KPR 105 Live from the Dole Institute ft. Kelley Hunt and Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg + The Mad Greek
2026-06-11 11:30 - 15:00 (America/Chicago) | The Dole Institute of Politics, 2350 Petefish Drive, Lawrence, KS, 66045, United States
Join KPR 105 Live for a special performance featuring singer-songwriter Kelley Hunt and former Kansas Poet Laureate Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg at the Dole Institute of Politics. Before their performance, enjoy food and refreshments from The Mad Greek, and family activities starting at 11:30 a.m. Free concert begins at 1 p.m.

Kelley Hunt’s love for her craft was ignited listening to early blues, R&B, roots rock, jazz and Gospel influences — artists like Ruth Brown, Mahalia Jackson, Billie Holiday, Ann Peebles, Ray Charles, Dinah Washington, Aretha Franklin, Charles Brown, Wanda Jackson and a crossection of the New Orleans/St. Louis/KC piano traditions of Professor Longhair, Toots Washington, Johnnie Johnson and Kansas City masters Jay McShann and Mary Lou Williams among others. Before that came the sound of her mother singing jazz and blues – her first musical memories – and the influence of her New Orleans Gospel singer grandmother. You can hear all of the above in her music and see it in a career built on fierce independence, incredible will, unassailable cred and hard-won accomplishment. The narrative includes 1800+ performances with appearances on a long list of premier North American and International roots, blues and pan-genre festival stages, six times on American Public Media’s ‘A Prairie Home Companion’, seven critically acclaimed studio albums and two singles and 150,000+ indie units sold and downloaded on her own label.
Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg is the 2009-13 Kansas Poet Laureate, a writer, teacher, and facilitator, and coach and consultant who explores how the spoken, written and sung word can help us live more vibrant lives. Caryn received her Ph.D. from the University of Kansas and has trained in organizational development, grassroots organizing, poetry therapy, and teaching yoga. She taught for 33 years on the college level, at Goddard College, Haskell Indian Nations University, and the University of Kansas. She is the recipient of Kansas Arts Fellowship in Poetry, the Rocky Mountain National Park artist-in-residency, and other honors.
The Mad Greek has been a Lawrence institution since its founding in 1988. The restaurant was founded by George and Peggy Kritos, whose commitment to quality Greek and Italian cuisine brought over two decades of success and economy to Massachusetts Street. In 2014, in their much deserved retirement, George and Peggy passed along the legacy of The Mad Greek to their long-time family friends Theo and Deb Tagtalianidis. As the new owners, Deb and Theo promise the same passion and consistency as the Kritos family, while adding a Tagtalianidis flare. View The Mad Greek’s menu →
Food vendor menus are subject to change on the day of the event.

KPR 105 Live from the Dole Institute ft. Maria The Mexican + JB Tacos
2026-06-18 11:30 - 15:00
Join KPR 105 Live for a special performance featuring Mexican folklore and Rock N’ Roll artist Maria the Mexican at the Dole Institute of Politics. Before their performance, enjoy food and refreshments from JB Tacos, and family activities starting at 11:30 a.m. Free concert begins at 1 p.m.

Maria The Mexican is a mezcla of Mexican folklore and Rock n’ Roll. For ten years, Maria Elena Cuevas and her sister, Teresa, performed with Mariachi Estrella founded by their grandmother Teresa Cuevas in 1970. As one of the first all female mariachi bands in the country, Maria Teresa Alonzo Cuevas is a pioneer in the Hispanic musical community. In 2012, Maria and Teresa connected with long time Alt-R&B musician, Garrett Nordstrom to form the fusion of Maria The Mexican. MTM is mixed with a touch of blues, soul, funk, and rock n’ roll enhanced by the musical knowledge and sounds of Nordstrom. With a southwestern flair and melancholy motifs, Maria The Mexican rocks it out in Spanish and English with a host of emotion.
View JB Tacos menu →

KPR 105 Live from the Dole Institute ft. Switchgrass String Quartet + JBs Tacos
2026-06-25 11:30 - 15:00
Join KPR 105 Live for a special performance featuring Dr. Susan Mayo and the Switchgrass String Quartet at the Dole Institute of Politics. Before their performance, enjoy food and refreshments from JBs Tacos, and family activities starting at 11:30 a.m. before the concerts begin at 1 p.m.

