Podcast – American Countryside

On this edition of The Scenic Route, Andrew talks to Paula Neuman Gris, who was just three years old when her family was broken up...

It all began with a lumber yard in Indianola, Iowa.  Of course, today you don’t know this company for its lumber.  You instead know it...

The next 40 years are predicted to bring an ever increasing population both here and around the world.  Food needs will rise and agricultural jobs...

It used to be that controversies in agriculture revolved around which color of tractor to buy or what kind of seed to plant.  Those debates...

If you’ve ever flown into the Las Vegas airport, you may have noticed a colorful Cessna airplane hanging from the ceiling over the baggage claim...

You may recall we recently discussed a pair of brothers in Mississippi who in 1935 set a record by keeping an airplane in flight for...

The longest nonstop commercial flight in the world is currently a Singapore Airlines route from Newark to Singapore.  It’s in the air over 18 hours...

For the past few days we,ve been in Greenfield, Iowa, home to the Iowa Aviation Museum.  You probably never realized how many aviation firsts are...

Chalres Lindburgh was the first person to fly an airplane across the Atlantic Ocean.  But lost in our history books in the name of a...

Today, aircraft carriers and the planes they transport play a vital role in country’s military might.   However, have you ever given any thought to...

Al can tell you plenty about building airport runways.  Of course, most of those he helped build were on surfaces like coral under the threat...

There is definitely an art to tracking and calling a wild turkey.  Jerry Law had no trouble tracking this turkey.   That’s because the turkey’s...

In front of the Luna Café, on old route 66 near Mitchell, Illinois, you’ll find a beautifully restored neon sign.  The bright lights include a...

She was a very unlikely candidate to manage a cattle feedyard in central Nebraksa.  She grew up in Palm Beach County, Florida and knew next...

Many radio stations have interesting stories of how they were born.  This station in central Nebraska was the product of one of the worst blizzards...

In some parts of the Midwest, you can buy a brand new car for the same price as one acre of farmland.  That’s land that’s...

Today we meet the district farmer of the year.  A lady growing ten acres of corn–a farmer adopting some of the latest technology she can...

Drive through farm country and you can find plenty of shiny new grain bins to hold ever increasing yields. Drive through farm country here and...

Many farm events and banquets in the US begin with prayer.  This farm meeting opened with a joint prayer of Chritian and Muslim farmers.  They...

Our best of 2012 continues today with a lady named Barbara who was a teenager living in Japan when World War II ended. Her country’s...

When people began attending funerals here, many had the exact same reaction. They mentioned that when they passed, they wanted a funeral just like that....

It’s been over 150 years since Illinois soldiers faced Santa Anna in the Mexican War. However, traces of that battle fought over 1500 miles to...

Today a transcontinental flight from New York to L.A. might take about five hours. But do you know how long the first such flight took?...

It’s a tradition the last week of each year we give you the “Best of the American Countryside.” And in 2012 we interviewed 110 year...

It was Christmas 1945. German POWs at Camp Algona in Algona, Iowa would be returning to Europe the next year. This was the final Christmas...

At first glance, it might appear to be an odd request. A U.S. commander asked a group of German POWs to construct a nativity scene...