October 30, 2024
The Elusive Rural Indiana Democrat
If it’s hard to imagine getting elected as a Democrat in rural Indiana, you’ll understand why so few people try. This election cycle, though, some are. We look into what they hope to accomplish, and how they're trying to do it.
October 16, 2024
Fitting In Is Easy. Midwest Punk Is Harder.
Raechel Anne Jolie came up in punk scenes around Cleveland in the 90s and early 2000s, and wrote a memoir about that and more, called Rust Belt Femme. She says when you don't fit in to mainstream society, there's plenty of community to be found on the outskirts of it.
October 2, 2024
Your Trash Is Mary's Treasure
Mary Hunter runs Materials for the Arts at the Monroe County Waste Reduction District—the recycling center. She’ll find a place for almost anything you bring her.
September 18, 2024
A Long-Dead Unionist’s Biggest Fan
Allison Duerk didn’t go to college to become the director of a museum devoted to Eugene Debs, one of the U.S.’s most famous socialists, but she’s pretty happy it worked out that way.
September 4, 2024
What's Fun About City Government? Ft. Isak Asare
So many of us are happy not to be involved in local government. Bloomington City Councilmember Isak Asare talks about its satisfactions, and how questions of protocol are also questions of justice.
August 21, 2024
Justin Carney’s Photography Reworks Family Grief
When Justin’s grandmother died, her siblings stopped getting together. Then Justin started taking pictures, and things changed. Justin Carney is an artist who uses photography to think through family grief. It seems to be helping.
August 7, 2024
Amy Oelsner and Girls Rock Bloomington Start Rocking
In the past 12 years, singer-songwriter Amy Oelsner has released 9 albums. We talk about grief, creativity, and why she started Girls Rock Bloomington, a music program for girls, and trans and nonbinary youth.
June 28, 2024
Who and How to Remember
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.
June 21, 2024
Nanette Vonnegut: Self-Portrait at 14
Nanette Vonnegut on painting and getting older, and the late writer Dan Wakefield on Indianapolis, spiritual writing, and his friend, Kurt Vonnegut.
June 14, 2024
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.
June 7, 2024
Southern Rock, Midwestern Soul
Music critic Stephen Deusner on the book he wrote about the Drive-By Truckers, the South, and more. Plus, a review of a locally-born band that made President Obama’s best-of list.
May 31, 2024
Doubting Her Paralysis
When Marabai Rose was 38, a mysterious paralysis came over her. The challenges of getting diagnosed – and treated – in this episode, based on her book, Holding Hope.
May 24, 2024
Voices from the Encampment
What gets you out in support of a cause? Alex talked with some of the people at the Pro-Palestine encampment on the IU Bloomington campus, a week after it started.
May 10, 2024
If My Hands Could Look Like Hers
First, a conversation with artist Honey Hodges about immigrating to the U.S., and the opportunity to care for someone who has always taken care of you, and making collages. Then, naturalist Jim Eagleman reminds us why we should go outside in the winter, and at night.
May 3, 2024
Indiana's Oil and Gas Boom Still Echoes Today
Scholar and writer Ava Tomasula y Garcia tells the story of the Calumet Region, how the gas boom started with a bang, brought major industry and new racial dynamics, and why “the Rust Belt” is a bit of a misnomer.
April 19, 2024
Orli Shaham On Where Music Is and Where It’s Going
Is classical music in trouble? Pianist Orli Shaham believes most people, “given half a chance,” will seek out deeper art forms at some point in their lives. This week, Orli Shaham on helping people find their way to classical music, and more.
April 12, 2024
Mixtape: Stories of Love, Music, and More
It’s a mixtape! Five songs (okay, stories), by five different producers. Three are about being behind the scenes. One’s about your dad retiring. And an investigation into love.
