INSPIRE 314: Season in Review

♪ It's our favorite time of the year.

I'm thrilled to have our Inspire hosts together to reminisce about the wonderful topics and fabulous guests we featured throughout season three.

Our annual season and review show is coming up.

Stay right there.

♪ Inspire is sponsored by Kansas Furniture Mart.

Using furniture to inspire conversation and by the Blanche Bryden Foundation, the Friends of KTWU honored to support programs and services that enrich the lives of our viewers.

And the Raymond C and Marguerite Gibson Foundation.

♪ Hello, Welcome to Inspire.

It's a very special one.

We're honored to be here with our passionate and beautiful all women team of Inspire hosts to revisit and remember.

Inspire Season three.

We are missing one of our co-host, though, Amber.

We wish she could be here with us.

But as we all know, we're very busy women.

It's hard to get all of us together, so we have a lot to cover.

Let's get the party started.

And of course, that has to start with Danielle.

Well, hey, hey, we're going to talk about the most impactful shows.

And I think that I will start out.

Yes, let's do talking about infant mortality.

Just some of the information that was gained on that show and the information that was also shared about food deserts and some of the things that I think that 95% of infant mortalities could actually be prevented.

That was terrifying.

That really just really just terrifying.

Terrible.

That's one of the things that really just made me think about what is it that we could do to be proactive in trying to stop that from being a phenomenon, especially with people of color and African-Americans in our community, that inexcusable.

It's definitely inexcusable.

What about you?

Well, we've actually had quite a lot of shows this season.

It if you've been paying any attention and I have noticed a theme through the show.

So I started picking an impactful show and picking an impactful theme.

We talked about food deserts that was really interesting.

We talked about caring for animals and the importance of caring for animals.

We talked about agritourism.

That was a really fun episode.

We talked about the impact of race on breast cancer, the impact of race on infant mortality, housing in Kansas was another issue we talked about and actually the Underground Railroad.

And if you think about it and you probably have it, there is a running theme through all of those, the importance of food and good nutrition.

And every single one of those topics that we talked about, the critical need for access to food and nutritional food in our bodies.

Our machines are very complicated machines, and they're not going to run on, you know, French fries and, you know, you need to have food and fuel that your body can use.

The food insecurity was our first episode and they laid it out beautifully.

We have some wonderful guests.

They laid it out beautifully.

The importance of nutrition for the impact of race on breast cancer and infant mortality.

That was news that was news.

And that was like that was fascinating.

And yeah, so that that was just and housing, you know, do you do I pay rent or do I buy food that we should nobody should be in that position, not in this country.

I actually going back to the infant mortality show, one of the things that I thought was a really good point that Tara brought up was, you know, we keep doing these studies and telling everybody that, oh, it's a problem, it's a problem, it's a problem, but we don't do anything about it.

So instead of putting the money into more studies, put money into finding solutions and providing solutions for these women, absolutely.

So but I would have to say my favorite show was food security to a point.

Yes, it did set the tone for the for the season.

But I was shocked to find out that they had been around for 35 years, like since 19 -oh, Project Topeka.

I mean, how sad is that that this is going on, you know, forever?

I think someone said, you know, I think you said in the show we're in the 21st century.

This is still an issue that we can't feed our folks.

And, you know, it hurts my heart when I think about, you know, these children who are going home on the weekends and don't have food and the tests that they ran to try to make sure that, you know, students didn't feel discriminated against by getting food and they felt bad because, you know, Johnny didn't get the food.

But, you know, Clarissa did not look on the positive side of that, too.

Of course, that's positive, of course, feeding our children.

But they had the children.

Yeah.

Actually give the sacks to the other children and they had a 100% participation started that program at Randolph.

And then I mean, there were items and if those that child didn't want it, they still took it home and they gave it to somebody else in the family or somewhere else.

So I just thought that was magnificent.

And then on the insecurity, that same show we had, Mrs. Ahrens I love that.

And the Food Oasis.

And then, you know, just learning about how much they had done because the former Dillons store over there in central Topeka is now a health care facility.

But so where were they going to go?

If they want to get food, they have to take the kids along.

They have to haul it on the bus.

You know, what can we do about it?

And they're doing something.

And she had statistics to back it up.

