Samantha McIntosh

Actor Will Ferrell and writer Harper Steele have been collaborators and friends for 30 years.

From Muddy Waters to The Lumineers, a venue located in the basement of Iowa State University's Memorial Union has seen 50 years of music, theatre, comedy and more.

A recent poll from The AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that 62% of adults say democracy in the U.S. could be at risk in the 2024 presidential election.

Every spring, nearly a million sandhill cranes pass through an 80-mile stretch of the Platte River in Nebraska on their northward migration.

Internationally renowned Danish artist Thomas Dambo is known for creating towering, whimsical trolls that can be found all around the world. Built from reclaimed materials, they've popped up in hidden, natural locations all across the globe. Now, there are four to find in Iowa.

Plenty of kids dream of being an astronaut and exploring space. These Iowans landed their far-out jobs working with NASA and being involved with the Orion Artemis II mission.

Kevin McKee said the pressure is on for the U.S. sled hockey team to win gold after the wins of the U.S. women’s and men’s teams at the Olympics. The sled hockey team would secure their fifth consecutive gold medal if they win on Sunday’s game.

On this episode, we talk with the people behind Iowa's two Latino film festivals. The Des Moines Latino Film Festival just held its sixth annual event on April 11. Antonio Romero of the Latino Center of Iowa and Ben Godar of Varsity Cinema, who co-present the festival, share how their partnership has reshaped the festival the last couple years, and their hopes for the future. Then, we get a preview of the inaugural Aqui y Alla Latin American Film Festival happening May 1-3 at Filmscene in Iowa City with programming director Ben Delgado and festival committee member Ariana Martinez. Also, poets JD Schraffenberger and Sean Thomas Dougherty join to discuss their recently published "chapbook" of golden shovel-formatted poems that were inspired by the work of James Hearst.

Danish artist Thomas Dambo has built giant troll sculptures all over the world. He makes them entirely out of reclaimed materials and hides them in natural spaces. Iowa is now home to four trolls, as part of Dambo's 'Trolls of America' dream to have at least one troll in all 50 states. On this episode we talk with Thomas about he came to be a world famous trash artist. Then, we hear from the Clinton, Iowa residents who convinced Dambo's team to install wooden trolls in what was once considered the lumber capital of the world, as well as from some of the volunteers and builders who helped construct the trolls named Helmut, Marvin and Warren around the city. A fourth troll named Fjord Ferryman was also recently unveiled in southwest Iowa at the Museum of Danish America in Elk Horn.

Writing in a journal is usually a personal and private act, but there are published diaries that have changed the world. There are scholars who study diaries and family members who treasure them. And if you have a diary, there just might be an archive that would like to collect it when you’re gone. Betsy Rubiner, a journalist, author and a life-long diarist discusses her book, 'Our Diaries, Ourselves: How Diarists Chronicle Their Lives and Document our World.' Later in the hour, we hear from Beth Hoffman, a farmer and journalist who is now the host of a new podcast called 'At the Iowa Farm Table.' The podcast focuses on sustainable agriculture, local food production and consumption, land and water conservation and some of the many challenges facing Iowa right now. (Portions of this episode were originally produced Feb. 24, 2026 and July 4, 2025)