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Event Video

To view a video recording of a previous Library special event, click the icon. The Library offers recordings only with the permission of the presenter.

  • The retired Special Agent tells the real stories behind the headlines of some of the highest profile FBI cases investigated in Kansas City.
    Jeff Lanza - Federal Cases: Inside the Kansas City FBI
    Thursday, January 12, 2012
    Plaza Branch

    A newborn baby is kidnapped from a Kansas City hospital. A New Year’s Eve bank robber takes hostages in a stand-off. A pharmacist dilutes the medication of 4,000 patients. Over the past 20 years, some of the highest profile FBI cases were investigated in Kansas City.

    Retired Special Agent Jeff Lanza, who served as the FBI’s Kansas City spokesman, tells the real stories behind the headlines and reveals how he learned to interact with local and national media. Lanza is author of the recently released Pistols to Press.

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  • Former VP of CIGNA Wendell Potter explains how insurance companies make promises they have no intention of keeping, flout regulations designed to protect consumers, and skew political debate with multibillion-dollar PR campaigns.
    Wendell Potter: Deadly Spin
    Wednesday, January 11, 2012
    Central Library

    Wendell Potter, a former VP of CIGNA, argues that health insurers make promises they have no intention of keeping, flout regulations designed to protect consumers, and skew political debate with multibillion-dollar PR campaigns to mislead the press and public.

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  • Library Director Crosby Kemper III interviews former Missouri Governor Bob Holden, exploring his political career and his views on civic leadership. Holden’s official portrait will be on display during the program, and artist Carla Malone Steck will offer remarks.
    Unveiling a Governor: A Conversation with Former Missouri Governor Bob Holden
    Thursday, January 5, 2012
    Central Library

    Library Director Crosby Kemper III conducts a public conversation with former Missouri Governor Bob Holden, exploring his career as a Missouri statesman and discussing his perspective on civic leadership and the public good.

    Holden’s official portrait, which was officially unveiled at the Missouri State Capitol on December 9, 2011, will be on display during the program. Portrait artist Carla Malone Steck will also make remarks on her approach to painting the portraits of both the Governor and the former First Lady, Lori Hauser Holden.

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  • United States Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer discusses the role of the courts in our democracy and advocates a pragmatic approach to the law that applies unchanging constitutional values to ever-changing circumstances.
    Stephen Breyer - Making Our Democracy Work: A Judge’s View
    Thursday, December 8, 2011
    Plaza Branch

    United States Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer discusses the role of the Court in American government and explains why he believes the justices should interpret the Constitution in a way that works in practice as well as in theory.

    Breyer rejects approaches that look exclusively at the Constitution’s text or the 18th century views of the framers and instead advocates a pragmatic approach that applies unchanging constitutional values to ever-changing circumstances.

    Co-sponsored by the Truman Library Institute.

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  • University of Kansas history professor Theodore Wilson commemorates the 70th anniversary of Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor with a discussion of the immediate and lasting effects the attack had on the nation and the Midwest.
    Theodore Wilson: Pearl Harbor and the Heartland, Seventy Years On
    Sunday, December 4, 2011
    Central Library

    The images of the military destruction suffered on December 7, 1941, and the words that followed by President Franklin Roosevelt have been seared into the American collective consciousness, but what was the immediate impact on Midwesterners living thousands of miles away?

    University of Kansas history professor Theodore Wilson commemorates the 70th anniversary of Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor with a discussion of the immediate and lasting effects the attack had on the nation and the Midwest.

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  • To close out Global Entrepreneurship Week, Clara Reyes discusses how her newspaper, Dos Mundos, has grown to become an innovative, beneficial source of information and education for the Hispanic community.
    A Conversation with Clara Reyes
    Friday, November 18, 2011
    Central Library

    Global Entrepreneurship Week closes as Library Director Crosby Kemper III conducts a public conversation with Clara Reyes, founder of the Kansas City bilingual newspaper, Dos Mundos.

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  • Ollie Gates discusses how his family restaurant, Gates Bar-B-Q, has served as a tasty calling card for Kansas City on the national food scene since its inception in 1946.
    A Conversation with Ollie Gates
    Wednesday, November 16, 2011
    Central Library

    For more than 60 years, the name Ollie Gates has been synonymous with Kansas City-style barbeque, sauces, and their trademark greeting, “Hi! May I help you?” Reception courtesy of Gates Bar-B-Q.

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  • Swedish author Steve Sem-Sandberg discusses his award-winning novel The Emperor of Lies – a work of historical fiction set in the Lódz ghetto and centered on its controversial leader Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski.
    Steve Sem-Sandberg - Emperor of Lies: A Novel
    Tuesday, November 15, 2011
    Central Library

    In February 1940, the Nazis established what would become the second largest Jewish ghetto in Poland. The ghetto’s chosen leader, Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski, realized that his survival rested on his ability to make the ghetto indispensable and set out to transform it into a productive industrial complex, forcing adults and children to work punishing hours to provide supplies for the German military.

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  • To kick off Global Entrepreneurship Week, Kansas City’s “bean baron” Danny O’Neill discusses the founding and continued success of The Roasterie, which started in the basement of his Brookside home.
    A Conversation with Danny O'Neill
    Tuesday, November 15, 2011
    Plaza Branch

    Kansas City’s self-described “bean baron” Danny O’Neill discusses the founding and continued success of The Roasterie, which he started in the basement of his Brookside home in 1993. Continental breakfast courtesy of The Roasterie.

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  • Pulitzer Prize-winning book critic Michael Dirda presents an insider’s account of The Baker Street Irregulars – an association of Holmes fanatics who delight in playful scholarship relating to the most famous detective of all time.
    Michael Dirda - On Conan Doyle: or, The Whole Art of Storytelling
    Monday, November 14, 2011
    Central Library

    A lifelong fan of the Sherlock Holmes adventures, Pulitzer Prize-winning book critic Michael Dirdaa presents an insider’s account of The Baker Street Irregulars – a worldwide association of Holmes fanatics who delight in curious and playful scholarship relating to the most famous detective of all time.

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