Featuring Appearances by
Nicole Leth
Leth, 24, is an artist and entrepreneur who owns and operates locations of her Sex + Ice Cream fashion retail shop in Kansas City and Des Moines. Her creative and business life is dominated by the road between the two cities. But lately she also has traveled frequently between the Midwest and Los Angeles with fellow artist Luke Haynes.
John Gerken
Gerken, 60, was raised in Omaha, Neb., moved to Dallas, Texas, and then spent more than 20 years as an executive chef and restaurant owner in Maine. He and his family returned to Iowa about a decade ago, settling in Newton where initially they owned and operated an inn.
Muhamed Ibisevic
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John Otte
John Otte grew up on a northern Illinois dairy and hog farm. John served as instructor and research associate in the Department of Economics at Iowa State University, where he taught farm record keeping and farm management. From 1976 through 1978, he was an area extension economist with the University of Florida Food and Resource Economics Department. In 1979 John became economics editor for Farm Progress Publications, whose titles include Wallaces Farmer. He retired in 2015, and he and his wife, Maria, live in Urbandale.
Yogesh Shah
Dr. Yogesh Shah is the founding director of palliative care at Broadlawns Medical Center in Des Moines. He’s also co-chair for the Community Health Improvement Committee of the Healthiest State Initiative. The geriatrician previously was the founding associate dean of global health at Des Moines University. He received his doctor in medicine from Bombay University in India and completed his residency and geriatric fellowship at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. He also earned a master of public health (MPH) from Des Moines University.
Agenda
July 13, 2017
Tales from the Road: Nicole Leth - 'Road Therapy'
As a kid Nicole Leth cherished road trips with her dad. Later she used long drives to recover from bad breakups. Now she may have steered her way to a newfound happiness.
July 13, 2017
Tales from the Road: John Gerken - 'Never abandon your elephant'
Growing up in the 1970s, John Gerken wanted to join the circus. He got his big chance when he was asked to haul a “baby” elephant halfway across the country – in the back of a van.
July 13, 2017
Tales from the Road: Mohamed Ibisevic - 'Changing lives two wheels at a time'
Muhamed Ibisevic got his first bike in first grade in Bosnia. Years later, living and working in Iowa, he rediscovers the bicycle as not just fun or transportation but as a mission.
July 13, 2017
Tales from the Road: John Otte - 'The road back to Brazil'
John Otte was a farm kid from the Midwest who met and fell in love with a woman from Brazil. At first he had no interest in visiting his wife’s native land, where he didn’t know anybody and couldn’t speak the language. But now that the couple faces the fight of its life, Brazil is a refuge.
July 13, 2017
Tales from the Road: Dr. Yogesh Shah - 'They made me Maasai'
Dr. Yogesh Shah, who grew up in India and works in Iowa, likes to say that he has a gene that predisposes him to seek adventure and travel. That led him all the way to remote Tanzania, Africa, and into the heart of a Maasai village.