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A podcast focusing on the perspectives, lives, and stories of Kansans to provide greater insight into the state we all call home.
AAK_Ep54
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Hilarious Sports Broadcaster
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[00:00:00]
Sydney Collins: So there's this kid, I call him a kid, he might actually be in college, I'm not quite sure. But he's a broadcaster.
Gus Applequist: Oh.
Sydney Collins: And, um,
Gus Applequist: like sports.
Sydney Collins: Sports,
Gus Applequist: okay.
Sydney Collins: So what he does is he has people send him things to say while he's on Air Uhhuh, and they're flipping hilarious and he's really good at it. Hmm. So here's a really good example.
I follow him. This one's probably a little old, but this is at, Quinter High School. He's from Kansas. Hmm. So I'm just gonna, I'll play it for you here
Tiktok: using, but words my friends give me on the broadcast.
Alright. Full court pass. McDonald of a hoop is foul in the process of shooting. So McDonald will take a trip to the free throw line with 1 32 left to play here in the first. McDonald. Had quite a bit of freedom underneath the basket to just [00:01:00] go up with that one.
Gus Applequist: Freedom.
Tiktok: Freedom. He was able to lean into the contact and draw that foul as he misses his first kit.
Spin around through the paint as he oly drives to the basket. All comes into Kit. Sarah, he hit his sideline with the Limp Bizkit stare. He had to wait for the next dead ball to come back into the game. So I, I appreciate him expounding that to, to me. And, and, and
Sydney Collins: like he's insanely good at it.
Gus Applequist: That's
Sydney Collins: like.
The Limp Bizkit stare is probably my favorite, but he's got all kinds of 'em and his friends just get more clever and clever and clever, and it's just so funny.
Gus Applequist: Wow.
Sydney Collins: Um,
Gus Applequist: we have, we have a pretty good history of good broadcasters coming outta Kansas.
Sydney Collins: Yes. Maybe that's needs to be a whole segment. Yeah.
Gus Applequist: We have, I believe we have an ESPN
Sydney Collins: Yeah.
Gus Applequist: Broadcaster from Salina. Is that right?
Sydney Collins: Uh, I don't know if Pat is originally [00:02:00] from Salina.
Gus Applequist: Okay. But his was through the area at one
Sydney Collins: point in the
Gus Applequist: way.
Sydney Collins: But he used to work with my dad at the radio station, so I have all kinds of fun stories.
His, uh, TikTok is blank in a ship, so we'll link it below blank in a ship.
Gus Applequist: Blank in a ship. Okay.
Sydney Collins: So
Gus Applequist: anyway, there you
Sydney Collins: go. I thought that was pretty
Gus Applequist: funny. Yeah, it is.
Podcast Intro and Guest Tease
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Sydney Collins: Welcome to Ask of Kansan,
Gus Applequist: a podcast amplifying, connecting, and Uncovering Kansas.
Sydney Collins: So we have a really fun episode today with Stephen Bridenstine. He Is with the Flint Hills Discovery Center in Manhattan.
Gus Applequist: We talked about a little bit about fire. We talked a little bit about star bonds,
Sydney Collins: [00:03:00] fire star bonds. Yeah, it's, it's what's happening.
Gus Applequist: It is a great conversation. So weird. We like, we, we covered a lot of different things. Um, so without any further ado, here's our conversation with Stephen.
Meet Stephen Bridenstine
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Gus Applequist: Welcome.
Sydney Collins: Hello.
Gus Applequist: How are you today?
Stephen Bridenstine: I'm doing all right. Good.
Gus Applequist: I'm Guss.
Stephen Bridenstine: Stephen, I'm Sydney. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you both, so Of course.
Gus Applequist: Could you start just by introducing yourself for our audience?
Stephen Bridenstine: Sure. My name is Stephen Bridenstine. I am the director of the Flint Hills Discovery Center in beautiful Manhattan, Kansas.
Gus Applequist: Wonderful. And, in doing a little bit of research, I see that, that you are, are one of our, folks in Kansas that aren't originally from here, but have come to love it yourself.
Stephen Bridenstine: Yes.
Gus Applequist: Can you kinda tell us about where you came from and how you got here?
Stephen Bridenstine: Sure. Sure. I, I, I always liked the, uh, the label Kansan by Choice.
Gus Applequist: Love
Stephen Bridenstine: it. That's great.
Kansan by Choice Story
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Stephen Bridenstine: Um, and so I actually moved here. Oh, gosh, almost 12 years ago now. And it was to, to start my job [00:04:00] at the Discovery Center, either in Manhattan. So, I had prior to that actually lived and worked all around the country.
Um, I'm originally from Michigan, grew up there, went to school there. And then I started working for the National Park Service. And when you are a park ranger, one of the things you quickly learn is in that career path, you jump around to different parks. I was in Minnesota, I was in North Dakota, I was in Wyoming.
And then I had most recently come from working at a museum outside the park service down in south Florida near the Everglades.
Sydney Collins: Hmm.
Stephen Bridenstine: And so I had kind of had this interesting career where I jumped around and then I took a chance on Kansas. I found this job at this place called the Flint Hills Discovery Center.
I didn't know anything about it. I, I, so I found the job I applied for. I interviewed and I accepted the position without ever coming to Kansas.
Gus Applequist: Oh wow.
Stephen Bridenstine: So this was all done remotely before. Oh goodness. Remote was the big thing. Yeah. [00:05:00] And so when the first time I set foot in Manhattan, I was driving a moving van with everything I owned in the back.
And I was driving down, uh, 177 off of the interstate. You come over the bridge over the Kansas River, right into Manhattan and by design, the first thing you see when you come into town is the Flint Hills Discovery Center. It's right there. And so that was kind of my introduction to Manhattan, the Flint Hills, Kansas, and one fell swoop.
Life in a College Town
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Sydney Collins: I have so many follow up questions first. What's it like moving to Manhattan without, like, a lot of people end up in Manhattan 'cause they went to K State.
Stephen Bridenstine: Sure.
Sydney Collins: So what's it like being engulfed in K State in Manhattan in that community?
