Julie Gammack's Iowa Potluck

Phoebe Wall Howard recently left a highly sought-after beat as an auto reporter for The Detroit Free Press. So, what’s a writer who covers cars, sailing, and a life where she is based in Michigan doing in the IOWA Writers’ Collaborative? First, she spent part of her career in Iowa working for The Des Moines Register, and she’s a popular presenter during our Okoboji Writers’ Retreat. Most important...

Stop the Presses newsletter author Mark Jacob was our Monday Zoom lunch guest today. It was a doozy. Sparks can fly when over 50 folks gather on a Zoom call to discuss journalism from a learned perspective. Take a listen. In 2018, Mark left one of the top jobs in journalism, as Metro Editor of the Chicago Tribune, partly because he had become disillusioned with right-wing lies and felt the media w...

Okoboji Writers’ and Songwriters’ Retreat / Iowa Writers’ Collaborative Roundup / About Julie Editors Note: This post includes audio (above) and video (below) recordings of the conversation. The transcript is also posted. Our Potluck guest, Liz Garst, said a typical rain gauge sold in an Iowa hardware store measures up to 7” of precipitation. In northwest Iowa last week, rainfall was up to 10-15”...

The Iowa Writers’ Collaborative has 55 members, some of whom have a background in political analysis. During Monday’s Potluck Zoom call, Ed Tibbetts , Dana James, founder of Black Iowa News , Dave Busiek , Dennis Goldford , Robert Leonard , Art Cullen , Barry Piatt , and Laura Belin talked with Ann Selzer about the Iowa Poll, which is being released this week, starting on Monday in The Des Moines...

The article VoiceOver is included, and it includes me coughing and the dog in the background chewing on stuff. Sorry. Some don’t have time to read, but they will listen if given the chance. There wasn’t a way to pause and edit the audio, so here you go. Today’s column combines multiple recent experiences. A trip to Davenport, a podcast conversation with the new Polk County Attorney, a tragedy that...

Candidate Kimberly Graham had big, bold ideas for changes she planned to make within the office of Polk County Attorney she pursued. Graham was elected in 2022, so she’s had time to settle into the job after succeeding her predecessor John Sarcone, who held the office for over three decades. How’s it going? What I appreciate about our Potluck podcasts is that we have one hour to ask questions and...

To our new subscribers: I host a Monday Zoom call over the noon hour most weeks but usually take holidays off. After meeting Marianne Fons in Winterset recently, we decided we needed her to meet you BEFORE the upcoming Winterest Quilt Festival happening June 5-8 , so she was our guest on Memorial Day. I didn’t expect a big turnout today because it’s a holiday and the weather is mostly beautiful. T...

Greenfield Tornado Relief Susie Oleson, of Greenfield, answered a question asking how people can help our Iowa neighbors recover from yesterdays horrific tornado that ripped through Adair County and spit out homes, cars, trucks and wind turbines in its wake. Some lost their lives, many others lost their homes. The button below is a link to the Greater Greenfield Community Foundation Tornado Relief...

This week, we held an extra podcast to discuss what’s happening in Gaza and the protests on college campuses over Israel’s reaction to the attack on their country by Hamas. If you are a new subscriber or have not listened to one of these Zoom sessions with readers and special guests, I invite you to check this out. They are described as informal but facilitated dinner-party conversations with wise...

The picture above is not of the esteemed Randy Evans, executive director of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council, our special podcast guest in this episode. It is meant to portray a stereotype of secretive public officials who don’t want you, the taxpayer, to know things, like lawsuits filed against public officials or cost overruns on public expenditures. There’s a lot of stonewalling going on...

Yes, poetry is on the grow. The 2023 Poetry Palooza will begin on April 19 at 5:00 p.m. and run through April 20 at 9 p.m. Mark the calendar, find your way to Grandview University, 1200 Grandview Avenue, and immerse yourself in this old yet new (slams) way of storytelling. But first, REGISTER. Thanks to the generosity of donors, this event is free and open to the public. On the one hand, in this p...

Jara Johnson has performed the National Anthem several times, so you might have been introduced to her at the opening of some big event around these parts. She’s a songwriter, who is also currently the associate director of the Pella Opera House, where she uses her connections with Nashville songwriting colleagues to turn the small town known for the Tulip Festival this time of year into ‘Nashvill...

