Iowa Life Episode 402

[CHARITY NEBBE] Coming up on this episode of Iowa Life, we'll meet a group of young riders who are taking on RAGBRAI and finding out what they're capable of.

[CALEB CHRISTIANSEN] Then when I started riding the bikes, I started slowly realizing that exercise helps get rid of anxiety and stress. 

[NEBBE] A 13 year old who turned a puzzle into a race against the clock.

[MAX MCGILL] I decided to watch a YouTube video to learn how to solve it, and it took me like two months. But eventually I did learn how to solve it.

[NEBBE] And a four legged movie star who traded Hollywood for life in Iowa. 

[BEV KLINGENSMITH] Naomi would be walking him, and people would come up to her and ask her about the dog and not even realize they were talking to Naomi Watts. And I always thought that was kind of funny.

[NEBBE] It's all coming up next on Iowa Life.

[ANNOUNCER] Funding for Iowa Life is provided by – 

[ANNOUNCER] The MA Martin Everist Foundation founded by Margaret Ann Martin Everist, is proud to support arts, culture, public media and education in the Siouxland community in northwest Iowa. 

[ANNOUNCER] The estate of Wilma and Kenneth Groe of Burlington, Iowa, dedicated to helping bring entertaining, informational and educational programs to the people of Iowa.

[ANNOUNCER] The Lainie Grimm Fund for Inclusive Programming at the Iowa PBS Foundation. 

[ANNOUNCER] And by Friends, the Iowa PBS Foundation. 

[NEBBE] Hi, I'm Charity Nebbe and this is Iowa Life. Today we are at RAGBRAI’s great fall ride. It's an opportunity for cyclists to enjoy the roads, the scenery and remember the challenge of riding their bikes all the way across Iowa. Cycling is a big part of Iowa's culture. For some people, it's about getting outside and having fun. For others, it's about pushing themselves to do something they're not sure they can do. And that is where the Dream Team comes in. I'm here with Scott Matter, executive director of the Dream Team. Scott, what is the mission of the Dream Team?

[SCOTT MATTER] The Dream Team is an all volunteer nonprofit organization that mentors youth. Our youth come from schools all across central Iowa, and they come to us -- a lot of people with -- a lot of our youth would be considered at risk. A lot of the kids that come and join our program are wrestling with different struggles, but they're all united in a task of preparing for RAGBRAI in the end of July.

[NEBBE] And I mean, for some of these kids, even riding a bike is brand new to them. What's your training program?

[SCOTT MATTER] We have a pretty challenging training program. We start in March. You're right, a lot of kids, we have a few every year that don't know how to ride a bike, and we train three times a week. We're out there when it's raining, when it's hot, when it's windy, when it's cold between March and July. By the time we get to July, all of our youth have done a thousand miles and we do RAGBRAI. When we ride across the state of Iowa, they’re some of the best cyclists of the 30,000 people that are out there doing RAGBRAI.

[NEBBE] So you go through this whole program and you get to see the kids accomplish this huge goal. What do you think the benefits are that they take with them?

[SCOTT MATTER] They definitely gain a lot of self-confidence. They prove to themselves and the rest of the world that they can do really hard things.

[NEBBE] Thank you so much, Scott.

[SCOTT MATTER] Thank you. 

[NEBBE] Let's learn more about this year's Dream Team riders as we join them on their RAGBRAI journey.

[LEADER] Everywhere we go. 

[TEAM] Everywhere we go. 

[LEADER] People want to know. 

[TEAM] People want to know. 

[LEADER] Who we are. 

[TEAM] Who we are. 

[LEADER] So we tell them.

[TEAM] So we tell them. 

[LEADER] We are the Dream Team.

[TEAM] We are the Dream Team.

[LEADER] The mighty, mighty Dream Team. 

[TEAM] The mighty, mighty Dream Team.

[CARLOS LINDBERG] I thought a week away from my parents would be like an absolute miracle. 

[CARLOS LINDBERG] It was just like more opportunities. More friendship.

[CARLOS LINDBERG] And a meaning of who you are and what you can do in the future. 

[CALEB CHRISTIANSEN] Last year before I started I was very lost and I didn't really find my people at all. For a long time I just used video games as a way for me to try and cope with that. 

