2 Walks with Friends: A Year of Intentional Connection and GratitudeTracy CodelTracy Codel is a Des Moines native whose childhood home sat on a cul-de-sac in the Beaverdale neighborhood. Summer days were spent in endless games of kickball and hide-and-seek or exploring the deep woods, creeks, and ravines of two nearby parks. She developed her […]

Iowans You Should Know: Stories from the Iowa Almanac (new in 2021)Did you know that the Eskimo Pie® was invented in Iowa? So was the electric razor, the clip-on bow tie, and the self-filling fountain pen. Iowa was also the childhood home of four Academy Award®-winning performers, and three different Iowa-born musical acts had national #1 […]

Researching Your Civil War AncestorExperienced researcher David Connon shares strategies for tracking down your Civil War ancestor, North or South. Time permitting, audience members could share their research, and he could suggest options. Connon is descended from two Union veterans. He documented 76 Iowa residents who served the Confederacy. He tells their pre-war, war-time, and […]

The TurbanatorJJ Singh KapurJJ Kapur was twelve years old when the unexpected happened. His family was worshipping at their Sikh temple in West Des Moines, Iowa, when a group of news reporters interrupted their service. His congregation received news that a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, had just become the site of a mass […]

Cartoons & Conservation: A Visit with Ding DarlingIn this 45-minute presentation, Jay N. “Ding” Darling visits with the audience, as an old friend, in his 11th office at The Des Moines Register. Beginning with his early years in Sioux City where as a young boy where he became aware of the natural world around him while […]

Nancy Drew: Iowa’s Heroine to the WorldNancy Drew is the most popular female detective in fiction. Few know, however, that Nancy is an Iowa heroine and that her creator was Mildred Augustine of Ladora. Nancy Drew and Mildred Augustine are extraordinary role models for Iowa girls and boys, women and men. An academic pioneer (the […]

Beth Hoffman was living the good life: she had a career as a journalist and professor, and a comfortable home in San Francisco. Yet in her late 40s, she and her husband decided to leave the big city and move to his family farm in Iowa—all for the dream of becoming a farmer, to put […]

https://www.thehearst.org/exhibitionsNORTH AMERICAN REVIEWSeptember 26-November 27, 20242024 marks the 60-year anniversary of the NAR coming to Iowa, the magazine is featuring all Iowan visual artists in their fall issue. Visit the Hearst to get a look at the original artworks in the gallery.

Political Polarization: It’s Ugly, and There’s No End in SightAmerican politics has entered a troubling if not potentially dangerous era that erupted in the 2020 elections, but this era did not begin and will not end with the Trump presidency. Why? This presentation will discuss the major factors that have led to our current political conflicts […]

The Butterfly Effect: ­ Why Do We Feel Empathy with the Victims of War, Hunger, Terror and Natural Disasters?Referring to her book, “Torn Out Memories,” Dr. Hutchins tells the experiences of a child living under the Nazi occupation of Poland and during the Warsaw Uprising. She relates her personal trauma to the terrors suffered by […]

The Butterfly Effect: ­ Why Do We Feel Empathy with the Victims of War, Hunger, Terror and Natural Disasters?Referring to her book, “Torn Out Memories,” Dr. Hutchins tells the experiences of a child living under the Nazi occupation of Poland and during the Warsaw Uprising. She relates her personal trauma to the terrors suffered by […]

Grant Wood: Prairie RebelIn this 45-minute, one-man show, Grant Wood chats with the audience as if talking to an old friend across the backyard fence, or maybe at his home at Five Turner Alley in Cedar Rapids. He tells us about his life and how he changed the art world forever with his work. It […]