The 812 - Steve Volan / Plateia Media

Latest Episodes:

136 [S2E39]: Hank Duncan Brings an Update on Bicycle/Pedestrian Infrastructure Improvements Nov 04, 2024

Show notes

It's a downtown transportation infrastructure update with Hank Duncan, the city's bicycle and pedestrian coordinator. We get the skinny on all the bumpouts being installed on downtown street corners, the future of Indiana Avenue, where the city is with studying updates to College and Walnut Streets, and more.
Also...don't forget to vote before 6pm tomorrow, Tuesday, November 5th!

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135 [S2E38]: Erika Oliphant, Monroe County Prosecutor, on Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Local Justice Nov 01, 2024

Show notes

The county's elected prosecuting attorney now in her second term, Erika Oliphant explains to The 812 the role of her office and the different programs it manages. We talk about the multiyear study her office is conducting into racial and ethnic disparities in the county justice system as a result of her office's actions, and what they're doing about it. We also discuss the county jail, particularly its population and the effect of programs like pretrial release on it.

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134 [S2E37]: Abigail Knipstine of the IUMAA (and former City Council legal researcher) Oct 30, 2024

Show notes

We don't usually delve into arts and culture on this show unless it has a direct relationship to local elected government, but today's guest offers us an unusual opportunity. Abigail Knipstine tells us about the brand-new yet newly-renovated museum made out of two old ones, the IU Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (IUMAA), where she's the business manager. She talks about how museums like it are responding to the new rules about the questionable provenance of cultural artefacts in their collections, and how they're dealing with new rules on repatriating some of those items.
Her immediate past job was as a legal researcher for the Bloomington City Council. In the second half of today's show, she walks us through the process of helping councilmembers develop legislation, and talks about some of the legislation she worked on, like a resolution about Artificial Intelligence or an ordinance about short-term rentals. It's like a double-half episode of The 812!

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133 [S3E36]: Steven Miller, County Veteran Service Officer, on Serving Those Who Served Oct 28, 2024

Show notes

To the thousands of residents of Monroe County who were ever active-duty, Steven Miller is likely to be a familiar name. He's the Veteran Service Officer, who runs Monroe County's Veterans Affairs Department. He tells us about the services he administers to vets, including pensions, education and burial benefits. He also talks about the harder side of the VA. Many vets have seen more than they bargained for. He talks about disability benefits, veterans case conferencing and treatment court for those struggling with substance abuse, as well as other services targeted to serving those who served.
Note: In the second half of this episode, as part of her work, the conversation turns to veterans who have considered suicide. It may not be suitable for younger or more sensitive listeners. (If you or someone you know is thinking about suicide and seeking emotional support, there are crisis lines available via phone, chat, or text. The number to call, message or Google nationwide is 9-8-8; press 1 to be connected to a veteran who can help.)

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132 [S2E35]: The 812 Work Session with Marissa Meador and Jacob Spudich of the Indiana Daily Student Oct 25, 2024

Show notes

A new installment in our occasional series, The 812 Work Session, in which we meet members of the local media and compare notes about local news. Today's guests are Marissa Meador and Jacob Spudich, the co-editors-in-chief of the Indiana Daily Student. We talk about issues they're covering on campus, including Dunn Meadow and the unwitting deficit spending of student organizations. One issue is the IDS itself: the IU administration has ordered the cutting of its print-run, potentially ending a 150-year tradition.

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131 [S2E34]: In Extra Innings: A Sampler of Bonus Interviews with Guests of The 812 Oct 23, 2024

Show notes

Today we're releasing portions of never-before-aired overtime interviews with recent guests. Anything we've recorded after the main interview for that episode we've been setting aside as "Extra Innings" segments, which can run anywhere from 7 minutes to as long as half an hour. Here now are a few samples.

Extra Innings with Haskell Smith and George Hegeman of the Tree Commission (original episode), talking about the emerald ash borer in Bloomington
A portion of the Extra Innings with Lesley Davis, chair of the city's Council for Community Accessibility (original episode), about her new job as the VP for North American Partnerships at Access Able, a British company
Sara Laughlin, a volunteer and board member at Teachers' Warehouse (original episode), on her former role as director of the Monroe County Public Library, and her oversight of the process that led to the new Southwest branch
Isak Asare, city councilmember, commandeering the helm (original episodes here and here) to grill The812 host and former city councilmember Steve Volan on his 20-year career

Full-length Extra Innings segments will soon be available to patrons of the show on our website.

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130 [S2E33]: The Skeptical Township: Rita Barrow, Van Buren Trustee Oct 21, 2024

Show notes

Van Buren Township, to the city's west-southwest, is the fourth most populous township in Monroe County (about 12,000 people as of the last census). In the first half of our interview, Township Trustee Rita Barrow (pronounced "borrow") lays out how she handles the role of trustee in Van Buren, including building new headquarters and dealing with disputes over weeds and fence lines.
In the second half, the episode really gets into the weeds: host Steve Volan asks her about fire department mergers, the still-cooking county development ordinance, and, the elephant in the room, Bloomington's notorious attempt at annexation of significant parts of the unincorporated areas nearest to it, including significant areas of Van Buren. (Full disclosure: when Steve was on city council, he voted in 2021 for the city's annexation proposal, while Rita has been leading the opposition to annexation since 2017.)

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129 [S2E32]: All About the Monroe County History Center Oct 18, 2024

Show notes

The Monroe County History Center on 6th and Washington is a museum, a library, an event space, and then some. Not every community has such a thing -- it's not part of the Public Library, so it relies entirely on donations and grants, yet it has several full-time staff. We talk with Daniel Schlegel, the Center's Director, and Megan MacDonald, the Center's Librarian. They tell us all about the place, including its holdings regarding limestone and the old RCA factory, people doing genealogy research, cemeteries in the county, the history of the building itself, and some of the amusing stories they've collected over time.

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128 [S2E31]: Rooting out Invasive Species with Ellen Jacquart of MC-IRIS Oct 16, 2024

Show notes

Ellen Jacquart is the president of Monroe County Identify and Reduce Invasive Species, or MC-IRIS for short. She leads a surprisingly large group of volunteers who have made it their mission to help pull plants that shouldn't be here because they're not native to the area, and in many cases, crowd out plants that are. Whether it's the Callery pear, the asian bush honeysuckle, or the so-called tree of heaven -- don't cut that one, friend, it could give you a heart attack -- they've got to go, but they're hard to get rid once they've literally taken root in our community. Jacquart talks with Steve Volan about MC-IRIS' philosophical approach to wrestling with Mother Nature, and how you can help.

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127 [S2E30]: An Exchange of Ideas with the Civic Leaders Living-Learning Center at IU Oct 14, 2024

Show notes

Living-learning centers at IU allow students to take classes in a specialty of their choice in the dorm where they live on-campus. The Civic Leaders Living-Learning Center takes up three floors in one tower of Briscoe Quad.
Former Bloomington city councilmember Steve Volan was invited out for an exchange of ideas with former Fort Wayne mayor Paul Helmke, now the faculty director of the CLLLC, and Colby Wicker, the center's Cox Scholar. This episode was recorded live at Briscoe Quad in front of 80 students participating in the LLC. We talk about how politics works at the local level and how the modern media landscape has changed local politics.

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