About Iowa Press

Since its inaugural broadcast in 1971, Iowa Press has engaged the best local journalists to interview experts, political and other newsworthy figures while exploring issues of state and national interest. Each week, Iowa Press invites newsmakers, policy makers and elected officials to join capitol reporters in a weekly discussion. The program airs Friday evenings and Sundays at noon on Iowa PBS. It is rebroadcast Saturday mornings on Iowa PBS WORLD.3. Past episodes of Iowa Press are available online at iowapbs.org.

Program support for Iowa Press is provided by Associated General Contractors of Iowa and Iowa Bankers Association.

Kay Henderson, the dean of the Iowa Capitol press corps and long-time guest panelist on Iowa Press, became the host and moderator of the Iowa PBS public affairs program in August of 2021. Henderson replaced David Yepsen, who retired from the Iowa Press desk on September 10, 2021. Her first formal broadcast as host was Friday, September 17, 2021.

Henderson first appeared on Iowa Press in October of 1987. Since 2001, she has been the national political director for Learfield news networks in Iowa, Missouri, Minnesota and Wisconsin. She has served two terms as president of the National Association of State Radio Networks’ news directors group. Henderson was hired by Learfield in 1987 as a statehouse reporter for Radio Iowa, a statewide news and sports network serving more than 70 commercial radio stations. She's been that network's news director since 1994 and will remain in that role alongside her new weekly assignment at Iowa PBS.

Henderson received the Iowa Broadcast News Association's 2002 Jack Shelley Award, an annual recognition of "outstanding contribution to the cause of professional journalism." The list of Shelley Award recipients includes the late Dean Borg, who retired as Iowa Press host in 2016, and the late Dan Miller, the long-time Iowa PBS general manager who was an Iowa Press producer early in his 37-year career with the network.

Henderson's first salaried job in journalism was a three-month summertime stint as managing editor of the Lenox Time Table, the weekly newspaper in her southwest Iowa hometown. In addition to her work in Iowa broadcasting, Henderson has appeared on the PBS NewsHour, NBC's "Meet the Press" and ABC's "This Week" as well CNN, Fox News and MSNBC.