Lindsey Moon

Republican Steve King has represented Iowa in Congress for eight terms. In the upcoming election, he faces democratic challenger J.D. Scholten. Will the predicted midterm blue wave affect Iowa's fourth district? 

During the second half of this hour of River to River, host Ben Kieffer talks with political analysts Valerie Hennings, associate professor of political science at Morningside College and Dave Andersen, assistant professor of political science at Iowa State University about Iowa's 4th district. 

Last week, Google made headlines after an Associated Press report found that the company is still tracking your location even after you turn off location services on your phone. The company has since apologized and issues a clarification on their website. 

"This idea of just blindly collecting data without telling us is really disturbing, and it's not just Google. These are issues we hear about off and on for the last 10 years, this collection of information without us knowing," says Doug Jacobsen, director of the Information Assurance Center at Iowa State University. 

Tank and the Bangas, an American funk and soul music group from New Orleans won 2017’s Tiny Desk Contest by unanimous vote, wowing NPR’s music desk with their unique spoken word inspired style. During this Talk of Iowa conversation, Tarriona "Tank" Ball,  who is  lead vocalist for the band, talks with host Charity Nebbe. 

Tank and her band are headlining a Halloween show on Tuesday, October 30 at Codfish Hollow in Maquoketa. 

The aquatic bird, the loon, doesn’t spend a lot of time in Iowa, but loons do pass through twice a year as they migrate from the Gulf of Mexico to northern waters and back again.

During this hour of Talk of Iowa, Charity Nebbe talks with wildlife biologist Jim Pease and longtime loon watcher Mike Meetz about these remarkable creatures and what they can tell us about our changing planet.

There is an ever growing conversation about consent in our culture. How do you get consent? Isn’t it awkward to ask for permission in the heat of the moment? Is the conversation about consent about more than just sex?

According to Alison Oliver, a lecturer in the school of social work at the University of Iowa, these are all great questions to consider. She offers this definition: 

We're living in a world that increasingly operates 24 hours a day, due to forces of globalization. What does that mean for us and our working hours? Our leisure time? 

During this hour of Talk of Iowa, we talk about the reasons we're working more hours than ever before and when and why we started to see businesses open all night long. 

To start the show, Cynthia Freidhoff, whose father founded Ross' Restaurant in Bettendorf, one of the first 24 hour diners in the state, joins host Charity Nebbe. 

People who sleep fewer than six hours, or longer than eight hours may be at greater risk of developing or dying from coronary artery disease or stroke.

During this hour of River to River, host Ben Kieffer talks with Dr. Eric Dyken, a neurologist with the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics Sleep Disorder Center. In addition to new research connecting sleep habits to stroke, we also hear about a blood test in development for drowsy driving and about some suprising connections between napping patterns and genetics.

Art Cullen's  commentary about water quality and agribusiness in Iowa won him the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing in 2017 .

While the nation is captivated by the aftermath of yesterday's Senate Judiciary hearing news about those who were aware of sexual misconduct from Iowa's former Iowa Finance Authority director is developing.

During this hour of River to River, Emily Woodbury talks with Donna Hoffman, a political science professor at the University of Northern Iowa, and Erin Jordan, who is an investigative reporter for the Cedar Rapids Gazette. 

In the second half of the show, we listen to an interview with libertarian candidate for governor, Jake Porter. 

President Trump has accused democrats of a "con game" against Judge Brett Kavanaugh, describing one of the three women who have accused him of sexual misconduct as a student who was "messed up" and "drunk" at the time. 

During this hour of River to River, host Ben Kieffer talks with Donna Hoffman of the University of Northern Iowa, and Wayne Moyer of Grinnell College about accusations against Judge Brett Kavanaugh, and about President Trump's address before the United Nations Tuesday. 

This interview originally aired on January 9, 2018.

In her book "White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide," professor Carol Anderson writes about what she says is a trend as old as the nation itself: "white rage."

During this hour of Talk of Iowa, host Charity Nebbe talks with Patricia O'Connor, the author of Woe is I, about new words that have been added to the dictionary in 2018. 

Former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick was the first to kneel during the national anthem in protest of social inquality and police brutality. Because of this controversial move, he hasn't been signed by a team since he went out as a free agent last year, but he has maintained his spot in the political sports conversation, and continues to spark dialogue through a new Nike ad campaign. 

As we are experiencing the largest refugee crisis in human history, millions of people are being forced to flee their homes. It can be hard to remember that each refugee is a human being with an individual story to tell. 

On this News Buzz edition of River to River, host Ben Kieffer talks to Emily Piper, lobbyist for the Iowa Association of School Boards, and Kristin Hilton, school counselor at Central Academy, about a new Iowa law that requires training for educators to help students with mental health issues.

This law is designed to give teachers the tools to help students experiencing mental health issues and establish protocols for suicide prevention. 

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More Iowa high school students go on to college than oublic school graduates  in other states. Iowa also has the best graduation rate of any state in the country. But does that mean we have the best schools?