Stephen Bridenstine: Well, you know, it, it definitely earns its label as a college town.
Mm-hmm. You know, 50,000 residents, 20,000 of those are students. Mm-hmm. Right. So it definitely is that college town vibe. [00:06:00] You know, I, I got there and I was the interesting person where I was in my late twenties at the time I moved here. I didn't know anyone. When I talked to people and we, we got to talking about work and life and all that, they kind of assumed two things about me.
That either A: I was a grad student at K State. Or B: was a soldier at Fort Riley.
Sydney Collins: Oh yeah.
Stephen Bridenstine: And so when I told them that, oh no, I, I actually moved here for, for a job here in Manhattan, I got a lot of blank stares. Yeah. And, you know, that college town effect the effect of Fort Riley and the, the military impact are so strong there that when you are outside that narrative professionally, you, you do legitimately confuse some people.
I, I got there and, you know, for me, the biggest thing I would say about moving to a college town is that when you're not part of the university, you do have to work a little harder to, to find your [00:07:00] place in that community. Luckily for me, where I was at, at the Discovery Center, I instantly became connected to that community because I worked with the community.
So that was the one, one huge benefit there. Okay.
Sydney Collins: So, since you were a former park ranger
Stephen Bridenstine: Sure.
Sydney Collins: Only because I am obsessed with TikTok. In social media, how do you feel about all the national parks, uh, their social media have turned into thirst straps, or have you seen any of those?
Stephen Bridenstine: Well, you know, I, I gotta say the, there are certain National Park service sites that have done very well on social media, and they are not afraid to take what is otherwise a very stuffy thing in place. Mm-hmm. And have a little fun with it, with some of the cute critters and the, the things that, I mean, I, I'm, I was witness it to witness to it myself, the dumb things tourists do in national parks.
And so, listen, if, if you can, if you can lighten the mood a little bit with, with National Parks, I love it. So, and I, and I'd love to do the same thing here in [00:08:00] Manhattan with the Flint Hills, you know, to, to varying degrees of success. Mm-hmm. But, you know, there's, if you can't laugh, yeah. You're not living.
Sydney Collins: That's fair. Okay, now you can go on.
Gus Applequist: She brings the interest, I think. Oh, there you go.
Park Service to Museum Work
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Gus Applequist: So I gather that you sort of have been studying indigenous peoples mm-hmm. As a part of your, sort of your course of study, I guess. Sure. And, and when you came to, uh, to the Flint Hills Discovery Center mm-hmm. You were a, a curator.
Can you talk about, is that correct? Y yeah. Yeah. Okay. I just, I thought I saw a blank statement. I was like, oh, no. Uh, so yeah, could you just kinda connect those for me? Like what is it about your background that Sure. Brought you to cur curatorial science or,
Stephen Bridenstine: well, you know, I, I would say the, the, the main thing more than anything else was working with the National Park Service.
Mm-hmm. Is that one thing that I learned in that job that is very important. [00:09:00] is Storytelling, right? How do you tell good stories? And what the National Park Service does really well is tell these stories that are inherently cross-disciplinary, right? It's not just about the plants, it's not just about the animals.
It's not just about the people. It's about that intersection between the natural resources, the cultural resources, the historic resources, and the interplay of those things. And so those were stories I was already telling in my work as a park ranger with the park service. You know, I did most recently come from working at a tribal museum down in Florida for the Seminole Tribe of Florida.
And it was a wonderful experience to have down there. And that was itself in, uh, uh, eyeopening about the way that, you know, this particular community understands its own place. On the land and their own history and their culture and its intersection with, with the environment, the natural resources down there in South Florida.
And so, [00:10:00] you know, it was all kind of working up to a place like the Flint Hills Discovery Center because one of the things that it does well, that kind of sets it apart is that it is this inherently cross-disciplinary institution. It's not just a history museum, it's not just a nature center. It's not just a natural history museum or a children's museum.
It wears all these different hats and does all these different things. And I love that. I love that type of work because you can't just tell these stories in isolation. They are always in conversation with one another. And I like to think that I treat every guest who walks into the Discovery Center, I give them the benefit of the doubt that they can understand a, a story that is interconnected like that.
That's a little complicated, that's a little messy, that. It takes all these narratives that we're familiar with and kind of flips the script a little bit sometimes. And so I relish those opportunities to have those conversations with [00:11:00] guests and really get them thinking differently about your own place in the world and the environment and its impact on you and vice versa.
And you know, really diving into it just like that.
Inside the Discovery Center
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Gus Applequist: So I recently visited for the first time. Yeah, it was probably, two or three weeks ago. Okay. Maybe a little bit longer. Yeah. And, I really enjoyed the experience. Wonderful. I heard a lot of good things previously from previous guests actually. Yeah.
That had brought it up and, definitely love the Flint Hills and so yeah. Getting a little bit more context, that was really great. Sure. I think what you said about the complexity of the story mm-hmm. Is definitely represented in the layout of, of the facility in that it's, it's not, there's some museums where you're sort of.
This is what happened, and then this happened and this happened. Sure. Yeah. And that's not how you guys have structured it.
Stephen Bridenstine: Mm-hmm.
Gus Applequist: Do you wanna speak to, to that choice that was made?
Stephen Bridenstine: Yeah.
Exhibits and Visitor Flow
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Stephen Bridenstine: So, you know, when you walk into the Flint Hills Discovery Center, it, it was designed and laid out in a very deliberate way.
Right? So we always try to start folks off in our [00:12:00] orientation film. I, I hope you got to saw it. Yes. You saw it when you were there.
Sydney Collins: Yeah.
Stephen Bridenstine: So, I, I don't wanna give away all the spoilers, but it, it's a 40 immersive film. With cool special effects. I like to tell folks, you might think you're at Disney World when you're there because it, it really is.
Cool. So that gives you sort of the, the, the whole story compressed into 13 and a half minutes. Right. So it
Gus Applequist: then I have to mention a past episode guest of ours, Jim Richardson.
Stephen Bridenstine: Oh yes.
