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KBIA Special Projects

All Special Projects produced by or with assistance from KBIA
KBIA's special series ¿Dónde está mi gente? (Where are my people?) features Engagement Producer and reporter Kassidy Arena as she investigates where Hispanic and Latino people are throughout mid-Missouri and why the state has one of the lowest percentages of Hispanic and Latino people in the Midwest. ¿Dónde está mi gente? documents her journey in a six-part, narrative that highlights successes and gaps in demographics, business, community outreach, higher education and identity.
This year (2022) KBIA celebrates its 50th anniversary - the station first went on air in May 1972.To mark that milestone our reporting team reached out to alums across the country and in a wide range of media. We spoke with them about the work of journalism and their memories of KBIA.The 50 Project was made possible through the support of our sponsors, long-term KBIA listeners David Black and Lee Wilkins.
The Unbound Book Festival comes to downtown Columbia each spring. They aim "to bring nationally and internationally recognized authors of world-class renown to Columbia, Missouri, to talk about their books, their work, and their lives."
Missouri On Mic is an oral history and journalism project collecting stories from Missouri in its 200th year (2021). New episodes air every Monday at 8:45 AM during Morning Edition and 4:45 PM during All Things Considered.

A team of Missouri School of Journalism students asked Missourians to tell their stories at several bicentennial festivals and events this summer at the Missouri on Mic traveling audio booth.
The below are KBIA Legacy Special Projects that have accomplished their goals and not seen updates in at least two years
You Don’t Say is a special project commissioned by the City of Columbia’s bicentennial Como200 task force. It’s co-produced by the Sharp End Heritage Committee and KBIA.
Legislative Data Straight from Jefferson City
Access Missouri compiles information on Missouri politics from dozens of sources across the web so you don't have to.
For the past year (2014), KBIA has been working on a special long-form story about a place in Northeast Missouri called Heartland. It’s a story with threads of religion, law, business, and morality that all end in a knot, in the middle of a cornfield.
Lead has played a pivotal role in the history of Missouri. More than 17 million tons of lead have come out of the ground in the state over the last 300 years, and that has left a lasting impact on the state economically, environmentally and culturally. KBIA is exploring that history —and future—in our special series The Legacy of Lead.
Having a child diagnosed with autism can leave parents with a lot of questions. We asked them about their everyday answers.

The award winning multi-media special report by Aviva Okeson-Haberman and Kyra Haas
November 2015, the University of Missouri was rocked by protests led by black student group Concerned Student 1950. The group of 11 students captured campus attention with its message that university administrators were not doing enough to address racism on campus. How did the University of Missouri get to this point? And how might its path forward navigate the complex landscapes of university funding, policies and staffing, student demands and Missouri politics? That’s what we’re exploring in our special three part series, Mizzou at a Crossroads.
A monthly look at medical issues of interest to mid-Missouri and the world.
‘My Life, My Town’ documents a slice of time in the lives of teenagers from small Missouri towns. These are the youth who make up the hope and future of rural life – if they decide to stay. Our hope is that getting to know the children these villages raise will provide a unique look at the day-to-day joys and struggles of rural life.
McDonald County, Missouri, is a small community in the very southwestern most part of the state that few have been to or, in some cases, even heard of. But the communities of McDonald County - Anderson, Noel, Pineville, Southwest City - are home to an incredibly diverse mix of people. These community now includes white Missourians, as well as immigrants from Mexico and Central America and refugees from Somalia, Sudan, Burma and Micronesia. And still more people are coming to the community every month seeking opportunity and a better life.
It has been ringing in the middle of the night for eight years now, confusing and enticing late-night passersby into answering it. It’s a piece Columbia nightlife folklore. That’s how I came to hear of the payphone — I had friends who had answered it and talked to drunk girls or people pretending to be Santa Claus on the other end. When I answered the phone myself, I heard what a lot of people hear:

“Hello? Why don't you come up to Harpo’s?”
At the end of January 2015, KBIA sent reporters down to southeast Missouri to open the “Bootheel” bureau. Their job was to tackle the stories taking place in the towns, fields and health clinics of Missouri’s most productive farmland. On March 23, we kick off the week-long series called “Shortage in Rich Land.” Listen to Morning Edition, All Things Considered and online at kbia.org.
A premature birth can cause weeks or even months of uncertainty in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), but for many families, especially those of the smallest preemies, the roller coaster of worry over their child’s health and development continues years after they are discharged from the hospital.
Over 80 rural hospitals have closed across the country since 2010. In 2013, the lone public hospital in Pemiscot County, Missouri was nearly one of them.

This story was produced by Side Effects Public Media, a news collaborative covering public health.

Bram Sable-Smith reported this series during a yearlong Reporting Fellowship on Health Care Performance sponsored by the Association of Health Care Journalists and supported by The Commonwealth Fund.