[cheering]

[CALEB CHRISTIANSEN] Then when I started riding the bikes, I started slowly realizing that exercise helps get rid of anxiety and stress. 

[applause]

[PERLA ZARAGOZA] All I heard was he's going to be gone for a week and do a bike ride across Iowa, and I said, who's going to take care of him? 

[SCOTT MATTER] The Dream Team is an all volunteer nonprofit organization that mentors youth.

[SCOTT MATTER] Put the final touches on. Get that final touches. Let's get ready. 

[SCOTT MATTER] We provide everything for our youth. 

[SCOTT MATTER] Our season each year goes from March through RAGBRAI at the end of July, and we started with 60 kids this year, and they train during those five months to do RAGBRAI. When they come to us, a lot of them, their longest ride is 2 or 3 miles. We even have a lot of kids don't know how to bike at all.

[CARLOS LINDBERG] I was so scared I didn't know anyone. 

[SCOTT MATTER] What makes Dream Team special is our process. All of our time is focused on cycling, but that's not what we're really about. Our mentors, they're good at helping them bike, but more importantly, they're good at just helping them gain self-confidence. They're patient with them and they take them through it and they help them get better every week. 

[RANDY COLLINS] I don't really have a lot of friends. 

[RANDY COLLINS] I'm more of a quiet keep to myself, kid. Or at least was. There's new experiences almost every ride. It's a lot of fun.

[RANDY COLLINS] There's a bunch of activities. You get to go camping.

[RANDY COLLINS] But you also got to bike 500 miles across the state of Iowa.

[applause]

[SCOTT MATTER] By the time we get to RAGBRAI they are some of the best cyclists amongst the 30,000 people that are out there riding across the state of Iowa. 

[INEZ CHAVEZ] My older brother was like, I don't think you'll be able to do it because you're into like such girly things. It kind of made me second guess myself. And then I was like, oh, well, maybe he's right.

[INEZ CHAVEZ] It's not as hard as it seems when you have the right people leading you and guiding you. It definitely makes it a lot easier. 

[SCOTT MATTER] Our dream team kids are well known on RAGBRAI. Every mile of RAGBRAI, many people are cheering for them.

(cheering)

[SCOTT MATTER] People help us at every step of the way. 

[INEZ CHAVEZ] We have so many supporters with us and it's just really surreal because they're just like chanting us on and we're like, wow, we have so many supporters there that are also part of our family that we didn't know were a part of our family.

[CALEB CHRISTIANSEN] And I found people who actually accepted who I am and not trying to change me. And the people in the community are awesome. They will help me if I need help. My mind gets to turn off when I ride the bike.

[CARLOS LINDBERG] As I went deeper into this season of Dream Team, I realized it was just more than a week away from my parents.  It's my goal to ride RAGBRAI and complete it and actually find out who I really am.

[INEZ CHAVEZ] And we all have our hard days, but we all push each other to do the best we can, and that's really helped a lot, just having a great community.

[SCOTT MATTER] There's no better feeling than knowing that you're helping some teen change their life in a way that's going to allow them to go on a whole different path that they didn't even think was possible. And that's pretty fulfilling. 

[CARLOS LINDBERG] It's more than just a bike. I know that they love me and I love them too.

[SCOTT MATTER] We can celebrate together. We can cry together. We go through every emotion that you can, and they're really good at supporting each other. What we're really trying to give them a blueprint for, that they accomplish those big dreams.

[PERLA ZARAGOZA] Everything they built. It's amazing. I knew that I wanted all my kids to be part of it, because I know that when I drop off one kid for that season, I know I'm going to get a better version by the end of the season because they have learned to to believe in themselves. 

[CARLOS LINDBERG] I love the sights. It's beautiful. It's really hard going up some of those hills, but I wouldn't change my mind.

[CALEB CHRISTIANSEN] I've actually accepted myself as a good person now. I know how to deal with social anxiety better. I don't really talk bad about myself anymore because I'm not allowed to. I'm not allowed to hate on myself. 

[CARLOS LINDBERG] I feel like my confidence has grown. There's something I can say that I've done and be proud of. [birds chirping]

[INEZ CHAVEZ] Taught me that I can do hard things and that I should believe in myself way more. When you have the right mindset, you can do a lot more things than you think you can. 

