Arts and Culture

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.

20 year-old Diana Martinez likes to say she was born in Mexico but made in America:

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 week's edition of "Off the Clock," we hear a third portrait from the “My Life, My Town” series that documents the stories of teens in rural Missouri. Today  we visit Trinity Rainey in Macon.

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. Over the last few weeks, we’ve heard the audio versions of these portraits on “Off the Clock."

The Missouri military history museum in Jefferson City has decided to move to a larger building and undergo a technology renovation.

The museum currently has 2,000 square feet of exhibition space, and will move to a building three times that size. The museum director Charles Machon, says the museum was running out of space.

As a refugee from Bosnia, Senad Music knows firsthand how difficult it is to get acclimated to a new culture. He says when he came to America 16 years ago he found it difficult to adapt to the culture, and he is trying to make the transition easier for newer refugees. On a recent weekend at Columbia's World Refugee Day, that means manning the grill during the World Refugee Celebration.

“My mission today is kind of cook food, you know, be on the grill, and welcome people from the community and other refugees," said Music.

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."

The most popular website in Malaysia is an enigma – an online newspaper that’s thriving in a country where freedom of the press has always been suffocated.

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.

The Unite 4 Health Community Garden is home to 25 different community owned plots filled with anything from carrots to cantaloupe.  The garden is a result of a public-private partnership aimed to make fresh fruits and vegetables more abundant in the community.    

KBIA's Darren Hellwege visits the Ozarks and takes us to Springfield where he meets a family whose love of fishing is typical for the region.

Spring is in full bloom and that means wedding season.

Blue Ridge Christian Church in Columbia is starting Father's Day weekend with a free showing of the Christian independent film "Courageous."  

Watch the show and join the conversation on the Intersection website.

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

The Missouri State Museum is featuring its collection from the St. Louis World’s Fair during its Museum After Hours program Wednesday.

Watch the show and join the conversation on the Intersection website.

This week, we uncover a three-letter mystery.

Columbia is known for many things: education, health care, parks, reporter--and it’s also known for it’s diversity. We meet one of the thousands of Columbians who come from other countries and hear of how Columbia has become home for her and her family.