Dr. Susan Mayo has been part of the musical landscape of Kansas for many years and is active as a cellist, composer, and community arts organizer. She is passionate about using sound, the universal tongue, as a vehicle for creating community and celebrating place. Vibrations unleashed in the atmosphere truly transform us. Each locale has unique sounds, sharing these promotes and celebrates cultural conversations. Mayo blends genres creating unique sounds in both her performance groups and her compositions. She is intrigued by the blending of technology/nature – acoustic/electronic forces and is passionate about putting interesting music in interesting places. She has performed globally with both classical and alternative ensembles and is currently co-executive director of Flint Hills Counterpoint an ecology arts project based in Marion County Kansas, executive director for the historic Sunflower Theatre, and a member of the Wichita Symphony Orchestra.

This Land is Your Land
2026-06-29 19:00 - 20:15
Pulitzer Prize-winning author and historian Beverly Gage joins former Archivist of the United States Colleen Shogan to discuss her new book, This Land is Your Land: A Road Trip through U.S. History, ahead of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
Limited copies of This Land is Your Land will be available for free.

This program is presented in partnership with the Watkins Museum of History and the Lawrence Public Library

Dr. Colleen Shogan served as the 11th Archivist of the United States – the first woman to be appointed by the President and confirmed by the U.S. Senate to lead the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). She currently serves as a senior fellow at More Perfect where she leads In Pursuit, an ambitious history-based nonpartisan civics initiative that is identifying the most insightful and timeless lessons from the past 250 years of American history. Shogan last visited the Dole Institute in January 2026, where she was recognized at the 2026 Elizabeth Dole Women in Leadership Lecture.
Beverly Gage teaches American history at Yale. Her book G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century received the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Biography, the Bancroft Prize in American History, the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography, and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Biography. She is also the author of The Day Wall Street Exploded: A Story of America in its First Age of Terror, and writes for numerous journals and magazines, including The New Yorker, The New York Times, and The Washington Post.

About This Land is Your Land
Ride along with Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Beverly Gage as she travels the country to see the museums, historic sites, roadside attractions, reenactments, and souvenir shops where Americans learn—and fight—about our history. From the birth of the nation in Philadelphia to Disneyland and the California dream, This Land Is Your Land offers a guided tour of thirteen places and thirteen key moments that define America’s greatest successes and challenges.
The year 2026 marks the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, a document that proclaimed the liberty and equality of all human beings, but produced a country that often failed to agree upon—or live up to—those ideals. This Land Is Your Land is for everyone who wants to find that history—to experience it and confront it, to celebrate it and condemn it—in the places where it happened.
Gage shows that Americans can face their past and still love their country. Toss the book in the back seat—or listen on audio with the windows down—and join the journey.

Sunday Jayhawk Jukebox ft. Mire Pral
2026-07-05 14:00 - 15:00
The Dole Institute, the Lied Center of Kansas, and the KU School of Music invite you to join us on Sunday, July 5, for Sunday Jayhawk Jukebox featuring Mire Pral’s string Jazz music in the 30’s and 40’s styles of Django Reinhardt.

Sunday Jayhawk Jukebox ft. The Lost Keys
2026-07-12 14:00 - 15:00
The Dole Institute, the Lied Center of Kansas, and the KU School of Music invite you to join us on Sunday, July 12, for Sunday Jayhawk Jukebox featuring The Lost Keys.

The Lost Keys are a family string band from Lawrence, KS. Headed by renowned fiddlers, artists, and multi-instrumentalists Tricia Spencer and Howard Rains of the duo Spencer & Rains. They are a blended family that have played music together since Tricia and Howard met in 2012. The band features Tricia and Howard on fiddle and guitar and vocals and their kids, Isaiah, Orion, and Ru on fiddle and guitar, banjo-uke, and bass respectively. Together, they play a mix of old-time string band music, bluegrass, and hillbilly swing. Both Tricia and Howard’s families have been playing music for many generations and when The Lost Keys play it shows just how deep their traditions go.

The Boundless Game: Soccer Stories from Across the Street to Around the World
2026-07-14 15:00 - 16:00
Ahead of the 2026 World Cup Final, join author and historian Tim Bascom for a discussion on his new book, The Boundless Game: Soccer Stories from Across the Street to Around the World, which explores how soccer matters so much in our common, everyday lives, and how it brings the world closer together.

Limited copies of The Boundless Game will be available for purchase following the program. Tim Bascom will also be available to sign copies of books for guests in attendance.

This program is presented in partnership with the University Press of Kansas

Tim Bascom, who learned to play soccer as a youth in Ethiopia, is the author of two prize-winning memoirs, Chameleon Days and Running to the Fire; two essay collections, The Comfort Trap and Climbing Lessons; a collection of short stories, Continental Drift; and the novel Squatters’ Rites.

