The IBJ Podcast

Indiana becoming garden spot for ag innovation, food security May 29, 2023

For a century, Indiana’s identity has been informed by the bucolic farms folks can see from the window of an airplane or from the window of their cars as they zoom by on one of our many interstates. But folks on the ground know that the state has become one of the nation’s hubs for plant diagnostics, crop protection, gene editing, biotechnology, food preservation, field management, aerial intelligence, animal health and sources of renewable energy. The companies and scientists involved in this work have reached the critical mass for creating an ecosystem of innovation, where advancements in one area help drive results in another. Not only is this accumulated expertise good for the state’s economy, but it also plays into national security and global stability. What is more in mankind’s best interest than the production of healthy food in adequate supplies?

For the latest edition of the podcast, host Mason King is joined by Mitch Frazier, who draws on his considerable professional experience in technology and agriculture as president and CEO of Agrinovus Indiana. It’s a statewide organization devoted to fueling growth in the agbioscience economy. Frazier has one of the most expansive and rounded perspective of agricultural innovation in the state and how Indiana is becoming a major player in vital issues of food security.

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The big challenges and costs of being a 17-year-old racer in an IndyCar feeder series May 21, 2023

Dan Wheldon, Kyle Kirkwood, J.R. Hildebrand, Jay Howard, Sage Karam, Oliver Askew, Spencer Pigot, and Rinus VeeKay. Beyond the fact that all of these drivers are either past or current competitors in the Indy 500, what do they have in common? They all competed in the USF2000 series, which is one of the feeder series to IndyCar.

Al Morey IV is 17 years old and a rookie in the USF 2000 series, competing for Indianapolis-based team Jay Howard Driver Development. He lives in Fishers, and ever since he started racing karts at the age of 9, he has had his sights on the upper rungs of professional racing. But the road to IndyCar is never easy, in part because it is so expensive. Running an open-wheel car for a full season in USF2000 can easily run several hundred thousand dollars for the driver. That includes tires, engineering and mechanical services, parts and labor, track testing and travel, food, and lodging. Drivers can defray some of those costs with sponsor dollars, but they typically must arrange those relationships themselves.

Al Morey’s father, also named Al Morey, says the cost of this season could be anywhere between $400,000 to $700,000, depending, for example, on how often the car is damaged. In the latest edition of the IBJ Podcast, the father and son team talk about what it’s like in the trenches of professional racing, the costs involved, and how they work together to secure sponsors.

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Rabbi Dennis Sasso on 275 weddings, 1,000 funerals, 800 b’nai mitzvah over 47 years May 14, 2023

In 1977, Rabbi Dennis Sasso and his wife, Rabbi Sandy Eisenberg Sasso, loaded up their car and drove from New York to Indianapolis. As the first practicing rabbinical couple in world Jewish history, they already had a fair amount of renown and had even appeared on the quiz shows “What’s My Line?” and “To Tell the Truth.” But they were young—just a few years out of rabbinical school—so it might have been a bit of a gamble for Congregation Beth-El Zedeck in Indianapolis to hire them as its spiritual leaders. Dennis was named senior rabbi, a position he has held now for 47 years.
The records are little spotty, but congregation officials believe he has led or been involved in more than 2,400 Shabbat services, close to 1,400 bat mitzvahs and bar mitzvahs, 275 weddings, 1,000 funerals, 800 bris and baby-naming celebrations and 470 board meetings. At the end of this month he will retire as senior rabbi, although the weekend of May 13 and 14th will be filled with special events honoring Sasso at the synagogue.

On the eve of the May 13th celebrations, IBJ Podcast host Mason King sat down with the two rabbis to discuss Dennis’ decision to step down, the months of preparation necessary for such a transition, what he sees as his legacy and, crucially, what exit music he would want heard as he dances into retirement.

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The biggest questions dogging the bills passed by the Indiana Legislature May 08, 2023

The 2023 Indiana General Assembly wrapped up about a week ago—specifically, 2:47 a.m. on Friday, April 28—after your state lawmakers hammered out a $44.6 billion budget for the next two years, filed 1,154 bills and approved 252 of them. Gov. Eric Holcomb has now signed all 252, as of May 4. As you know, both the Indiana House and the Indiana Senate have Republican supermajorities, so the GOP generally did not need support from Democrats to pass its priorities. And so these laws now venture out into the world to do the bidding of our elected representatives. It was hard to miss the big debates this year over the proposed ban on gender transition procedures for minors, which is now law. As are the controversial proposals to expand eligibility for the state’s school voucher program, ban instruction on human sexuality in grades kindergarten through third, and forbid state retirement system managers from investing in companies based on environmental and social factors.

For journalists who cover state government, the end of the legislative session is just the beginning. Now they must follow these laws and report on their consequences. We can assume that lawmakers go into these sessions with the best of intentions, but sometimes the laws they produce don’t work as intended. Sometimes they immediately end up in the court system through legal challenges. And sometimes they require a Herculean amount of work to simply get up and running. The reporters who covered this year’s session already have earmarked the laws that bear more investigation, and we have two of them join host Mason King on the podcast this week: Peter Blanchard, who covers politics and state government for IBJ, and Casey Smith, who covers the same for the not-for-profit newsroom Indiana capital Chronicle.

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Pete the Planner on death, divorce and more of the most edgy questions in personal finance Apr 30, 2023

The first episode of the IBJ Podcast was posted on June 4, 2018. This week, we present the 250th episode. As listeners know, the podcast’s only regular guest outside of IBJ’s editorial staff has been Pete Dunn, aka Pete the Planner. He first was featured on March 11, 2019, after becoming one of IBJ’s regular columnists for personal finance. Over about 20 podcast episodes, he and host Mason King have discussed investments, insurance, budgeting, retirement, buying a car, saving for college, giving to charities, quitting your job, and how to prepare for the next financial calamity.

After nearly every interview with Dunn, King has had the nagging suspicion that at least one important question—perhaps a bit too touchy, or even mercenary—goes unasked. This week, he asks those questions. The kid gloves are off, and Dunn has agreed to discuss some of the sensitive topics in personal finance. How can you help your spouse or elderly parents when they can’t manage their own finances? Who in a marriage should have the final say on big purchases? How should one prepare for the financial implications of divorce? How much should you ask about your pending inheritance? And, of course: How do you know when it's time to change financial advisers?

