News & Events
This Week
Greetings From Iowa
One of the earliest certified routes in Iowa connects five communities by way of white painted telephone poles. Learn the history of the Great White Way.
In the summer of 1893, one of the greatest living composers spent the summer in Spillville, Iowa.
Learn about the colorful history of Carter Lake, an Iowa community in Nebraska.
Chuy Renteria has written the story of growing up Mexican American in West Liberty, Iowa's first majority Hispanic town.
The town's German heritage has been preserved through an original Hausbarn that dates back to the 1660s and was imported from Germany.
Take a tour around Brooklyn, Iowa. Often referred to as the Community of Flags, Brooklyn has flags from all 50 states and the four branches of the military, and is also the birthplace of Hollywood icon John Wayne. The community recently restored its old opera house and has given it new life as a concert venue and movie theater.
Volition Skate Co. is a women-owned roller skate company created by owners Kate Vigmostad and Jen Kranz. Located in Fairfield, Iowa, the duo started the company at the height of the global pandemic.
Take a tour around Ida Grove, Iowa, also referred to as "Castletown, USA." Aside from the castle architecture that is spread throughout the community, Ida Grove boasts other historical treasures and destinations that set the community apart.
Take a tour around Fairfield, Iowa. This community brings in hundreds of people from around the world who study at the Maharishi International University. Fairfield achieves a metropolitan feel in a town of only 9,000 people.
Kalona, Iowa, celebrates a rich cultural heritage dating back to the late 1830s when pioneers began immigrating from the east. The Amish, who remain an important part of the Kalona community, arrived in 1846 when Iowa gained statehood.
Take a tour around the small village of Bentonsport, Iowa. Bentonsport was a steamboat port in the mid-1800s. Today, there are several historic shops, bed and breakfasts and resident artisans such as blacksmiths and potters.
See the collection of specimens dating back to the late 1800s and early 1900s when students went on expeditions for scientific research.
Baking a sweet braided bread served at Christmas in the Czech Republic.
From Sioux Center, Iowa, Nicole Baart is the author of a new suspense novel called "Everything We Didn't Say."
Susie Murray teaches ballroom dancing in eastern Iowa.
Christkindlmarkt kicks off the holiday season in many Iowa towns, bringing the warmth, cheer and excitement of an open-air marketplace.
The Floyd of Rosedale Trophy has been passed between the University of Iowa and University of Minnesota football teams since 1935.
Located in the historic Haymark District of Council Bluffs, the Hoff Family Arts & Culture Center serves as a hub for all things arts and culture in Pottawattamie County.
Mimi Ke is a teacher, choreographer, performer and aerial dancer based in Iowa City.
The museum at the Independence Mental Health Institute tells the story of caring for the state's mentally ill patients in a different era.
Dubuque's oldest cemetery reveals a fascinating history of the people buried there.
Learn about the history of Dubuque's Arriandeaux Cabin, the oldest building west of the Mississippi River.
Mexican/Apache/Spanish singer, songwriter and performer, services as commissioner for the Office of Native Americans in Iowa.
A community theater has brought productions both big and small to Emmetsburg for more than 40 years.
Angie Lampe brings characters to life through her work as a costume designer at the Des Moines Playhouse.
Dale Eichor, inducted into the Country Music DJ Hall of Fame in 2001, spent 40 years in radio broadcasting.
Experience the history of Iowa's rail system in Sioux City.
The smallest school district in Iowa, Diagonal Community School continues to serve all grades in one building.
From the auction block to an art museum, a Carnegie Library in southwest Iowa showcases modern and contemporary art from across the world.
Check in on an Iowa home or two ordered from a Sears Catalog in the 1920s, and still standing today.
The Giant Slide at the Iowa State Fair makes memories for many Iowa families.
The longtime Iowa State Fair horse show organist is profiled.
A notorious dumpster diver creates a garden in Mason City.
Feel the creativity and fun of the annual Des Moines Arts Festival.
An art team that's creating community, making social change and bringing color to their city.
First generation Danish American, Annette Andersen, shares her heritage, and makes a traditional Danish dish, aebleskivers!
A resourceful Iowa journalist feels that translating the news helps her community stay informed and get to know their neighbors.
When we’re traumatized, our voice is one of the first things we lose. Art therapy gives a voice to the unspeakable. And therapist Diane Tonkyn uses art therapy to help clients find that voice.
A broadway performer from Iowa tries to make a living doing voice work during a pandemic.
Iowans of Hindu faith celebrate Maha Shivaratri and Holi at a temple in Madrid, Iowa.
Take brief tour of a Prairie School style home designed by the legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright.
A neighborhood is nurtured with a place for people to donate and access food with no questions asked.
Students and artists in Creston paint 20 murals in the community.
Located in Waterloo, and opened in September of the pandemic, Soul Book Nook is a black-owned bookstore in Iowa. It also serves as a community hub.
