Inner States

Series produced by WFIU

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Inner States is a weekly podcast and public radio show about art, culture, and how it all feels, in the Midwest and beyond.

Inner States is a weekly podcast and public radio show about art, culture, and how it all feels, in the Midwest and beyond.

The show uses conversations with unconventional artists, thinkers, and doers from the Midwest and beyond as jumping-off points to explore big ideas about place, politics, work, ecology, and memory, among others. We dig into the art, culture, stories, and sounds of the southern Midwest, from the rolling hills to Reddit, from comedians to country dances, getting to know the people, the ideas, and the landscapes that make us who we are. We ask big questions, get caught up in stories, and slow down for sounds.

Inner States is produced and hosted by Alex Chambers, a writer, cultural studies scholar, and long-time bread baker. Alex is the producer of How to Survive the Future, a podcast with Indiana Humanities. He produced the Hoosier Young Farmer Podcast and is a former associate producer on WFIU’s Earth Eats.

Web page: https://indianapublicmedia.org/innerstates/index.php

Questions or Comments?
We love hearing from our listeners. If you have a question, comment, or suggestion for a future program please don’t hesitate to contact us and let us know what’s on your mind.
https://indianapublicmedia.org/about/contact.php Hide full description

Inner States is a weekly podcast and public radio show about art, culture, and how it all feels, in the Midwest and beyond.The show uses conversations with unconventional artists, thinkers, and doers from the Midwest and beyond as jumping-off points to explore big ideas about place, politics, work, ecology, and memory, among others. We dig into the art, culture, stories, and sounds of the southern Midwest, from the rolling hills to Reddit, from comedians to country dances, getting to know the people, the ideas, and the landscapes that make us who we are. We ask big questions, get caught up in stories, and slow down for sounds.Inner States is produced and hosted by Alex Chambers, a writer, cultural studies scholar, and long-time bread baker. Alex is the producer of How to Survive the... Show full description


32 Pieces

Order by: Newest First | Oldest First
Caption: Inside the Bybee Stone Mill (Alex Chambers)
Limestone work used to be quite dangerous. Joyce Jeffries remembers workers, including her grandfather, dying or getting injured. It’s gotten safer...

  • Added: Aug 21, 2023
  • Length: 51:59
Caption: Artist Honey Hodges (Sam Schemenauer)
First, a conversation with artist Honey Hodges about collages, immigrating to the U.S., and the opportunity to care for someone who has always take...

  • Added: Aug 30, 2023
  • Length: 52:00
Caption: Rita the cat, relaxing in a spinal twist (Kayte Young)
Comedian Mohanad Elshieky says stand-up comedy and therapy are not the same thing, but regardless, he really loves his cats. Then (speaking of cats...

  • Added: Aug 30, 2023
  • Length: 52:29
Caption: Tess Gunty's debut novel, The Rabbit Hutch, won the 2022 National Book Award for fiction (Courtesy of Knopf)
Tess Gunty about why she set her National Book Award winning novel in Indiana. Austin Davis reflects on houselessness in his poetry. And Chapter 3 ...

  • Added: Aug 30, 2023
  • Length: 52:29
Caption: Comedian EJ Masicampo (Courtesy of EJ Masicampo)
Comedian EJ Masicampo on divorce and approaching comedy as a psychologist. Rebel girl poems from Rachel Ronquillo Gray. And chapter 2 of our missin...

  • Added: Aug 30, 2023
  • Length: 52:31
Caption: Funny Times editor Mia Beach and publishers Renae Lesser and Gabriel Piser (Mia Beach)
Why does a print newspaper full of funnies still have tens of thousands of subscribers? When my friend lost her cat, why did so many strangers deci...

  • Added: Aug 30, 2023
  • Length: 52:30
Caption: Underwater imagery from the Golden Age of Comics (Courtesy of Malcolm Mobutu Smith)
Malcolm Mobutu Smith on comic books, collecting, and the exhibit he just put together based on that collection. Then, Bill Carroll uses the quantit...

