Idaho Matters

Minda Harts is the author of "You Are More Than Magic." (Minda Harts / Twitter) Minda Harts is the CEO and best-selling author of "You Are More Than Magic," a book about helping women of color advocate for themselves and find their voice. She joins Gemma Gaudette to talk about building relationships and facing workplace challenges.

Six-year-old twins Charlie and Milo are excited to be running in the 2022 Capitol Classic Children's Race (Saint Alphonsus Health System) On Saturday, kids will gather at the Boise Depot and race to the Idaho Statehouse for the 38th Capitol Classic Children’s Race . The race began in 1983 to help kids get interested in running and fitness. And this year, six-year-old twins Charlie and Milo are eag...

(Tom Michael / Boise State Public Radio) Why you’re likely to get COVID-19 over and over and over again , why people with disabilities were hit harder by the pandemic than many thought, why monkeypox is not COVID , and will kids under five ever get the vaccine? Here to break it all down for Idaho Matters is Dr. David Pate, former CEO of St. Luke’s Health System and a current member of Idaho’s Coro...

The Boise Airport saw record travel over the President’s Day long weekend and during spring break, and the final tally from Memorial Day weekend is likely to follow suit. According to Director Rebecca Hupp, summertime travelers flying in or out of Boise can expect big changes at the airport. Hupp sat down with our Morning Edition host George Prentice to talk about the airport’s steady growth in se...

Raptors around the world are in trouble as population growth and other factors threaten their existence. Vultures, in particular, are at increased risk. Their numbers have declined dramatically around the globe. Evan Buechley is the Vice President of International Conservation at the Peregrine Fund and has been studying vultures in Ethiopia for a decade. He joins Idaho Matters to talk more about t...

It was almost 30 years ago when people who care about raptors got together to help establish the Morley Nelson Snake River Birds of Prey National Conservation Area. This spot, south of Boise and east of Mountain Home, has falcons, eagles, hawks and owls who find a safe space to build nests and raise chicks each year. The nonprofit Birds of Prey NCA partnership was formed in 2015 to protect those r...

(Anna King / Northwest News Network) When people think of Idaho, their next thought is often potatoes. But once you hit the Snake River Valley, you'll find more grapes than you will spuds, and this year those grapes are celebrating a 15 year anniversary. According to the Idaho Wine Commission, Idaho's first American Viticultural Area opened in 2007. Over the years, it has grown from 15 wineries to...

The school shooting in Uvalde, Texas that left 19 fourth graders and two teachers dead has cast a shadow over much of the nation. And in the wake of this tragedy, a lot of our children are turning to us with questions. We're bringing you this conversation with Gemma Gaudette and Cody Ward, the clinical director at the Idaho Youth Ranch, about how to talk with our kids about events like these. This...

On this special podcast exclusive, Gemma shares an interview our Boise State Public Radio News Director Sáša Woodruff had with NPR's Consider This team about a personal medical decision she made, what life's been like since then and the ethics behind genetic testing.

(Thomas Hawk / Flickr) On Tuesday, 19 children and two teachers were shot and killed by an 18-year-old man at an elementary school in Texas and four more people were injured. NPR reports it’s the second-deadliest school shooting in U.S. history, only behind Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut on December 14, 2012. While the details of the shooting continue to unfold, the issue of...

An update on the Rigby middle school shooting, school safety from an Idaho perspective , an investigation of animal abuse at a feedlot , and teacher pay raises . It’s Friday, which means it's time for our Reporter Roundtable when Idaho Matters gets you up-to-date on all the news that made headlines this past week. Our journalist panel today: Kevin Richert, senior reporter and blogger with Idaho Ed...

Building in a glass of water. (Jeanne Menjoulet / Flickr) Idaho, like much of the country, is facing drought conditions. Officials at the state and local level are taking steps to make sure there’s enough water to go around. The city of Meridian has been taking proactive steps in water planning and conservation and wants to share information with the community about both its surface and groundwate...

