Big Talk – WFHB

She’s the queen of events in Bloomington and south central Indiana. Kel McBride has been hatching quirky and crazy event ideas for years, organizing like-minded characters, and staging extravaganzas that draw hundreds and, occasionally, thousands. The wizard behind Eroticon, the Bleeding Heartland Rollergirls, Krampus, and many others, McBride’s Ms. Lake Lemon pageant pits gowned, muck-booted …

Grief and healing are important themes in her work. When Katina Bitsicas’s father was dying of cancer, she recorded his feelings and impressions. Then after he died, she created a liquid light image of the type of cancer cells that ran through his body. Bitsicas also has compiled a book, Luci: The Girl with Four …

Her boss at a previous job inspired her to get involved with Court Appointed Special Advocates as a volunteer. Now, Tia Arthur is Monroe County CASA’s executive director. CASA, a nationwide network of nonprofit organizations, provides help, comfort, and guidance for kids involved in court custody proceedings. Judges depend on CASA’s reports and advice before …

The historian and author has devoted five years of his life to studying and writing about what he characterizes as this country’s first major foreign policy initiative. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark led some 40 people in an exploratory mission, hoping to find a water route from the Mississippi to the Pacific Northwest. They failed …

Born and raised in the middle of Siberia, Daryana Antipova comes from a singing family. Her family band, Vedan Kolod, has played throughout Russia and the rest of Europe. She co-founded an influential Russian folk music organization and is the author of three published young adult novels. Antipova was bound and determined to come to …

She’s appeared before audiences since she was three years old, when she dashed onstage, unbidden, during a Shakespeare production in Leningrad. Kate Weber arrived in Bloomington from Russia and other outposts, including a 15-year stretch in New York City theater. She, her husband Jeremy Weber, and Konnor Graber have co-founded Eclipse Theater Productions here. Kate …

Was it just luck that his given name is a mash-up of two Bloomington streets? Woodlawn is becoming this town’s Matt Groening, taking real people — politicians, sports stars, entertainers, and more — and fictionalizing their foibles. He’s the editor-in -chief of the local satiric website, Limestone Ledger, and has been lovingly skewering people, places, …

Author Julia Karr has been presenting a series of writers workshops at the Owen County Public Library in Spencer, Indiana. Karr wrote the XVI trilogy, dystopian fantasy novels set around the year 2150. These young adult books portray a world where teenaged girls are told their only worth is as sex objects. One girl attempts …

Science isn’t just for scientists. That’s what Erika Biga Lee realized during a scientific conference some 20 years ago. The IU Luddy School senior lecturer on computer technology with interests in journalism and education learned about Cafe Scientifique at the conference and decided to bring the informal, public discussion of scientific matters to Bloomington. Europe’s …

Like many creative folks in recent years, LuAnne Holladay felt a need for comfort and relief from the unending stream of disturbing world and national news. She hoped to create a simple, collaborative project that would allow people to create, to breathe. She came up with “Give Your Word,” a crowdsourced, ephemeral accordion book on …

The co-founders of MDWST Fable, “a benevolent conspiracy aimed at promoting more interaction and collaboration across arts, ideas, and media in Southern Indiana,” are staging an interactive exhibit probing the ways artists and the community seek solace and comfort in these turbulent times. Trista Newyear is an author and historian and is the lead writer …

One of Bloomington’s beloved and definitive characters, Dan “Carp” Combs died suddenly at home earlier this month. We sat with the long-time Perry Township trustee in November 2016. The last of a breed who describe themselves as “FDR Democrats,” he was a teacher, a public servant, and a refreshing straight-talker. Combs viewed himself as a …

Not only is the nation gripped by polarization these days but so are the worlds of science and higher education. Traditional scientists tend to thumb their noses at those who call for scholarly inquiry into subjects such as astral projection, extrasensory perception, hauntings, UFOs, seances and mediumship, and so many more. The two Indiana University …

We remember a Bloomington titan. Hosts Michael Glab and Tristra Newyear chat with Bloomington’s most fascinating people.

It’s a good bet many of the websites you visit know as much or more about you than your friends and family do. Journalist, author, and blogger Doc Searls wants the one-way relationship between sites and users to change as our cyber-lives evolve. We’re still in the nascent stages of the internet, he argues, so …

He didn’t realize it when he was reading Jack London, Jack, Kerouac, John Steinbeck, and Edward Abbey but the authors who waxed literate about the road were preparing him for an odyssey. Last summer, Jon Vickers embarked on a five-week, solo motorcycle trip from Bloomington to Alaska. Along the way, the retired founding director of …

She fell into cosplay in 2018 and now has no desire to lift herself out of the pool. Steph Slone, a communications specialist for Indiana University by day, is an imagineer,  designer, seamstress, and mechanic by night. She uses all those skills to fashion fantasy costumes for characters adopted by her and her husband Myles. …