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Joel Kirk on how Indy became a musical incubator for Broadway Apr 23, 2023

Joel Kirk doesn’t have an MBA or what you would consider to be a traditional business background. But he is every inch an entrepreneur and promoter, and he cut his teeth in one of the toughest markets in the world: New York City. And he has persuaded some of the most experienced philanthropists in central Indiana to back his venture that makes Indiana a conduit for one of New York City’s most famous products: Broadway-style musicals.

A native of Carmel, Kirk is the founder and CEO of Discovering Broadway, which brings musicals that are still in the developmental stage to central Indiana so the creative teams can work in relative peace and then stage their work here with a combination of local and national talent. For example, the creative team behind the musical version of “The Devil Wears Prada” rewrote most of the show’s script and created several new songs over the course of about a week in Carmel back in 2021.

In this week’s episode of the IBJ Podcast, Kirk discusses his own incubation period in Carmel and then at Ball State University before moving to New York at the age of 20 and starting a career as a theater director. He also tells the origin story of Discovering Broadway and explains how this one-man show—at least until recently—persuaded producers and creators with international reputations to make central Indiana their workshop.

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Bosma VP: ‘I didn’t know how to be someone who was blind’ Apr 17, 2023

You might recognize Indianapolis-based Bosma Enterprises as a not-for-profit that helps Indiana residents who are blind or visually impaired. Its business model includes providing products and services for the public and private sector. This provides jobs for people with vision loss who otherwise would face a 70% unemployment rate. In fact, more than half of Bosma’s employees are blind or visually impaired—including its vice president of external affairs, Lise Pace.
She was climbing the ladder in the banking industry in the early 1990s when she learned that she would eventually lose her sight to a disease called retinitis pigmentosa. Married and the mother of a young son, she slowly retreated into a dark and isolated life as she lost most of her sight, stopped working and became a stay-at-home mom. As she says, “I didn’t know how to be someone who was blind.”
In this week’s episode of the IBJ Podcast, Pace tells the story of how her son inspired her to break out of a years-long funk and start volunteering. That led to a full-time job at Bosma and then a raft of promotions that brought her to her current position as a company executive. You could see her as a prime example of how someone with limited sight can excel in the corporate world. Indeed, one of Bosma’s missions is to help clients learn the skills required for succeeding in almost any business environment. But as Pace acknowledges, employers considering visually impaired applicants also need to see beyond sight impediments and trust the results from past work history.

Sweetwater’s Surack on selling stake in billion-dollar firm, backing Indy heliport Apr 09, 2023

In 1979, musician Chuck Surack started a business in Fort Wayne called Sweetwater Sound by creating a mobile recording studio in a Volkswagen Bus. Fast-forward a bit more than four decades, and Sweetwater has evolved into one of the nation’s most prominent e-commerce sites for musical instruments and audio gear, with $1.6 billion in sales for 2022. Surack and his wife, Lisa, had total ownership of the company until 2021 when they sold a big stake to a private equity firm.

The Suracks have used that money to help further their already extensive philanthropic giving. Chuck also has more time to focus on Surack Enterprises, a collection of companies unrelated to Sweetwater, including several that stem from his interest in aviation. And that’s the reason why Chuck has been in the news in Indianapolis in recent weeks. The Indianapolis Airport Authority wants to decommission the Indianapolis Downtown Heliport, a move that’s supported by the city of Indianapolis due to the site’s attractiveness for redevelopment. Chuck is helping lead the charge to persuade the Federal Aviation Administration to deny permission to decommission the heliport. Chuck has a helicopter charter company that uses the heliport, but he also joins aviation experts and the Indiana Department of Transportation in arguing that the heliport is uniquely positioned to advantage of new developments in urban aviation. That includes electric aircraft that can take off and land vertically.

In this week’s edition of the IBJ Podcast, Surack sheds more light on his decision to sell a controlling stake in Sweetwater and step away from day-to-day operations. And he explains the reasoning behind his desire to keep the heliport open.
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Indiana’s Jiffy Lube guru on art, entrepreneurism, police relations and March Madness laundry Apr 02, 2023

In the 38 years that Steve Sanner has owned and operated Jiffy Lube oil change shops in Indiana, he has laid down some serious tread marks. He is owner and president of Jiffy Lube of Indiana, which counts 51 locations and about 510 employees altogether. That’s the vast majority of the Jiffy Lubes in the state. But he hasn’t been content to simply make his mark as a major Jiffy Lube franchisee. He has volunteered at the highest levels of some of central Indiana’s highest profile organizations, including the Indiana Sports Corp., the local organizing committee for the Big Ten Football Championship and the Washington Township Schools Foundation. And he has used his Jiffy Lubes as a platform for some surprising community-minded initiatives. He has supported Indiana artists by commissioning 30 murals for his stores. He’s kicking off a campaign called “No ticket, let’s fix it,” in which police officers around the state give motorists $25 Jiffy Lube gift cards to get minor car repairs, at a total retail value so far of $300,000. It’s a great way to get motorists into Jiffy Lube, but Sanner says he also wants to promote positive interactions between police and motorists while keeping roads safer.
Sanner is the guest for this week’s edition of the IBJ Podcast. He starts with a few wild stories about his early days as an entrepreneur and how he got a foothold as a Jiffy Lube franchisee. He reacts to some of the common complaints that consumers have about oil change shops. And he talks at length about his secondary career as a volunteer, including being in charge of all of the laundry in the March Madness bubble when Indianapolis hosted all of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament in 2021.

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How Homefield sprints to make apparel for Cinderellas of March Madness Mar 26, 2023

The owners of Homefield, a maker of T-shirts, sweatshirts, and other apparel for college sports fans, haven’t necessarily been upset with all of the upsets during March Madness this year. The firm was founded by recent Indiana University graduate Connor Hitchcock and his wife, Christa, built off of a side project called Hoosier Proud. It seems like college gear is everywhere, and that initially gave Connor pause when considering whether to take the Indiana-focused venture national. But he and Christa landed on a formula to help Homefield to stand out: Using premium materials and creating unusual designs that draw on a school’s vintage iconography, and then moving at the speed of the internet when a particular school hits big.

