The IBJ Podcast with Mason King

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Indy Pride chair talks festival changes, political backdrop and financial challenges Jun 08, 2026

Show notes

In this week’s edition of the IBJ Podcast, Indy Pride Inc. board Chair Alex Richardson previews the June 13 parade on Massachusetts Avenue and a revamped festival footprint spanning Military Park and White River State Park as the nonprofit marches forward under new leadership. Richardson, a DePauw University faculty member who became board chair in December, discusses the January hire of Executive Director Jennifer Carruthers, who previously led Capital City Pride in Des Moines. Richardson also addresses the financial pressures facing Indy Pride, including a $210,000 budget shortfall in 2024 tied in part to reduced corporate sponsorship, and explains how new individual giving programs and small-business outreach aim to close that gap. This year’s events will include a Saturday night concert featuring headliners Todrick Hall, Brooke Eden and Crystal Waters, in addition to a New York City ballroom showcase rooted in the Harlem ballroom scene of the early 1970s. Richardson also responds to Gov. Mike Braun's proclamation of June as "Nuclear Family Month.”

Pete the Planner on why Americans feel broke at $150,000 a year Jun 01, 2026

Show notes

Hitting six figures in household income is a powerful milestone. You are situated comfortably in the middle class, which in the U.S. is currently defined as making $56,000 to $168,000 per year. If we want to zoom in on Indiana, the parameters for the middle class are $48,000 to $144,000 per year. We all know that the cost of living is rising faster and higher than anyone wants, but doesn’t it seem like you should be able to make it work on six figures per year? Over the last couple of years, a national conversation has been brewing online about why some people who make as much as $150,000 per year feel like they’re barely getting by. And consumer sentiment just last week hit its lowest point in at least 50 years.

Pete the Planner isn’t here to judge. His computations show how easy it can be for the finances for a $150,000 household to go off the rails. One unexpected blow to your budget for housing, transportation, child care or essentials like food can make it feel like the ceiling is caving in. At the same time, we need to consider whether the expenses we believe are necessary are actually the result in our culture of normalizing overconsumption. Pete is our guest this week to explain the math behind the financial struggles for $150,000 households and provide some guidance – with a dose of straight talk – about reducing expenses.

After firm’s $50M sale, co-founder was done with startups. Then AI pulled him back in. May 26, 2026

Show notes

Santiago Jaramillo has been the subject of – or at least mentioned in – 44 articles in the Indianapolis Business Journal, including several columns he wrote about entrepreneurism. The stories largely appeared between 2013 and 2021, while he was building, running and exiting two Indianapolis-area tech companies. After the second firm, known as Emplify, was acquired for $50 million in 2021, Jaramillo had a severe case of burnout. He went on an extended sabbatical, planning to forego any future forays into founding startups.

Then ChatGPT dropped. Suddenly entrepreneurs and executives had widespread access to artificial intelligence tools, and Jaramillo quickly saw their potential for transforming businesses and the workflows of their employees. The pull eventually proved too great. Jaramillo co-founded a firm named Pragmatico to help companies make the leap into AI in a way that sticks. In this week’s podcast, Jaramillo takes us on his entrepreneurial journey, which began in Colombia, South America, where he narrowly avoided a kidnapping. His career took turns through Florida, Indiana and Australia before settling back in the Hoosier state. Jaramillo also discusses why he decided to get back in the game, the reasons why many firms have trouble adopting AI and why the technology shouldn’t be set loose without human judgement as a guide.

IBJ’s editor on making mistakes, combatting bias, diversifying revenue May 18, 2026

Show notes

We at the Indianapolis Business Journal committed a serious error earlier this month that created significant problems for one of central Indiana’s most important not-for-profit organizations. If you listened to last week’s podcast, you have a sense of what happened. In the interest of transparency, IBJ Editor Lesley Weidenbener explained in her latest column how the error occurred and how that affected the organization. The column opens a window to the workings of the IBJ newsroom and the potential for multiple editors to miss a red flag when moving quickly to break news. For this week's episode, host Mason King recruited Weidenbener to throw open the curtains and give you an even broader look inside IBJ. In this week's episode, she addresses the error, some of the questions posed regularly about IBJ's financial health, and how its leaders maintain barriers between the newsroom, advertisers and the politics of IBJ’s owner and CEO.

Indiana Black Expo’s CEO on Circle City Classic’s gridiron shift and creating hoops invitational May 11, 2026

Show notes

Founded in 1970, Indiana Black Expo has broad brand recognition for its 10-day Summer Celebration, which highlights Black culture and elevation. But the umbrella not-for-profit organization operates 365 days a year, acting as a voice and vehicle for the social and economic advancement of Black youths and families. The other high-profile annual event hosted by IBE is the Circle City Classic, which typically features a football game between two historically black colleges or universities, along with a downtown parade and events focused on education, careers and culture.

Last week, IBE announced a change at the heart of the Classic amid declining attendance, as well as the addition of a new event that would bring basketball teams from HBCUs to Indianapolis. CEO Alice Watson is our guest this week to explain in detail the economic tensions behind the switch this fall from college football programs to Indianapolis-based high school teams, including the $750,000-plus price tag IBE faced to recruit college teams and their bands this year. She also delves into the creation of an HBCU basketball invitational for 2027, which is expected to be more affordable for attracting programs. And she takes a deep dive into all of the educational programming and scholarships IBE offers throughout the year without nearly as much fanfare.

