Idaho Matters is a wonderful way to stay up to date, meet people and understand there’s much more to this great state. Hosted by Gemma Gaudette on Boise State Public Radio News, it features arts and politics, growth and education, and the interesting stories that make Idaho unique. Send us your questions, comments or story ideas by emailing idahomatters@boisestate.edu or sending us a voicemail using the “Talk To Us” feature on the free Boise State Public Radio app.
How to have hard conversations with your kids
Sep 14, 2022
Show notes A bunch of children playing and running around a playground at a church party.( Flickr)
This episode of Idaho Matters originally aired on May 23, 2022.
As we continue to see heated debates around social justice issues, education freedom and how post-pandemic life might look - what seems to be lacking is a place for kids and caregivers to find resources to be able to talk about these issues and attitudes.
Amber O'Neal Johnston, author of the book "A Place to Belong: Celebrating Diversity and Kinship in the Home and Beyond", joins Idaho Matters to talk about fostering open dialogue around discrimination, race, gender, disability and class.
Breaking down the controversy over Boise Pride
Sep 13, 2022
Show notes(Tom Magliery / Flickr)
Days before this year’s Boise Pride Festival was set to kick off, the new chair of Idaho's Republican Party, Dorothy Moon, issued a news release stating that two Pride events, Drag Kids and Drag Story Time, were encouraging the sexualization of children. And she called on sponsors to withdraw their support.
The tactic worked. After people from all over the country started contacting these organizations, many withdrew including Zion's Bank, Idaho Power, Idaho Central Credit Union and Capital Educators Credit Union. Others like Blue Cross of Idaho remained.
Idaho Matters breaks down how this narrative of grooming and sexualization of children has taken center stage in politics. We spoke with Pride organizers about what Pride Festival and drag really are and we look at these moral panics; what are they and how do they relate to what led up to last weekend’s Pride events?
Boise-based reporter Heath Druzin, the creator of the Extremely American podcast, joins Idaho Matters along with Joseph Kibbe, vice president of this year's Boise Pride Festival and Boise State University professor Jen Schneider.
Celebrating Mexico through music at the Idaho Botanical Garden
Sep 13, 2022
Show notes
This weekend, the Idaho Botanical Garden will be full of music. Opera singers Cecilia Lopez and Levi Hernandez, along with pianist Nathan Salzar will be celebrating Mexican Independence Day with musical favorites, bringing the community together to commemorate an important moment of freedom.
Celebrando a México is an outdoor event and performers will be moving around the garden as the event unfolds. If you miss a performance in one spot, you can still catch them later on.
Doors for the event open at 1 p.m. and performances begin at 2 p.m. The three artists joined Idaho Matters to talk more about the event and what people can expect to hear.
Idaho Air National Guard jets train and compete at Hawgsmoke 2022
Sep 12, 2022
Show notes More than three dozen A-10's line up on the tarmac at Gowen Field in Boise.(Michael Martin)
There are 37 large fighter planes lined up in two rows at Gowen Field and they're glinting in the hot afternoon sun. Standing in the shadow of one of these jets is Colonel Ryan Richardson.
“It's a dream come true. I think I'm the luckiest guy in the world. Yeah, the airplane is a absolute dream to fly. The pilots love it.”
Col. Ryan Richardson (Michael Martin)
Richardson is the commander of the 124th Operations Group and he's wanted to fly planes since he was a kid growing up in Idaho and Montana.
“I started off in fourth grade. I knew I wanted to be a pilot. I didn't know I wanted to fly the Warthog until pilot training, when I started to meet pilots in the community. And it didn't take me too long - between the people that are in our community and the mission that we do protecting the folks on the ground - that I knew this was the aircraft I had to be in. And I've been lucky enough to be in it for a while now,” Richardson says.
The aircraft he's talking about is the A-10 C Thunderbolt II, affectionately known as a Warthog. The A-10 squadron based at the Idaho Air National Guard at Gowen Field in Boise is known as the Skullbangers.
“Skullbangers, the greatest fighter attack pilots in the universe. It's the 190th Fighter Squadron. We've got 21 jets, about 37 pilots right now,” according to Richardson.
The Skullbangers are just a part of the 124th Fighter Wing, which is made up of about 1,300 men and women.
Nose art on Warthogs at Hawgsmoke 2022.(Michael Martin)
“We're largely made up of part-time Guardsmen. They're just members in your community. So we have ranchers, we have airline pilots, we have businessmen all over, not just in the 190th, but all over the Wing. They're members of the community."
One of those members is Chief Master Sergeant James Ovanek, who lives in Nampa.
