{"podcast":{"title":"River to River","slug":"river-to-river-1060576","podcast_index_feed_id":1060576,"rss_url":"https://www.iowapublicradio.org/podcast/river-to-river/rss.xml","website_url":"https://www.iowapublicradio.org/podcast/river-to-river","image_url":"https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/7cee9f6/2147483647/strip/false/crop/3000x3000+0+0/resize/2000x2000!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fea%2Fb9%2F816b46a344b5bd56d5470b36497d%2Friver-to-river-podcast.png","author":"Iowa Public Radio (digitalservices@iowapublicradio.org)","episode_count":100,"summary":"River to River is a conversation about the news with an Iowa perspective. Together we dig into the story behind the headlines - we talk with newsmakers and a diverse range of experts to find out how the news affects you. We take on challenging topics, explore issues from all sides, and foster conversation and understanding","last_synced_at":"2026-07-24T00:17:13.366040+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/river-to-river-1060576"},"episode":{"title":"Why Iowa is seeing a rise in 'deaths of despair'","slug":"why-iowa-is-seeing-a-rise-in-deaths-of-despair","published_at":"2026-07-14T12:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/river-to-river-1060576/why-iowa-is-seeing-a-rise-in-deaths-of-despair","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/river-to-river-1060576","url":"https://www.iowapublicradio.org/podcast/river-to-river/2026-07-14/why-iowa-is-seeing-a-rise-in-deaths-of-despair","audio_url":"https://traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/4c9587f2-e550-4709-b293-ad0300ce922d/5d200c83-8a20-48a7-ab87-ad51012cafbe/ddc55ba6-b2d9-426f-ac59-b486012ab398/audio.mp3","summary":"Nationally, deaths from suicide, drugs and alcohol are declining. But in Iowa, they're rising, and they're often referred to as \"deaths of despair.\" On this episode, we hear from Lauren Williams, an Iowa woman who lost her brother to suicide, and from Kayla Mayer of Cherokee County Public Health, who's working to decrease the local rate of suicide. We also talk with Daniel Wheaton of the Midwest Newsroom and Dr. Alison Lynch of the University of Iowa on why our state is seeing more deaths of despair and what can be done about it.","meta_description":"Nationally, deaths from suicide, drugs and alcohol are declining. But in Iowa, they're rising, and they're often referred to as \"deaths of despair.\" On th…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":2884,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/river-to-river-1060576/episodes/why-iowa-is-seeing-a-rise-in-deaths-of-despair/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/river-to-river-1060576/why-iowa-is-seeing-a-rise-in-deaths-of-despair.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}