A true south central Hoosier — he swam in limestone quarry pools as a kid — Dason Anderson now guides this region’s online magazine as its executive editor. Running a news operation is especially challenging as we enter the second half of the decade. With many news outlets suffering due to federal funding and granting …

Steve Higgs has had two overwhelming passions in his adult life: the environment and journalism. He was a reporter for the Herald-Times as far back as when it was known as the Herald-Telephone. He’s also been treading through and savoring the land in every corner of Indiana, photographing and writing about this state’s natural wonders. …

She grew up in a comfortable Chicago suburb not really knowing what her ethnic heredity entailed. Then Dena El Saffar delved deep into her Iraqi roots. Along the way she became a classically trained musician, specializing in the stringed instruments. Dena now leads the Salaam Band and is part of a number of other performance …

She’s fast becoming Bloomington’s empresario of author events. Molly Gleeson and the Writers Guild at Bloomington staged last year’s successful Local Authors Book Fair. This year she and the Guild are bringing the noted novelist, essayist, and journalist, Aminatta Forna, to town. Born in Scotland and of Sierra Leonean and Scottish ancestry, Forna was a …

She happened upon a glassblowing exhibit at a Sandusky, Ohio amusement park and was immediately hooked. Abby Gitlitz has been working with glass — she makes it from scratch — her entire adult life. She founded the Bloomington Creative Glass Center and launched the annual Great Glass Pumpkin Patch open-air market for the delicate handblown …

He experienced one tragedy that nearly cost him his arm and witnessed a second, fatal, tragedy. The incidents forced Bert Gilbert to assess his life. He opted to dive deep into his untapped reservoir of creativity. He was a construction contractor by day (now retired) and an artist and poet in his spare time. Gilbert …

Minka Wiltz will be telling a story this coming Saturday at The Hundredth Hill’s Tale Blazing fireside storytelling event. Sponsored by MDWST Fable, Tale Blazing will feature five creative raconteurs moving around campfires for an evening of woodsy community and Fall frolic. Wiltz, originally from Georgia, has experience as an opera singer, a composer, an …

She wondered, Why couldn’t the visual artists of Bloomington, in all their different genres, get together for a community-building exercise? So, Babette Ballinger founded the Bloomington Paint Out. Artists of any level of proficiency, from professionals to wannabes, will gather Saturday at Bryan Park for the fourth annual celebration of en plein-air painting, drawing, watercoloring, …

The folks at Stages Bloomington take the old movie line, “Hey kids, let’s put on a show,” seriously. Stages is a local nonprofit that specializes in bringing young people — elementary and high school aged — into the theater. Annalise Cain has been hired as the organization’s teen programming coordinator. Cain, a former theater kid …

He has designed a public scratching post made of pumice and a time capsule encased in 10 pounds of beeswax. Artist and industrial designer Maxwell Fertik came from heavily forested New England and, there, learned to appreciate and love natural materials. He specializes in transforming material from local biota into usable items and art that …

A hot August week 57 years ago. Thousands of protesters took to the street during the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. They faced off against thousands of Chicago police officers and Illinois National Guardsmen. Blood was drawn as the whole world watched. Aaron Cohen, a 15-year-old from the comfortable suburb of Winnetka was there, …

The five scariest words in Bloomington: The students are coming back! Author, artist, and PR maven Tristra Newyear joins us on Big Talk to discuss the coming 2025-26 school year at Indiana University. We ponder a complaint seemingly common to every lecturer and professor — students can’t read or write anymore. Is traditional literacy being …

We turn the tables this week as author, historian, artist, and PR maven Tristra Newyear interviews Big Talk producer and host Michael Glab. They discuss the July 10th, 2025 benefit celebration for WFHB at The Bluebird. It’s been 50 years since Mark Hood and Jeffrey Morris staged the first benefit at The Bluebird for Bloomington …

The Busman’s Holiday boys, Lewis & Addison Rogers, have released a new album, Table Talk, this past June. Now in their 20th year performing together, the Busman’s boys will stage a gala album release show in September with special guest bestselling poet and author Ross Gay. The Rogers sibs’ music takes a bit of a …

She realized how inadequate her formal sex education had been when she took a Biology & Culture of Women’s Bodies course at Indiana University. Indiana schools prioritize abstinence over information when it comes to school sex education classes. Christine Brackenhoff, a nurse formerly with the Monroe County Health Department’s now-closed Futures Family Planning Clinic, interviews …

We pick up our conversation with Dave Askins, citizen-journalist and the outsider on the inside, who has resurrected his B Square Bulletin. He hopes to create a 21st century online daily local newspaper employing reporters and photographers covering a wide range of beats. He aims to establish a nonprofit corporation so he can solicit financial …

He thought he’d had enough back in December 2024, so Dave Askins quit publishing his daily B Square Bulletin. After two months, he was back on the beat with an idea for a bigger, better online local news publication. Now publishing two or three times a week, Askins aims to fashion a more comprehensive daily …