“And I joined the Idaho Guard in 2005 as a C-130 crew chief. Before I was hired full-time, I worked at Chuck E. Cheese, where I came up to be the assistant manager…”
Hold on a minute. Chuck E. Cheese?
“Working at Chuck E. Cheese is like, kind of like herding cats.”
Ovanek was active duty military for six years. When he got out, he did the part-time gig working at Chucky and at the Guard until he switched to full-time work out of Gowan Field. Now he works for the Warthog’s Engine Shop.
One of the four A-10's from the Idaho Air National Guard competing in Hawgsmoke 2022.(Michael Martin)
He works on ejection seats, hydraulics, fuel systems, and he works with about 100 other folks keeping the Idaho Air National Guard's A-10s in the air.
“We work alongside our traditional Guardsmen and our full-time force. We're brothers and sisters outside of here, you know, because we're neighbors and we work in the same industries when we're not out here. And it's an amazing sense of pride,” says Ovanek.
Each squadron competing at Hawgsmoke 2022 has its own personalized artwork.(Michael Martin)
Pride is a big part of what's about to happen out here. Gowen Field is hosting Hawgsmoke 2022, a competition where 15 different Warthog squadrons test their skills against each other. Each team has four pilots and a crew that keeps their planes up and running.
“It's a competition and it's amazing training,” Richardson says. “So the competition itself brings in A-10 units from all over the world. We've got Guard, active duty and reserve here.”
The planes take off from Gowen Field and fly about 70 miles to the southeast.
“From there they've got a very fast-paced, challenging tactical problem to solve. It involves low-level navigation to a target area, some low-level weapons employment. There'll be a gunnery and bombing competition,” says Richardson. "The best part of Hawgsmoke is the chance to get the community together in one place and the cross-talk and relationships that we develop, especially in the Guard.”
“So the opportunity to talk tactics with other squadrons, build relationships with these people that we may deploy with someday, share ideas, has been, I think, the most rewarding part," says Richardson.
Relationships are the best part of the job, says Chief Master Sergeant Ovanek.
"Interacting with everybody I work with. That's, that's probably the best, you know, and in the end, standing out here on the flight line and watching their planes take off every day. It's incredible. It never gets old. Never gets old."
The Idaho Air National Guard “Skullbangers” took home first place with the 2022 Overall Team Award. It’s their fourth Hawgsmoke win, which makes them number one in the world.
An A-10 Thunderbolt II, from the Idaho National Guard’s 124th Fighter Wing, Boise, Idaho, fly’s away from a gunnery target during the Hawgsmoke 2022 gunnery competition at the Saylor Creek Bombing Range, south of Mountain Home, Idaho, Sept. 8, 2022. The pilot had just completed a strafing run with the GAU-8 Avenger cannon. . (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Senior Master Sgt. Joshua C. Allmaras)(SMSgt Joshua Allmaras/SMSgt Joshua C. Allmaras / Idaho Air National Guard)
Rock icon Melissa Etheridge comes to Boise
Sep 12, 2022
Show notes( Elizabeth Miranda)
She'll be performing those songs next week during a performance in Boise at the Morrison Center. Etheridge joined Idaho Matters to talk more about life and music.
Honing your craft: How joining a writers group helped three women publish their books
Sep 12, 2022
Show notes(BookMama / Flickr)
Writing can be a lonely profession - spending hours behind a computer screen with doors shut, in complete silence.
That may be the image that comes to mind when picturing the stereotypical author. But books are not always written in a vacuum, at least not for one group of local authors.
After joining the Aero Caffe Writers Group, each one published their own written works. Authors Kelly Jones, Glida Bothwell and Laura Kelly Robb sat down with Idaho Matters to talk more about the Boise writing group and their novels.
Idaho Matters Reporter Roundtable: August 9, 2022
Sep 09, 2022
Show notes(Benson Kua / Creative Commons attribution-share alike 2.0)
It’s Friday - which means it's time for our Reporter Roundtable when Idaho Matters gets you up-to-date on all the news that made headlines this past week.
Idaho StoryCorps: A love story to remember
Sep 07, 2022
Show notes David Pettyjohn, left and Geoffrey Parks, right. ( StoryCorps)
It was just a bite to eat, a way to reconnect among old school friends.
“So we have a fantastic dinner. I mean, it was great and I felt something,” says David Pettyjohn. He hadn’t seen Geoffrey Parks since they lost touch after school. They met in eighth grade and were friends through middle and high school.
And when it was time for their 20-year high school reunion, David wanted to rekindle that friendship, meeting for dinner once a week.
“It was just great. You know, we picked up the friendship, right? Kind of where we left off. We're both nerds. We love talking about maps, all of those things,” says David.
