October 28, 2022
Replay: Two Rivers, One Watershed
Indiana doesn’t touch the Mississippi River, but it’s still bound up with it. This week, we talk with Monique Verdin, Liz Brownlee, and others, about those connections. Plus, a review of Ian Woollen’s Sister City.
October 21, 2022
Ross Gay on Inciting Joy
Ross Gay’s new book of essays, Inciting Joy, comes out this week. On this episode, we talk about his new book, about masculinity and grief, teaching and survival, and how joy and sorrow are completely, inevitably, intertwined.
October 14, 2022
Who to Remember and How (Updated)
A walk among memorials and public art pieces in the fall of 2021. We talk with creators, participants, and passers-by about the meaning of public art, about Native presence in a state named for Indians, about immigration, Christopher Columbus, Columbus, Indiana, who we choose to remember, and how.
October 7, 2022
Felt Thoughts, TaB, and more
Fiber artist Fafnir Adamites about textiles, repetitive processes, and making space for intergenerational trauma. The closing of a TaB. And producer Anna Grimes’ grandmother’s memory.
September 23, 2022
Replay: Loving Movies Beyond All Reason
The work of women in film has been overlooked since the beginning of movies. Alicia Kozma, incoming director of the IU Cinema, is working to change that.
September 16, 2022
Comics and the Moral Arc of the Universe
Even after doing the March Trilogy with Congressman John Lewis, artist Nate Powell thought social progress was inevitable. Then came the 2016 election. His new book of graphic essays reckons with what that meant as a parent and citizen.
September 9, 2022
Replay: Henry and Alice
Henry Gray has been alive for a century. This week, he reflects on the 70 years he had with his wife, Alice, on growing up in Indiana, and on getting old. And Kaity Radde visits the Bloomington Catholic Worker.
September 2, 2022
Special Effects, Black Cinema, and a Touch of Nostalgia
Film scholar Julie Turnock explains how a style developed by 1970s auteurs has shaped special effects in today’s blockbusters. And Maya Cade, creator of the Black Film Archive, on how The Wiz helped get her through the pandemic.
August 26, 2022
Replay: Southern Rock, Midwestern Soul
Music critic Stephen Deusner talks about the book he wrote about the Drive-By Truckers, the South, the masculinity of Jimmy Carter, and more. Plus, a review of a local band that made President Obama’s best-of list.
August 12, 2022
Replay: Joyce Jeffries and the Cutters
Limestone work used to be quite dangerous. Joyce Jeffries remembers workers, including her grandfather, dying or getting injured. It’s gotten safer though. This week, Joyce, and others, on limestone.
August 5, 2022
The Prison They Didn't Build
There's a meadow in eastern Kentucky where people sometimes hunt mushrooms, get married, attend a music festival. Something that's not happening? There's no prison getting built. This week, Judah Schept tells us why that prison was a close call.
July 22, 2022
How to Survive the Future Episodes 1 & 2
This week, the first two episodes of How to Survive the Future, a podcast about today, from the perspective of tomorrow. But first, a frog in a bedroom leads to a bit of climate panic.
July 15, 2022
Queer Embroidery + Drive-Ins
This week on Inner States, we talk with artist Ileana Haberman about embroidery, queerness, and mental health. Plus, IU Cinema Director Alicia Kozma on drive-in movie theaters.
July 8, 2022
Being Beholden
Poet Ross Gay on witnessing, gratitude, reading very long poems out loud, and a particular layup from the 1980 NBA finals.
July 1, 2022
Becoming a Participant in the Landscape
Sam’s day job involves removing invasive plants and restoring native ones. Fire is one of the ways he does that. He’s a lifelong hunter, too - that’s what got him into landscape restoration. This week, a walk in the woods with Sam Shoaf.
June 24, 2022
Replay: Dreams of Regional Theatre
When Diane Kondrat was an aspiring actor, she didn't dream of a life in regional theater. But between working with prisoners, starting a theater company, and the teachers and collaborators she's met, it worked out pretty well.
