's escalating criticism of Pope Leo over the U.S.
This episode discusses the USDA's termination of funding for urban farming programs in Kansas City, exploring the impact on local farmers and organizations like Cultivate KC through interviews with executive director Brianne Darby and farmer Robin Moore.
Former Obama ICE director Sarah Saldana discusses her perspective on the Trump administration's aggressive immigration enforcement tactics and their impact.
Steve Kraske sits down with Jamel Thompson, the Kansas City musician known as the Royal Chief.
Classical KC has added UMKC Conservatory Hour, a broadcast outlet for performances from the UMKC Conservatory.
Kansas lawmakers adjourned without property-tax relief after House and Senate Republicans failed to agree on a plan.
Steve Kraske talks with historian Rick Atkinson as the country nears 250 years since independence.
Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hannaway discusses redistricting, gerrymandering, and voter power in her first interview since taking office.
Up to Date broadcasts from Kauffman Stadium on the Royals' home opener and starts with John Sherman reflecting on what the day means.
This episode discusses Kansas City's preparations for hosting World Cup matches and its ambitions to host the 2031 Women's World Cup, featuring an interview with Kathy Nelson of Visit KC and the Greater Kansas City Sports Commission.
Johnson County Commission Chair Mike Kelly discusses how tourism from events like the 2026 World Cup and the Chiefs' new practice facility could help alleviate property tax concerns in the Kansas City metro area.
This episode examines how sports betting is affecting sports integrity, fan interactions, and business aspects, featuring insights from Missouri and Kansas experts.