That Guy in Hutch

08/13/2026

Thanks for the great response to our first episode of Rooted – with HutchRec. It was great to see the positive feedback from so many of you.

Our second episode of Rooted focuses on the power of stories and storytelling. My friend Sue Wray came to the studio to share a story about the important role the Hutchinson Recreation Commission has played in her life – starting when she was a young child in Hutchinson.

We also talk about the quarterly magazine Inspire! Marketing Director LoriBeth Reynolds shares her original vision for the publication, as well as how it’s evolved over it’s first three years in print, and digital form.

Sue’s story is included in the most recent edition of Inspire – complete with an adorable piece of artwork of Sue as the youngster in her story, created by Arts and Culture Coordinator Jocelyn Chambers.

You can pick up the latest copy at HutchRec downtown, at all the coffee shops in town, or online here.

I’m sure you’re going to enjoy this episode. It’s a fun look back in time that allows us to examine the importance of recreation and growth opportunities in the lives of children in our community.

We also talked about a few upcoming events – including the Farm to Table Dinner in September. Tickets are already on sale, and you can get them here.

Rooted is partnership between That Podcast in Hutch and the Hutchinson Recreation Commission – one that focuses on how HutchRec builds community through its programming, events, and sports activities in Hutchinson and Reno County.

Look for Rooted in your favorite steaming service on the 2nd Thursday of every month.

You can listen to Rooted with HutchRec anywhere you listen to podcasts, or you can find it at Salt City Podcasts. More info ⬇️

07/27/2026

I’m very excited to help bring an informative and entertaining new podcast to That Podcast in Hutch listeners!

An Ounce of Prevention will be an up-close conversation about public health with Candace Davidson and Kara Bunce, who both work in the field every day with the Reno County Health Department.

In this first episode, we talk about the history of public health in the United States. It reaches back to the 1940s, when one of its earliest missions was to combat the growth of malaria. During that conversation, I realized how fortunate I’ve been in my life to not worry daily about contracting the mosquito-borne illness - which is prevalent and fatal in many parts of the world.

We explore the ways in which public health has touched individual lives across the country, in Kansas, and here at home in Reno County.

As I went back to listen to the final cut, I realized how much I learned during this interview with Kara and Candace. It’s really a treat for me to sit down with people who understand a topic far better than I ever could - and are willing to share their knowledge with me. I guarantee that you’ll learn something in this episode, and find the conversation engaging and informative.

Look for an Ounce of Prevention to hit your streaming service on the 4th Thursday of each month!

An Once of Prevention is made possible through a Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas Pathways to a Healthy Kansas grant. Our theme music is Never Going Home by Charlie Lewis, Free Music Archive, licensed CC BY-NC-SA

You can listen to Rooted with HutchRec anywhere you listen to podcasts, or you can find it at Salt City Podcasts.

07/09/2026

We’re embarking on something new here at That Podcast in Hutch, and I can barely tell you how excited we are about it!

That Podcast in Hutch has partnered with Hutch Rec to present a new Podcast - Rooted. It’s series of conversations that focus on how HutchRec builds community through its programming, events, and sports activities in Hutchinson and Reno County.

We’ll be exploring a different topic related to the world of recreation each month - and along the way we’ll share behind-the-scenes stories and examples of how HutchRec’s history in our community has made us richer, healthier, and more vibrant.

In this first episode, I visited with HutchRec executive director Tony Finley, and Assistant executive director Amy Conklin about HutchRec’s history, and how the organization has adapted to the changing landscape of entertainment and recreation over the years.

But we also visit about how recreation is more than recreation. It’s about connecting people, building community, and creating spaces where people can come together for shared experiences that create stronger bonds, and build bridges.

Rooted will air the second Tuesday of each month, so be sure to subscribe where ever you listen to your podcasts and watch your notifications for updates.

I’m excited to present the inaugural episode of Rooted - a story about the important role HutchRec plays in building a rich community. I learned a lot about the history of recreation in our community, and I’m sure you’ll enjoy this conversation as much as I did!

You can listen to Rooted with HutchRec anywhere you listen to podcasts, or you can find it at Salt City Podcasts.

07/09/2026

I'm so excited about this new Podcast with Hutch Rec. We'll be live first thing tomorrow morning, and you'll have the chance to learn about the history of HutchRec, and how the organization works to build strong connections, Rooted In Community.

Tomorrow, we're planting the first seed of something we've been excited to share.
🎙️ ROOTED with Hutch Rec, our new podcast, launches tomorrow!

Expect great conversations, local stories, behind-the-scenes moments, and plenty of reasons to love this community even more.

Hosted by our friends at That Guy in Hutch this is one podcast you'll want to add to your monthly rotation.

🌱 See you tomorrow!

07/06/2026

The 3rd installment on my series on Kansas Senator Edmund G. Ross - and a Kansas Kind of Courage.

I'll put the rest ⬇

‘“By the firmness and courage of Senator Ross,” it was said, ‘the country was saved from calamity greater than war, while it consigned him to a political martyrdom, the most cruel in our history...Ross was the victim of a wild flame of intolerance which swept everything before it. He did his duty knowing that it meant his political death...It was a brave thing for Ross to do, but Ross did it. He acted for his conscience and with a lofty patriotism, regardless of what he knew must be the ruinous consequences to himself. He acted right.”

