For almost 20 years, the Outlets at Anthem decorated with the largest Christmas tree in Arizona. This year is no exception. Their 70-foot tall white fir tree weighs four tons after it's decorated. How did that tradition start? And how does the mall know that its tree is the tallest in the state? Podcast editor Katie O'Connell found out during this week's episode of Valley 101, a podcast from The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com where we answer the questions you ask about metro Phoenix. Learn m...
Dec 21, 2020•9 min
Every winter, Arizona sees an influx of retirees that from out of state. They come to enjoy our mild sunny winters and to escape their snowy season. Many come from Midwestern states like Minnesota or Wisconsin. But what brings snowbirds to Arizona specifically? And once they're here, what's their economic impact on the Valley? In this week's episode, producer Maritza Dominguez digs into this phenomenon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Dec 14, 2020•12 min
Barry Goldwater was a businessman, a Phoenix city councilman, and a prominent U.S. Senator from Arizona. He loved flying his plane across the state's diverse landscapes, and most would say he was a pretty good photographer. In the biggest race of his life, the 1964 presidential election, Goldwater lost significantly to Democrat Lyndon Baines Johnson. LBJ walked away with 61.1% of the popular vote and 486 electoral votes, leaving Goldwater with 52. So why has Goldwater been called the face of mod...
Dec 07, 2020•35 min
Cooling off during the summer months is no easy feat. While people in other parts of the country may retreat to the cooler depths of their basements, that's not an option here in Phoenix. Rather, it's not a popular option. Instead, folks across the Valley take a dip in a pool to find some relief. But why is that? Why do houses here tend to have pools instead of basements? Podcast editor Katie O'Connell found out the answer in this week's episode of Valley 101, a podcast from The Arizona Republic...
Nov 30, 2020•10 min
For the first time, Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport ranked number one in J.D. Power's 2020 North America airport satisfaction study. This made Valley 101 listener Gregory Yost wonder: why? What made the airport so satisfying to customers? This wasn't the first question about Phoenix Sky Harbor submitted to the team. Producer Maritza Dominguez teamed up with travel reporter Melissa Yeager to answer your questions about the local airport. They also answer questions about the safety of fly...
Nov 23, 2020•19 min
Buckeye, Arizona was founded in 1888. But it wasn't always called Buckeye. So how did it get that name? And does it have anything to do with Ohio? This week's episode of Valley 101, a podcast from the Arizona Republic and azcentral.com, dives into those questions Guiding us through the journey are: Jackie Meck, the soon-to-be former mayor of Buckeye. Deanna Kupcik, president and CEO of Buckeye Valley Chamber of Commerce. Levi Beard, former Vice Mayor and owner of Absolute Screen Printing in Buck...
Nov 16, 2020•13 min
Phoenix's light rail system isn't the first time the city had rail travel. From 1887 to 1948, the Phoenix Street Railway System shuttled riders from downtown through growing neighborhoods to rural areas. In 1929, the system had 6.6 million passengers. That year, the system really lived up to its motto, "Ride a Mile and Smile the While." The system survived the Great Depression and World War II, but a mysterious fire in 1947 was the fatal blow to an already-declining system. However, the system a...
Nov 09, 2020•21 min
The 19th Amendment turns 100 this year. The amendment guaranteed American women's suffrage nationally, but some women in Arizona voted before 1920. How did they do that? This week on Valley 101, a podcast from The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com, we meet some of the leaders of the women's suffrage movement in Arizona and explore their long-lasting impacts. In this episode you'll hear: How Frances Munds impacted women's suffrage. How literacy tests in Arizona disenfranchised women of color. Wh...
Nov 02, 2020•28 min
For most Americans, the clock springs forward an hour or falls back one because of Daylight Saving Time. But that's not the case in two states: Arizona and Hawaii. In today's episode of Valley 101, a podcast from the Arizona Republic and azcentral.com, podcast intern Jonathan Tease dives into the history and debates that led to Arizona's decision to opt out of Daylight Saving Time. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Oct 26, 2020•15 min
President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 built 41,000 miles of interconnected highways across the country. The bill arrived in an era of post-World War II, Cold War tension. Its proponents said highways were necessary for national defense. In case of an attack, people in densely populated cities would need roadways to evacuate. Across the country, highways were placed directly through towns, bisecting neighborhoods and changing the social fabric of communities. Some were ...
