Podcasts about West Bottoms

In today's episode, Sari talks to Austin, owner of ADHDIY Craft Cafe located in the West Bottoms. Combining the acronyms ADHD and DIY, this cafe's mission is to bring people together in a fun environment centered around crafting. In the episode, Austin talks about the business, the restaurant-style craft menu and importance of embracing the silliness.  Follow ADHDIY on Instagram at @adhdiycraft cafe and visit their website, https://www.adhdiycraftcafe.com/ , to see their event calendar and make a reservation.  Looking for more KC content? Follow Sari at @kcbysari on Instagram and TikTok.  SPONSOR: Tapp Into It Fitness. Vist https://www.tappintoitfitness.com/ and mention "kcbysari" and your first session with Justine is FREE.

Growing up in Overland Park, Darren Lynn Bousman loved the feel, culture and experience of the haunted houses in KC's West Bottoms...and that young man went on to direct such films as Saw 2, 3 and 4, as well as the 9th film in the franchise, Spiral. In 2016, he started to develop immersive experiences that grew from his early love of haunts...and now he's partnered with Exiled in Bonner Springs to bring KC a next level experience unlike any other!

Places like Kansas City's West Bottoms district make up the foundations of American manufacturing and industry. And in this episode, we head straight to The Ship, a unique bar in the heart of the historic West Bottoms district to meet with Scott Brown of the Historic West Bottoms Association and General Counsel at Faultless Starch.We take a look back into the history of the area and why West Bottoms was put on the map thanks to its proximity to the Kansas and Missouri Rivers and the early railroads in the 1860s. Scott talks about why the region became such an agricultural hub and played an important role in the livestock industry of Kansas City. Today, the district is undergoing a period of revitalization, with investments in infrastructure being key to attracting new businesses and residents. Scott highlights some of the area's top businesses, including Faultless Brands, which has been manufacturing starch products in West Bottoms since 1887. We also talk about the legendary American Royal BBQ events and why Kansas City BBQs may give Texas a run for its money…Check out our Made Here City Series in collaboration with the Industrial Solutions Network.In this episode, find out:How West Bottoms' industrial history was shaped by the river and railways connecting Kansas City How the industrial background and area made Kansas City and the surrounding areas rich in agricultural historyHow Kansas City's bridges connected different parts of the region, leading to expansion of the industry The impact of the stockyards coming to the region in the late 1800sThe role of West Bottoms neighborhood in Kansas City cattle exchange historyWhere we see remnants of the old industry in Kansas City What is the American Royal today?The ultimate question: is Kansas City BBQ the best in the world?Why West Bottoms became a go-to district for haunted houses in Kansas CityWhy West Bottoms is thriving now and what you can find in the district todayWhy West Bottoms' development is a model for other cities revitalizing areasEnjoying the show? Please leave us a review here. Even one sentence helps. It's feedback from Manufacturing All-Stars like you that keeps us going!Tweetable Quotes:"You don't give up on an area because it goes into blight, it goes into neglect, some decay. It's again, location, location and if you have the people there and it's cool, it will come about.""Before Kansas City came about, this area where we're in now was known as the French Bottoms. And located at the confluence of the Kansas and Missouri River, it was a natural place of trade and people were using the river at that time."Links & mentions:West Bottoms, official site of the West Bottoms Business District Association, the organization dedicated to continued revival of our most historical area in downtown in Kansas CityVisit KC, guide to the West Bottoms with most of this episode's restaurant recommendations (and more) includedThe Ship, a simple exterior gives way to this cool speakeasy offering classic cocktails & live entertainmentMake sure to visit http://manufacturinghappyhour.com for detailed show notes and a full list of resources mentioned in this...

On this episode of Banking on KC, Ian Ross, founder of SomeraRoad, joins host Kelly Scanlon to discuss a major development project in Kansas City's West Bottoms, including balancing historic preservation with new construction. Tune in to discover:The vision behind the project.How the project balances historic preservation with new development.The project's impact on the local community and economy.Country Club Bank – Member FDIC

   This episode is on Red Bull.   First, what do you know?  We have a new stadium plan/idea for the Royals in the West Bottoms, mostly in Kansas, just 48 hours after the STAR bond bill passes.   Then, Patrick Tuohey from the Show Me Institute is our guest and it gets wild.  For two conservative guys that hate taxes and government spending, we sure see this stadium thing differently.  You're either going to love him or love me after this one.  

Bill Haw Sr., who died at the age of 85 last Thursday, will be remembered for working to preserve the Flint Hills in Kansas and contributing to the revival of Kansas City's historic West Bottoms neighborhood.

We'll focus on two upcoming events happening in Kansas City and hear music from acts on those lineups.First up, we'll talk about and play music from acts on the annual 2-day event, Lemonade Social, happening this Friday and Saturday at Lemonade Park in The West Bottoms. Friday and Saturday will each feature four acts as well as a day party on Saturday called Sabados. We'll hear music from EBONY TUSKS, Monta at Odds, Black Light Animals, and a brand new song from Hotel Leo that releases this Friday.Then we'll take a look at and dive into the annual 2024 KC Folk Fest, happening on Saturday, May 18 at Washington Square Park in downtown KC. The event features live music, art, a market, poetry, dance performances, and so much more. We'll hear music from these acts on the lineup: Arquesta Del SolSoul, Madisen Ward, Elexa Dawson of Weda Skirts, and Love, Mae C.Then we'll wrap up and hear a song from Arson Class, as featured in the 11th release from the Too Much Rock series of singles. This project is all made possible by the great Sid Crowder as he's an amazing supporter of KC music and has been curating this series of releases for years.

During Ramadan, halal markets in Kansas City are critical to the Islamic community's month-long celebration and traditions. Learn how some help make Ramadan in the metro feel like home. Also, for nearly a decade, Blip Coffee Roasters has offered Kansas City bikers a place to hang out and admire motorcycles. Meet the cast of regulars at a West Bottoms coffee shop.

Mark (The Ownch) - Glenfiddich Grand Cru Matt (The Whiskey Guy) - West Bottoms Kansas City Whiskey Saint Miller - Wieser - Uuahouua Unopened Treasures - Glenfiddich 12 Amontillado Sherry Finish Extra Extra, Drink all about it - Tattersall American Single-Malt --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/librarypubcast/message

The bridge — which connects Central Avenue in Kansas City, Kansas to the West Bottoms in Kansas City, Missouri — had been slated for possible demolition until last month, when a group of local business owners made their case to repair it.

A Happy Monday From YOUR KC Morning Show!On the show today, we're joined by Cameron! She breaks down tomorrow's (TUESDAY 12.05) All Allies Activist Art Show at Blip Coffee in the West Bottoms!A Good Day To Be A Kansas Citian. Alwaysxoxo - @hartzell965, @holeyhearts, @kcmorningshow

Jenny Alexander and her husband, Skip, own Ugly Glass & Co. in the Historic West Bottoms of Kansas City, Missouri. Jenny, a multi-passionate maker, opened UG & Co. in 2012 to give herself and other makers, and vintage pickers a space to sell in person year-round. Today UG & Co. hosts over 40 other small businesses inside its store at 1285 Hickory St; KCMO 64102. You can shop everything from snarky gifts to vintage records. Jenny & Skip have been together for over 30 years. They have a daughter, a son & 3 rescues because the universe keeps giving her husband cats. Skip owns a shipping container modification business and taught Jenny how to plasma cut in 2015. First on shipping containers then on smaller metal projects like buckets or antique car doors. When she is not working in her storefront or for her husband's company, she enjoys painting on canvas, screen-printing, refinishing furniture, woodworking, making jewelry, and looking up at the clouds. Upcoming Events: First Friday Weekends - First Full Weekend of each month Monthly Fall Classes - Paint Inlay Wood Tray - Nov. 11, 2023 Small Business Saturday, Nov. 25, 2023 - Sales throughout the store as well as door prizes! Website https://www.uglyglass.com Facebook https://www.facebook.com/UglyGlassCo Instagram https://www.instagram.com/uglyglassandco/ YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@uglyglass-kansascitywestbo3176

On this episode of Banking on KC, Amber Arnett-Bequeaith, Vice President at Full Moon Productions, joins host Kelly Scanlon to discuss how her family's company launched the haunted attraction industry.  Tune in to discover: How Amber's mother and grandmother launched the industry. Why the haunted attraction industry continues to thrive.  How Full Moon Production's haunted houses have helped revitalize the West Bottoms. Amber's anti-bullying campaign. Country Club Bank – Member FDIC 

Taking place Oct. 7 in the West Bottoms, Kansas City's Chicano Art Festival includes live music, dancing and a lowrider hop competition.

Nigel and Nick are back on the road, finally hitting Stockyards Brewing located in Kansas City's historic West Bottoms. Greg, Micah and Mikey join the show to talk about their entry into the industry, their role in a neighborhood revival and what drives them to find even more success. And for Junior, when he asks what we were drinking — beer. We drank a lot of really, really good beer.

A Happy Monday From YOUR KC Morning Show!On the show today, having just announced her candicacy for Governor of Missouri, House Minority Leader in the Missouri House, and Representative of the 132nd District, Crystal Quade for a KCMS Candidate Conversation.LINK: https://crystalquade.com/ After that, we head to Blip Coffee in the West Bottoms, and chat with our friend, Elad Gross, running for Attorney General of Missouri! LINK: https://www.eladgross.org/ A Good Day To Be A Kansas Citian. Always.xoxo - @hartzell965, @holeyhearts, & @kcmorningshow

Jess Rogers, Events Manager, BOULEVARDIADeepening a sense of community among Kansas Citians through the promotion of our city's unique flavors and culture and contributing to the vitality of the great MidwestAT BOULEVARDIA WE PROMOTE THE FOLLOWING PRINCIPLES:Providing opportunities to cultivate local partnerships; from fresh, local food elements to artisans, designers, vendors and business relationshipsEducation of the craft beer industry and the business and community impact these breweries deliverDeepening a sense of community among Kansas Citians through the promotion of our city's unique flavors and culture and contributing to the vitality of the great MidwestJESS ROGERSPart of planning committee since inceptionKC Artists Coalition - Promoting arts awareness and supporting the professional growth of artists.Charlotte Street Foundation - CharlotteStreet.orgCover of The Pitch? Sewing specialty? Soulshine & Bob Jovi jacketsRide2Boulevardia.com → Start/Finish is located south of Crown Center and the Boulevardia festival grounds - between 27th Terr and 29th St, and between McGee Trafficway and Gillham Rd. WHY FATHER'S DAY WEEKEND?By June, summer is starting to crank into full swing. While we're paying tribute to the things that make our nation great, our founding fathers also thought it a fine idea to tip their hats to all fathers. Because if there's anyone who would appreciate a relaxing holiday weekend the Boulevardia way, it's a dad.WHY GRAND BOULEVARD?Boulevardia draws inspiration from the community in which we gather to celebrate. In 2014, we had our humble beginning in the West Bottoms in the shadow of the 12th Street Bridge, 2017 The stockyards…Starting in 2022, we're thrilled to call Grand Boulevard – one of the most iconic thoroughfares in Kansas City – our home. WHY DO WE CHEERS TO ALL?There's already too much trouble and disagreement throughout the rest of the world, so far be it from us to add to any unrest. What makes us happy and our nation function most effectively is seeing people from all walks of life and of all ages, races, styles and personalities come together with the same motivations.ENDING: Festival-goers will enjoy craft beer and food samples. There is also live music from local, regional, and national bands. A full lineup is available online at boulevardia.com/lineup.Boulevardia is scheduled for June 16-17, 2023. Tickets and ticket packages are on sale and start around $40 per person.Boulevardia.com | Boulevardia.com/get-involved | Facebook @Boulevardia (spelled out) | Instagram, TikTok, Twitter: @BLVDIA | ABC PodcastFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/alwaysbecoolpodcastTwitter: https://twitter.com/thebobbykerrInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/alwaysbecoolpodcast/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thebobbykerrYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@alwaysbecoolSummit LendingFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/SummitLendingUSATwitter: https://twitter.com/SummitLendingUSInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/summitlendingusa/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/summitlendingkc/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/loantipskc

Billy Brady is a son, a brother, a fiancé, a musician, and a guy -- if you're reading this at the time of release (Thursday morning, May 4, 2023) -- you might be able to catch on 90.1, KKFI FM this morning at 10:00 Central Standard. If you're catching this on Thursday or Friday, you can catch him and the Whiskey Mash Band playing live at Lemonade Park in the West Bottoms of Kansas City (tickets available here).If you didn't catch that in time, you can check out the Whiskey Mash Band's stuff here, or you can find their stuff on places like Facebook, Spotify, etc.Anyway...Billy was kind enough to stop by and talk, so we recorded Episode #64 together and chatted live music, and a little bit about a few of his favorite records, which were Jimi Hendrix's Band of Gypsys (1970), The String Cheese Incident's Carnival '99 (2000), and Phish's Farmhouse (2000).Our conversation was a hoot and there are a lot of good things on the horizon for Billy and his outfit(s), so please give him a follow, catch him live (plenty of summer dates on the books), and consider supporting live, local music whenever and wherever you can.I know I fudged something in this interview, but I'm spacing it now.Oh, well.Thanks for stopping by.copyright disclaimer: I do not own the rights to the promo or the intro/outro audio samples. I lifted them from Benevento/Russo Duo's, "Nashville" off of Play Pause Stop (2006), c/o Royal Potato Family and The String Cheese Incident's, "Bigger Isn't Better" from 1997's Born on the Wrong Planet (c/o SCI Fidelity Records), respectively.

An out-of-state company's plan to redevelop over 20 acres in the West Bottoms has some saying the area will become Kansas City's next Crossroads Arts District. But the historic neighborhood's small business community has raised concerns that the rapid change will price them out of the area.

An out-of-state developer's plan to redevelop over 20 acres in the West Bottoms has some saying the area is about to become the next Crossroads Arts District. But the historic neighborhood's small business community have raised concerns that the rapid change will price them out of the area.

Lots of new events coming to Kansas City that Mallory covers this week: Cornucopia in the Power and Light District, Rocky Horror Show in the West Bottoms, and she gives a full list of the spooky themed pop up bars in KC for the season! Mallory also covers concerts this week and sporting events to look forward too as well. She also shares what she did this past weekend in Kansas City, giving you the inside scoop on Worlds of Fun's Halloween Haunt, BaKCon Fest at Children's Mercy Park and the Rocky Horror pop up bar at Ninth and State in the West Bottoms! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

A Happy Wednesday and a Happy Humpday, (BAY-BAY!) From YOUR KC Morning Show!We pour one out for the late, great, Len Dawson. RIPOn the show today, celebrate 25 years of the American Jazz Museum with its Executive Director, Rashida Phillips!LINKS:https://www.americanjazzmuseum.org/We wrap up your Wednesday with some wrasslin'! This Friday, at Lemonade Park in the West Bottoms, Journey Pro and Guy Snack's brings to you, Weekend At Journey's 2, the Sequel of The Summer! Get your tickets now!LINKSjourneyprokc.comA Good Day To Be A Kansas Citian. Always.xoxo - @hartzell965, @holeyhearts, @kcmorningshow

We dive head first into CMFKC/Crossroads Music Fest! The 18th annual fest is on Saturday, August 27 hosting 25+ bands on six stages in The West Bottoms. Hear music from several acts on the lineup: OLIVIA FOX, Cassie Taylor, The Kansas City Bear Fighters, Arquesta Delsolsoul, Ezmerelda, The Black Creatures, IVORY BLUE, Malek Azrael, and Noah Davis.

