Iowa Life Producer Interview: Cameron McCoy

Cameron McCoy, senior producer for our new human interest series Iowa Life, sat down recently to share the voices behind the new show and how it showcases the rich tapestry of Iowa. Watch or read his interview below. 

Cameron McCoy: The North Star that I always have with with any project that we work on at Iowa PBS is when somebody watches it, I want the viewer to come away with the, huh, I had no idea and I want them to feel proud of the state. I want them to feel that we're not just a flyover state. We're not just like a Midwest state, that there are some really genuinely interesting things, interesting people in Iowa.

So, my name is Cameron McCoy. I'm the senior producer on Iowa Life, which is a new magazine-style human interest-style program that highlights just the stories of unique and interesting Iowans across the state. Some of these people include the founder of Trekfest. This man, who in the '80s decided he wanted to create a town festival around the birthplace of Captain Kirk from Star Trek. So we kind of dive into the history of that and explore why he started this.

So one of the the coolest features I got to do was essentially spend a full semester with some students at Iowa State University in the fashion department who put on one of the largest fashion shows, student-run fashion shows, in the country. This subverted my expectation - when you think of Iowa do you think of high-end, commercial fashion? Right? Like that's something that just doesn't maybe always equate.

But to learn that at Iowa State University, there's this largest student-run fashion show that brings in world-renowned designers for their fashion show that are like going right along these students who also designed garments and showcase them to something I just had no idea and it completely subverted my kind of maybe biases of this state.

It's not just me making this TV show. There's a team working on this that includes a brand-new producer, Emily Kestel, and two seasoned producers, Theresa Knight and Patrick Boberg. And what I really appreciate about Iowa Life is that each of us bring our own unique voice to the diversity of these stories.

Where one might be like, this Girls Rock Des Moines, where Emily followed summer camp where kids get to play rock and roll music in a summer camp and she brought her own unique voice to that story. Patrick Boeberg followed this man who is affectionately known as Mr. Peacock and it's just this great story of this man who raises peacocks in Western Iowa, and Pat brought his own unique voice to that. And same thing with Teresa just diving into the menorah lighting at Maccabees Deli for like a holiday special that we're going to do.

So each of these producers are bringing in I think a really unique voice to this series that I hope will help contribute to the depth of the storytelling that Iowa PBS will have.