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Happy Friday. And welcome to Cornhole Champions. I’m Zachary Oren Smith. It’s Friday—not normally when you hear from me—but we’re trying something new.
Every week, I get to talk with a host of people doing big work in this state. It’s my favorite part of the job. It’s also part of it that doesn’t get seen. While not an interview is a keeper, I’m trying to feature one each week. The conversation that I enjoyed the most. And we’ve got a good one for you this week.
JT Vonderhaar is the Iowa Investigator on TikTok. What started as curiosity about someone doing interesting storytelling work turned into a conversation about the weird courage it takes to put your work out there—and what happens when you discover the stories hiding in plain sight.
“You gotta climb cringe mountain.”
Vonderhaar told me that in the early days, maybe 12 people would like a video he spent hours on. These weren’t his friends—though there was that one person he hadn’t seen since high school—these were people the algorithm fed his video to.
“At first if you're doing it, people are gonna see it and they're gonna be like, what's he doing?” Vonderhaar said.
But he kept at it. And now he’s got 72,000 followers on the app. That didn’t come from the detritus sold by social media gurus and the ever-elusive Authentic Content™️. It came from him making work. Seeing a detail. Getting curious. Trying build a story around it.
When you’re working it out in the edit, you’re going to have some flops. Lord knows, I do… But the algorithm won’t save you. Time and stubbornness will.
The Forrest Gump of the American Civil War
One of my favorite stories Vonderhaar has done involves Davenport’s Government Bridge. Robert E. Lee surveyed the spot. Jefferson Davis tried to stop it. A mysterious ship fire may have been sabotage. Abraham Lincoln defended the bridge in court as a young lawyer.
"I once referred to it as the Forest Gump of the American Civil War," JT said, "because it's just hitting all these parts of the Civil War and it's just this bridge across the Mississippi.
You can watch it here:
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At the heart of it is something easily missed. An old bridge. Something you drive past without thinking. But that’s the backflip great storytelling can do. Recontextualizing the everyday into something really special.
A billion lives saved by an Iowan
There are Iowans I prefer to talk about: Oskaloosa’s Arthur Russel, Cedar Rapids’ Elijah Wood, or Des Moines’ Cloris Leachman. But its a moot point trying to argue who is history’s most consequential Iowan.
Norman Borlaug, who Vonderhaar called "the most important human in the history of all humans" and "certainly the most famous person that you've never heard of," was born near Cresco, Iowa. Borlaug revolutionized agriculture by creating high-yield, resilient wheat varieties that greatly improved food security in Mexico, Pakistan, and India. Josette Sheeran of the World Food Programme, said he “saved more lives than any man in human history.” He was also a pretty good wrestler, because Iowa.
"There's a lot of people alive today that would not be alive had Norman Borlaug not been around," JT said.
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There are so many forces trying to take your attention. I’m just happy one of them is right here in Iowa. Here are the other videos we talked about in the interview:
I’m always on the lookout for Iowa creators to boost. Send your ideas to zach@iowastartingline.com.
You wrote in
On Wednesday, I told you about Attorney General Brenna Bird dropping her lawsuit against the Winneshiek County Sheriff. I asked about times you picked the wrong fight and had to back down. Your responses, as always, were thoughtful:
Sarah from Cedar Rapids writes: "I got into a huge fight with my sister about our mom's care when she was declining. I was convinced I knew what was best and dug in hard. Turns out my sister had been having conversations with Mom that I wasn't part of. I had to apologize not just for being wrong, but for assuming I had all the information. Now I try to ask 'what am I missing?' before I plant my flag."
ZOS: Lord, that’s something I can learn from. I try to fight the urge to jump to conclusions, but I’ve had to eat a bowl of crow for the times I jumped to conclusions. I think it’s doubly hard when you have a personal stake in the situation, a mother. If we were all a little more interested in what we were missing, what a world that’d be.
Anonymous from Des Moines: "I doubled down on a Facebook argument about local school policy for way too long. Even when I realized I was wrong about the facts, I kept arguing because I was embarrassed. Finally just deleted the whole thread and messaged the other person privately to apologize. They were gracious about it, but I learned that my ego isn't worth making someone else's day worse."
ZOS: Feels like I should be appealing to my readers for advice. In journalism, it’s important that when you’re wrong you make it right. That means corrections. Apologies. Whatever it takes to right the wrong turn. Still I know the feeling in the gut when you’re so fired up about something and you’ll do anything to push your argument forward. But like you say, that’s ego. Self-love. And that’s never worth it.
To everyone who wrote in, thanks. You make this newsletter and this state a place I want to live.
Before you go
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Cornhole Champions is a weekly podcast powered by Iowa Starting Line with music by Avery Mossman and show art by Desirée Tapia. We are a proud member of the Iowa Writers Collaborative.
Your friendly neighborhood reporter,
Zachary Oren Smith
Political correspondent
Iowa Starting Line