POW!! ZOOM! KABOOM!! This week we're hitting LILLY'S CANTINA in the Midtown/Westport/Roanoke/Southwest Trafficway part of town (Next to the Cat Cafe!) and chatting it up with Cast & Crew members (Chris Cole, Violett Springate & Jen Raines) of the KC Fringe Festival show 'KING KIRBY!' (See it July 22nd thru 30th at Upside Bungee in the West Bottoms!) Our guests tell us about the play (Cigar Chompin' and Mustache Fun!) and we get a little into the History of Jack Kirby, Stan Lee and Marvel/DC Comics! Chris, Voilett and Jen also come in hot with some strong Quesadilla Opinions! (Maybe a little too much Quesadilla talk for Dave's taste!) WE ALSO DISCUSS: Quesadillas the Size of Babies?! And Accidental Extra Tacos at the bottom of your Taco Bell bag!! Eat it like the gift/mistake it is or let it stay there and get cold?! In the TACO TICKER we taco 'bout THE WORLD'S MOST EXPENSIVE TACO!! It's got a Goldflaked Tortilla, Lobster, Kobe Beef, Beluga Caviar and much more!! WOULD YA ORDER IT?!  AND there's a new Taco Chain coming to the metro area called TACOS 4 LIFE that wants to help conquer world hunger with every purchase! In TOWN OF THE TACO we get into our Favorite KC Landmarks, the Best Place to see a Concert/Show in KC and ask "What Would You Put In Your KC Care Package to an Out-Of-Towner?" In Random Taco Question of the Week we ask: "What examples do you have of your phone listening to your thoughts?", Who is the most annoying person to be stuck in line behind at Chipotle AND What's something you used to eat a lot has a kid that you won't touch nowadays! ALL THIS AND: We find out what a GRAVY SPOT is!! Did Jack Kirby or Stan Lee ever eat a taco?! And the guests suggest some other awesome Fringe Shows to check out at the KC Fringe Festival! (GET OUT AND SEE SOME SHOWS, KC! Tickets are at kcfringe.org!) This Taco The Town Episode is Marvel-icious!! MUNCH!! CRUNCH!!! WHAMMO!!! Editor: MATT ALLEN. Music: SUNEATERS courtesy of Lotuspool Records. Sponsors: KCK Taco Trail & Our Music by The Bump Band.     

Old Fashioned ...so so much more than just a drink.  West Bottoms....so so much more than just a whiskey.  Tune in now to hear how Alex turned a passion in to a KC staple. 

The Salvation Choir, a Congolese Rumba band based in the historic Northeast, is creating a community for Tanzanian refugees through song and dance. Plus, why bass virtuoso left the East Coast for the West Bottoms.

The top headlines from The Kansas City Star on Monday, April 11th, 2022 including: Kansas City building fire that injured 15 was arson, ATF says; Overland Park Starbucks workers vote to form union; and one person killed in a double shooting in West Bottoms.

Kansas City magazine is teaming up with 9th & State in the West Bottoms to host Up All Night: A Celebration of the Espresso Martini at 9th & State on Thursday, April 7. Six of Kansas City's coolest bartenders will be there to make their own take on the espresso martini. This event is already sold out, unfortunately. But Martin still wanted to sit down with 9th & State bartender extraordinaire, Joshua Melgoza to discuss the event, espresso martinis, and the KC bar scene. Follow 9th & State on Instagram and Facebook Follow Martin on Twitter and Instagram. Follow Patrick on Twitter and Instagram. Like the music on the show? Follow KC band Doglava on Instagram and check them out on Spotify. Be sure to Like Kansas City Magazine on Facebook and follow us on Instagram. Subscribe to our newsletters, here.

In this episode Danny tells us about the flagship whisky and how it came to be.  He also tells us how "The best old fashioned in KC" got its start.

In this episode we talk with Danny about how he channels his father in the work that he does at West Bottoms Whiskey.  

In the absence of citywide mask and vaccine mandates, this cozy West Bottoms restaurant put its own rules in place. For Kansas Citians who don't want to ignore COVID precautions, The Campground offers a rare chance to take a break from their worries. “It's not that hard,” the owner says. “It really isn't.”

Mallory and Trace head over to Prairiefire in Overland Park and check out plenty of shops in the area. From Pinstripes to Creative Culture to Made in KC, Prairiefire has tons of unique businesses to discover! Mallory also talks about her latest adventure with the Facebook group, Date Ideas and Things to Do in KC, at Mitty's Metal Art in the West Bottoms!

Mallory flies solo this episode and visits Upside Bungee in the West Bottoms and HOTWORX - both are business' with unique workouts! Let's accomplish our New Year resolution of getting fit and try new, fun ways to get our exercise in!

In this podcast episode, I interview Marina Delfina Diaz, who is a local business owner in Kansas City, Missouri. Marina grew up in a difficult religious environment and left home when she was sixteen. While growing up and leaving home, she found some of her greatest passions in outdoor adventures like snowboarding, hiking, cycling, parasailing, and surfing. This past summer (2021), Marina and a friend started a new fitness experience in the West Bottoms called Upside Bungee (upsidebungee.com). It's a fun, unique, and low-impact approach to health and fitness. Her studio also offers yoga and dance classes as well. Marina shares about her journey out of toxic religion and her love for health, community, and spirituality.

4 episodes in and one of Brevin's picks already takes the W this past weekend. For our whiskey review we go with a hometown whiskey that is from the West Bottoms. One last thing, did anyone else know Brooks had a brother that is also on tour?

In this podcast episode, I interview the founder and CEO of Harbor Media Productions and father of seven awesome children, Matt Cox. Matt is one of the most talented and creative people I know. At an early age, Matt was drawn to music, film, and video as creative expressions, learning to play multiple instruments and interning in a video company in Kansas. His life changed dramatically when he became a father at the age of sixteen, but he continued to pursue a career in video production. In 2014, he founded a video production company named Reech in the West Bottoms of Kansas City, which led to Matt serving as the videographer at Vineyard Church. In 2020, Matt founded Harbor Media Productions. In this interview, Matt shares about the ups and downs of his life, his spiritual journey, and his passion for photography and telling stories through video.

The top headlines from The Kansas City Star on Tuesday, November 9th, 2021 including: The latest in the Kevin Strickland wrongful conviction case, a suspected serial killer named in the killings at Wyandotte Towers, the Kansas food sales tax and Stockyards Brewing Co. in Kansas City's West Bottoms wants to open in Overland Park.

#WhiskeyNeat! I live on the west side of KC... I drive by the west bottoms of Kansas City everyday... Since the pandemic I've been following this new distillery on instagram called West Bottoms Whiskey. A brand new local Kansas City whiskey and a new watering hole for the West Bottoms. A cool old warehouse district... and as you'll learn in the following episode used be home to manufacturers of train cars, tanks, Studebakers, and furniture... now full of funky shops, haunted houses during halloween, and every first Friday, a festival of shopping, food and music. So one day... specifically this one particular day... was a rough day. A day worthy for a slow down. I figured it was time for a visit to West Bottoms Whiskey. I fell in love instantly. Whiskey! Neat! Follow @WestBottomsWhiskeyCo - @CheersKC and Host @RadioTodd #KansasCity #WestBottoms #CraftWhiskey

Mallory and a group of friends - Hannah, Trace, and Jack - try out the frightening & live action escape room in the West Bottoms and share their experience in this episode! The Basement KC is sure to get your adrenaline pumping with a LIVE actor inside the room with you. Definitely a fun twist on your normal escape room!

In this episode, Folly Rob sits down with Ian David, owner of Blip Coffee Roasters in Kansas City. Launched as a coffee roaster 7 years ago doing pop-up pourovers on a custom welded motorcycle, Blip has grown in a unique way, creating a community behind the motorcycle and coffee culture of KC. Operating in West Bottoms, Ian has navigated a lot of moves, including his first cafe setting on fire to quickly moving out of a space during COVID into a 19,000 square foot facility. Hear the Blip story here. Enjoy! @bliproasters --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/follycoffeepodcast/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/follycoffeepodcast/support

It's a 3-ring circus and we kick off the show by announcing the line-up for one of my favorite events of every year, Apocalypse Meow hosted by Midwest Music Foundation, happening virtually on Saturday, November 6 with 5 bands playing live sets at recordBar. We play music from 4 of those acts on the show.After that, hear some new releases from Hermon Mehari & Alessandro Lanzoni, Paris Williams, The Nite Owls: Wyatt Brewer & Sarah Lynn, and Lonnie Fisher And The Funeral.Also, music from 3 of the 35+ bands playing this weekend's Any/all Music and Arts Festival, The Sluts, The Royal Chief, and Jass. The fest takes place in and around Blip Roasters in The West Bottoms.

It's a 3-ring circus and we kick off the show by announcing the line-up for one of my favorite events of every year, Apocalypse Meow hosted by Midwest Music Foundation, happening virtually on Saturday, November 6 with 5 bands playing live sets at recordBar. We play music from 4 of those acts on the show.After that, hear some new releases from Hermon Mehari & Alessandro Lanzoni, Paris Williams, The Nite Owls: Wyatt Brewer & Sarah Lynn, and Lonnie Fisher And The Funeral.Also, music from 3 of the 35+ bands playing this weekend's Any/all Music and Arts Festival, The Sluts, The Royal Chief, and Jass. The fest takes place in and around Blip Roasters in The West Bottoms.

TVC 524.13: From April 2017: Ed Asner talks to Ed about his one-man show A Man and His Prostate; his love of the Los Angeles Dodgers; and his admiration for Hall of Fame broadcaster Vin Scully. Ed Asner passed away this past Sunday, Aug. 29 at age 91. Ed's memoir, Son of a Junkman: My Life from the West Bottoms of Kansas City to the Bright Lights of Hollywood, is available wherever books are sold online. Want to advertise/sponsor our show? TV Confidential has partnered with AdvertiseCast to handle advertising/sponsorship requests for the podcast edition of our program. They're great to work with and will help you advertise on our show. Please email sales@advertisecast.com or click the link below to get started: https://www.advertisecast.com/TVConfidentialAradiotalkshowabout Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I had no idea that Kansas City had its own style of whiskey. In this episode the owner of West Bottoms Whiskey Co., Alex sits down with me to break down all things whiskey. This was an excellent drinking episode with lots of laughs and learning. And I can also now announce, West Bottoms Whiskey Co. will now be a sponsor for the show. I only promote things that I believe in and will stand behind. So, I hope you support this company the next time you are out on the town looking for an Old Fashioned, or if you need a new bottle for your home bar, I really enjoy the whiskey. It's 94 proof with very little burn. You can also visit them at 1321 W 13th Street KCMO 64102 and have yourself "the best old fashioned in kc". Tell them Neandertalk sent ya

Welcome back to another Wednesday of Loudmouth Podcast! This week we are delving into Madison's theatre nerdiness by talking to Heidi Van owner and founder of the Blackbox in Kansas City! The Black Box is an ever-evolving stage and performance venue located in the industrial West Bottoms. It acts as a spotlight in the work of theatre shining a light on (bold and provocative) productions and experiences. Heidi talks about how COVID affected theatre, her own work, how she got into theatre, and MORE! You'll be wanting an encore after listening to her talk about her life, I promise. Check out the Blackbox and go see a show!! Website: https://www.blackboxkc.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theblackboxkc/ Follow Me: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/loudmouthpod/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/loudmouth_pod Gmail: loudmouthpod1@gmail.com Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/loudmouthpod --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/loudmouthpod/support

From March 2020: Ed welcomes back eight-time Emmy Award winner Ed Asner (The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Lou Grant, Elf, Disney Pixar's UP, Briarpatch). Ed's new memoir, Son of a Junkman: My Life from the West Bottoms of Kansas City to the Bright Lights of Hollywood, is a charming, funny, and often very poignant look at his life and career, from his colorful childhood as the son of a junkman in Kansas City to his spectacular acting career. Ed Asner passed away on Sunday, Aug. 29 at age ninety-one. Want to advertise/sponsor our show? TV Confidential has partnered with AdvertiseCast to handle advertising/sponsorship requests for the podcast edition of our program. They're great to work with and will help you advertise on our show. Please email sales@advertisecast.com or click the link below to get started: https://www.advertisecast.com/TVConfidentialAradiotalkshowabout Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From October 2020: Ed, Tony, and Donna welcome back Ed Asner, the eight-time Emmy Award-winning actor known around the world as Lou Grant both on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and his own hour-long spinoff series, Lou Grant. The 2020-2021 television marks the fiftieth anniversary of the premiere of the Moore show and, by extension, the Lou Grant character. Ed Asner's memoir, Son of a Junkman: My Life from the West Bottoms of Kansas City to the Bright Lights of Hollywood, not only pays tribute to each of his cast members on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, but reveals the persons on whom he based his portrayal of Lou Grant. Ed Asner passed away on Sunday, Aug. 29 at age ninety-one. Want to advertise/sponsor our show? TV Confidential has partnered with AdvertiseCast to handle advertising/sponsorship requests for the podcast edition of our program. They're great to work with and will help you advertise on our show. Please email sales@advertisecast.com or click the link below to get started: https://www.advertisecast.com/TVConfidentialAradiotalkshowabout Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

An unusual pair of guest fake attorneys arrive at the Law Offices Of Quibble, Squabble & Bicker to help represent the client, Road Rage & Bike Path Bitterness. Jeremy and Chris, two firefighters from The Washdown podcast are very familiar with the trials and tribulations of our client. They also know about the Quibbly Awards, fungible, boxed wine, the Bloodhound Gang, divorce as a rite of passage, piercing and poignant, West Bottoms, expert Band Aid application, Madagascar, the pumper, iguana, muffaletta sandwich, Saint Michael, trash can whiskey, King Kong Bundy, flatbed Ford, buy a horse, texting and driving, a little figurine and first responders are people too. For other episodes, go to www.qsblaw.org. They are also internettable on: Instagram - @lawofficesofquibble; Twitter - @qsblaw; TikTok - @qsblaw; Uhive - www.uhive.com/z/QTTCLFU; Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/quiblle.bicker.3; Tumblr - quibblesquabblebicker; Reddit - https://www.reddit.com/user/QuibbleSquabble or watch them on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/c/LawOfficesofQuibbleSquabbleBicker --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/qsb/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/qsb/support

This time on the show we're going to hear from 11 musicians performing on Make Music Day, Monday, June 21.  Make Music Day started in France in 1982 and is now celebrated in 1000+ cities in 120 countries across the globe. This year, for the first time, Kansas City is part of the celebration. The event is a day of FREE music, concerts, and events that stretch from Lemonade Park in The West Bottoms to Knuckleheads in The East Bottoms, and from Kansas City International Airport to 18th & Vine. Hundreds of musicians, of all backgrounds will perform, from classically trained musicians in the The Kansas City Symphony to 16 year old singer/songwriters like Kate Whitefield and the students from School of Rock. 

Interview: I am joined by a television legend, winner of eight Emmy Awards, and one of the most respected actors of his generation, Ed Asner. We discuss Ed's book, Son of a Junkman: My Life from the West Bottoms of Kansas City to the Bright Lights of Hollywood in detail. We talk about growing up in Kansas City, catching the acting bug, and landing his role as Lou Grant on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. We also discuss many more great memories. Tune in to find out who of all the funny people Ed has worked with was the funniest.  Our Guest, Ed Asner https://twitter.com/TheOnlyEdAsner  Book: (Son of a Junkman (https://www.amazon.com/Son-Junkman-Bottoms-Kansas-Hollywood/dp/0960087117)  Book: Grouchy Historian (bit.ly/2fPp1Ng)  https://twitter.com/EdAsnerCenter  https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000799/  Award-winning podcast! Live From Detroit: The Jeff Dwoskin Show: WINNER TOP 25 INDIE PODCASTS 2020 from Indie Pods United! Live From Detroit: The Jeff Dwoskin Show:  1st Annual Snobby Awards: WINNER: Best Comedy Podcast, Best Interview Podcast, and Podcaster of the year! Follow and listen to my show on Castbox! https://castbox.fm/channel/Live-From-Detroit%3A-The-Jeff-Dwoskin-Show-id2928952?country=us JOIN OUR MAILING LIST!  https://jeffisfunny.com/mailing-list/ Buy me a coffee! https://www.buymeacoffee.com/JeffDwoskinShow Jeff Dwoskin Presents: Crossing the Steams: Every Wednesday at 9:30 PM ET we are LIVE discussing the best TV shows to binge-watch. I'm joined by a panel of TV-watching experts. You don't want to miss the fun! (Watch past episodes) Watch LIVE: @bigmacher on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/bigmacher The Jeff Dwoskin Show on YouTube Subscribe to YouTube Channel: https://bit.ly/CTSYouTubeSubscribe Hashtag Fun: Jeff dives into recent trends and reads some of his favorite tweets from trending hashtags. The hashtag featured in this episode is #FairyTaleNewsStories Social Media: Jeff wants you to be aware of Twitter Blue a $2.99 service but also offers a workaround. Featured on the show: Hashtag Game: #FairyTaleNewsStories Hosted by: https://twitter.com/HangoverTags  Tweets featured on the show: https://twitter.com/OMP717/status/1396113649761140739?s=20 https://twitter.com/LilMissMystic/status/1396115612720631811?s=20 https://twitter.com/CupcakeGirl1444/status/1396115964282933253?s=20  https://twitter.com/supereeves_/status/1396118710348251141?s=20  https://twitter.com/O_MasterYu/status/1396119879309160449?s=20 https://twitter.com/monalisa4068/status/1396120142522761218?s=20 https://twitter.com/garyleonard20/status/1396122082916843524?s=20  https://twitter.com/madbarrister/status/1396123699812700166?s=20  https://twitter.com/Ratatosk4/status/1396124248083730435?s=20 https://twitter.com/scifigene/status/1396132965927821317?s=20  https://twitter.com/scifigene/status/1396134067171639312?s=20 https://twitter.com/ItalianTexans/status/1396141469497495558?s=20  https://twitter.com/HLHoulihan/status/1396148785122775050?s=20 https://twitter.com/Amigdalaintesta/status/1396185468115595267?s=20  Follow Hashtag Roundup to tweet along with fun hashtags daily! https://twitter.com/HashtagRoundup Download the Hashtag Roundup app at https://app.hashtagroundup.com/ Follow Jeff Dwoskin: Jeff on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bigmacher The Jeff Dwoskin Show: https://twitter.com/JeffDwoskinShow Podcast website: https://jeffisfunny.com Instagram: https://instagram.com/JeffDwoskinShow The Jeff Dwoskin Show is available on Castbox, Amazon Music, Humbly, Goodpods,  iHeart Radio, Pandora, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, and more!  

