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INDEPENDENT IOWA NEWS, ARTS & CULTURE

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22 Hook & Chain

One Des Moines o!cial is determined to break the towing status quo.

24 Cancer State

Living in Iowa comes with a “skyscraper of risk factors,” researchers ﬁnd.

Birds

Bald eagles are no longer endangered, but still face plenty of Iowa dangers.

Little Village (ISSN 2328-3351) is an independent, communitysupported news and culture publication based in Iowa City, published monthly by Bayleaf, LLC, 623 S Dubuque St., Iowa City, IA 52240. Through journalism, essays and events, we work to improve our community according to core values: environmental sustainability, a ordability and access, economic and labor justice, racial justice, gender equity, quality healthcare, quality education and critical culture. Letters to the editor(s) are always welcome. We reserve the right to fact check and edit for length and clarity. Please send letters, comments or corrections to editor@littlevillagemag.com. Subscriptions: lv@ littlevillagemag.com. The US annual subscription price is $120. All rights reserved, reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. If you would like to reprint or collaborate on new content, reach us at lv@littlevillagemag.com. To browse back issues, visit us online at issuu.com/littlevillage.

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May Contributors

Alissa Cornick, Ariana Martinez, Casey Maynard, Dan Ray, Gabi Vanek, Jessie Kraemer, John Busbee, K. Twaddle, Kembrew McLeod, Lauren Haldeman, Matthew Hundley, Mike Kuhlenbeck, Ramona Muse Lambert, Rob Brezsny, Sam Locke Ward, Sara Williams, Skyler Gonzalez, Tom Tomorrow

Interns

Carly Fedler, James Valentin, Julieta Ortiz, Lani Krull, Liz Rosa, Quincy Rose, Seth Coughlin

INDEPENDENT IOWA

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Meet this month’s contributors!

Alissa Cornick is a youth librarian at the Des Moines Public Library, and today her favorite dinosaur is Deinonychus… and Europasaurus… oh, oh! And Spinosaurus!

Ariana Martinez is a freelance ﬁlm critic and Cinema Studies graduate student at the University of Iowa.

Casey Maynard, a librarian at ICPL, maintains collections for children through third grade and presents StoryJAM.

Dan Ray is a journalist, musician, model and 1994 Aquarius. You can connect with her over on Instagram, @heyimdanray.

Gabi Vanek hates music. At least that’s what she tells herself.

Jessie Kraemer is a writer and artist living in Iowa City. Follower her on Instagram, @jkraem.

John Busbee produces The Culture Buzz, a weekly arts & culture radio show on kfmg.org, covering Iowa’s arts scene with an inclusive sweep of the cultural brush.

K. Twaddle is an Iowa transplant and a lifelong book enthusiast. She lives in rural Iowa with her partner and three cats.

Kembrew McLeod is a founding Little Village columnist and the

Issue 352 May 2026

Cover by Kellan Doolittle

Far too many Iowans are facing cancer diagnoses. Researchers are pretty sure why. Also in this issue: A state lawmaker hurls slurs and conspiracy theories, Crow Tow gets challenged in Des Moines, and Q.C. creatives start a VHS version of the Criterion Closet. Plus: Behind the bald eagle revival.

chair of Communication Studies at the University of Iowa.

Lauren Haldeman is a graphic novelist and poet. She has received an Iowa Arts Fellowship, a Sustainable Arts Foundation Award and fellowships from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.

Matthew Hundley is a musician, image creator and advocate of Iowa’s great resources: indie bands, beer, unique eateries, museums and nature trails.

Mike Kuhlenbeck is a freelance journalist and National Writers Union member based in Des Moines.

Ramona Muse Lambert makes art and music. Sometimes she’s in charge of dinner, too. Buy her art at ramonamuselambert.com.

Sam Locke Ward is a a cartoonist and musician from Iowa City. He self publishes the comic zines Voyage Into Misery and ‘93 Grind Out

Sara Williams is a multidisciplinary artist who was raised in Bondurant, Iowa. She currently resides near Amana.

Skylar Gonzalez is a library worker and musician based in Iowa City. Catch him waxing Beatlemaniacal at Tuesday night Gabe’s jams.

Interactions

LV encourages readers to submit letters to Editor@LittleVillageMag.com. Please include your name, city of residence and any relevant job titles or affliations. Letters may be edited for accuracy and style. To be considered for print publication, letters should be under 500 words. Preference is given to letters that have not been published elsewhere.

A stolen Pride ﬂag was restored and a proclamation challenged this Trans Day of Visibility in Johnson County (April 1)

Trans people are such a very small minority and they pose absolutely zero risk to anyone and only desire what they deserve: to be treated as equal humans. Nothing special about that and nothing that harms anyone. That narrow-minded bigots can use this very vulnerable community as a scare tactic is deplorable. —Ben S.

Resist. —Mitch N.

Iowa Republicans killed another legal marijuana bill this year. After nearly a decade of attempts, 2027 could turn over a new leaf. (April 2)

And then they wonder why the state is in the state it’s in. Get with the times or get left behind. —Adam S.

Cats out of the bag on this. Its legal in North fucking Dakota for medical aid. Legalize and regulate and swat constantly with the booze lobby. Cannabis is a much better environment than alcohol. Reefer Madness was propaganda. I just wanna smoke joints and get high in peace. —Jordan D.

When I smoke recreationally, I’m a happy, healthy 200lbs. When I quit for several years (Random work UA’s), nothing I do can keep the weight o me and I sit around 245lbs. Our bodies have cannabinoid receptors for a reason. —Jordan W.

HAVE AN OPINION?

When I was an active alcoholic, I was an actual danger to myself, my children, and society. The worst thing that happens when I smoke a lil weed is I bake cookies and I’m nicer to my neighbors. Whatever, Missouri can have my money. —Kathy R.

Behind in most other things too except water that gives you cancer, so why not? —Lincoln D.

It’s silly that my doctor said it’s a great alternative for my chronic pain, but the government is like nah, here’s the equivalent to a Tylenol, plus you have to pay $100 a year for this privilege. Give me a break! —Sam D.H.

Could Iowans be even MORE high? —Charlie K.

I know why, Republicans and Private Prisons are why. We’re looking at you, Brad Zaun. —Robert C.

PERSONALS

The Iowa City Animal Shelter is fush with pigs—the furry, squeaky, buck-toothed and teenypawed kind. Four are just over 1 year old and live in bonded pairs: the red- and curly-haired Maui with the white-and-gray Pua; and Buzz with Woody, both red-eyed fufy white boys. Then there are the single guys: the chocolate brown, white-collared Franklin and strawberry blond Timmy, who has a white face and a belt of white around his waist, too. These surrendered guinea pigs are about 2 years old and prefer their own bachelor pads. Want to make your home a pig sty? Inquire at 319-356-5298.

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It’s more than inaction, it’s deliberate regression and it’s what happens when you have biased, stupid leadership. —Kyle L.

Iowa is home to a colorful variety of THC beverage and candy brands. They could all disappear come November. (April 3)

PEOPLE LIKE POT. OK, GOD FORBID A MIDWESTERNER DOESN’T WANT TO BINGE DRINK. —Al

Of course some literal rotting walking corpse [Mitch McConnell] has his hands in something that doesn’t a ect him whatsoever. —Justin R.

I really like the THC waters. I’m not into alcohol, but will have a can of THC water every now and again. Legalize it altogether. —Marie K.

UI professor and Iowa City local for 25 years sues Trump administration for canceling his, his wife’s citizenship oaths (April 6)

Despicable!! Truly Trump 2.0 a continuing reign of incoherent chaotic dysfunctional ineptitude amidst a growing bonﬁre of cruelties, vanities, corrupt kleptocratic childish narcissistic bizarro world freak show inanities. It will take decades to clean up the Big Trump Mess!! —John M.

If you ain’t white, you’re not right in the eyes of Trump and his administration. The government allowed only 4,000 refugees into America last year. All of them white South Africans. —Olu A.

Iowa can now fully enforce its ‘don’t say gay’ and school book ban law, after appeals court vacates injunctions (April 7)

Horrible. Simply horrible. —Ben S.

Devastating. —Elida’s Bakery

We are not doing this fucking nazi shit no matter what the law says is ok. —Sam V.M.

Iowa’s priorities are fucked up. We have poisoned air and water, and our concern is gayness. —Robert C.

In latest move to restrict powers of local governments, Iowa Legislature passes bill aimed at Johnson County ID program (April 9)

So, intelligent & compassionate Johnson Co. residents, let’s form & fund a

INTERACTIONS

nongovernmental organization that issues IDs to accomplish the safety purposes of the current IDs! —John B.

Only if we use other people’s money. —Richard D.

Right wing evangelical ideology. Project 2025, MAGA hate… —Chris H.

Letter to the editor: Senator Grassley can stop this war (April 13)

A show of courage from Republicans would be very welcome now. —Lioness A.

Iowa House panel passes bill restricting medication abortions (April 15)

The GOP is trying to inﬂict as much harm as possible to women and vulnerable people in the state up until the bitter end when they will be voted out of o!ce. Why? Power? Control? Misogyny? Women should have control of their bodies and their healthcare decisions!!! —Kim O.M.

Nothing like trying to get less doctors in Iowa. Politicians need to stay out of healthcare decisions. —Amanda K

Just stop. You have no idea what you’re doing… —Ulysses Modern

They are doing this to push democrats out of the state. —Ky

They are pushing out young people and soon women. All that will be left is lonely old white men, playing with each other. —Amber C.

You mean playing with children. —Jennifer L.

Move to a better state! —Norma C.

Yet another case of GOP overstepping and passing laws that will actively harm people while they actively ignore and do not do anything about actual real life situations that currently harm everyone (Iowa’s water quality and cancer situation). —Brenda B.

Aren’t they freaking done yet! How can this come up now in committee? Leave it to the Iowa GOP. —Jenni N.

Too bad they don’t work on any of the things that matter like cancer

was one of 13 restaurants to make Midwest Living’s “Best of the Midwest” list in March. Sam and Riene Gelman opened the ramen shop and cocktail lounge on N Linn Street in October 2024, following the success of their high-end American restaurant The Webster, established in 2021. Paper Crane Chef Edwin Lee “is doing ramen the right way in Iowa City’s historic Brewery Square,” writes John Godfrey in Midwest Living. “Lee spends three days building complex broths using traditional Japanese techniques, then serves them with specialty noodles cooked al dente. … It’s intimate without being precious, serious about technique without overthinking it.”

For the third year in a row, the City of Ames has received the Tree City USA Growth Award, presented by the Arbor Day Foundation and Iowa Department of Natural Resources. The award recognizes cities going above and beyond to plant, maintain and train staff on the complexities of tree systems. Ames has been a designated Tree City for 42 years.

The Society for the Advancement of Violence and Injury Research (SAVIR) awarded two members of the University of Iowa Injury Prevention Center (IPRC) for their work in April. Ann Saba received the SAVIR Excellence in Communication award for translating complex scientifc ideas into accessible, impactful public messages, while Cara Hamann received the SAVIR Outstanding Service Award for her strong leadership in the feld of violence and injury prevention.

clusters, and our economy tanking, and our schools tanking. —Shelley S.

Just a reminder that the Democratic party would rather lose here and use what’s happening because of it for fundraising. —Matt K.

How about let’s let women make decisions about their own bodies for themselves and stop legislating this crap. —Peter S.

I moved here 20 years ago because it was a progressive state. It’s all gone to shit. —Lara M.

Iowa is meant to be ﬂown over. Terrible state. —Adam K.

Voted for by uneducated politicians. —Beth A.W.

Yes and the tax money generated could help fund schools and clean water infrastructure! —Patti I.P.

We need to be able to grow our own. —Cory W.

Rob Sand wants to legalize marijuana, regulate it like alcohol (April 20)

Great idea!! Just have to grease the palms of Big Ag and the Alcohol lobby, somehow. The money running politics in Iowa will have other opinions. —Adam S.

Every state around us has already done it. —Donna B.

It’s about time! —Kismet K.

Totally agree with this. And I don’t even use it. —Darcie C.T.

Turn Iowa into Illinois?! Hell No! —Mark H.

