Josie Fischels
Arts & Culture ReporterExpertise: Performance art, visual art, Iowa life
Education: The University of Iowa
Favorite Iowa Destination: Dunnings Springs, Decorah
Experience:
- Covered local and statewide arts, news, and lifestyle features for <i>The Daily Iowan</i>, <i>The Denver Post</i>, NPR and currently for IPR
- Has written features on Iowans participating in the Hollywood writers’ strike, the nation’s largest historic theatre backdrop collection – housed in Iowa, the reopening of the African American Museum of Iowa and an ‘inside-the-culture’ feature on local drag kings, among others
- Is an award-winning reporter, including a retrospective of Iowa’s first poet laureate, Marvin Bell, following his death in 2021
- Writes regularly for IPR’s internationally award-winning newsletters
- Covered the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics, climate and the Kabul takeover by the Taliban in 2021 for NPR’s news desk
- Served as an editor and mentor for multiple projects with NPR’s Next Generation Radio
- Created IPR’s weekly news quiz and launched IPR’s TikTok (follow us!)
My Latest Stories
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The student's research found that the statue, which had been part of the Mount Vernon college's art collection for over a century, had been taken from the Etowah Indian Mounds in Georgia in 1886. It was returned to the Muscogee (Creek) Nation on Sept. 30. -
The performers are embarking on their first-ever headline theater tour, "Knockout," which will arrive at Waukee's Vibrant Music Hall on Oct. 11. -
The performances, presented by the Iowa Labor History Society, aim to highlight Darrow's fights for workers' rights, classroom freedom and justice — issues that remain at the heart of today's political debates. -
Horror author Ira Rat hopes to give Iowa writers in the genre a space to connect with the inaugural One of Us horror fiction convention. -
The community theater was founded in Grant Wood's studio in 1925 and has grown to become Iowa's largest nonprofit producing theater. -
After filming at iconic Iowa City landmarks and including locals as extras, the feature film will move on to Dubuque next. -
Kat Schmidt from Des Moines was named Grand Champion of the 2025 Fiddling Competition Sunday at the Iowa State Fair. -
"Iowa Artists 2025: Ben Millett," now on display in a landmark exhibition at the Des Moines Art Center, marks the art center's first solo show dedicated entirely to quilt making. -
Beyond the classic blue ribbon pies and livestock showings, the Iowa State Fair offers a schedule of weird and wonderful events that prove just how much Iowans love a good spectacle. -
Hinterland celebrated its 10th anniversary in an expanded location in St. Charles this year, bringing headliners Tyler, the Creator, Kacey Musgraves and Lana Del Rey.