[NEBBE] For the Dream Team, it's all about seeing how far you can go. For Max McGill, it's about seeing how fast you can go. 13 year old Max discovered speedcubing a few years ago and quickly became one of the world's top competitors in the clock event. Now his obsession has become a family affair with Max, his dad, and his sister traveling the Midwest to compete. 

[LISA KUCALA] This is the second annual event that we've had in Saint Ansgar, Iowa. I like these smaller kind of small town local competitions. They’re really fun. We have competitors from all ages. They are anywhere from six to you know, today the oldest competitor I think is 63. So that would be my husband.

[KYLER CHURCH] I went to my first competition in Minnesota and I'm like, I can't keep going like 2 or 3 hours away to competition. So I'm like, I should just try to bring one here. It's nice to bring people in for like a social event where everyone's just brought together. Everyone speaks the same language pretty much.

[LISA KUCALA] Competitions are, you know, you're only competing for a couple minutes throughout the day, but everybody stays all day and they hang out and they cube with their friends and they share what they know and they celebrate their personal best because not everybody can win, right? But everybody is really supportive and it's a great community. 

[ROBERT] My name is Robert. I'm from Cedar Rapids and my favorite event is three by three.

[BOY 1] My favorite event is three by three. 

[BOY 2] My favorite event is three by three. 

[WILLIAM] Hi, my name is William. I'm from Davenport, Iowa and my favorite event is clock. 

[BOY 3] My favorite event is two by two.

[LISA KUCALA] So there are 17 official speedcubing events. For a given kind of local one day competition, we might have 5 or 6 events.

[GIRL 1] My favorite event is Pyraminx.

[BOY 4] Pyraminx. 

[KAYLEE JACKSON] My name is Kaylee Jackson. I'm from Iowa City, Iowa and my favorite event is Skewb.

[MAX MCGILL] Most people don't consider it me against other people. They consider it me against my own personal records and me against the cube. At my first competition, like the fastest people sat at a table together and I remember calling it the fast table, and I was like, wondering if I'd ever get to sit at the table and I would get excited about meeting the fast cubers, and I would go up and watch them solve. And it's kind of crazy to me like in three years, I'm like, now one of the fast people. 

[MAX MCGILL] I got my first clock about three months after solving my first three by three. 

[MAX MCGILL] 3.32. 

[MAX MCGILL] And eventually I realized I was way better at the clock than the other events. So I committed to it. And that's how I reached top 25 in the world. 

[MAGGIE MCGILL] Well, it was kind of like when Max got into anything his whole life, when he gets into something, he like really gets into it. So there had been some phases before cubing of like monster trucks or American Ninja Warrior.

[MIKE MCGILL] Periodic table.

[MAGGIE MCGILL] Periodic, yeah. So when he got into cubing, it was kind of like, oh, this is a thing he'll be into intensely for a while. But this has definitely stuck the longest of all of his interests.

[MAX MCGILL] It's the best selling toy in the world, and people have always wanted to figure out how to solve it. Then once you do figure out how to solve it, it's just kind of like, how fast can I get for some people. And we'd always had one around the house, and eventually I decided to watch a YouTube video to learn how to solve it. And it took me like two months, but eventually I did learn how to solve it.

[MAGGIE MCGILL] I remember taking him to his first competition, in it was 2023, and he had been solving at home for about six months and talking about it, and he didn't know anybody there. So it was all strangers. And they just start talking in this language that was like really heartwarming, kind of as a parent to be like, oh, there's other kids that are interested in this, and it's fun to get to see him have that experience.

[MAX MCGILL] The hardest part about learning to solve a cube is probably memory and remembering algorithms is what they're called, which are sequences of moves used to solve the cube. 

[MAX MCGILL] The clock actually is like the only event that doesn't have algorithms, which I don't really like learning algorithms. I find it kind of boring. That's part of why I was drawn to the clock. I kind of started getting good at it, and I realized if I keep practicing this, I could get world class at it. And eventually last November, I got my times down under three seconds in competition and was 15th in the world. 

