Josie Fischels
Arts & Culture ReporterExpertise: Performance art, visual art, Iowa life
Education: The University of Iowa
Favorite Iowa Destination: Dunnings Springs, Decorah
Experience:
- Covered local and statewide arts, news, and lifestyle features for The Daily Iowan, The Denver Post, NPR and currently for IPR
- Has written features on Iowans participating in the Hollywood writers’ strike, the nation’s largest historic theatre backdrop collection – housed in Iowa, the reopening of the African American Museum of Iowa and an ‘inside-the-culture’ feature on local drag kings, among others
- Is an award-winning reporter, including a retrospective of Iowa’s first poet laureate, Marvin Bell, following his death in 2021
- Writes regularly for IPR’s internationally award-winning newsletters
- Covered the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics, climate and the Kabul takeover by the Taliban in 2021 for NPR’s news desk
- Served as an editor and mentor for multiple projects with NPR’s Next Generation Radio
- Created IPR’s weekly news quiz and launched IPR’s TikTok (follow us!)
My Latest Stories
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The Lifespan of a Fact follows an intern, an editor and a celebrated writer in a struggle to fact-check an essay that blurs the lines between truth and falsehood. The play, which opens on the Riverside stage in Iowa City on April 18, is adapted from a real essay-turned-novel co-written by University of Iowa Nonfiction Program Director John D’Agata and fact-checker Jim Fingal. -
Property owners unexpectedly painted over multiple murals on University Laundry in Des Moines to prep the building for sale, including an image of the late civil rights leader, Freedom Rider and U.S. Rep. John Lewis. -
Iowa State University students working across design, modeling and more than a dozen operational committees have put on a full-length fashion show since 1982. -
The National Humanities Alliance estimates that more than 1,200 grants that support culture and history programs across the country have been abruptly cut by the National Endowment for the Humanities. -
The Broadway hit Hadestown has made several stops in Iowa this year on its national tour. Production Stage Manager Molly Goodwin, who grew up in Davenport and attended Luther College, oversees every aspect of the show from backstage. -
All employees of the Institute for Museum and Library Services, or IMLS, have been placed on administrative leave following an executive order from President Donald Trump to dismantle seven independent government agencies. The IMLS distributes thousands of grants nationwide to museums and libraries. -
Some Iowans at the Trans Lives Festival in Des Moines say this may be their final time celebrating in the state, given a law stripping Iowa's Civil Rights Act of gender identity protections goes into effect July 1. -
After achieving accreditation from a global nonprofit, the Iowa City school can now offer independent instruction, teach international students and accept tuition from state tax-funded ESAs. -
Ingersoll Theatre, which has sat unused for over a decade, plans to reopen this fall after undergoing a $5 million restoration. -
The Waterloo after-school literacy program co-founded by Nikole Hannah-Jones will host the city’s 19th African American Read-In after the city’s school district withdrew from the statewide program last month.
