Wanna Know Idaho

Update -- This voting round has closed. The winning question: "What about the prices we pay at the pump: Why does it seem like the price of gas is higher in the Gem State than in surrounding states?" Be sure to subscribe to the podcast here!

August in Idaho means the last month of summer vacation, county fairs, camping and … oh yeah, wildfires. Here's just a few of the wildfire stories Boise State Public Radio covered this month.

OK, so you know that typically, the decisions about what stories you hear on your podcast feed or on the radio are made by...someone else. Typically: reporters, editors and hosts.

In 2017, Boise's Greenbelt sustained massive damage as a result of a wet winter and subsequent flooding. So as spring settles in this time around, it's no wonder folks are recalling the events of last year.

Idaho: a lot of us live here, but how many of us know the origin of the word itself?

Treefort Music Fest is taking over downtown Boise. More than 400 bands are scheduled to play over the five day festival. For this installment of Wanna Know Idaho, we take a look at how the selection process works.

The Snake River Canyon is an iconic landscape -- especially for people who live in central Idaho. And one of our listeners from Twin Falls was curious to know more about how it was formed.

Monday, February 12 would have been President Abraham Lincoln’s 209th birthday, which is a big deal for people like Dave Leroy. Leroy is Idaho’s unofficial Lincoln scholar, and has amassed quite a collection of artifacts connected to our 16th President over several decades.

The holiday season is replete with parties, get togethers and acts of generosity, but navigating it all can be difficult. For this seasonal installment of Wanna Know Idaho, we asked listeners about holiday etiquette.

Artist Pat Kilby is an oil painter.

Marilyn Frazier pours freshly steeped tea at her kitchen table. Amid the cookies and bright tangerines she’s laid out, the retiree has a notebook full of concerns about a new military plane that could soon be based in Boise.“So how much it cost, how destructive they are, how polluting they are, noise levels," Marilyn Frazier says. "It just didn’t seem like the right airplane to have in a city.”

With four more months to go until the end of the year, the number of firearms found by TSA officials at the Boise Airport this year has already eclipsed the number found in all of 2016.

In the latest installment of Wanna Know Idaho, we asked what you've been wondering about the August 21 solar eclipse in Idaho. We got a lot of great questions, and because this is a once-in-a-lifetime event, Samantha Wright decided to answer all 17 of them.

We’ve been asking you for questions and you’ve been sending them our way. In the latest installment of our news experiment, we meet Jordan Harris. He works for one of the big hospitals in Boise managing a team of couriers. The roads are a major facet of his job, so it’s no surprise Jordan’s question has to do the freeways.

Summer means barbecues, baseball and of course, bathing suits. When temperatures push a hundred degrees, there’s no better way to cool off than by jumping in a pool or pond. But this season, some of the ponds around Boise have dealt with outbreaks of E.coli. As part of our news experiment where we answer questions submitted by you, we went with a summer theme and explored this question from listener Alexi Balmuth: Who monitors harmful bacteria in public swimming areas and how is it done?

The Boise Depot is one of those places Boiseans take visitors to show off their town. The early 20th Century Spanish architecture stands out and is a great backdrop for weddings and parties.