WATCH: Climbing Cringe Mountain w/ JT Vonderhaar (aka @jttheiowainvestigator) – Cornhole Champions Chats

JT Vonderhaar is taking Iowa history to TikTok as the Iowa Investigator, building a following hungry for untold stories.

On this episode of Cornhole Champions, Zachary Oren Smith talks with Vonderhaar about creating work while trying to find an audience and the need for storytelling in places like these.

Toss some bags at Joe Biden’s Song of the Summer… the Forest Gump of the Civil War… Iowa’s war with Missouri… and the Iowan who saved a billion lives.

Cornhole Champions is a weekly podcast powered by Iowa Starting Line. This podcast is produced by Zachary Oren Smith and edited by Rebecca Steinberg. Our music is by Avery Mossman and our show art is from Desirée Tapia.

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*SHOW RUNDOWN:*
00:02:19 – How the Iowa Investigator got started on TikTok
00:04:30 – The random comment that changed everything: “Bro is the Iowa investigator”
00:08:30 – “You gotta climb cringe mountain” – Advice for aspiring creators
00:11:19 – The Government Bridge: Iowa’s most historically significant bridge
00:15:00 – Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis, and Abraham Lincoln all connected to one Iowa bridge
00:18:30 – Norman Borlaug: The Iowa man who saved a billion lives
00:23:13 – The Honey War: America’s silliest interstate conflict
00:27:00 – Why more wars should be like Iowa’s Honey War

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