animals

The first Black woman to graduate from Grinnell lived to be 111. She was admired for her wit and wisdom and helped with the preservation of her rich family history. We listen back to producer Dani Gehr's 2025 conversation with Renfrow Smith at her home in Chicago. Then, host Charity Nebbe spoke with the author of a children's book about Renfrow Smith, 'No One is Better Than You,' and the Grinnell professor that led the Renfrow family history project, Tamara Beauboeuf-Lafontant. Then, we learn about an Iowa organization that keeps pets and their owners together, assisting elderly and low-income Iowans and those with disabilities.

Puppy Parker Posey, a beagle mix living in Des Moines, uses augmentative interspecies communication to express herself.

Some pet-owners are talking with their pets using augmentative interspecies communication devices — learning more about what animals want, feel and understand.

The city of Ames recently purchased property for a new animal shelter that could double the number of animals taken in while providing more space for individual cats, dogs and exotic pets. Staff say the larger space will also help them expand other services and ease shelter capacity issues in the region.

To celebrate thirty years of eating, growing, harvesting and cooking on The Splendid Table, the show is going on tour and will make a stop in Iowa City.

Kanzi taught scientists and visitors about bonobos, language and being human.

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

Dubuque resident Emily Harold shares about opening her heart, and her home, to foster animals in need of extra care. She's fostered five dogs through the Collie Rescue of Greater Illinois since 2022.

University of Iowa professor Elizabeth Willis' latest collection of poetry Liontaming in America has been longlisted for the 2024 National Book Award for Poetry.

With increased prices for food and housing due to inflation, economic hardship forces some owners to put their animals up for adoption. Some animal rescue groups in Iowa work to try and address the problem.