Brain Drain

In the season finale, we talk to the minds behind Midstory — the ones who bubbled back up the brain drain and have dedicated nearly a decade of their life to this city. Throughout this podcast, we’ve talked about many of the tangible reasons people have left or stayed — opportunity, career, money, social life, culture, family ... the list goes on. But this episode will explore some of the more int...

In the last eight years, Midstory has brought over 200 bright, young people from across the nation to Toledo, Ohio, through our internship and fellowship programs. They're from the Harvards and the Princetons, the Northwesterns and the UCLAs. Some of them grew up here, some of them had never step foot in the Midwest (let alone Toledo). They're smart. They're visionary. They’re exactly the kind of...

M*A*S*H’s beloved Corporal Klinger was a proud Toledoan, much like the actor who played him, Jamie Farr. He, along with his audacious wardrobe, would do anything to get back to Toledo. The role and the TV show gave the city a sliver of the national spotlight during the ‘70s and ‘80s, an era when Toledo’s reputation had already begun to slip. We’ve spent most of this season exploring some of the th...

Toledo isn’t short on amenities. It's got a world-class art museum, an award-winning library system, a zoo that could rival any across the nation, and an ambitious parks system looking to revitalize the city's riverfront. That, coupled with the low cost of living, makes it — in theory — the perfect place for any young person to build the life they want to live. But many young people aren’t satisfi...

Jake Vriezelaar loved being a creative in Toledo, but after a stint in LA, realized the scale of his ambitions in the film industry would lead him elsewhere. Now, he lives in New York. Alyssa Brutlag grew up in Toledo, and dreamed of one day being a professional dancer. School led her away and then COVID led her back home, but she ultimately felt the Glass City just didn't have a big enough appeti...

The Toledo region is known for its affordability. The promise of having it all — a family, a house, a job — combined with the possibility of remote work makes moving to Toledo a no-brainer. Right? Trevor and Hannah Lee, a young couple who returned to Ohio for good, are doing just that. Trevor is a boomerang to the area, and Hannah is originally from Sacramento, but both are finding the opportunity...

In 1973, John Denver sang a song about Toledo to an estimated 30 million viewers of the Johnny Carson show. It was not flattering. 🎶 "Saturday night in Toledo, Ohio, is like being nowhere at all ..." What follows describes a place where there is nothing to do except “sit in the park and watch the grass die,” where the sidewalks are rolled in by 10p.m. and where “great entertainment” is watching “...

In 1868, Jesup W. Scott claimed that by the year 2000, “Toledo would be the largest city in the world.” Unfortunately, Scott’s vision of Toledo never came true. At least, not fully. In 2000, Toledo, Ohio, was not the largest city in the world. Today, Toledo is not the largest city in the world. It’s only the 81st-largest city in the United States, and its population has shrunk by more than 100,000...

Welcome to Brain Drain, a brand new Midstory podcast that looks at an average American city through the eyes of the people who’ve left it behind. The decision to move away from home is often difficult and charged with deep and complicated emotions, and people have a wide range of motivations for leaving. But they all stem from the same, central question: When is home no longer enough? The answer t...