Give Now »
When a presidential campaign leans into the idea that certain people – say, Haitians – don’t belong in the Midwest, it begs the question of who gets to claim the Heartland as their own. The global roots of the Heartland, on the latest Inner States. Read More »
As the final chapter of our missing cat saga opens, it’s getting to be winter, and Kayte still hasn’t found Rita. The odds of Rita surviving are getting slim.
Kayte’s cat Rita had been missing for months when Kayte started to hear about sightings in a nearby neighborhood. She went over there with a pillowcase. It didn’t go well. The election results that November didn’t help.
When Kayte’s cat Rita escaped at the Kroger, it wasn’t the first time she’d left. In Chapter 2 of The Third Time Rita Left, we hear how she came to Kayte’s house, and left, and then snuck back in, almost in disguise.
It's the day after a momentous election. We want to hear from you.
For months after Rita escaped, Kayte didn’t lose hope. There were other problems in the world, but things were looking up. The U.S. was about to elect its first female president. But as she kept looking for Rita, all of that would change.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Nanette Vonnegut on painting and getting older, and the late writer Dan Wakefield on Indianapolis, spiritual writing, and his friend, Kurt Vonnegut.
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.
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.
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.
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.
We talk with Ross Gay about his new book (more delights!), how writing a sentence helps us see how we change, and protecting the sanctity of one’s interiority.
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.
Intellectual freedom, the future of narrative, and what libraries are for in the 21st century, with Monroe County Public Library director Grier Carson
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.
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.
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.
Critic Eric Deggans says TV offers him a wide canvas for engaging with culture, and comedian Sara Schaefer decides Twitter isn’t the best place to address sexism in comedy. So she makes video sketches instead.