Oh, man.

Did she have statistics or stuff?

She knew the demographics.

She knew, you know, who is in what town.

And she was amazing.

I was so impressed with her.

And you know, it also said to me, you know, you don't have to be 30 or 40 to do this.

I mean, she's someone who has the time and is taking the time to make a difference in her community.

Right.

So I love that.

I did, too.

So, BettyLou, what is your favorite episode?

Well, you know, I'm going to get right in there topic.

Okay.

Now I'm going to have to talk about the animals because that's like my total favorite.

And we had two wonderful guests with that.

Of course, we had Brenda Grimmett, you know, B and C Equine Rescue and also the Helping Hands Humane Society.

And I loved Margaret Price.

I love Margaret Price.

I have for 28 years now.

And that's how long she's been there.

I think I've loved it longer than that.

But anyway you know but but most of the caretakers at all of the facilities that we spoke about, the zoo, the humane shelter, you know, the equine rescue these are all cared for by women.

Women are the people who run them, organize, get the food, carry out the tasks, make sure everything's okay.

And I just say, you know, hurrah to them.

Absolutely.

And seeing that horse, though, Oh, yeah, I know, I know, I know.

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

And I just felt like, oh, my gosh, you know, I couldn't believe that that company Thrive, could not, you know, make a donation to the B and C Equine to get her so that she doesn't I mean, they're they're using their own personal money to bring these horses back to life.

I mean, so, you know, that's something that really, you know, irritated me and I really would love to do something to try to get them to see the light.

But of course, TLC was also featured.

Yes.

Yes.

And let's say the name of that completely.

Sure.

Tender Loving Care Pet Nursing Hotel.

Right.

And enrichment and what we're doing for dogs that are anxious and, you know, just have a hard time being with other people sometimes and other dogs and how important that is.

And of course, we're run by women, too.

Let's call it a plug.

But I think, you know, the other show that I saw that was really amazing was the Underground Railroad.

Right.

And, you know, the fact that we covered that and in this day and age, where talking about African-American history in some states is being stripped out of the educational systems is incredibly crazy.

So if we can kind of help, you know, push out that information so that people understand what slavery was about and how people wanted to get away from that, I think that's what we should be doing.

So I thought that was amazing.

Well, it's just so hard to talk about all of these shows because they are all incredibly impactful.

But how about some of our guests?

All of our Inspire guests have been provided great wisdom and have provided great inspiration to all of us.

Betty.

Lou, how about you?

What guest had the most influence on you?

Okay.

Well, I have to say, Margaret, I love Margaret just because you know that positive attitude and you have to maintain a positive attitude when you see so many animals coming in time after time with various needs.

And some of them sit there for, you know, up to a year, people pass by their kennels, they don't help them, you know, they don't adopt.

But Margaret goes on and makes sure that their behavior is right.

And, you know, we have the two veterinarians there that make sure they're healthy.

Exactly.

That.

And Marge, like we were talking somebody who has taken her personal time, you know, to make sure that somebody else is taken care of, you know, which is so impactful.

And then, you know, even the fun stuff, you know, Marci Penner and Wendee, you know, of course, every about Kansas and those ladies have traveled the entire state.

They have found the most fun things, the, you know, the little minuscule things that we're just drive past all the time.

And, you know, who better two spokespeople to talk about the state of Kansas?

And I mean, to me, that was exciting and fun.

Yes, absolutely.

So I'm going to echo Marci.

Oh, good.

I mean, they make me want to go on a road trip.

Yes.

And we're kind of talking about that for next season.

I might have some glamping.

Yeah.

In the tree.

Remember, they have a cabin.

I would totally do that.

Yes.

Okay.

I'm beyond the ground, but I can actually see you do an episode of Glamping.

Yeah, I guess it could actually be cool.

Also.

Dr. Sharon Sullivan.

Yeah, she has educated me so much because you hear so many terms when it comes to gender, right?

And I mean, every day is something new and most people are like, okay, I'm I can't keep exactly.

I keep keep up.

And then sometimes you're so overwhelmed.

It's like, okay, I just give up.

But everyone's an it.

It's just because she breaks it down, she does.

You're like, Okay, I get this now, okay?

I get it.

At least for the moment.

