The IBJ Podcast with Mason King

We’re all familiar with the way city and state officials have hitched central Indiana’s economic wagon to sports and tourism. Arts and entertainment have received less focus over that time, but the sports/tourism strategy has paid fringe benefits by making Indy a more viable option for A-list stars on tour and helping to elevate the city’s profile. It also has provided many opportunities for local...

Originally aired 8-25-2025. Cindy Schum grew up in a troubled family situation and, as she describes herself today, was terribly shy and awkward. Still, she found ways to put herself in situations that could help her be more outgoing. She was great at working with numbers, and she gravitated to a career in commercial lending that put her in front of business owners who loved to talk about how they...

In the third consecutive episode with updates on major stories from the past year, this week's IBJ Podcast features IBJ’s Mickey Shuey, who covers real estate, hospitality and the business of sports. In the first half of the episode, Shuey reveals what’s been going on behind the scenes in Westfield as cities across North America prepare to host matches this summer for the 2026 Men’s World Cup. Cen...

IBJ Podcast host Mason King first interviewed Jamal Smith late in 2024 about an ambitious initiative to do no less than increase the life expectancy of residents in a set of historic neighborhoods in Marion County. You know the neighborhoods as Crown Hill, Historic Flanner House Homes, Highland Vicinity, Meridian Highland and Ransom Place. They contain in total more than 9,000 residents who, due t...

We’re in the midst of the holidays—always a good time for reflection. And this week that means holding Pete the Planner accountable for bold predictions he made in January about the economy and U.S. fiscal policy in 2025. Pete hit a bunch of these out of the park—especially those related to Trumponomics—and he whiffed on several others. Because he’s a big-hearted guy not afraid of making mistakes,...

2025 will probably go down as the year artificial intelligence became an inevitable aspect of our lives. Anyone wishing to use it as a research tool, business strategist, data filter, personal coach or just a chatty companion has easy access to the technology. Indeed, most of the biggest companies in the world have been implementing AI in one way or another. AI can help automate tasks, interpret d...

Convenience stores are having a cultural moment. It’s more than a moment, actually—but they do like to emphasize speed. And after decades of being the butts of culinary jokes, they now like to emphasize fresh, ready-to-eat food—as well as plenty of gas pumps, product inventories that could rival a small Walmart and sophisticated branding strategies that market them as immersive experiences instead...

If you’re someone who believes the drummer is more than someone at the back of the stage who keeps time, this week’s Percussive Arts Society International Convention, otherwise known as PASIC, is your kind of event. Joshua Simonds, executive director of the Indianapolis-based Percussive Arts Society, says the artistry of drummers is celebrated at the four-day event. While Indianapolis is locked in...

Gov. Mike Braun has called a special session of the Indiana Legislature, set to begin Monday, Nov. 3, that could make Indiana one of states to redraw its congressional maps before next year’s midterm elections. The Trump administration has lobbied Braun and Republican lawmakers since at least August to reapportion the state’s nine districts in hopes of engineering a GOP sweep next year. Indiana’s...

We’ve developed a romantic ideal of entrepreneurism in recent decades closely connected to startup culture and the brave souls who want to create something that can disrupt a product type or even a whole industry. But for a variety of reasons, a growing number of aspiring entrepreneurs of all ages are choosing to become business owners by acquiring a company rather than starting one from scratch....

As the federal government shutdown drags on and thousands of federal workers are going without paychecks, we thought it would be a great time to check in with Peter Dunn about what to do if you’re suddenly laid off or facing a loss of income. Peter writes the Pete the Planner column and hosts the Pete the Planner podcast where he talks about money. He’s also the founder and CEO of Your Money Line,...

Anderson native Benjamin Nagengast comes by his bent for entrepreneurism and artistic design naturally. His mother founded a prominent design and engineering firm in the Anderson area, and his father was involved in several enterprises, including his own ceramic pottery business. When Ben was 10, his mother suggested the family start a pumpkin patch on their 75-acre farm. The lessons learned there...

Gov. Mike Braun’s administration last week released an audit the governor ordered last spring of the Indiana Economic Development Corp. — the state’s job creation agency — and related organizations, including the IEDC’s foundation as well as Elevate Ventures, the Applied Research Institute and other groups. From the beginning, the governor and Commerce Secretary David Adams referred to the review...

