Nicole Grundmeier
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The Midwest Newsroom
In many U.S. cities, even those without camping bans, officials are more aggressive with removing encampments from public spaces. People experiencing homelessness say they’re moving frequently and experiencing anxiety.
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As Carl Weems conducted research in New Orleans, he documented children's recollections of Hurricane Katrina. When Hurricane Gustav hit, Weems found that those with another negative experience maintained their recollection of trauma during Hurricane Katrina. Those with a more positive experience during Gustav remembered Katrina more positively than before. This is part of the foundation of Weems' new developmental theory that reshapes how experts understand the fluidity of memories and the impact of trauma. Weems joins the program to talk about his theory and the broader impact of traumatic and adverse childhood experiences, or TrACEs. Dr. Padget Skogman, a pediatrician, also joins the hour to share the long-term health impacts of TrACEs. (This show was originally produced November 18, 2025.) -
Nicole Terrizzi joins the show to discuss her memoir, 'Learning in Free Fall: A Testimony of Mental Health, Poverty and Race in American Education.' Her book focuses on the crisis in America's education system. Every day school children feel the impacts of increasing budget cuts, teacher shortages and threats to the accessibility of a quality education. Terrizzi shares her path to teaching from growing up in rural Iowa, and asks what happens when those leading our classrooms are in crisis themselves? (This show was originally produced August 6, 2025.)
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A state-of-the-art facility opening in Council Bluffs in June is expected to help boost services and inpatient psychiatric care beds in a more peaceful setting.
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A bill banning some food dyes from school meals, authorizing over-the-counter ivermectin and requiring the state to continue seeking limits on what can be bought with food assistance is on its way to Gov. Kim Reynolds’ desk for her signature. -
A bill that aims to expand access to subacute mental health care, which is one step below hospitalization, is on its way to the governor’s desk. -
Tinnitus affects an estimated 25 million Americans, yet many don’t seek help despite its strong connection to hearing loss. Audiologists Elise Dornier and Ann Perreau explain what causes tinnitus and how people can manage it. We also hear personal stories from John Wanamaker and Carol Montag about living with the condition and finding ways to cope.
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In 2022, Ava Jones was an outstanding high school basketball player, heading for a college career at the University of Iowa, when her life changed in a moment. Jones was walking with her parents and younger brother in Louisville, Kentucky, when an impaired driver jumped the curb and struck them. Ava and her mother Amy were seriously injured, and her father Trey died days after the incident. The University of Iowa honored Jones' scholarship to attend college, and 2025 brought her another life-altering circumstance: a cancer diagnosis. She is now in remission and shares her story of resilience. Later in the episode, Cathy McMullen of Iowa State University joins to talk about woodland wildflowers that are beginning to bloom around the state, and how Iowans can grow their own.
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A majority of U.S. teens say they use AI chatbots for school work, according to the Pew Research Center. On this episode we talk with Iowa educators who are working together in advancing ethical, human-centered approaches to artificial intelligence across K-12 education. Then — a recent report that shares of the potential negative risks that generative AI poses to students. -
CultureAll is a Des Moines nonprofit that works to introduce Iowans of different cultures to each other with the goal of building community. One of the ways they do that is through their Open Book program — a community project that creates connections and builds social cohesion through story sharing. We learn about that project and new research that shows that Open Book and the act of reciprocal storytelling can cultivate empathy. Later, we talk with Drake University health sciences professor Stacy Gnacinski. When she's not teaching, Gnacinski does mental performance consulting for athletes, from local youth, to the Olympic Winter Institute of Australia, where she's a mental performance consultant. She shares about her recent trip to the Winter Olympics.