Yes!! I’m tired of spending money in East Dubuque. —Christine H.W.S.

EXPUNGE THE RECORDS!!!! LEGALIZATION WITHOUT DECRIMINALIZATION IS IMMORAL!!!

—Matt C.

Thank god. —Colbi M.

Legalization without expungement is insane :/ —Nick G.

It’s upholding white supremacy. —Rh!z

Yep, there it is. —Chelsea

Expunge the records and free the wonderful plant. —Joseph W.

Let me grow it, and decriminalize. That’s all I ask. —Ben V.M.

Dude you can’t even remember the plant you have in your house! —Becky V.M.

Almost 5 years and it’s still alive!! The cat hasn’t eaten all of it. —Ben V.M.

Rob smokes mids. —Rh!z

He’s smokin those fake tyson dispos. —Isaac

He reminds me of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. He is almost too altruistic for today’s politics. —WL

Legalizing without expunging past o enders is crazy. Wanna have your strange cake and eat it too. —Chelsea

There’s no sense in legalization without expungement. Simply clarify that it’s only for those who were charged with possession only and non violent o enses. Won’t o end anyone and is the right

thing to do. Can’t fathom why he’s wishy washy on that. —Cameron D.

Because he wants to uphold white supremacy. He wants to keep the disproportionately incarcerated Black and Brown folk in jail while he grants white people permits to open a storefront for the same thing. It’s just racism. And if Rob Sand isn’t racist, then he’s capitulating to racists. —Matt C.

Exactly. Liberals are digging their own graves selling out on Rob. —Rh!z

Like if he’s gonna just mold to whatever highest bidder tells him to why can’t he just cave and be Actually Woke and Make The World Better. —Matt C.

Should also be expunged for selling, there’s no sense or morality in proﬁting o something someone else can’t. —Lara W.

Josie Nabhan-Warren, a junior at Iowa City West High, is the new Iowa Student Poet Ambassador (April 22)

Congratulations Josie! This is so impressive! We can’t wait to host a reading at Sidekick Co ee & Books! —Sidekick Co!ee & Books

What an incredible student and human. I am not surprised! Go Josie!!!!! So proud. —Brooke F.

Way to go, Josie!! Honored to have had you in freshman English class. Congratulations and best of luck! —Amber A.

Oh, wow! That’s marvelous! —Sonja S.

Fully Booked: Recommendations from Local Librarians

Dynamic Dinosaur Books

Lately, I’ve had dinos on the brain. Luckily, as a youth librarian, I’m not alone—after all, kids and dinosaurs go together like mac and cheese! I try to have some fun dino books ready for those eager kids looking to get a little closer to what our planet was like eons ago.

I Know Dino!: Amazing Breakthroughs, Mega Mistakes, and Unsolved Mysteries in Dinosaur Science by Sabrina Ricci and Garret Kruger uses paleontology to show us that science changes over time, and being wrong is a natural part of that process. Each dinosaur featured has a “First Impressions” section with initial discoveries, theories and artistic renderings, followed by a “What We Know Now” section with up-to-date information and paleoart. The page layouts are intuitive, the pictures are engaging, and most of the text is blocked into easy-to-consume chunks. It’s a great book for a middle grade dino enthusiast.

Quick, think of a chicken! Guess what? You’re thinking about a dinosaur. That’s the premise behind The Chick-o-saurus by Kelly Crull. We

Stories Between Generations

This summer the Iowa City Senior Center and Iowa City Public Library are partnering to present “Stories Between Generations,” a program that connects local seniors and schoolaged children through a shared reading and letter exchange experience. Think part book club, part pen pal program, all community!

Participants will choose a book from the following list of 10 titles exploring identity, justice, belonging and resilience. (Titles with youth and adult editions are di erentiated with an asterisk): Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson; Freewater by Amina Luqman-Dawson; A High Five for Glenn Burke by Phil Bildner; How to Change Everything by Naomi Klein*; Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai; The Parker Inheritance by Varian Johnson; Rolling Warrior and Being Heumann by Judith Heumann*; Seen and Unseen by Elizabeth Partridge; Stamped by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi*; The Sum of Us by Heather McGhee.*

A senior and a young person who have each selected the same book will be paired together as pen pals. Each will be provided with a free copy of the selected book to keep. The two will then exchange at least two letters over the course of the summer about what they’re reading, what’s

start with an egg hatching. Piece by piece, a dinosaur emerges, but what kind is it? A mighty diplodocus? A speedy velociraptor? Across vibrantly colored pages and rollicking text, we learn that some of the most recognizable parts of the humble chicken are also found in its very distant ancestors—dinosaurs! Chick-o-saurus encourages questioning, observation and laughter. So far, it’s one of my favorite readalouds this year.

Even the littlest kids can be dino fans! The interactive board book Dinosaur’s Wobbly Bottom by Kit Frost, illustrated by Sam Rennocks, has sliding parts to make our favorite dinosaurs stomp, ﬂap and wiggle to the rhythm of simple rhyming words. This book may get us closer to giggles than to the reality of our prehistoric world, but I think it’s worth pointing out that dinosaurs gave rise to modern birds, and birds are notoriously good dancers. Therefore, it is entirely possible that at least some dinosaurs may indeed have wiggled their bottoms!

—Alissa Cornick, Des Moines Public Library

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connecting and what they want the other person to know about their reading experience.

An optional, mid-summer letter writing event for kids on Friday, July 17 at the library o ers the young people in the program a space to compose one of their letters with support. The program wraps up with an in-person celebration at the senior center on Wednesday, Aug. 12 from 1-2 p.m. where readers finally get to meet the person on the other side of their letters. Enjoy a free lunch and discuss your shared reading experience across generations! Registration is open May 1-15 through the Iowa City Public Library online calendar. Space is limited to the first 20 seniors and 20 young people who register. Participants will be notified of their partner and book title on June 1 and have one week to stop by the library to pick up their book. Letters will be exchanged via the library—home addresses will not be shared. Families of young readers are invited to participate in this shared reading and letter writing experience; however, only one name should be submitted for registration.

Casey Maynard, Iowa City Public Library

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Des Moines Highland Park/Oak Park Neighborhood

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Eat Crow

Some local lawmakers are trying to put the brakes on predatory towing in the Hawkeye State.

BY MIKE KUHLENBECK

On Feb. 23, the Des Moines City Council voted 5-2 to extend its contract with the controversial towing outft Crow Tow, which has had the city’s towing contract since 2019. This reignited the public debate on local and state towing laws, which are among the loosest in the nation.

Crow Tow has been accused of predatory behavior and unscrupulous business practices over the two decades it has been in business. Owner Randy Crow and company representatives deny those accusations.

As reported by Little Village in 2022, the Polk County Board of Supervisors rescinded its contract offer with Crow Tow in 2021 because of public backlash. Four years later, the Board voted 3-2 to award Crow Tow a contract lasting from July 1, 2025 to June 2028. Supervisors Angela Connolly and Tom Hockensmith voted against the contract,

with Hockensmith noting his own well-publicized encounter with the company.

The Crow Tow saga has been chronicled by Lee Rood, “Reader’s Watchdog” columnist for the Des Moines Register, in a series of articles investigating the widespread allegations against the company and its business practices. In 2024, Rood documented political contributions made by Dawn Thornton, who runs Crow Tow with her husband Randy Crow, to Des Moines political leaders the previous year. Thornton “gave $6,500 to City Council member Linda Westergaard, $5,000 to now-Mayor Connie Boesen, and $2,500 and $1,000 respectively to council members Chris Coleman and Joe Gatto, state records show,” Rood reported.

The recipients of Thornton’s contributions told the Register campaign contributions do not infuence them.

The new three-year police towing, storage and auctioneering contract Des Moines awarded Crow Tow began on March 1 and runs through Feb. 28, 2029. City Manager Scott Sanders recommended Crow Tow’s bid over one from Central Iowa Towing and Recovery.

According to Mayor Boesen, the new contract makes several changes to the towing processes to improve the service for Des Moines and its residents. The “most impactful changes” highlighted by the mayor’s offce include:

• Requiring the towing contractor to accept credit card payments.

• Giving police the discretion to allow a vehicle owner to take their vehicle if they arrive on scene before the tow truck leaves, at no charge to the owner.

• Clarifying what the city owes the contractor in the event of an interrupted tow.

• Requiring the contractor to develop and maintain procedures to ensure that vehicle owners, or their authorized representative(s), are able to retrieve personal property from impounded vehicles promptly, effciently and at no cost. However, some are skeptical these changes go far enough to protect Des Moines drivers and those who depend on them.

City Councilmember Josh Mandelbaum, who cast one of the two votes against Crow Tow, told Little Village, “I voted against the contract because we should have done more to protect consumers.”

The Ward 3 councilmember said he has regularly received complaints about the city’s towing practices since he was frst elected in 2018. Mandelbaum points to the weak consumer protections in Iowa law as a big part of the problem.

“The way that this lack of consumer protection plays out has been well documented in Lee Rood’s excellent reporting on this topic,” Mandelbaum said. “Residents experience aggressive towing tactics and high storage costs. Cars are sold

at auction after short notifcation periods, and in some cases, the towing company keeps a windfall from those sales. And Crow Tow has become a high-volume call location for the Des Moines Police Department. It does not have to be this way.”

millions of Americans. Vehicle prices are nearing an all-time high, as is the cost of maintaining and fueling them.

Madison Grady, director of government affairs for the Iowa Credit Union League (ICUL), told Little Village that current towing laws leave

“Residents experience aggressive towing tactics and high storage costs. Cars are sold at auction after short noti!cation periods, and in some cases, the towing company keeps a windfall from those sales. And Crow Tow has become a high volume call location for the Des Moines Police Department. It does not have to be this way.

—DES MOINES CITY COUNCILMEMBER JOSH MANDELBAUM, WARD 3

“Towing is a necessary service that the city contracts for, but our contract should be a model of good towing practices,” Mandelbaum said. “We should have had a council work session to discuss our towing contract and how to incorporate consumer protections before we issued an RFP, but we didn’t.”

“The contract may be in place, but there are still things that the Council can do to address predatory towing practices.We should pass an ordinance to provide consumer protections in private towing, and I proposed a council work session so that we could take action along those lines. I would welcome any of my colleagues to join me in advocating for better consumer protections in towing.”

Although the city contract is important, most of Crow Tow’s business involves patrolling private lots. Its signs appear at various businesses from downtown to the suburbs, from Beaverdale to Ingersoll.

The Greater Iowa Apartment Association, a nonproft with a membership of over 490 companies managing over 57,000 apartment homes, describes Crow Tow on its website as “the platinum towing partner” of the association.

“Crow Tow is your premier choice for towing in the Des Moines Metro Area,” the GIAA website reads, “with an extensive background in providing unique solutions tailored to private properties and businesses.”

For many Iowans, access to a vehicle can mean the difference between employment and unemployment. Rising costs are making life increasingly unaffordable for

consumers and lienholders with limited protections such as a long notice timeline, short reclaim windows and few guardrails around fees and surplus proceeds.

“We are increasingly hearing from credit union members about situations where fees escalate quickly, and access to personal property is restricted,” Grady said. “While many towing operators act responsibly, the lack of clear standards can allow bad actors to take advantage of consumers during already stressful circumstances. Greater clarity in the law would beneft everyone.”

According to Grady, ICUL supports reform proposals designed to ensure “fair towing practices without undermining legitimate business operations,” including shorter timelines for notifying owners and lienholders, longer windows to reclaim vehicles, clear and itemized fee disclosures, limits on when storage fees begin and fair handling of auction proceeds.

“That imbalance can put working families at a disadvantage, particularly when a vehicle is essential to getting to work or caring for family,” he explained. “For too many Iowans, a tow can quickly turn into a confusing and expensive situation. Updates that improve transparency, strengthen notice requirements, and ensure fair treatment of vehicle owners and lienholders are common-sense steps that help prevent unnecessary fnancial harm.” Bills to change state laws about towing were introduced in both the Iowa House and Senate during this year’s legislative session. They died before reaching a foor vote in either chamber.

