Charity Nebbe

"A Higher Place," the new album from the Iowa City based band The Diplomats of Solid Sound is full of great hooks, danceable grooves, big funk sound and clever lyrics. 

The band released it’s first album 18 years ago and has gone through a lot of changes since then. This is album number six and although band members now live all over the country they try to come back together in Iowa once a year to write and make music together. 

Navigating life after high school is challenging for many students. But this transitional period can be difficult for young people in the foster care system. The Guardian Scholars Foundation is designed to help students who are aging out of foster care in Iowa and hope to attend college full-time. It offers a scholarship and mentorship program to help them reach their potential. 

  This program origionally aired on 09-05-2017.

Bruce Campbell has been producing and starring in films since the 1970s, and through work largely with low-budget horror films, he has carved out a niche for himself as an iconic B movie actor. His most recognized role is that of Ash in the Evil Dead film franchise, which has produced three films, six video games, numerous comic books, and a critically-acclaimed TV show on Starz entitled Ash vs. Evil Dead, which was renewed for a third season in 2016. He mentions how his horror movie The Evil Dead received some added credibility from a fellow horror icon.

There are no National Parks in Iowa, and few across the Midwest. Joe Schomberg, a Fort Dodge native living in Chicago wants to change that.

Barb Stein's Reading List

Picture Books/Board Books

I Ain't Gonna Paint No More by Karen Beaumont

Lion and Mouse by Jairo Buitrago

Camp Tiger by Susan Choi

Gondra's Treasure by Linda Sue Park

Transitional Books

Juana & Lucas Big Problems by Juana Medina

Good Dog, McTavish by Meg Rosoff

Big Foot and Little Foot The Squatchicorns by Ellen Potter

Middle School

  This program origionally aired on 12-08-2017.

UI Writer's Workshop graduate Reza Aslan has been writing and talking about God for most of his career. His newest book God: A Human History follows his last title Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth.

"If we can learn to stop hoisting our own emotions upon God, I think we can pave the path for a much more peaceful religiosity," he says. 

Whether you’re looking for scientific exploration, captivating memoir, or an opportunity to get lost in a novel, summer is the perfect time to pick up a new book release.

Fresh siding can make an old house look new again, but before you visit the hardware store or call a contractor, it's important to find out what siding is a good fit for you and your home.

On this episode of Talk of Iowa host Charity Nebbe sits down with home improvement expert Bill McAnally for a conversation about all things siding. Later on in the program, McAnally answers home improvement questions from IPR listeners. 

This is the time of year when peonies burst forth in all their glory. Some are cultivated for their beauty as a bouquet flower, and others may just be a lovely addition to the garden. They're spectacular, they smell amazing, and but unfortunately, they don't last long. 

This program origionally aired on 8-29-17. 

Great advancements in technology certainly assist everyday life, but these advancements often inflict people with dread.

On this edition of Talk of Iowa, Charity Nebbe speaks with two novelists, Benjamin Percy and Alissa Nutting, who reflect these anxieties in their work.

When Jim Hamlyn was deployed to Vietnam from 1966 to 1967, he took a 8mm movie camera with him. Like many soldiers that returned home, the haunting memories and complicated emotions came home with him, along with a rare collection of movies that have been given new life as part of the documentary, "A Bad Deal: My Vietnam War Story."

Our ever-present electronic devices have changed so much about the way we live, including how we read books. 

A downed tree may seem like an expensive cleanup project, but to Monica Tiffany, a small business owner from McGregor, a large piece of wood is a blank canvas.

This program originally aired on July 18, 2017.

Rivers are a vital part of Iowa's ecosystem.

“Rivers in Iowa are the most important corridors of habitat, the ribbons of habitat, that we have left," says  wildlife biologist Jim Pease.

Over the past four summers Pease has paddled 1800 miles of Iowa rivers. On these trips he’s learned a lot about habitat, water quality, and human impact on the water ways. 

We survived the polar vortex and just had a cool damp spring, but now that the weather seems to be catching up with the season, many of our trees look like they are still lagging behind. If you've been asking yourself "What's wrong with my trees?" this spring, rest assured you are not alone.

Caleb “The Negro Artist” Rainey’s poetry collection “Look, Black Boy” begins with this dedication: “To everyone who showed me that I was meant to be more than dead.”

