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Radiolab founder Jad Abumrad has been interviewing interviewers lately: journalists, therapists, conflict mediators, salespeople. We talk about what it takes to have a meaningful conversation. Read More »
On this week’s Inner States, producer Violet Baron takes us to rural southern Indiana, where Danny Cain still makes fishing nets by hand. Then we listen to a 2016 interview with Peter LoPilato, who founded the Ryder Magazine and Film Series. He passed away on March 7.
This week, Inner States presents Episode 3 of Fire!: An American Burning. Inferno at Whiting is about the 1955 Whiting Refinery fire in Whiting, Indiana. It’s also about how oil – and fire - are at the heart of the modern world.
Comedian Mohanad Elshieky explains the difference between comedy and therapy, and novelist Tess Gunty tells us why she set her National Book Award winning novel in Indiana.
A walk in the woods with botanist Ellen Jacquart about 25 years in the future. And a conversation with the director of the new documentary, Major Taylor: Champion of the Race.
This week, a profile of the alien who roams downtown Bloomington, a werewolf, two witches, and the childhood that led to an article about the secret government facility under Bloomington's water treatment plant. Plus, a discussion about how shapeshifters help us think about gender.
When Iryna Voloshyna started a Slavic choir at IU in 2021, she didn’t realize it would be a local expression of a political situation halfway around the world. But then, in February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine, and suddenly the choir was in high demand.
It’s easy to want to fight our political enemies, but it’s often more effective to out-organize them. On this week’s Inner States, we look back to a time – not so long ago – when Midwesterners did just that. Historian Cory Haala tells us about Progressive Populists in the 1980s and 1990s.
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.
Diana Hong practiced for 13 years to become a professional golfer. But at the last minute, she became a stand-up comedian instead. This week, stories about people who almost achieve their dreams, and then hook left.
This week on Inner States, a postcard from Paoli, Indiana, where a tomato products warehouse has been transformed into a community space and enhanced the already existing magical realism of the town.
Jack Lindner reminds us why we should watch old movies on film. Then IU Cinema Director Alicia Kozma talks about how to approach movies that have, shall we say, "outdated" attitudes about social issues.
In January 2021, Freda Love Smith started quitting things. She temporarily gave up alcohol, then sugar, followed by cannabis, caffeine, and social media. Then she wrote a book about it. WFIU’s David Brent Johnson spoke with her about the book, I Quit Everything.
Christmas has so many traditions. One of those, it turns out, is worrying about how commercial it’s gotten. That goes back at least as far as Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. We continue it with five attempts to do things differently.
Leah Johnson writes romance novels. But not that kind. They’re award-winning YA books for queer Black kids and others. We talk about drag shows, making a living as a writer, and more. Then producer Avi Forrest takes a drive with comedian Katie Bowman.
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.
Parapraxis is a new magazine that examines the psychic mechanisms of our social lives. This week, a conversation with its founding editor, Hannah Zeavin, about the magazine, gender panics, fears of discussing whiteness in a psychoanalytic context, and more.
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.
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.
Jack was studying vocal performance when he met Seigen at the local Zen center. They became good friends. They took walks, stopping to look at every tree. Then Seigen asked Jack to drive him to an execution.
Philosopher Susan Neiman on why the left should be wary of wokeness, how Germany’s reckoning with its past has become more complicated, and why the differences between two European philosophers - Immanuel Kant and Michel Foucault – matter for politics today.
Two stories about people using art to remember the past and, ideally, change something in the present.
A report from the Bloomington Poetry Slam, and a visit to the teen space at the local public library, where the teens are accomplished, splendid, and wise.
Welcome to Night Vale co-creator Jeffrey Cranor on making of one of the most popular fiction podcasts ever. A group of high schoolers panic in France. And the guilty pleasure of a dating podcast for the rich and famous. Or rich, at least.
Hector wants to run the best wastewater treatment plant in the country. He seems to be inspiring the people he works with in that direction, too. Then, whether we should feel guilty about guilty pleasures.
We think of the foster care system as being about care. Micol Seigel says within the system people do care for each other. But it’s primarily about policing.