This new podcast breaks down a crash, a trial and the state leader at the center of it all

Megan Raposa -

Simplified: A new nine-part podcast series from South Dakota Public Broadcasting catalogues a fatal crash, an impeachment trial and the detailed investigation that ultimately ousted the state's top law enforcement official. Here's what you need to know about "Short Walk."

Why it matters

  • In September 2020, then-Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg struck and killed 55-year-old Joe Boever while driving late at night. Boever's body wasn't discovered until the next morning – sparking lots of questions, a thorough investigation and, ultimately, an impeachment.
  • SDPB's Politics and Public Policy Reporter Lee Strubinger spent the last two years not only reporting on Ravnsborg's impeachment trial – and ongoing Supreme Court battle – but also collecting audio and conducting research for "Short Walk," his new podcast series that launched this week.
  • Strubinger said he hopes the podcast gives listeners a peek behind the curtain of how the whole incident went down, as well as a better understanding of who Joe Boever was as a person before his untimely death.
"When this was all happening, the state was going through the COVID-19 pandemic," Strubinger said. "It was just a very busy time in the news, and so I think this particular story became part of the noise of everything else that was going on at the time."

Tell me more

All nine episodes of "Short Walk" are now available to listen to on the SDPB website, but also in traditional podcast players like Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

  • Each episode is between 20 and 30 minutes long, and it starts by cataloguing the Sunday afternoon press conference in which the fatal crash was initially announced.
  • Listeners can follow along and learn the full story, as well as an entire episode devoted to understanding who Boever was before the fatal crash.
"I was pretty unsatisfied with typing his name over and over again and just really not knowing who he was," Strubinger said. "He was somebody who thought very deeply about his own existence on this planet and was known as a bookworm. He read a lot of philosophy."