Robert Leonard and I teamed up to bring you a conversation with Austin Frerick, an author whose book is being released this week. This work could change how readers view what is happening all around us. As Bob said in his introduction to Austin, the author doesn’t just offer facts and data about the consolidation of the food industry; he tells stories about families and how they came to, for examp...

Welcome new subscribers. This column is called Julie Gammack’s Iowa Potluck because it features various stories, interviews, and commentary with a morsels of Iowa life. Paid subscribers support the Okoboji Writers’ and Songwriters’ Retreat. Words underlined or found in bold purple are links to pertinent websites. I am glad to have you on board with this growing community. Julie Here’s a podcast of...

Do not be fooled. Extremists want to declare an embryo created in a petri dish for potential implantation in women dealing with infertility, a person. The Alabama Supreme Court ruling on embryo rights was issued on February 16, and the upheaval is palpable. This has caused some infertility clinics to halt In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) services, leaving patients with even more uncertainty and delays...

If ever there was an example of why local storytelling matters, it’s this one. Byron Stuart lives in the town of Pomeroy, population 500. He discovered that owning a bar was a way to manifest his dream of experiencing live music regularly. Musicians and patrons describe the venue that seats 80 as ‘magical.’ The building appears outside as a dilapidated structure, but when one crosses the threshold...

Ah, the power of words. Changing ‘shall’ to ‘may’ when it comes to language levying monies supporting public libraries caused a furor enough that the specific bill designed to do just that was put back on the shelf. Words matter, and that change spelled impending death to enough small-town libraries in Iowa and became a catalyst for uncommon political action by library fans. I highly recommend you...

Today’s podcast with musician and entrepreneur Jason Walsmith does not mention the great news that he has joined the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative ranks, as we launched it on Saturday. As regular readers of this column know, I am on a mission to support writers through the Okoboji Writers’ Retreat (OWR) and the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative (IWC). This September, we’ve added songwriting to the OWR cur...

Starting today, I will acknowledge those who become new or renewed paid subscribers to support the Okoboji and Songwriters’ Retreat. If you are new to this space and are interested in learning more about this annual event or applying for a scholarship, check the FAQ page on this website: https://okobojiwritersretreat.com . Thanks to Deb Martin and Linda Beatty, our most recent paid subscribers, fo...

Ann B. Friedman built a museum called Planet Word in the heart of Washington, D.C., within walking distance of the White House and the Washington Mall. When did you last talk with someone responsible for building a museum worth north of $50 million, money which she both raised and contributed? Yeah, me too. Never. Listen to the podcast (or read the rough transcript included). It’s a story of visio...

On January 22, 1973, the landmark Supreme Court decision, Roe v. Wade, was issued. This decision legalized abortion across the United States, recognizing a woman's constitutional right to choose to have an abortion. The ruling established a woman's legal right to access abortion services, with certain restrictions based on the trimester of pregnancy. On January 22, 2024, we had as our Zoom lunch g...

Well, sort of, you have a choice to make. If you are an Iowa Democrat, the National Democratic Party apparatus has stripped Iowa of the usual reason to go to your precinct caucus— having your presidential preference recorded. Of course, with an incumbent President, that stands to reason. Senator Claire Celsi said one reason to attend is the social aspect of meeting fellow Democrats. And to sign ba...

Two things today: first is the recording of our conversation with legendary musician and writer Dartanyan Brown, the newest columnist in the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative ranks. Next is a link to the Monday Zoom lunch on Caucus Day, January 15, with an impressive cast of leaders within the Iowa Democratic Party. Please join Iowa Democratic Party chair Rita Hart, Scott Brennan, Bill Bauch, Senator Cl...

Songs are a form of storytelling. They capture a time in a composer’s experience that can be shared and remembered because they are anchored to sound, not the page. I embarked on a quest to add a songwriting track to the 2024 Okoboji Writers’ Retreat (OWR). Since this isn’t my area of expertise, I asked former participants for their recommendations. The name ‘Chad Elliott’ was suggested repeatedly...

In our conversation with retired television news leader, Dave Busiek, one of our participants was able to ask him why there was no local television coverage of the World Food Prize meeting even though leaders from around the world gathered in Des Moines to participate. Busiek had an answer at the 33:36 mark of the podcast. This conversation offers a fascinating look behind the scenes of a local te...