Idaho Matters

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**Idaho Matters**

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.

Latest Episodes:

**The evolution of Kathryn Polk's art** Feb 14, 2024
Show notes

The Hand That Feeds, Stone and Plate Lithograph by Kathryn Polk.( Kathryn Polk)
Artist Kathryn Polk started drawing before she could even walk, using art to express herself, which wasn’t always easy growing up in the deep south in the 1950s and 1960s, when women were mostly expected to stay home and not pursue careers in things like art.
Fast forward to today, and the Visiting Artist and Scholar Program at Boise State University is hosting Polk this week on campus, talking about her art and working with students to create a lithograph. She joined Idaho Matters to talk more.

**Breaking down the Idaho school choice bill** Feb 13, 2024
Show notes

The Idaho Legislature has a new school choice bill that GOP lawmakers introduced to the legislature at the end of January.
Lawmakers have tried over the past several years to put some kind of program in place that would let parents choose where their kids go to school using everything from vouchers to education savings accounts, but none of those past proposals have become law.
We want to take a deep dive into school choice, and we’re talking a lot about how this would affect kids and parents, public and private schools, charter and religious schools, taxpayers and educators.
Idaho Matters wanted to break down exactly what’s in this year’s bill, so we asked Ian Max Stevenson with the Idaho Statesman to sit down and talk about it.

A picture of an arborglyph found in a forest. — **Finding Basque history in the trees of Idaho** Feb 13, 2024
Show notes

( John Bieter)
Throughout Idaho, there is a rich history of Basque culture, a piece of which can be found in many of the forests across Idaho in the form of tree carvings.
Known as arborglyphs, these markings were commonly left by sheepherders, providing a glimpse into the past of an often overlooked population. And for years now, Boise State University professor John Bieter has made it a priority to document these fading artifacts.
He'll be talking more about this work and the significance of arborglyphs as part of this year's Mash-up Lecture Series with Sun Valley Museum of Art and Boise State Universities College of Innovation and Design, and he joined Idaho Matters for a preview.

Blowing snow on highway. — **How does the Boise School District decide to call a snow day?** Feb 13, 2024
Show notes

blowing snow on a Wyoming interstate highway reduces visibility on a clear day obscuring other vehicles(Tom Grundy / stock.adobe.com)
Idaho kids have had a few snow days this year when the weather and the roads are bad enough to cancel school and keep them at home.
The Boise School District covers 450 square miles, which is a lot of roadway to look at when officials are trying to decide whether or not to call a snow day.
Nick Smith, area director of the district's Boise High School quadrant, sat down with Morning Edition host George Prentice to talk more about how they decide when to close schools.

**Love stories from the Old Idaho Penitentiary** Feb 13, 2024
Show notes

(Old Idaho Penitentiary / Facebook )
With Valentine's Day just around the corner, love is in the air. Which means it's time to break out the flowers and chocolate and head to prison!
You read that right. The Old Idaho Penitentiary is hosting a day of romance, and what better way to celebrate than behind bars with your sweetheart, where you'll get to learn all about the couples who were locked up before you!
Jacey Brain, the Visitor Coordinator at the Old Idaho Penitentiary, joined Idaho Matters to talk more about the event.

An American Flag waves in the wind. — **Idaho's possible role in changes to the U.S. Constitution** Feb 12, 2024
Show notes

(Mike Mozart / Flickr)
The U.S. Constitution has been around for more than 200 years and has only been changed 27 times in all those years, and all those changes were done the same way.
It’s not easy to amend the constitution, and the framers did that on purpose to make sure changes were widely considered and widely accepted by Americans.
But now some are looking at a different way to change the constitution; it’s called a "Constitutional Convention," and Idaho could be an important state in that process.
The City Club of Boise will explore this topic on Thursday in Boise, and we wanted a preview, so we invited McKay Cunningham, the Director of On-Campus Experiential Learning at the College of Idaho, Chuck Malloy, a longtime Idaho journalist and an independent columnist, as well as Ilana Rubel, the Idaho House Minority Leader, to talk more about the upcoming event.

New contest gets Idaho students out of the classroom and into nature Feb 12, 2024

Show notes

In today's world, it can be hard to motivate kids to ditch their screens and get outside. But for one group of kids, that hasn't been a problem because they've been spending their time chasing dragonflies as part of the "Finding Dragons Project."

The project was recently featured in the Idaho Press and looked at how high school kids and adults were studying how dragonflies were doing, their history, and what they could tell us about climate change.

Dick Jordan was a driving force behind the project. He spent 35 years as an environmental science teacher before retiring from Timberline High School, and now he’s teamed up with Idaho Public Television on a new way to get kids outside. It’s called the My Life Outdoors essay contest.

Jordan joined Idaho Matters, along with Ella Driever, a senior at Timberline High, to talk more about the project.