Oct 19, 2020•1 hr
On Monday, for the first time ever, Arizona will recognize Indigenous Peoples Day. It's a move that State Sen. Jamescita Peshlakai has been working toward for years. "The United States is first and foremost, and always has been and always will be, Indigenous peoples' sacred homeland," Peshlakai said. On Sept. 4, Republican Gov. Doug Ducey signed a proclamation recognizing Indigenous Peoples Day. Similar to the city of Phoenix's 2016 shift, the move does not replace Columbus Day, which falls on t...
Oct 12, 2020•32 min
As newcomers to the Valley, Stephen Richer and his wife Lindsay noticed a ton of photo shoots taking place in downtown Phoenix. He saw women walking in downtown accompanied by professional photographers. Richer lived in other cities like Chicago, New Orleans and Portland. The phenomenon he saw in Phoenix was new to him. To find out what was going on, he got in touch with our team at Valley 101. In today's episode of Valley 101, a podcast from The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com, we dive into ...
Oct 05, 2020•17 min
Hattie Mosher had a pioneering spirit. The daughter of one of the wealthiest families in turn of the century Phoenix, Hattie wasn't one to hold back. She made waves by being one of the first — if not the first — women to ride a bike in Phoenix. She worked as a reporter at the Denver Post. She ran for political office a decade after white women in Arizona were given the right to vote. But Hattie's story would go from riches to rags. In the final years of her life, she would be seen wandering arou...
Sep 28, 2020•23 min
West of the White Tank Mountains in Buckeye, there's a 30-mile, four-land highway that connects Interstate 10 in the south to Bell Road in the north. It was once seen as the key to city growth, anchoring dozens of future master planned communities and some 300,000 anticipated residents. After dozens of private investors constructed the highway in 1988 and 1989, the highway sat unused amid desolate surroundings for nearly 20 years. So what happened? How did this become our "Road to Nowhere"? This...
Sep 21, 2020•15 min
The first day of school is always a big day for students. Many plan out their outfits and memorize their schedules for the day. They walk out on campus with a map in hand to find their classrooms. But this year, many students are not getting that same experience. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic put the traditional rituals of returning to school on hold. This includes students attending Arizona State University. ASU reopened their campus with new restrictions and guidelines. In today’s episode of V...
Sep 14, 2020•19 min
Labor Day is a anational holiday that celebrates the contributors to the work force. During this holiday, our Valley 101 podcast team thought it would be fitting to explore one of the largest and most important labor movements in our state's history, the Farmworkers Movement. Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta are two of the most well-known organizers in the movement. But Arizona had its own leaders. People such as Gustavo Gutierrez and Francisca Montoya. Their efforts, which diverged at times from...
Sep 07, 2020•28 min
Walk along almost any canal in the metro Phoenix area and you're sure to find thousands of shells each smaller than a quarter. What are they and how did they get there? Those are the questions reporter John D'Anna wonders about every time he walks his dog George along the neighborhood canal path. This week, Valley 101 is answering them. The shells' official name is Corbicula fluminea, but they're more commonly referred to as Asiatic clams. They were first spotted in the U.S. in 1938, then in Pho...
Aug 31, 2020•13 min
It's August, which means your TV news broadcasts are usually filled with stories about monsoon season, including stories about flooding, how to drive safely and how much rain we've received. This year has been a little different thanks to a hotter and drier summer. But when the rain hits, there's a noticeable scent to it. That's thanks to a certain desert plant, the creosote bush. In today's episode of Valley 101, a podcast from The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com, podcast editor Katie O'Conn...
Aug 24, 2020•13 min
In a previous episode of Valley 101, producer Taylor Seely broke down the grid system of Phoenix streets. The streets in Phoenix run north and south, and east and west. This created streets that run perpendicular to each other. However, there are always exceptions to the rule. Grand Avenue is one of those. Today we’re answering two questions submitted by listeners. First, how does a diagonal street like Grand Avenue exists in a grid system? And second, what’s so grand about Grand Avenue? In toda...
Aug 17, 2020•14 min
Health care workers in Arizona are struggling through the burdens of a public health crisis that has hospitalized thousands of Arizonans and pushed emergency rooms and ICUs near full capacity. With higher than usual patient-to-nurse ratios, stringent PPE protocols and looming fears over exposing their loved ones to the novel coronavirus, health care workers in Arizona are feeling tired, dejected and desperate for lawmakers and the public to take COVID-19 seriously. "They've been trying to do two...