Content warning: We discuss alcoholism, AA & the journey to sobriety Amber Baudler is a Gemini. Boss. Student. Educator. Networker. Poet. Mentee. Mentor. Visual Designer. Video editor. Camera operator. Director and Storyteller. She co-owns Stellar Image Studios with her sister, the only 100% women-owned video production company in KC. Founder of SHOW (SIS HANDS ON WORKSHOP) where the mission is to reduce the gender gap in video production, and co-founder of On Stage with SIS, an annual event showcasing emerging talent in the local music scene in KC. The next OSWS will be on June 17th at the Black Box Theater in West Bottoms. 20% of ticket sales will be going to the non-profit Big Brothers Big Sisters.Get your tix now! https://www.eventbrite.com/e/on-stage-with-sis-2021-tickets-147191294123 https://stellarimagestudios.org/https://www.facebook.com/amber.baudlerhttps://www.instagram.com/amber_baudler/Mentions:José Faus visual artist, performer, writer, teacher, and founder of the Latino Writers Collective in Kansas City*Confidential free help, from public health agencies, to find substance use treatment and information. SAMHSA’s National Helpline – 1-800-662-HELP (4357)Alcohols AnonymousSeasoned and fresh-faced artists (of every genre) discuss how to make creativity work within the complexities and challenges of adult life. Confessing Animals podcast co-hosts Jen Harris + Vanessa Aricco, both working writers, unveil the secrets and struggles of creative living in a rapid fire Capitalist society. One guest at a time, Jen + Vanessa ask, How Does Your Life Translate to Art?Intro & music provided by Ashley Raineswww.ashleyrainesmusic.comFollow us on Instagram @confessinganimalspodcastCome write with us @ Writing Workshop KCwww.confessinganimalspodcast.comSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/poetjenharris)

This week we're down in the West Bottoms taste testing the tasty 100% Plant Based Tacos at THE TREE HUGGER TRUCK with Stand Up Comedian (and sometime Hot Dog Photographer) SUSANNA LEE & Urban Conservationist/Musician CHRIS CARDWELL! We get into our favorite West Bottoms Hot Spots and get into our Arbor Day, Star Wars Day and Cinco De Mayo plans and Susanna explains to us what a 'Shot Dog' is (and tells us a little about the art of 403 Club Hot Dog Photography!) In the TACO TICKER we discuss the Lunar Phase on May 4th known as the TACO MOON (Will you be getting a free Taco Bell taco?) and we chat about the FRENCH TACO CRAZE happening in France! We also taco 'bout Robot Cars Delivering Pizza! (ARE TACOS NEXT?) In CHEESY GORDITA CRIME, we touch upon the Car that actually DROVE INTO AND THROUGH a Taco Bell! In TOWN OF THE TACO, we talk about the Crossroads/First Fridays and our Favorite Shops/Stores in KC! ALL THIS AND: The 403 Club! KCK! Legs of Lamb at Royals Games! A Musical Performance by Chris Cardwell! And TreeHugger's PHIL NEWMAN stops by to tell us about their tacos and side dishes! We also ask the Random Taco Questions: WHAT IS YOUR TACO SAFE WORD? And IS THERE A FAST FOOD DISH THAT YOU'D LIKE YOUR SOAP TO SMELL LIKE? TACO THE TOWN! KICKIN' IT IN THE WEST BOTTOMS, OUR FAVORITE BOTTOMS, HOME OF TRAINS, PLANES, WAREHOUSES AND TASTY TACOS!! EDITOR: Matt Allen. MUSIC: Suneaters. Courtesy of LOTUSPOOL RECORDS. 

A very happy Monday from your KC Morning Show! HAPPENING TODAY! We are hosting a vaccine event in the West Bottoms at Hyvee Arena! Get that first dose and experience the moderna mania with us as we VAX TO THE FUTURE! RSVP: https://t.co/nS7NojBQfK?amp=1On the show today, Hartzell has a list of ways to connect with new friends. In the news, we discuss vaccine updates and why the numbers are down for second dose recipients. We remember and reflect the tragic passing of KCUR's Aviva Okeson-Haberman. Once again, more senseless gun violence in Kansas City.We wrap with A Sports Thing with Sports Illustrated's Benny Heisler!In your KC Morning Buzz, a battle of the Josh's took place in Nebraska, crowning 5 year old Josh the winner of the name, and obviously we gotta talk about that.Another good day to be a Kansas Citian. Be good to each other. - xoxo @hartzell965 & @holeyhearts

Happy Humpday, (BAY-BAY!) From The KC Morning Show!On the show today, the verdict is in. ALSO!Kansas City! We're bringing COVID-19 Vaccine shots to The West Bottoms! April 26, 3-6pm @ Hyvee ArenaRSVP: https://hyar0426moderna1.timetap.com/#/Always a good day to be a Kansas Citian!xoxo - @hartzell965 & @holeyhearts

Happy Monday from your KC Morning Show! Today's show is sponsored by Worlds of Fun who is currently hiring! Apply today for worlds of opportunity. On the show today, Kitty applies to be the official food taster for the MLB. Offering $500, free hot dogs and travel, it is truly a dream job. We dive into the news to discuss the lack of gen-z'ers getting the vaccine, Wrestlemania recap, and a very grim reminder of some of the history of the West Bottoms. Sports Illustrated's Benny Heisler joins us for that much needed sports thing, and we wrap with your KC Morning Buzz. Always a good day to be a Kansas Citian. Like, review, subscribe, tell your friends! @kcmorningshow on Spotify, iTunes, social media, etcXoxo - Hartzell (@hartzell965) & Kitty (@holeyhearts)

Happy Monday from your KC Morning Show!On the show today, Hartzell sows the seeds for a Star Wars wedding. We're getting our second dose of the Moderna vaccine this week! Let's (safely) get back in those streets. Kitty is still feeling some of the long haul side effects from having COVID and so are others.Baseball is back as Opening Day at the K is this Thursday! There was a vigil held in the West Bottoms this weekend to raise awareness and stop Asian hate. Cafe Ca Phe led the demonstration and the turnout was amazing.WOF returns to business this May! And they are hiring for ALL positions right now! Text FUN to 97211 for more information!We got Movies for your Monday with KCMS/Fox 4 Film Critic, Shawn Edwards joins us with an exclusive interview with Aubrey Plaza. Always a good day to be a Kansas Citian. xoxo - @hartzell965 & @holeyhearts

Tune in to my chat with the American Treasure Ed Asner.  We cover everything from his autobiography: Son of Junkman: My Life from the West Bottoms of Kansas City to the Bright Lights of Hollywood   to his role as Carl in UP! and everything in between. We touch on Gargoyles, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and his time as SAG president. Sit down Strap in and enjoy the ride. Follow the link below to purchase Ed's autobiography to learn more about Ed's life and career. You can buy the book here: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/son-of-a-junkman-ed-asner/1135269198   Links To Mention: https://twitter.com/TheOnlyEdAsner https://www.facebook.com/theonlyedasner https://grawlixpodcast.com/ https://electronicmediacollective.com/ https://twitter.com/MooseMediainc        

Heidi Van (she/hers) is an actor, creator, director and producer of contemporary experimental theatre. "A stalwart of the alternative theatre scene" (THE PITCH) Heidi challenges the way theatre meets its audience; installing performances in windows, on sidewalks, at prison, in a lingere shop, an abandoned church - anywhere but expected.”She is the founder and Producing Artistic Director of Fishtank Theatre, a generator of new theatrical work, theatrical activism, and artist entrepreneurship. She is also the founder of The Black Box, an ever-evolving stage in the industrial West Bottoms. It acts as a spotlight in the world of theatre, shining a light on bold and provocative performances.Van is a Charlotte Street Generative Performing Artist Fellow, Rauschenberg SEED Grantee & recipient of THE PITCH MASTERMIND AWARD. She is a graduate of graduate of Dell ‘Arte International School of Physical Theatre, Artist, Inc. and the Entrepreneurial Scholars program from The Block School of Entrepreneruship and Innovation. Find out more at www.fishtanktheatre.com and www.blackboxkc.com. @theheidivan @theblackboxkc @fishtanktheatre

In episode 37, Dustin and Zak interview Ed Asner!It's not every day you get to have a conversation with a living legend. Well, that's what the dudes did with actor (Mary Tyler Moore), writer (Son of Junkman: My Life from the West Bottoms of Kansas City to the Bright Lights of Hollywood), & all around amazing human being Ed Asner! Ed discussed a variety of topics with Z & D, including his many performances as Santa Claus (Elf), Captain Planet, Cobra Kai, his love of animals, current politics, and much more! It's a short and sweet interview with a cherished icon! Enjoy!(Side note: Ed's audio quality is not up to our typical standards, but we did the best we could with what we had)NEW EPISODES EVERY TWO WEEKS!Please follow us on Spotify & subscribe, rate and review us 5 stars on Apple Podcasts (aka iTunes)Support Us On Patreon: www.patreon.com/twodollarlatefeeInstagram: @twodollarlatefeeZak on Instagram: @zakshafferDustin on Instagram: @dustinrubinvoCheck out the intro/outro music on Bandcamp: jvamusic1.bandcamp.comFacebook: facebook.com/Two-Dollar-Late-Fee-PodcastMerch: https://www.teepublic.com/user/two-dollar-late-feeIMDB: https://www.imdb.comiTunes: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/two-dollar-late-feeSpotify: open.spotify.com/show/Amazon: music.amazon.com/podcastsPodchaser: https://www.podchaser.comRadioPublic: radiopublic.com/two-dollar-late-feePodbean: twodollarlatefee.podbean.comStitcher: www.stitcher.com

TVC 513.3: Part 2 of a conversation that began last week with Ed Asner, the eight-time Emmy Award-winning actor known around the world as Lou Grant both on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and his own hour-long spinoff series, Lou Grant. Topics include Ed’s experiences playing two other iconic characters: Santa Claus, which he famously did in Elf, and God Almighty, whom Ed has played on at least two occasions (including the critically acclaimed political comedy God Help Us). Ed Asner will star, along with Michael Shannon and Jordan Coley, in a virtual production of of God Help Us that will be streamed live via the Piven Theatre Workshop in Chicago on Saturday, Oct. 31 beginning at 6pm CT 4pm PT. Tickets begin at $22 for individual viewing, $35 for families (2-9 viewers on the same device), and $150 for groups (10 or more viewers on the same device). The running time for God Help Us is 90 minutes with no intermission. Immediately after the performance, Ed Asner, Michael Shannon, and Jordan Coley will participate in a live talk back with viewers; admission for that is $150 and includes your ticket to the performance. For tickets and more information, go to PivenTheatre.org or OntheStage.com/piven-theatre-workshop Ed Asner’s memoir, Son of a Junkman: My Life from the West Bottoms of Kansas City to the Bright Lights of Hollywood, features a host of great stories about his sixty-year acting career, including the challenges that Ed faced as president of the Screen Actors Guild; the backlash he faced from the El Salvador controversy in 1982, and the effect that had not only on Lou Grant, but his career in general; the influence that Ed’s father continues to have on his life today; plus tributes to each of his fellow cast members on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Lou Grant. Ed’s book The Grouchy Historian—a collaboration with his longtime friend and fellow Mary Tyler Moore Show collaborator Ed. Weinberger—is a thoughtful and engaging look at the back story of the U.S. Constitution that is also very timely today. Want to advertise/sponsor our show? TV Confidential has partnered with AdvertiseCast to handle advertising/sponsorship requests for the podcast edition of our program. They’re great to work with and will help you advertise on our show. Please email sales@advertisecast.com or click the link below to get started: https://www.advertisecast.com/TVConfidentialAradiotalkshowabout Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

TVC 512.4: Ed, Tony, and Donna welcome back Ed Asner, the eight-time Emmy Award-winning actor known around the world as Lou Grant both on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and his own hour-long spinoff series, Lou Grant. The 2020-2021 television marks the fiftieth anniversary of the premiere of the Moore show and, by extension, the Lou Grant character. Ed Asner’s memoir, Son of a Junkman: My Life from the West Bottoms of Kansas City to the Bright Lights of Hollywood, not only pays tribute to each of his cast members on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, but reveals the persons on whom he based his portrayal of Lou Grant. Want to advertise/sponsor our show? TV Confidential has partnered with AdvertiseCast to handle advertising/sponsorship requests for the podcast edition of our program. They’re great to work with and will help you advertise on our show. Please email sales@advertisecast.com or click the link below to get started: https://www.advertisecast.com/TVConfidentialAradiotalkshowabout Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, the TNWYWS girls welcome their first guest, Cary McRoberts! The white force, the ghost, Slender Man, and owner of Barrel of the Bottoms Studio in West Bottoms of Kansas City. We discuss dating during the mess that is Corona, dating apps, and daddy culture: hot or not? We also feature another write-in this week in a new segment we like to call Toss the Mic. We're keeping all things chaos on this Tipsy Tuesday so buckle up babygirl. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

In this episode I get the chance to sit down with Justin Easterwood from Chef J BBQ located in the historic West Bottoms(https://www.westbottoms.com) area of Kansas City. See all things Chef J BBQ here: http://chefjbbq.com Pre-order BBQ here: http://chefjbbq.com/saturday-pre-order-menu Check out Chef J BBQ on Instagram here:https://www.instagram.com/chefjbbq/ Follow Chef J BBQ on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/chefjbbqkc HOURS: Every Saturday 11:30 - 4PM(or sold out) ALSO, every first Friday weekend he's open Friday-Sunday Preorders are picked up starting at 10:30   This is a great conversation and to be honest, it felt like I was chatting with a friend I knew for years. He's that nice and that likable. More importantly, he's INCREDIBLY passionate about BBQ and putting out great quality food each Saturday. They are at the same location as THE BEAST(https://www.kcbeast.com) haunted house which is the oldest haunted house in America. He was born and raised in Kansas Cit and has worked in the restaurant business since he was 14. They started selling BBQ here in February of 2020 and then signed a lease in March. You know what happens next...the pandemic. This didn't stop him and as I mentioned above, they are rolling through each week selling out. He's building a smokehouse for his dual firebox pit that he currently has AND a new 1,000 gallon pit he is getting made by Collin Gray from C. Gray Ironworks. We go over the menu in depth. He has the Texas Trinity(brisket, ribs, and house-made sausage), but he also offers turkey, pork belly burnt ends and more. He offers an insane array of sandwiches all of which I want to try. The sides sound incredible as well as the desserts.

Jordin witnessed a miracle this morning. She catches Chris up on her amazing birthday and the fact that she’s so thankful to be part of the KC community. Chris got a haircut and had a garage sale this weekend. Finally, with the desecration of The Levi Harrington Memorial Plaque over the weekend in The West Bottoms, Jordin digs up the original news article describing the horrific events that happened.