About The Boundless Game
A lifelong soccer player and award-winning author shows us how the sport transcends races, ethnicities, cultures, and experiences and brings us all closer together.
Tim Bascom spent half his childhood in Kansas and the other half in East Africa. Living and traveling around the world, the game of soccer proved a constant truth. Through storytelling that effortlessly flows between poignant and funny, sobering and charming, Bascom explores why soccer matters so much in our common, everyday lives, and how this ordinary yet extraordinary game can bring us all a little closer together.
His passionate vision for this most global game leads Bascom to describe how soccer brought him sanity in the middle of a brutal revolution in Ethiopia and how bridging divisions of race and culture was key to success for teams he joined in Chicago and Kansas. From watching Arsenal’s energetic rise in the Premier League to the bravery of a besieged Afghanistan Women’s National Team, and from pickup games in the Midwest and the Middle East, Bascom finds universal truths and deeply human meaning in the beautiful game of soccer.

Saving the Army: Washington at the Battle of Long Island
2026-08-05 15:00 - 16:00
Following the Declaration of Independence from Great Britian, the United States’ Continental Army under the leadership of George Washington attempted to defend New York City in August of 1776. During the Battle of Long Island, the leadership and actions of George Washington would save his army from capture and defeat and ultimately preserve the cause for independence.

Patrick Howlett is a 2006 graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point where he studied History and is currently still serving as an active-duty officer in the United States Army. He currently is an instructor of Military History at the Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth and is enrolled in the doctoral program in history at Kansas State University.
The Ft. Leavenworth Series is an annual roster of lectures focusing on significant historical events, usually with an emphasis on military history. Each lecture is presented by faculty from the United States Army Command and General Staff College in Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas. Established by General William Tecumseh Sherman in 1881, the CGSC is the graduate college for U.S. Army and sister service officers. The esteemed faculty and guests of the CGSC provide unique and captivating insights into the history of military conflict from the ancient to the modern ages at the Dole Institute of Politics.

The opinions expressed herein are those of the individual and do not necessarily represent the views of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College or any other governmental agency.

U.S. Strategy and Sherman’s Savannah Campaign
2026-09-02 15:00 - 16:00
Perhaps the most memorable campaign that underpinned US Army LTG Ulysses S. Grant’s military strategy of 1864, MG William Tecumseh Sherman’s Savannah Campaign exhausted the Southern Confederacy and hastened an end to the American Civil War. The “March to the Sea” has inspired mixed mythologies of the war: it became synonymous in the Lost Cause with devastation and destruction, a misleading interpretation that has proven resilient even in US military circles. In point of fact, Sherman’s campaign was restrained in its conduct despite achieving lasting and significant effects, foremost among them, the destruction of racial slavery in the United States.

Mitchell G. Klingenberg is an assistant professor in the Department of Military History at the US Army Command and General Staff College. Previously, he served on the faculties of the United States Military Academy at West Point and the US Army War College. He is the author of numerous articles and reviews, a monograph on the China Campaign of 1900, and shorter pieces of military history. His writings have been published in numerous venues, including American Nineteenth Century History, Civil War History, The International Journal of Military History and Historiography, the Modern War Institute at West Point, and War on the Rocks.
The Ft. Leavenworth Series is an annual roster of lectures focusing on significant historical events, usually with an emphasis on military history. Each lecture is presented by faculty from the United States Army Command and General Staff College in Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas. Established by General William Tecumseh Sherman in 1881, the CGSC is the graduate college for U.S. Army and sister service officers. The esteemed faculty and guests of the CGSC provide unique and captivating insights into the history of military conflict from the ancient to the modern ages at the Dole Institute of Politics.

The opinions expressed herein are those of the individual and do not necessarily represent the views of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College or any other governmental agency.

Clausewitz, Mao, and Operational Art
2026-10-07 15:00 - 16:00
Throughout history, command in war has demanded skill, knowledge, experience, creativity, and judgement in the application of military force. It has also required what is today called “operational art.” Current U.S. Army doctrine defines Operational Art as “the cognitive approach by commanders and staffs … to develop strategies, campaigns, and operations to organize and employ military forces by integrating ends, ways, and means.” This lecture explores key concepts related to Operational Art through the writings of two key military theorists: Carl von Clausewitz and Mao Tse-tung. In doing so, it underscores the unchanging nature of military command and the cognitive acumen necessary for managing the complexities of war at the operational level.