For decades now, public libraries have been more — much more — than places where you can only borrow books. Libraries’ collections now include items from baking dishes to pickleball sets and even to seeds for your garden. The Monroe County Public Library’s Library of Things (its formal title) is the repository of the almost …

It was a silly film but Ian Mair was inspired by it. The Linton, Indian native saw “Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein” when he was a third grader. He’s been making movies ever since. Mair and his school chum James Stevenson went on to found Moonlight Films, a cinema factory that’s put out more than …

When Anna Stamm was a little girl, she watched B-movies on TV with her father. She wondered how and why TV stations picked movies to air. Her curiosity has led her to pursue her doctorate in local broadcast history. Bloomington was home to one of the key figures in television and radio, Sarkes Tarzian. Stamm …

The second part of our conversation with minister, activist, antiwar protester, and advocate for death row inmates, the Rev. Bill Breeden. He earned national notoriety when he swiped an Odon, Indiana street sign honoring President Ronald Reagan’s national security advisor and Odon native, John Poindexter. Breeden began evangelical preaching at the age of 15 and …

He went from being a teenaged country preacher to protesting war and ministering to death row prisoners. Now retired, the Rev. Bill Breeden has lived a wild, loving, socially conscious life. He’s spent time in American jails and a foreign dungeon. He’s stolen street signs and lived in a tepee. None other than Kurt Vonnegut …

We began to explore the iconic musician, producer, engineer, and anti-star’s Bloomington roots and his sojourns to Los Angeles, New York City, and New Orleans last week. Bingham’s back in town now, having served in a “musical boot camp” while performing at the Orbit Room this spring. This edition of Big Talk originally aired Thursday, …

He’s back in Bloomington, for the nonce, after sojourns through Los Angeles, New York City, and New Orleans, among other ports of call. The one-time member of the storied Bloomington prog-rock band, Screaming Gypsy Bandits, former principal of the innovative, experimental Bar-B-Q Records label, and a key figure in the origin story of WFHB, Bingham …

The co-founder of Ledgemule Press, Dave Torneo, has published Cincinnati poet Matt Hart’s latest volume of verse, Falling Fine, under the Pickpocket Books imprint. The book’s release party will feature an imaginative overhead-projector puppet show by artist and educator Johanna Winters, as well as music performed by several local players. Winters’ puppetry will explore the …

She’s Bloomington’s Trans-dimensional Diva. She lives in the vestibule of a North Walnut Street portal to other realities. And she’ll be hosting the Alternate Dimension Mill, Saturday, April 19, at the Monroe County Public Library auditorium. McGee, a veteran of stage and small screen, has immersed herself in the imaginary Bloomingtons created by MDWST Fable, …

The former guest host of Big Talk is wearing a new hat these days. Tying together his love for comedy, sports, and Bloomington, Alex Ashkin has organized a fundraising event to benefit both Middle Way House and the Boys & Girls Clubs of Bloomington. He has reeled in Jared Thompson of the Comedy Attic, New …

A Bloomington tradition now in its fourth year, the Bloomington Indiana International Film Festival will draw cinephiles to Redbud Books and The Bishop Bar Thursday through Saturday, April 3-5. Matt Rice, who wrangles the filmmakers and emcees panel discussions between showings, joins Big Talk this week. Founded by local hero Byron Jordan Wolter, the BIIFF …

This week’s Big Talk is a sheer gabfest with retired Indiana University professor and internationally recognized expert on movies, James Naremore. He’s written countless books on cinema and has appeared on numerous Criterion Collection editions, analyzing and commenting on such classics as “Citizen Kane” and “The Magnificent Ambersons.” Naremore has written and lectured extensively on …

Spring is here, after a long, hard winter. More trees will be will be growing leaves in Bloomington this year, thanks to Canopy Bloomington’s regular schedule of planting as well as its new Cool Corridors program. Staffers, board members, and community volunteers for the nonprofit were out in force in the Crestmont neighborhood this past …

Artists need help — and who better to help them than other artists? That’s one of the goals of the Arts Alliance of Greater Bloomington. Charles Pearce was named the organization’s first executive director in December and it holds its annual meeting tomorrow at Fountain Square. The public is invited and will get the chance …

Singer/songwriter Krista Detor so enjoyed her experience at Hedgebrook, the women artists’ retreat on Whidbey Island, that she was inspired to create something like it when she got back home to Bloomington. She and musician/sound engineer David Weber set about the task of creating a small complex of rooms and studios for creative types of …

Their three-year term leading Indiana University’s Cultural Studies Program is coming to an end. Rebekah Sheldon and Tess Given are going out with a bang with Bikini Kill guitarist and self-described “cultural instigator,” Erica Dawn Lyle, speaking at their February lecture series installment. They’ve organized a two-day Cinema and Extinction Symposium this month as well. …