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Kathie Chandler was working as a massage therapist when one afternoon, she said, a voice interrupted one of her sessions. The massage room was quiet except for the soft hum of a fan.

“Tell her where the money is. Tell her it’s in the coffee cans in the garage,” Chandler recalled hearing.

She hesitated before repeating the message to the woman on the table. The client froze. The voice, she said, sounded like her husband, who had died.

The next day the woman called back with an update. She had discovered $30,000 hidden in coffee cans in her garage.

By day, Daniel Shelden pours hours into grading speeches and lecturing as a Communications, Media, and Persuasion professor at Idaho State University.

By night, however, Shelden operates under a different mask. He might be a small-town Christmas tree farm girl for the Hallmark show as suggested by audience member #3 or be forced to finish the scene with a new accent each time he speaks.

The Eastern Idaho State Fair wrapped up in early September, ending a successful string of ticket-selling weekends with a sold-out Demolition Derby. Fair-goers come back year after year for events like the horse races, swing dancing competitions, pie-eating contests, countless concerts throughout the month, and the carnival rides. But one thing marks the experience of the Eastern Idaho State Fair like none other: the food. 

Daniel Prior’s mind flashes through the past week of procedures, medical interventions, and surgery prep, hands flexing out of muscle memory to reach for a scalpel. He’s perched on a stable stepstool, arms reaching up, up, up, until his fingers slot into a calloused crevice.

For those who hail from Texas, California, or even Boise, Pocatello might come off as a “podunk college town,” leaving you bored and moping in your room.