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Bridging the Rural and Urban Divide

David Wade Couch / flickr

Though Iowa is known as an agricultural state,  more than 60 percent of Iowans live in cities, and the gulf between rural and urban Iowa is about much more than distance.

Kyle Munson of the Des Moines Register is trying to jumpstart a conversation about the issues that divide urban and rural Iowa. On this edition of Talk of Iowa, Charity Nebbe sits down with Munson, who has started his "Unite Iowa" tourin Orange City.

"It’s not just sitting down to talk about water quality, but you have these deep-seated ways of life," says Munson.

"You have farmers who see themselves as stewards of the land, very independent by nature, so when you talk about a Water Works lawsuit that could prompt regulation, you really start to hit up against these different philosophies of control over the land, ways of life, stricter or looser regulations on everything."

Also joining the conversation: Paula Dierenfeld, Mayor of Johnston, John Crabtree of the Center of Rural Affairs, and Philip Bump, who has written that there are two Americans, an urban one and a rural one, in the Washington Post.

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Charity Nebbe is the host of IPR's Talk of Iowa