So, for example, in the first few hours after Fairleigh Dickinson University beat Purdue in the first round of the men’s tournament this year, Homefield was in touch with licensing officials for FDU, designing a series of shirts and notifying its followers on Twitter. It did the same thing last year when St. Peters University made a run in the tournament. Both schools are squarely in Homefield’s comfort zone as small universities that don’t necessarily have robust apparel programs. In this week’s edition of the IBJ Podcast, Connor and Christa explain how they parlayed their success with small schools into agreements with the bigger names. They also dig into how they landed on Homefield’s winning strategy and how they’ve grown the firm to 40 employees in five years while maintaining a four-day workweek and keeping the emphasis on their staff’s quality of life. That includes all weekends off, even during the tournament.

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Are apartments the future of downtown Indianapolis? Mar 20, 2023

After the immediate fallout of the Great Recession, apartment development in downtown Indianapolis surged. Just in the last decade, the number of downtown apartment units has more than doubled to the current total of about 15,000 units.

Indianapolis and other major cities across the nation are trying to encourage apartment development, especially as downtowns face an existential crisis brought about by the pandemic—namely, the loss of office workers in their downtown cores to remote working. One of the hottest trends is to take existing office towers and convert them into apartment buildings. And it’s happening with other major commercial structures, like downtown malls.

We’re seeing that now in Indianapolis, with the conversion of the AT&T building and the plans for the Gold Building. The redevelopment of Circle Centre Mall very likely will have apartments, and as the city tries to find new uses for past-their-prime municipal properties, it’s often making residential uses a priority.
For this week’s edition of the podcast, we have a three-person panel to explore the reasons behind the recent surge, the city’s desire to encourage apartment development, and future prospects for continued development and how that could affect downtown. Joining us are apartment market specialist George Tikijian, real estate developer Eric Gershman and deputy mayor of economic development Scarlett Andrews. Here’s our conversation.

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Pete The Planner on the new rules for saving money Mar 13, 2023

The Federal Reserve is expected to raise interest rates again next week as it continues to try to cool inflation. The silver lining is that when lending rates rise, savings rates also rise. It’s not unusual now to see certificates of deposits with 4% or 5% annual yields locked in over 12 to 24 months. Money market accounts are now paying healthy returns as well. Millennials and members of Gen Z should take note, because they probably haven’t experienced interest rates this high for savings in their adult lives.

It's difficult to get many Americans to put away an appropriate amount of money for retirement or a financial emergency. Late last year, Congress passed a significant revision to the rules for retirement plans with the intent of extending and expanding your saving opportunities and ability to put away money for retirement. It’s not just for folks preparing to hobble across the finish line. The changes also can help people still paying off their college loans and those who need to establish their first emergency funds.

For this week’s podcast, IBJ columnist Pete Dunn, aka Pete The Planner, explains these new opportunities for savings. He also shares a tip for avoiding an interest-rate trap that current homeowners could fall into if they try to level up on housing.

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At Legislature’s midpoint, which bills survived and which bills are toast? Mar 06, 2023

The Indiana General Assembly just reached the midpoint of its 2023 legislative session and passed some deadlines for advancing bills, which has pushed at least two-thirds of them back to the curb—at least for this session. So this is a great time to take stock of the bills that made the cut and those that tanked.
As usual, education funding has been at the center of major debate. Lawmakers also are hip-deep in social issues, such as so-called “ESG investing” and potential bans on library books some people believe are inappropriate for minors. The Legislature likes to trumpet its efforts to make the state more business-friendly, and different ways to lower business taxes have been under discussion.

For this week’s edition of the IBJ Podcast, regular host Mason King is turning the discussion over to Managing Editor Greg Weaver, who’s been covering state government for decades, and IBJ statehouse reporter Peter Blanchard. And they have invited a guest to help flesh out the discussion: Casey Smith, a reporter for Indiana Capital Chronicle, who recently authored a scoop on a major omission in the Indiana House Republicans’ school funding plan.

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Is downtown safe? Ask two business owners who reached different conclusions. Feb 27, 2023

One of the most persistent questions about downtown Indianapolis since its 1980s resurgence has been, “Is downtown safe?” In the Feb. 17 issue of IBJ, reporters Mickey Shuey and Taylor Wooten presented statistics for violent and nonviolent crime indicating that downtown remains one of the city’s safest areas, in particular in terms of crimes per capita.

Here’s the rub: Statistics often don’t matter as much as perception. And good luck quoting statistics to someone who has been the victim of a crime. Since safety is a prime concern of business owners and executives whose operations are based downtown, IBJ Podcast host Mason King spoke to two entrepreneurs who have drawn different conclusions about downtown safety and made very different decisions about their downtown operations.

Greg Harris is the founder of Backhaul Direct, and Andrew Elsener is a co-founder of Spot (formerly known as Spot Freight). Harris decided to pack up and relocate Backhaul Direct’s offices to Fishers after being attacked downtown and hearing other employee concerns about safety. Meanwhile, Elsener decided to open an additional office downtown—although he has concerns about incidents of theft and the shaky state of some downtown infrastructure. In fact, Elsener recently moved his entire family to the Mile Square, just a block north of Monument Circle.

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Downtown fixture Wheeler Mission on verge of big transition Feb 17, 2023

Wheeler Mission has been an integral part of downtown for more than 100 years and is intrinsically linked to quality of life issues and downtown’s image. It’s now in the middle of its first leadership transition in 33 years.

When Rick Alvis became president and CEO in 1990, Wheeler Mission had 17 employees and an annual budget of about $700,000. Today, it has about 200 employees and an annual budget of nearly $20 million. On any given night, it provides shelter for about 550 people, which is about a third of all people experiencing homelessness in Indianapolis. And it’s widely known for its shelter services—to the chagrin of some downtown residents—although those services account for just one spoke in a four-pronged strategy to help men, women and children get the basic services they need, acquire job skills, move to stable housing and eventually become self-sufficient.