I met Derek Roberts, a local designer/screen printer, at Normal Human’s @nrmlhmn new location in the West Bottoms of Kansas City, Missouri. We sat down to discuss his journey into becoming a graphic designer, why he started his own brand @agroupproject.me and more .Enjoy the wavve --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/streetwavve/support

TVC 484.3: Part 2 of a conversation that began last week with eight-time Emmy Award winner Ed Asner (The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Lou Grant, Elf, Disney Pixar’s UP, Briarpatch), including why his experience providing the voice of Carl Fredericksen in UP gave him a feeling of rebirth. Ed’s new memoir, SON OF A JUNKMAN: My Life from the West Bottoms of Kansas City to the Bright Lights of Hollywood, not only includes many stories about his spectacular acting career, but pays tribute to his cast members on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Lou Grant, reveals the person on whom he based his portrayal of Grant when he did the hour-long series, and shows why Ed’s father continues to be the guiding force of his life today. Ed Asner plays God Almighty in God Help Us, a political comedy written by Samuel Warren Joseph that provides hope for the future, provided we all listen to each other. Samuel Warren Joseph was one of Ed’s collaborators on Son of a Junkman. Ed is scheduled to perform God Help Us April 5, 2020 – Village Theater at Cherry Hill, 50400 Cherry Hill Rd, Canton, MI April 10, 2020 – Brewer PAC, 92 Pendleton St, Brewer, ME April 18, 2020 – Acorn Theater, 107 Generations Dr, Three Oaks, MI April 25 & 26, 2020 – Hampton Arts, Virginia May 2, 2020 – Solvang Theater Festival, 420 2nd St, Solvang, CA June 11, 2020 – HEAR Now Festival, Bragg Auditorium, 4501 Walnut St, Kansas City, MO 64111 To find out how to book God Help Us at a playhouse near you, go to GodHelpUs.net. Ed Asner is also scheduled to bring his critically acclaimed one-man show A Man and His Prostate to the following venues: Tuesday, April 28 – The Temple Theatre | 120 Carthage St., Sanford, NC Saturday, June 20 – The Astra Theater | 517 Main St, Jasper, IN Once described as "The Vagina Monologues for men," A Man and His Prostate was written by Ed. Weinberger, Ed’s longtime friend and fellow Mary Tyler Moore Show collaborator, and the co-author of Ed’s book The Grouchy Historian. For more information, go to AManandHisProstate.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

TVC 483.4: Legendary actor, author, and activist Ed Asner (The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Lou Grant, Elf, Disney Pixar’s UP, Briarpatch) talks about the roles that actor Richard Crenna and The House on Greenapple Road—a made-for-TV movie produced by Quinn Martin—both played in helping him land his signature role of Lou Grant. Ed can currently be seen as town boss James Staghorne Sr. in Briarpatch, which airs Monday nights on USA Network. Ed’s memoir, SON OF A JUNKMAN: My Life from the West Bottoms of Kansas City to the Bright Lights of Hollywood, not only pays tribute to his cast members on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Lou Grant, but reveals the person on whom Ed based his portrayal of Grant when he did the hour-long series. Son of a Junkman also discusses the challenges that Ed faced during his tenure as president of the Screen Actors Guild; the backlash he faced from the El Salvador controversy in 1982, and the effect that had not only on Lou Grant, but his acting career in general; and the influence that Ed’s father continues to have on his life today.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

TVC 483.3: Ed welcomes back eight-time Emmy Award winner Ed Asner (The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Lou Grant, Elf, Disney Pixar’s UP, Briarpatch). Ed’s new memoir, SON OF A JUNKMAN: My Life from the West Bottoms of Kansas City to the Bright Lights of Hollywood, is a charming, funny, and often very poignant look at his life and career, from his colorful childhood as the son of a junkman in Kansas City to his spectacular acting career. Ed Asner plays God Almighty in God Help Us, a political comedy written by Samuel Warren Joseph that provides hope for the future, provided we all listen to each other. Samuel Warren Joseph was one of Ed’s collaborators on Son of a Junkman. Ed will be performing God Help Us April 5, 2020 – Village Theater at Cherry Hill, 50400 Cherry Hill Rd, Canton, MI April 10, 2020 – Brewer PAC, 92 Pendleton St, Brewer, ME April 18, 2020 – Acorn Theater, 107 Generations Dr, Three Oaks, MI April 25 & 26, 2020 – Hampton Arts, Virginia May 2, 2020 – Solvang Theater Festival, 420 2nd St, Solvang, CA June 11, 2020 – HEAR Now Festival, Bragg Auditorium, 4501 Walnut St, Kansas City, MO 64111 To find out how to book God Help Us at a playhouse near you, go to GodHelpUs.net. Ed Asner will also bring his critically acclaimed one-man show A Man and His Prostate to the following venues this spring: Saturday, March 14 – The Hoytt Theater | 200 N San Pedro Rd, San Rafael, CA Tuesday, April 28 – The Temple Theatre | 120 Carthage St., Sanford, NC Saturday, June 20 – The Astra Theater | 517 Main St, Jasper, IN Once described as "The Vagina Monologues for men," A Man and His Prostate was written by Ed. Weinberger, Ed’s longtime friend and fellow Mary Tyler Moore Show collaborator, and the co-author of Ed’s book The Grouchy Historian. For more information, go to AManandHisProstate.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

ED ASNER BOOK - AUTOBIOGRAPHY SON OF A JUNKMAN - My Life from the West Bottoms of Kansas City to The Bright Lights of Hollywood.

ED ASNER BOOK - AUTOBIOGRAPHY SON OF A JUNKMAN - My Life from the West Bottoms of Kansas City to The Bright Lights of Hollywood.

Host James Lott Jr. chats with Ed Asner about his autobiography SON OF A JUNKMAN. About the Book: Emmy Award-winning actor, Ed Asner, recounts tales from his amazing life in this charming and hilarious memoir. From his colorful childhood as the son of a junkman growing up in the West Bottoms of Kansas City all the way through his spectacular acting career during the golden age of film and television, Ed recounts warm memories that are anything but ordinary. Son of a Junkman makes the reader feel as if they've pulled up a chair in Ed's home just in time to catch the lovable Hollywood grump tell a story or two. Foreword by Paul Rudd. About Ed: Ed is primarily known for his role as Lou Grant during the 1970s and early 1980s, on both The Mary Tyler Moore Show and its spin-off series Lou Grant, making him one of the few television actors to portray the same character in both a comedy and a drama. He is the most honored male performer in the history of the Primetime Emmy Awards, having won seven, five for portraying Lou Grant (three as Supporting Actor in a Comedy Television Series and two as Lead Actor in a Dramatic Television Series). His other Emmys were for performances in two of the most significant mini-television series of the 1970s: Rich Man, Poor Man (1976), where he won for Outstanding Lead Actor for a Single Performance in a TV series, and Roots (1977), for which he won for Outstanding Single Performance by a Supporting Actor in a TV series. He played John Wayne's adversary Bart Jason in the 1966 Western El Dorado. He has played Santa Claus in several films, notably in 2003's Elf. In 2009, he starred as the voice of Carl Fredricksen in Pixar's animated film Up, and made a guest appearance on CSI: NY in the episode "Yahrzeit". In early 2011, Asner returned to television as butcher Hank Greziak in Working Class, the first original sitcom on cable channel CMT. He starred in the Canadian television series Michael, Tuesdays and Thursdays, on CBC Television and has appeared in the 2013 television series The Glades. Asner guest-starred as Guy Redmayne, a homophobic billionaire who supports Alicia Florrick's campaign, in the sixth season of The Good Wife.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zo6Mg4W-2vI&feature=youtu.be Host James Lott Jr. chats with Ed Asner about his autobiography SON OF A JUNKMAN. About the Book: Emmy Award-winning actor, Ed Asner, recounts tales from his amazing life in this charming and hilarious memoir. From his colorful childhood as the son of a junkman growing up in the West Bottoms of Kansas City all the way through his spectacular acting career during the golden age of film and television, Ed recounts warm memories that are anything but ordinary. Son of a Junkman makes the reader feel as if they've pulled up a chair in Ed's home just in time [...] The post TV/Film Legend Ed Asner Discusses his Autobiography Son of Junkman appeared first on Book Circle Online.

