Big Talk – WFHB

He wrote–plays, essays, fiction, even haiku–for years and years until one day he decided he’d never win the National Book Award and gave up writing. Then, with the pandemic on everybody’s mind, an editor read his decades-old novella about a global illness and offered to publish it as a book. Jim Poyser threw in ten …

Writing books, says Nancy Hiller, is a natural outgrowth of her primary vocation, working with wood. She’s been making cabinets, furniture, and even museum displays for the last 40 years and since 2009 has written a half dozen books on the pleasures and beauties of wood. Toiling in her workshop gives her plenty of time …

He came to Bloomington a little more than ten years ago and quickly found a position at the Shalom Community Center. Within a year and a half, Forrest Gilmore was the executive director of the city’s resource for homeless people. Shalom provides hot meals, showers, lockers, overnight facilities, and other help for people facing life …

They’ve established reputations as top notch local music-makers on their own but singer Ginger Curry and guitarist Jason Fickel also have done plenty of work as a duo. Ginger’s early vocal influences were gospel and choir while Jason cut his teeth on the blues. The combination of the their backgrounds and talents helped the two …

As the hot summer drags on and protests continue in cities throughout the nation, tempers are flaring and the risk of violence becomes greater. Even in Bloomington, protests have been marred by isolated violent acts and a few volunteer security people carrying semi-automatic weapons have been seen attending several street demonstrations. A group has been …

In the second part of our conversation with the singer/songwriter, Krista Detor talks about her and husband David Weber’s plan to stage live theater in rural Monroe County with the help of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts as well as several Bloomington area theater and arts groups. She also explains why she …

They love her in Bloomington. They love her in Europe. With luck and perseverance she might have become a huge star in America. But the path to megastardom was not one Krista Detor cared to take. An oddball southern California girl — overweight, pale, and ginger — she conquered her fears and doubts to become …

Following reports that Vauhxx Booker was allegedly attacked by white men at Lake Monroe on July 4th, he has become the latest symbol of the fragile state of race relations in America. The incident has garnered international attention but, as Booker himself has stated, “I didn’t want to become another hashtag.” Booker appeared on Big …

After working for The Equity Project at Indiana University for fifteen years, educator and poet Shana Ritter decided to try her hand at writing a novel. She envisioned a mother and her daughters facing expulsion from their homeland because they belonged to a banned religion. A Jew herself, Ritter traveled to Spain to learn about …

He started the magazine and the film series — both under the name The Ryder — 40 years ago. Peter LoPilato wasn’t sure if there’d be a second issue of the magazine or a second date for the film series, but both have become Bloomington mainstays through the decades. The COVID-19 lockdown has forced LoPilato …

This week’s Big Talk is a two-parter. First we chat with high-tech entrepreneur Mike Trotzke, co-founder of Cheddar, The Sprout Box, and The Combine. Then we welcome Anthony Duncan and Mohammed A. Mahdi, two of the three co-founders of Soapy Soap Company, a premium, natural body soap manufacturer. All three guests represent the type of …

Her family has been selling books and magazines since the days of the Great Depression. Margaret Taylor now runs the remaining business of a regional retail and distribution empire started by her parents, Barbara and Jim Spannuth. The Book Corner has stood at the northwest corner of Kirkwood and Walnut since 1964 and continues to …

He’s a fixture at Bloomington’s 4th Street Festival of the Arts, organizing and hosting the Spoken Word Stage. He has published several books of his poetry, has done rink side announcing for the Bleeding Heartland Roller Derby, has co-produced a zombie/roller derby film, chairs the Writers Guild at Bloomington, and has played a key role …

Are we witnessing the death of the daily newspaper? Most informed observers seem to think so. The man who has brought daily newspapers from all over the state and the nation into Bloomington for the last five decades is calling it quits at the end of this month. Jack Dopp started out as a nine-year-old …

Like hundreds of thousands of young people across the nation, Charlotte Wager-Miller graduated from college this month and now faces an uncertain future. Will there be jobs for the new graduates? When will the lockdowns end? How long will the viral danger persist? Today’s college graduates are tackling a real world unfamiliar to the graduates …

The moment he heard that Caveat Emptor founder Janis Starcs wanted to shut the venerable used, rare, and collectible bookseller down, Eric Brown dashed over to the store and started negotiating a sale price. Now, four years later, Brown and his wife, co-owner Katy, are struggling to stay afloat with the city under the COVID-19 …

While reading Barack Obama’s Dreams from My Father and Audacity of Hope a dozen years ago, Craig Fehrman started wondering about the history of presidents’ books. He learned that few had done serious studies of the literary sides of our chief executives. So, he embarked on a decade-long exploration of the topic. His new book …

Due to the COVID-19 crisis, WFHB General Manager Jar Turner has declared the WFHB studios off-limits to show hosts and producers until conditions are determined to be safe. We’ll be airing encore presentations of Big Talk in the meantime. Today we present Part 1 of our January, 2020 interview with university chancellor, education consultant, and …

The finale of our two-part interview with brothers, fun-lovers, and Bloomington music makers, the Rogers boys. Siblings Addison and Lewis, have been making music together since, as small boys, they fiddled around with guitar and drums in their bedrooms. They now have three CD compilations and plan to release a fourth within weeks. Go here …

They’ve been making music and mirth together since they were little kids. And for just as long a time, they’ve dreamed of the stage and stardom. The Rogers brothers started busking on Bloomington’s streets early in this century and then became staples at the Farmers Market. Now they’re making recordings with professional production values and, …

Doug Wissing delved into the secrets of the Central Intelligence Agency to learn about the nearly-anonymous man who essentially ran the spy organization for 12 years, from 1969 through 1981. Ben Evans of Crawfordsville, Indiana, was privy to, as well as intimately involved in, many of the most important episodes in American history during that …

She has listened to and recorded people’s recollections of encounters with UFOs and abduction incidents for more than two decades. Susan Lepselter has written a book entitled The Resonance of Unseen Things: Poetics, Power, Captivity, and UFOs in the American Uncanny (University of Michigan Press, 2016) that gathers the stories together and tries to make sense …

From kids who have a hard time staying in school to people grappling with substance abuse to veterans bedeviled by PTSD, there exists a common soother. It’s no sure cure but it just may help some folks get a step or two closer to well-being. It is the horse. Bloomington’s PALS — People & Animal …

Most of us are aware that the 2016 presidential election process was tainted by the proliferation of social media pranksters, vandals, and outright liars. Foreign countries and domestic political entities gamed social media like Facebook and Twitter to create misinformation campaigns. With the 2020 primary season about to begin next week, are we any safer …

Coming from a long line of volunteers and extraordinarily good neighbors, it was only natural that Lucy Shaich would make volunteerism her life’s work. She’s been in charge of the City of Bloomington volunteer coordination program since the year 2000. The city’s Volunteer Network, an arm of the Department of Community and Family Resources, was …