Now 70 years old, Alvis is retiring soon and helping ease the transition for his successor, Perry Hines, who became Wheeler’s chief development officer in 2021. In this week’s edition of the IBJ Podcast, Alvis and Hines discuss Wheeler’s evolution over the last three decades, perceptions of Wheeler in the community, perceptions of the homeless population downtown in recent years and why they think it’s important that Wheeler remain based downtown.

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He stitched handbags in his Irvington basement, and now it’s a $1M business Feb 13, 2023

In his mid-20s, Christian Resiak decided to learn how to hand-stitch leather handbags. He went to thrift stores, bought all of the leather jackets he could find and set up a workspace in his basement. He sold his first bag on Etsy within a month. He called his fledgling company Howl + Hide, partly in reference to his talkative Siberian Husky. Eight years later, Resiak has built Howl + Hide into a million-dollar business with 17 employees without the help of any investors or bank financing.
Howl + Hide’s flagship location in Fountain Square doubles as its main retail site—where it sells a wide variety of handbags, tote bags, duffels, keychains and wallets—and its main production facility. But that will change in the near future as Resiak plans to at least double his employee base and double—maybe triple—his sales this year, with some partnerships with national brands on the way. In conversation with podcast host Mason King, Resiak details the process of building the business from scratch and his grand plan to become a global brand.

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She went from a master’s in social work to tech firm CEO Feb 06, 2023

Amy Brown is the founder and CEO of Indianapolis-based Authenticx Inc., one of the hottest technology firms the state. Despite the national slowdown in venture capital funding in 2022, Authenticx raised $20 million just before the end of the year. That’s almost $30 million total since Brown founded the firm in 2018, which speaks to investor confidence in the idea behind Authenticx as well as the management team’s level of experience and ability to execute.

But Brown took a very unusual route to becoming a first-time entrepreneur in her early 40s. As an undergrad at Indiana University, she earned a bachelor’s degree in human development and family studies. She then earned a master’s of social work in policy and program administration. She had several jobs with a focus on health care policy and health insurance programs. Before deciding to take the leap to create Autheticx, she was the chief operating office for a Carmel-based travel insurance firm.

It was there that the idea for Authenticx took shape: A company that could collect all of the feedback that health care companies get from their clients and suss out major weaknesses in the customer experience. The health care companies, such as pharmaceutical firms, insurers or medical care providers, could then use all of the data about their customers and their concerns to improve the bottom line.

In this week’s edition of the IBJ Podcast, Brown discusses what it took to bootstrap Authenticx and get it off the ground, including her desire to inspire her four children. She also sheds light on the experience of persuading venture capitalists to invest in Authenticx, including one distinction in her presentations that she said was invaluable.
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A look back at celebrated Indy jazz guitarist Wes Montgomery Jan 30, 2023

Celebrated jazz guitarist Wes Montgomery was born 100 years ago in Indianapolis and spent much of his career here, recording and performing on Indiana Avenue, sometimes with his brothers and often with some of the greatest jazz, soul and even pop musicians of his generation.

Montgomery died in 1968 at just 45 years old. But during his relatively short career, he won two Grammy Awards and was routinely selected as the top guitarist in Down Beat magazine polls, five times by critics in the 1960s and four times by readers.

We’re turning today’s episode of the podcast over to IBJ arts writer Dave Lindquist for an exploration of the ways that Wes Montgomery was an innovator of jazz guitar, why fellow guitarists continue to find inspiration in his playing 55 years after his death and how he was one of many world-class musicians to emerge from the Indiana Avenue jazz scene in the 1940s and ’50s.

Joining Dave for the conversation are Rob Dixon, a saxophone player and artistic director of the Indianapolis Jazz Foundation. And Lasana Kazembe, a poet, teaching artist and assistant professor of education at IUPUI.

Rob and Lasana will celebrate Montgomery’s legacy during a May 13 special event at The Cabaret, where Kazembe serves as the venue’s first artist in residence. The event is titled “In Our Own Sweet Way: Honoring the Artistic Legacy of Wes Montgomery.”

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Internet banking pioneer Becker has bucket list but isn’t going anywhere Jan 23, 2023

David Becker is considered one of the godfathers of the Indiana technology ecosystem, having started and sold several tech firms over the past four decades. But he’s probably best known for his current effort, which broke new ground in an entire tech sector. In 1999, he launched First Internet Bank of Indiana, an online-only bank that offered typical bank services without needing to maintain any physical branches.

First Internet Bank recently passed $4 billion in assets. Becker is 69 years old and says he has no plans to hand over the reins of CEO and chairman, given that developing new products and services for the bank scratches his entrepreneurial itch. In this week’s edition of the IBJ Podcast, Becker has a wide-ranging conversation with host Mason King, jumping from his motorcycle-trip bucket list to what he’s done to make the bank’s new headquarters in Fishers attractive to employees while the corporate world wrangles with the trend of working from home.

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Jeff Wood’s white-knuckle ride from F-16 pilot to head of Tom Wood Automotive Jan 16, 2023

Tom Wood Automotive Group is one of the best-known family businesses in central Indiana, with more than a dozen car dealerships and 1,000 employees. But relatively few people have heard of Jeff Wood, who took over the company after Tom Wood, his father, died from lung cancer in 2010.

Jeff Wood grew up in central Indiana and worked in the family business for a while, but he found his calling in the United States Air Force. He served for 20 years as a combat pilot who flew F-16s. As nerve-wracking as it might be to fly an armed aircraft at 1,400 miles per hour at an altitude of 40,000 feet, Jeff Wood wasn’t entirely prepared for the white-knuckle ride of taking over a huge family business at the request of his father.

It's been more than a dozen years since Jeff Wood became company president, and he has used that time to diversify Tom Wood Automotive Group—often following his own interests to see where they lead. In this week’s edition of the IBJ Podcast, he discusses his dad, flying F-16s and the hair-raising transition to company leader in 2010. It’s been a tough year for the car sales industry, and Wood provides an insider’s look and a sense of how the group is trying to ride out the turbulence. And he provides a 30,000-foot view of this sprawling conglomerate and how he has been able to keep aviation in his life—flying as often as once per week.

