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What I've been up to

...and a link to last week's Zoom session about organizational life-cyles
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The video above features the conversation we had last week with organizational consultant Ian Mac Dougall on the life cycles of organizations. If you serve on a board or lead any group, you might recognize the cycles of growth and demise that can occur at any point in the timeline of an entity.

What’s new?

For the past couple of weeks, my attention has been focussed on the launch of a podcast former Register columnist Rekha Basu and I are co-hosting titled:

What the hell happened to Iowa?

As you might surmise by the title, we are reacting to the flurry of radical legislation being churned out by a GOP trifecta in state government.

Democrats, if and when the pendulum swings back your way, take note: this is what you can do if you hold the governor’s seat, most of the executive branch, both legislative bodies and have a stronghold in the Iowa courts. Oh, yeah, and a U.S. Supreme Court ruled corporations can pump unlimited cash into elections and hide dark money (secret) in dummy organizations.

Rekha and I have been friends for 30 years, but this is the first time we’ve worked on a project together. We are finding our differing strengths compound one another, and we’re pretty pumped about the audience's reaction to our first episode. I would have been pleased if we had 100 downloads initially, but we passed that number within an hour of launch, and as I type these words, it’s been heard 1,221 times. We have 822 subscribers to the Substack column where it is hosted, and today, it was picked up by Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify so that the audience could grow exponentially. This has all happened in the past four days since we launched the first episode on February 14.

I guess many people listen to podcasts when they walk the dog, go to the gym and drive around. Do you?

Like this Potluck column and the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative initiative, the content is designed to connect you, the reader - or the podcast listener - directly to the creator. There is no advertising. It’s on-demand content sent to your email inbox. If you’d like to support the effort, great, but it is not required. We hope you share it, though. In the case of paid subscriptions to the podcast, proceeds help fund the audio editing, production, and travel expenses from the road. Thank you.

To receive the podcast directly in your email, sign up here.

What the hell happened to Iowa?
Rekha and Julie's first podcast
Listen now (47 min) | February 14, 2023 - Rekha Basu and Julie Gammack are teaming up to ask a question on the minds of observers throughout the land: What the hell happened to Iowa? These two Iowa print and broadcast journalists decided to adapt the audio podcast platform to introduce an authentic voice to the devasting laws sweeping the state under the leadership of Governor …
Listen now

Otherwise, please find us on the podcast platform you use.


Monday Zoom Lunch date for February 20.

I turn to a couple of friends who have been podcasting for a while now so I can learn a few tips and techniques. Please join George A. Clark (a former colleague from my days as a WHO radio talk show host) and Michael Libbie. Both have had long careers in radio broadcasting and are finding an audience in this wild, new world of podcasting. Chat away about whatever you like with these two. Libbie is also on the Windsor Heights city council.

Here’s your Monday Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83037257586

Thank you for reading Julie Gammack's Iowa Potluck . This post is public so feel free to share it.

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Here’s our illustrious group in alphabetical order:

Iowa Writers’ Collaborative Columnists 

Laura Belin: Iowa Politics with Laura Belin, Windsor Heights
Doug Burns: The Iowa Mercury, Carroll
Dave Busiek: Dave Busiek on Media, Des Moines
Art Cullen: Art Cullen’s Notebook, Storm Lake
Suzanna de Baca Dispatches from the Heartland, Huxley
Debra Engle: A Whole New World, Madison County
Julie Gammack: Julie Gammack’s Iowa Potluck, Des Moines and Okoboji
Joe Geha: Fern and Joe, Ames
Jody Gifford: Benign Inspiration, West Des Moines
Nik Heftman, The Seven Times, Los Angeles and Iowa
Beth Hoffman: In the Dirt, Lovilla
Dana James: New Black Iowa, Des Moines
Pat Kinney: View from Cedar Valley, Waterloo
Fern Kupfer: Fern and Joe, Ames
Robert Leonard: Deep Midwest: Politics and Culture, Bussey
Tar Macias: Hola Iowa, Iowa
Kurt Meyer, Showing Up, St. Ansgar
Kyle Munson, Kyle Munson’s Main Street, Des Moines
Jane Nguyen, The Asian Iowan, West Des Moines
John Naughton: My Life, in Color, Des Moines
Chuck Offenburger: Iowa Boy Chuck Offenburger, Jefferson and Des Moines
Barry Piatt: Piatt on Politics: Behind the Curtains, Washington, D.C.
Macey Spensley, The Midwest Creative, Davenport and Des Moines
Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Buggy Land, Kalona
Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Emerging Voices, Kalona
Cheryl Tevis: Unfinished Business, Boone County
Ed Tibbetts: Along the Mississippi, Davenport
Teresa Zilk: Talking Good, Des Moines

If you aren’t already receiving the weekly roundup, sign up here:

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Julie Gammack