the underview.

In this episode, we sit back down with Andy Chasteen , co-founder of Rule of Three and Oz Gravel , to reflect on the state of cycling in Northwest Arkansas. Andy first joined us in season one to share his vision for cycling as a force for belonging in this place. This follow-up conversation explores how that vision has evolved against the backdrop of national division, local debates, and the ongoi...

In this episode, we continue the story of the “All Bikes Welcome” mural, this time from the perspective of the artist, Paige Dirksen , whose vision and brushstrokes brought it into being. What began as a joyful community project with more than 80 participants under the 3rd Street bridge at Coler Mountain Bike Preserve became the center of one of Bentonville’s most divisive civic debates. Paige ref...

In this episode, Dr. Rachel Olzer , Executive Director of All Bikes Welcome , reflects on what the “All Bikers Welcome” mural symbolizes, the weight of the public fight both personally and professionally, and what it reveals about belonging in Northwest Arkansas. This conversation is not only about a mural, but about who gets to belong in public life, and how a city chooses to shape its character...

In this season two final episode, host Mike Rusch takes us back to the gravel road where the story of Northwest Arkansas began, a road overlooking unmarked graves, a place of silence and memory. From that ground, the season has traced centuries of history: Indigenous nations removed from their homelands, enslaved people forced to labor, families rebuilding after the Civil War, immigrants shaping n...

We close this season with the voice of Barbara Carr , great-granddaughter of Aaron Anderson “Rock” Van Winkle , an enslaved boy brought to Northwest Arkansas in the 1830s who became one of the region’s most skilled builders after Emancipation. His hands helped construct homes, courthouses, churches, and Old Main at the University of Arkansas, yet his name was nearly erased from public memory. Barb...

Aaron Anderson Rock Van Winkle was born into slavery and is believed to have been one of the first enslaved persons to be brought to Northwest Arkansas.  After emancipation, he became a landowner, father, and community member in Bentonville, Arkansas. But even today, his story remains largely absent from public memory. In this episode, we sit down with local historian Jerry Moore to explore Rock’s...

From Enlightenment ideals to the myth of the American frontier, the founding ideologies of the United States have long shaped how we define humanity, progress, and belonging. In this episode, Dr. Todd Stockdale invites us to trace how these ideologies, especially the Western liberal view of the autonomous individual, intersected with Protestant theology and national identity. Drawing on the work o...

Religion in the South is more than tradition; it’s a force that has shaped politics, belonging, and identity across generations. In this episode, we return to Dr. Jared M. Phillips to ask for a historical view to try and understand where that power comes from, and how it takes root in the South and places like Northwest Arkansas? Throughout the season, we’ve heard guests reference the role of fait...

In this episode, we sit down with Irvin Camacho , a Community Rights Organizer and immigrant advocate based in Northwest Arkansas. Irvin shares how his family's experience—his parents working in the region’s poultry plants—shaped his understanding of labor, language, and belonging. Through his work on language justice, immigrant rights education, and deportation defense, Irvin is at the foref...

In Northwest Arkansas, the poultry industry has long been a cornerstone of the region’s economic growth. Behind the refrigerated cases and production lines are thousands of workers, many of them immigrants, whose stories and experiences are rarely part of the public conversation. In this episode, we sit down with Magaly Licolli , co-founder and Executive Director of Venceremos , a worker-based org...

In this episode, we confront one of the most culturally significant topics in Northwest Arkansas: the role of Walmart, Tyson Foods, and J.B. Hunt in shaping not only the economy, but the entire identity of the region. These companies have brought immense opportunity, visibility, and resources to Northwest Arkansas. But they’ve also concentrated power in unprecedented ways, influencing housing, lab...

For decades, Latino immigrants have come to the United States in search of stability, opportunity, and a better future. But what brought them specifically to Arkansas—and to Northwest Arkansas in particular? In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Steven Rosales, Associate Professor of History and Director of the Latin American and Latino Studies Program at the University of Arkansas , to trace the...

In part two of our conversation with Dr. Jared Phillips , we trace the transformation of the Ozarks from an agrarian culture built on land, memory, and mutuality into a region shaped by corporate industry and consolidated power. We explore how poultry integration, economic policy, and the rise of companies like Tyson and Walmart reshaped Northwest Arkansas, altering not just the economy, but the i...