07/04/2026

I wanted to do something a little special for America's 250th Birthday, but wasn't looking for something filled with pageantry, bravado, or manufactured ideas of patriotism.

I've landed on this series on Kansas Senator Edmund G. Ross, who cast one of the most important votes in America's history - yet has been barely a footnote in the story we tell about our country.

Ross faced intense pressure to toe the party line, to do what was expected of him, and to just do as he was told.

Instead, he did what he felt in his soul was the right thing, and in doing so he might have well saved the United States of America.

And I love that this story is from Kansas.

So far, I have written two installments, with plans for four, maybe five.

You can get full story so far ⬇

07/03/2026

As America marks its 250th birthday, it is worth remembering that the country has survived not because people always did the popular thing, but because some were willing to stand alone.

Kansas Senator Edmund G. Ross was one of them. Yet, he's a figure that I'd scarcely heard about before.

A Radical Republican, abolitionist, Union veteran, printer, and early Kansas leader, Ross cast one of the most consequential votes in American history when he voted to acquit President Andrew Johnson in his impeachment trial of 1868.

It cost Ross his career, and much more.

But Ross believed the future of the presidency — and the balance of the republic — mattered more than party allegiance.

This is Part 1 of a series on Edmund G. Ross, Kansas courage, and the cost of conscience.

You can read the original - find it ⬇️

06/16/2026

Christopher Acker came down to Burden, Kansas to record a special episode of That Podcast in Hutch. I'll put that down below - which will also include some really nice and fun photos from this year's Biking Across Kansas

The Point of the Ride
The map tells us where to go. Everything in between is the point.

The days and weeks after Biking Across Kansas leave me with a few side effects.

I spend big chunks of my day in my head, processing some of the experiences, interactions, successes, failures, and thoughts that surfaced along the road.

I also spend time contemplating ways I could make spending all day on a bike a bigger part of my everyday life. A week of absolute clarity in one’s goal, one’s purpose - getting to the next stop and the freedom to determine how - stands in stark contrast to the often muddy reality of ordinary life. Also, doing something that feels so big then stepping back into the world of corporate normalcy can feel somewhat depressingly empty.

It reminds me to always question and evalutate how I’m spending my one wild and precious life, and this poem -

"Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean—
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down—
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?
—Mary Oliver.

If joy is an act of resistance, then we must steal it where we can.

Generations of joyless men have built structures to contain us, and to keep us chasing a manufactured joy that costs us daily payments from our souls. Give more of ourselves, over a whole lifetime, and one day we’ll, maybe, reach that destination we’ve all been told is the goal.

And the destination, if you haven’t noticed, keeps moving further away.

Yet, given enough space from the busyness of life, we feel the tension in our chest. The very old knowledge that someone else’s goal is not the point.

Biking Across Kansas helps me remember.

There is a start and an end, daily and for the entire week.

But the ride is the the thing.

And the ride is a different sunrise everyday.

The changes in the weather, the clouds, the heat, and the wind.

It’s the welcoming warmth of a Kansas town, and the people who put so much of themselves into making our time there feel special.

It’s the curiosity of strangers.

It’s kids with impromptu lemonade stands, whose eyes fill with wonder about how far they could ride their bikes, too.

It’s sharing a few beers with friends.

It’s making new friends with new people who live along the route.

It’s waking up every hour worried that you’ll be late, and oversleeping because you finally got comfortable and tired enough to let yourself.

The ride starts and ends at points on a map, and there’s clarity and purpose to move along that path.

But the ride?

That’s everything that isn’t on the map.

05/16/2026

I was asked to give the graduation address for the Hutchinson Midtown students, which felt like a great privilege to me. I was incredibly grateful for the opportunity.

It’s a special thing to be able to share in and celebrate in our community life - and more so to share in the development of children on the cusp of adult life.

The mission of MidTown Center is to provide real-world, relevant learning in a safe, smaller setting that is conducive for all students to achieve.

That’s extra special for me, since, admittedly, I wasn’t always the most focused, determined, or typical student when I was young.

Here’s the message I shared with the graduates, their family and friends, and the Midtown and USD 308 staff.

When I was in kindergarten, my teacher asked the class to draw a picture of a tornado.

Before I go on, can we just acknowledge for a moment how special it is to live in a place where you can ask just about any 5 or 6 year old to draw a picture of one of mother nature’s most devastating forces - and it’s likely that they’ll know how without explanation.

So I was asked to draw a tornado. That was it.

Nothing about the background, or the size, or anything else. One simple instruction - draw a tornado. The rest was up to me to decide.

Or so I thought.

I quickly went to work, drawing my tornado, then put down my crayon and proudly held up my drawing, expecting that my teacher would offer glowing praise for my exceptional artistic ability, creativity, and hard work.

She looked down at me and said: “You did it wrong.”

I looked across the room and saw every other student holding up their interpretation of a Kansas tornado.

To a person, they had drawn their tornados from a side view perspective - with the wide part of the funnel at the top, gradually shrinking toward the small part of the funnel touching the ground.

Not me, though.

You can read the rest ⬇⬇