Gus Applequist: Is one of your voiceover uh, providers.
Stephen Bridenstine: Yes, he absolutely is. I
Gus Applequist: recognize his voice and did a little cheer.
Stephen Bridenstine: There you go.
Gus Applequist: Sorry.
Stephen Bridenstine: Continue. No, of course. So you watch the film and then it's kind of laid out where we have an orientation in the middle we have a giant map on the floor of the Flint Hills, which it's itself shows you where the Flint Hills are on the United States map. And when we get guests from all over the country or even all over the world, that basic orientation's a, a perfect starting point.
You have to know where the Flint Hills are. 'cause not everyone knows that when they walk in our building. Well, when you exit [00:13:00] that circle, kind of the first. The next area of exhibits is the natural history story, right? It's the ge geology, the plants, the animals, the areas underground. It gives you a grounding in sort of the, the, the ecology of the Flint hills.
The outer ring of our exhibits is the human story going back 13 and a half thousand years. So telling that complex story from that point up through the present day, we touch on many different, elements of the human story, indigenous peoples settlement industry, agriculture. And then we end with a section called The Voices of the Flint Hills.
And one of the unique things about that exhibit is that how do we as an institution. Balance our authoritative voice as a museum with the multiple opinions and ideas that exist amongst residents of the Flint Hills. And so what they did is they went out and they interviewed all these different [00:14:00] residents of the Flint Hills on a variety of topics about land management, fire, water, um, tourism, economic development.
And they each gave their opinion, right in these short little video vignettes. So you can learn about the Flint tills in all these different ways by listening to these. I mean, they're almost like micro podcasts, right? Where you get to listen to these voices and learn their story and their opinions. And in a way it's allows us as an institution to sort of, not necessarily not have an opinion or not take a stance on these things, but for some of these contemporary issues, we wanna give you the opportunity to.
Sort of dive into it and maybe form your own opinion, because there are disagreements about things involving land management and ecological practices in the Flint Hills. And so that section's really sort of the, the, the takeaway for folks is, you know, the Flint [00:15:00] Hills is a beautiful place. It's an amazing ecosystem.
And we're all trying to do our best to preserve it and keep it going along. But it's gonna take a lot of different people to do that. And there's no one absolute right way to do it. There's some best practices. There are things that we all believe that we should be doing, but beyond that, there's wiggle room.
And so we wanna give folks that opportunity to kind of learn on their own. So
From Educator to Director
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Gus Applequist: So when you came mm-hmm. You were the full-time curator of education, is that correct?
Stephen Bridenstine: Yes. So I started in that position. I was actually, I started about two and a half years after the Center opened.
Gus Applequist: Mm-hmm.
Stephen Bridenstine: And at that point, I was the first full-time [00:16:00] education manager, so I took the deep dive into growing that education program and doing special events and programs and, and all that.
So that was, that's how I got started there.
Gus Applequist: And, and now you are the executive director? Is that your title?
Stephen Bridenstine: Uh, the, just, just the director. I don't
Gus Applequist: know how
Stephen Bridenstine: executive
Gus Applequist: I am, but I'm a director. We'll make sure you get up. There
Stephen Bridenstine: you go.
Gus Applequist: Can you, can you just describe how, you know, what that, that process looked like?
Uh, how you got this role and how, uh, you know, sort of
Stephen Bridenstine: yeah.
Gus Applequist: That, that journey has impacts the way you lead the organization today?
Stephen Bridenstine: You know, I, my background was in education, in public programs and doing also some of the research side of things. You know, I went back to grad school, got my master's degree in history, and I was really interested in that academic track.
But I also knew that I loved the work that I did with the park service and so, you know, I've long had to figure out where this professional path is, [00:17:00] right? So having been a practitioner and working with the public and doing programming and education, I love that work. And the question was always, can I make a career doing this?
And so coming to the Discovery Center, I, I love the work that I did. It was amazing. I got to do all these education programs and special events and lecture series and you name it. And it was great fun. We're a relatively small institution, right? I was the education director. We had a team of, I had two more staff members and a few part-time people.
And that was it to do the education programs. And so the question was whether do I, do I pivot and move up or do I move out? Because there are a lot larger museums and parks and other places where they have entire education departments with whole cohorts of teams that do all this programming and all that, and there's specialization and all [00:18:00] that.
And so I had to decide whether I wanted to take that path or pivot and do something a little different. And so in the end, what I did was, I actually went back to school at Kansas State University, the public administration program. And so I thought, you know, if I'm gonna seriously take a look at administration, 'cause really when, when you're in this museum field.
Eventually you work your way up into administration, right? So I thought, well, I need to do something here. And so I, Kansas State has a great public administration program. I enrolled in that program, um, in January of 2020. And then we all went into lockdown. And so I completed most of it virtually. So, I still managed to learn a thing or two, and so I got that degree and that was great.
And I had an opportunity to actually move into the assistant director role. And that was focusing on marketing, communications, development, that side of things. And then two to three years after that, our longtime director retired. And [00:19:00] I put my name in the hat and I'm very flattered that they chose me.
It's very rare and, and I've even talked to people in this field to have had, I mean, four or five different job titles now in 12 years at the same institution. That's not that common. And so I'm, I'm really lucky that I've had that. But I'm also still there because I, I work with an amazing team of people.
I'm, I'm there because of the people and the community. I mean, that's really why I'm there. And so I'm very lucky to do the work that I do.
Learning the Flint Hills
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Gus Applequist: So obviously, I mean, I think you can tell just from the name Flint Hills Discovery Center
Stephen Bridenstine: mm-hmm.
Gus Applequist: That your goal as an organization is to try to connect people either in the area or coming through the area Sure.
With the Flint Hills.
Sydney Collins: Mm-hmm.
Gus Applequist: And there's sort of different layers to that, that, that are possible. Right. There is, there is learning about it on the internet, there is actually being there at the phys, at the Physical Flint Hills Discovery Center, [00:20:00] and then there's actually going into the Flint Hills.
Sydney Collins: Mm-hmm.
