Katie Peikes

Reporter

Iowa

Radio reporter covering agriculture and rural issues.

Katie Peikes

Reporter

Iowa

Radio reporter covering agriculture and rural issues.

How An Iowa Town Won Its Fight For Better Flood Protection
Levees protect people, towns, and agriculture from flooding. But two years ago, parts of the Missouri River and its tributaries reached record crests, and many levees failed. Now there’s a rare effort to build a levee higher to better defend one southwest Iowa town. Hamburg in southwest Iowa sits five miles from the Missouri River, sandwiched between it and the Nishnabotna River.
Harvest Public Media
Dozens Of Flood Recovery Projects Awaiting State Funding
Last year, Iowa lawmakers set aside $15 million for flood recovery projects. A state board awarded all of the money to affected communities in eastern and western Iowa. Now, dozens more flood recovery projects are on the table, waiting for the state legislature to put more money in. Back in March, Dale Ronfeldt’s yard looked like a lake.
Iowa Public Radio
Fremont County Family Devastated By Flooding
It’s been nearly a month since the swollen Missouri River and its tributaries started to flood western Iowa. In southwest Iowa’s Fremont County, hundreds of homes remain evacuated, with no word of when people can go back. Flooding has kept Matt Schoville and his family away from their home just outside of Percival for about a month, but they’ve decided to grab some of their things and assess the damage.
Iowa Public Radio
Rural Shopko Closings Will Mean Fewer Shopping Options
Retail giant Shopko is closing about 250 stores across the country after filing for bankruptcy in January. Two dozen of those stores are in Iowa, and 22 are Shopko Hometown stores, smaller-format locations designed for smaller cities and towns. Rural Iowa communities fear the closures of these general merchandise stores are going to hit them hard.
Iowa Public Radio
Bison Bliss: Grazing Shapes Diverse Western Iowa Prairie
Bison are helping sustain a diverse native prairie in western Iowa through grazing. More than 200 bison call The Nature Conservancy’s Broken Kettle Grasslands Preserve in the north end of the Loess Hills home. As Scott Moats, the Iowa conservancy's director of stewardship puts it, “We don’t have the prairie to maintain the bison.
Iowa Public Radio
Free dental care helps Delaware children put a smile on
More than 160 children got their teeth cleaned for free in Dover this past weekend at the Delaware State Dental Society’s annual “Give Kids A Smile" event. The waiting room at Dr. Douglas Ditty’s office is packed. Some of the children here had their teeth cleaned weeks or months ago, and are in for a quick check-up.
Delaware Public Media
Exercising in space and on Earth
Working in a microgravity environment allows astronauts to grow about 3 percent taller. But extended time in weightlessness can also accelerate bone loss, causing astronauts to lose bone mass at about the same rate as a postmenopausal woman. A NASA scientist has been studying this rapid bone deterioration and thinks her findings on what’s experienced in space can be used here on Earth — as well as potential future missions to Mars.
Delaware Public Media
Understanding your "incredible, flexible brain"
Your brain controls your senses, your movement and your thoughts. It’s essentially what makes you, you. At University of Delaware’s Laboratory Preschool this summer, teachers took a hands-on approach to guiding children ages four through eight through the science of the brain. The second Laura Morris pushes a button on her speakers, a group of 4- to 5-year-olds perks up.
Delaware Public Media
'Phil the Seal' returns to the wild
After spending more than two months in rehabilitation, Phil the harbor seal was released at Gateway National Recreation Area in New Jersey where he made his way back into the Atlantic Ocean. More than 60 people watched as staff from the National Aquarium set down a crate containing Phil on the sand.
Delaware Public Media
Utah family converting bus to traveling tiny home
Brad, Raecale, and their five children, Mazy, Hope, Laik, Oedi and Ecco, moved to Smithfield in 2006. Originally from Michigan, they were enthralled by the beauty of Cache Valley's surrounding mountains. "We like the quiet atmosphere of Cache Valley and the solitude you can find up the canyon," Brad said.
The Salt Lake Tribune

About

Katie Peikes

Audio Editing

Interviewing

Journalism

Researching

I've aspired to be a public radio reporter since my junior year of college when I was a production intern for Connecticut Public Radio. While there, I pitched a story on Taste of Hartford - an event featuring reduced prices at local restaurants. When I sat down with a Hartford restaurant owner to interview him, I was hooked!

I found my niche in the science and environment beat in 2016. After interviewing a Utah scientist about his 15-page research paper, I enjoyed the challenge of breaking it down into something much shorter and straightforward for people to hear about. From there, I got my first science reporter job in Delaware, where I reported on the environment and climate change for two years.

My career then led me to Iowa. In July 2018, I became Iowa Public Radio's first-ever western Iowa reporter based remotely in Sioux City, 3 hours away from my colleagues. For two-and-a-half years, I reported on rural issues, flooding and flood recovery. I tried to amplify the voices of rural people who rarely get heard.

Currently, I report on agriculture and rural issues for Iowa Public Radio and Harvest Public Media. My reporting addresses things at the intersection of agriculture and climate change, as well as rivers and watersheds.