This week on The Exchange, with the future of the first-in-the-nation Iowa Presidential Caucuses in doubt, we take a look at what we can expect in terms of political events in the 2024 election.
Also, we hear from the producer and host of the Iowa Civil Rights History Podcast about some of the little heroes of the movement in the Hawkeye state.
We also talk with a literacy expert about how parents can help their children learn to read and want to read more.
And we talk with a father who is busy physician who has written a book about trying, and sometimes failing, to be what some would call a perfect parent.’’
Also, we check in the leader of large group of Missouri River Paddlers who are making their way to Siouxland from Fort Randall this week. They will be in Siouxland Friday.
Democratic National Committee has delayed its decision about the 2024 presidential nominating calendar until after this year’s midterm elections.
The DNC Rules and Bylaws committee delayed the decision Saturday. Iowa Democratic Party Chair Ross Wilburn said the state party will keep working with the DNC in the new timeframe.
The announcement came after multiple states said shifting the 2024 lineup in August could hurt Democratic candidates’ chances in this year’s elections.
Earlier this year, the DNC decided the early voting lineup held since 2006 — Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina — was up for change.
Iowa Democratic leaders argued that Iowa has served as a good starting point for Democratic presidential candidates on the path toward a general election victory.
Iowa State University Professor of History Emeritus Steffen Schmidt has been in New Hampshire over the past few weeks. I talked to him about the future of the first in the nation caucuses and some of the political factors that are guiding this decision.
Across the country, research shows that about a third of early elementary students will likely need intensive support to become proficient readers. two additional studies suggest that many children born during the pandemic will also be at risk for academic failure. It seems that overburdened parents haven’t been able to engage babies and toddlers in the kind of “conversation” that is crucial for language development—and eventually, for reading.
In the new book Reading for our Lives: A Literacy Action Plan for Birth to Six, writer, educator, and literacy advocate Maya Payne Smart offers parents from all walks a life hope and a lifeline. Smart encourages and motivates caregivers to use whatever they have of their most valuable resource – time – to set their children on the road for success. The award-winning journalist and literacy advocate provides a clear, step-by-step guide to helping your child thrive as a reader and a learner.
“Why is parenting so hard?” is the question asked by Dr. Andy Bomback Long Days, Short Years: A Cultural History of Modern Parenting,
The (struggling!) father of three young children, Bomback—a nephrologist at Columbia University Irving Medical Center—seeks to answer the question “He determines that a lot of it has to do with society’s expectations, which are reflected in—or you could even say fueled by—the way parents are portrayed in books, movies, and television shows. And, as he points out, it’s very different for moms than dads.
If I told you that Iowa paved the way for school integration long before Brown vs. Board of Education, you might be surprised. I learned about the man who integrated Muscatine’s public schools back in 1868 via the Iowa Civil Rights History Podcast. The podcast is produced by Eric Nganyange who lives in Mason City. The accountant by trade has a passion for history and he moved to Iowa from Tanzania when he was 19 years old.
A flotilla of paddlers will arrive in South Sioux City Friday August 5th after a week long trip from Fort Randal in South Dakota. The canoers and kayakers will be retracing the steps of Lewis and Clark on their expedition more than 200 years ago.
Montana based historian, writer, photographer and long-time paddler Norm Miller is also along for the ride, not his first on Missouri. Miller founded the Missouri River Padders several years ago. Despite his experience planning paddling events, Miller admits the sheer number of participants, over 100, can be a bit daunting at times.