[MIKE MCGILL] We go to a club in Johnston at the library like once a month where kids get together, local Des Moines area kids and they, you know, talk about cubing, talk about upcoming competitions. Three years in, where I'm at now is I enjoy going to competitions because I see people that I know now. And so you really get to build a relationship with these folks and their kids. So that's, I enjoy the social aspect of being able to connect.

[MAX MCGILL] My younger sister knows how to solve a clock, and she's competed a couple of times, and my older sister recently learned how to solve a three by three cube.

[MIKE MCGILL] There's not like an official seniors division, but there are like unofficial rankings of seniors, and I'm pretty happy to show that I'm a top ten in the United States for people over 40.

(laughter)

[MAX MCGILL] Competing in the Heartland Championships, it's definitely different from other competitions. The way I thought of it was that I had like a home field advantage. I'm usually not too worried about other people’s solving, and I just focus on my own because, like, I have no control of what times other people get. I was against someone who was ranked second in the world. He's from North Dakota. It was kind of stressful because he and I were kind of like trading, like he would beat me on one solve and I would beat him on the next solve. I did like a quick calculation in my head, I knew I had to get like a decent time on the last solve if I wanted to win. And I ended up beating him by a little bit and winning the Heartland Champion. And it was really exciting because I had a ton of family cheering me on, and it helped me focus and win.

(cheering)

[MAGGIE MCGILL] I just am amazed to see him keep progressing. And it's funny, he was talking about his first competition when he was so excited to get it, and he asked me to take his picture at that competition with a kid who's a top cuber. And I have this picture of little Max and this kid, and now they're competing on the same, you know, similar levels.

[MAN’S VOICE OFF-CAMERA] And in first place, let's hear it for Max McGill. 

(applause)

[MAGGIE MCGILL] I just never thought it would get to this point. And now that we are at this point, it's really fun and just kind of exciting to see how much farther it could go.

[MIKE MCGILL] When our kids were little, I always thought that I don't want to spend our weekends doing travel sports, and then suddenly we're all in on cubing and we're kind of traveling all over the Midwest and across the United States.

[MAGGIE MCGILL] He's aiming for worlds next year in Sweden, so we're considering that but -- 

[MIKE MCGILL] We'll see.

[MAGGIE MCGILL] Yeah. 

[NEBBE] There is a movie star living in Newton and he has four legs. Bing is a Great Dane who was chosen to star in The Friend alongside Bill Murray and Naomi Watts. After two years of filming and a big Hollywood premiere, Bing retired from the movies and has returned home to Iowa. 

[BEV KLINGENSMITH] This is Bing. He is my fourth generation Great Dane. His great-grandma was my first champion. So, I’ve had multiple generations of these guys along with some others ones. Bing is an AKC champion as well. He also has some performance titles. He has some obedience and rally titles and some other titles to go along behind his name too.

[BEV KLINGENSMITH] DMOTC, Des Moines Obedience Training Club, I enjoy teaching. First place, I started taking classes with my first Great Dane. Most of them are fairly soft, meaning when you’re in training they don’t require a heavy hand, they require firmness, but not heavy hands. 

[BEV KLINGENSMITH] Well, my love for dogs and photography has probably always been there. So, I specialize in dogs when I do photography, kind of combining my two most expensive hobbies. 

(laughter)

[BEV KLINGENSMITH] I had work featured in several dog calendars. I have been featured in some international publications. Probably my most common thing is portrait work of dogs and sometimes their owners too. I've been on the cover of one calendar of Great Dane puppies. I have had other Great Danes featured in local commercials, but for the movie one of the producers had emailed me and when I initially got the email I actually deleted it. They were talking about filming in New York and I'm in Iowa and I just didn't think it was realistic for my life. They wanted a Harlequin Great Dane, which is a white dog with black patches. They needed him to be in tact still, which is to not be neutered. And the dog had to have a training in temperament to deal with all the rigors of filming a movie, which is a lot. And I was like, you know, I probably should reach back out and at least try to point them in the right direction. I have several friends and Danes all over the country, so I thought I could point them in the right direction with somebody on the East Coast with a Dane. But through talking to them, I realized it was a really cool sounding project. So, I went ahead and submitted Bing's photos for consideration and they liked him well enough to fly out to Iowa to meet us. So, the film is The Friend. It stars Naomi Watts and Bill Murray. And yeah, so the film deals with grief a lot. It's dealing with Naomi's character. Her mentor, friend was Bill Murray, but he does die and it is by a suicide, so it is kind of a heavy subject and they handled it well. And the dog, Bing, he was owned by Bill's character, willed the dog to Naomi's character unbeknownst to her. And it is very touching. Yeah, I had never been a part of anything like that. I had no idea how movie sets really worked. So, January of 2024 we drove out to New York. They put us up in a house in Staten Island for the three months that we lived there. And we did most of our filming in and around Manhattan. We worked with Naomi in her home. And that was really important that they, you know, it had to look real and Naomi had to be comfortable with him. We started inside and then we eventually progressed to having her walk him outside. Naomi would be walking him and people would come up to her and ask her about the dog and not even realize they were talking to Naomi Watts. And I always thought that was kind of funny. 