Record Stores

Colleges

Illustrations by Lani Krull / Little Village

That Smell

Iowa’s dirty open secret: the air and water are (probably) killing us.

BY PAUL BRENNAN

For the third year in a row, Iowa has the second-highest rate of new cancers in the country, according to the annual report from the Iowa Cancer Register (ICR) published in March. It’s also one of only three states where the rate of new cancers is rising, according to data from the National Cancer Institute.

In its 2026 Cancer in Iowa report, ICR estimates another 21,700 Iowans will be diagnosed with new, invasive cancers this year, and 6,400 Iowans will die from cancer. Both are increases from last year. The report also estimated that there are 175,290 survivors currently living in Iowa, an increase from previous years.

ICR found the new cancer rate “in young adults in Iowa is signifcantly higher than the U.S.” A data analysis published by the Washington Post last October found cancer rates among young adults in the Corn Belt “are rising more rapidly than in the country as a whole.”

“At the turn of the century, Iowa ranked 18th in the nation for cancer rates among adults under 50,” the Post reported. “Today, it’s ffth.”

The numbers describing Iowa’s cancer crisis can make it seem somewhat abstract—even the fact that more than one in every 20 Iowans has had a cancer diagnosis at one point in their lives, according to the ICR’s 2025 annual report. In the episode on cancer in his What’s Eating Iowa? video series, Art Cullen blends personal stories with summaries of scientifc research on environmental risk factors for cancer. Those personal stories include Cullen’s. Cullen, the Pulitzer Prize-winning editor of The Storm Lake Times Pilot and an icon of Iowa journalism, begins the January video with footage from the Mayo Clinic, where he was being treated for prostate cancer. Art isn’t the only member of his immediate family to be treated for cancer. All three of his brothers and his sister have, too.

“[Iowa is] the most cultivated place on Earth, !rst of all, and it’s laced with petrochemicals through that cultuvation. Second, we’re the number one pork producer and we’re the number one egg producer. That’s a lot of manure, it’s a lot of shit oating around in the air.”

—ART CULLEN

“There are four Cullen boys and one Cullen girl, all siblings. The boys all had prostate cancer, and the girl a radical and rare form of breast cancer,” he told Little Village. “And there’s no genetic linkage. The oncologists believe it’s environmentally based.”

Cullen noted that his family is far from alone: “Northwest Iowa has the highest concentrations of prostate cancer and breast cancer in Iowa, which is a leading cancer state.”

“Why is Iowa uniquely plagued with cancer? Well, what is unique about Iowa?” he asked. “It’s the most cultivated place on Earth, frst of all, and it’s laced with petrochemicals through that cultivation. Second, we’re the number one pork producer and we’re the number one egg producer. That’s a lot of manure, it’s a lot of shit foating around in the air.”

“Shit foating around in the air” isn’t just a rhetorical fourish. If you can smell the stench of manure produced by a confned animal feeding operation (CAFO), as many people in rural Iowa can, it’s worth thinking about what you might be inhaling with that aroma.

A study published last year on pollution from industrial-style pig farms in North Carolina found a protein found only in swine manure on household surfaces in homes within a mile of the farms.

In March, researchers from Yale published the results of a study examining 20 years of data from Iowa, California and Texas on cancer incidence and proximity to factory-farming operations. Residents in counties with the highest densities of factory farming—dairy operations in California, beef cattle CAFOs in Texas and hog CAFOs in Iowa—had higher rates of cancer incidence than people in other counties in their states.

“These facilities are known sources of environmental pollution, including air pollutants (e.g., ammonia, particulate matter, hydrogen sulfde) and water contaminants such as nitrates, which may have implications for human health,” Jiyoung Son, the study’s lead author, told the Yale Daily News in an email.

Kellan Doolittle / Little Village

The Cullen siblings (from left: Bill, Ann, Jim, John and Art) have all had cancer. via Jerry Risius / What’s Eating Iowa? Collage by Kellan Doolittle / Little Village

Iowa has the greatest number of CAFOs in the country. According to the most recent EPA data, there are 3,938 CAFOs in Iowa. The states in second and third place had 1,585 and 1,228. After that, it’s 522 and fewer.

Other studies have found elevated risks of a variety of cancers associated with pesticide exposure in the corn-growing states of the Midwest, and Iowa is one of the heaviest users of pesticides in the country. A study published in Frontiers in Cancer Control and Society two years ago found that adjusting for known cancer risks and other factors, pesticide exposure appeared to have an impact similar to smoking on the rate of cancer incidence.

In addition to the other health problems linked to exposure to elevated nitrate content in drinking water—a chronic problem in Iowa, overwhelmingly caused by manure and fertilizer in farm runoff—a 2025 review of recent scientifc literature found patterns of increased risk of several forms of cancer associated with exposure to nitrate levels even below the EPA standard of 10 mg per liter.

All of the statements above use qualifed language like “associated with,” “linked to” and “may have implications” because cancer risk is a complicated topic. Any cancer can have multiple causes, attributable both to individual behavior and environmental factors. Some of the causes may involve exposure to a risk factor years ago.

Studying risk factors can also be complicated by corporations pushing back against research documenting the carcinogenic effects of their products. Older people will remember how tobacco companies spent decades denying smoking caused cancer and undermining confdence in medical research, delaying effective regulations.

Cullen sees the connection between likely environmental risk factors for cancer and Iowa’s dominant agricultural practices—row crops that heavily use fertilizer and pesticides, and CAFOs —as a main reason Iowa political leaders in a position to take action or even adequately fund research haven’t.

“The problem is we don’t really want to know,” he said. “Gov. Reynolds set aside a million dollars to research why Iowa is this hotspot for cancer, but a million dollars is a drop in the bucket.”

Cancer incidence rates in Iowa compared to national data for the same period shows that Iowa’s cancer rate is increasing while national rates are trending down.

Generated via statecancerproﬁles.cancer.gov, April 14, 2026

University of Iowa College of Public Health and the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services. The project is focused on four topics: creating maps to show where the six most common types of cancer in Iowa—prostate, female breast, lung, melanoma, colorectal and HPV-associated cancers— occur in higher rates than expected; study prostate cancer screening to determine if differences in screening around the state effect rates of the cancer; review policies and programs in states similar to Iowa and evaluate what is working; and assess the data gathered by the project to improve cancer prevention. The ultimate goal is to understand what is contributing to Iowa’s high cancer rates.

Cancer rates in Iowa have been rising since 2013. Iowa has one of the fastest rising rates of melanoma in the country, as well as rising rates of prostate and breast cancer, which the project listed as key facts about cancer in Iowa when it launched. The state has the country’s highest rate of oropharyngeal cancer, a rare cancer linked to HPV, affecting the throat and mouth. Colorectal cancer rates are declining, “but remain higher than most other states.” The incidence of lung cancer is also declining “but more slowly than in other states.”

Based on 2022 data, researchers concluded “Iowa’s cancer rates are substantially higher than the U.S., but not generally much higher than the Midwestern cluster of states.” Still, compared to the other fve states in the cluster, Iowa had the highest overall rate of cancer, as well as the highest rates of lung and colorectal cancer.

Within Iowa itself, researchers found that data from 2018-2022 showed 87 of the state’s 99 counties had “a signifcantly higher number of excess cases of overall cancer above what would be expected if each county had the same age-sexspecifc rate as the U.S.”

In a presentation to the Iowa House on the interim report, Jacob Oleson, professor of biostatistics at the UI College of Public Health, explained that researchers began by looking at demographic and behavioral issues because that data was readily available from established state and federal sources.

“We wanted to start as soon as we can, and not spend time collecting data,” he told House members at the presentation in March. “We wanted to get whatever results we could as fast as we could. In order to do that, we had to use existing data.”

That million dollars is the funding for Drivers of Cancer in Iowa, a collaborative project by the

In February, the project published an interim report summarizing fndings on demographic and behavioral factors related to cancer incidences. The project compared Iowa to fve Midwestern states with similar demographic profles and patterns of behavior (including smoking, binge drinking and diet): Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin.

Oleson said, “as we move forward, we can start looking at more specifc information, such as the environmental data that we’re working on collecting.”

Dr. Mary Charlton, professor of epidemiology at the UI College of Public Health and director of the Iowa Cancer Registry, explained some of the challenges of collecting data on environmental factors. For example, Iowa doesn’t track pesticide use.

“What we don’t know in Iowa is, what is the exposure to non-farmers or non-occupational people in terms of agriculture exposure?” Charlton told House members. “We don’t even know if and how they’re exposed to pesticides. … We talk a lot about water quality, and we should. We don’t talk a lot about air quality. What’s in the air relative to people who may live near farms. It may not increase their risk, but it might, and we don’t know.”

“In Iowa, we have really a skyscraper of risk factors,” Kerri Johannsen, the senior director of Policy and Programs at the Iowa Environmental Council (IEC), told Little Village. Johannsen is also one of the authors of Environmental Risk Factors and Iowa’s Cancer Crisis, a new report from IEC and the Harkin Institute for Public Policy & Citizen Engagement. The report is the result of

an almost year-long review of the latest scientifc studies and academic research on the relationship between environmental factors and cancer risk, and how they illuminate cancer trends in Iowa. Among the report’s 17 other co-authors and contributors are public health researchers, policy experts and one of the state’s leading oncologists.

“We recognize that individual choices or behavior—things like smoking, exercise, eating your vegetables—all of those things are really important in terms of keeping us in balance, keeping us healthy and keeping cancer at bay,” Johannsen said. But the cancer risks of personal choices have already received a lot of attention in the media, and in 2024, ICR used its annual Cancer in Iowa report to highlight binge drinking in Iowa and the risk of alcohol-related cancers.

“What is it that makes Iowa different? That’s what we really looked at, talking to people who have been studying this in Iowa for a really long

Additional cancer cases in a single year that can be attributed to di!erences in agricultural pesticide use patterns. Of the pesticides discussed in this report, atrazine was a top contributor to excess cancers in regions with high added risk for all cancers and colon cancers. Glysophate was a top contributor to excess cancers in regions with high added risk for all cancers, colon cancers and pancreatic cancer. Gerken et al., 2024

Estimated agricultural use for the pestacides atrazine (left) and glysophate (right) in pounds per square mile. Dark red areas indicate usage of over 63.35 lbs/mi2 and 114.64 lbs/mi2, respectively. USGS, 2019

time,” Johannsen said. “They pointed us in the direction of radon, pesticide and nitrate. And then PFAS, which is more of an emerging issue.” PFAS are per- and polyfuoroalkyl substances, also known as “forever chemicals.” The category includes more than 12,000 different chemical compounds used extensively for most of the 20th century to make products water- and stain-resistant, as well as grease- and oil-resistant. They were also used in frefghting foams and some cosmetics. Surveys have found PFAS contamination in 94 percent of surface waterways in Iowa and in 30 percent of groundwater sources.

Environmental Risk Factors and Iowa’s Cancer Crisis explores what peer-reviewed scientifc studies have revealed about the four risk factors, explaining the research in readily understandable language. Putting the information from those studies into an Iowa context, the report concludes:

• All of the most common cancers in Iowa (breast, prostate, lung, colorectal, and skin melanoma) have associations with environmental risk factors (pesticides, nitrate, PFAS, and radon).

• In Iowa, 13 of the 16 cancer sites identifed in the report as connected to pesticides, nitrate, PFAS, and radon exceeded the U.S. incidence rate in the most recent fve-year period (2017–2021).

• Of the adult cancers identifed as associated with these environmental risk factors, 11 of the 15 cancer types are increasing in the total Iowa population.

• For people under 50 in Iowa, six of 10 cancer types associated with pesticides, nitrate, PFAS, and radon are increasing.

“It is very frustrating and dismaying that our policy-makers are not acting on even some of the most obvious low-hanging fruit when it comes to cancer prevention,” Johannsen said. She pointed to a bill that would change Iowa building code to require all newly constructed homes to have passive radon mitigation systems.

“It’s a common-sense, low-cost, very cost-effective thing to do for new construction,” Johannsen said. Radon is a colorless, odorless and tasteless gas from the decay of radium, a naturally occurring radioactive metal found in relatively large quantities in Iowa’s soil. Radon quickly becomes inert, but some of the products created by its decay are carcinogens. It can seep into homes through the foundations, and is a leading cause of lung cancer in Iowa.