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Digging into Salesforce’s ‘restructuring’ and what it could mean for Indianapolis Jan 09, 2023

On Wednesday, global tech giant Salesforce revealed in a sparse regulatory filing that it planned to lay off about 10% of its employees companywide. The reason, in a nutshell: Salesforce hired too many people during a recent period of massive growth, and customers now are cutting back on spending in the uncertain economic environment. And speaking of uncertainty, cities with a significant Salesforce presence were left with many questions, since the firm declined to provide any more details about the layoffs than what was in the filing.

The company has about 80,000 employees worldwide, about 2,300 of which work in Indianapolis, where its operations are based in the 48-story Salesforce Tower. Although the company is about as high-profile as you can get in Indianapolis, one suspects many local folks are only vaguely familiar with what the company does here and why it’s an important part of the technology ecosystem.
For this week’s edition of the IBJ Podcast, host Mason King and reporters Susan Orr and Mickey Shuey discuss what they’ve learned so far about the restructuring. It's not just a tech story: Salesforce has revealed, somewhat cryptically, that it also plans to shrink its real estate footprint, which could have serious ramifications for Indianapolis’ premier office tower. It all sounds ominous for downtown, which is still trying to recover from the effects of the pandemic on its urban workforce.

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Jeff Smulyan talks radio, owning a baseball team and David Letterman Jan 03, 2023

IBJ reporter Dave Lindquist, in this week for Mason King, talks with Emmis Corp. founder Jeff Smulyan about his 2022 memoir “Never Ride a Roller Coaster Upside Down: The Ups, Downs and Reinvention of an Entrepreneur”

The book—which he wrote at his daughter’s urging—caps a year of tremendous transition for Smulyan, whose roster of former employees includes David Letterman, Mike Pence, Isaac Hayes and Ken Griffey Jr.

Emmis sold four Indianapolis radio stations and Indianapolis Monthly magazine in 2022, ending the company’s four-decade run as a media powerhouse. Although Emmis still owns two radio stations in New York City, the company is now focused on three assets it has in the fields of e-commerce, ergonomics and corporate podcasting.

Lindquist talks with Smulyan about his career, his successes and some of his initiatives that didn’t go so well, including NextRadio—a costly effort to make mobile phones act like smart portable radios that never took off.

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Shari Jenkins of Noah Grant’s, Salty Cowboy on taking a third leap Dec 19, 2022

Given what we know about inflation and the chances for a recession, you could assume this isn’t the best time to start a business that depends on consumer discretionary spending.

Shari Jenkins isn’t too concerned. She’s the restauranteur behind the Zionsville mainstays Noah Grant’s Grill House & Oyster Bar and Salty Cowboy Tequileria. She’s now in the process of opening a new restaurant in Zionsville that’s designed to make patrons feel like they’re on vacation and don’t have a care in the world. It’s called Tipsy Mermaid Conch House & Cocktails, and getting it open this spring will require a seven-figure startup investment.

Jenkins has faith in her customer base in her native city of Zionsville. Their support helped keep Noah Grant’s going during the Great Recession, and patrons remained loyal to both of her restaurants during the worst of the pandemic. Jenkins also overcame a devastating fire at the original Noah Grant’s during a key period in which she was relocating the restaurant to a new spot in Zionsville. Fears of a mild recession don’t give her much pause.

IBJ reporter Daniel Bradley featured the plans for Tipsy Mermaid in the latest issue of IBJ, and Jenkins joined IBJ Podcast host Mason King for a deeper conversation about her emergence as a restauranteur after working as a teacher in Indianapolis Public Schools. She also explains how she surmounted a litany of obstacles over the last 14 years, although elevated food costs continue to be a problem.

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Pete the Planner on making the best of a terrible year for investments Dec 12, 2022

This is the time of year, for better or worse, that we usually take stock of our investments and either count our blessings or lick our wounds. Sad to say, there hasn’t been a year when traditional equity investments—aka the stock market—have behaved this poorly since 2008, and we all know what happened there.

Of course, 2022 can’t compare to the financial meltdown and Great Recession, but that doesn’t take any of the sting out of seeing your portfolio slip 20 percent into the red. IBJ personal finance columnist Pete the Planner is in the same boat and isn’t looking forward to his annual financial review on New Year’s Eve, but Pete does have a pocket full of silver linings to pull out.

Markets go down and then they go up. It’s a healthy cycle. To benefit from the cycle, you need to make sure that you are taking advantage of opportunities to save money and eliminate. In the podcast this week, Pete shares the questions he asks himself at the end of every year to make sure he’s positioning himself for success. It all boils down to a concept Pete calls the “power percentage,” which he will explain. And he also ventures to make a few optimistic predictions for 2023.

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Former budget hawk flips role, makes case for big increase in state health spending Dec 05, 2022

No one disputes that Indiana residents rank very low among all Americans in terms of their health. The operative question, which will be posed to Indiana legislators in their budget-writing session beginning next month, is to what extent the state should try to intervene and do something about it.

Last year, Gov. Eric Holcomb convened a special commission to conduct the first comprehensive assessment of Indiana’s public health system in more than three decades. It was co-chaired by former state senator Luke Kenley, the chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee from 2009 to 2017 and one of the most powerful holders of state purse strings for many years.

This summer, the commission released its findings and recommendations. Its overarching proposal is that the state increase annual public health funding from about $55 per person—which ranks 48th in terms of state funding per capita in the nation—to $91 per person. That would cost another $242.6 million a year.

Kenley’s job now is to convince skeptical state legislators that this added expenditure is worth it. In this week’s edition of the IBJ Podcast, Kenley discusses his strategy, as well as why the state’s public health spending has been so relatively meager up to this point. And he’s joined by Dr. Kristina Box, Indiana state health commissioner, to discuss the need to improve the health of Hoosiers and how best to deploy the proposed annual injection of $242.6 million.