I get what it is that we're trying to say.

So the way that she broke it down on the show and was just able to help everybody be that much more understanding, it was just beautiful, and educated.

And that's what you're trying to do.

Yes, because we're trying to have people have conversation.

Right.

And to get everybody on the same page, which is what it's all about now.

So I just appreciate her so much.

Yeah, well, of course.

Love Dr. Sharon, she's wonderful.

And I also really like Colby Sharpel-Terry.

She's really fun.

She's like super stylish, like I call and she's with Kansas tourism and she's talked all about different places, you know, talked about the staycation and agro tourism.

She was on both of those shows and speaking about the things that we can do in Kansas.

And it's just it was really interesting.

But I also have to kind of give a little shout out and I hope I say her name right, Rachel McNamee, because she was at the zoo, because she takes care of the elephants.

And I love elephants.

And I was just so enamored watching her care for the elephant.

So I'll shout out to Rachel.

How about you Leslie?

Um, lots.

I think.

You know, I think Tara Wallace was great talking to us about infant mortality, which I think is, you know, so horrendous.

So I, you know, I really appreciated her knowledge and skill on that.

And then the tome of information that she sent us was amazing.

And then I really loved Chris Craven, who was the meteorologist.

Yeah, I love the Women in Science episode.

I mean, I thought that, you know, that really was so inspiring because we don't, you know, women are not always in math and science, right?

You know, And so here we had a, you know, a professor who was doing something with physics, and then we had the meteorologist and she was killing me because she was saying, I'm afraid of thunder.

So I'm not doing storm chasing.

Don't you know, don't count on me to do that.

She's got a little thunder jacket she wears, the gentleman who came on for the Food Insecurity Project.

-Project Topeka, Dan McPherron.

I mean, I thought he was fantastic and giving a lot of really great information and really hoping that this grocery oasis comes to the fore.

Yes, right.

Let's make that happen.

And our breast cancer survivor, Linessa.

Oh, yes.

That just made you cry.

That was just.

Yeah.

Boy, all the things that she went through, you know, to be able to survive, you know, when she just moved here, she didn't know anybody.

Her family came and came around her and helped her.

And she's just thriving now and doing such a great job.

And whenever I see her in another one of her fabulous outfits and she is fabulous and she's fabulous.

Wow, what a powerhouse group of guests we featured on Inspire for season three.

Let's move on to some lighthearted moments.

And all of us know we've had a few of those in a particular day spent with wine and a pumpkin patch.

Oh, yeah, that was fun.

That was fun.

That was a hoot.

And you guys,everybody got in.

I'm sorry, Danielle.

I wish you Dog-gone-it, but we fed goats.

I fed goats.

We went, we crawled through hay bales.

We went through that haunted house kind of thing, you know?

Oh, that twisty.

You had to go.

Yeah, but the food they gave us, I like those fresh, right out of there.

The donuts were delicious.

And then what was that cider?

That apple cider.

Oh, yeah.

Delish.

Yeah, totally fabulously fresh and fabulous.

So we had donuts, we had drink.

What else did we have?

Did we have funnel cake?

Oh, yes, we had funnel cakes.

My absolute favorite.

You know.

What I did was I said, No, no, no, no, no.

It's not ready yet.

Keep it in there because I like it crunchy and put on powdered sugar - special order funnel cake.

Yeah.

This goes way back to my Italian girlfriend, Susan, whose grandmother would make us these funnel cakes and she would do them well done.

And that's the way to do it.

You know, I'm not into that doughy stuff like make it well done.

Put on the powdered sugar.

Yum.

Extra grease.

-Extra grease.

It was good.

And I got to get on that horsey thing.

I haven't been on that since I was probably 25, you know, on one of those things.

And I remember that is so painful afterward.

I don't know how Kevin Costner does it.

My gosh, And walking through the corn maze that well, that was really cool.

That was really fun.

I got to maybe go earlier in the season next year because then the corn is higher because I've been lost in that thing before.

And they had to send the corn police.

So that was one of the cool thing about places like Gary's Berries.

They're all over the state.

You know, we went to one that was local here, but they're all over the state.

They have those contests.

What agritourism is when you're being educated about various agricultural aspects and this was a staycation kind of a thing, you could go and play locally.

