Valley 101

The 19th Amendment turns 100 this year. The amendment guaranteed American women's suffrage nationally, but some women in Arizona voted before 1920. How did they do that? This week on Valley 101, a podcast from The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com, we meet some of the leaders of the women's suffrage movement in Arizona and explore their long-lasting impacts.  In this episode you'll hear:  How Fra...

For most Americans, the clock springs forward an hour or falls back one because of Daylight Saving Time.  But that's not the case in two states: Arizona and Hawaii.  In today's episode of Valley 101, a podcast from the Arizona Republic and azcentral.com, podcast intern Jonathan Tease dives into the history and debates that led to Arizona's decision to opt out of Daylight Saving Time. Learn more ab...

President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 built 41,000 miles of interconnected highways across the country.  The bill arrived in an era of post-World War II, Cold War tension. Its proponents said highways were necessary for national defense. In case of an attack, people in densely populated cities would need roadways to evacuate.  Across the country, highways were placed dir...

On Monday, for the first time ever, Arizona will recognize Indigenous Peoples Day. It's a move that State Sen. Jamescita Peshlakai has been working toward for years. "The United States is first and foremost, and always has been and always will be, Indigenous peoples' sacred homeland," Peshlakai said. On Sept. 4, Republican Gov. Doug Ducey signed a proclamation recognizing Indigenous Peoples Day. S...

As newcomers to the Valley, Stephen Richer and his wife Lindsay noticed a ton of photo shoots taking place in downtown Phoenix. He saw women walking in downtown accompanied by professional photographers. Richer lived in other cities like Chicago, New Orleans and Portland. The phenomenon he saw in Phoenix was new to him. To find out what was going on, he got in touch with our team at Valley 101. In...

Hattie Mosher had a pioneering spirit. The daughter of one of the wealthiest families in turn of the century Phoenix, Hattie wasn't one to hold back.  She made waves by being one of the first — if not the first — women to ride a bike in Phoenix. She worked as a reporter at the Denver Post. She ran for political office a decade after white women in Arizona were given the right to vote.  But Hattie'...

West of the White Tank Mountains in Buckeye, there's a 30-mile, four-land highway that connects Interstate 10 in the south to Bell Road in the north. It was once seen as the key to city growth, anchoring dozens of future master planned communities and some 300,000 anticipated residents. After dozens of private investors constructed the highway in 1988 and 1989, the highway sat unused amid desolate...

The first day of school is always a big day for students. Many plan out their outfits and memorize their schedules for the day. They walk out on campus with a map in hand to find their classrooms. But this year, many students are not getting that same experience. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic put the traditional rituals of returning to school on hold. This includes students attending Arizona State...

Labor Day is a anational holiday that celebrates the contributors to the work force. During this holiday, our Valley 101 podcast team thought it would be fitting to explore one of the largest and most important labor movements in our state's history, the Farmworkers Movement. Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta are two of the most well-known organizers in the movement. But Arizona had its own leaders....

Walk along almost any canal in the metro Phoenix area and you're sure to find thousands of shells each smaller than a quarter. What are they and how did they get there?  Those are the questions reporter John D'Anna wonders about every time he walks his dog George along the neighborhood canal path. This week, Valley 101 is answering them.  The shells' official name is Corbicula fluminea, but they'r...

It's August, which means your TV news broadcasts are usually filled with stories about monsoon season, including stories about flooding, how to drive safely and how much rain we've received.  This year has been a little different thanks to a hotter and drier summer. But when the rain hits, there's a noticeable scent to it.  That's thanks to a certain desert plant, the creosote bush. In today's epi...

In a previous episode of Valley 101, producer Taylor Seely broke down the grid system of Phoenix streets. The streets in Phoenix run north and south, and east and west. This created streets that run perpendicular to each other. However, there are always exceptions to the rule. Grand Avenue is one of those. Today we’re answering two questions submitted by listeners. First, how does a diagonal stree...