Kent Kramer registered an inkling of his calling early in high school when he started working for a supermarket in his native Muncie. He loved helping customers, getting to know them better, examining what they were buying and seeing how they stretched their food dollars. After college he jumped onto the store management track with Sam’s Club, deep in the heart of American consumer culture. This u...

Two months ago, one of America’s most prominent rugby players—both on the professional and international level—announced he was retiring at the age of 30. As a news event, this wasn’t on the level of an NBA All-Star retiring. But if you were a rugby fan or an alumnus of Indiana University, you probably knew the name Bryce Campbell, who had the distinction of being named the nation’s top collegiate...

The gap between women and men attending college in Indiana continues to grow in favor of women. In raw numbers, 72,419 more girls than boys who graduated from Indiana high schools from 2009 to 2023 went on to higher education. Another head-jerking trend: The overall percentage of high school grads in Indiana who enroll in higher education stumbled from 61% in 2018 to 52% just five years later in 2...

Each year, IBJ publishes an A&E Fall Preview guide. And for the past two years, reporter Dave Lindquist has packed that guide full of can’t-miss events for the fall, winter and even into the spring. Dave pours over the schedules of dozens of organizations and event spaces in town to make his picks, which include big-time performances as well as the kinds of events that might otherwise fly under th...

Home ownership is viewed in many circles as a standard rite of passage for young adults. It indicates a certain financial wherewithal and the understanding that buying a home is an early key to building wealth. It’s supposed to be one of your most important investments. It’s the prime ingredient in what we consider the American Dream. And to be frank, if you are in your 30s or 40s and you don’t ow...

Cindy Schum grew up in a troubled family situation and, as she describes herself today, was terribly shy and awkward. Still, she found ways to put herself in situations that could help her be more outgoing. She was great at working with numbers, and she gravitated to a career in commercial lending that put her in front of business owners who loved to talk about how they made things work. She picke...

Karmen Johnson certainly had the trappings of traditional success in her mid-20s: the corporate job in finance, the new house and a wedding in the works. Then she took a hard left turn in the early 2020s and transformed working from home to working and living on the road. She got a taste for what folks call van life—outfitting a truck, bus or van as a mobile home and traveling the country for mont...

You might already be familiar with filling out the FAFSA form, or you might only know it by reputation. That reputation is somewhere between filing your annual income taxes and running an Ironman triathalon. Revisions, technology issues and widespread confusion over the availability of the form over the past two years might make it seem even more sinister. Let’s back up. What is the FAFSA? If you...

In this episode of the IBJ Podcast, USA Today columnist and sports broadcasting veteran Christine Brennan speaks with IBJ's Mickey Shuey about "On Her Game," her bestselling unauthorized biography of Indiana Fever’s star Caitlyn Clark. Brennan explains how a chance encounter at the Olympic swimming trials led to a whirlwind book deal, and why Clark’s impact on attendance, viewership and cultural v...

Natalie van Dongen grew up in a small farming community outside a modest city in central Illinois. She spent most of her youth either in school or in the woods by her home. Approaching high school graduation, she wanted to study theater in college and definitely didn’t want to go to Butler University, where both of her parents graduated. But that’s where she eventually chose to go. Two weeks ago,...

Host Mickey Shuey unpacks the high-stakes arrival of the 2025 WNBA All-Star Weekend in Indianapolis—and explores what it means that the league's biggest star, Caitlin Clark, is sidelined. With thousands descending upon the Circle City. Featuring interviews with WNBA Chief Growth Officer Colie Edison, USA Today columnist Christine Brennan, sports marketer Ken Ungar, and leaders from Visit Indy, Ind...

We’ve hit a head-spinning milestone in the history and development of women’s basketball in Indiana. This week, Indianapolis is hosting the WNBA All-Star Game and all of its related festivities, coming amid an unprecedented surge in popularity for women’s basketball. The top vote-getter for the game is Caitin Clark of the Indiana Fever—a team that now sells out an 18,000-seat arena for nearly ever...