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Event Audio

To listen to an audio recording of a previous Library special event, click the icon. The audio file will launch the media player on your computer.

The most recent recording displays at the top. The Library offers recordings only with the permission of the presenter. Please allow 7-10 days for the recording to be posted.

  • Kansas City Star political cartoonist Lee Judge discusses his new book The Stuff They Wouldn’t Print, a collection of cartoons that have been rejected during his 34-year career.
    Lee Judge: The Stuff They Wouldn’t Print
    Thursday, December 9, 2010
    Plaza Branch

    Political cartoonist Lee Judge discusses his new book The Stuff They Wouldn’t Print, a collection of cartoons that have been rejected during his 34-year career. The book includes his take on Tiger Woods’ troubles, Ronald Reagan’s colon surgery, and an imagined talk between Hillary Clinton and Lorena Bobbit.

    Judge’s cartoons have appeared in hundreds of newspapers and magazines, including: The Kansas City Star, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and National Review.

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  • Judge Howard Sachs, David Achtenberg, and Mamie Hughes join Library Director Cro
    Desegregating the Bar: 55 Years On
    Wednesday, December 8, 2010
    Central Library

    Following a contentious meeting in December 1955, the Kansas City Bar Association voted to admit both African Americans and women as members. This decision made the organization open to all lawyers regardless of gender or race. 

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  • Father and son Henry and Tom Bloch discuss the founding of Kansas City-based H&R Block, as well as Tom’s new book that chronicles the growth of the “Nation’s Largest Income Tax Service.”
    Henry and Tom Bloch - Many Happy Returns
    Tuesday, November 9, 2010
    Central Library

    Father and son Henry and Tom Bloch discuss the founding of H&R Block and explain how the company transitioned from a Kansas City-based bookkeeping business to the “Nation’s Largest Income Tax Service” on Tuesday, November 9, 2010, at 6:30 p.m. at the Central Library, 14 W. 10th St.

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  • Henry Adams, great-great-great-great-grandson of John and Abigail Adams, presents a sweeping saga about America’s first and most famous family dynasty.
    Henry Adams: The Real Adams Family
    Thursday, October 28, 2010
    Central Library

    Henry Adams, the great-great-great-great-grandson of founding father John Adams, presents a sweeping saga about America’s first and most famous family dynasty.

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  • The acclaimed biographer, Ron Chernow, delves into the formative events of America – and its first leader.
    Ron Chernow - Washington: A Life
    Wednesday, October 27, 2010
    Plaza Branch

    Acclaimed biographer Ron Chernow provides a richly nuanced portrait of the first president of the United States in Washington: A Life.

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  • Pulitzer Prize-winner Garry Trudeau makes a special public appearance to celebrate the release of 40: A Doonesbury Retrospective, a lavish book commemorating four decades of expert commentary on the social and political landscape.
    Garry Trudeau - 40: A Doonesbury Retrospective
    Monday, October 25, 2010
    Plaza Branch

    Pulitzer Prize-winner Garry Trudeau makes a special public appearance to celebrate the release of 40: A Doonesbury Retrospective, a lavish book commemorating four decades of expert commentary on the social and political landscape, on Monday, October 25, at 6:30 p.m. at the Plaza Branch, 4801 Main St.

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  • Acclaimed historian Bryan Le Beau highlights decisions made by certain individuals that helped turn what might have been a minor event into a crisis that has held the imagination of generations
    Bryan Le Beau: The Story of the Salem Witch Trials
    Thursday, October 21, 2010
    Central Library

    From June - September 1692, 19 people were hanged for practicing witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts. Just in time for Halloween, historian Bryan Le Beau offers a much-needed synthesis of the most recent scholarship on the Salem Witch Trials, placing them into the context of the Great European Witch-Hunt, and relating the events of 1692 to witch-hunting throughout 17th century New England.

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  • This fourth event in a series called The Great Debates Revisited features a screening of the fourth presidential debate between Kennedy and Nixon, with introductory commentary and a post-screening Q&A session led by Rick Perlstein.
    The Great Debates Revisited: Rick Perlstein
    Monday, October 18, 2010
    Plaza Branch

    American life changed forever in 1960 when Vice President Richard M. Nixon and Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kennedy ushered politics into the multimedia age with the first televised presidential debates.

    The Great Debates Revisited
      • Special Events
      • Book Discussions
      • Film Series
      • Sponsor Infomation

    This fourth event in a series called The Great Debates Revisited features a screening of the fourth presidential debate between Kennedy and Nixon, with introductory commentary and a post-screening Q&A session led by Rick Perlstein.

    Read more
  • Professor Bill Stancil presents an illustrated lecture on the history of Rockhurst University.
    Rockhurst University: The First 100 Years
    Sunday, October 17, 2010
    Central Library

    Bill Stancil presents Rockhurst University: The First 100 Years, a lecture supplemented with numerous historical photos, on Sunday, October 17, at 2 p.m. at the Central Library, 14 W. 10th St.

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  • Longtime Kansas City Star reporter and editor, Monroe Dodd, recounts the highlights and lowlights of a century and a half of bad deeds in a town long ago known as a hotbed for criminals.
    Monroe Dodd: Kansas City Crime Central
    Thursday, October 14, 2010
    Central Library

    From bandits to gangsters, from kidnappers to gunslinging evangelists, Kansas City has proved to be a hotbed for criminals. In Kansas City Crime Central, longtime Kansas City Star reporter and editor Monroe Dodd recounts the highlights and lowlights of a century and a half of bad deeds.

    His new book not only covers the area’s most notorious crimes, but also details the gangland shooting of Ferris Anthon in the 1930s and a 1890s hanging for which the sheriff sent out printed invitations.

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