[BEV KLINGENSMITH] Anybody he interacted with, we would do a little advanced prep work with them to make sure they were comfortable with the dog and he was comfortable with them, so he wasn't first meeting them like in front of the camera. A lot of the behaviors he needed, he already had. A lot of it was just general obedience of being able to sit or lay down or do a recall or walk on a leash. However, a lot of people, well that's not very hard. Well, he also had to do that a bunch of times and in crazy circumstances with camera and crew and everything right up in your space and things moving around. So, really the whole filming was very much structured around Bing's comfort and they were very flexible on a lot of that. But it also went incredibly fast, the three months kind of flew by. 

[BEV KLINGENSMITH] We got to participate in three film festivals. The first one we did was the Telluride Film Festival in Colorado. It was really fun to when the credits go and you see your own name in the credits and the whole audience claps when they saw Bing's name. That was really fun. After Telluride, we were home for a couple of days and then took off for Toronto and we did the Toronto International Film Festival, the New York Film Festival. Going into these private parties with my dog, very surreal. And so we're meeting people like Mark Hamill and J-Lo and Demi Moore. Naomi introduces me to Will Ferrell and I'm just like, this is my life right now? So, pretty much everything Naomi was doing or Bill was doing, we were doing too. We spent about a week in New York. We did the premiere. We did the Fallon show. We did Drew Barrymore, Good Morning America, The View. I really enjoyed our local celebrity status for a while. We did several interviews around here. Bleeker Street, who is the distribution company, they bought out a theater for me to do a special friends and family event. Bill Murray came to that. And then Bill invited us backstage to his concert. And then we went out to the bar with Bill Murray that night too, which was, it was a very surreal experience. 

[BEV KLINGENSMITH] I don't even think I really could process how that would look and feel and be, even during the filming of the movie. It felt like everything went so fast. We were so incredibly busy. Just very thankful for all the people in my life that allowed this to happen. My husband was here still holding down the fort. And then it came out and you started doing some Q&As and start realizing all of these people are so into my dog and a dog that you love so much, to know that they're going to live on, yeah really cool. 

[BEV KLINGENSMITH] It was definitely a once in a lifetime experience and opportunity. 

[BEV KLINGENSMITH] Nash just turned eight and Bing is almost eight, so we have slowed down a little bit on what we do. He still demands his daily runs multiple times and he's kind of exceeded a lot of goals I had. Otherwise yeah, just a lot of lounging and being a dog. 

[NEBBE] That's all for this week. Thank you for joining me as we meet people and sometimes dogs who are not afraid to take on a challenge and see where it takes them. I'm Charity Nebbe. See you next time for more Iowa life. 

[ANNOUNCER] Funding for Iowa Life is provided by – 

[ANNOUNCER] The MA Martin Everist Foundation founded by Margaret Ann Martin Everist, is proud to support arts, culture, public media and education in the Siouxland community in northwest Iowa. 

[ANNOUNCER] The estate of Wilma and Kenneth Groe of Burlington, Iowa, dedicated to helping bring entertaining, informational and educational programs to the people of Iowa.

[ANNOUNCER] The Lainie Grimm Fund for Inclusive Programming at the Iowa PBS Foundation. 

[ANNOUNCER] And by Friends, the Iowa PBS Foundation.