Off the Clock

The call of the open road has long beckoned Americans … and in 1978, William Least Heat-Moon answered the call and embarked on a drive around the country, taking the roads less travelled. Starting in Columbia, he followed a circular route that totaled nearly 14,000 miles. The result was Blue Highways, a New York Times Bestselling book.

A high school senior, Madelyne cheerleads, serves as the Glasgow FFA President, and participates in Band and Choir. On the weekends, she works at the local bank. She cannot wait to leave the small-town life and the farm.

On this edition of Off the Clock, we visit Monica Martinez, a teen whose Latin American family is putting down roots in Mexico, Missouri.

KBIA and the Columbia Missourian have been working with rural teens all over Missouri to get their stories about … being a teen, in rural Missouri. Called “My Life My Town,” the project worked with teens to create multimedia portraits about their lives – some of the teens where a pink triangle, some of them camouflage or a tiara. Over the next few weeks, we’ll hear the audio versions of these portraits on “Off the Clock."

On this week’s show: It’s summer. We’ll look at stories about playing croquet in Mexico (Missouri, that is), gardening in Columbia (Missouri, also) and life as a teen in a small town.

Spring is in full bloom and that means wedding season.

You might not know who Gregg Gillis is, but chances are you’ve heard of his music created under the moniker Girl Talk.

This week, we uncover a three-letter mystery.

This week’s show is all about moms—and we have the good, the bad and the ugly. First up, we’ll hear about a book of portraits on the life of the American mother and later we have an audio essay on the complicated mother/daughter relationship.