Harrison Proffitt and his co-founder Ben Jackson created Bungii, a mobile application that puts a driver and pickup truck at a users fingertips to help people move or haul  items across town like Uber or Lyft does with passengers. Harrison and Ben created the idea and company in college at Kansas State. After an initial fundraising round of $3.5M, Harrison moved around the country to start Bungii in Atlanta, Washington DC, to Baltimore to Miami to Ft. Lauderdale to Chicago to Nashville to Boston and Columbus. Website is bungii.com or search bungii on the App Store.   TRANSCRIPTION:   Joel G: Harrison, thanks for joining me. You have a really cool, interesting, unique company. Just what I love to talk about, in terms of entrepreneurship, and really something different. Tell me about Bungii. It's so practical, yet sometimes we don't think of these things.   Harrison P: Yeah. Well, first of all, thank you so much for having me on your podcast.   Joel G: You're welcome.   Harrison P: It's great to be here. We work in downtown Kansas City. But yeah, so Bungii, I'm willing to bet that you or your audience has been there before and they've needed a pickup truck, but they haven't had one. Now whether you're buying a couch on Craigslist or a mattress from the store or just trying to get those boxes into a storage unit, unfortunately not everything fits into the back of that Toyota Corolla or that Tesla, so that's where we come in.   Harrison P: Bungii is a mobile application. It's an app that puts a pickup truck and a driver right at your fingertips to help you move, haul, and deliver large items across town. We've been compared to other popular ride sharing apps like Uber, like Lyft, but instead of transporting people, we transport people's stuff, if that makes sense.   Joel G: It totally makes sense. It's so practical. I don't even need to help you sell this, but how many people... I have a pickup truck. I may not look like a pickup truck type of guy, I'm not.   Harrison P: Of course you do.   Joel G: No, I don't at all, but I don't know, maybe in the same way that somebody wants a Tesla or somebody wants that cool car, when I first drove a truck, I was like, "Wow, I really like the feeling of this." I have no real reason for it. But those three or four times a year that I need to pick up a piece of furniture at Nebraska Furniture Mart or whatever it is, I'm like, "Nope, I'm not taking the delivery. I'm going to go and I'm going to do this myself." And then how many times friends say, "Hey, would it be possible to borrow your truck?" Well, not everybody has a friend that has that truck or that wants to give them your truck. Everybody has to have a need for this. So my question for you is how did you come up with this idea?   Harrison P: That's a great question. It was actually back in college. My co-founder Ben and I were both Kansas State college grads, and we both owned pickup trucks back in school. If you are a pickup truck owner, you know the problem, you know the feeling of constantly being asked-   Joel G: Just what I said.   Harrison P: ... from friends and family, "Hey, can I borrow you and your truck?" It's pretty much in the job description of owning a pickup truck. You're going to be helping friends and family, whether you like it or not. It really all came to a boiling one day when, again, my co founder Ben Jackson, he was asked by four different people in one day, "Can I borrow you and your truck?" Ben's a nice guy, but he obviously got pretty frustrated after that fourth ask, so he thought to himself, "There's got to be a better way to do this." So the next day in our class, we were in an advanced sales class at Kansas state. He kind of touched me on the shoulder. I happened to sit right in front of him, which is interesting because we really didn't know each other that well at the time, which is kind of a story in itself.   Joel G: So he's from where?   Harrison P: He is from Atlanta, but he actually grew up in Budapest, Hungary.   Joel G: Wow.   Harrison P: And I'm from Denver, Colorado. So it's very interesting that we both met at Kansas State.   Joel G: Yeah.   Harrison P: Both of our parents, all of our parents are K Staters. So we're going to have that purple blood. But anyway, so yeah, he taps me the shoulder in class and I kind of lean back and I'm listening to what he's saying and this idea... And I honestly don't know what came over me. I kind of blacked out in the moment, but I said,"Man that's amazing, let's start a business." So right there and then we kind of walked out of class that day with one thing in mind, and that's tap a button, get a truck.   Joel G: I guess two part question here. One, what were you thinking about in terms of your future before that blackout conversation and two, was there a background that enabled you or Ben to have that confidence to say, "Well we could do this?"   Harrison: Yeah, I don't think either of us had imagined this or plans to be entrepreneurs or start a company. I mean myself, I had an interesting backstory. I was a biology, premed student in college and I was going to go to the medical route, go to med school, take the MCAT, all that good stuff. Cardiovascular surgeon was my goal, so setting the bar high there. I ended up not wanting to do that, go down that path. Ended up getting my biology degree, getting a business degree and thinking medical device sales is my routes. And then, you know, literally this just kind of fell into my lap and Ben came to me, just a, I want to say God moment. It kind of happened and all of that. And yeah, I mean that's where we started. There was really no forethought in starting a business or really finding a need and fixing it. It just, it came upon us. But we, we went full, we bought fully into it.   Joel G: There's so much here in terms of the spirit of entrepreneurship and you know, I think entrepreneurship is, it's different for everyone. There's no specific path. You know, I was telling you that I consider myself an entrepreneur now with my speaking business and I don't have a business background at all, and you know, been a broadcaster for 25 years. So I came onto it at about 44 years old when I found something I was passionate about. And I think that is one of the keys, certainly of entrepreneurship or maybe even everything in life, is when you have a passion for something. But the paths are all different. But tell me about the early moments, those early times, how you set it all up and what you went through.   Harrison P: Yeah, so the moments following that conversation in the classroom, it was very, there were very grandiose thoughts. You know, let's go raise money, let's go build an app, let's go be millionaires tomorrow. And man, we were ignorant at the time. And if we went that route, I think we would've been hitting our head against the wall for months, if not years. We probably wouldn't have made it to where we are now. But very thankfully, we had advisors and mentors in place at Kansas State in the entrepreneurial department. Shout out Chuck Jackson and Dave Drawling out there in K State, but they said, "Hey guys, hit the brakes here. You know, you guys need to go prove this idea, validate it, make sure it's a valid idea before you go do all this other things, raise money and build this capital." So instead of going and doing that, we went and put our trucks on Facebook and Craigslist in Manhattan - town of 50,000 people. And over the three months, summer of 2015, we said, "Hey, we're a couple of guys in the community, we're willing to move whatever, whenever just text this number to Harrison, email us, let us know, and we're on the way. And here's the basic pricing model." And so in that three-month time we did over 350 deliveries ourselves. So a very sweaty summer, to put it lightly. But the great thing about it is we documented all the data, so we had everything from demographics, what time these deliveries were happening, what we were moving, even to the demographics of people that were moving for. And so from there we're able to translate that to Kansas City and say, "All right, we did these many deliveries in three-month time period and this population and if we translate over to Kansas City for the whole year, that's profitable." And that's when we're starting to do pitches to investors on a weekly basis, and that we were able to lock down some initial funding.   Joel G: So how long did it take until you had that initial funding?   Harrison P:: After the summer of 2015 I believe that was eight months later.   Joel G: Wow. How tough was it to sell investors and then, you know, customers to this day on that because this is something that everyone understands?   Harrison P: So the tough thing about when we first launched in Kansas City, we launched to crickets. We thought... We'd put this app out, we thought this thing's just going to take off. And so we really had to put our heads down and figure out how to get in front of the customer because we knew there was a need. We proved in Manhattan, but now we had to get the word out. And so instead of just, you know, waving the white flag and, you know, walking away at that time when we opened the app and nothing happened, we, we got work and we roll up our sleeves and we were down at the West Bottoms Kansas City, talking to people buying antiques. We were setting up at furniture events in Kansas City, just letting people know the service. And sure enough, the next week we had two deliveries.   Joel G: So you're knocking on doors essentially.   Harrison P: You got it. You got to first, you got to get the word out.   Joel G It's amazing what happens. This is the very simple message when you put yourself ahead of the pack.   Harrison P: Yeah.   Joel G: How do you put yourself ahead of the pack? You take that extra step, you meet face to face, you do the things that everybody should be doing, but either doesn't know how to do, too lazy to do. I don't think it's rocket science. Now maybe the website and the app and all of that a little bit different, too. But what were you finding with that face-to-face in the West Bottoms by the antique stores?   Harrison P: So on top of doing the moves ourselves back in Manhattan, being able to talk to consumers and customers face-to-face, that gives you the root need that you're solving and that the core issue that you're solving. And so I truly believe that if you don't talk to these customers face to face, if you're not solving the solution, or solving the problem yourself, then you're going to be building something that's not really fixing that initial problem. So that was able to teach us everything from making sure we're charging customers on a permanent basis because the drivers are going to get taken advantage of, to making sure we... the app is extremely simple, it's got to be something that is relatable to the consumer. That's why if you look at our app, it's going to be a very similar Uber or Lyft feel because that's what we're known, that's what everyone is conditioned to use these days.   Harrison P: So definitely listen to your customers right off the bat is, it's vital to becoming successful down the road. Joel G: Well, you said something interesting to me, too, backing up a little bit, but you talked about in that first summer of 2015 collecting data. It's one thing just to go out there and offer this and see if people like it, but you guys weren't sleeping on it either. I mean, you could've said, "Hey, yeah, people were interested, let's give it a try," but yet you took all of that, you mine that data and you were able to help craft what you were doing. Tell me about how you did that, and you know, I don't know if that came straight from what you learned in school or, or what it was, but you guys really were able to leverage that summer.   Harrison P: Right. I'm... When you're going to... We knew that when you're going, we're going to go to investors you had to have objective data to prove that this is going to be valid. So we couldn't come to a, get into a room full of these independently wealthy individuals and say, "It worked and, you know, we're excited for the future. You have to be able to show them from a numbers standpoint. So especially new investor, or new entrepreneurs, you got to know that upfront, be objective about everything you do. Cause if you can't prove it, or you can't test it and measure it, then it's not worth doing.   Joel G: So you get there, you get some of that initial funding, you get rolling in Kansas City, but now you're well beyond Kansas City. What was the tipping point when you said, "Ah-ha, we've got this or we've got something really special here," one. And two, where have you experimented?   Harrison P: The tipping point, I would say for me, is when I started to see my friends and family use it that I hadn't spoken to about, or it was, you know, through the grapevine, and through the grapevine starting to see friends of friends use it and then come back, those friends come back and telling me that was exciting to me where it was, it was personal. Okay, this is starting to get out there. Also, I had a great experience with my mother. She went to her hairdresser and she was talking to the hairdresser and the hairdresser knows about Bungii cause they talk, and the hairdresser was with a different client the day before and she said, they were talking about moving, and she had some things to move to a storage unit, and the hairdresser asked her, you know, "What, what are you going to do?" And the lady said, "I'm just going to Bungii it."   Harrison P: Going to Bungii it, she used a verb!   Joel G: You became a verb.   Harrison P: That was it! That was my... That was... I loved it. I was my tipping point and that got me really excited. But from there, so after we really prove it in Kansas City, we started seeing that growth. It was time to raise more money and prove that we could launch this in other cities across the country. So we went and set out and we raised our first round of funding of over three and a half million to get this out to other markets. And that's what I set off on the road to prove that we could launch it and other markets across the country. So I moved to back in late 2017 and spent eight months in Atlanta living in a basement, learning how to launch the business, and then it just accelerated from there. Once we got Atlanta figured out, then it was, it was Washington, D.C. And then from D.C., Baltimore, Baltimore, Miami, Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Chicago, Nashville, Boston, now Columbus. So we're we're growing, and growing pretty quick.   Joel G: And how many of those cities were you living in, or was it just Atlanta?   Harrison P: Over the past two-and-a-half years I've lived in all nine cities.   Joel G: Oh my gosh.   Harrison P: It's been fun. I think it's 26 Airbnbs I've been in, total.   Joel G: So some short term living, but you're at the age, you're single or you're not married. No kids, not married. 27 years old is the right time to do it. If you're ever going to do it, you delve into all of these cities... Were they all different, or were you able to follow a formula?   Harrison P: They're all absolutely different in their own way, all very unique. For instance, with Kansas city, I don't know if it's just because of where we're kind of hometown guys here or there was buzz about it when we started, but we had drivers lining up. I think we have, we had a list of over 200 drivers ready to start driving with us when we initially released the app, so we assumed that that would never be a problem. And then we moved to Atlanta and we, we opened the app, we had, we knew how to get demand, we focused so much on that customer acquisition, and making that as optimized and efficient as possible, then we opened it up the app in Atlanta, we figured out we had no drivers. So that was also a new issue that we had to figure out, that I'd figure out in Atlanta, was the driver acquisition part of it, the whole other side of the equation. Because they're, end of the day, drivers are our customers too.   Harrison P: We tried multiple different avenues on that, and what we found out was that first responders are a huge part of our driver base. So what I, what I do, the launch team now is we, when we first go into markets, outside of preparing these businesses and getting demand ready, it's talking to firefighters and police officers and paramedics because of their perk schedules, whether they usually work in 24 hours and 48 hours off, a lot of these guys have trucks and they're just, you know, very helpful people in the community. Bungii is a great fit for them because it's an easy job to do that doesn't require too much mental work. It's just you sign onto an app, you get deliveries, you make great cash on the side. So-   Joel G: And are they doing the lifting too, or no?   Harrison P: Correct, they do. So Bungii drivers do help customers load, but if it's a Bungii solo, so it's one guy, one truck, and the item is too big we do ask our customers to help or provide help, and that hasn't been an issue because of the great price point the customers are getting, they're more than willing to help themselves or have their husband or son or neighbor, whoever it is help. But we do have a Bungii duo option, so if, if the customer is not able to help whatsoever, they can get two guys and two drivers.   Joel G: All right, let's talk about how it works, and bungii.com. B-U-N-G-I-I, so two I's there, B-U-N-G-I-I dot com, and I would imagine they could find the app pretty simply by searching Bungii.   Harrison P: Yep, free app on the app store, Google Play. If you go to our website there's a "download the app" button right on the main page.   Joel G: Okay, so that part's easy. And you can go on the website, too, and look at all the frequently asked questions and everything that you would want. But let's explain to everybody listening right now. I know it's fairly simple how this works.   Harrison P: Yeah. So I mean it always comes back to, think of what your, you've used before, Uber or Lyft, you're going to open up our app, you're going to put in your pickup and drop-off location for the item. You're going to take a picture of the item that you're moving, and then you request it, whether it's on demand or later in the day, you can schedule it. Bungii... Typically on average, a Bungii driver can arrive within 15 minutes of your location. So our goal when we initially built the app was someone's shopping at Costco or Ikea, they find that item that they weren't expecting to buy, that large TV, or that couch, or patio set, and say, "I want to get this home today." And if they use Bungii, by the time they're checking out, there's a Bungii driver waiting outside, ready to go.   Joel G: And, and that works out really well, too, cause they're not hopping in the truck. So you go to Costco and you buy that big piece of furniture. Bungii driver shows up, he takes it to your house, follows you over to your house, or you're following him, whatever. And unloads and that's it.   Harrison P: What we're seeing is customers love the ability to schedule. So I'm at Costco, I know I've got to run over to Target, and I've got some other errands, I've got to see a friend, won't get home until six o'clock, I'm going to schedule my Bungii til, for at six o'clock so by the time I'm home from all my errands, there's my Bungii driver arriving with my patio set. And so we're working with these businesses now, like Costco, to prepare those items, help our drivers load it. And so the customer is really hands-off and it's extremely convenient for that customer.   Joel G: Okay. Let's get to my baseball-themed questions. First question regarding Bungii, and you guys are still relatively new, and young, you and Ben and the company. Biggest home run you've hit so far.   Harrison P: So many things I'm grateful for, and I think home runs we've hit, but one of the biggest ones I would say for us, from my standpoint, we've recently partnered with Mattress Firm on a regional scale. We're growing with them, so being able to offer customers who've just purchased that mattress, same-day delivery at a cheaper price than ever. That's been pretty exciting for me and that's been more of a recent win. Also, I think overall it's all about the customer and so, are you familiar with NPS score?   Joel G: Yeah.   Harrison P: A net promoter score, those out there who don't know, a net promoter score measures the willingness of your customers to refer your service or product to their friends and family, and it brings us from negative 100 to 100, a hundred being the best, obviously. And with the moving industry, whether it's full-house moving or small moving, the average is about 13 and so we're extremely proud to have a net promoter score of an 87 after close to hitting over almost a hundred thousand deliveries at this point. Having an 87 just speaks to our folks on the consumer, our driver recruitment tactics, and how we set up preventative measures are making sure everyone's having a great experience with our drivers, and then our customer service. So having an 87 is something that we're extremely proud of to this day, and I think that's probably our biggest win overall.   Joel G: What's the biggest swing and miss you've taken, and what have you learned from it?   Harrison P: So I'm really focused on launches these days and expanding a Bungii engine to different markets across the, across the country. And one of the most recent launches we had was Chicago and we really hadn't figured out completely that driver acquisition part of it, or being a little bit more strategic about launching. So with Chicago we walked in and we did what we had been conditioned to do before. Get in there, start finding drivers, start finding demand. Once we launched the app in Chicago, and at that point we realized that there are no pickup trucks in Chicago whatsoever. So we started having this demand coming out, but we had no one picking up those deliveries so that the deliveries were failing. And that's a problem. And so these consumers, these business, were saying, "Hey, we're not trusting the service, we're not going to use it."   Harrison P: So we're over there scrambling to get drivers, and finally we get drivers off the ground, but now these businesses have lost their trust. So now we have all these drivers, but no trips are coming in, and saying, "Hey, what's going on here? There's no deliveries. Why did I sign up for this?" Now they're falling off and they're, they're not converting. So it's all about balance with launches, and the launches are very essential to growing correctly and efficiently. So now after Chicago we took a step back and figured out this has to be more strategic, we have to figure out how to set these drivers and this demand up beforehand so by the time we do launch it's just a turn-key solution. And the demand and [inaudible 00:19:21] start getting connected immediately and then at that time, once we get to a certain threshold of trips and drivers, it begins to grow organically. And that's the, that's probably the biggest learning from the Chicago launch was we have to do things prior to the launch and get things set up beforehand.   Joel G: All right, last baseball-themed questions, small ball. What are the little things that add up to the big things for Bungii?   Harrison P: Small ball? You know, I'll probably say one of the biggest, I guess cuts I've taken, small cuts and taken recently is probably not pivoting, but putting more of a focus on the retailers and the businesses out there. So we were a very strong consumer-based demand company, but now we've started partnering with these companies like Mattress Firm, and Costco, and World Market, and Big Lots, and we're realizing that these businesses are trying to combat the Googles and Amazons of the world of this, for the same-day or next day delivery and we're kind of becoming that answer for them. And so with the folks on businesses, I think that's going to allow us to scale and scale faster as we walk into a new market with partnerships with six, ten different national retailers, that's going to have newly kicked demand off. We've got drivers, that job recruitment side figured out, so it should kind of make everything a little bit more efficient.   Joel G: Four final questions. You don't know what these are as we round the bases. First one, it's only natural, you've heard this one I'm sure many times throughout your life that with the last name of Proffitt, you add an extra F in there that's fine-   Harrison P: Two F's, two T's.   Joel G: Two F's, two T's, right, right, right. How often have you heard that? And now here you are trying to do exactly that.   Harrison P: Every business person I've met has made a comment on that, so-   Joel G: I knew I wasn't original.   Harrison P: So whether it's been, I mean I've had people tell me you'd be perfect for it as a doctor, you'd be perfect as a dentist and be perfect as entrepreneur. I had someone tell me to be perfect as a porn star with that kind of name. I was like, oh gosh, like I'm all over the place.   Joel G: Well I guess in the end it's a reminder whatever the industry clean or dirty that people want to make money. Right?   Harrison P: Exactly.   Joel G: All right, so you got that going for you. That's the first question, that was the softball and kind of the unique one. Second one. I'm looking at the frequently asked questions and one of them is there, is there anything Bungii will not pick up? And I like the response here, "Our drivers are strong but they're not super men. We focus on items that you and your driver can lift together and put in the back of a truck. In addition, we do not allow the transportation or anything hazardous, illegal or breathing." So as a, "Believe it or not, some people don't understand that. See the most absurd move requests here." That was going to be my question. Instead of clicking on it, what is the most absurd move requests you've had?   Harrison P: Well, first of all, it'd be better asked to our customer service team because they're dealing with that every day. But once I've, I've heard of that have happened, we moved buckets of animal waste from the Miami Zoo down in Miami to fertilize plants. So I remember seeing that happen and looking at our backend system and seeing these buckets of crap and it was connected to a driver, the driver was heading that way and we reached out to the driver, said, "Hey Jim, do you know, you know what you're going to pick up? And he said, 'Buckets of crap! I'm so excited!' He was pumped about it! And so he did that.   Joel G: He loves his job.   Harrison P: Yeah. I mean, I know we had a customer who-   Joel G: Is that, is that allowed, to move buckets of crap? It's not really hazardous.   Harrison P: Yeah! It's not hazardous-   Joel G: Not alive-   Harrison P: It's not breathing, just fertilizer.   Joel G: Okay, sure.   Harrison P: We did have someone also move a box that we later learned had a snake in it. So that's, that's something we try to avoid.   Joel G: Third question for you and I love asking this one. Oh, let me just preface it by saying, I mean you and, you and Ben start this thing. Where are you at now in terms of employees?   Harrison P: We have 25 employees now and that includes, we have people in each of our markets now that we're running these businesses and continue to grow our markets. We have a launch team, a development team, marketing team, customer service team, driver recruitment team, and driver management team. So yeah, from two guys in a dorm room to get to the point we are today, it's, it's pretty exciting to see.   Joel G: In a pretty quick amount of time too. So my question, the third question is, as we round the bases to that is where can this go?   Harrison P: So we just finished our recent series A of 9.4 million to get this really across the country. So with that money, that's going to inject fuel into a national expansion and launch. So the goal by 2021 is to be in every major city in America. And so that's really my focus is launching faster and more efficiently every time. So next year we're looking at 12 to 15 cities. Now the year after that should be another 15 to 25 cities. So the goal, national expansion. My personal goal is to make Bungii a household name down the road, so when you think pickup truck, you're thinking Bungii. But on top of that, we just want to not only be a consumer service, but we're going to start plugging into the supply chain, reverse logistics, store transfers, and basically the internal logistics of businesses as our goal.   Joel G: Final question. It's a little bit similar to that one, but my walk off question, I've always thought that entrepreneurs are always thinking about what's the next thing. Now, I'm not trying to force you out of Bungii, but it sounds like you've got plenty going on, but is there anything in the back of your head where you're thinking whether it's one day, an exit plan or just something else because you guys have solved the problem.   Harrison P: Yeah.   Joel G: And you had that ah-ha moment in class, that blackout moment that you described. Do you envision moving into other things at some point?   Harrison P: From a Bungii standpoint, selfishly, I think we want to grow this as big as we can get it ourselves. Realistically, I think there will be some sort of acquisition or a roll up down the road where we get acquired by, whether it's an Uber or Lyft or maybe some sort of strategic partner like a U-Haul or Home Depot. But I think that's the reality of it is we will be acquired at one point so we're really preparing ourselves for that. After Bungii, I honestly have not even put any thought into it. It's been 100% gas on Bungii and haven't looked back at all. So no, it'll be an interesting step back once I move on from Bungii, whenever that is, if that ever comes. But I'm very optimistic. I've learned so much from Bungii, already at 27 I'm very positive. I have a very positive outlook on the future.   Joel G: It's really exciting. You guys have done incredible things in a very short amount of time, and I think done at the right way from everything you're talking about and I know a lot more to come. So Harrison, thanks so much for spending time. Again, people can can find you guys at bungii.com, or they can search Bungii, B-U-N-G-I-I. Congratulations. Thanks for doing it, Harrison.   Harrison P: Thanks so much for your time, Joel, appreciate it.