During this hour of River to River, we hear how Iowa's schools compare nationally in terms of funding, test scores and graduation rate, and talk about how the Iowa Department of Education measures the success of schools statewide. 

Guests for this hour include:

There aren't as many high school football and volleyball players as there were ten years ago. 

That's according to Iowa High School Athletic Association Communications Director Chris Cuellar. He says the number of high school football players dropped from 22,000 to 16,000 during the 10 year period from 2007 to 2017. 

"According to our data which is 9th through 12th graders, boys participating in 11 player football has dropped 25% since 2007," he says. "Buoying it is slow growth in cross country and soccer." 

Mollie Tibbetts was many things, a Hawkeye, a daughter, a volunteer and much more. She was also a runner who never came home.

In the wake of her murder many women are questioning themselves as they lace up their shoes. During this hour of Talk of Iowa, we’ll talk about what Mollie Tibbetts’ murder tells us about our culture, the risks girls and women face and what we can and should do to make our world a safer place.  

During this Talk of Iowa interview, host Charity Nebbe talks with Andrew Fuller, the artist and founder of Guy Meets Cake. 

Fuller has recently been getting national attention for his newest macabre creations, "people pot pies," which are inspired by his love of Halloween and horror and his fascination with artistic hyperrealism. 

As a child raised in Dubuque during the 80s, Luke Stoffel was often told by his mother to stay outside until he found his own version of fun. That, his mother Joyce says, pushed him to be inventive.

“Allowing some of that to happen in kid’s life, their boredom will eventually work into creativity,” she explains.

Trying to slow down floods or filter out pollution? Hoping to capture more water for agriculture? Worried about erosion or wildfire? It turns out that one creature can help with all these problems and more - the beaver. 

According to Ben Goldfarb, the author of a new book about beavers, the beaver is as useful of an animal as it is interesting. The beaver's iconic tail, for example, has many purposes. 

"A beaver's tail, it's a fat storage mechanism. Like bears put on fat for the winter, beavers put on fat in their tail," says Goldfarb. 

Investing money, time and effort into getting a PhD used to almost guarantee a position at a college or a university somewhere, but times have changed. The job market for academics has gotten a lot tighter, the competition stiffer and the future less certain. 

Rusty Gates is a history professor at Bradley University in Peoria, and while he feels incredibly lucky to be working in his field, he does sometimes wish he could find a job closer to home. He lives in Iowa City, where his wife, who is also a professor, works at the University of Iowa. 

Linden is a town of about 200 people, and Bagley is not much bigger with a population of just around 300 in west-central Iowa. The last two weeks, however, have been like Christmas in August for both small town libraries. 

During this hour of River to River, host Ben Kieffer talks with Dr. Mae Jemison, the first African-American woman admitted into NASA's astronaut training program, and the first African-American woman in space. She visited the Iowa State Fair earlier this week. He also checks in with astrophysicist Jasper Halekas, co-investigator of the Parker Solar Probe mission for NASA, about the mission's spacecraft that is flying around the sun.

The Trump-bashing attorney Michael Avenatti appeared in Iowa at the Iowa Democratic Party Wing Ding over the weekend, and he also stopped by the Iowa State Fair. 

During this Politics Day episode of River to River, host Ben Kieffer talks with Wayne Moyer of Grinnell College and Jim McCormick of Iowa State University about Avenatti's visit. They also discuss the Paul Manafort trial, President Trump's attacks on Omarosa Manigault Newman, and other political news of the week. 

Climate change is coming to Iowa, and with it, more frequent and intense storms. During this hour of River to River, we hear stories of severe weather recovery. 

Marshalltown Mayor Joel Greer joins to discuss the EF-3 tornado that hit town nearly a month ago, and Angie Crees of Bondurant talks about how her roof lifted up and set back down by an EF-2 tornado the same day.

As we age, many things become more challening. That includes driving. 

During this hour of River to River, host Ben Kieffer talks with Dan McGehee of the University of Iowa National Advanced Driving Simulator, and Larry Neppl, who is an instructor for AARP's Driving Safety Program. 

Iowa is second only to Florida in the highest percentage of licensed drivers over the age of 85, and ranks fourth in the nation in percentage of the population over the age of 65. 

It may have started with Amazon, but it certainly hasn't stopped there. The rise of online shopping has made ordering things to our door so much easier. That now includes food, and that doesn't just mean pizza or Chinese take out. 

A new grocery delivery service called Instacart is starting service in many places in the state later this month, and Iowa based HyVee started a program called Aisles Online that provides free grocery delivery two years ago if you spend more than $100. 

Iowa has a new invasive species, the jumping worm, and it spells bad news for soil health. According to Iowa State University extension entomologist Donald Lewis, the worms have been in New England for a decade. They are also found in Iowa's border states, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. 

After a hard fought primary race Deidre DeJear, a democrat running against current Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate, could become the first black woman in Iowa to hold statewide office.

DeJear says it is her goal to connect with voters and make the voting process accessible for everyone, an attitude which was inspired by her grandmother who was an election commissioner in Oklahoma.