Arizona Illustrated 1039 - Handball, Adia Barnes & Feral Cats

This week on Arizona Illustrated… a trip to the United States Handball Association Hall of Fame in Tucson; University of Arizona Women’s Basketball Coach Adia Barnes on balancing work and motherhood; Clara Lee and her cats and what difference monsoon rain can make to local butterfly populations.


Coach Adia Barnes on Motherhood

University of Arizona Women’s Basketball Head Coach Adia Barnes talks about balancing job and family; and how an off-camera moment during the 2021 NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship game became a viral sensation for normalizing motherhood.

Clara Lee’s Cats

Clara Lee Arnold feels connected to cats in a deep way. She has trapped, spayed, neutered, and released thousands of cats; fosters and permanently houses dozens of cats at her home; is part of the Tucson cat hiking community; and has trained Professor X, a cat she found in a dumpster, to be a world-class therapy cat. Join Clara Lee out in the streets and on the hiking trails of Tucson as she attempts to make the city a better place, one cat at a time.

Butterfly Explosion
Tucson went from one of its driest monsoons on record in 2020 to one of the wettest in 2021. The surrounding deserts sprang to life with all the rain, resulting in one of the most noticeable increases in butterflies in recent memory. Entomologist John Palting and Katy Prudic take us to Tanque Verde Falls to see massive amounts of American Snout and other species of butterflies dominating the landscape and tell us what this one year might mean for the future.