Talk of Iowa

On this episode, we listen back to a 2025 conversation with Dawson resident and Air Force veteran Justin Wolfe, who received bronze at the 10th annual Invictus Games in Vancouver, Canada. Adaptive sports have helped Wolfe push past limitations from his diagnosis of multiple sclerosis. Troy Peterson, a fellow veteran and Winterset resident, helped Justin turn to sports through his non-profit ValorFit. Later in the hour, research from ecologists Steven Dinsmore and Victoria Fasbender at Iowa State University demonstrates that humans can tweak their behavior in relatively small ways that could make a positive impact for the pectoral sandpiper, a migratory shore bird that often stops in Iowa on the way from breeding grounds in the Arctic to where they winter in South America. (This episode was originally produced Feb. 25, 2025.)

The Americans with Disabilities Act has done a lot to improve accessibility in public spaces, but people with physical disabilities still encounter barriers every day. Host Charity Nebbe interviews Iowans who are trying to make our state more accessible. (This episode was originally produced Jan. 23, 2025.)

On this episode, we talk with author Yiyun Li about her Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir is 'Things in Nature Merely Grow,' and her new novel 'Music Against the Night.' Then, we listen back to a 2022 conversation with baker and Food Network regular Andrew Fuller.

Sixty years ago, the National Historic Preservation Act was signed into law, establishing a partnership and preservation ethic on historic properties between the federal government and state, tribal, and local governments. The U.S. Senate is now looking to change that framework in a permitting reform bill that was introduced on September 30 and is scheduled for a vote on November 9. Proponents of the bill say it’s designed to expedite projects, but stakeholders say it infringes on tribal and state rights and could lead to litigation and other roadblocks.

Now that it feels like fall, it's time to grapple with reality. On this Horticulture Day episode, Iowa State University horticulture professor Jeff Iles tells us how to prepare our woody landscape plants for cold weather and hungry critters. Then extension horticulture specialist Aaron Steil joins us, and he and Jeff answer listener questions.

On this episode, we explore the tools needed to tackle political discussions with loved ones, first by hearing the skills Greg and Jennifer Brost have developed since 2016. Then, human resources professional Jason Glass joins the conversation to share how skills in the workplace translate into personal relationships. Also, we hear from longtime friends Bob Leonard and Kevin Kincaid on how they have healthy discourse from different sides of the political spectrum and even enjoy it.

We revisit an interview with author Joanna Dee Das about her book, 'Faith, Family and Flag: Branson Entertainment and the Idea of America' and what Branson’s entertainment culture reveals about faith, patriotism and American identity. Then, a conversation with Conor Knighton, Emmy Award-winning correspondent from 'CBS Sunday Morning.' He's also the bestselling author of 'Leave Only Footprints: My Acadia to Zion Journey Through Every National Park.' (Part of this episode was originally produced Jan. 30, 2026.)

More than two hundred years later, Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein' still feels urgently relevant as it explores the dangers of playing God, the traumas of parental abandonment and the costs of rejection by society. On this episode of the 'Talk of Iowa' Book Club, we discuss 'Frankenstein' with three expert readers.

As second wave feminism was taking off, an equal and opposite movement to keep women in traditional roles was also gaining steam. On this episode, a 'Live, Laugh Love: The Secret History of White Christian Women and the World They Made' explores this history. We talk with author Kristin Kobes Du Mez about the origins of white Christian femininity in the United States.