The bill requiring passive mitigation systems passed the Iowa House in March. The Senate placed the bill on its “unfnished business” calendar. As this issue of Little Village goes to press, the legislative session is quickly coming to a close, and the Senate shows no sign of acting on the bill.

To Johannsen, this is typical of the lack of leadership the Iowa Legislature has shown in the state’s cancer crisis.

There is a separate crisis within Iowa’s cancer crisis, one that is all too common in American public health. There are stark racial disparities in both cancer rate and cancer deaths in the state between Black and white Iowans.

“Iowa’s Black population has the highest rate of all new cancer cases” among all racial and ethnic groups in the state, a May 2024 report in ICR’s Cancer in Iowa Spotlight Series states. “The death rate for all cancers has decreased for all races/ethnicities over the last 20+ years, yet the rate among Iowa’s Black population remains higher compared to other racial/ethnic groups… [E]ven among White and Black populations of the same socioeconomic levels, there are disparities in health outcomes.”

“This leads researchers to look for other causes of these disparities, such as institutional and structural racism,” the report continues. “In Iowa, we need to better understand the causes/ drivers of these disparities.”

Of course, research into institutional and structural racism is something the Trump administration isn’t interested in funding. And at the state level, institutional and structural racism is one of the “controversial topics” that Republican leaders in the legislature want banned from the classroom.

“It seems to me the fact that we don’t know [what’s driving cancer rates] says a helluva lot about Iowa,” Art Cullen says in his January video on cancer in Iowa.

Cullen was successfully treated for his cancer, as were his siblings.

“We’re all getting old and we all have ailments, but as far as the cancer goes, we appear to have everything under control,” he told Little Village

At the Mayo Clinic, Cullen underwent cryoablation, a cutting-edge treatment that freezes and removes the tumor, while leaving the prostate intact.

“A whole new world opens up at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota,” he said. “Thank God for Medicare, because I never would have been able to access that care on just a typical health insurance policy.”

Cullen understood there would be a fundamental difference between the cancer care available at Mayo and what is available “from these really inadequate healthcare systems in rural Iowa,” but experiencing it frsthand was still eye-opening.

“Access to care is a whole different animal if you’re in Spencer, Iowa, or even Sioux City, compared to Rochester or Iowa City,” he said. “That’s one of the educations I’ve gotten from this. We’ve built a system in this state that’s imposing cancer on us and limits the ways we can get treated.”

(One of) Iowaʼs Most Embarrassing People

Iowa Republicans have deferred their responsibility to pursue useful, desperately needed change in favor of nursing petty grievances. Exhibit A: Jeff Shipley.

BY EMMA McCLATCHEY

Content warning: Homophobic and ableist slurs.

On March 3, state representative Jeff Shipley posted a photo from the Iowa House foor holding up a box of ivermectin. Specifcally, the Republican from Fairfeld was holding a box of apple-favored IverCare paste. The label showed a horse silhouette and a feeding syringe. “OTC ivermectin now being debated in the Iowa House,” Shipley captioned the photo on Facebook. Thirty minutes later, he updated: “Bill passes 64-30!! Parasites are very upset!” For years, fringe medical personalities, rightwing infuencers and the elected offcials susceptible to both have spread misinformation about the effectiveness of ivermectin, an antiparasitic drug, against COVID-19, cancer and other diseases it was not intended to treat, often promoting it as an alternative to vaccines and other proven treatments. Indeed, easier access to ivermectin—the kind meant for humans—is included in Gov. Kim Reynolds’ “MAHA” bill, which passed both the Iowa House and Senate this spring. HF 2676 also bans certain food dyes and additives in school meals and vending machines, and pushes for federal limits to restrict people on food assistance from buying anything but designated “healthy” products.

It’s the kind of legislation Shipley has dreamed of advancing since he was frst elected to the statehouse in 2018, beating Democratic incumbent Phil Miller by 37 votes. The pandemic saw the University of Iowa grad from Naperville, Illinois emerge as an outspoken anti-mask and anti-vax voice in the State Capitol, with a special disdain for margarine, chemtrails and LGBTQ people. A longtime admirer of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Shipley was made for this MAHA moment—even if he’s far from its most effective communicator.

“I’m voting ‘no’ on any additional spending unless it’s vitamin d therapy for elderly or beef and bacon for school kids,” he declared in 2022,

Dachshund breeder, sauerkraut salesman and Iowa House member Je! Shipley says he cries under the moon. Kellan Doolittle / Little Village

adding this year, “The tyranny of depriving public school children the opportunities afforded by fullfat dairy must come to an immediate end.”

Like many of Shipley’s social media posts, the horse paste photo on March 3 drew both supportive and mocking comments. But the harshest words allegedly came from Shipley himself, after a member of the public from Cedar Falls called the District 87 representative to talk ivermectin.

“During the course of our phone call,” they recounted on Reddit, and later confrmed for Iowa Starting Line, “he [Shipley] asked if I think oncology works better, and I said yes, and he immediately said well ‘you sound like a r*tar*ed f*gg*t.’ I told him he shouldn’t refer to citizens that way, and he said nobody would care.”

Shipley confrmed the incident in an email to Little Village. “I never called him a name, I merely asked a rhetorical question [‘are you a…’],” Shipley said. “This person then became unglued, so I apologized.”

The state rep provided LV with a bulleted list of “Various examples of someone who is a retarded faggot (or fagtard for short).” On the list is, “A person who spends way too much time on reddit and publicly cries about being called a name by someone they were harassing.”

“I’m sorry for calling you a name, but in my defense you were being super condescending and antagonistic ... All the best, and my condolences again on the loss of your loved one.”

—REP. JEFF SHIPLEY

In their Reddit post, the caller provided screenshots of a follow-up Facebook Messenger chat initiated by Shipley. Shipley starts off, “I’m sorry for calling you a name, but in my defense you were being super condescending and antagonistic. … Thank you for your comment on my post and furthering the public discussion! All the best, and my condolences again on the loss of your loved one.”

“Jeff, you called me a retarded faggot,” the Cedar Falls resident replies. “For talking about chemotherapy in lieu of horse paste.”

“Yes, and I’ve apologized,” Rep. Shipley writes back, then defends ivermectin and its new over-thecounter status. “If you want to blame other people for cancer, that’s not very fair either.”

Shipley continued, “A lot of people perish from chemotherapy as well…oncology is far from perfect unfortunately.”

An elected offcial using two slurs in a phone call with a citizen, then tracking them down on

Facebook to make excuses for it, is notable, as is his “fagtard” list. (You can see Shipley’s full statement to LV at littlevillagemag.com.) But it’s also not out of character for the 37-year-old, who often fails to hide his disdain for folks who challenge his unpopular positions.

“These people need to grow up, they’re not serious,” Shipley said of Iowans who grilled Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks about rising healthcare costs at one of her rare in-person public town halls in November. “Even if there are problems with Medicaid, like, they’re just not showing any competency to govern. There’s a pretty thin line of human decency that’s standing in the way of these unhinged barbarians.”

A self-described “Public Health Hero” and “Servant to Archangel Michael, Prince of the Heavenly Host” who owns the domain peaceloveiowa.com, Shipley has made a habit of arguing with his critics since the early days of the pandemic. He threw all his support behind the viral physician/pastor Stella Immanuel, infamous for peddling hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin as COVID cures. (Shipley calls Immanuel “a sniper in the Kingdom of God” and “a beautiful black voice generously offering comfort to an afficted nation.”)

An Iowan named Katie who was battling Stage IV endometriosis called out Shipley’s support for Immanuel in a Facebook comment in 2020. Katie said she had donated to and volunteered for Shipley’s campaign in the past, but she couldn’t back Immanuel, who claims endometriosis is caused by having dream sex with demons and witches.

Replying, Shipley accused Katie of “total ego-identifcation with your illness,” apparently relishing the fact she’d had four surgeries and was still suffering. “Seems like the doctors treating you have no idea what they’re doing. Have you explored other theories of medicine?”

After Katie blocked him on Facebook, Shipley started posting about her on Twitter: “Honey I don’t know what to tell ya, but it sure ain’t angels causing you that,” and, “Can’t believe I even have to say this, but having sex with demons is NOT healthy for you.”

Shipley told Little Village he has no recollection of Katie, nor a record of her donating to him. “It’s not uncommon for people who suffer from victimmentality (victim-complex) to often exaggerate details to further dramatize their feelings/sense of suffering,” he said.

There’s an aspect of trolling to his behavior, but Shipley’s also deadly serious. “Demons are real,” he posted to his Twitter, @JeffShipley77, in 2020. “They stalk the Earth seeking the ruin of souls. The wickedness and snares of the devil are everywhere, wreaking pain, misery and unspeakable suffering.” Also, “Dems rely on Satan for their health guidelines.”

Shipley may have a pet interest in alternative medicine and Christian mysticism, but his 2010 degree from UI was in political science. According to his Iowa Legislature profle, he works as a “Bubbling Brine Brothers Sauerkraut salesman, professional advocate, and stand-up comedian.” Shipley also breeds dachshunds and advertises them on Instagram. He currently sits on the House Education and Judiciary committees, serves as vice chair of the Higher Education and Government Oversight committees, and chairs the legislative council on International Relations.

On Twitter, now X, Shipley speculates wildly about the gold and silver markets, and even proposed legislation this session to compel the state treasurer to invest taxpayer funds in precious metals and exclude gold and silver from income tax, as well as issue gold, silver and platinum coins “commemorating the state of Iowa and the tenure of governor Kimberly Reynolds.”

He praises authoritarians Viktor Orban and Vladimir Putin, thinks it’s “time for Ukraine’s unconditional surrender” to Russia, and fantasizes about the U.S. waging “a regime change war against Canada”—though he’s come out against Trump’s war in Iran.

Among Shipley’s other contributions these past couple sessions were a bill to ban mifepristone

and other abortion drugs in Iowa with criminal enforcement, plus a bill to codify life beginning at fertilization (the ominously numbered House File 666); bans on “weather engineering devices” and “geoengineering” emissions (which he blames for the deadly foods in Texas last summer); a ban on fuoride in private and public water supplies; a ban on paid surrogate mother arrangements (a retweet by Shipley calls surrogacy “worse than slavery”); a bill to legalize certain psychoactive drugs (“including but not limited to psilocybin and peyote”) on religious grounds; a bill to exempt dietary supplements from sales tax and one to fund hyperbaric oxygen treatment for veterans; and,

“Disappointment is a low-agency emotion, so no I don’t feel that.”

—REP. JEFF SHIPLEY

after spending extended time in the proximity of vaccinated women. Sex and gender are binary and irrevocable, that’s just common sense, but “gut feelings” are also maybe memories psychically channeled from the future. Trans people are violent, dumb and degenerate—and could probably be cured with a good psilocybin trip, or maybe another bill rolling back their civil rights protections.

“If a person had a malignant sarcoma, would the proper treatment be affrmation?” he asked on the House foor in 2022, after “calling on the Holy Spirit” to cure Iowans with “identity disorders.”

He posts things like “kids in school shouldn’t be instructed in viewing pornography, sending nude selfes, and using buttplugs,” as if that was a thing happening in Iowa classrooms and not just an absurd pretext for cracking down on cultural acceptance of LGBTQ+ people.

“When Democrats say conspiracy theory, remember they just mean any established facts that don’t support a communist agenda,” warned Shipley, who also proposed legislation this year inquiring whether the state should buy up public utilities.

Shipley admits he was “addicted to pornography as a young man” and “that stunted my sexual maturity.” He’s also “suffered affiction” to cannabis and coffee, which he says “distort the sensitive beauty of the human body as Temple of the Lord.”

In 2024, Shipley was the subject of an ethics complaint for saying the head of Annie’s Foundation, a Des Moines nonproft opposing book bans, should be investigated for distributing “obscene books to minors.”

