Politics?! Who cares?

...we do, of course. And there's a lot more here in today's roundup...reaction to Ta-Nehisi Coates, an F-150 put to work after a hurricane in unexpected ways...

National Politics….Iowa Politics….Around Iowa….Car Culture….Food and Dining Out….Books, Arts and Entertainment….Sports…Humor….Poetry

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An Invitation: Save the Date

Save the date, December 13. The Iowa Writers’ Collaborative members hold a holiday reception for our paid subscribers to thank you for making this experiment in new media possible. We will gather in one of the newest buildings on Drake’s campus, the Tom and Ruth Harkin Institute for Public Policy, 2800 University Avenue, Des Moines. Please let us know if you can attend: Holiday Party RSVP

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Iowa Down Ballot

Iowa Writers’ Collaborative members and Kathie Obradovich with Iowa Capital Dispatch offer political analysis through the podcast Iowa Down Ballot. This initiative will run weekly until during this campaign cycle, which will be recorded the day after the November 5th election. This week’s conversation was held as early voting began here. You can hear two television broadcast journalists,

Dave Busiek

, and Dave Price, the leader of Iowa Capital Dispatch, Kathie Obradovich, and analyst Laura Belin, hold a local lens to the national political scene.

Julie Gammack

is the moderator of this episode. Thanks to paid subscribers and special donors for making it possible to cover production costs.

Speaking of voting early…

Iowa Boy

Chuck Offenburger

says his pro-life position makes him "the loneliest Democrat in Iowa." But he still cast a nearly straight ticket for Democrats last week in early voting and explains why in his column.

Democrats appear to be doing better than usual in rural sign wars

On the other hand…

Since abortion rights are a top issue for voters this elections due to the Supreme Court and then state of Iowa going back to the dark ages on a woman’s ability to make health care choices about her body,

Julie Gammack

will feature local doctors who are dealing with the real consequences women are facing as a result. You must subscribe to receive a link that is sent Monday morning. Julie’s guest last week was radio personality Maxwell Schaeffer, who believes he believes he was fired from WHO-AM for not being willing to be more divisive. Take a listen.

National Politics

What do pork, quartz and IV solution have in common? The answer should scare you,

Art Cullen

says.

Dave Busiek

on Media reports VP Harris held up despite unprofessionally rude questions from Fox News.

Arnold Garson

writes: The idea of bringing a member of the opposition party into a president's cabinet-level leadership team is nothing new. Sixteen successive U.S. presidents did it until 2017. Now it's time to bring this approach back to the White House

Newpapers are increasingly abandoning political endorsements. But Along the Mississippi’s

Ed Tibbetts

, an ex-opinion page editor, says that’s a mistake.

Celebrated author Ta-Nehisi Coates's Des Moines appearance provoked backlash and accusations of promoting terror.

Rekha Basu

moderated the discussion.

Ta-Nehisi Coates and columnist Rekha Basu

Randy Evans

writes about Liz Cheney and other prominent Republicans who have said Donald Trump’s lack of such fidelity to the Constitution is more important in this election than the policy differences they have with Kamala Harris.

Dennis Goldford

: We cannot have a stable, politically healthy country if people no longer live in the same reality. Yet so much of cable TV and especially talk radio and the internet have fostered the creation and maintenance of an alternative cultural and political reality. This is dangerous.

Iowa Politics

In the Iowa Mercury

Douglas Burns

writes about Iowa Congressional candidate Lanon Baccam's fight to restore Iowa to Its best days. Lanon Baccam: 'I’m looking at Doug Burns right now, because his family looks like my family.'

Iowa Supreme Court Justice David May is on the ballot this November.

Laura Belin

wrote a deep dive on how he's decided big cases in several areas of the law.

On the latest "KHOI's Capitol Week,"

Laura Belin

and Spencer Dirks discussed the start of early voting, toss-up Congressional races, judicial retention elections, and an Iowa angle on Indigenous Peoples' Day.

Around Iowa

In this week's column

Cheryl Tevis

tackles the alarming increase in new cancers in Iowa, and examines why agriculture seems to be in the hot seat regarding this trend.

Kali White VanBaale

writes about the 19th annual Reggie’s Sleepout event and fundraiser this weekend, and about the short life and legacy of Reggie Kelsey.

This is a photo from the Iowa Homeless Youth Center pf the Reggie’s Sleepout event.

In his first of two columns this week,

Pat Kinney

writes about the life and recent passing of Waterloo civil rights icon Anna Mae Weems, who was 98.

This week,

Pat Kinney

’s second of two columns this week is about a former University of Northern Iowa "first couple's" return to Cedar Falls to honor their late daughter.

On this edition of The Five and Dime,

Avery Gregurich

wraps up a decade of research into the song of the season with "Monster Mash Forever." It’s a hoot.

Ty Rushing

is going home to Newton, where his introduction to Iowa was as a reporter for the Newton Daily News.

Ty Rushing

Robert Leonard

is under the weather with a sinus infection this week and has reposted one of his most popular columns, The Rules of the Universe.

The Des Moines Register is ending the popular Storytellers Project, and

Sarah Scull

has a friend who will be in the show on Tuesday.

Car Culture

A husband urged his panicking wife that their Ford F-150 Hybrid pickup truck would power their home after Hurricane Milton. She didn't believe him.

Phoebe Wall Howard

has the story in her column, “Shifting Gears.”

Jeremy Gilmore, standing with his 2021 Ford F-150 Hybrid truck on Wednesday, October 16, 2024. The vehicle powered his house for four days after Hurricane Milton a week earlier. (Photo: Jeremy Gilmore with his DJI Air 3 Drone)

Food and Dining Out

Chris Jones

grows corn, makes grits, and writes about it in “On Grits and the Bloody Butcher”

Wini Moranville

offered a candid account of two recent meals at Oak Park, one of the most beautiful restaurants in Des Moines.

