“‘Curious’ is what shapes the issues. Why is it this way? Why, in the breadbasket of America, are the food pantries going bare?” ~ Art Cullen

Art Cullen is the editor and co-owner with his brother John of the Storm Lake Times Pilot, a weekly newspaper in that Northwest Iowa county seat – a town of about 12,000.

In 2017, Art won the Pulitzer Prize in Editorial Writing “for editorials fueled by tenacious reporting, impressive expertise, and engaging writing that successfully challenged powerful corporate agricultural interests in Iowa.”

To my eyes, he looks a lot like Mark Twain, which called to mind that writer’s quip, “Never tell the truth to people who are not worthy of it.”

I suspect a good deal of what is both powerful and persuasive about Art’s work is that it’s clear he finds his readers entirely worthy of the truth. That they – we! – can handle the truth. 

Indeed, we must.

Dear Marty, We Crapped In Our Nest: Notes from the Edge of the World, is Art’s 2025 book of essays, fashioned as a letter to his high school buddy Martin Case, reflecting on the utter transformation of the place he has called home for most of this life.

[Independent journalism is] foundational because the presumption is that you have an informed democracy in order to have viable elections — and community journalism is that basic bridge between power and the people.

We talked about the importance and challenges of local and independent media, journalism’s place in democracy, what constitutes “news”, how the coastal elite could and should be curious about “fly-over country”, the value of our various curiosities, being hopeful but realistic, why democracy demands curiosity — and two essential questions for Iowans.

Listen to Ep. 319: Curiosity & the Essential Question of News, with Art Cullen

Check out The Storm Like Times Pilot.

More about Art Cullen and his Pulitzer Prize winning editorials.

Read Dear Marty, We Crapped In Our Nest: Notes from the Edge of the World from Ice Cube Press, a midwest book publisher using the literary arts to better understand the midwestern heartland.

If you enjoyed this journalism conversation, check out these C2BC Classics: Curiosity Lessons from Solutions Journalism, with Monica Quesada Cordero; Meeting People Where They Are, with Andy Isaacson; and Curiosity & Journalism, with Drew Costley.

Theme music by Sean Balick; “Weathervane” by CloudCover, via Blue Dot Sessions.

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