He admitted, “I should have stopped once I said the complainant needed to be investigated. It’s not my job to judge the law.” In his own defense, however, Shipley cited a Facebook comment Sara Hayden Parris left him in which she points out, “look, just cuz it makes YOUR naughty bits tingle, doesn’t mean it’s porn.” Parris, unlike Shipley, isn’t a state representative.

Iowans opposing private school vouchers are “rambling” and “incoherent” by Shipley’s estimation, but he “can’t wrap my head around” the concept of a sex abuse prevention program for grade schoolers, because it would surely destroy “the innocence of childhood.”

“Mandatory vaccinations are for Democrats,” though “It’s hard to discern whether Dem leadership is just incredibly stupid, or deliberately evil” on the issue. No one cares about RFK Jr. rolling back public health recommendations because “Only vaccine zealots and paid shills give a hoot about the hep B jab.”

The representative from District 87 often retweets accounts promoting esoteric spiritual and wellness advice—everyone from David Icke (a Holocaust denier famous for accusing various world leaders of being lizard people) to Raw Egg Nationalist (@Babygravy9, a Great Replacement Theory advocate who has quoted Mein Kampf and promoted eugenics) to anonymous handles with AI profle pictures.

“The ‘Lion’s Roar’ is the frequency of radical sovereignty,” reads a repost from @ GalacticArrival—a frequent inspiration for Shipley, who has a lion emoji beside his X display name. “You are the king and queen of your own reality, answerable only to the Source.”

“Crown yourself like Napoleon did,” reads another from @BenWilsonTweets. “Give yourself full authority to make decisions on the kingdom of your life. Don’t rely on the authority of other fellow mortals.”

While Shipley appears willing to ride or die for his fringe causes, he’s not above bending. Establishing a medicinal psilocybin mushroom program in Iowa is what motivated him to seek offce in the frst place, but when Gov. Reynolds vetoed a bill last session that would have legalized the psychiatric use of synthetic psilocybin in Iowa pending FDA approval, he called it a “great decision.” Despite voting for the bill, Shipley said he’s only into “natural psilocybin that God has given us.” A different psilocybin bill awaits a vote this session.

Earlier this year, HHS Secretary RFK Jr., caved on one of the Make America Healthy Again movement’s central issues: glyphosate. After Trump issued an

executive order defending companies like Bayer (formerly Monsanto) that produce the herbicide, Kennedy shocked many of his acolytes by defending Trump’s EO, saying glyphosate was a necessary evil to keep up with U.S. agricultural needs.

Shipley condemned his 2020 primary opponent for accepting a donation from Monsanto and criticized the corporation for poisoning Iowans as recently as April 6, but hasn’t acknowledged his hero’s glyphosate fip-fop publicly. Asked by Little Village if he was disappointed, Shipley said, “Disappointment is a low-agency emotion, so no I don’t feel that.” He added he’s frustrated with “Dem/Lefty types who strenuously oppose giving a legal liability shield to pesticide manufactures [sic] but then attack and slander” vaccine skeptics.

If the attacks and slander ever get under Shipley’s skin, you won’t know it.

“Men shouldn’t cry in public,” he declared on Twitter after the Minneapolis mayor was seen wiping tears at George Floyd’s memorial service. “Real men” don’t make “public displays of weakness.”

“I cry in private. Typically at night under the moon. I offer my sadness to God … Sometimes when I really tap into the deep chasm of sadness that exists within me, I’ll use my tears over my face and chest as a purifcation ritual. Again, no one needs to see that.”

The weapons-grade cringe and weaponized incompetence of a leader like Shipley isn’t unique to elected offcials from Fairfeld, nor is it limited to the Republican Party. But the consequences of attacking mRNA research, undermining vaccines and neglecting the biggest life-and-death issues—hunger, housing and healthcare, to name a few—in exchange for shooting whole milk promos with Kid Rock and launching self-indulgent projects like the Center for Intellectual Freedom (which Shipley considers the “best thing to happen to UI since Caitlin Clark”) puts millions of lives in jeopardy, in this earthly realm. Measles has surged across the nation, and the horrors of polio are poised to make a comeback, all while Iowa languishes in a cancer crisis that has nothing to do with chemtrails and fuoride.

Shipley is up for reelection this year. He will defend his District 87 seat (which represents Van Buren County and parts of Jefferson and Henry) against Democrat Thomas O’Donnell of rural Keosauqua.

O’Donnell is running on a platform of raising the minimum wage, uplifting rural schools, ending the “private school voucher ripoff,” and “break[ing] corporate ag’s grip on rural Iowa.” A former Des Moines Register reporter and freelance writer on topics of plant biology, supercomputing, physics and nuclear science, O’Donnell is now the secretary of Science Iowa, “a nonproft that promotes science in the public interest, publicly supported research and evidence-based policy.”

Pretty wacky stuff.

A bald eagle soars above the Iowa River south of the Burlington Street dam in Iowa City on Jan. 28.

Doolittle / Little Village

The Bald and the Beautiful

The heavy presence of bald eagles in Iowa serves as a reminder that environmental regulation works.

BY JAMES VALENTIN

Ask anyone how long the bald eagle has been the offcial bird of the United States, and the answer is likely to be 200 years or more. In reality, the bald eagle has been the offcial bird for less than two years.

In December 2024, President Joe Biden signed into law a bill designating the bald eagle as the country’s national bird, an honor that came more than 240 years after it landed in the center of the Great Seal of the United States.

Charles Thomson, secretary of the Continental Congress, picked the bald eagle for the seal in July 1782. Thomson, who’d been charged with fnalizing the design of the seal, modifed a draft submitted by William Barton, a Pennsylvania lawyer and student of heraldry, who included a white eagle among other symbols to evoke strength.

Thomson changed the white eagle into a bald eagle, which are native to North America, and centered the bird in the design. Congress approved. (Benjamin Franklin, who considered bald eagles “a Bird of bad moral Character” under the mistaken belief they are primarily scavengers, was in France at the time.)

More than 200 hundred years of eagley Americana followed, including the Iowa state fag design by Dixie May Cornell that was adopted in 1921.

By then, bald eagle numbers were already in decline. In the mid-20th century, Haliaeetus leucocephalus had become nearly as rare a sight as the beleaguered bison. (Like bison, bald eagles were and are revered by many Native American tribes, believed to convene directly with the Great Spirit. Eagle feathers are worn by dancers, used in healing ceremonies and bestowed upon a major achievement, such as a graduation. The intentional killing of eagles was a rare occurrence and left for highly specialized hunters.)

It’s only because of public information campaigns paired with state and federal regulations that Iowans today can enjoy watching convocations of eagles near their rivers, lakes and streams. It’s a hard-won comeback that conservationists fought for, in spite of strong opposition from billion-dollar companies and the ever-present problem of slow, stubborn bureaucracies.

The bald eagle’s gradual decline due to lost nesting habitats and sport hunting began to accelerate at the end of the 19th century when the federal government, believing the birds to be a threat to livestock (wrong) and competition for fshermen (less wrong), placed bounties on bald eagles in the Alaska territory. Numbers dropped, and experts began to openly speculate whether the bald eagle would go extinct.

In 1940, Congress introduced the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, protecting the birds and their eggs, nests and feathers, under penalty of serious fnes and potential prison time. (Special permits were granted to Native

Kellan

American communities for whom eagle feathers bear great spiritual and cultural value.) Even with prohibitions on killing, sale and ownership, bald eagles continued to die off rapidly. When the Great Seal was adopted in 1782, it’s estimated there were between 25,000 and 75,000 bald eagles nesting in the continental U.S. By 1963, there were 834.

A primary culprit for that massive decline was highlighted by Rachel Carson in her seminal 1962 book Silent Spring, which helped kickstart the modern conservation movement. In it, Carson describes the devastating effects of DDT, a pesticide developed in the 1940s and frst used by soldiers in WWII, on humans and ecosystems. For decades, DDT was sprayed from airplanes and packaged in products to fght pests and prevent insect-borne illness.

In birds, exposure to DDT can cause a thinning of egg shells, which decimated peregrine falcon, California condor, osprey, pelican and bald eagle populations across the continent. Meanwhile, insects were growing resistant to the chemical.

Despite the best efforts of DDT manufacturers like DuPont and Velsicol, Silent Spring changed hearts and minds. The subsequent wave of support for American environmental protections led directly to the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 1970.

Only three years after its founding, the EPA introduced the Endangered Species Act and included bald eagles on its protected species list. This bill, in tandem with the EPA’s ban on commercial DDT use in 1972, laid the groundwork for bald eagle populations to recover, one egg at a time.

Decades passed, and the results were nothing short of exceptional. The raptors didn’t just rebound—their numbers exploded. With healthier food supplies and greater protections, nesting pairs rose well into the thousands, then tens of thousands, before the EPA was able to remove the bald eagle from the endangered species list in 2007. The most recent data from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service found that, by 2020, the total

From top: A perched bald eagle side-eyes the photographer; A bald eagle ﬂies below a squadron of migrating pelicans. Like eagles, American white pelican populations have rebounded since the EPA’s 1972 ban on commercial DDT use. Kellan Doolittle / Little Village

EAGLES

population of bald eagles stood at 316,700, with 71,400 nesting pairs.

Of that 71,400, roughly 400 nesting pairs live in the state of Iowa.

Along with the ban on DDT, the Endangered Species Act gave states the ability to use resources as they saw ft to aid bald eagle populations.

“Iowa protected eagles from disturbance and persecution, mobilized citizens and the Iowa DNR to survey and protect nests, and celebrated bald eagles as they came back,” Amy Ries, a naturalist at the Raptor Resource Project, told Little Village

Since their return, bald eagles have made their mark on Iowa’s ecosystems. Along with fsh, bald eagles eat carcasses, keeping the state clean and reducing disease spread. In winter, their own scraps feed less capable hunters. Like any apex predator, they keep local prey populations healthy and skittish. They literally change the landscape, nesting in the same spot year after year until the sticks stack a story high.

“They reshape trees as they harvest sticks for nesting, perching and sightlines; leave behind scraps and carcasses that other animals feed on; alter the behavior of prey animals; and build large stick nests that shelter and provide nesting materials for small birds, mice and squirrels,” Ries explained.

While DDT may have been the arch nemesis, bald eagles face other threats—especially in Iowa. “Habitat loss, high fertilizer use and high pesticide use are causing huge problems for many species of birds,” Ries said. High nitrate levels in crucial waterways sicken fsh, eagles and humans alike.

An intergenerational group of bald eagles perches by the Iowa River in Coralville on Feb. 3. Bald eagles begin developing white plumage around 2 years old and grow into their iconic white crown and tail by age 5. Kellan Doolittle / Little Village

“Working together is more powerful than worrying alone, even when conservation gains come slowly.”

—AMY RIES, RAPTOR RESOURCE PROJECT NATURALIST

Irresponsible hunting and fshing practices also pose major issues for bald eagles. In particular, the use of lead ammunition and fshing tackle. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has banned hunting with lead ammo against waterfowl and turkeys since 1991, but many states, including Iowa, still allow it for deer hunting. Eagles are often exposed to lead by eating contaminated fsh and deer carcasses.

The American Eagle Foundation reports that samples taken across 38 states between 2014 and 2022 showed 47 percent of bald eagles displayed symptoms of chronic lead exposure, and upwards of 35 percent had experienced acute lead poisoning.

“A lead fragment the size of a grain of rice is lethal to a mature bald eagle,” the foundation notes, “meaning that a standard 150 grain lead bullet can poison 10 eagles.”

In February, the Des Moines Register reported that Iowa Bird Rehabilitation staff had rescued three bald eagles, all of whom were suffering from lead poisoning, within hours of each other. One died later that night. Last year, Hatchery Mom, a star of Decorah’s world famous eagle nest cams (operated by the local nonproft Raptor Resource Project), died of lead poisoning.

As our national and state symbol, we owe bald eagles and their habitats our protection. Fortunately, there are clear and actionable steps that both lawmakers and citizens can make to prevent a second eagle decline, many of which are mutually benefcial to us.

A key frst step is regulation to prevent the diffusion of nitrates into natural bodies of water, according to Ries. “Agricultural states like Iowa need to stop shielding agricultural polluters and absentee farming corporations and force change for the sake of all its citizens, bald eagles and humans alike,” she said. “Pollutants are bad for children and other living things.”