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Indy-based airline charting path to more diverse workforce Nov 21, 2022

The U.S. airline industry isn’t just short of the pilots needed to meet travel demand. The demographic makeup of the industry’s pilot workforce remains overwhelmingly male and white.

Indianapolis-based Republic Airways, one of the largest regional airlines in America, has a vested interest in trying to stock its talent pipeline—not just with pilots but for other aviation careers as well, including maintenance. And Republic has made a concerted effort in recent years to recruit more women and people of color and to eliminate barriers that might stand in the way of successful careers at the company.

The airline’s initiatives include a three-day aviation career summit that in October attracted 1,100 attendees—including 750 students of color—from across the state. Republic is also in in the process of launching a campaign to raise $24 million to help 300 central Indiana students of color start careers in aviation.

For this week’s edition of the IBJ Podcast, host Mason King is joined by Rob Lowe, Republic’s vice president of people and culture, and Alisha Spires, senior manager of talent acquisition for pilot recruiting, to discuss the barriers that women and people of color face when they consider aviation careers, and what Republic is doing to widen those horizons.

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Could Nashville steal Indy’s conventions-and-events thunder with new stadium? Nov 14, 2022

The convention and events business that downtown Indianapolis has worked so hard to develop over recent decades has recovered fairly well from the worst days of the pandemic. But there’s a new competitor on the horizon.

Nashville, Tennessee—a fellow NFL city that also has positioned its downtown for tourism—is on the brink of building a new football stadium downtown with a covered roof. As we know in Indianapolis, a stadium with a roof gives your city a lot more flexibility in attracting and staging major events—for sports, concerts and conventions. And Nashville officials have been clear that they’ll be going after events that Indianapolis currently hosts or traditionally is in the hunt to host.

In this week’s edition of the IBJ Podcast, reporter IBJ’s Mickey Shuey tries to gauge the potential impact on Indianapolis of having a tougher competitor for some of the city’s bread-and-butter business.

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Four races to watch on Election Day Nov 07, 2022

Although the White House isn’t up for grabs during the U.S. midterm elections on Tuesday, there are candidates for federal, state and local positions on the ballot that affect central Indiana residents in any number of ways.
U.S. Sen. Todd Young, a Republican, is defending his seat from Tom McDermott, the Democratic mayor of Hammond, and Libertarian candidate James Sceniak, a behavioral therapist. Some polls have shown the race between Young and McDermott to be surprisingly close, given Young’s name recognition and massive advantage in fundraising.

On the state level, there’s a headline-grabbing contest between Republican Diego Morales and Democrat Destiny Wells for secretary of state. Morales has been hit by several troubling allegations in recent months, including accusations of sexual misconduct and embellishing his military record.
There’s a fascinating race shaping up in Indiana Senate District 31, which includes the Geist area, Lawrence and the city of Fishers. The incumbent, Republican Kyle Walker, has outraised Democrat opponent Jocelyn Vare many times over, but at least one poll shows this race as a toss-up.

And in Indianapolis, Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears, a Democrat, faces a tough challenge from Republican Cyndi Carrasco. She claims Mears has been soft on violent criminals and she has raised an impressive amount of money to get her message out.
For this week’s edition of the IBJ Podcast, host Mason King is joined by two colleagues from the IBJ newsroom to dig deeper into the four races: Peter Blanchard, who covers politics and state government, and Greg Weaver, IBJ’s government and politics editor.

The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

Ben Lytle on navigating coming disruptions in tech, culture Oct 31, 2022

The guest for this week’s IBJ Podcast is Ben Lytle, whom longtime residents will remember as the former CEO of Indianapolis-based health insurer Anthem. He captained the strategy that turned Anthem into one of the largest health insurers in the nation and a publicly traded firm on the New York Stock Exchange. He also founded, took public and sold the insurance brokerage Accordia.

But don’t think of Lytle as a career corporate guy. He started his career as an expert in technology and information systems. He’s an entrepreneur at heart and in recent years has co-founded two companies with his son Hugh—both related to health care.

But he’s not interested in talking about the past. He wants to discuss the next 30 years, a period he expects to be filled with mind-boggling changes in the ways we work and live. The pace of life will continue to accelerate and become more turbulent. He says institutions such as government, education, religion, news media and corporate America will be disrupted and become less reliable. So he has written a book titled “The Potentialist: Your Future in the New Reality of the Next 30 Years.” Its purpose is to help us—and especially people at the beginning of their careers—develop the skills and mindset necessary to succeed in that environment.

He joined podcast host Mason King to discuss the book and how we can thrive alongside incredible change as we live longer, work longer and develop more intimate relationships with technology.

The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

Pete The Planner has a frank message on accepting your future demise Oct 24, 2022

IBJ columnist and frequent IBJ Podcast guest Pete “The Planner” Dunn had a piece in the Oct. 14 issue with an uncharacteristically sharp rebuke for a reader who was woefully uninsured. IBJ Podcast host Mason King took it to heart, because he has long avoided getting life insurance, despite being in his 50s, married and the father of a 6-year-old.

But he is far from alone in wanting to avoid acknowledging the need to plan for one’s own demise. Dunn’s take is that life insurance is the foundation of good financial planning, as well as being a good spouse and parent. In the latest edition of the IBJ Podcast, King and Dunn dive into some the big questions that usually come up when one finally addresses this dark elephant in the room, including how much life insurance is necessary.

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Rahal, Frye on why race teams are investing now Oct 17, 2022

Three of IndyCar’s most prominent teams—Andretti Autosport, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing and Arrow McLaren SP—are investing a total of $250 million to expand their operations and add as many as 750 jobs in central Indiana.

In this week’s podcast, IBJ reporter Mickey Shuey takes on hosting duties and talks with IndyCar President Jay Frye and Rahal Letterman Lanigan co-owner Bobby Rahal about why teams are investing now and what it says about the state of racing globally and in the Indianapolis area.

But Shuey starts by talking with IBJ reporter Daniel Bradley to get the details about the teams’ expansions, which are taking place in the suburbs north of Indianapolis that he covers.

For more, read the story Shuey and Bradley wrote about IndyCar investments for the Oct. 14 issue of IBJ.