Dr. Robert Saeid Farivar in surgery. ( Saint Alphonsus Health System) A man from Nampa recently became the first patient in this region to receive a new kind of heart pump before undergoing surgery. Without this device, he would not have been able to receive the operation he needed to live. According to Saint Alphonsus Health System, this new piece of technology helps the heart pump blood during a...

With the first, official day of summer just around the corner, Idaho Matters sits down with resident movie critic, George Prentice, to find out what movies are worth seeing.

( Boise State Public Radio) Just a few days after winning the GOP primary for State Attorney General, Raul Labrador led the charge to direct Central District Health to remove any recommendation for face masks from its website. This move comes as statewide cases of COVID-19 are ticking up, and Ada County continues to be a hotspot for cases. Last Friday, when the Board of Health met, the level of th...

Surel's Place is celebrating its 10th anniversary with a new performance that will showcase some of the best musical, dance and visual artists on the planet. Boise will be the second city in the nation to hear the new compositions performed live. We wanted to find out more about the show called “Ourself Behind Ourself, Concealed,” so we’re turning over the microphone to our Morning Edition host Ge...

( Brett Miller) At 8:00 this morning almost three thousand people were fighting a gigantic wildfire in New Mexico, which has burned more than 300,000 acres. It was last month when a prescribed burn, conducted by the U.S. Forest Service, escaped resulting in the Hermit's Peak fire . That fire later joined the Calf Canyon outbreak, creating the largest wildfire New Mexico has ever seen. According to...

A remote camera captures a radio collared cougar in Griffith Park. (STEVE WINTER/National Geographic Creative / National Geographic Creative) Big cats like tigers, leopards and jaguars are some of the world’s most magnificent animals, and some of the hardest to find. Photographer Steve Winter has been tracking these cats from Asia to Latin America in an effort to share their beauty and help save t...

Cities in Idaho have been struggling with a shortage of affordable housing and trying to find solutions anywhere they can. For some, density is one of those solutions, an idea that can spark conversation and sometimes conflict in communities. The city of Boise is looking at density in new ways, thanks to its new Director of Planning and Development services. Our morning edition host George Prentic...

So here's a question:what was the deadliest nuclear accident in U.S. history? If you said Three Mile Island, you’d be wrong. Back in 1961, a nuclear reactor in Idaho Falls known as SL-1 melted down and killed three people. It also exposed thousands of people in eastern Idaho to radioactive gas. A new season of the Wild Thing podcast focuses on this little known Idaho event, the science behind nucl...

Wild Thing podcast host and creator Laura Krantz grew up in Idaho Falls, so maybe it's not shocking that the third season of her podcast starts with a little-known meltdown of an experimental reactor in Idaho Falls in 1961. We've got the entire first episode for you to listen to, right here.

A bunch of children playing and running around a playground at a church party. ( Flickr) As we continue to see heated debates around social justice issues, education freedom and how post-pandemic life might look - what seems to be lacking is a place for kids and caregivers to find resources to be able to talk about these issues and attitudes. Amber O'Neal Johnston, the author of the book "A Place...

Baby formula is offered for sale at a big-box store on Jan. 13 in Chicago. Baby formula has been in short supply in many stores around the U.S. for several months. (Scott Olson / Getty Images) The baby formula shortage , more apartments coming to downtown Boise , election results statewide and in the legislature . It’s Friday, which means it's time for our Reporter Roundtable when Idaho Matters ge...

A registered nurse stirs a nasal swab in testing solution after administering a COVID-19 test in Los Angeles, Calif. Increased testing could help in efforts to detect and track new variants like omicron. (Mario Tama/Getty Images) We are more than two years into the COVID-19 pandemic and new subvariants of the omicron variant are spreading rapidly around the world, especially in the United States....

(Visit Idaho / Visit Idaho) This year marks 50 years since the creation of the Sawtooth National Recreation Area . It was created in 1972 by an act of Congress, and at the time, Idaho's congressional delegation decided against seeking a national park designation. Now, more than half a century later, there are still mixed feelings about this area . Joining Idaho Matters to talk more about this anni...