Why do some big companies fail at meaningful innovation? May 04, 2026

Show notes

Virtually every large or medium-sized company today says it’s dedicated to innovation, especially in light of the generational disruption in business created by artificial intelligence. But “innovative” is a broad and squishy term. One company’s so-called “cutting-edge development” might look to another like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Elliott Parker of Indianapolis-based startup builder Alloy Partners has seen many examples of what he calls “the illusion of innovation” – meaning corporate attempts at change that are either mostly for show or that don’t go nearly far enough to make a real impact.Indeed, Parker says, large companies often are unable to innovate their business models because they’re designed and incentivized to keep doing the thing they’re successful at doing.
For the owners, executives and managers who are truly interested in making big bets on innovation and challenging dogma within their businesses, what will work? Parker is our guest this week to talk about his book, titled “The Illusion of Innovation,” and how companies can evade the traps. He also discusses how the recent explosion in AI is altering the innovation ecosystem and how companies are built and run. Parker says he’s optimistic, although “things are going to get very, very weird very quickly.”

Final Four co-chairs debrief on Post Malone, Fan Fest, coach swag and what it all meant Apr 27, 2026

Show notes

Earlier this month, Indianapolis wrapped up its ninth Final Four since 1980 — a Herculean hosting gig that requires thousands of volunteers and flawless coordination between the NCAA, the city of Indianapolis, hospitality officials, transportation services, public safety workers, a bunch of colleges and an untold number of vendors. Near the top of the organizational chart were the co-chairs of the local organizing committee — Judith Thomas and Nate Feltman.

The world saw the basketball action online and on TV, and many in Indianapolis experienced big attractions staged in concert with the Final Four, including a three-day music festival witnessed by tens of thousands of fans. In this edition of the podcast, Thomas and Feltman take us behind the scenes of the three-year planning process and then the week of the event as plans played out in sometimes unexpected or poignant ways. For example, Feltman became a wingman of sorts for superstar Post Malone. Thomas, who attended Indy’s first Final Four in 1980, clearly saw her career arc from that experience to the convention industry, her role as deputy mayor, CEO of the Indy Arts Council and committee co-chair. Feltman, owner and CEO of IBJ Media, also experienced a change of heart on the city's lead role in financing the 800-room Signia by Hilton hotel, now nearing completion.

Indianapolis criminal defense attorney Jim Voyles Jr. on representing Mike Tyson, the Indianapolis 500 and his new book Apr 20, 2026

Show notes

Indianapolis attorney Jim Voyles gives each of his clients a card that reads, “Stop talking.” And Voyles is hardly what you’d consider a chatty guy in public, due in large part to the sensitive nature of his cases as one of the Midwest’s premier criminal defense attorneys.
His clients sometimes are accustomed to having public platforms, so prescribing silence might be a challenge. Voyles has represented members of the Indianapolis Colts, including Pat McAfee, and members of the Indiana Pacers, including a participant in the infamous Malice in the Palace incident. He also served as local counsel for Mike Tyson during the boxer’s sexual assault trial in Indianapolis.
After more than five decades practicing law, Voyles has co-authored a legal memoir titled "All Rise: My Life in Trials with the Famous, Infamous and the Misunderstood.” He recently made himself available for an interview with reporter Maura Johnson of IBJ sib The Indiana Lawyer for the publication’s eponymous podcast. We’re sharing it with IBJ Podcast listeners this week to provide a rare, first-hand account of Voyle’s career, his devotion to the Sixth Amendment and his lifelong passion for motorsports.

Indians CEO on putting butts in seats at Victory Field, grinding it out Apr 13, 2026

Show notes

Here are a few tidbits the Indianapolis Indians want you to know this season. When it comes to professional sports in Indianapolis, the minor league baseball team is older than the Indianapolis 500 and has lapped both the Pacers and the Colts at least once. Likewise, Victory Field, which remains one of the great jewels in minor league baseball, is now older than Market Square Arena and the Hoosier/RCA Dome when they met their ends. And there’s no reason to fear for Victory Field’s fate: The Indians have been profitable every year for many decades, with the sole exception of 2020, and are always at the top or near the top of the minor league for attendance.

Team operations had been under the control of the Schumacher family for many decades before 2024, when longtime executive Randy Lewandowski took over as president and CEO. The primary mission, as he puts it, is to put butts in seats while making sure those seats and the rest of the ballpark are pristine. Great players come and go, so the marketing pitch needs to focus on the Indians as an experience. Lewandowski is our guest this week to talk about the team’s revenue streams and the challenge of losing your most marketable players just as their hitting their strides. He also discusses his career in college baseball, how he found a position with the Indians organization in 1994 and then cut his teeth as director of operations at the brand-new Victory Field just a few years later.

Pete the Planner on the chances for recession, plus petrodollars, mortgage rates and TACO trades Apr 06, 2026

Show notes

The U.S. economy has been sending troubling signals for months now in the form of high energy prices, rising inflation, modest hiring and slowing growth of gross domestic product. The United States began attacks on Iran in late February. Stalled tanker traffic at the Strait of Hormuz has disrupted the global oil market, and stock investors have yo-yoed along with mixed signals from Washington, D.C., about America’s goals for the war.

IBJ personal finance columnist Pete the Planner sees signs that point toward recession in the U.S., as well as a humanitarian crisis in Asia. In this week’s podcast, Pete parses a passel of new challenges and layers on the potential impact of tariff refunds and rising mortgage rates. He also is concerned about the Trump administration’s apparent attempts at influencing investor sentiment with statements about America’s intentions in Iran.

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