Gus Applequist: And I think different things can be sort of gained by each of those layers of the onion. And so, yeah. Could you, could you talk about. Um, what, what's your personal like learning journey has been as you've, you know, made this your home
Stephen Bridenstine: right
Gus Applequist: and, and learned about the Flint Hills, like,
do you still have a chance to get out and explore the Flint Hills, beyond the confines of your facility?
Stephen Bridenstine: Um, yes. Uh, if it's a family thing, I have to drag a 4-year-old and a 1-year-old with me, so it's a little harder these days. That's a good answer. uh, really it's, I I was very lucky actually, you know, when I was with the National Park Service, I did work at a prairie park that did a lot of prairie education, and so that was really my first kind of dive into this.
That was up in North Dakota. And so that was my first dive into this and my first dipping my toe in the, in, in the pool of Prairie education there. And so. I learned a lot there. And so [00:21:00] I knew enough that the story of the Flint Hills, as I learned about it in preparation for a job interview and potentially moving here, I knew enough that it was, I was comfortable enough with that professional move.
Mm-hmm. But then when I got here, I had a ton I needed to learn. Luckily when you are working at a place like the Discovery Center, I just, I just leave my office and I go downstairs and I just go in the exhibits and mm-hmm. It's kind of all there, right? Mm-hmm. And so that's a starting point. But beyond that, I mean, it's, it's really about more than anything else, the people.
Right. You, you mentioned Jim Richardson before, um, a great guy. Um, I, I've, I've, I've met him before. We've talked, we visited his place down in Lindsburg. Great guy. He's the type of person, you talk to him, you learn something new every time you talk to that man. Um, there's a lot of people like that out there where, you know, they, their love of the Flint Hills and of the Tallgrass Prairie is such that they are so willing to share that with other people, right.
They are [00:22:00] passionate, they are educators. And so when you surround yourself with those types of people, it's actually pretty easy. Kinda learn that stuff.
Sydney Collins: Mm-hmm.
Stephen Bridenstine: And so, you know, 12 years later, yeah, you, you learn a lot of the facts and a lot of the stories and you sort of, it, it's imparted on you kind of through osmosis, right?
You're just around these people and it just, you just absorb it. And so, you know, you can learn a lot in 12 years and. I, I would say that, you know, it's more than anything else. It's the people, it's the place and you learn it, and then you kind of reform it and regurgitate it and you give it back to other people.
Yeah. It's, it's the circle of life here in Prairie Education. You learn something, you turn it around, it's, it's like the circle of life in the prairie itself, right? So you do that and you just keep the cycle going.
[00:23:00]
Flint Hills Festival Highlights
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Gus Applequist: I have to ask you about something that I, I'm afraid I don't know anything about the Flint Hills Festival.
Stephen Bridenstine: Yeah.
Gus Applequist: Is that something that's coming up again this year?
Stephen Bridenstine: Yeah. So it is always the first Saturday in May.
Gus Applequist: Okay.
Stephen Bridenstine: So, it is our biggest event of the year, and so it got started out as kind of our first foray into doing a big public event all around what we already do about the Flint Hills. Right. So, more than anything else, what it does is give all of our partners in the region a, a wonderful venue and platform to help.
Again, share what they do, help them reach more people. You know, last year at the event in 2025, we had over 9,000 people come to it.
Sydney Collins: Holy [00:24:00] smokes.
Stephen Bridenstine: So, we were very glad. I mean, the, the before that the most we ever had was about 6,000. So, you know, we bumped up 50%, right? So, um, but when these partners come in, you know, practitioners, people from Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve down in, strong City and many, many partners like that who share our mission and our, our storytelling and all that, when they're there and you can tell them, yeah, I'll get you, I'll get you in front of a couple thousand people in one day, they jump at the opportunity.
So we kind of use our status and our reach into the region and our community to be a, a platform for these partners. So we've got all these partner booths set up to learn about the region we've got, but we also keep it fun. This year, gosh, I think we're gonna have between 30 and no 30, no about 20 food trucks.
We're gonna have a beer and wine tent. We've got, uh, musical entertainment, we've got kids' activities. You know, we know full well that to do our job [00:25:00] well, to meet our mission, you gotta have a carrot and a stick, right? You gotta have a beer and wine tent to get people in to learn about tall grass prairie preservation.
We're totally open to that, right? Mm-hmm. And you might learn a little more after having had a beer or wine. I, you know, you never know to each their own, right? So we do this comprehensive festival because we wanna make an impact. We want it to be a fun time. And if you learn something while you're there, hey, that's a, that's a great thing too.
And the other thing I'll say is that it's the one day of the year that we are open free to the public. So if you've never been to the Discovery Center, you have no excuse. We are free on that day, um, you know, on Flint Hills Festival. So.
Gus Applequist: Wow.
Sydney Collins: Brilliant.
Gus Applequist: Wow, that sounds, sounds like a great excuse to go to Manhattan.
Stephen Bridenstine: Absolutely, it is. So you too can be part of the 9,000 people. So
Gus Applequist: 9,002.
Stephen Bridenstine: Exactly. There you go. I'm counting on it. I'll look for you.
How the Center Was Built
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Gus Applequist: I guess one question that I've just had that maybe I should have asked earlier is how did [00:26:00] this come to be? How did the Flint Hills Discovery Center come to be in Manhattan?
Because it's, it kind of seems like it just popped up outta nowhere. But I'm sure there's a story.
Stephen Bridenstine: Oh, there absolutely is a story. So, um, it, it's actually part of a, an even larger project, so. If you know anything about Manhattan, you know, the, the downtown Manhattan has seen sort of these fits and starts of growth and redevelopment over the years, right?
So our, our mall, the Manhattan Town Center is right downtown. They built it in our, down our historic downtown. And that was back in the eighties when malls were in their heyday. And so, but they had a choice whether they were gonna do this right downtown or way out on the west side of town where things were still developing.
Land was cheaper. You didn't have to, you know, condemn and vacate some historic city blocks right downtown. And so they made that decision and that was back in the eighties. And so I call that kind of round one of. [00:27:00] Urban redevelopment in Manhattan. Mm-hmm. The Discovery Center was part of round two, and that was in the early two thousands.