The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

Program hopes to reduce infant mortality in Indy by focusing on housing Oct 10, 2022

Recent studies from across the country have helped solidify the link between housing instability—for example, substandard conditions, homelessness or needing to move regularly—and poor infant health. In a pilot program based in Ohio called Healthy Beginnings at Home, organizers wanted to test the impact of providing pregnant women struggling to find stable homes with rental assistance and other services to secure their housing situations. In the group of mothers in the pilot program, there were no infant deaths, and there were more full-term healthy births than in a control group. The pilot group also saw shorter stays in neo-natal intensive care and a reduced need for emergency health care.

The Indiana University Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health at IUPUI has received a five-year, $2.4 million federal grant to launch an initiative to reduce Indianapolis’ infant mortality rate. And it specifically will address housing instability. Called the Housing Equity for Infant Health Initiative, the program will provide support for pregnant women and mothers with infants under 1 year old. The organizers then will evaluate the program’s impact on birth outcomes and health care costs.

CareSource, a not-for-profit that provides health care insurance coverage through public programs including Medicaid and Medicare, was a key participant in the Ohio-based pilot of Healthy Beginnings at Home. It is also a key player in bringing Healthy Beginnings at Home to this Initiative in Indianapolis. A second major piece of the initiative is focused on health justice. Led by the Indiana Justice Project, it will combine legal education, direct legal services, strategic litigation, and advocacy to improve both housing stability and housing conditions for pregnant Hoosiers.

In this week’s edition of the IBJ Podcast, host Mason King digs into the details with two guests: Dr. Cameual Wright, an OBGYN and vice president and market chief medical officer with CareSource; and Jack E. Turman Jr. He’s the director of the Housing Equity for Infant Health Initiative and the Grassroots Maternal and Child Health Initiative, as well as a professor in the Fairbanks School of Public Health. They cover the link between unstable housing and poor infant health, the difficulty in quantifying the extent of the problem, and the hope that the initiative will lead to larger efforts across the state.

The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

GangGang’s founders on promoting art, equity and Indy culture Oct 03, 2022

In just two years, the arts and culture startup known as Gang Gang has become one of the most influential and active producers of events in Indianapolis, promoting the creative economy and the concept of equity. The founders are Malina Simone Jeffers and Alan Bacon, working from the precept that creative people of color continue to be underrepresented and underrecognized for their contributions to culture. GangGang means to change that. The group wants to bring these artists to the forefront, but everyone is welcome to collaborate.

In this week’s edition of the IBJ Podcast, guest host Dave Lindquist asks Jeffers and Bacon about the impact of “We. The Culture: Works by the Eighteen Art Collective,” a ground-breaking exhibit curated by GangGang that debuted last month at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. They discuss Butter 2, the second edition of GangGang’s fine art festival featuring work by Black visual artists. They also touch on the blueprint that GangGang is creating for stimulating the creative economy, why the group is trying to raise $500,000 by the end of the year, and what they foresee for GangGang over the next five years.

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Butler’s Barry Collier on longevity, competing in Big East and hiring Thad Matta Sep 26, 2022

To the extent Butler University has become a known quantity at the national level, we can thank its basketball program. Since 2006, the Bulldogs have earned seeds in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament 10 times, including reaching the national championship final twice. That 16-year period also coincides with the tenure of Barry Collier as Butler’s athletic director. He didn’t need an introduction to Bulldog fans when he was hired for the job, since he had coached the basketball team from 1989 to 2000, earning three NCAA tournament appearances. During that stretch, he was Horizon League Coach of the Year four times.

Over the past 16 years, Collier also has presided over an aggressive push into higher levels of competition, jumping from the Horizon League to the Atlantic 10 in 2012, and then to the Big East in 2013. Since then, Butler has invested tens of millions of dollars in renovating or building athletic facilities for a broad range of sports, with the cost largely picked up by donors. And in fact, Collier has enjoyed particular success since 2006 increasing the number of donors and the amounts they give to Butler athletics.

In the latest edition of the IBJ Podcast, host Mason King asks Collier, now 68, whether he plans to retire soon. That leads o a conversation about long-term goals, his success in fundraising and improving Butler athletic facilities, and Butler’s transition to the Big East. He looks to the past, including what he learned from Butler coaching legend Tony Hinkle, and to the future and his expectations for Butler basketball this year with the return of Thad Matta as head coach.

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Whiskey a-go-go: How Hotel Tango went from Fletcher Place to 25 states Sep 19, 2022

In 2013, the Indiana Legislature created a path for artisan distillers to produce and sell spirits to the public by the glass, bottle or case. The hope was to start a micro-distilling industry in Indiana, and one of the first businesses to take the leap was called Hotel Tango Distillery. It was co-founded by husband-and-wife attorneys Travis and Hilary Barnes. With the help of a handful of investors, they opened a production facility and tasting room in an early 20th century carriage house in the Fletcher Place neighborhood.

In eight years, it has grown to three tasting rooms in Indiana and retail sales in 25 states and on 120 military bases around the world. For 2022, Travis Barnes expects total sales of about $6 million.

Travis is a former Marine who served in the elite special operations Reconnaissance force. He enlisted right after 9/11, and it turned out to be a life-changing experience, going well beyond the serious injuries he suffered in Iraq. A lot of what he learned in the military is encoded in the values and processes of Hotel Tango. In this week’s edition of the IBJ Podcast, he discusses Hotel Tango’s creation, its rocketing sales and how one of the state’s first micro-distilleries could establish such a big footprint in less than a decade.

The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

Indianapolis, suburbs banding together to free up more state road funding Sep 11, 2022

Indianapolis leaders have pleaded with state lawmakers for decades to change the state’s formula for funding local roads, which they say shows favoritism to rural counties with sparse traffic. When the state determines how much funding to pass along, it counts streets, roads and thoroughfares by their length. So, for example, a one-mile stretch of a two-lane road in rural Parke County would carry the same weight as a one-mile stretch of the six-lane Keystone Avenue on the north side of Indianapolis. City officials would prefer the funding formula place greater importance on traffic volume and an area’s population.
But there’s new hope leaders in the Indianapolis area can persuade Indiana lawmakers to make some changes. Suburban mayors in cities like Carmel, Fishers and Greenwood are becoming acutely aware that that the state’s funding mechanisms put their municipalities at a disadvantage.
The cities are banding together in hopes their collective voice will be heard during next year’s General Assembly. In a conversation with IBJ Podcast host Mason King, IBJ reporter Peter Blanchard discusses the state formula and the potential that legislators would be receptive to funding charges.