Swell Spark is a company with concepts such as escape rooms and axe throwing They are known for Blade and Timber and breakout escape rooms, have 11 storefronts nationwide and believe in the importance of having fun to bring people together for shared experiences. Matt was a high school guidance counselor and owned a soda shop when he started an escape room as a side hustle and expanded to six locations within two years They started the axe throwing trend and expanded to six locations around the country. Hoping to launch a new concept in April 2020.   www.swellspark.com TRANSCRIPTION: Joel Goldberg: Matt, there are a million things that you're involved in, which means there are a million things that I want to talk to you about. How would you describe yourself?   Matt Baysinger: I love having fun. I know that sounds really cheesy, maybe even sounds cutesie or something along those lines, even cheap. Right? But I just really believe that having fun is important. I think it brings people together. That's always kind of been my MO, not even in a professional sense, just in a life sense. Then from a company standpoint, we really made it the company MO as well. We want to gather people for shared experiences. We want to have a heck of a lot of fun together.   Joel Goldberg: You do that, I'm sure, and then we'll talk about the culture of your company but also anyone that is going to something that you own or run, that's the goal across the board. It's not just, hey, we're this company, come and do this. You're offering people a lot of ways to have fun.   Matt Baysinger: Yeah. The two major brands that we have that folks recognize us for the most are Blade & Timber and then Breakout KC here in Kansas City. We have 11 storefronts around the country from Kansas City to Honolulu. We've been doing this for five years. In that, we've also done things like Choir Bar and Epic Aloha and other kind of popup ideas. I think we are seekers of fun, and so there's a couple check boxes of, "Does it do this? Does it do that?" And I think at the end of the day if it's going to get people together, if it's going to give them a more compelling thing to do than stare at their phone, then it's something that we're interested in pursuing.   Joel Goldberg: Let's start with... You want to start with Breakout KC or Blade & Timber?   Matt Baysinger: Let's do it.   Joel Goldberg: Let's start with Breakout KC. Of course, everybody knows about these escape rooms now. If you've never done one before... I hadn't done one and then suddenly I think my family and everybody... My kids had done them and even my wife had done one at some point. Then suddenly we've got my parents and my kids and this and that. We're all in this room together, and it's exactly what you said. We're having a lot of fun together. This is really cool. Tell me about the origins of that.   Matt Baysinger: My wife, Emily and I, we were traveling to Chattanooga, Tennessee, in 2014. We had this eight hour stopover in Nashville before we really got going into Chattanooga to visit some friends. We were looking for something to do in Nashville. Never had been to the city. Seemed like a good place. We pull up Trip Advisor. We're thinking what music tour can we do or what sort of entertainment. We pull up, and the number one thing on Trip Advisor is this thing called The Escape Game, and it's a picture of a house. We're like, "What is this?"   Matt Baysinger: We didn't end up going on that trip, not knowing what it was. We were going to visit Emily's friend in Chattanooga, which meant I had a whole week to research escape rooms. Over the course of a week, one, I was like, "This looks fun." But, two, it was this brand new experience, this brand new industry in the United States. I came back really kind of rejuvenated from that trip. I pulled in one of my best friends, Ryan, who was in kind of more design fabrication construction. I said, "Ryan, we got to look into this thing. We have to. I think we can do this, and I think we can do it better than anybody."   Matt Baysinger: The basic idea for those who have not played an escape room is there's this dramatic experience. It's as though you're Jason Bourne or you're James Bond. It not like you're locked in a room. That was the old version of escape rooms. But you have to solve something. You have to be the hero of a great story. For us, we have 11 different experiences just in the Kansas City area alone, so 11 different movies that you get to play the part in essence. As you mentioned, they are a phenomenal opportunity to hang out with friends or family or coworkers. It's stinking fun.   Joel Goldberg: Yeah. How do you go from this looks cool to this is going to be our business?   Matt Baysinger: Sure. This was 2014. As a matter of fact, the first time that Ryan and I got together to really talk about this was the Wild Card Game in 2014. That was when the spark ignited. Honestly, when we first started, it was going to be a side hustle. We thought, "Hey, we can do this on the weekends. It might be some passive income. We can build these things. If we end up making a couple of bucks, awesome." And we thought that we would.   Matt Baysinger: I was working two jobs at that time. I was a high school guidance counselor at St. James Academy in Lenexa, and I had just started this soda shop, Mass Street Soda, within the last year. We didn't anticipate it doing what it has done. It's been an amazing ride. But we opened. We were able to get some friends in who shared it. I think there was just an appetite for something new among our customers, among the folks who came and supported us. Within two years, we had expanded out to six locations, largely because we thought that we could, and we thought that we should.   Joel Goldberg: Were you doing it differently than everybody else? Were you guys able to take it to a different place?   Matt Baysinger: Yeah, I think we did a really good job with telling great stories and letting people be heroes of great stories. I think even more so, Kansas City... I think it's the most underrated city in America. When people take a stab at something new in this city, if it is of high quality, what we found is more often than not, the city and the community at whole kind of wraps their arms around you. They're like, "Hey, we take care of our own."   Matt Baysinger: So we went from opening to being the top rated escape room in the country within about nine months. We had more reviews on Trip Advisor than anybody else. We had people waiting sometimes three or four weeks to get a spot to come in. I think honestly that's largely due to we told great compelling stories, but I think more importantly we've always had a super high focus on customer service. Whether you have a good time in the room or not, I can't really control that. But we can control how we treat you before the room, during the room, after the room, to make sure that you have just incredible interactions with real people the entire time.   Joel Goldberg: Was there a tipping point with that one where you said... Obviously, you believed this to be successful.   Matt Baysinger: Right.   Joel Goldberg: But like you said, a nice side hustle. What or when was the tipping point where you said, "Wait a minute. This side hustle is actually going to become the main hustle"?   Matt Baysinger: Sure. Ryan was a firefighter at the time. Again, I had these other jobs as well. We had this single phone number that would ring to both of our phones. The general rule, because it was the two of us, was, hey, if you can answer the phone go ahead and answer, and if you can't after five rings the other person might answer it. Normally, we'd get one or two calls a day in the first couple weeks. We'd have maybe one or two bookings a day. We only had one room.   Matt Baysinger: I vividly remember this experience. Ryan and I, we were building out the second room, and he's up on a ladder. The first call comes in of that day, and I call, hey, Matt... This is Matt with Blade & Timber. How can I help you? We want to book. Great. While I'm on the phone, Ryan's phone rings. Hey, this is Ryan with Blade & Timber. While we're on the phone, I get a beep in. Hey, can I put you on hold for a second? What had happened is two days before that... I went to high school with Matt Besler. We've been friends for quite some time. I said, "Hey, Matt, we started this new thing. Would you come? Bring some friends if you want to."   Matt Baysinger: Well, Matt brought almost the entire Sporting Kansas City team. They posted on their Instagram and Facebook-   Joel Goldberg: That was it.   Matt Baysinger: ... and honestly, that was it. People started hearing about what we were doing. I think it was that day or the next day is when we started booking out not just days in advance but weeks in advance. Within a couple short weeks, we were quitting our other jobs, saying, okay, let's go all in on this and trying to grow that thing as well as we could.   Joel Goldberg: This might be a dumb question or certainly... And I don't mean for it to be offensive because I know you believed in your product. If the soccer star with the whole soccer team does not do that, do you still get to where you are in just a matter of... Would it have taken longer?   Matt Baysinger: I think so. We still had a great product. That was, I think, the kickstart that we needed. But you know as well as anybody that you can have amazing marketing, but if your product sucks, people are going to say, "Wow, that was amazing marketing. They tricked me into doing this thing." The mountain of momentum came when very quickly we were the top rated experience in Kansas City more than the museums, more than the K, more than all these things.   Matt Baysinger: When you looked on Trip Advisor at things to do, we were the thing to do. Might that have taken a little bit longer? Yeah, absolutely. But I think when a lot of folks ask me why we've had success or what that goes back to, I talk about people. I talk about the relationships that I've had and the relationships that I've cultivated over time. Matt was generous enough to come along and help kickstart us, and that was awesome. I'm grateful for him. He probably wants commission right now that he's here in this podcast. I think if you put a great product out there as long as folks find a way to know about it, good things will come.   Joel Goldberg: Well, and we could also add in good people in terms of those connections. Okay, you had a long history with Matt Besler. Matt Besler also happens to be a very good person.   Matt Baysinger: Absolutely.   Joel Goldberg: So it's one thing to be a soccer star and sporting has such a loyal and unbelievable following, but part of that following is the culture that they have too.   Matt Baysinger: Absolutely.   Joel Goldberg: I'm guessing that that kind of all aligned with who you all are.   Matt Baysinger: It was I would say accidental strategic in the early days and that what we've come to find is that we actually overlap pretty well with the type of fans that Sporting Kansas City has. There's not as many folks at MLS Games as there are at Chiefs' games or at Royals' games, but they're oftentimes far more rabid fans. They're far more invested in their team. Coming from that area right by Cerner and some folks that are techy and geeky, escape rooms, they're a little bit nerdy.   Matt Baysinger: It is a more active form of entertainment than just going out and grabbing a few beers or something like that. You have to think.   Joel Goldberg: You have to think.   Matt Baysinger: But that's the fun of it. That's not to say... I think the fear for a lot of people is that they're going to be not smart enough for an escape room. Escape rooms are built for everybody. We definitely had some happy accidents in the early days as far as who we catered to, who we advertised to, who we marketed through and with. I will happily take advantage of those happy accidents that we've had.   Joel Goldberg: I always say never apologize for those. They don't really happen by accident either I don't think. You can stumble into something. I guess what I would say is that you can have that happen by accident, but ultimately it's up to you to capitalize on it.   Matt Baysinger: Absolutely.   Joel Goldberg: And a lot of people don't.   Matt Baysinger: Sure.   Joel Goldberg: And so then maybe it's not meant to be. You obviously did. How about... I know you've got a passion for film or film background. How much did that help in terms of the stories you guys were telling?   Matt Baysinger: Sure. I think quite a bit. My former company was just Baysinger Films, and we did work for Nike and Google and McDonald's and things like this. We also did weddings and just telling people's stories. Again, in the early days Ryan comes from this fabrication background, a wicked smart guy as well. We went to high school together. And I came really from more of a marketing, so I was like, man, I can market this stuff if you can help build it. I'm far more conceptual than Ryan is. I'm for better or worse. We tried to use every skill or talent that we had to push the envelope forward just a little bit more in the early days. I think fortunately we had a pretty good mix between the two of us, and then we had some really amazing folks come on board to help us with that as well.   Joel Goldberg: All right. You have the escape rooms, and everybody's throwing axes nowadays.   Matt Baysinger: Yep.   Joel Goldberg: That has become-   Matt Baysinger: Because of us, right?   Joel Goldberg: Yes. Well, it's become a thing.   Matt Baysinger: Yeah.   Joel Goldberg: No one in their wildest dreams would've ever imagined that that's something you could do outside of some kind of 2:00 in the morning programming on ESPN10 or whatever it was.   Matt Baysinger: The Ocho.   Joel Goldberg: Yeah, The Ocho. Oh man, how long ago that was. So how did this come about?   Matt Baysinger: Little context, right? In the early days of the escape room, I vividly... And I've told this story before. But I remember this moment of we lived on coffee at the time and Quay Coffee is down the street, amazing coffee shop in the River Market. We were there twice a day because we were working the stereotypical long hours that you do in startup. This group of gals probably, I don't know, 16, 17, 18 years old had just broken out from one of our escape rooms with 10 seconds to go, so they were hyped.   Matt Baysinger: Their immediate conversation is, hey, let's go grab something to eat. They're walking down, and they end up walking to Quay. I'm 10 paces behind them, which is a little awkward, but whatever. They get out of our escape room; we take the group photo of them; they celebrate; high fives; I think, get some T-shirts; start walking. They walk two blocks to Key Coffee. I'm right behind them the whole time. Seventeen-year-old gals. Not a single one of them pulls their phone out. They are just talking to each other trying to figure out what just happened. "Hey, I was doing this thing, and I pulled down on the antlers, and then... oh, that was when the door opened. Oh, my gosh, I was doing this other... " They're piecing together how they actually broke out of this room because it's just been pure something to that point.   Matt Baysinger: That was the moment that we kind of realized, "Oh, my gosh we've built something more exciting than your cellphone." I know that sounds maybe a little silly, but you know it's-   Joel Goldberg: No, I think everyone gets it actually.   Matt Baysinger: And so the question immediately became how else can we do this. We never anticipated being an escape room company. We really found ourselves in this what we call small box entertainment. From almost day one we said, "Escape rooms, and... " We looked at all these other concepts, all these other things. And then as we were just researching online at some point we saw this pub in London that had an axe throwing range in it. We were like, "Huh? Axe throwing and alcohol. That sounds kind of fun. That sounds kind of different."   Matt Baysinger: The building that we're in right now we actually built an axe throwing lane on the top floor. We have ping-pong tables and arcade games and all of the stuff that you would expect a bunch of 20 and 30 year olds to have in their offices.   Matt Baysinger: The moment that we made an axe throwing lane on our top floor people stopped playing ping-pong, and they stopped playing the arcades, and they stopped... All you would hear is people talking over lunch hour of, "Oh, man, I can't believe you got me. I'm going to get you next game." Our staff started getting really into it.   Joel Goldberg: So the same way that those girls were talking about that escape room, putting the phones away and actually having... What is this? Oh, a conversation.   Matt Baysinger: Right.   Joel Goldberg: You saw a similar type of energy.   Matt Baysinger: Yeah. Again, as silly as it sounds, people like doing stuff. People like learning new skills. I think one of the reasons golf is declining is because it's really hard, and it's really expensive, and there's kind of a high barrier for entry to get into it. With axe throwing, we got to a point where we felt like we could teach anybody how to throw an axe in five minutes or less. When it became that simple, it's like, "If my mom can do this, then anybody can do this." I love you, mom.   Matt Baysinger: She doesn't have an athletic bone in her body, and she's able to hit bulls eyes underhand with an axe. Once we got to that point we were like, "There's something here." The next question was, "What kind of landlord would in their wildest imagination allow us to throw axes in their building?" Truth be told, we got denied by probably five or six landlords in Kansas City who were like, "This isn't going to work," or "It doesn't sounds safe," or whatever.   Matt Baysinger: But we were able to open in the West Bottoms, and I think once we had the proof of concept, same story. We've been able to expand to six locations, seventh coming. Actually, we only have five now that I think about it.   Joel Goldberg: We'll get into that one.   Matt Baysinger: What's been fun about axe throwing... I guess, quick little tangent. Our second location of our escape room was Honolulu, Hawaii, so Kansas City to Honolulu. What's been really fun, we took axe throwing-   Joel Goldberg: Let me stop you real quick. How'd did you go from... I mean, it seems like why wouldn't you, right?   Matt Baysinger: Right.   Joel Goldberg: It's not that easy. It can't be that easy.   Matt Baysinger: So mom graduated high school in Hawaii. Dad was [inaudible 00:17:12]. Our grandfather was military. So we did have kind of a familial connection out there, but also it's a large metro. It's a large metro, and quite frankly, there's not a lot to do once the sun goes down, especially if you're not into drinking or clubbing. What's been really neat with axe throwing with Blade & Timber, we have locations here. We're down in Wichita. We're in Seattle. We're in Honolulu. Those are very different people groups in all of those cities.   Matt Baysinger: They have different voting histories. They have different make ups of skin tones and skin colors and all sorts of stuff. But what's really fun is that people love axe throwing in all of those markets. People love having fun in all of those markets. It's been just from a human standpoint to see that this is something that's kind of universally needed is this table for community. It's been a really cool byproduct of what we do.   Joel Goldberg: When you put that axe throwing lane upstairs, it was just something else fun or cool to do because you guys have that cool type of office? How did you end up with that axe throwing lane upstairs?   Matt Baysinger: Even when you go back to escape rooms we test it first. I think a lot of people think that it was just striking gold, but we built our first escape room in the spare bedroom of my house. When it came to axe throwing, we can make some educated guesses, but we want to at least test it out for logistics. Upstairs the initial goal was simply, hey, let's figure out what axe we need to use. Let's figure out how far or close you should stand. Let's figure out if you should spin it once or twice. It was really to test the concept.   Matt Baysinger: When we put it up there, we knew that it was something that we were interested in doing as long as we could figure it out. People just figured it out a lot sooner than we would've anticipated.   Joel Goldberg: How did that compare in terms of interest, growth, to the escape rooms? Was it the same type of pattern? Were you stumbling upon the same thing or was it a different animal?   Matt Baysinger: Yeah, there were obviously some differences. There were obviously some similarities. But I think when you take a step back, people ask, "All right, Matt, you're with Swell Spark, what does Swell Spark do?" Nothing. The answer is nothing. Swell Spark is an operating group. It's a group of about 20 people here at headquarters who serve all of our concepts. In that capacity, when you look at the long-term growth plans for Swell Spark to be a long-term sustainable company, we need to launch new concepts. That's in our DNA. We have committed to be a perpetual startup of concepts.   Matt Baysinger: With that, we talk about velocity, and we talk about velocity of different metropolitan areas. We were able to open our escape rooms in two major metros, being Kansas City and Honolulu. We've been able so far to open our axe throwing in four major metros.   Joel Goldberg: Which is Kansas City-   Matt Baysinger: Kansas City, Honolulu, Seattle, and we're about to open Portland as well. When you look at the big picture, what do we do and what it is that we're about, we get velocity in metros. Once we open one concept in a metro, we start to accumulate data on who's coming. We start to accumulate data on who we should market to, what parts of town we should be in, what parts of town we should avoid. Realistically, once we opened Blade & Timber, we were able to do a cross promotion with Breakout KC and invite 70,000 people to come out. You can imagine what day one looked like when they're 70,000 invitations to be the first to do something in Kansas City.   Matt Baysinger: And so, it exploded. Our first kind of soft opening VIP night, which was literally just me and Ryan posting on Facebook, I think had 300 people show up.   Joel Goldberg: Wow.   Matt Baysinger: We always set up our experiences to be easy on the eyes. So we set up a photo booth in Blade & Timber and put some places in where it would make it real easy to take a photo so people share on our behalf, which we love. I have three kids, six, four and two. My wife, she probably wishes she didn't start this, but she started making a book a year per kid. It's just a scrapbook, a well-designed scrapbook. We just had all three of their birthdays in the last couple months. And so we're going through and making the new pages or the new years. The pages in those scrapbooks are never about the things we bought for them.   Matt Baysinger: There's never a picture of, "Oh, here's your toy that you enjoyed." It's like, "No, here's the stuff we did." Honestly, I think people are, not to say waking up to that idea, but bowling is the great example. Bowling was America's sport for a long time. There's countless research that's been done about this. Bowling died. There's a lot of reasons it died. What the problem is is a lot of people said, "Oh, well, it was because bowling wasn't fun," when really it was a lack of community.   Matt Baysinger: For us to have the opportunity to give people that again is just so special. I think people crave it. It's easy to stay in your house. It's easy to watch Netflix and order food. There's nothing wrong with either of those things as long as they're balanced with spending time with your friends and being around other people. We love to provide those opportunities.   Joel Goldberg: That's one of the things of why we like vacations. You actually get a chance to go and do things.   Matt Baysinger: Right.   Joel Goldberg: Not everything needs to be Disney World and waiting in the lines and all that and people may like certain things. We actually took our kids last year to Disney and Universal and all that for the first time ever. They're now 16 and 14, so they were 15 and 13 at that point. And they'll remember that forever.   Matt Baysinger: Absolutely.   Joel Goldberg: It might not be a specific ride. It might be just walking around and the Harry Potter stuff. Who knows? It is something that they will and we will remember forever those moments.   Matt Baysinger: Absolutely. I'm a KU grade. I'm a big Jayhawks fan. Even to go to 2014 and 2015 with the Royals, I've been to a whole lot of baseball games over the years. Those are fun, but you're generally watching other people do things. One of the reasons I think Allen Fieldhouse is such a special environment is because as a fan you feel like you're part of it. You're shredding newspaper. You're tossing it in the air. There's these little things you do with your hands. You are a part of your own entertainment experience.   Matt Baysinger: In 2014, that Wild Card Game I think I gave 700 high fives. Everyone who was there that's going to be a special memory because we got to be part of it to a degree.   Joel Goldberg: There is a reason why people have these crazy superstitions, and they ramp up, and it's not just in Kansas City. It's in every single city.   Matt Baysinger: Sure.   Joel Goldberg: How many people do you know that say, "We had to sit in this spot for this game," and if you came in and you weren't there before, you were kicked out. There were actually families that weren't watching the game together because that became their involvement and their experience. Right?   Matt Baysinger: Yeah, absolutely.   Joel Goldberg: As crazy and silly as those things are, they're fun because you're involved.   Matt Baysinger: They make it more memorable.   Joel Goldberg: You feel like you're a part of it even if you're wearing the same underwear for... Yeah.   Matt Baysinger: Make sure you wear your same shirt, your flannel shirt, every time you come to Breakout or Blade & Timber. It'll be your lucky shirt to get bulls eyes.   Joel Goldberg: Whatever it takes. I do want to ask you in a little bit about what's next. Before we get into the baseball theme questions, I'm curious now where you're at. You and I are in a group together, so I've had the chance to watch you operate a little bit. I haven't probably shown up as much as others or I should. Maybe you have. I don't know. What I've been though is I've just been really impressed with just your thirst for knowledge, your thirst to become better I think as a leader. I don't know if that's something you ever thought about getting into. I don't know that you could've envisioned any of the way this all went other than the fact that you seem to be to me a guy that's always thinking and driven and wanting to come up with new ideas.   Joel Goldberg: But now you're running companies all around the country. And I know you have to have a culture in the way you want things done, and that could be a little bit unnerving to say, "Wait a minute. How are things going in Hawaii? I'm sitting here in Kansas City."   Matt Baysinger: Right.   Joel Goldberg: What have you learned?   Matt Baysinger: We were talking before the podcast started is all we can do is tell our story. I look back at, my undergrad was sociology. Then I worked in athletics for a while, and I got a master's in education administration. I worked as a high school guidance counselor. I worked as a barista. I started a soda shop. I have a film company. None of it makes sense. But I think when you take a step back a little bit more, all of it makes sense.   Matt Baysinger: One, as you iterated, the people, the relationships that you build along the way matter. I think more than that we went through recently, and we talked about what it is that we actually look for in employees. It was kind of tucked in the back of my head, but we finally spit it out and said, "We want people who are eager to learn. We want people who are coachable." I had the opportunity to run track at the University of Kansas, and I got there because I was fast. Without being overly pretentious, I was a fast runner. I got a lot faster because I had a great coach.   Matt Baysinger: I think sometimes when you get to the metaphorical big leagues of running your own company it's easy to think that you know it all. I think the more that I have realized that our business while it is strange, it's not unlike other businesses. There are things that apply to just about every business on earth, and the more that we've realized that... At first, I was kind of upset about it like, "Oh, I thought we were doing something special. I thought we were venturing out into the world," but I've realized no. A lot of the problems that we face are the same problems that other people have faced, and what that means is there's wisdom in finding the answers they found so that we can skip those painful steps and get to better solutions without having to reinvent the wheel ourselves.   Matt Baysinger: The startup community, the small business community in Kansas City, is unlike anything I've encountered. We've been able to travel a lot. There are a special group of folks here who are invested in making the cream rise to the top. If I can be a part of that, man, I'll take that opportunity any day.   Joel Goldberg: Yeah, that's pretty powerful. Before we get to the baseball theme questions, so how many stores or properties total around the country right now? We talked about the different cities.   Matt Baysinger: Yeah, we had 11. One of our stores just burned down two weeks ago, which was a huge bummer. So technically we're at 10. We'll be at 12 by quarter two of 2020.   Joel Goldberg: This is Blade & Timber and escape rooms?   Matt Baysinger: Yes, that's correct. We hope to launch our next concept in April-ish of 2020. That'll depend on our construction contracts and whatnot. But we have something new coming to Kansas City.   Joel Goldberg: Which I'm sure you can't tell me.   Matt Baysinger: Nope.   Joel Goldberg: But it'll be I'm guessing something as ground breaking or original as an escape room was in 2014 and as original as axe throwing was a few years back.   Matt Baysinger: We have found that fun maybe looks different in other countries or other regions.   Joel Goldberg: There's a hint.   Matt Baysinger: But that doesn't make it any less fun. I think oftentimes it's simply that we don't realize the opportunity that there is to do this really fun thing.   Joel Goldberg: Put it this way. I'm not trying to get it... I live in this world where with baseball and athletes where you just know you're not going to get the answer, so that's fine. But when this thing comes out, will it initially be something saying, "Wait? Really? Never thought about that before"?   Matt Baysinger: I think you're going to chuckle at its simplicity.   Joel Goldberg: Okay.   Matt Baysinger: Yep.   Joel Goldberg: All right, fair enough. Baseball themed questions. What would you say professionally is the biggest home run you've hit?   Matt Baysinger: That first risk of Breakout KC. That was the launching pad for sure. Honestly, as I say it though, I think the biggest home run that we hit was Breakout Waikiki, our second location. The reason I say that is we had to open a location 3,800 miles from here, 15 hours of travel at best. We had to set it up in a way that it could run without me being there, which is a hard transition for an entrepreneur to build process and to build functions that can exist without you being the one to do it.   Matt Baysinger: It was successful. That's why I'm calling it a home run, but I think more so it forced us to take a step back and think about how to grow well. Since that point, every other location we've done since then has been closer, but we've been able to grow 10 locations in four years. We've been able to increase our sales by 55% a year for four years now, and that's because we had to work out a lot of those kinks early on with Breakout Waikiki.   Joel Goldberg: What's the swing and miss? You've talked a lot about learning.   Matt Baysinger: Sure.   Joel Goldberg: What's a big swing and miss, and what did you learn from it?   Matt Baysinger: We did this project called Epic Aloha in Hawaii as well. This was a 6,000 square foot walkable Instagramable museum. Again, it checked the boxes. Shared experiences? Absolutely. Bring people together. Amazing concepts. All of those things. Honestly, from an installation standpoint it might've been the best thing we've every built. It went out of business in 10 months. Granted, it was a 12 month lease. We went to the wrong space. Not to oversimplify it, but what was bizarre about that concept, we became the seventh highest rated attraction in all of Hawaii. You're talking Pearl Harbor and then Waikiki Beach and then a handful of others, and then Epic Aloha.   Matt Baysinger: We had this insane problem that everyone loved us but nobody knew about us. We just couldn't overcome that. Unfortunately, we closed that one a little bit early. We took a bath on it in many ways, but also we realized what we were capable of. I'm the eternal optimist, so we're always going to find the positives, but from a numbers standpoint, golly, that was bad. From a learning standpoint, we know what a fast ball looks like now. We know what a curve ball looks like, and I think we know how to handle those a little bit better moving forward.   Joel Goldberg: That's good. Small ball. How would you define small ball to Swell Spark or to any of your entities in terms of the little things?   Matt Baysinger: You know, I wouldn't call myself a futurist, but I think our world is changing a lot. I think one of the things that differentiates us from just about anybody else is our emphasis on customer service. I believe it's all about the relationships, I really do. The thing can be cool, but if you do a cool thing with terrible people, you're not going to enjoy it. We focus on our people first, and I think when our people are feeling loved, when they're feeling supported as employees, it allows them to do that with customers as well.   Matt Baysinger: Our blocking and tackling or our small ball is we got to make sure that the people are even better than the experience that we offer.   Joel Goldberg: Four final questions that I ask every guest. These will vary by guest. Four final questions as we round the bases. Do you have a favorite story or scene that you've done over the years?   Matt Baysinger: Halloween is a big deal for my wife and I. This isn't going to be the answer that you asked for.   Joel Goldberg: That's okay.   Matt Baysinger: Forrest Gump is my favorite movie. It's an amazing movie. When you talk about how I got into all this, my junior year of college I grew my hair out just so I could shave it down to look like Forrest Gump. I sat on a bench on KU's campus and I passed out chocolates for four hours and told stories. I think that probably as much as anything iterates who I am and what we stand for, which is, man, we like to have fun. We love to do that through Halloween as well. I think from a company standpoint I told you about the gals walking, and that's been a pivotal moment for us.   Matt Baysinger: I just love when I get to see reviews... I love on a regular basis is people will say, "This is the best thing I've done this year," or "This is the best birthday party I've ever had." As cheesy as it may sound, that is all of the motivation or story that I need to know that we're doing something positive.   Joel Goldberg: All right. The second question, which has to do with storytelling or perhaps in this case, fake storytelling. You know where I'm going. I didn't know you that well, and I'm still getting to know you. But when this whole thing popped up, and it was written about... It was one of those just epic... Back in the day we used to call it a burn, I guess. You know?   Matt Baysinger: Sure. Yeah, sick burn.   Joel Goldberg: Sick burn. Yeah. This was back in July. I just remember reading this, and I had goosebumps because basically you dealt with what I'm sure a lot of very proud, hardworking business owners deal with. And we live in a world... We're all guilty of it. I try to remind myself all the time that just because it's on Yelp doesn't mean it's true.   Matt Baysinger: Sure.   Joel Goldberg: In the case, somebody basically accused one of your employees of Blade & Timber of some racist stuff. Your reply was beautiful. I'll just read a little bit of it because you responded to him, and you said, "The best part of this is that you tried to paint a picture of my man, Jordan, as rude and racist. This is the exact same Jordan whose own mother immigrated to the US from Mexico. You have the audacity to call out a staff member by name, yet you have to make up a story and hide behind a fake Yelp alias to try to stir the pot. If one of our staff members was actually being racist, I can assure you that we would take action, but in this scenario you're just using a fake name to tell a fake story to try and paint a fake picture about a real and honest person that's just trying to do his job. I can't let that fly here. If I could give you a Yelp rating, you would earn zero stars."   Joel Goldberg: It got a lot of attention as it should have.   Matt Baysinger: It did. Yeah.   Joel Goldberg: That's just some of it. But I can only imagine the fire that burned in you when this happened, and then being the storyteller, the chance for you to tell that story.   Matt Baysinger: The first revision of my response was a little bit punchier.   Joel Goldberg: This was pretty punchy.   Matt Baysinger: Yeah. Jessie, our Director of Communications, asked me to tone it down a little bit. But, you know, this was... It's a weird world online. Right?   Joel Goldberg: Yeah, it is.   Matt Baysinger: People can say things unchecked. And we had this situation where we threw some kids out for underage drinking. This was the way that they decided to retaliate against us. We're smart enough to... I mean, we have audio and video of everything that happens in our store. Honestly, I read the review, and I was first fired up that one of our staff members had done something stupid. I was like, "Oh, my gosh, I can't believe that Jordan was racist." These are the things flying through my head.   Matt Baysinger: I dive in, and I get the real story. Then my level of anger went through the roof. We ask a lot of our employees. It's not easy to have great customer service and to love and serve people well especially when they suck. In this situation, we reviewed the tapes. It was pretty clear that Jordan had done exactly what we had asked him to do in the situation. There wasn't a racist bone in his body in this situation. It just felt like the right opportunity and the right thing to do to stand up for him.   Matt Baysinger: Whenever you talk about things like racism online, you set yourself up for potential windfall. So we were nervous about that quite frankly, but the response was amazing in that I think anyone who understood the character of our company and understood what we really stand for, they then had the opportunity to choose which story to believe. I think pretty much universally folks realize that ours was the right one. And I think people were... I think they were glad to see a small business like us stand up to the review machine that has taken down so many other businesses and so many other people.   Joel Goldberg: Just a follow up before we move on, I'm curious if, one, you ever heard from that kid or anyone associated with him? And, two, what did you hear from people like Jordan and your employees?   Matt Baysinger: Our employees were extravagant. Extravagant? No, they were excited that we did something. I think in some ways it would've been really easy for us to ignore it or maybe try to get the review taken down or something like that. The gentleman who posted did it under a fake name.   Joel Goldberg: Of course.   Matt Baysinger: We know his real name. We know his real address. We know where he goes to school. We know his friends' names. We didn't call him out publicly. We didn't put his real name out there for obvious reasons. He's a kid, right? We don't want one stupid decision to define somebody. If he ever wants to come throw axes, we'd love to have him back. He's just got to use his real name.   Joel Goldberg: Right, and not be drinking underage.   Matt Baysinger: Absolutely, absolutely. He's got to do it the way that we ask him to do it. But we're quick to forgive as well. We'd be honored to have him back.   Joel Goldberg: You guys handled it the right way.   Matt Baysinger: I appreciate it.   Joel Goldberg: You all did. I've grown up too to realize that people will take shots at me on Twitter. You know what? Most of it is just not worth replying to. If it gets personal and there's some kind of danger to my family, then we can block them.   Matt Baysinger: Sure.   Joel Goldberg: Otherwise, mute them. It doesn't matter. I realized one night somebody was walking by our set, and they yell out. It's a group of six or seven people after the game. They were walking through the outfield. The guy yells, "Hey, Goldberg, you suck." Fine. Yeah, maybe. Not everybody's going to like my broadcast style. I totally get that. I just kind of looked at them, and I waved. As he saw me turn, I said, "Hey, what's going on? Thanks for watching." He just kind of turned and hid, and he wouldn't look back.   Matt Baysinger: Yep.   Joel Goldberg: I said, "Come on, I'd love to shake your hand." He just kept on moving.   Matt Baysinger: Sure.   Joel Goldberg: And that right there was Twitter in person.   Matt Baysinger: Absolutely.   Joel Goldberg: That was Yelp in person.   Matt Baysinger: Yep.   Joel Goldberg: Which by the way, there's plenty of positive on there too. It's just so easy, we know this, to hide behind something.   Matt Baysinger: It is.   Joel Goldberg: Okay, third question. What then would be the scouting report of Matt Baysinger, the track athlete, back in the day?   Matt Baysinger: I was a giant 800 meter runner. I probably outweighed both my competitors by 200 pounds, which made it real fun for some of the relay races in particular. I had a pretty decent career. I was seven time all big 12. Got to run on our four by four all four years. For being a walk on at KU, I feel really good. I got to hang out with my old Coach Redwine this weekend. They did this amazing event at KU where they brought in elementary age kids, and so my kindergartner was able to come and learn how to do hurdles and stuff like that. But, KU Redwine's he's one of the best people I ever met in my life, and he gave me an incredible opportunity and taught me well.   Joel Goldberg: All right, final question. The walk off question because we already talked about in general terms at least what is next. So we'll walk off with this. What kind of axe thrower are you?   Matt Baysinger: I'm good enough to beat you.   Joel Goldberg: Okay. You haven't seen me throw yet, but you're probably right.   Matt Baysinger: And I'm willing to find out. There's a lot of folks in this building who would handle me pretty well with an axe, but I can hold my own. I can stick it to the board just about every time. I'm known to lots of fours, just not a lot of bulls eyes. I'd be a good fit for the Royals. I'm not going to hit your home runs, but I'm going to get on the bases.   Joel Goldberg: Lay down a bunt every now and then. Good singles hitter. Opposite field.   Matt Baysinger: Blocking and tackling, you know, do the small things.   Joel Goldberg: Well, the small things are working. They certainly are turning into big things with many more big things to come. Can't wait to find out what this new venture is. I'm pretty sure we'll all hear about it.   Matt Baysinger: We'll invite you out.   Joel Goldberg: Yes, please. So that is when?   Matt Baysinger: We're hoping for quarter one, quarter two of 2020.   Joel Goldberg: Okay. So not too far off.   Matt Baysinger: Nope.   Joel Goldberg: Matt, congratulations on all the success to all of you and I know a lot more good things to come. I appreciate you doing this.   Matt Baysinger: I sure appreciate it.   Joel Goldberg: All right. That is Matt Baysinger. Hope to catch you next time on Rounding the Bases. You can reach me on my website at joelgoldbergmedia.com. Thanks, everyone, for listening.  