It was wonderful.

Now, where we didn't get to go but was part of agritourism was Amy's meat, Amy's, which we are going to do to celebrate your birthday there.

Yeah.

Yeah.

May 5th, in case anybody wants to know.

That's right.

We going good food at Amy's Meats.

We're going to do it.

We're going to do the pizza.

Yeah.

And if it's cold, we have blankets.

Yeah, right.

And we're going to have a blast.

So I loved the fact I kept thinking to myself, Doesn't she have a husband?

She does this, She does that.

She does it all.

She don't need a man.

So.

Yeah.

Yeah, she can handle herself.

I'm just saying, I think about it.

Everything on that pizza is something that she's touched.

Like the cattle, right?

You know, the hog, right?

The Canadian bacon,which is going to be on mine.

Hello.

And she's even doing the mozzarella and the wheat and the wheat for the, for the dough.

For the bread.

Yeah, right.

All the way down.

Everything.

Everything.

Yes.

Really.

Yeah.

It's going to be great.

That was.

And there are so many great farmers and ranchers around, you know, that.

I mean, they're the ones that feed us back to the food thing, you know?

So we have got to support our local farmers, everything we do.

And that is so important.

And I love that the idea of the theme, because when you when you realize just how important that is, your your nutrition.

And back to the gentleman with Project Topeka he was talking about, you know, kids going to school trying to concentrate, adults going to work, trying to concentrate, trying to get something done without that nawing feeling and again, concentrate the stigma of, okay, well, I got at lunch and, you know, now I'm embarrassed because somebody knows that my family's not well off.

Exactly.

We can't be having those type of things.

And I think we are making progress.

But it's it's programs like this.

And thank you guys for watching because, you know, we hope that the things that you learn here, things that we learn on here that we can then take and get it out in the community and you've got to be part of the change and be part of moving forward and positive.

And didn't you go out also with the Food project and go out and help fill fill the sacks, fill the bags?

I mean, they do like a thousand of them, you know, which is crazy.

In like 2 hours.

Yeah, they just this massive volunteerism.

So I think that's something that we should do again next year.

I think we should go as hosts and really bring this out to the community.

And I love that in those different segments, we had, you know, Facebook and Twitter so that people could actually go on and find these organizations, right while they were watching or after they watched so that they could get involved.

And I and I hope people are getting involved.

I hope to your point, Betty Lou, that the things that we show and we talk about not only, you know, make you smarter, as some people say, but also get you to get involved in our community, which is so wonderful.

So.

Right.

Because where would we be without the volunteers?

Like all those people that fill'n those sacks are volunteer and there's companies around town, too, that they they they wish they hoped and some require their their employees to get out in the community and be involved.

And part everybody's part of this community and give paid time.

But yeah, I actually get paid hours to go out and volunteer.

Right.

And that's wonderful.

The bosses know that.

Hey, our employees need to be out doing stuff as well, Right?

Right.

And you do learn so much.

And the people, the guests that we have, you guys, they're they're these are they're doctor scientists, people who, you know, get paid a lot of money, you know, to do their full time job.

But yet they come here and they're on this show to impart their knowledge and to, you know, get us all off of our keesters and up doing something.

I mean, think about, you know, the Helping Hands, Humane Society.

I mean, all of the volunteers that it takes to run that facility is so key in keeping the pets happy and making sure they get out and get some exercise to get some sun, socialize, to socialize and that's because Civic Theater said the same thing at the theater.

That's exactly the word volunteer.

Yeah, that's right.

Society function on volunteer and that's a fun thing to do because you can learn lighting, you can learn set design, you know, acting as well.

But maybe you maybe you're not a gifted actor, you know, but you want to do something right.

You feel like you're part of it.

Yeah.

And you are a part of it.

Yeah.

It's a whole thing.

Yeah.

Because one can't happen without the other.

Yeah, absolutely.

Perfect.

Well, you could tell we've had some great times and some great memories, and it's been a pleasure to share such fabulous things with this group of ladies.

I'm telling you, sisterhood from day one to right now.

Yes, It has grown so much, and I can't believe how fast the time has flown.

And we're already on our last topic, the favorite show category.

And we each have about a minute and a half to talk about our favorite show.