There's an interesting sound coming from eastern Iowa. Drop the needle on Russ Curry's Curious Music.
After the coronavirus canceled their spring production, Spencer High School's musical theatre department got creative.
Is it art or science? For Dakotah Rose Gould, taxidermy is both.
A passion for gardening is used to help hungry residents in the Quad Cities.
Miss Iowa 2014, Autumn Weaver, navigates the challenges of living deaf in a hearing world.
Lynn Dobson built his first organ on the family farm in 1973. By the time he retires he'll have constructed 100 pipe organs in Lake City, Iowa.
As a priest and educator Monsignor Walter Brunkan has been a lasting influence in his northeastern Iowa communities for decades.
At age 71, Des Moines resident Kittie Weston-Knauer is the oldest female BMX racer in the game.
Keeping the soap box derby sport alive for younger generations.
For 96 years cowboys and cowgirls have come from far and wide to compete with the best at Rodeo Town USA.
Four decades and seven million matchsticks, Pat Action's elaborate, life-sized models can be seen all over the world.
City dwellers Jered and Shawn Camp bought a farm and launched a rescue operation where injured and wayward animals go to live out their days.
Since 1935 the town of Pella has celebrated its Dutch heritage with an annual festival of food, music, dancing, and tulips! Slip on your wooden shoes, it's Pella Tulip Time.
When Shelby Smith left her job in finance to move home to Iowa, she had a different kind of farming in mind.
Each week in Coralville a group of "outside singers" joins a group of "inside singers" in a prison gym to form the Oakdale Community Choir.
Bob started a live radio show to unearth the central Iowa sound of the 1970's. And he finds it at thrift stores.
Meet JJ Singh Kapur - a teenager, a Sikh, a championship speaker, and an Iowan - in our latest episode, Sikh in the Spotlight.
The Storm Lake Times is a family paper that isn't out to cause trouble, just to report the news.
Experience the essence of Iowa tradition that celebrates Meskwaki customs passed down through the generations.
Benny Davis built his first airplane before he even learned to fly. Now he ships carbon fiber parts all over the world.
Puppets, plays, workshops, and folktales go on the road to entertain and educate Iowans.
From Moscow to Iowa, Oleg Timofeyev makes Iowa the center of the Russian guitar revival.
Before making history at the Sprint Car Capitol of the World, McKenna Haase entered the Raceway as a fan.
An writer and an artist, Ms. Rocki & Chaveevah, are old friends on a new adventure.
Writer combines local and historical folklore to reflect on the unexpected challenges and enduring values in Iowa’s changing small towns.
As a dowser, Bob Terry searches Iowa's cemeteries for unmarked graves.
The sisters of the Mississippi Abbey pair a life of prayer with the art of making fine caramels and chocolates.
Iowa native and artist John Schlue brings modern art to the streets of Belle Plaine.
Carlisle insurance salesman Todd Isely has raced hot air balloons since 2004, traveling across the United States and the world. The 2015 champion at Indianola's National Balloon Classic, Todd and crew returned a year later with Iowa PBS along for the ride to see how it's done.
The Baker's Dozen travels for road shows, performs on streets and hosts lively spring and fall revues which have become the stuff of legend.
Bryan Guise has been handcrafting custom bobbleheads in his hometown of Des Moines since 2002.
A dance troupe teaching Indian culture and heritage to the Iowa-born girls in Iowa City's Indian community.
Local artists put their unique views of historic Mount Vernon onto canvas.
After an emergency trip to the hospital, Leonard Olson emerged a changed man and charted a new career path.
Iowa by Air
On this Iowa by Air, fly above West Okoboji Lake as the waters near Arnolds Park transition from colorful fall to frozen winter.
Fly high over Yellow River State Forest's beautiful woodlands and meandering trout streams.
Fly above the geologic rarities of Northwestern Iowa's Gitchie Manitou State Preserve.
At the southern tip of the Loess Hills rests Waubonsie State Park which reaches elevations of 1,099 feet before plunging back to the lowlands of the Missouri River Valley.
Along the Mississippi River in Muscatine County Wildcat Den State Park showcases miles of hiking trails, rock formations and several historic structures.
Glide above Rathbun Lake and some of the 828 acres of timbered hills at Honey Creek State Park.
Go on an adventure through Maquoketa Caves State Park's bluffs, caves, geologic formations and forests.
Take in the majestic views of the Mississippi River as you soar above Pikes Peak State Park.
Travel back in time with a look at fossils and limestone bedrock dating back to nearly 200 million years ago.
Take a sweeping view of Dubuque's Julian Dubuque Monument in the Mines of Spain.
See the scenic town of Bellevue and it's neighboring state park as you never have before.
Spanning more than 1,080 square miles, the Loess Hills is a unique landform that exists only in Iowa and China.
Fly above the steep slopes, scenic overviews, sandstone ledges and creeks of historic Ledges State Park.