There was another look at how can we further redevelop our, our downtown here. And so eventually there was a plan conceived, um, spearheaded by the city of Manhattan and our, our chamber to do another big urban redevelopment project. It ended up being a $250 million project. The Discovery Center was the star bond element of it.
So you've heard of star bonds here in Kansas. There are these, these developments that are done to be attractions to bring people to your community. You pay off the bonds using the, the sales tax revenue within a special sales tax district. I won't get into all the details there, but um, and so they had this opportunity to do build an attraction.
What was that going to be? Right. And they had all these different stakeholder meetings and, and community [00:28:00] leaders and all this input, and they floated ideas like a tornado museum or a riverboat casino or, you know, they, they just put all these ideas out there, right.
So eventually, I think where they settled on was the strength of Kansas State University as this land grant University Manhattan was already known as this, the, the central city of the Flint Hills region. Right. And so this idea came about is could you have a museum about the Flint Hills?
Downtown Redevelopment Wins
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Stephen Bridenstine: And they worked with some consultants and designers and they kind of flushed this thing out. And so. We ended up being a $25 million project, part of a larger $250 million urban redevelopment project that completely transformed downtown Manhattan. I will tell you that since we've opened and since all this happened, there are communities across the region, across the Midwest that have come to Manhattan to learn how they did this redevelopment [00:29:00] project.
It completely transformed downtown. And one of the things that I'm sure they hoped for, but didn't necessarily count on per se, was that this urban redevelopment was kind of north and south of the historic downtown, which like a lot of old downtowns, you had vacant storefronts, you had businesses coming and going.
What this project did is it solidified downtown Manhattan, like the true historic downtown. Reinvigorated it so that today there's not an empty storefront along along those three blocks there. And so there's bars, there's restaurants, there's things to do. Since we opened, there's now a second Star bond project across the street from us, the Museum of Art and Light, a brand new, huge art museum that is literally kitty corner from us.
And the thing that I always like to tout is that Star bonds are economic development. It's about bringing dollars to your community. The Star Bond district that [00:30:00] funded the Discovery Center was so successful, they paid off the bonds years ahead of time.
Sydney Collins: Oh wow.
Stephen Bridenstine: Which is what allowed them to accrue the money to do a second museum, a second star bond project.
And so, I mean, that, that right there is a testament to sort of the, the potential of this project that was realized, right there in downtown Manhattan.
Gus Applequist: bring the conversation back to Yeah.
Planning a Flint Hills Trip
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Gus Applequist: The Flint Hills. Could you kind of give me the, the, let's say somebody from Florida, for instance Sure. Is, is making the unconventional decision to come to Kansas for a trip.
Stephen Bridenstine: Right.
Gus Applequist: And they wanna center that trip on the Flint Hills.
Stephen Bridenstine: Okay.
Gus Applequist: And they're gonna start at the Flint Hills Discovery Center and they're kind of like, ah, I'm gonna have a couple more days. Mm-hmm. And not necessarily like what they're gonna fill the rest of those days with.
Right. But what are like those core things they need to understand about the Flint Hills in order to, to understand it, I guess?
Stephen Bridenstine: Well, I mean, the first thing I always say is that what time of year are you visiting? I mean, the Flint Hills in the Tallgrass [00:31:00] Prairie, looks and acts radically different depending on what time of year you're there.
You know, if you come in April, half of it might be on fire and you'll have smoke and you'll have people say, well, why is it all charred black? Well, you're here in April, come back in three months and it'll be beautiful green. Right? And so, you know, what time of year are you coming? And also, what do you wanna do?
What do you like? Right? There's a little bit of something for everyone in the Flint Hills, but what sets us apart is, is the Tallgrass Prairie.
Public Prairie Access Tips
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Stephen Bridenstine: One of the challenges there, and I I like to be upfront with people about this, is that the overwhelming majority of the Flint Hills is privately owned land, right?
Mm-hmm. This is someone's ranch. This is someone's property, right? It's beautiful. It's an amazing vista. You see cattle, you see wildflowers, but on the other side of that fence, that's someone's property, right? So I always like to direct [00:32:00] people to some of the, the public lands that exist, right? So the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve.
Is an amazing park down there in Strong City. It's a collaboration between the National Park Service and the Nature Conservancy. It is an amazing site because you can hike out in a native tallgrass prairie. They have a bison pasture where you can see bison out there and you can hike in, in the pasture with them.
There's nothing between you and the bison. And then they have other pastures where they have, they have cattle out there. And I was there with my, my, my then fiance, my now wife, and we were there and we were hiking around on a trail. And then all of a sudden you come over a ridge line and there's 200 head of cattle just like right in front of you on the trail.
And so you just slowly creep forward and they're looking at you and then they start moving, moving, they're noisy and you know, you kind of can, you walk a little bit faster and it's like Moses parting the Red Sea. Yeah. They kind of just separate and then, oh, and there's the trail and you just move along.
And so [00:33:00] there's not many places in the country where you can go on public land and just walk through a pasture full of cattle, right? I mean, that's just not a thing that you would think to do. But for a lot of folks, you know, getting exposed to the agricultural story is, it's a little tricky because.
People who work in agriculture don't necessarily want people on their land 'cause it's liability and there's all these considerations there. And so you can go to a place like Pioneer Bluffs, which is a great historic ranch that really helps tell that story of production agriculture, ranching in the Flint Hills.
And there's other places, there's all the county historic societies. You can go visit those museums.
Stay Overnight and Explore
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Stephen Bridenstine: And, I always tell folks to try and stay overnight in the Flint Hills, visit these small towns. Mm-hmm. there's some great little boutique hotels and Airbnbs and short-term rentals and you can stay in, there's some that I love that are, um, old grain silos that they turn into an [00:34:00] Airbnb.
You can go stay in 150 year old limestone cabins. You can go do all sorts of things. And, I I say get out there, explore. But don't, don't fill up your itinerary either. Take time to just explore and be surprised by what you find. Right. And the other thing too that's tough too, is the Flint Hills is big.
