Dancing is an ancient pastime and an important forum for social interaction, especially in rural areas. During the early part of the 20th century, rural Americans found inexpensive ways and places to dance. In this video podcast, Nebraskans Car

The Charms and Occassional Madness of Antique Tractor Shows

Apr 15th, 2008 13m 52s

Every year, there are well over 225 antique tractor in the US. At each, seemingly sane men and women bring out tractors that they have spent untold hours and sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars restoring. In this video podcast, we ask wh

Ted Kooser reads his poem Abandoned Farmhouse

Jan 16th, 2008 2m

Across rural America, the number of farms is declining and abandoned farm houses are often just left behind. Former U.S. Poet Laureate Ted Kooser writes about an "Abandoned Farmhouse" and finds clues to lives left behind in the details that he

Former U.S. Poet Laureate Ted Kooser reads his poem So This Is Nebraska.

Jan 16th, 2008 1m 53s

As the most recent U.S. Poet Laureate, Ted Kooser could live anywhere. He chooses to live in the middle of the Great Plains in Nebraska. He says that I started this poem trying to write a "snotty" poem because he had not been invited to a write

U.S. Poet Laureate Ted Kooser reads his poem Osage

Jan 15th, 2008 1m 22s

Former U.S. Poet Laureate Ted Kooser says he's always been fascinated by Osage, "a wood that's really as tough as nails." In this video podcast, Ted reads an ode to wood that was used by Native Americans for bows, by settlers for hedges and fen

Ted Kooser reads his poem How to Foretell a Change in the Weather.

Jan 15th, 2008 1m 47s

The Great Plains are a semi-arid place. Water is scarce. So, folks here have for hundreds of years come up with their own methods of predicting the weather. In is poem "How to Foretell a Change in the Weather," Ted Kooser records some of the me

Ted Kooser reads In the Corners of Fields

Jan 15th, 2008 58s

In this video podcast, former U.S. Poet Laureate finds life in leftover fence wire, stones, No Hunting signs, dry horse tanks, and a moth harried by sparrows.

Ted Kooser reads Riding the Bus in Midwinter

Jan 15th, 2008 37s

Former U.S. Poet Laureate Ted Kooser (right) finds poetry in old barns. In this video podcast of his poem "Riding the Bus in Midwinter" Ted looks out the window and imagines what would happen if a barn "could loosen itself from its old foundati

U.S. Poet Laureate Ted Kooser reads his poem Great Plains in Winter

Jan 12th, 2008 30s

Great Plains in Winter is Ted Kooser's evocation of the silent time when snow covers a moonlit landscape on the plains. Not all of the poems of the former U.S. Poet Laureate are about rural themes, but we've chosen some of his best for this rur

Heyday of the Omaha Livestock Market

Jan 9th, 2008 20m 47s

At its height, the Omaha Livestock Market processed six to seven million head of cattle, hogs and sheep a year. There were 300 to 400 people working to help livestock producers from 30 states and Canada to buy and sell their animals. The livest

U.S. Poet Laureate Ted Kooser reads Spring Plowing

Nov 13th, 2007 1m 14s

Ted Kooser says that one of the things "poets can do for people when they're lucky is to give them ways of looking at the world afresh." In this video podcast, the former U.S. Poet Laureate reads "Spring Plowing" and says that at least one read

U.S. Poet Laureate Ted Kooser reads There Is Always a Little Wind

Nov 12th, 2007 58s

On any given day, you might find former U.S. Poet Laureate Ted Kooser touring some of the country cemetaries around his rural Nebraska home. He says that a small fact that he noticed on these visits became the title of the poem he reads in this

U.S. Poet Laureate Ted Kooser reads The Great Grandparents

Oct 18th, 2007 55s

Former Poet Laureate Ted Kooser remembers meeting "The Great Grandparents" at the train depot. In this video podcast, Ted talks about the sense of history that they brought with them in their "old tools, old words, old recipes, secrets."

U.S. Poet Laureate Ted Kooser reads Horse

Oct 18th, 2007 35s

When horses were introduced to the North American continent by the Spanish explorers, the lives of Native Americans, European settlers and American farmers changed profoundly. Former U.S. Poet Laureate Ted Kooser, in this video podcast, reads a

U.S. Poet Laureate Ted Kooser reads Zenith

Oct 18th, 2007 1m 35s

Former U.S. Poet Laureate Ted Kooser remembers listening to war news on the radio at the knees of his grandmother during World War II. In this poem entitled "Zenith," Kooser conjures up the way that he and his sister felt like they were part of

U.S. Poet Laureate Ted Kooser reads Barn Owl

Oct 12th, 2007 1m 17s

For 20 years, former U.S. Poet Laureate Ted Kooser wrote a new poem each Valentine's Day. He sent these as postcards to his wife as well as friends of his across the country. In 2006, Ted wrote the last one in the series and collected the poems

Dr. Norman Borlaug on the Mexican Agricultural Program

Sep 27th, 2007 23m 45s

Dr. Norman Borlaug remembers how the Mexican Agricultural Program developed the first high-yield, dwarf varieties of wheat that went on to help produce the Green Revolution. In this video podcast, he reviews how the program started with the hel

Dr. Norman Borlaug on the Green Revolution in India and Pakistan

Sep 25th, 2007 24m 4s

In the 1960s, population scientists predicted that millions would die of starvation in India and Pakistan. That was before Dr. Norman Borlaug and other agricultural scientists introduced dwarf hybrid wheat varieties and modern farming practices

Autobiography of Dr. Norman Borlaug, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for the Green Revolution

Sep 17th, 2007 27m 28s

Norman Borlaug says serendipity led him from a background growing up on a farm in Iowa to the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for his work with the Green Revolution. In this video podcast, Dr. Borlaug says his first life ambition was to be the

Poet Laureate Ted Kooser: "Memory"

Aug 9th, 2007 1m 58s

In this video podcast, former U.S. Poet Laureate, Ted Kooser, reads "Memory" that, he says, is about the way memory works for writers. It's also about some of the touchstones of rural life.

Poet Laureate Ted Kooser: "Tillage Marks"

Aug 9th, 2007 1m 1s

The former U.S. Poet Laureate, Ted Kooser, reads "Tillage Marks," a poem about the marks that farm tools make on stones in a farmer's field.

Poet Laureate Ted Kooser: "City Limits"

Aug 9th, 2007 3m 2s

How did a nation of pioneers settle down and accept the limits of civilization? Former U.S. Poet Laureate, Ted Kooser, reads "City Limits."

Robert Daugherty on the Early Years of Center Pivot Irrigation and Valmont Industries

Aug 8th, 2007 5m 48s

In the 1950s and 60s, center pivot irrigation systems were the cutting edge of agricultural technology and Robert Daugherty was a young entrepreneur in search of new products to weather an economic slow down. Daugherty remembers how he bought t

Ted Sorensen, Fallout Shelters

Aug 8th, 2007 56s

Ted Sorensen remembers that early in the Cold War governments and families built fallout shelters and practiced "Duck and Cover" drills to try and survive a nuclear attack. Sorensen wonders if they would have been effective.

Ted Sorensen on Pres. John F. Kennedy's Assassination

Aug 8th, 2007 1m 53s

In this video podcast, Ted Sorensen says the future might have been very different if John F. Kennedy had lived -- different for young people and minorities, different for the economy, and different for the Vietnam War and prospects for peace.