The pronunciation of "Casa Grande," an Arizona city, has sparked popular debate. Some pronounce it with a distinct "e" sound at the end ("Casa Grande"), while other drop the "e" and say "Casa grand."

This week on Valley 101, a podcast by the Arizona Republic and azcentral.com about metro Phoenix and beyond, we talk with former 12 News anchor Vanessa Ruiz and artist and co-owner of True West magazine Bob Boze Bell on the correct pronunciation.

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Like the rest of the county, the 1950s in Arizona were a deeply divided time. Education, housing and public places like hotels and restaurants everywhere were segregated by race.

It might not be the first place people think of when it comes to the civil rights movement, but Arizona had key leaders that drew that attention of national voices like Martin Luther King Jr. Most work was all being done in the Valley. Up north, a recent graduate of the teaching college at Northern Arizona University would change life for Black residents of Flagstaff forever.

Annie Watkins discovered that ballots from Black voters were being thrown away so she turned her education skills into a different sort of teaching. And this was just the beginning of her legacy.

This week on Valley 101, a podcast by the Arizona Republic and azcentral.com about metro Phoenix and beyond, we share the life and legacy of Annie Watkins, from her time in Louisiana to an exhibit honoring her strides in integrating Flagstaff.

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It's not as dumb of a question as you might think it is. Once you may have looked out your window and saw the strangest thing. White flakes, falling from the sky! What on earth could this be?

If you’ve lived in metro Phoenix all your life this may take a little explanation.

This week on Valley 101, a podcast by The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com, we spoke with Tom Frieders, warning coordination meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Phoenix, who answers the question, can it snow in Phoenix?

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Not only does the water of the SRP canals help people live in the desert, but it also employs a very important contributor to the community: the white amur fish. Now, you might not immediately think of fish as being important to living in the desert, but this specific kind of grass carp plays a key role in ensuring the water flows smoothly throughout the canals.

Since the canals are surrounded by a major metropolitan area, they tend to end up with some blown-in debris and garbage from city life. This led one of our listeners to ask if it's safe for the fish to be in the canals, and who takes care of the trash that finds its way into them.

This week on Valley 101, a podcast by The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com, we hear from a senior environmental scientist from SRP who explains the important job the white amur fish does for metro Phoenix.

Click here for the map of the canal dry-up schedule.

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If you've ever stopped at an airport convenience shop or gassed up at a truck stop or shopped at a gag-gift store, you've seen them: scorpion lollipops.

While they definitely fall into the category of curious novelty, they're also a big business, especially in Arizona. A lot of them are sold in the state, almost certainly more than you would think.

This week on Valley 101, a podcast by The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com, we spoke with Larry Peterman, the founder of the fantastically named Hotlix, a California candy company that makes them, and Reia Li, who wrote a story about the suckers in The Arizona Republic.

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Metro Phoenix is a vastly underrated dining oasis, with plenty of good food, from fine dining to fine burger joints. Each year, the Arizona Republic releases a list of 100 essential restaurants in the Valley. And by "essential" we don't mean just the places that taste the best, though of course with food taste is pretty essential. These are places that taste good and are also important to the community.

But what does "essential" mean to one of the biggest advocates for Phoenix's dining scene? And how does a restaurant get on the list in the first place?

This week on Valley 101, a podcast by The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com, we talked with iconic Phoenix restauranteur Chris Bianco, who has two restaurants on the list, and with Felicia Campbell, the Republic's food, dining and nightlife editor, who helped answer the question.

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The new year is upon us, which means all kinds of resolutions and predictions.

But maybe most importantly people look ahead. Some people make predictions. Some people make New Year’s Resolutions. And us? We’re talking to some folks who are in the know about what we can expect in 2025.

This week on Vallyey 101, we talk about what big developments are coming to metro Phoenix in travel, dining, sports and Broadway Curve construction.

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We are out this week but we hope you're having a safe and festive holiday season.

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A titan in Arizona arts turned 60 this year. Locals might know it as the "pink birthday cake," but everyone knows it as ASU Gammage. Opened in 1964, Gammage is the only public building Frank Lloyd Wright made in Arizona. In partnership with his good friend and president of Arizona State University at the time, Grady Gammage, the renowned architect took plans originally for an opera house in Baghdad to create the university's performing arts space.

This week on Valley 101, a podcast by The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com, we sit down with the executive director of ASU Gammage Colleen Jennings-Roggensack to talk about the history of the theater and the magic it has kept for 60 years.

She tells Valley 101 inside stories about working with NASA engineers to innovate the theater, her admiration for Wright's dedication to the desert and how she brought Gammage into the modern day.

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In New York, you've got the big tree at the Rockefeller Center looming over the ice rink. In the small town where I grew up in the mountains of Virginia, there is a parade the whole town comes out for.

And in Arizona, you've got tamales.

The Mexican dish is a staple of Christmas time in our border state. But how did they become so connected to the holidays and why do they matter so much?

This week on Valley 101, a podcast by The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com, I talked to a couple of people who know their tamales. One is Brenda Mercado Valdez, the owner of Fire and Braids and the winner of the La Voz Top Tamale contest. The other is Paula Soria, the La Voz reporter who wrote about the contest — and who, like Brenda, has a family history with tamales.

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