Local Productions .

This week, we begin a four part series that examines various aspects of suicide. We get a tutorial on the new Zipcar program at UMKC. Guest host Barbra Porter talks to Liz Smith and Lynette Fowler about the MId-America Head Start program. And viewers help KCPT celebrate 50 years in Kansas City.

Mental Health Awareness: Suicide

Starting this week on The Local Show, we begin a four-part series that tracks the issues surrounding suicide awareness and depression, the impact on survivors and the importance of early intervention.

Zip, Zip and Away: UMKC’s Zipcar Program

Nick Haines talks to Bob Simmons, UMKC’s Associate Vice Chancellor of Administration, who is heading up the Zipcar program on the UMKC campus.

Building Futures: Mid-America Head Start

Barbra Porter sits down with the directors of the Mid-America Head Start program to discuss the various resources available to help low-income families.

Fifty Years of KCPT: What Does KCPT Mean to You? Part Three

To mark KCPT’s 50th birthday, we’ve asked 50 viewers to tell us what KCPT means to them. We leave you this week with more of YOUR creative messages.

This week on The Local Show, we check in on the progress made in each of the five initiatives that are part of the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce’s Big 5.

This week on The Local Show, we go behind the scenes of Homecoming: The Kansas City Symphony Presents Joyce DiDonato featuring KC’s own soprano diva recorded live in March at the Kauffman Center for Performing Arts. The special airs nationally July 20th as part of the PBS Arts Summer Festival series. Randy Mason speaks with KC Symphony Maestro Michael Stern and DiDonato about the making of this very special program.

Also this week, Kansas City Fringe Festival Executive Director Cheryl Kimmi sits down with Nick Haines to discuss how the “Fringe Fest” has become KC’s premiere arts festival, featuring emerging and established artists performing a variety of creative pursuits.

This week, we find out about the “biggest” star in the 2012 Olympics…the stadium which was built by Populous, an sports architecture firm headquartered in Kansas City. Nick Haines sits down with the man who went from playing in stadiums to designing them…Scott Radecic, Senior Principal at Populous Sports Architecture and former NFL linebacker. We share a sneak peek at the new three-part PBS program Homeland: Immigration in America, a co-production between KCPT and Nine Network of Public Media in St. Louis, which focuses on issues surrounding immigration in the heartland. And we continue our performARTS series with a profile of the Kansas City Actors Theatre.

This week on The Local Show, Nick Haines sits down with Peter deSilva to get a progress report on the Chamber’s Big 5 initiative “Making Kansas City America’s Most Entrepreneurial City” and to preview the upcoming One Week KC events. We launch a series of profiles of Kansas City women called Women and Girls Lead. Our first profile is of Olathe’s Monica Steiner who is battling Stage 4 breast cancer as well as fighting to save lives through her fundraising efforts. We share a segment produced by the Local Investment Commission (LINC) about Mayor Sly Jame’s Turn the Page KC project. And we go inside Wonderscope Children’s Museum of Kansas City to see how they are making a difference in children’s lives.

Watch The Local Show in its entirety:

This week on The Local Show, Randy Mason gets a personal tour of the incredible art collection of John “Topper” Johntz. In advance of next week’s airing of 180 Days: A Year Inside An American High School, Nick Haines sits down with Steve Green to get his reaction to the documentary and finds out how he plans to address some of the same problems in the KCMO School District. As part of our Difference Maker series, we go inside Southwest Boulevard Family Health Care where Dr. Sharon Lee has been providing medical services to the area’s poor and uninsured for more than 20 years. Finally this week, we leave you with a sneak peek at next week’s innovation and entrepreneurship conference, BigKC.

This Thursday at 7 p.m., The Local Show presents a special episode on local trends and issues surrounding the important topic of eating disorders, which affects millions of Americans – women and men. We will also screen excerpts from two public television documentaries on the subject, which will be airing on KCPT immediately following The Local Show and RUCKUS, including Erasing ED(Eating Disorders) at 8:00 pm and Girl Model at 8:30 pm.