Big Talk – WFHB

She asked her husband, a neurosurgeon, what he might want to do as an alternative to the pandemic-stressed medical field. Samantha Eads at the time was a nurse practitioner working toward her doctorate in Integrative Health. Her husband said he dreamed of owning a bookstore. Two weeks later Rick Morgenstern put out the call for …

It’s an oddity in a college town: a bar/music venue that shies away from an undergrad clientele. In 2009, Steve Westrich was emerging from a traumatic romantic breakup and decided to try his hand at a new, risky business. Also unhappy with his career to that point, he wanted to open the kind of bar …

She begins her second year leading one of the nation’s premier repositories of film and video. Alicia Kozma has studied, researched, written, and taught about films and other media since she was a teenager. She has focused on labor in media — who works in movies and TV and what their working conditions are — …

They didn’t become farmers until they were in their fifties. Now, Juan Carlos Arango and Robert Frew are all in. Their Sobremesa Farm just outside New Unionville, northeast of Bloomington, provides them and their customers with nutritious food grown using sustainable permaculture practices and it is a destination for vacationers, campers, and visitors from around …

His advice to aspiring filmmakers: “Choose subjects that you can’t stop thinking about and that you’re really passionate about.” Mitch Teplitsky arrived in South Central Indiana five years ago and when he discovered the town of Spencer and Owen County, he couldn’t stop thinking about them. Now he’s working on a documentary about the area. …

Now more than a half century old, the Bloomington Symphony Orchestra continues to provide South Central Indiana with professional-quality symphonic music. When conductor Alejandro Gómez Guillén came aboard, he pledged to diversify the orchestra and broaden its playlist and has done so. The BSO concludes its 52nd season with two performances of Gustav Holst’s “The …

She went from shoeing horses to playing a key role in preserving and administering Indiana’s art history. Rachel Perry’s new book, Painter of the Dunes: A Life of Frank Virgil Dudley, was published by the Indiana Historical Society Press late last year. Dudley’s oils depicting the state’s spectacular sand dunes off the southeast shore of …

Indiana University boasts some 10,000 graduate students, fully one quarter of whom are paid employees helping to teach undergrads among other tasks. More than 1700 of the paid grad students have signed union cards in the last six months. The Indiana Grad Workers Coalition is affiliated with the United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of …

Civil rights attorney, law professor, and now an author, Dan Canon has delved deeply into America’s assembly line justice system in his new book, “Pleading Out.” He’s found that rather than truth or justice, the system values speed and ease. He suggests that legislators create many useless laws that criminalize huge swaths of the population, …

The graffitist formerly known as Tom Cat Spray has erased the line between art and day-to-day life. Part 1 of our conversation with Ebbinghouse aired Thursday, March 24, 2022. Part 2 aired Thursday, March 31, 2022 Hosts Michael Glab and Alex Ashkin chat with Bloomington’s most fascinating people.

For years, few if any people knew who Tom Cat Spray was. The individual worked overnights, spraying colorful, provocative graffiti around downtown Bloomington. Tom Cat Spray eventually was revealed to be artist David Ebbinghouse. His street and wall work were only a small part of his vivid, lively portfolio of creative pursuits that included jewelry …

WFHB News Director Kade Young joins host Michael Glab to discuss recent Bloomington news stories. WFHB citizen journalists have covered a series of demonstrations at Indiana University protesting the invasion of the Ukraine, the city’s pilot Leaf Program, the IU decision to end its student mask requirement, the decrease in COVID cases in Monroe County, …

Three of Bloomington’s most respected arts organizations — the Cardinal Stage Company, the Bloomington Playwrights Project, and the Pigasus Institute — have agreed to a merger, creating one of the largest arts entities in the state. The new mega-organization — its name will be announced at an April 23rd fundraiser — will continue to stage …

He touched countless students’ lives and hearts while teaching at Bloomington High School North. Steve Philbeck realized he had a calling back when he was a kid and he was assigned to help a less fortunate classmate. He studied urban planning in college but found the lure of teaching irresistible. Philbeck also hosts a Thursday …

In the last decade, he turned the long-time WFHB interview program, Interchange, into something more in line with his personal vision. Doug Storm stepped forward from a group of five Interchange hosts back in 2013 and has been a mainstay on Firehouse Broadcasting ever since. Doug has decided the time is right to step away …

She’s spent her entire adult life teaching kids and encouraging them to read books. Kathy Loser began her working life as a school teacher and then moved into library science. For more than 30 years, she oversaw the library at Bloomington High School North. For the last few years, she’s served on the Monroe County …

He arrived in New York City earlier this century, not knowing how to speak English and hoping to study business at an American university. Love brought him to Bloomington, where his new wife was to work on her graduate degree. Wally Ouedraogo, born and raised in Burkina Faso’s capital, Ouagadougou, now is a fixture here …

A year ago she was a senior in high school. Today she sits at the head of the Republican Party in Monroe County. Taylor Bryant in December was named to replace outgoing longtime chair William Ellis. She became the youngest person to hold such a county position in Indiana state history. Active in politics since …

He came aboard as WFHB News Director in 2019 just as the city was following a wrenching, polarizing news story that had 1st Amendment implications and put people of color on edge. Kade Young has covered the city along with his assistant, Noelle Herhusky-Schneider, and their crew of independent citizen journalists ever since even as …

Her parents were accomplished, noted artists so she and her sisters were raised in art museums, galleries, and studios. Jaime Sweany has run several commercial galleries in Brown County, Bloomington, and now Owen County. The proprietor of Juniper Art Gallery on the courthouse square in Spencer, Indiana, Sweany has weathered both an historic economic recession …

When she came up with the idea to celebrate Krampus in Bloomington, Kel McBride promised herself she’d only wrangle ten of the annual Christmas season events. Last year’s would have been the tenth but COVID-19 got in the way, so this year’s is the final Krampus bash in Bloomington. The festivities begin at 5:00pm Saturday, …

His love of drawing and Japanese animation figures evolved into both a lifelong pastime and an adult vocation. Reilly Donaldson now spends his days helping to curate and care for the tens of thousands of articles of art owned by Indiana University. When not on the job, he turns his attention to creating live-action fantasy …

Five people from Bloomington who love movies, videos, and all forms of recorded visual art got together more than five years ago to found Cicada Cinema, a pop-up movie theater. Setting up ad hoc shop wherever they could, the five brought cult films, art films, and many other cinematic treasures to town. Nile Arena was …

A friend told Jessica Marchbank about All Options soon after she arrived in Bloomington. The pregnancy resource center was looking to hire someone to help with office operations. Marchbank leapt at the opening, was hired, and within a short time became manager of the facility on South Walnut Street. Now, Marchbank and her staff help …

He listened to the Drive-By Truckers on his headphones as he walked, daily, to the local coffeehouse in Birmingham, England. The band’s songs and lyrics made him think of his own hometown in the American South. So Stephen Deusner decided to write a book about the alternative Southern rock band. The book, Where the Devil Don’t …