It's 4 million acres. It's the size of New Jersey. Right. And so you're almost at the Nebraska line, and it goes all the way south into Oklahoma. And so you, you gotta take it little chunks at a time. So, yeah.
Ranching Mimics Bison
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Gus Applequist: In an episode we just recently recorded with Matt Bain from The Nature Conservancy, we kind of hit on this idea too, of this sort of interesting contradiction that, that outsiders may not understand. Mm-hmm. And that's that we have, we have ranching in the Flint Hills and that, that.
It may feel like it's not a good thing.
Stephen Bridenstine: Mm-hmm.
Gus Applequist: And, and there may be an element of this that is kind of getting into those [00:35:00] conversations you were talking or the, the interviews you have with
Stephen Bridenstine: Right,
Gus Applequist: with landowners and, and people from the Flint Hills, but that, there's a certain role that these ranchers are actually playing and providing mm-hmm.
To the Flint Hills with their livestock. Could you just hit on that just a little bit for us?
Stephen Bridenstine: Sure. I mean, really what the, the, the act of preserving the Flint Hills is an attempt to mimic what was done for thousands of years. Right. We were a little blip on, on the timeline here in the last 175 years.
Right. So if you go, go back in time and look at the Flint Hills historically, or any tallgrass prairie, it, it was a kind of a messy place. I mean, millions have herd of bison, elk, and all these other animals, and they were. Really rough on the land. I mean, you know, they would go down into a riverbank and just tear up the side of a riverbank to get across a river, you know, [00:36:00] but that destructive quality is an essential element of the tallgrass prairie, right?
There are plant species, there are flowers in other animals that need, um, land to be disturbed, but to be disturbed in a way that is appropriate for that ecosystem, right? When a bison wallows and rubs its back on the ground, it can create a, a, a bison wallow. Those things can become havens for, uh, amphibians.
When you have a rainfall, it compresses the soil, it fills with water. You'll have tadpoles that will fill 'em in salamanders because the bison are quote unquote rubbing away the grass and the flowers. But you're creating a micro ecosystem for another species right there, right? So when you take that all the way to the present day, you.
You put cattle out on the land and in a way to mimic what the bison did for thousands of years. Right. It's a pretty good analog. It's not perfect. Mm-hmm. but it does a [00:37:00] pretty good job because you need those animals running around the prairie and kind of their hooves in their action really does mix it up a little bit.
It's pretty messy. It's complicated, but it's necessary.
Fire as a Tool
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Stephen Bridenstine: And then when you throw fire into the mix, and how important fire is, that really throws outsiders for a loop. Yeah. Fire. Right. I, a quick story. I, I got interviewed on the Weather Channel of all things, and they're talking, they're talking about the Flint Hills and all that, and, and the commentator makes a comment of, so, you know, you guys must be really careful then with fire about, you know, preventing any fire from getting out and this, that and the other.
And I said. Well, actually we set it on fire and it kind of threw him for a loop when I said that. But for a lot of outsiders, you don't think of the destructive quality of fire as being a necessary element of that ecosystem. But it absolutely is, right? We, we too often think of wilderness in this pristine land and preservation in terms where [00:38:00] you wanna put a little, put a little glass box over it and just let it be.
You can't do that in the Flint Hills, right? You gotta trample it, you gotta burn it, you gotta just put it to use. And ranchers do a pretty darn good job of that today.
Discovery Center Events
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Gus Applequist: Well, um, I guess are there any things coming up besides obviously the festival we've already talked about, but
Stephen Bridenstine: yeah,
Gus Applequist: any other things that, that people should come check out at the Flint Hills Discovery Center?
Stephen Bridenstine: Well the, the other major events that we do throughout the year is every July we do National Day of the Cowboy. So it's a celebration. It's the fourth Saturday in July. It's a great event. Come check it out. It's, it's, we have the rodeo team club. You can do some, some pretend calf roping. You can do all these fun cowboy activities.
It's a great family event. And then in November, our other big event that we do is the Kansas Holiday Market, where we bring 30, 40 vendors in for a holiday market. It's the Saturday after Thanksgiving. They are all vendors who produce their [00:39:00] stuff here in Kansas. Right. Oh, brilliant. We partner with Flock from the land of Kansas.
Yep. Um, and these are all vendors who produce their stuff here in Kansas. So if you truly wanna shop local, come to Manhattan to the Discovery Center that Saturday after Thanksgiving.
Gus Applequist: And if you wanna learn more about from the Land of Kansas,
Sydney Collins: we just had
Gus Applequist: them on episode.
Stephen Bridenstine: There you go. Connect. I think probably
Sydney Collins: the episode before this, so.
Gus Applequist: Yeah.
Stephen Bridenstine: Yeah.
Gus Applequist: Well thank you so much for taking time to come and be on. As of Kansan today, we hope our listeners will check out, uh, the Flint Hills Discovery Center and yeah, thanks for taking time.
Sydney Collins: Thank you.
Stephen Bridenstine: Of course. Come visit anytime.
[00:40:00]
Kid Friendly Highlights
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Sydney Collins: Thank you for joining us for that conversation with Stephen.
Gus Applequist: I, there's, there's a lot of things that we hit on.
I think there's a few things that I feel like I didn't do a good enough job on. One of them is, kids and how much this, uh, this building really is designed around kids and gives them a lot of chances to interact both on the main floor. There's sort of, um, in the exhibit space, there's things they can touch and, and manipulate.
And then upstairs there is a. Uh, almost like a, a playground is maybe too strong of a word. Yeah. But a very interactive space. And currently there is a, like a putt putt thing up there as well. So definitely a place to take the kids. But not, uh, I was there with my, my wife and my brother-in-law, my mother-in-law, and we had a great time.
Sydney Collins: It's a very adult experience as well.
Gus Applequist: Yeah. Is
Sydney Collins: what he's trying to,
Gus Applequist: trying to say. And the, the four dimensional cinema thing really is, uh, a unique
Sydney Collins: special experience. I'm so curious about that.