Mine's not even going to take that long because obviously we're going to Amy's Meats.

We're just talking about Agrotourism.

That was the second half of that show.

So I'm excited that not only are we going there, but we hope that other people will have an opportunity to check it out, too, because is it on the first and third or second of Friday that you could actually go out there, just put $5 down and she's going to prepare an awesome pizza meal for you on a Friday.

So that's just my favorite episode.

It's going to be out in the country.

Yeah, I mean, we all need to be out in nature.

We have learned from our guests how important it is not only to communicate with your friends and family, to keep those loved ones close for your mental capacity, but to be out in nature, which is what where she is and what we're going to get to see and partake of.

And, you know, everything on that pizza.

Everything is nice and fresh.

Yeah.

So.

Yeah.

Okay.

So mine's a little more serious.

Is the Underground Railroad.

That was really fascinating to me.

And KTWU, did an outreach program and learning about it because, you know, you heard about that as a kid.

So Underground Railroad, I really thought there was an underground railroad, and it's not.

But I loved then learning about how they called them the station masters and the conductors and all that kind of stuff, you know, real, real train time terminology.

But these were people who guided and then to learn about Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass.

And then we had specials that we we ran here on KTWU but also movie about, you know, Harriet Tubman.

And I just think that's so important for everybody to realize that these were individuals and how much they did, how much they sacrificed, how much their family sacrificed.

This is history that needs to be told passed down.

Appreciated.

I love the Underground Railroad.

Great.

Yeah, I, I think one of the ones that we haven't mentioned is the impact of breast cancer.

And I think that was a really good show.

I mean, I think, you know, we learned so much about what we didn't know that could really impact the lives and their relationship was, Yeah, yeah.

Who knew?

Wow.

I mean, it was crazy.

You had long, wild, crazy.

Oh, yeah, I did.

And you relaxed it all the time.

My, my, my mother's thing was this, you know, I was born with no hair, and my mother thought I would never have hair, so.

So, yeah.

So I cut it all off.

She was not happy.

But Danielle, what was your favorite show?

The whole agritourism.

Yeah, just so many places in Kansas talking about wineries and distilleries and and places In terms of food place, Kansas has some of the best food products.

Oh, my God.

I mean, and we could look here in Topeka and talk about cheese and meats and vegetables is wonderful.

So, I mean, we could eat for days, right?

Right.

And the food thing.

Okay.

So I've looked at all these and I'm impressed by many and loved many of them and will probably watch several of them again.

But I have to I have to go to where my heart is.

And that's women in music.

Yeah, I know.

That is, you, Music was part of my life.

Maria the Mexican!

And they're outreach to kids and Maria was so fun to talk to.

She she was just so interesting and, you know, elegant and just really, and her heritage.

Yeah.

And heritage with a mariachi and adding a little funk and pop to and rock to them.

How are you going to do that?

Oh, Oh, she's on her on her third album.

Yeah.

Star struck.

I just love the fact that that music and so we talked about that music isn't something that you have to do on an international stage.

It can be done all the time, anywhere very locally, and that's true.

Music has that kind of outreach to all of us.

You know, I have to say that I think Season three was really our best so far.

Yes, it was inspirational.

It was educational, and it was really women focused still, you know, I mean, so some of these things you could say, oh, but, you know, we're about women for women.

But all of these topics really were and I think that the way that we weaves them all into what we do every week on Inspire was just incredible.

There was a lot of meat.

There was a lot of meat to these topics.

Yeah.

Shout out to our producers.

That's right.

That's right.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That does everything.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Absolutely.

Yes, yes, yes.

So that's a wrap.

We thank you so much for traveling down memory lane with us on our journey through season three.

We'll be back soon enough, though, with more in-depth discussion on issues impacting women, our community, our state and our nation.

Inspiring women, inspiring passion, kindness, wisdom and support and inspiring you right here on KTWU.

Thank you all for watching.

And we'll be back for more Inspire.

Inspire is sponsored by Kansas Furniture Mart, using Furniture to inspire conversation.

and by the Blanche Bryden Foundation.

The Friends of KTWU honored to support programs and services that enrich the lives of our viewers and the Raymond C and Marguerite Gibson Foundation.