John Naughton

has a restaurant recommendation in Council Bluffs. Did you know you can dine at a Guy Fieri restaurant without leaving Iowa? John Naughton visited and has a report.

Books, Art, Film and Entertainment

Jeff Morrison went to "Back to the Future: The Musical" in Des Moines and weighs how well his tied-for-favorite movie translates to the stage and how new actors took on iconic roles.

Author

Nicole Baart

recommends some five star autumn reads. There’s something for everyone in this bookish roundup.

Ice Cube Press, LLC

Steve Semekn discovered he’s a vowel messenger, not a space cowboy. Chanting noises the earth makes.

In this week's column,

Kurtis Meyer

connects Impressionism from 150 years ago with a farm boy turned author, only one decade removed from life in North Iowa. The connection may surprise you.

Mary Swander

discovers how British colonialism pitted one religion against another in nineteenth-century Ireland. A riot played out in her ancestral home, her Catholic family helping to save the Protestant family of the famous poet Louis MacNiece.

Our own Nik Heftman will premiere his documentary about Spoken-Word poet Caleb Rainey in Des Moines on November 1st. It’s a hit!

Sports

Coming Sunday: In the words of the great Frank Miller, it’s finally an official World Series. (An official World Series MUST include the New York Yankees).

Daniel P. Finney

Humor

There's a pill for that, writes Vicki Minor, in her

Relatively Minor

column.

Poetry

Suzanna de Baca

offers a news response poem inspired by last week's Longshoreman's strike in which NPR and other media outlets warned that fresh bananas could be one of the first casualties of the shutdown. One reader already commented about the poem: #palettecleanser.

banana

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The Iowa Writers’ Collaborative Roster

Please explore the columns by members of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative. Below is our current roster: Your support is vital. Pick five, if you can, and become a paid subscriber.

Nicole Baart: This Stays Here, Sioux Center

Rekha Basu: Shouts and Whispers, Des Moines

Ray Young Bear: From Red Earth Drive, Meskwaki Settlement

Laura Belin: Iowa Politics with Laura Belin, Windsor Heights

Tory Brecht: Brecht’s Beat, Quad Cities

Dartanyan L. Brown: My Integrated Life, Des Moines

Douglas Burns: The Iowa Mercury, Carroll

Jane Burns: The Crossover, Des Moines

Dave Busiek: Dave Busiek on Media, Des Moines

Rachelle Chase: Reading with Rachelle, Ottumwa

Iowa Writers Collaborative: Roundup

Steph C: It Was Never a Dress, Johnston

Art Cullen: Art Cullen’s Notebook, Storm Lake

Suzanna de Baca: Dispatches from the Heartland, Huxley

Taylor Decker: Taylor’s Millennial Mindset, Sioux City

Debra Engle: A Whole New World, Madison County

Randy Evans: Stray Thoughts, Des Moines via Bloomfield

Daniel P. Finney: Paragraph Stacker, Des Moines

Marianne Fons: Reporting From Quiltropolis, Winterset

Julie Gammack: Julie Gammack’s Iowa Potluck, Des Moines and Okoboji

Arnold Garson: Second Thoughts, Okoboji and Sioux Falls

Chris Gloninger: Weathering Climate Change, US

Dennis Goldford: Let’s Talk Politics, Clive

Avery Gregurich: The Five and Dime, Marengo

Fern Kupfer and Joe Geha: Fern and Joe, Ames

Rob Gray's Area: Rob Gray’s Area, Ankeny

Nik Heftman: The Seven Times, Iowa

Beth Hoffman: In the Dirt, Lovilia

Phoebe Wall Howard: Shifting Gears, Detroit

Iowa Capital Dispatch, an alliance with IWC

Iowa Podcasters' Collaborative

Iowa Writers Collaborative Roundup Sunday Roundup

Black Iowa News: Dana James, Iowa

Chris Jones: The Swine Republic, Iowa City

Pat Kinney: View from Cedar Valley, Waterloo

Robert Leonard: Deep Midwest: Politics and Culture, Bussey

Letters From Iowans

Darcy Maulsby: Keepin’ It Rural, Calhoun County

Hola Iowa: Iowa

Kurtis Meyer: Showing Up, St. Ansgar

Vicki Minor: Relatively Minor, Winterset

Wini Moranville: Wini’s Food Stories, Des Moines

Jeff Morrison: Between Two Rivers, Cedar Rapids

Kyle Munson: Kyle Munson’s Main Street, Des Moines

Jane Nguyen: The Asian Iowan, West Des Moines

John Naughton: My Life in Color, Des Moines

Chuck Offenburger: Iowa Boy Chuck Offenburger, Jefferson and Des Moines

Barry Piatt: Piatt on Politics Behind the Curtain, Washington, D.C.

Dave Price: Dave Price’s Perspective, Des Moines

Ty Rushing: Ty’s Take, Iowa City

Steve Semken: Ice Cube Press, LLC, North Liberty

Sarah Scull: The Piecemaker, Creston

Macey Shofroth: The Midwest Creative, Norwalk

Larry Stone: Listening to the Land, Elkader

Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Buggy Land, Kalona

Mary Swander's Emerging Voices: Emerging Voices, Kalona

Cheryl Tevis: Unfinished Business, Boone County

Ed Tibbetts: Along the Mississippi, Davenport

Jason Walsmith: The Racontourist, Earlham

Kali White VanBaale: 988: Mental Healthcare in Iowa, Bondurant