Gus Applequist: Mm-hmm.
Sydney Collins: We [00:41:00] have one ball tournament in Manhattan this summer, so we'll probably head over there when we're not doing games.
So a little SCO run around. Not in the heat.
Celebrity Guessing Game
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Gus Applequist: So Sydnee, I'm holding a pin and sticky notes. What are we doing here?
Sydney Collins: So we are doing the Celebrity on Your Face Game.
Gus Applequist: Okay.
Sydney Collins: And I just now came up with that title.
Gus Applequist: Celebrity On Your Face.
Sydney Collins: So basically any Kansas person.
Okay. That, um, you think it has a notable. I don't know, personality maybe.
Gus Applequist: Okay,
Sydney Collins: so Jason Sudeikis, Rob Riggle, all those people, but it has to be, um, someone that both of us would probably know. So don't do somebody obscure that. I'm definitely not gonna know because I have to ask you yes or no questions in order to guess the person and then vice versa.
Gus Applequist: Okay. Okay. I'm, I may have to have some help from someone off camera in order to actually,
Sydney Collins: Julie,
Gus Applequist: because, because I'm, I'm definitely going to do one that I [00:42:00] think you're gonna know, but I don't know enough about them to be honest with you. And I'm probably gonna spell it wrong.
Sydney Collins: Think about it as like, guess who?
Kansas version.
Gus Applequist: Mm-hmm.
All right. Are you going first or am I going first?
Sydney Collins: You can go first.
Gus Applequist: Okay. I'll, I'll take your your question. Um, is it a, a woman?
Sydney Collins: No.
Gus Applequist: Okay.
Sydney Collins: Is my person older than the age of 40?
Gus Applequist: Yes.
Is may an entertainer?
Sydney Collins: He sort of, yes. Yes. No.
Gus Applequist: Okay. Okay.
Sydney Collins: It depends on entertainment. I'll give you that. Okay. Okay. Is my person an actor?
Gus Applequist: Yes.
Sydney Collins: Okay.
I have to look at your notes.
Gus Applequist: I like
Sydney Collins: over the, okay, so over the age of 40 and an actor. Got it.
Gus Applequist: Yep. And I'm a male and an kind of an entertainer.
Sydney Collins: Kind of an entertainer.
Gus Applequist: Am I still alive?
Sydney Collins: Yes.
Am I a male or female?
Gus Applequist: Female.
Sydney Collins: Oh, sorry. [00:43:00] Am I a female
Gus Applequist: or
Sydney Collins: Yes. Whatever. Anyway, either way we're getting to that answer.
Gus Applequist: Okay.
Sydney Collins: Female over the age of 40 and an actor.
Gus Applequist: Have I been in a movie?
Sydney Collins: No.
Do I sing?
Gus Applequist: no, I don't think so. No, I don't think so.
Am I famous for something I did in Kansas?
Sydney Collins: Yes.
I will caveat that with people probably don't know you live in Kansas.
Am I married to someone famous? That's a very pop culture question of me.
Gus Applequist: yes, but not a name that you would know.
Sydney Collins: Oh, okay. So probably like a director or producer or something, maybe.
Gus Applequist: Does his last name start with S
Sydney Collins: don't know his last name.
Gus Applequist: What?
There's a, a one name like, like Prince or something, [00:44:00] but not Prince. I've, I'm in serious danger of not knowing.
Sydney Collins: Do I hang out with the Rob Riggle? Jason Sudeikis crew?
Gus Applequist: No.
Sydney Collins: Do I act in dramas?
Gus Applequist: I think so. Yeah. I, well, maybe somewhat, but you're not known for, for that?
Sydney Collins: It's not for me not known. Okay.
Who do I talk about podcast.
Gus Applequist: Oh, who do I want?
Sydney Collins: That's like a really easy one.
Gus Applequist: Okay. Okay. I think I know who it is. Okay.
Sydney Collins: Who do you think it is?
Gus Applequist: Is it SB Mowing?
Sydney Collins: It is SB Mowing. It's Spencer. That's why I didn't know his last name.
Gus Applequist: Oh, cheer.
Sydney Collins: Oh, Kirstie. Oh, am I alive?
Gus Applequist: No,
Sydney Collins: no. I should have got Kirstie Allen. Alley
Gus Applequist: Alley.
Sydney Collins: Yeah.
Gus Applequist: Yeah.
Sydney Collins: I should have, dang. I should have asked if they were alive or dead and that would've been an easy one.
Gus Applequist: I'm so sorry if that was paid for you. Please.
Sydney Collins: Honest. That was really funny. [00:45:00]
Gus Applequist: Um,
Sydney Collins: I had fun.
Gus Applequist: Yeah. This is just another, uh, step in Sydney's gradual progression towards insanity. Trying to get SB mowing to come on our podcast.
Sydney Collins: It's really a marketing ploy.
Gus Applequist: I discovered last night a whole AI generated channel that was making mowing videos.
Sydney Collins: Really?
Gus Applequist: But they were all fake. And it made me super sad how many people were falling for it. 'cause I was like, yeah, it's sad. So, so if you're out there and you're listening to this and you're like.
Yeah, just be wary. There's so much AI stuff these days
Sydney Collins: and if you're a fan of SB Mowing, he is from the Wichita area.
Gus Applequist: Yeah.
Sydney Collins: Fun facts. that you may not know.
Gus Applequist: I think Kirstie Alley is too, so there you go.
Sydney Collins: Yeah,
Small Town Kansas Stories
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Gus Applequist: Wichita is,
Sydney Collins: she's noted for being from the Wichita area, but I don't know if that's actually where she's from because, so like for instance, if you look up like Martina McBride.
Martina McBride is known for being from the Wichita area, but really she's from like Medicine Lodge Pride area.
Gus Applequist: Mm-hmm.
Sydney Collins: That's only 'cause they get really discovered in Wichita. So it's a [00:46:00] whole thing.
Gus Applequist: And like as with all of us, you sort of have to give your distance from Wichita, Kansas City when
Sydney Collins: Yeah.
