Sports

Iowa State's women's basketball star Audi Crooks is one of the leading scorers in the country. The spotlight on her has also brought criticism, but it has helped Crooks emerge as a role model for young players.

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.

Tiara Phillips wanted to fill seats for her local hockey team, so she rallied together with a group that had discovered a newfound interest in the sport.

Olympian, activist and entrepreneur, Sol Butler used sports to challenge racial barriers during the Jim Crow era. His life is chronicled in the new book, 'Sol Butler: An Olympian’s Odyssey through Jim Crow America,' written by University of Dubuque professor Brian Hallstoos. Hallstoos joins the program to discuss Butler's upbringing and impact. Plus, a look at the enduring impact of the 'Iowa Bystander,' considered the oldest Black newspaper west of the Mississippi River.

An Iowa Lakes Community College baseball player was killed and 32 other people were injured when the team’s bus overturned Wednesday in northwest Iowa. College leaders pledge to support students through this time.

As the Olympics near, we spotlight curling — a sport often forgotten outside of the winter games, but one that thrives year-round in eastern Iowa. We hear from Emily Nelson, marketing and communications coordinator for Cedar Rapids Curling, on the sport’s history, its Olympic influence and why watching elite curlers inspires local players. Then, Charity Nebbe goes out on the ice with Kari Kozak, a founding member and events coordinator of Cedar Rapids Curling, for a crash course in sweeping and throwing stones. Later, historian Ricki King joins discusses her work preserving Iowa’s Black history amid efforts to rewrite or erase it.