HALLOWEEN IS HERE! And this week we're reviewing the tasty tacos at FRIC & FRAC on 39th Street (HOME OF TACO SATURDAYS SINCE 1979!) with special spooky guests ADRIAN TORRES (Horrorversary Podcast Host, Alamo Drafthouse's TERROR TUESDAY Host, Boom Howdy Network) and NAT BLUHM (Artist/Designer with HighHeart Creative)! Dave is also joined this week by special co-host Executive Producer CHRIS GARIBALDI who tells the gang about his intense Fear of Dolls! This week we also break down a big list of our FAVORITE HORROR FILMS to watch on Halloween Night as well as a big list of the real life HAUNTED LOCATIONS in KC! Haunted Hotels. Spooky Mansions and Gateways to Hell! OH MY! We also touch upon the Haunted House Attractions in the West Bottoms!! In the TACO TICKER we taco 'bout TACO BELL'S HALLOWEEN FASHIONS available on their website and we also taco 'bout a HAUNTED TACO SHOP in Arcadia, California! ALSO: Nat asks Dave: "If you were a cannibal what kind of Body part taco would You Eat?" & Adrian asks Dave a very disturbing TACO TO ME Question for the ages! If we are all destined to re-live our lives in the Afterlife, Will Dave be eating ghost tacos for all of eternity?! Doesn't sound half bad! HALLOWEEN & TACOS!!! IT DON'T GET MUCH BETTER THAN THIS! Edited by MATT ALLEN. Music by SUNEATERS courtesy of LOTUSPOOL RECORDS." 