In this episode, we continue the story of Southeast Fayetteville—this time by examining the systems that helped shape, and often erase, its historic Black community. Architect and former Fayetteville Planning Commissioner Alli Thurmond Quinlan joins us to uncover how zoning policies, preservation rules, and land use codes have operated as tools of exclusion across generations. Building on the firs...

In this episode, we speak with longtime Fayetteville resident Tommie Flowers Davis about the disappearing legacy of Southeast Fayetteville’s Black community —and the movement to establish a Black Historic District before it’s too late. As a native of the neighborhood, a former educator, a developer, and a member of the Fayetteville Historic District Commission , Ms. Davis offers both personal test...

In this episode, Dr. Michael C. Pierce , labor historian and professor at the University of Arkansas , helps us unpack the deep connections between race, labor, and the struggle for civil rights in Northwest Arkansas. Long before the region was known for corporate giants and suburban growth, it was home to radical union organizing, socialist movements, and even biracial political alliances. Dr. Pi...

In this episode, we pause the historical narrative of Northwest Arkansas to check in with one of the region’s most important community leaders. Brad Sikorski is the new President and CEO of the Excellerate Foundation , stepping into the role after the transformative season under the leadership of Jeff Webster. With roots in Walmart , Walton Enterprises , and years on Excellerate’s board, Brad brin...

This episode brings us to Tontitown, Arkansas—a community formed by Italian immigrants who carved out a place of belonging in the Ozarks through stone, song, and story. Our guest, Emily Pianalto-Beshears , Manager of the Tontitown Historical Museum and a descendant of the original settlers , invites us into her family’s deep-rooted history. Through Emily’s eyes, we see how traditions like the Tont...

In the late 1800s, a group of Italian immigrants left the mountain villages of Northern Italy in search of opportunity and land in America. What they found instead was exploitation, malaria, and broken promises on the cotton fields of Sunnyside Plantation in Southeast Arkansas.  In this first of a two-part series, filmmaker and journalist Larry Foley joins us to trace their story—how they came, wh...

In this episode of the underview , we sit down with Dr. Debbie Jones, Superintendent of Bentonville Public Schools , to explore the sweeping changes unfolding across Arkansas and the nation that are reshaping public education. Fresh off the end of the Arkansas legislative session, Dr. Jones helps unpack the implications of the newly signed ACCESS Act, the need for focus on behavioral health legisl...

In this episode of the underview , we sit down with John McLarty —geographer, regional planner, and longtime researcher with the Arkansas Chapter of the Trail of Tears Association . Over the past two decades, John has helped uncover and preserve the routes, burial sites, and stories of the Trail of Tears that run directly through Northwest Arkansas. From his early work mapping the Butterfield Stag...

In this episode of the underview , we travel to the southern edge of Washington County to explore Cane Hill —one of the earliest white settlements in Northwest Arkansas—and speak with Vanessa McKuin , Executive Director of Historic Cane Hill . Vanessa brings her personal and professional insight as a preservationist and native Arkansan to help us understand how this small community became a cultur...

In this first part of our conversation with Dr. Jared M. Phillips , we take a necessary pause to consider not just what happened in the Ozarks, but how it began to feel. Before this region had a name, it had an identity-forming—shaped by those who came here looking for something hard, rugged, and remote.  Dr. Phillips helps us explore how the geography of the Ozarks, its agrarian limits, and the b...

In this conversation with historian Rachel Whitaker of the Shiloh Museum of Ozark History , we trace the early formation of Northwest Arkansas through the lens of power, policy, and people. Rachel offers an expansive look at how settler colonial decisions—such as the displacement of Native nations, the introduction of slavery, and the establishment of counties like Washington and Benton—shaped the...

In this episode of the underview , we explore the life and legacy of Samuel West Peel — the first native-born Arkansan elected to the U.S. Congress and one of the most influential political figures to emerge from Northwest Arkansas. Historian Chelsea Stewart of the Peel Museum joins us to trace Peel’s rise through family connections, legal influence, and public office, and to help us confront the...