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.

*SHOW RUNDOWN:*
00:00 – Iowa’s rural myth vs. the reality of industrial agriculture
04:00 – Who is Marty? The friendship behind Dear Marty, We Crapped in Our Nest
07:00 – The “Corn Gospel”: How petrochemicals and subsidies changed Iowa
10:00 – When Big Ag bought Iowa politics
15:00 – Can Iowa’s populist right break from corporate control?
21:00 – Pipelines, property rights, and the cracks inside the GOP
30:00 – Art Cullen on cancer, rural healthcare, and what it means to stay
36:00 – “Dear Marty” epilogue: despair, democracy, and a flicker of hope

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