  • Added: Sep 05, 2023
  • Length: 52:29
Caption: A still from the televised version of the puppet wedding (Screenshot from video by Bart Everson)
Two performances: the trials of Oscar Wilde on stage, and a puppet wedding. And more.

  • Added: Sep 06, 2023
  • Length: 52:00
Piece image
Ross Gay and I talk about his new book, Inciting Joy, about masculinity and grief, teaching and survival, and how joy and sorrow are completely, in...

  • Added: Sep 06, 2023
  • Length: 52:30
Caption: Diana Hong practiced for 13 years to become a professional golfer. Which is how she ended up on this stage.
Diana Hong practiced for 13 years to become a professional golfer. But at the last minute, she became a stand-up comedian instead. This week, stori...

  • Added: Sep 06, 2023
  • Length: 52:30
Caption: Approaching the Tomato Products Company, Paoli, Indiana (Alex Chambers)
This week on Inner States, a postcard from Paoli, Indiana, where a tomato products warehouse has been transformed into a community space and enhanc...

  • Added: Sep 06, 2023
  • Length: 52:30
Caption: Stills from Fritz Lang's Metropolis, from the Bradley Collection at the IU Lilly Library (Jack Lindner)
This week, Jack Lindner on why we should watch old movies on film, and Alicia Kozma on how to approach movies that have outdated attitudes about so...

  • Added: Sep 06, 2023
  • Length: 52:30
From: WFIU
Series: Inner States
Caption: Ready to be a mixtape (Alex Chambers)
It’s a mixtape! Five songs (okay, stories), by five different producers. Three are about being behind the scenes. One’s about your dad retiring. An...

  • Added: Sep 07, 2023
  • Length: 52:30
Caption: Mask by Todd Burkhardt, Interior and Exterior (image support from Sam Schemenauer) (Todd Burkhardt)
Todd Burkhardt is a veteran, and he’s started asking other veterans to do needle felting with him. And drawing. And making masks. This week, what h...

  • Added: Sep 07, 2023
  • Length: 52:00
Caption: A particular field in Letcher County, Kentucky (Jill Frank)
There's a meadow in eastern Kentucky where people sometimes hunt mushrooms, get married, attend a music festival. Something that's not happening? T...

  • Added: Sep 07, 2023
  • Length: 52:33
Caption: Parapraxis, a new magazine that examines the psychic dimenions of our social lives (Alex Chambers)
Parapraxis is a new magazine that examines the psychic mechanisms of our social lives. This week, a conversation with its founding editor, Hannah Z...

  • Added: Sep 07, 2023
  • Length: 52:00
Caption: Leah Johnson's latest book, Ellie Engle Saves Herself, came out on May 2 (Courtesy of Disney Publishing Worldwide)
Leah Johnson writes romance novels. But not THAT kind. She writes award-winning YA books for queer Black kids and others. We talked about drag show...

  • Added: Sep 07, 2023
  • Length: 52:30
Caption: The Haunting of Night Vale stars (from left) Symphony Sanders and Cecil Baldwin, and features music by Jon Bernstein (Disparition). Welcome to Night Vale was created by Jeffrey Cranor (right) and Joseph Fink (not shown). (Courtesy of Welcome to Night Vale
This week, producer Avraham Forrest finds Welcome to Night Vale co-creator Jeffrey Cranor in a radio, and ascends to another plane of existence. Bu...

  • Added: Sep 07, 2023
  • Length: 52:31
Caption: Hector Ortiz Sanchez at the Dillman Wastewater Treatment Plant (Alex Chambers)
Hector wants to run the best wastewater treatment plant in the country. He seems to be inspiring the people he works with in that direction, too. T...

  • Added: Sep 07, 2023
  • Length: 52:28
Caption: The Lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abraham Smith (detail), August 7, 1930, Marion, Indiana (Lawrence Beitler)
Two stories about people using art to remember the past and, ideally, change something in the present.

  • Added: Sep 07, 2023
  • Length: 52:31