Health care workers in Arizona are struggling through the burdens of a public health crisis that has hospitalized thousands of Arizonans and pushed emergency rooms and ICUs near full capacity. With higher than usual patient-to-nurse ratios, stringent PPE protocols and looming fears over exposing their loved ones to the novel coronavirus, health care workers in Arizona are feeling tired, dejected a...

Phoenix is the largest metropolitan city in the U.S. without passenger-rail service, but that wasn't always the case.  In 1923, Phoenix Union Station opened. And in 1926, a transcontinental line was completed, meaning someone could take the train anywhere in the country.  In this episode of Valley 101, a podcast from The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com, we're exploring the history of passenger-...

For several people in the Valley who've contracted COVID-19 or watched someone they love contract it, a switch flipped afterward. They felt compelled to convince others to take the disease seriously.  Jimmy Flores, a 30-year-old man from Tempe, told Arizona Republic reporter Audrey Jensen he thought COVID-19 was a joke. He figured he was too young and healthy to be susceptible to any significant d...

As a lifelong Valley resident, I would often drive by the spring training stadiums for the Chicago Cubs or the Los Angeles Angels. I always wondered why we had outside teams playing in the Arizona. The reason dates back to the 1940s before the state even had its own Major League Baseball team. Arizona's relationship to Americans' favorite pastime started with a coalition of baseball teams that wou...

This episode goes out to all of the book lovers.  Did you know that if you live in Tempe, you can get a Phoenix Public Library card? One of our podcast listeners knew that, but he wasn't sure why, so podcast editor Katie O'Connell found out.  In this week's episode of Valley 101, a podcast from The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com, we're exploring peeking behind-the-scenes at our local libraries...

Arizona is a battleground state in national elections and could sway the outcome of the 2020 presidential race.   But how did we get here? How did the state go from reliably red to purple, with the possibility to shift blue in 2020, in just a decade? To understand, go back to 2010 when Arizona surprised the nation by passing Senate Bill 1070, a sweeping and highly controversial immigration law, ot...

Live in the Valley long enough and you’re bound to have a conversation about the Phoenix grid system.  You might hear how convenient and logical it is. Avenues on the west, streets on the east. Central in the middle. You might think the only flaw is that there's no pattern to the east-west extending named streets. That's true.  But that's not the only problem. Midtown Phoenix resident Scott Wilken...

South Mountain is a hot spot for hiking enthusiasts, but its history is richer than you might think. There’s even a mystery deep within the mountain that has prompted our listeners to ask us for answers.   The Lost Ranch ruins are located within the park away from official trails. As time has passed, the ruins have captivated hikers.  One Valley 101 listener submitted this question: "What are the...

There's a chance that the concrete fence in your backyard could be partially made out of materials from volcanoes.  In 1944, three Arizonans invented a new type of concrete block, the Superlite block. The key material in Superlite is volcanic scoria, which is essentially cooled volcanic magma. In this case, it's mined in Winona, AZ. The Superlite block allowed Phoenix to grow at an exponential rat...

Valley 101 podcast parses through Arizona's COVID-19 data to better understand the nuances and clarify how the virus is taking shape in Arizona. Includes: Taylor Seely, Stephanie Innes and Alison Steinbach. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Arizona created a state poet laureate position to celebrate the state's centennial.  A unanimous panel chose Alberto Ríos to fill the post in 2013. His role as poet laureate was to undertake a major literary project to expose quality poetry to residents who might not otherwise be.  In this week's episode of Valley 101, a podcast from The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com, host Kaila White intervi...

Our team is taking a week off for Memorial Day. However, we wanted to bring back an earlier episode breaking down how the Valley go so big. The answer, interestingly enough, goes back to World War II. Be sure to listen to part two where we explore the future population of the Valley. Enjoy and we'll be back next week with a brand new episode. Want your question about metro Phoenix answered? Submit...

Whether you're driving past a billboard, listening to the radio or watching TV, it seems like advertisements for attorneys are inescapable.  But why are there so many of them? And why are so many of them about personal injury lawsuits? Turns out, until 1977, attorneys were prohibited from advertising. Times certainly have changed. Arizona lawyers, law firms and legal-services providers spent $32 m...