Martin G. Clemis is an associate professor in the Department of Military History at the Command and General Staff College. He is the author of The Control War: The Struggle for South Vietnam, 1968-1975 (University of Oklahoma Press, 2018), and a contributing author in Beyond the Quagmire: New Interpretations of the Vietnam Conflict (University of North Texas Press, 2019), Drawdowns: The American Way of Postwar (New York University Press, 2017), and War and Geography: The Spatiality of Organized Mass Violence (Ferdinand Schoningh, 2017). Martin has had articles published in Army History and Small Wars and Insurgencies.
The Ft. Leavenworth Series is an annual roster of lectures focusing on significant historical events, usually with an emphasis on military history. Each lecture is presented by faculty from the United States Army Command and General Staff College in Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas. Established by General William Tecumseh Sherman in 1881, the CGSC is the graduate college for U.S. Army and sister service officers. The esteemed faculty and guests of the CGSC provide unique and captivating insights into the history of military conflict from the ancient to the modern ages at the Dole Institute of Politics.

The opinions expressed herein are those of the individual and do not necessarily represent the views of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College or any other governmental agency.

Jomini and the Foundations of Modern War
2026-11-04 15:00 - 16:00
Antoine-Henri Jomini was a foundational 19th-century military theorist whose approach to warfare sought to define universal principles of strategy and tactics. His emphasis on geometric concepts like interior lines of operation, massing combat power at decisive points, and the critical importance of logistics remains highly relevant today. In the contemporary security environment, Jomini’s structured principles continue to underpin modern military planning, joint doctrine, and multi-domain operations by providing a framework for organizing complex campaigns. Ultimately, while the character of war has evolved with advanced technologies, Jomini’s enduring focus on objective analysis and the concentration of force continues to shape how modern militaries conceptualize and execute military operations across multi domain operations.

Dr. Sean N. Kalic is a Cold War historian. He lectures and publishes widely on topics such as U.S. space policy, the Cold War, the post-Cold War security environment, and transnational terrorism. Prior to CGSC, he taught at Youngstown State University, Kansas State University, and Norwich University. He has presented lectures for the U.S. Navy War College’s Fleet Seminar Program, The Slovenian General Staff, The Slovenian Command and General Staff College, The U.S. Army’s Futures Command, as well as numerous international conferences. He has taught in the Department of Military History at the US Army Command and General Staff College since 2004.
The Ft. Leavenworth Series is an annual roster of lectures focusing on significant historical events, usually with an emphasis on military history. Each lecture is presented by faculty from the United States Army Command and General Staff College in Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas. Established by General William Tecumseh Sherman in 1881, the CGSC is the graduate college for U.S. Army and sister service officers. The esteemed faculty and guests of the CGSC provide unique and captivating insights into the history of military conflict from the ancient to the modern ages at the Dole Institute of Politics.

The opinions expressed herein are those of the individual and do not necessarily represent the views of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College or any other governmental agency.

Soviet Interwar Years Theory and Doctrine
2026-12-02 15:00 - 16:00
The First World War brought enormous changes to the battlefield that all combatants struggled to master. After the war’s end, military officers began to try to understand what would be needed to succeed in the next war, in the Soviet Union no less than anywhere else. While the Red Army has been often seen as thoughtless, throwing men relentlessly into the meatgrinder of combat, its officer developed one of the most sophisticated understandings of what modern war would entail in the period between the wars, setting them up for success against the eventual German invasion. This talk examines Soviet doctrine in the interwar period, how it outthought and outfought its German adversary, and how it made significant contributions to modern military theory.

Benjamin M. Schneider is an assistant professor in the Department of Military History at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College. He has held fellowships at the U.S. Naval War College, the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, and the U.S. Army Center of Military History. He received his doctorate from George Mason University in 2019, and his research has appeared in The Journal of Contemporary History and War In History. His book American War Crimes in the Second World War: The Failure of Military Justice is forthcoming with Oxford University Press.
The Ft. Leavenworth Series is an annual roster of lectures focusing on significant historical events, usually with an emphasis on military history. Each lecture is presented by faculty from the United States Army Command and General Staff College in Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas. Established by General William Tecumseh Sherman in 1881, the CGSC is the graduate college for U.S. Army and sister service officers. The esteemed faculty and guests of the CGSC provide unique and captivating insights into the history of military conflict from the ancient to the modern ages at the Dole Institute of Politics.

The opinions expressed herein are those of the individual and do not necessarily represent the views of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College or any other governmental agency.