Then one night they were having dinner at the Iron Star BBQ in Oklahoma and ”this is where things took a little turn,” says David.
“You remember what I'm about to say?” he prompts Geoffrey.
“Yeah,” Geoffrey says.
“The waiter just jokingly said, Hey, you guys out on a date? And I just jokingly, like, reached over, and I was like, Oh, honey, are we? And then what did you say?” prompts David again.
“We have not yet defined the relationship,” teases Geoffrey.
“And I was like, What? In my head, I'm like, wait. Geoffrey, is he thinking, what? What? So that kind of opened up possibilities. So shortly after I said, you know what? I'm just going to make a move. There's so many questions. I'm attracted to him. He kind of seems like he's attracted to me,” says David.
So, during the next night out, “finally I just reached over and grabbed your hand and you took it back,” David remembers.
“I remember getting in the car and you leaning over, and we had our first kiss,” said David. “I remember the drive back the next day, we held hands the entire way, and it was very sweet.”
After three years of dating, David started thinking about marriage. “I wasn't planning this and I just said, hey, Geoff, have you ever considered, you know, what do you think about getting married? And you said, I'd consider it, but, I’d have to be proposed to.”
But the couple had some concerns. “some of my family was … they weren't, what's the right word? On board. Accepting of where my life was,” says Geoffrey.
“And we were making progress,” said David.
“We were making progress,” Geoffrey agrees. “My mom and dad would come over and have lunch or dinner, and that was good, you know, kind of reconnecting that relationship. But, thinking about all of the things that would need to be planned, all of the things that would be confronted at the wedding, David and I decided to put a stop on official, big ceremony plans.”
“Because we knew what we were going to do, that we were going to have a ceremony. We were looking to do it in Oklahoma somewhere and then fly to New York,” explains David.
That was the other concern. This was before the U.S. Supreme Court case in 2015 that required all states to grant same-sex marriages. So they couldn’t legally get married in Oklahoma at the time.
So they put the big ceremony on hold, as David explains, realizing that “a wedding is not important. We are. So we just said we're just going to fly to New York, get married, and then just have a lunch reception.”
It was legal for same-sex couples to get married in New York in 2002.
“So, yeah, flew to New York, had a fantastic wedding, flew back to Oklahoma,” says Geoffrey.
That’s because Oklahoma didn’t recognize their New York marriage.
“It was that weird feeling of getting in a plane and realizing that all the rights that you had were gone when we landed back in our home,” says David.
It wasn’t until 2015 when that changed, after the Supreme Court ruling that also required states to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states.
“And Oklahoma had to grant us those rights, like it or not. So they did. That was a good day,” says Geoffrey.
David points out they also had that big reception. “We had about 60 people.”
“And much to our delight, my parents came over for that,” says Geoffrey. “That was important for them to see the friends and family that we have that supported us and our relationship.”
Eventually, the couple came to the Gem State.
“We had never been to Idaho. We knew we loved the Rockies. We often go to Colorado, New Mexico, but had never been to Idaho. So it was great to kind of make that leap,” says Geoffrey. “It's been good to kind of have our space, our place to kind of make our life together.”
“I think that we live in a part of the city and have relationships that are very open and accepting to us and who we are,” says Geoffrey. “But we do, I think, have to exercise a bit of caution in some settings.”
“But I will say this,” says David. “I travel the state for my job. I never hide that I have a husband. And you also, when you travel, you never hide. And we have been really fortunate that we have not encountered that.”
“So, you know. Life. We'll see where it goes in future. But the journey so far has been fantastic,” says Geoffrey.
“It has been” says David, “And Geoffrey, I love you.”
“I love you too.”
“And I'm so excited that we get to share our story that we've been able to share with friends over the years. So here's to many, many more years,” says David.
“Indeed. Indeed.”
Idaho Matters Doctors Roundtable: September 7, 2022
Sep 07, 2022
Show notesThe new booster shot would be an update to Pfizer's current version of the shot, which was designed for the original strain of the coronavirus.(Nam Y. Huh / AP)
Another vaccine is coming out for COVID-19 and it's got many people confused and wondering why and if they need this latest shot.
Dr. David Pate, Former CEO of St. Luke's Health System and a current member of Idaho's Coronavirus Task Force, joined Idaho Matters to talk more about this and answer your questions.
The votes are in: Idaho Matters looks at the Boise School Board election results
Sep 07, 2022
Show notes(Emilie Ritter Saunders / Boise State Public Radio)
The Boise School District held an election Tuesday for five of the seven seats on the Board of Trustees.
omething that used to be a rather sleepy kind of election has changed dramatically, thanks to issues like COVID-19, critical race theory and banning books in school libraries.
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