If you find yourself in Marshalltown, keep your eyes open for some very small art installations. On this episode, we meet Josh Cox and Dawn Gettler, the artistic couple behind the Tiny Art Walk. Tiny Art Walk displays work by Dawn and five other local artists on West Main Street in Marshalltown. After spending decades as artists in other cities, Josh and Dawn have made their home in Marshalltown and have connected with and celebrated art in the community. Later in the hour, Talk of Iowa Summer School continues with a lesson about surface mapping from historian Mike Zahs. It's a lesson he's used to help Iowans rediscover and preserve some of Iowa's buried history.
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College students spent the past five summers excavating land around the Abbie Gardner Sharp Cabin in Arnolds Park, uncovering artifacts that help tell the story of one of Iowa's most significant historic sites. With the work complete, officials hope the state will preserve the cabin for future generations. -
The Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake is a rock and roll landmark and one of the few historic ballrooms still operating today. Its legacy is closely tied to 'The Day the Music Died,' when Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. 'The Big Bopper' Richardson performed their final show at the Surf on Feb. 2, 1959, before their fatal plane crash in a field north of Clear Lake the following morning. Often described as a living museum, the Surf has recently expanded with the opening of their Music Experience Center next door, which has artifacts of the three late stars, along with other artists that have performed at the Surf, since it first opened in 1933. In this episode, we tour the Surf Ballroom and the Music Experience Center which includes their immersive 'Not Fade Away' exhibit and Surf Music Academy. We also visit the crash site with Jeff Nicholas, whose family owns and maintains the crash site, which has become a tourist attraction for music lovers around the world. (This show was originally produced February 2, 2026.) -
'Angel Down' is a World War I story told as one continuous sentence, which vividly portrays the horrors of that conflict. Author Daniel Kraus is no stranger to horror. Growing up in Fairfield, he would watch horror movies like 'Night of the Living Dead' and episodes of 'The Twilight Zone' as a five year old with his mom. Kraus joins this episode to talk about his horror and Iowa roots, his latest book, which won this year's Pulitzer Prize for fiction, and his 2023 novel 'Whalefall.' (This show was originally produced February 26, 2026.)
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This summer, the Grout Museum District is preparing to demolish its former science center, the Bluedorn Science Imaginarium. The decision was made in the face of funding uncertainty stemming from property tax reform in Waterloo. -
Our nation is 250 — but 250 years ago, Iowa was a world apart. An ecologist takes us back to a yesteryear’s landscape of endless tallgrass prairie, bison, elk and whooping cranes, and explains why Iowa is now the most ecologically altered state in the nation. A historian discusses the Indigenous nations living here in 1776 and why the American Revolution mattered enormously to people who may not have even known it was happening. And the tribal historic preservation officer of the Meskwaki Nation joins the program to discuss on her people's presence in Iowa.
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In the summer of 1861, Iowa sent its first soldiers into the Civil War — young men from Cedar Rapids and Burlington who enlisted just weeks after The Battle of Fort Sumter, the start of the war. The soldiers ended up on a brutal march through Missouri, culminating at the Battle of Wilson's Creek. Author Randee Fieselmann shares the young men's story in her new book, 'The Union First: Community and Commitment in the First Iowa Infantry.'
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Over a century ago, the Reed-Niland Corner opened at a major intersection in Colo. Today, the site is being preserved by a new nonprofit, Reed-Niland Corner, Inc., with celebrations planned for June 14. -
Behind every great man in a powdered wig is a remarkable woman. As we approach the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, we’re reading about some of the women who helped shape our country at its founding. On the 'Talk of Iowa' Book Club, host Charity Nebbe and expert readers discuss 'Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation' by Cokie Roberts. The book shares stories of the many roles women played in the Revolutionary War and the founding of the United States.
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The Lincoln and Jefferson highways were two of the nation's earliest transcontinental roads. These two highways intersected in Colo, Iowa, where a farmer named Charlie Reed had the idea to sell gas to motorists in 1923. He also let travelers pitch tents overnight on his property. On this episode, we learn about the history of the Reed-Niland Corner, with a former Reed Station employee, Scott Berka, who was also instrumental in the site's restoration project of the late 1990s to early 2000s. Then we learn about a new nonprofit, Reed-Niland Corner, Inc. that recently bought the site from the City of Colo to keep the history alive into the future. Later, we head east down the Lincoln Highway to Lisbon, where the McElmeel family has formed their own nonprofit to restore the Meyers Farmstead Historic District and open it to the public as Pleasant Grove Heritage Park.