Welcome in to State Your Line, voted the Best Local Podcast in Kansas City in The Pitch Magazine in 2019! This week the Ritz brothers sit down with Alex Lindsey, owner and founder of West Bottoms Whiskey Co. Segments this week include: Chiefs update What'd we try this week People like us Openings and Closings Personal Pine Tar Mixed plate

In this episode, Jake Savage co-hosts with me as we interview Ian Davis and Jared Sinclair from Blip Roasters. Blip Roasters is located in the historic West Bottoms district of Kansas City. Episode artwork by Jake Savage    Blip Website Watch the Video!

Shaun Crowley plays guitar and sings in Kansas City garage rock/pop band Momma's Boy. He's also one of the driving forces behind Manor Records, the indie label he helped create from the basement of his old house venue, Shawnee Manor. Manor Records is out of the basement now though, and hosting its third Manor Fest, taking place across three nights in Westport, the West Bottoms, and the Crossroads this August 1-3. We discussed all of these things and more on this week's episode. Manor Fest's lineup and ticket details are available here. The Shuttlecock Podcast is sponsored by The Vinyl Underground at 7th Heaven, located at 76th & Troost in Kansas City. Visit www.7thHeavenKC.com for more info. Follow @ShuttlecockMag on social media and visit www.ShuttlecockMusic.com. Grab a t-shirt, button, or photo zine from the Shuttlecock web store to support the show. Subscribe to our YouTube channel and our feed on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

This week: We add a guest voice to the program as my dad lends his thoughts and reactions to the latest news. A coffee roaster expands its empire in absorbing another. An old bridge gets new, and unique life. A West Bottoms favorite moves to Power & Light, and much more! --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/streetwavve/support

This week: A distiller is building their own kind of playground. The world’s largest “green” apartment building is going up fast. The West Bottoms transformation is in full swing. More project announcements for Troost, and much more! --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/streetwavve/support

Starting a letterpress shop isn't easy, and it takes time. In this episode I talk with Andrew Myers and Joey Gross of Public Print and Supply Co in Kansas City. They're a new printshop in town, but not new to the print game. With three months under their belts, we discuss the difficulty of self branding and previous businesses and shops where they both have worked. I inquire about the types of business they want to cater to, but also what they see for the future. With the start up phase of any business being rather mercurial, the future could result in many outcomes. It's an exciting time for Joey and Andrew and this episode gives us a tiny view of what it's like behind the press in a new studio and what that looks like in the early stages of development. Public Print and Supply Co is Andrew Myers and Joey Gross (formerly of Survival Letterpress) and is located in the West Bottoms district in Kansas City, Missouri.Follow Public Print and Supply on Instagram@publicprintcoFollow The Print Cast on Instagram@theprintcast

Chrissy Nucum is the chef and owner of KC Pinoy, a Filipino restaurant in the West Bottoms. While Filipinos are the second largest Asian American group in the United States, it’s actually a bit of a challenge to find a traditional Filipino restaurant in many cities. So Chrissy has kept her menu true to her family’s recipes, educating folks on what Filipino food is all about—and even if you think you know something about Filipino food, you might find a few surprises on the KC Pinoy menu.   Dishes featured in this episode: Sisig (San Miguel pairing optional) Adobong Manuk Pork Tocino Iskrambol   Find KC Pinoy online at kcpinoy.com and on Instagram @kcpinoy and Facebook https://www.facebook.com/KCPinoy/.  KC Pinoy is located at 1623 Genessee St, Kansas City, Missouri 64102.    The Open Belly podcast is hosted by Danielle Lehman and shares the stories of first-generation American chefs in Kansas City. You can find the Open Belly podcast online at openbellypodcast.com or on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @openbelly.

The guys are joined by Greg Bland, owner of Stockyards Brewing to discuss some not only beer.  But what's going on in the West Bottoms area and how it's affected their business.  

Would you consider Kansas City a Southern city? John Cedric Smith, executive chef and co-owner of EJ's Urban Eatery, does. Chew Diligence co-hosts Lindsay Shively and Jill Silva sat down with him in the 41 Action News podcast studio to chat about his West Bottoms meat-and-three restaurant.

It's widely known in the midwest that the West Bottoms in Kansas City has some of the best haunted houses in the country, but I won't find out for myself due to my overactive fight or flight response, also called hyperarousal, or the acute stress response. Fight or Flight is a physiological reaction that occurs in response to a perceived harmful event, attack, or threat to survival. In other words, if something jumps out and scares me, I will beat the shit out of it. Articles referenced in today's episode: "A Man Was Stabbed At A Haunted House After Another Man Handed His Friend A Knife" https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/salvadorhernandez/a-man-was-stabbed-at-a-haunted-house-after-another-man "Taming the Fight or Flight Response" https://www.verywellmind.com/taming-the-fight-or-flight-response-378676 --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/everyoneneedsalittle/support

After almost 20 years of pursuing his dream in the kitchen, Chef John C. Smith opened his own restaurant, EJ'S Urban Eatery, in August of 2017 in Kansas City's historic West Bottoms. The restaurant is a modern version of the traditional Southern comfort food concept known as a Meat and Three. A Chicago native, Smith, was instantly exposed to one of America's greatest food cities, which led him to develop a love of all things food at an early age. He developed his appreciation and experience with southern cooking from his grandmothers, whom he visited every summer and during the holidays, in Mississippi. John chose to follow his passion for food professionally by enrolling at the Cooking & Hospitality Institute of Chicago in 1998. During that time, he worked at Chicago's celebrated Park Avenue Café, under award winning Chef David Burke. Soon after, John wanted exposure to new foods and cooking techniques so he moved to Paris to expand his knowledge and grow as a chef. There, he worked in several restaurants including the Michelin Three Star Restaurant, Taillevent. He returned to the United States after a year to work for Food & Wine Magazine's “Best New Chef,” Ted Cizma at Grace Restaurant, and at the famed Pump Room, under Chef Michael Gaspard, in Chicago. His career quickly took him throughout some of the country's top food cities from Chicago to New York to Des Moines and finally to KC. During his time in New York City, John had the opportunity work under award-winning Chef Tom Colicchio at Craft Restaurant. John fell in love with Craft because the restaurant focused on how to prepare and present a dish perfectly every time. Today, John continues to teach his cooks that “it doesn't matter if you have the finest ingredients if you do not have the right technique.” He also had the opportunity to work as the Sous Chef for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, helping to oversee all six restaurants within the museum. In 2005, he relocated to Des Moines, IA and worked at the award-winning Splash Seafood Restaurant. He later joined 810 Chop House, as Executive Sous Chef, which led to him opening the 801 Chophouse in downtown Kansas City, MO in 2008. In September 2012, John was asked to open The Jacobson as the Executive Chef in the growing Crossroads District in Kansas City, Mo. The restaurant's very public opening gained noteworthy attention surrounding his southern influenced American cuisine and generated national media coverage and substantial buzz from foodies. ​ Soon after, he rejoined the 801 Restaurant family as the Executive Chef of Pig and Finch Gastropub in Leawood, Kan. where he continued to use his talent of blending the influences of his childhood and mentors to create exceptional cuisine in a pub-like atmosphere. With his first chef-owned venture, Smith takes the lead on a national restaurant concept that brings Southern comfort food to the Midwest in the form of a modern styled Meat and Three. EJ's Urban Eatery is the first of its kind showcasing Smith's talents and giving customers the choice of several weekly seasonal features of a protein and three sides. The new restaurant, at 1414 West 9th Street, Kansas City, Mo. 64101, takes its place in a remodeled 100-year-old brick building in the old stockyard and warehouse district of Kansas City's West Bottoms – a section of KC experiencing immense growth and development. @EjsUrbanEatery #Eatlocal #KC #Meat+3 #SlackerMorningShow101theFox #TMobile

Commercial renewal driven partly by a new breed of center city-ish residents could remake Kansas City's West Bottoms area. Reporter Diane Stafford joined the latest episode of The Star's “Deep Background” podcast to discuss residential development trends. The podcast also looked at the lives of two men who changed the face of the Kansas City area, James B. Nutter Sr. and Neal Patterson. The podcast is free to download and comes ad-free. Consider subscribing and reviewing the show.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In episode No. 5 of the Femin • Is series, I sat down with founder and president of Rightfully Sewn, Jennifer Lapka Pfeifer, to talk about fashion, feminism, and creative entrepreneurship. Featured photo by Samantha Levi Photography We talked about the organization Lapka Pfeifer started that blends non profit social work, job-creating entrepreneurship, local history and fashion design. Yes, Rightfully Sewn really does all that. We talked through the puzzle pieces and with such an interesting and intersecting mix, I also wanted to dive into the inspiration and process behind starting such an endeavor. The two biggest parts of Rightfully Sewn is a seamtress training program for at-risk women and and supported residencies for local fashion designers. While the training program is being initiated this summer, the residency program is thoroughly underway and since this a project celebrating creative women, it seems fitting to share more about these designers here in the show notes:   Ami Beck, Dolyn Bagswww.dolynbags.comFacebook: Dolyn Bags, LLC Twitter: @DOLYNBAGS Instagram: @dolynbags Several resident designers were at a recent event hosted by Ami Beck (center) in her new studio in The Livestock Exchange Building in the West Bottoms. The Kerri Bag from Dolyn Bags. Photo by Andrea Larson Heidi Herrmanwww.heidiherrman.com Facebook: Heidi Herrman Design Twitter: @heidiherrman Instagram: @hherrman Heidi Herrman's KC Icon Collection - Model: Hannah Hadnot / Photographer: Steve Gibson / Accessories: Amina Marie Millinery / Hair: Keishaun Redmond / Makeup: Ruth White Whitney Manneywww.whitneymanney.com Facebook: Whitney Manney WM Twitter: @heywhithey Instagram: @whitneymanney Whitney Manney Collection Whitney Manney at Drugstore Studios in Midtown Kansas City   Kate Nickols, Katie Lee Bridalwww.katieleebridal.comFacebook: Katie Lee Bridal Twitter: @KatieLeeBridal Instagram: @katieleebridal Katie Lee Bridal offers complete customization for bridal wear. Photo by Bee Posh Portraits   Sarah Nelsenwww.sarah-nelsen.com Facebook: WearSarahNelsen Twitter: @SarahNelsen Instagram: @sarahnelsen

Meet Andy Rieger, Co-Founder of J. Rieger & Company, a distillery in the East Bottoms neighborhood of Kansas City, Missouri. Find out the secret of J Rieger’s quick success which launched less than two years ago in October of 2014. And hear all the details on a new partnership between J Rieger & Co. and Boulevard Brewing Company with the release of “Left For Dead”, a spirit distilled from Boulevard Beer. Left For Dead will be released for distribution on June 27th. Rieger Spirits are currently distributed both locally and in 10 states with new products coming on-line this month. The Rieger Distillery brand was originally founded in 1887 and was a pre-Prohibition, family-owned company based in Kansas City’s West Bottoms. Host Kelly Scanlon and Rieger will retrace some of the colorful history and discover the bright future ahead on this episode of Smart Companies-KC Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Producer/Engineer: Bill Pollock Editors: Sarah Rendo/Robert J. Baumann Cover: Rob Mitchell   Before Ernest Hemingway handed out cigarettes and candy to Italian troops in World War Uno, he worked as a cub reporter for The Kansas City Star. It didn’t matter if the story was about church farts or missing sewer lids – no street went unpaved by his narrative. Soon thereafter, Hemingway took a trip to the Kansas City stockyards. The dust of the West Bottoms swirled with a whirlwind fueled by a thousand cow farts as Hemingway approached the corrals. Although it was like standing in the furnace of a great booty bomb factory, Hemingway followed his internal journalistic compass deep into the bowels of the stockyard. Suddenly a gust of cow toots blew the cap off his grand noggin and sent it tumbling down a cattle shoot. Ernest hopped down from the corral and snatched his hat, hundreds of bulls racing closer and closer, their snorts and grunts ringing in his ears. Maddeningly close to his person, young Ernie began to scream, “Help me! Anybody! I want to be a famous writer! I’m going to reinvent the form!” Finally a one legged cattle hand named Elmer popped open a gate and the young writer leaped into the pen. Hemingway’s chest heaved up and down. Elmer spit tobacco juice on the ground and said, “Stick to scribbling, ya bozo. Best stay clear of the running of the bulls. If their farts won’t kill you, their hooves will.” No one knows if Hemingway’s near trampling would inspire him to greatness. However, it has been said that on a slow news day, if you go to the stockyards and rub your ear against the old wooden planks of the corral, you can hear the sound of Ernest Hemingway screaming and it smells like a stampede of ghost butts.

Amber Arnett-Bequeaith brings 20 plus years of leadership and marketing expertise to Full Moon ProductionsI Inc., serving as Vice-President since 2000.  Her duties at Full Moon include responsibility for daily operations, marketing, advertising, promotions, public relations, recruitment, community service activities, charity liaison, event and creative director and strategic planning.  Full Moon Productions is a family entertainment venue that originated the haunt industry in 1975, becoming a national model for celebrating Halloween.  Besides Full Moon Productions, Amber also helps oversee operations with Rumely Event Space, Group Real Estate Development, Inc., Authentic Boxing Club, West Bottoms Business District Association and West Bottoms Security, LLC. and she presently serves as a board member of the Central Industrial District Association, Spokesperson and Public Relations Co-Chair for America Haunts, Kansas City Downtown Planning Committee - Mayor Appointment, Committee Member of Boulvardia,  and Vice-President of The West Bottoms Business District Association. She also serves as an Advisor to "Don't be a Monster, Anti-Bullying Campaign.  This charity is partnered with the two newest haunted venues from Full Moon, which include “The Chamber’s of Edgar of Allen Poe” and “Macabre Cinema.” with the money staying in Kansas City. On this episode of Smart Companies Radio find out why The Edge of Hell is truly an Angel to Kansa Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Submerged under seven feet of floodwater in a small Kansas City cafe, this clock quietly documented the rising tide of one of the most destructive events in the history of the central plains.