Singer/songwriter Sarah Vos struggled with her identity as a young adult but found comfort in playing music with her bandmate Dan Wolf, finding shared inspiration in their past pains and hardships.

On this segment of Talk of Iowa, host Charity Nebbe talks with Milwaukee-based Americana duo Dead Horses. The band discusses how they came together and turned their personal narratives into thoughtful, empathetic movement.

At the age of 50, Jeff Schmid wasn't looking for a breakthrough as a professional golfer, but he recently earned his way into two major PGA tournaments.

Wright Thompson has profiled some of the greatest athletes of all time as a senior writer for  ESPN, studying what drives them, their complicated relationships, and the sacrifices made to achieve their dreams. On this hour of Talk of Iowa, host Charity Nebbe talks with Thompson about his latest book, "The Cost of These Dreams: Sports Stories and other Serious Business" .

This program originally aired on August 31, 2017.

In under three years, Mike Glenn went from needing glasses to complete vision loss. In this Talk of Iowa segment, host Charity Nebbe talks with guests about conditions that can lead to adult vision loss or severe impairment. Glenn lost his vision to diabetic retinopathy. Nebbe also talks with Archie Rodin who has gradually been losing his sight to macular degeneration.

Iris is an easy-to-grow perennial flowering plant that has more than 200 species of beautiful flowers that come in many shades. Iris takes its name from the Greek Goddess of the rainbow because of its wide range of colors.

Glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, manufactured by Monsanto-Bayer, is widely used in Iowa. It's sprayed on thousands of acres of farmland each year and is commonly used in lawns and gardens.

Earlier this month, a California jury awarded a couple more than $2 million in a dispute against Monsanto, ruling that the plaintiffs contracted non-Hodgkin lymphoma because of their use of Roundup. This is the third such case to end this way in California in the last two years.

You wouldn't expect a world-renowned charcoal and pastel artist like Cecile Houel to move from Paris to the southeastern corner of Iowa, and she didnt either. But Houel fell in love with Iowa, drawing strength and inspiration from the Mississippi River.

In this Talk of Iowa segment, Charity Nebbe talks with Houel about her life and career in Paris, her first impressions of Iowa and what has kept her here, her love of humanity, and her desire to heal through her work.

Debra Marquart had not originally intended to become an acclaimed poet, a distinguished professor at Iowa State University, or Iowa's next poet laureate. Marquart instead wanted to be a road musician, singing lead for a rock band and traveling from gig to gig, but life took her on a different path. 

In this edition of Talk of Iowa, host Charity Nebbe talks with Marquart about being named the new Iowa Poet Laureate, her life as a road musician before her literary pursuits, and the impact poetry can have on people.

After growing up in small-town Iowa and graduating from Iowa State University, Cyndi Gryte went to Manhattan where her wildest adventures and biggest blunders would go on to inspire her semi-autobiographical debut novel, “Sydney Shag and the Sirens: Heavy on the Vodka and a Little bit Dirty."

Early this month the UN's Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services released a summary of an upcoming 1,500-page report, where it states that one million plants, insects and animal species are on the verge of extinction.

Slugs are nocturnal and feed at night when we can’t see them. They also love to eat holes in the leaves of hosta plants.

In this Horticulture Day edition of Talk of Iowa, Charity Nebbe talks with Donald Lewis, a professor of entomology at Iowa State University, who has an extensive hosta collection and therefore a long-term relationship with slugs. He shares his tips on how to control and live with them.

Iowa State University Extension Horticulture Specialist Richard Jauron also joins the program.

We all use adjectives to describe things and the world around us, for example: "look at that speedy little red car!" or "look the beautiful clear blue sky." So why don't we say "that red little speedy car" or "that blue clear beautiful sky"?

Adjectives have different classes (color, size, quality, ect.) that appear in a predetermined order, which English speakers automatically use without even thinking about it.

For centuries, yoga has served as a healing and therapeutic practice that has helped many who have encountered trauma in their life.

"When trauma happens, there is this lack of power, this lack of choice over what is happening," says Julie Jack, founder and editor of The Exhale Project, a grant funded program that offers free yoga classes to survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence, human trafficking and other related traumas.