Another step is for hunters and fshers to stick to nontoxic ammo and fshing tackle.

Lastly, citizens can connect with local county conservation boards to express their concerns and learn more about how to support nearby ecosystems. Just as the creation of the EPA took a multi-year movement, effective conservation stems from long-term, community-level action.

“Working together is more powerful than worrying alone,” Ries said, “even when conservation gains come slowly.”

Third Space

Martinez, Neat

I feel God in this cocktail bar tonight.

BY DAN RAY

DES MOINES

I’m in a bathroom in Highland Park at 11 p.m. on a Friday night. The walls are painted deep red, and the room is lit almost exclusively by prayer candles. Pictures of Jesus line the walls, including one shadowbox image backlit by a single bulb. A black toilet looms in the corner, directly opposite a full-length mirror. As I pee, I look in the mirror, judging myself or having Jesus judge me—I’m not sure. A live version of “Christian Lady Talkin’ on a Bus” by Blaze Foley coos through the speakers.

On the other side of the wall, in another world, with a different playlist, is Bar Martinez. Meant to be intimate, with space for only 30 people or so, the bar hits a unique blend of upscale and accessible I’m honestly not sure I’ve seen before. The menu, made up of classic cocktails with a light twist, is curated yet unpretentious. The black ceiling and tiled bar feel glamorous, but the license plate and pictures of cats on the walls make it feel homey.

Bartender and owner Travis Oler met chef Terance Estrada in New York, and it shows. There’s a certain old-school, unspoken coolness about Bar Martinez, like how Oler carves all the ice for the drinks from large blocks he freezes in the basement of the building. Or how the pickled vegetables on the Preserve Plate include caulifower, asparagus and beets. Or the bathroom.

The bar is partially named after the Martinez, a drink invented in the mid-1800s made with gin, sweet vermouth, maraschino liqueur and bitters. Bar Martinez swaps the liqueur for pickled cherry brine—perhaps a nod to those preserved veggies.

The Famous on Paper is a take on a Naked and Famous made with mezcal, aperol, cardamaro, Punt e Mes and lemon juice. The herbal liqueurs are a mix of bitter and sweet on the tongue, and the mezcal kicks in at the end to fnish with a sweet and smoky aftertaste. The Freezerac is their take on a Sazerac, served in a frozen rocks glass.

In Oler’s own words, by design, “the cocktail program is pretty simple.” In an age when new-era gastronomy and unexpected favor combinations reign supreme, it seems risky to name your bar (and curate your menu) after a drink so classic it’s a precursor to the martini. But it works. We’re also in an era of increasing global uncertainty, and there’s something quite comforting about going back to the classics.

It serves as a reminder that generations of people before us made it through, and we will, too. And that, in times of doubt, sometimes a little gin helps.

R MARTINEZ

515 Euclid Ave, Des Moines

OPEN 5 P.M.-1 A.M., WEDNESDAY-MONDAY. CLOSED ON TUESDAYS.

Left: The preserve plate. Dan Ray / Little Village Right: The Famous on Paper cocktail. Jeremy Taylor / Little Village

Interior of Bar Martinez at 515 Euclid Ave, Des Moines. Jeremy Taylor / Little Village

My frst recollection of meeting Lia Ouyang Rusli was at a Feed Me Weird Things show she performed at as OHYUNG. I had been asked to provide lights and haze. I didn’t completely know what to expect outside of a request for strobes. If you want strobe lights, you’re already after my heart, and Lia’s soundcheck and ultimate performance did not disappoint.

I remember her viscerally meandering around Trumpet Blossom, many of the tables moved off to the side. My fnal image is of her laying on the foor amidst strobing fxtures that lit up the venue, surrounded by a truly fascinated audience.

To the present, I was aware that there was a new OHYUNG album out, but somehow it escaped me that it is named IOWA—specifcally chronicling her time here in Iowa City. Unfortunately, the frst thing that came to mind upon hearing the title is the consummate Slipknot album and not a riff on Springsteen’s Nebraska. But maybe that’s part of the charm.

The starting track “purgatory,” likely named for a long-stewarded house venue inconspicuously situated in an Iowa City neighborhood like any other, begins our aural adventure. The track opens with a string-like synth and vocal melody reminiscent of modal church music. There is then a brief moment, a sub-dominated “explosion,” that transitions us into a recurring do-re-mi melody. The track has an element of yearning. We never reach the fa. It can be diffcult to leave purgatory.

Nine tracks later, “christofascism” returns with the same choral voices and melody. Humming in the background, if you listen carefully, there is now a solo vocal line that harmonizes with the foreground hymn. The dub “explosion” is more urgent, constantly appearing. A continued moment of climax.

IOWA is spatial, open, introspective. The sounds of boots in the snow step softly in

Prairie Pop

OHYUNG at Heart

Like another album called Iowa, the new release from NYC musician Lia Ouyang Rusli was shaped by her time in the Hawkeye State.

BY KEMBREW McLEOD

Lia Ouyang Rusli is a prolifc flm composer who has scored A24’s Sorry, Baby and Problemista, HBO’s Fantasmas and several other flms. She also releases albums as OHYUNG, her ongoing solo experimental project that encompasses pummeling noise, euphoric pop and ambient drones. In March 2026, she released her second ambient album, IOWA, which was inspired by the year she spent here.

“I’ve been in New York for a while,” Rusli said. “And when my partner started going to the Iowa Writers’ Workshop for two years, I would occasionally visit.” At some point during this period, she played a show that was booked by Chris Wiersema, Iowa City’s premiere programmer of experimental music who died unexpectedly on March 13, 2024.

“I was like, ‘Well, perfect. Let’s line up a date in which I’m visiting, and I’ll do a show,’” she recalled. “He booked the show at Trumpet Blossom, and people were really kind and receptive to my set. Through that experience, I got to see a little bit of the music scene in Iowa City and meet some people. That, in large part, helped me realize that I could spend a signifcant amount of time here and be a part of its music community.”

The town sort of reminded Rusli of where she grew up—Hershey, Pennsylvania—though she feels like Iowa City has a lot more cultural things going on. She had never really imagined moving to the Midwest, but after living in New York City for a decade, it seemed like a great place to relocate for a year.

“Having FilmScene was really amazing, as someone who works in flm, to be able to see art house flms and constantly have things to watch,” Rusli said. “And the music scene here was very punk, very DIY and very queer. There was a lot of experimental music too, and a lot of really great artists came through.”

Growing up in Hershey, she was not exposed to much of any left-of-center music. As a teenager, Rusli listened to a lot of Top 40 radio and oldies, and some classical music. A skater kid, she mainly consumed pop-punk bands. Then she got into hip hop and started making beats on her computer in high school.

“I would try to record some rock music, but I was much more drawn to producing rap music,” Rusli said. “My setup hasn’t really evolved that much since then. I’ve always been very computer oriented. Like, up until 2021, when I did my frst

OHYUNG crowd-surfs during a set at Public Space One in Iowa City on Feb. 29, 2024. Courtesty of the artist

proper flm score for Problemista, I didn’t have anything more than a laptop, really. Part of me always prided myself on having a DIY ethos and not needing a lot to make music.”

“Up until 2021, when I did my !rst proper !lm score ... I didn’t have anything more than a laptop, really. Part of me always prided myself on having a DIY ethos and not needing a lot to make music”

—LIA OUYANG RUSLI

Rusli learned how to work with samples by listening to producers such as J. Dilla, RZA and Flying Lotus. She started out learning how to use GarageBand, and then her cousin taught her how to use the loop-based music production software Logic. After that, she spent all her days and nights making and recording electronic music.

“So many years later, I still am really drawn to sampling,” she said, “but I want to work with it in different ways as a flm composer and as someone who’s really into experimental music. Like, how do I expand a sample and abstract it?”

Working with vocal samples led Rusli to record IOWA, an ambient album. “You get a lot of happy surprises from sampling choral music, which has such an emotional feeling because of its connection to the human voice,” she said. “But also, when you’re sampling a voice, it has its own micro-chords that shift when pairing it with synthesizers—sort of like crushing them together through compressors. I feel like it brings out some really interesting feelings.”

Rusli originally came to ambient music through revisiting sounds that she had been using in flm scoring that never made it into the fnal cut. Her frst ambient album, imagine naked!, was released in 2022, and it took a few more years to collect the sounds that made their way into IOWA

“I went into it with this idea of being in Iowa and experiencing the political climate of Iowa,” she said. “By using Christian choral music, I was making abstract connections between Christofascist policies by chopping it up and immersing it into these soundscapes, which had a real political undertone to me.”

When Rusli starts an ambient record, she tries to assemble as many small ideas until she can fgure out which ideas feel expansive enough to become songs. She steadily kept working on IOWA until it congealed as an album of interconnected compositions and soundscapes. Now that it is out in the world, Rusli has been meditating on how to make it work in live settings.

“I’m trying to fgure out how to perform the album in a way that’s enjoyable for myself, because usually, if I’m going to perform, I like to go hard if I’m doing a noise show. It’s hard when I’m making an ambient record, because I don’t really think about how I’m going to perform it.”

IOWA’s fnal track, “memorial,” is dedicated to the memory of Chris Wiersema. Rusli described him as “a beatifc fgure of huge import in Iowa’s music scene and someone who was kind to our composer while their lives crossed paths.”

Wiersema brought hundreds of boundarybreaking artists to town in his myriad roles as a house show promoter, booker for local rock clubs, Mission Creek Festival programming director and founder of Feed Me Weird Things, his own deep listening series. Three weeks after his death, the Englert Theatre hosted a memorial that was attended by hundreds of people.

“Chris’s memorial made such a huge impression on me,” she said. “I could count the number of times he and I hung out on my hand. Maybe no more than fve times, because I was only there for six, seven months before he passed away. But he was one of the main reasons that brought me to Iowa City. I could have seen us doing a lot of things together in the future.”

“He was just such a community-forward guy who really wanted to make a home for all the freaks and celebrate that,” Rusli added. “So, going to the memorial and seeing all these people who had been touched by things that he did in his life—and being on social media and seeing some of my favorite artists who had at some point come through Iowa City commenting—I was like, ‘Wow, his legacy is everywhere.’”

That is how Rusli’s lived experience of attending Wiersema’s memorial transmuted into “memorial,” IOWA’s closer. “I didn’t know him incredibly well in the end, but seeing how beautiful his memorial was showed me a roadmap of how to live my life, which is why I’ll always be very appreciative of the way that Chris lived his life.”

For Rusli, that roadmap includes musical output that some may say is worlds apart from the ambient stylings on IOWA. “In the future, I really want to make a pop record, like a really crazy pop record, but that is going to take a while.”

Lani Krull / Little Village

Dylan McConnell / Little Village

Balancing Act

How one lifelong artist reconciles music and motherhood.

BY JOHN BUSBEE

Des Moines singer-songwriter Sara Routh lives her life with a passion, anchored by her love of music and her love of family. Her early career was less complicated. Focus on music—songwriting, performing, recording. Then life added additional love to the mix—marriage and a child. Routh shares her story with Little Village with a trademark candor also found in her songwriting and performing.

Talk about your music roots, those origins. I feel like it defnitely started with my parents. My dad is a drummer, and at 81, I’m still playing shows with him. That’s really a treat to be on stage with him when he’s playing drums. My mom is a singer. They met in the Don Hoy Dance Band. My mom was very pregnant with me when she was still singing and doing her thing [chuckles]. My desire to be part of

the creative musical world started when I was in the womb.

When did you realize that music was going to become the dominant part of your life? I graduated from Simpson College with a degree in music education, studying mostly classic music and performing onstage with the opera. I enjoyed learning the technique and practice, but the lifestyle wasn’t for me. In my senior year in college I decided to pick up my guitar again and started writing my own music. I found that was really fulflling—it was my living journal, my musical journal.

After college, I [decided to] move to a bigger city. I fipped a quarter [between] San Francisco or New York City. I ended up in New York City for a couple of years.