Gus Applequist: If especially if you're outta the state.
Sydney Collins: Yeah. Because if you say, oh yeah, I'm a celebrity from Kansas, they're like, Kansas.
Gus Applequist: Yeah. When my, yeah, when my wife says she's from Rexford, people are like, well, where's that? And then we're like, well, it's kind of near Colby. And they're like, well, where's that? And then we're like, well, it's,
Sydney Collins: it's like the final explanation that they, at the end of the conversation, they still don't know.
Gus Applequist: This is, this is in our friend group, my wife and I, friend group. They, everybody except for me came from a small school in Kansas. Oh. I went to Sinus Central, which had like 1200 students.
Sydney Collins: Mm-hmm.
Gus Applequist: But so like there is a competition sort of, of like who had the smallest class. And this happens 41 in a lot of conversations.
Hannah and I find ourselves in which I, yeah. Hannah was in a class of 12.
Sydney Collins: Oh,
Gus Applequist: oh my. Yeah. Yeah. The Golden Plains High School. Shout out to Golden Plains out there in [00:47:00] Rexford and Selden
Sydney Collins: both. Well, who is, uh, valedictorian?
Gus Applequist: I think Hannah was the Salu Salutatorian. Salutorian, I think. Yeah. But she was, um, she was homecoming queen or prom prom queen.
One of the two. I don't remember what, yeah.
Sydney Collins: Big competition.
Gus Applequist: Yeah. Me on the other hand, uh, yeah, I think I was most likely to do something sciencey was my
Sydney Collins: Really?
Gus Applequist: Yeah. Did you have one of those?
Sydney Collins: I, I don't know if I had a. I'd have to check my yearbook. I don't think we ha we voted and did, did things like that.
The biggest, and so for those who dunno, I went to Salina South up until my sophomore year and then I went to boarding school in Missouri. So I went from a class of like 350 to 41 and a third of my class was not from the US, oh, I didn't remember that. Yeah. 'cause it's an international high school.
Wow. So, um, I don't remember. But the big, the big thing [00:48:00] that al that always really kind of grinded my gears was. There was always a distinction between a four year senior and just a regular senior. So a four year senior is if you went to the school for all four years of high school. Oh,
Gus Applequist: oh. And
Sydney Collins: you weren't.
And you and I wasn't. I only did two years. And so if you were a four year senior, you always got a little asterisk next to your name and every single program, band, choir
you always had a little asterisk next to your name and I was never had one.
Gus Applequist: Kids these days are not gonna know what it's like to get your yearbook and to flip to the back of it to the index.
Sydney Collins: Maybe that's a segment we need to do is bring our yearbooks in.
Gus Applequist: Yes. I think we need to. And in the, in the index you, like, you look for your name and then you see how many
Sydney Collins: Oh yeah. How many pages
Gus Applequist: Yes.
Sydney Collins: You made.
Gus Applequist: Yeah. 'cause there was like a certain level of pride. You know, as you got more and more.
Sydney Collins: Yeah.
Gus Applequist: Mm-hmm.
Sydney Collins: And that just meant how busy you were. 'cause like freshman year it was band cheer, [00:49:00] I think that was it. Band and cheer. Oh, and theater.
And I also played soccer for some wild reason. Um, I hate running.
Gus Applequist: I was the kid who was like, I wasn't fully in one group, but I was like kind of a part of a lot of groups. Of groups, so, yeah.
Scholars Bowl Deep Cuts
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Gus Applequist: If we're doing shout outs, then I've gotta shout out all the Scholars Bowl geeks out there, you know, Scholars Bowl. It's, it's a special, so my, sorry, my, my specialty in Scholars Bowl was space related questions, which, if you know anything about Scholars Bowl, you might get one of those a tournament. And so of the four people I was the most useless on.
And then, yeah. Yeah, we had several friends that, that did all the hard work and I sat there for my one, my one buzz in,
Sydney Collins: we had, um. I had this kid in my class, actually, I think he was a grade younger than me, but he was in my [00:50:00] homeroom, Stanley, Stanley Ho, and Stanley was from, I think he was Taiwanese. So him and his sister came to school there, like the two nicest pair of siblings you've ever met in your life.
Like the sweetest people. And Stanley was real quiet Stanley was known for just Mathletes and Mathful just annihilating everybody. And there was one time that he got second place and we couldn't figure out why, and we're like, what happened?
And he goes, well, I forgot my calculator.
Gus Applequist: Oh.
Sydney Collins: So he got second place all because he forgot his calculator. And we're like, Stanley, you can't forget your calculator.
Gus Applequist: We're, we're into like the deep cuts part of the episode we're where if you've survived this long in this episode of Ask A Kansan and like extra props to you put a, put a comment of like, I made it to the Scholars Bowl or the
Sydney Collins: Yeah,
Gus Applequist: the mathlete part.
Sydney Collins: But anyway,
Gus Applequist: one, okay. I gotta give one more.
Sydney Collins: Okay, one more.
Gus Applequist: So, uh, we went to the, like state competition for Scholars Bowl.
Sydney Collins: Mm-hmm.
Gus Applequist: And, [00:51:00] uh, it was down in Wichita at a private school, and they, uh, they had the, like the best team in the state was there.
Mm-hmm. And it, there's, you know, each, each group had four people on it, and two of the guys on their, on this team, uh, were the only two kids I think in the country that had aced both the ACT and the SAT that year. And we did not even get one single buzz in. They, they, they would only get a little bit into the question and they would buzz it.
Now the math ones or something that was different. But, so I, yeah, I, I gained my humility through some of those experiences. Yeah.
Final Thanks and Plugs
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Gus Applequist: Well, thank you for staying tuned here to Ask A Kansan. We really value you o Listener. Please check out our website, ask kansan.com, where you can learn more about other episodes.
You can check out our merch line. You can check out the newsletter, curious Kansan.
Sydney Collins: Yeah.
Make sure to leave a review wherever you are listening or watching from. Please give us a, like, subscribe, all those fun things, [00:52:00] and we will see you next time.
Gus Applequist: Thanks.