Erin and Matt found out about the protest by accident. They were driving home and saw a parking lot full of police officers. There were SWAT vehicles. Erin saw police officers smacking their hands with their batons.

She opened her phone to find out what it was all about. What she learned was that an encampment was going up on the Indiana University campus in support of Palestinians.

Erin and Matt believed in the cause. Enough that they felt like they should go support it. But it’s one thing to decide you should do something. It’s another to actually get yourself over to the field where it’s happening.

And they had reason to be concerned. The day before the encampment went up in Dunn Meadow, which has been a free speech zone on campus for over 50 years, the university banned structures there. The police arrested protesters the Thursday the encampment went up, and again on Saturday. Some of those protesters—including students—were banned from campus.

This week, we talk with a few of the people who were at the encampment a week after it started, to understand what brought them there in the first place, and why they stayed.

Credits

Inner States is produced and edited by me, Alex Chambers. Our social media master is Jillian Blackburn. We get support from Eoban Binder, Mark Chilla, LuAnn Johnson, Sam Schemenauer, Payton Whaley, and Kayte Young. Our Executive Producer is Eric Bolstridge.

Our theme song is by Amy Oelsner and Justin Vollmar. We have additional music from the artists at Universal Production Music.