The music that I do now didn’t come into full view until I took another leap and moved

to Los Angeles and just kind of hustled, put a band together. That was back in the day when you put an EP together and went to the venue’s offce and said “I’d love to play here, here’s my EP.” I would staple my show posters to the light posts all up and down Sunset Boulevard. It’s very different now. That was 20 years ago.

What brought you back to Iowa? There are two things. In Los Angeles, the traffc was turning me into a very unhappy person. It was flling my body with anger. I’d realized that this city was not feeding me anymore. I was in my upper 30s, I had been married. I had to do something more, be something more. I was going to move home, inseminate myself somehow and live in my parents’ basement and have a child because that was for my heart, that was the next step for me.

How does the maternal phase of your life impact your music? It’s always including our daughter, whether I know it is or not. Also, being able to gift my knowledge to other children, through Girls Rock Des Moines, Central Iowa Music Lab, City Voices or my

Sara Routh Couresty of the artist

private lessons—it’s important for us to have music in our lives. As a mom, it was important to invite my daughter to be a part of my life, to come to the shows or sing a song with me. She sang on one of my tracks in the last record I put out, Brian Doesn’t Like Jazz Vol. 1. I also have two beautiful bonus boys from [my marriage], and Maddox sings in a couple of songs and our middle boy plays viola on our “Rage Against the Machine” song. Any way I can bring our family into the studio and be part of the process is an experience that they can take, if they choose, to their next adventure throughout life.

“As a mom, it was important to invite my daughter to be a part of my life, to come to the shows or sing a song with me ... any way I can bring our family into the studio and be part of the process is an experience they can take, if they choose, to their next adventure thought life.”

—SARA ROUTH

Being a mom is hard because sometimes I’m away a lot, and that’s diffcult. But, I’m able to fnd a balance between motherhood and my passion for music. That’s what I’m supposed to do. To share my story musically.

What’s in the future for Sara Routh and friends? I started a monthly project, the Record Store Roundup, that will continue in May at Vinyl Cup Records in Beaverdale. The program features an artist and an open mic segment. I will be presenting the Sara Routh Songwriting Retreat in September. And shows whenever I can. There’s an evolution to my music and an evolution to what I sound like and how the production sounds. Some artists put out a lot of material and a lot of it sounds similar to the last record. For me, each record is a little better, a little more rich. I’ve really enjoyed making music with so many different people. Everybody does things a little bit differently, and I think it’s just another way of building community. The listener gets to hear a different side of that musician or that artist. It’s been a fun ride.

Sara

Routh w/ Wally Neal Thursday, May 7, 7 p.m., Alluvial Brewing Company, Ames

Roll the Tape

A cohort of Q.C. creatives celebrate physical media by putting a regional spin on the Criterion Collection’s classic format.

BY ARIANA MARTINEZ

Khalil Hacker on an episode of VHStacks. His picks include Elephant Man, Scooby Doo’s Spookiest Tales, Les Misérables, Snake Eyes, Reservation Dogs, Fargo and the X-Files via Cary Grant Died Here

The Video Home System, or VHS, format was introduced in the late ’70s, revolutionizing the way people consumed movies. DVD would usurp it at the turn of the century, of course, but you’re hard-pressed to fnd a Gen Xer or millenial without at least a little video cassette nostalgia. Gen Z has shown an appetite for analog tech as well, fnding tactile comfort in tapes, vinyl, CDs and print books in the age of digital subscriptions.

Fans of physical media in the Quad Cities area have a goldmine in The Source. One of the oldest used bookstores in the nation, The Source has spent nearly 90 years in downtown Davenport and houses a massive collection of books, magazines, music and flms across 5,000 square feet of space. The business was purchased last year by Stephen Zbornik, who’d been shopping there since he was a teenager, and his partner Anne Brown.

Brown was particularly enthused about the basement. It had been sectioned off and stuffed with old, unwanted records, but had plenty of shelves and bookcases.

“I knew the basement was my baby because I’m interested in that sort of space-making,” she said.

Brown imagined an area dedicated to VHS, since the room, just like the outdated cinematic medium, “was a space that had been previously forgotten.” She cleared it out and got to work on transforming it.

Andrew King, the founder of CGDH, has long been invested in physical media. It was about a decade ago that he and some friends frst created a zine named after the Hollywood actor (and the real fact that Grant passed away in Davenport in 1986, while preparing for a show at the Adler

Source Bookstore co-owners

Anne Brown and Stephen Zbornik.

Shale Sage / Little Village

“I spent my entire 20s worrying about being original, and now that I’m in my 30s, I don’t care anymore. I just wanna have fun. You can rack your brain trying to reinvent the wheel when you just don’t have to. Find something popular, turn it two degrees to the right, localize it, bam.”

—ANDREW KING, FOUNDER OF CARY GRANT DIED HERE

Theatre), called Cary Grant Died Here. That was the collective’s frst iteration.

A Davenport native, King moved to Rhode Island to get a change of scenery in the untimely spring of 2020. On a visit back, during a party at Rozz-Tox, he was reminded of the “crazy, beautiful” creative energy in the area, so he came back in October 2023 and exhumed Cary Grant in print. But King was eager to do more video projects, and that’s where videographer and Quad Cities local Khalil Hacker came in.

“Growing up as a teenager in the Midwest, you get this feeling of ‘I’m living in a small town, I want to go somewhere bigger, do something bigger,’” Hacker said. “But the older I got, the more appreciation I had for the community here.”

The two offcially met through a mutual friend upon King’s return, and their collaboration began.

King saw Brown’s curatorial work at Source, and the small basement room immediately reminded him of the Criterion Collection and its Criterion Closet, the physical space and video series by the home entertainment distribution company. These videos see artists enter a closet stocked with stocked with Criterion’s robust collection of flms. The artist then chooses a handful of Blurays to keep while sharing why. King suggested doing their own version of the Criterion Closet with Brown’s VHS room.

“I spent my entire 20s worrying about being original, and now that I’m in my 30s, I don’t care anymore. I just wanna have fun,” King said. “You can rack your brain trying to reinvent the wheel when you just don’t have to. Find something popular, turn it two degrees to the right, localize it, bam.”

Just like that, VHStacks was born.

First, they decided to draft the guest list: who would be in front of the camera? King knew he wanted to pull from his well of creative friends in the Quad Cities, including local musicians, artists and dwellers of hubs like The Last Picture House, Rozz-Tox and The Midwest Writing Center. The inclusion

of these community members makes the series feel intimate and tender. They typically flm the videos in batches, so that sense of camaraderie is present on the shoot, and refected in the fnal product.

“Doing these little features with people [gives them] a chance to see themselves how I see them, to put some limelight on them,” King said. Hacker similarly wanted the look of the series to radiate that close-knit energy: “We both like this series to feel a bit more raw, so we leave in a little bit more of the messy, getting-ready-to-shoot sections, and I think it humanizes the series quite a bit.”

Little touches like using a static, scratch effect for transitions reinforce Hacker’s goal of the series feeling like the viewer “put a tape in, and this is what came up.”

VHStacks is a casual yet special series that exemplifes the intersection of art and community. Brown thinks it captures the specifc charm of VHS as a product. “The VHS format is really beautiful for browsing,” he said; the tapes’ matte covers and wider spines are more legible, and therefore enjoyable to search through. VHStacks is a great opportunity to browse through the creative offerings of the Quad Cities, and what it looks like when a collective of passionate, artistic, cool people make space for media, and for each other.

SOURCE BOOKSTORE

232 West 3rd Street, Davenport

OPEN 10 A.M.-6 P.M.,

MONDAY-SATURDAY.

OPEN 12 P.M.-4 P.M. SUNDAY.

Kellan Doolittle / Little Village

MAY A-LIST: MUSIC

DES MOINES/AMES

Sun, May 3, 8 p.m., Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band, Hoyt Sherman Place Mon, May 4, 6 p.m., Leaving, TX and Fred Love & the Bakersﬁeld Brawl, xBk Live Mon, May 4, 7 p.m., Animals As Leaders with Druids, Wooly’s Tues, May 5, 6 p.m., Sluice w/ Hiding Places, xBk Live Tues, May 5, 7 p.m., Blake Shaw with the Des Moines Big Band: Shaw ‘Nu , Noce Wed, May 6, 6 p.m., Matt Terronez Tell Me a Story album release party, xBk Live Wed, May 6, 7 p.m., Jazz on the House w/ Drummer Christopher Jensen & Co., Noce Thurs, May 7, 7 p.m., Hang Your Hate w/ Happy Thoughts and Sundance, xBk Live Thurs, May 7, 7 p.m., Northlanders Jazz Band with Matthew Whitaker and Elizabeth Trygstad, Noce

Fri, May 8, 7 p.m., The High Bidders, Locals Fri, May 8, 7 p.m., Bridges of Aloha: A Beneﬁt Show for Hawai’i, xBk Live Fri, May 8, 7 p.m., Danny Brown, Wooly’s Fri, May 8, 7:30 p.m., Patricia Holly, The Ingersoll

Sat, May 9, 2 p.m. & 7:30 p.m., Jim Brickman, The Ingersoll

Sat, May 9, 6 p.m., Brenn! with Hudson Ingram, Wooly’s Sat, May 9, 7 p.m., Jon Q Public, More Cheese, Locals

Sat, May 9, 7 p.m., Dickie w/ Joel Sires, xBk Live

Sat & Sun, May 9 & 10, 7 p.m., The Des Moines Symphony’s Season Finale: Courage - Alpine Symphony, Des Moines Civic Center Sat, May 9, 7 p.m., Gina Gedler w/ The Soya Vista Jazz Orchestra, Noce Sat, May 9, 2 p.m., Scott Eggleston: Storytelling and Blues Performance, West Des Moines Public Library

Sun, May 10, 6 p.m., sace6, Val Air Ballroom

Mon, May 11, 7 p.m., Call Me

Karizma w/ Jady, xBk Live

Mon, May 11, 7 p.m., punk nite presents: Metal Mowing May, Maggie’s Rumble Room Tues, May 12, Tues, May 19, Tues, May 26, 7 p.m., The Des Moines Big Band, in residence, Noce

Wed, May 13, 6 p.m., Lowertown w/ Micah Preite, xBk Live

Wed, May 13, 7 p.m., Jazz on the House w/ Antonio Lopes & Co., Noce

Thurs, May 14, 6 p.m., Ingrid Andress w/ Jake Simon, xBk Live

Thurs, May 14, 6:30 p.m., Capital City Pride Presents: Alexandra Billings, Temple Theater Thurs, May 14, 7:30 p.m., Jazz Night w/ the Austin Brown Trio, xBk Annex Fri, May 15, 6 p.m., Freddie Gibbs with Nourished By Time, Val Air Ballroom Fri, May 15, 6 p.m. & 9 p.m., Choir! Choir! Choir! Presents: We Will Choir You, Temple Theater

Fri, May 15, 7 p.m., Polly Mall Cops, Mary Jam, The Gunshy, Clip Clop, Locals

Fri, May 15, 7 p.m., Jackie Venson, xBk Live

Sat, May 16, 7 p.m., Beggars’ Bargain, xBk Annex

Sat, May 16, 7 p.m., Apollo’s Death, Locals

Sat, May 16, 7 p.m., Karla Bono , Temple Theater

Sat, May 16, 9 p.m., Y SI SE PUEDE TOUR, Wooly’s

Sun, May 17, 6 p.m., Iced Wrist, Nyhilist, Cruciﬁlth, Wrath of Sanity, xBk Live

Tues, May 19, 5 p.m., Sepultura w/ Exodus, Biohazard and Tribal Glaze, Val Air Ballroom

Tues, May 19, 7:30 p.m., George Thorogood and The Destroyers, Vibrant Music Hall

Wed, May 20, 4 p.m., Chaos & Carnage 2026 w/ Thy Art Is Murder, Bodysnatcher & Carnifex, Val Air Ballroom

Thurs, May 21, 7 p.m., Caster Volor, Psycho X, Parabola, xBk Live

Fri, May 22, 7 p.m., Stars Hollow, Locals Fri, May 22, 7 p.m., Stark Raving Madge: A Tribute To The 70’s, Wooly’s Fri, May 22, 7 p.m., Peter Roberts It’s All Pastel Album release, xBk Live

