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Happy Wednesday. I’m Zachary Oren Smith, and welcome back to Cornhole Champions, a weekly podcast where we throw bags at the state’s biggest stories. I’m back for a short spell on the news desk before I’m off again.
I’m happy to say that our baby girl—and how can I write about anything else—is healthy. She’s also very loud. I’m told it’s probably a good thing. A sign of healthy lungs. Now that I think about it, it’s certainly hereditary.
It’s easy to romanticize small-town Iowa — cornfields, calm mornings, and hardworking families. But behind the postcard image is a story of consolidation, pollution, and the steady draining of civic power.
For my penultimate episode of the 2025, I spoke with Pulitzer Prize–winner Art Cullen has spent decades writing from Storm Lake about the forces reshaping rural life. In his new book Dear Marty, We Crapped In Our Nest: Notes from the Edge of the World, he reflects on how we got here, what we have left, and what it would take to turn things around after a century of extraction.
Toss some bags about Iowa’s petrochemical farm economy… the hollowing out of our small towns… And the politics of pollution and power…
It’s a hard read. But if you like this show, I think it’s up your alley. A conversation about responsibility, hope, and the cost of pretending everything’s fine. And for my money, it has one of the best essays I’ve read on the history of corn in the US. Super interesting.
Cornhole Champions is a weekly politics and policy podcast powered by Iowa Starting Line, hosted by Zachary Oren Smith and produced by Rebecca Steinberg, with music by Avery Mossman and art by Desirée Tapia.
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Cornhole Champions is a weekly podcast powered by Iowa Starting Line. It’s produced by me and edited by Rebecca Steinberg. Our music is by Avery Mossman and show art by Desirée Tapia. We are a proud member of the Iowa Writers Collaborative.
Your friendly neighborhood reporter,
Zachary Oren Smith
Political correspondent
Iowa Starting Line