Aug 10, 2020•22 min
Phoenix is the largest metropolitan city in the U.S. without passenger-rail service, but that wasn't always the case. In 1923, Phoenix Union Station opened. And in 1926, a transcontinental line was completed, meaning someone could take the train anywhere in the country. In this episode of Valley 101, a podcast from The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com, we're exploring the history of passenger-rail service in the Valley. We'll look at what caused the decline in ridership, as well as future plan...
Aug 03, 2020•21 min
For several people in the Valley who've contracted COVID-19 or watched someone they love contract it, a switch flipped afterward. They felt compelled to convince others to take the disease seriously. Jimmy Flores, a 30-year-old man from Tempe, told Arizona Republic reporter Audrey Jensen he thought COVID-19 was a joke. He figured he was too young and healthy to be susceptible to any significant danger. After a night out at the bars, Flores contracted COVID-19 and was subsequently hospitalized. H...
Jul 27, 2020•25 min
As a lifelong Valley resident, I would often drive by the spring training stadiums for the Chicago Cubs or the Los Angeles Angels. I always wondered why we had outside teams playing in the Arizona. The reason dates back to the 1940s before the state even had its own Major League Baseball team. Arizona's relationship to Americans' favorite pastime started with a coalition of baseball teams that would eventually become known as the Cactus League. This week on Valley 101, a podcast from The Arizona...
Jul 20, 2020•18 min
This episode goes out to all of the book lovers. Did you know that if you live in Tempe, you can get a Phoenix Public Library card? One of our podcast listeners knew that, but he wasn't sure why, so podcast editor Katie O'Connell found out. In this week's episode of Valley 101, a podcast from The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com, we're exploring peeking behind-the-scenes at our local libraries. This includes looking at how services have been updated during the COVID-19 pandemic, including the ...
Jul 13, 2020•13 min
Arizona is a battleground state in national elections and could sway the outcome of the 2020 presidential race. But how did we get here? How did the state go from reliably red to purple, with the possibility to shift blue in 2020, in just a decade? To understand, go back to 2010 when Arizona surprised the nation by passing Senate Bill 1070, a sweeping and highly controversial immigration law, otherwise known as the "show me your papers" law. That's what Valley 101's sister podcast will explore i...
Jul 06, 2020•20 min
Live in the Valley long enough and you’re bound to have a conversation about the Phoenix grid system. You might hear how convenient and logical it is. Avenues on the west, streets on the east. Central in the middle. You might think the only flaw is that there's no pattern to the east-west extending named streets. That's true. But that's not the only problem. Midtown Phoenix resident Scott Wilken spotted major inconsistencies between the number of blocks between each major named street when a dri...
Jun 29, 2020•18 min
South Mountain is a hot spot for hiking enthusiasts, but its history is richer than you might think. There’s even a mystery deep within the mountain that has prompted our listeners to ask us for answers. The Lost Ranch ruins are located within the park away from official trails. As time has passed, the ruins have captivated hikers. One Valley 101 listener submitted this question: "What are the origins of the Lost Ranch?" In today's episode of Valley 101, a podcast from The Arizona Republic and a...
Jun 22, 2020•14 min
There's a chance that the concrete fence in your backyard could be partially made out of materials from volcanoes. In 1944, three Arizonans invented a new type of concrete block, the Superlite block. The key material in Superlite is volcanic scoria, which is essentially cooled volcanic magma. In this case, it's mined in Winona, AZ. The Superlite block allowed Phoenix to grow at an exponential rate after World War II. It was light, soundproof, fire proof and it could hold up to our summers. By 19...
Jun 15, 2020•16 min
Valley 101 podcast parses through Arizona's COVID-19 data to better understand the nuances and clarify how the virus is taking shape in Arizona. Includes: Taylor Seely, Stephanie Innes and Alison Steinbach. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jun 08, 2020•23 min
Arizona created a state poet laureate position to celebrate the state's centennial. A unanimous panel chose Alberto Ríos to fill the post in 2013. His role as poet laureate was to undertake a major literary project to expose quality poetry to residents who might not otherwise be. In this week's episode of Valley 101, a podcast from The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com, host Kaila White interviews Alberto Ríos. In this episode you'll hear how Arizona shaped Ríos and what lead him to poetry. You...
Jun 01, 2020•15 min