Sat, May 23, 6 p.m., Mr. Softheart, Jordan Sellergren, Dickie, xBk Live

Sat, May 23, 7 p.m., Gh0stthekid, DSakota$lim, Fooch the MC, Locals Sat, May 23, 8 p.m., Blade Rave, Wooly’s

Tues, May 26, 6:30 p.m., John Till & John Waite, xBk Annex

Tues, May 26, 7 p.m., New Neighbors, Mrs Nezbitt, The Slow Retreat, On Hiatus, Locals

Tues, May 26, 7 p.m., Jaguar

Sun & Kurt Travis, xBk Live

Wed, May 27, 8 p.m., Kyle Smith w/ Rootz Within, xBk Live

Thurs, May 28, 6 p.m., Thelma & the Sleaze w/ Allegra Hernandez and Morgana

Moon & The Damned Saints, xBk Live

Thurs, May 28, 7 p.m., Iowa High School Musical Theater Awards, Des Moines Civic Center

Fri, May 29, 6 p.m., Alpha Wolf: Let It Rip USA Tour with Gideon, Mugshot, & Resolve, Wooly’s

Fri, May 29, 7 p.m., Lady Revel, Locals Fri, May 29, 8 p.m., Amelia Day w/ Rutabaga, xBk Live

Sat, May 30, 6 p.m., The Guilty Pleasures w/ Super 8, xBk Live

Sat, May 30, 6 p.m., Meet Me @ The Altar with Fluorescents, Wooly’s Sat, May 30, 7 p.m., Star Funeral, Look at Me, Locals

Sun, May 31, 6 p.m., Tonk!, xBk Live Sun, May 31, 8 p.m., Lucy Darling, Hoyt Sherman Place

Mon, June 1, 6 p.m., Mac Saturn, xBk Live Tues, June 2, 7 p.m., Troy Doherty, xBk Live Wed, June 3, 6 p.m., Terror with Pain of Truth, End It, Start Today, Wooly’s

IOWA CITY

Sat, May 2, 8:30 p.m., City Mouth, emily the band, Mars Hojilla, Trumpet Blossom Sun, May 3, 3 p.m., John Lake Recital, Wildwood Sun, May 3, 7:30 p.m., Iron & Wine w/ Improvement Movement, The Englert Mon, May 4, 8 p.m., Taylor Austin Dye, Wildwood Wed, May 6, 8 p.m., Caitlynne Curtis, Wildwood

Fri, May 8, 7 p.m., Little Feat: The Last Farewell Tour, The Englert Fri, May 8, 8 p.m., Armchair Boogie, Wildwood Sat, May 9, 8 p.m., Jamsquad Takeover ft Carnap, House Wife, Party Pusher, Hizzo, Jear & NoU, Gabe’s Sun, May 10, 7:30 p.m., Jake Shimabukuro, The Englert Sun, May 10, 6:30 p.m., Orthodox w/ Soul Devour, Such Creatures Exist & Integument, Gabe’s

MUSIC

Sun, May 10, 8 p.m., Uncle Lucius, Wildwood

Mon, May 11, 7 p.m., Mdou Moctar, Gabe’s Tues, May 12, 6 p.m., Divide The Fall, Gabe’s Wed, May 13, 7 p.m., Samantha Fish, The Englert Wed, May 13, 7 p.m., Burlington Street Bluegrass Band, Wildwood Fri, May 15, 8 p.m., Gimme Gimme Disco, Gabe’s Fri, May 15, 8 p.m., Black Jack & Xolex, Wildwood Sat, May 16, 7 p.m., Hang Your Hate, Worst Impressions, Gunk Lung & Astro Brat, Gabe’s Sat, May 16, 8 p.m., Jackie Venson w/ James Tutson, Wildwood Fri-Sun, May 22 - 24, 6 p.m., Nolte Academy Recital 2026, Hancher Auditorium

Fri, May 22, 8 p.m., 28 Days Later, Two Boyfriends & Burke Ward Wallace, Gabe’s Sat, May 23, 8 p.m., Casts, win miranda f, Annelyse Gelman, Gabe’s Sun, May 24, 3 p.m., Sunday FundayStreamline Deluxe, Wilson’s Orchard Sun, May 24, 8 p.m., Good Habits, Gunk Lung, Early Girl & Tiny Stupid, Gabe’s Wed, May 27, 7 p.m., Burlington Street Bluegrass Band, Wildwood

Thurs, May 28, 8 p.m., Pert Near Sandstone, Wildwood

Sat, May 30, 6 p.m., Spineshank, (hed) p.e., Primer 55, Oceans on Other Planets & NonGrata, Wildwood

Sat, May 30, 8 p.m., Cultural You, Cough n Flop, Sorrow Roulette & Indian Burn, Gabe’s

ON VIEW

APRIL 25 – AUGUST 30, 2026

JOHN BRADY PRINT GALLERY

Presenting works on paper made by a group of artists, friends, and lovers who constructed ﬁgurative works of art inﬂected with humor and merrymaking.

CEDAR RAPIDS

Thurs, May 7, 7 p.m., Cedar County Cobras, CSPS Hall

Fri, May 8, 7 p.m., Mark Erelli, CSPS Hall

Sat, May 9, 7:30 p.m., Allure: A night of burlesque at Opus, Opus Concert Café Sat, May 9, 8 p.m., Kelli Baker Band, CSPS Hall

Wed, May 13, 6:30 p.m., Simon Harding & The Iowa Bop! Collective, Opus Concert Café

Fri, May 15, 8 p.m., Bashiri Asad, The Olympic

Fri, May 15, 8 p.m., Todd Day Wait, Clayton Brown, The Ideal Theater & Bar Sat, May 16, 7:30 p.m., Masterworks VI, Paramount Theatre Sat, May 16, 8 p.m., Heads in Motion, Atlas Radio, The Ideal Theater & Bar Sun, May 17, 7 p.m., Ordinary Elephant, CSPS Hall

John Carroll (American, 1892 – 1959). Artists Around a Table, 1928. Lithograph on paper. Des Moines Art Center Permanent Collections; Gift of Carl Weeks, 1954.109.

Thurs, May 21, 7:30 p.m., Them Coulee Boys, The Olympic Fri & Sat, May 22 & 23, 6:30 p.m., Orchestra Iowa Presents: Beer & Brass, Opus Concert Café

CEDAR FALLS/ WATERLOO

Sun, May 3, 7 p.m., Trioblique plays the music of Radiohead, Octopus, Cedar Falls

Thurs, May 7, 8 p.m., Jacob Lampman, David Lee Paul Schroeder & Amanda Pruitt, Octopus, Cedar Falls

Fri, May 8, 7 p.m., Speak of the Devil, The MLCs, Radio Ear, The Loft, Waterloo Fri, May 8, 8 p.m., Mike T, The Shotta, Tai G, Samurai 12 Gauge and Matt Snow, Octopus, Cedar Falls

Sat, May 9, 8 p.m., Brass Blast, Octopus, Cedar Falls

Sat, May 9, 8 p.m., Litty De Mayo:

Tu Sti Bums, Dj Face, Adot Taylor, Flex Mason, Eazy Duzit, Neo Gunz and more, The Loft, Waterloo

Fri, May 15, 8 p.m., The Fabulous Trutones, Octopus, Cedar Falls

Fri, May 15, 9 p.m., Into The Stellar, YHWH, WOHK, Purge Boy, Bu, RYL33-H2, The Loft, Waterloo Sat, May 16, 8 p.m., Bagel Steak & They Will Kiss, Octopus, Cedar Falls

Sat, May 16, 9 p.m., Illegal Smile, Skinny and the Shakes, Guss Royall, The Loft, Waterloo Sun, May 17, 8 p.m., Burke Wallace goodbye party, Octopus, Cedar Falls

Fri, May 22, 8 p.m., Ben Rendall & The Host Country, Octopus, Cedar Falls

Sat, May 23, 8 p.m., Joel Sires and Great Caesar’s Goat, Octopus, Cedar Falls

Fri, May 29, 8 p.m., Get up! Get Down!, Octopus, Cedar Falls

Fri, May 29, 8 p.m., Sorry, Pluto,

Astrobrat, Marisincharge, Bat Problem, The Loft, Waterloo Sat, May 30, 8 p.m., Run Dog & Marques Morel, Octopus, Cedar Falls

QUAD CITIES

Sun, May 3, 6 p.m., Matt Corman w/ Ollie Joseph, Raccoon Motel, Davenport

Mon, May 4, 6 p.m., ZG Smith w/ Moe Reen & Madison Hughes, Raccoon Motel, Davenport

Wed, May 6, 6 p.m., Sway Wild, Raccoon Motel, Davenport

Thurs, May 7, 6 p.m., Adam Hood, Raccoon Motel, Davenport

Thurs, May 7, 7 p.m., Emily Rach Beisel w/ A Light Among Many, Rozz-Tox, Rock Island

Fri, May 8, 6 p.m., Tommy Newport, Raccoon Motel, Davenport

Fri, May 8, 7 p.m., Eli Winter Trio w/ March Hans Showalter, Rozz-Tox, Rock Island

The area’s newest venue is a magnetic gathering place offering a full summer of entertainment. More at northlibertyiowa.org/centennialpark

MUSIC

Fri, May 8, 8 p.m., Laney Jones and the Spirits w/ Texas Chain Store Managers, Raccoon Motel, Davenport

Sat, May 9, 7 p.m., The Textures w/ Formerly Fox, Raccoon Motel, Davenport

Mon, May 11, 6 p.m., Daniel Romano’s Outﬁt w/ UNI Boys, Raccoon Motel, Davenport

Wed, May 13, 6 p.m., J. Roddy Walston w/ The Saint Cecilia, Raccoon Motel, Davenport

Thurs, May 14, 6 p.m., The Gunshy, Raccoon Motel, Davenport

Sat, May 16, 4 p.m., Keenan Trevon w/ E.M.E., AC Yung & Jacob Kynard, Raccoon Motel, Davenport

Sat, May 16, 7 p.m., Lolina w/ Desert Liminal, Rozz-Tox, Rock Island

Sun, May 17, 6 p.m., Dave Losso, Dan Untham, Jason Melton, Sophia Smarandescu, Benji Robles, Raccoon Motel, Davenport

Wed, May 20, 6 p.m., Fai Laci, Raccoon Motel, Davenport

Thurs, May 21, 6 p.m., Earth Tongue w/ Pink Fizz, Raccoon Motel, Davenport

Fri, May 22, 6 p.m., Josh Spinner w/ Lainey Jean, Raccoon Motel, Davenport

Sat, May 23, 7 p.m., Stein/Smith/Shead w/ Gabi Vanek, Rozz-Tox, Rock Island

Sun, May 24, 6 p.m., Casts w/ Elliott Bay Towers & Lex Leto, Rozz-Tox, Rock Island

Thurs, May 28, 6 p.m., True Green w/ Tambourine, Raccoon Motel, Davenport

Sat, May 30, 7 p.m., Water is the Sun, Boy Dirt Car, Post Doom Romance, Rozz-Tox, Rock Island

Mon, June 1, 6 p.m., Mirah, Raccoon Motel, Davenport

Tues, June 2, 6 p.m., Sensor Ghost w/ Desperate Electric, Raccoon Motel, Davenport

DUBUQUE/ MAQUOKETA

Thurs, May 7, 7 p.m., Grainne Hunt Music, The Lift

Fri, May 8, 7 p.m., Fred Love, Maquoketa Brewing

Wed, May 13, 7 p.m., Built to Spill, Wussy, Codﬁsh Hollow

Announcing Little Villageʼs newest distribution route: Grinnell, Marshalltown and Tama! Want to be added to the list? Email distro@littlevillagemag.com. Follow the QR code to check out our full map and ﬁnd a pickup spot near you.

Fri, May 22, 7 p.m., Roberts, Dahms & Larry, Maquoketa Brewing

Sat, May 23, 8 p.m., Whitney, Codﬁsh Hollow

Thurs, May 28, 7 p.m., Desperate Electric, The Lift

Fri, May 29, 7:30 p.m., Simon Cropp, Maquoketa Brewing