The Des Moines Gay Men's Chorus sings music with a message. On this episode of Talk of Iowa, we hear from two members as the chorus turns 25 years old. Then, we hear from the founder of 'The Healing Obituary.' She teaches how to write obituaries and makes the case for why they should be done by humans.
Maura Curran
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Iowa Public Radio
Rachel Cramer
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Iowa Public Radio
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UnityPoint nurses marched through Des Moines months after a still undetermined election in December on whether to form a union. Nurses said the hospital is filing objections to delay confirming the vote. -
Changes to the Des Moines Area Regional Transit Authority (DART) will start on June 14. The bus system currently has 27 routes that are being consolidated into 10 main ones. -
Liz Ledgett, Des Moines gallery owner and author of 'Art is for Everyone,' shares how to curate an art collection on a budget. Then, we hear from Chris Nelson, the founder of Nelson Media Company, who is working to turn around several small-town newspapers.
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Ian Roberts admitted that he falsely claimed citizenship when he was hired by Des Moines Public Schools. He faces deportation to his native Guyana after he serves his sentence. -
Broadlawns Medical Center's new mobile clinic aims to increase access to dementia care and testing for underserved populations in Polk County. -
Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a property tax relief bill into law Monday afternoon. Earlier in the day, Des Moines city officials reviewed a looming multimillion budget shortfall in upcoming years due to the property tax changes.
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Des Moines Performing Arts CEO Monica Holt spent nearly two decades at The John F. Kennedy Center, which she left shortly after President Donald Trump removed and replaced a majority of the center's longtime board leadership. -
The Center Street Neighborhood — a tight-knit, predominantly Black community — was destroyed by highway construction and city urban renewal projects. Our sense of community is tied to economic opportunity, and this hour, we explore this by starting with Richard Duncan, a former resident of the Center Street neighborhood, and his wife and documentary partner, Madison Deshay-Duncan. Then we return to the wealth inequality of the Gilded Age with economist and historian Joshua Rosenbloom to see what parallels we can draw to today. Finally, union president Charlie Wishman shares how fewer manufacturing jobs and weakened unions harmed our communities.
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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.