Indiana Fever’s president on team’s 5-31 season and strategy for rebuilding Sep 06, 2022

The Indiana Fever just endured its worst season since joining the WNBA in 2000. On Aug. 14, it finished the season on an 18-game losing streak, posting a record of 5-31.

The Fever won the WNBA title 10 years ago, but the team hasn’t made the playoffs since 2016. It also hopes to see a major turnaround in attendance. Due to ongoing renovations at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, the team hosted home games in three arenas last season, and its average home crowd fell to about 1,800 fans. That’s roughly a quarter of what it drew in the mid-2010s.

In 2019, Allison Barber was named president and chief operating officer of the Fever, which already was in rebuild mode. Since then, the team has won roughly a quarter of its games. Barber has an impressive resume that includes significant communications and community relations positions at the American Red Cross, White House and Department of Defense. Prior to joining the Fever, she was chancellor of Western Governors University Indiana.

In this week’s edition of the IBJ Podcast, host Mason King asks Barber why progress on the court has been so slow in coming. And Barber shares her take on the 2022 season, the franchise’s new rebuild strategy, her top priorities in the off-season and the challenges of leading an organization mired in a rough transition.

The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

Pete the Planner: Money lessons for your kids (and refreshers for adults) Aug 29, 2022

We want our kids to learn how money and personal finances work at a fairly early age so they learn how to make smart decisions. IBJ happens to have a good resource for this bit of childhood development: personal finance columnist Pete Dunn, aka Pete the Planner. He has two kids, ages 10 and 13, and has spent several years trying to imprint them with economic wisdom. IBJ Podcast host Mason King has a 6-year-old with a keen interest in money, so he has turned to Pete for his advice in this week’s edition of the podcast.

There are two kinds of advice here. There is the practical, mechanical side of money: yeaching your kids how to make money, how to save it, how to spend it, how to invest it and how to earn interest. Pete has been guiding his daughter through hands-on experiences with money since at least the age of 7, as she buys shares of stock, starts internet businesses and helps pay the family’s mortgage every month. The other kind of advice is more about values. How should you handle debt? How much should you rely on your family for financial help? Is becoming rich, by itself, a worthwhile goal? Is the experience of a teen working a regular job more or less valuable than trying to burnish a college resume with sports and academics?

In the end, a lot of this advice is just as appropriate for adults.

The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

How do you solve a problem like Monument Circle? Aug 22, 2022

Monument Circle is the heart of Indianapolis—and has been since the town of Indianapolis was platted in 1821. Unfortunately, the Circle is subject to the same wear and tear as any street.

In the 1970s, its surface—both the street and the adjacent sidewalks—were replaced by red bricks. As a nod to the Circle’s historic status, bricks are terrific. But those bricks must continually be replaced, which is a constant challenge for the city. More recently, it has become evident that the very foundation of the Circle below those bricks needs to be replaced. What’s more—the conventional wisdom for more than a decade has been that we could do more to make the Circle more attractive, more pedestrian-friendly and more conducive to public gatherings.

In 2014, the Ballard administration plotted a complete rebuild of the streets and sidewalks of Monument Circle and its four main spokes on Meridian and Market streets. The cost—$54 million—was prohibitive.
The city has since embarked on similar projects along East and West Market Streets, which officials hope can serve as a kind of proof of concept for a Monument Circle redo. The Hogsett administration has dusted off the Ballard plan and is strategizing how to turn it into reality. It very likely will require a mix of city, state and federal funds, plus perhaps some philanthropic assistance, to the tune of $60 million.

A circle seems like a simple shape, but this is a very complex puzzle for city officials. For this week’s edition of the IBJ Podcast, Dan Parker, director of the Indianapolis Department of Public Works, talks with host Mason King about the direction the city is taking and what roadblocks could be in the way.

The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

Cake Bake Shop founder living Disney dream, but ‘leveraged’ Aug 15, 2022

It’s no small achievement that Gwendolyn Rogers correctly predicted that Hoosiers would pay a pretty penny for high-end baked goods in an environment right out of “Cinderella.” In 2014, she opened The Cake Bake Shop in Broad Ripple, transforming a free-standing home on the north side of the village into a kind of confectioner’s paradise, populated with sparking accents and a cozy but high-end aesthetic. It offered regular table service, topped off with towering and indulgent cakes—including the deluxe chocolate cake she used to win the London Cake & Bake Show in 2013.

In 2019, she opened a second Cake Bake Shop in Carmel. And in April of this year she announced that a longtime dream of hers had come true: The Walt Disney World Resort revealed that a Cake Bake Shop would open next year at Disney’s BoardWalk.

But there’s a lot more to the Cake Bake story than the new location. Rogers has put a lot on the line over the last eight years to establish and grow the brand, including a hefty financial commitment. She was saved during the pandemic by a relationship with Williams Sonoma that made her cakes available on the high-end retailer’s website. In eight years, she has gone from a single employee to nearly 190. But as she tells host Mason King in this week’s edition of the IBJ Podcast, she dreamed of opening in Disney World even before launching the Broad Ripple store.

The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

After triple-bypass surgery, Chuck Lofton is doubling down on extending TV news career Aug 08, 2022

Chuck Lofton was hired as a weather forecaster and anchor for WTHR Channel 13’s “Sunrise” morning show when it debuted in 1985. He since has survived any number of severe weather events, including tracking tornados, as well as the notoriously fickle TV news business.

But in March, he had a big health scare, followed by triple-bypass heart surgery and a two-month recovery off the air. At 65, he would seem to be a prime candidate for winding up his career and taking it easy. But in some ways, he is healthier now than he was five years ago, and he’s enjoying the work more as well. At one point he assumed that 65 would be the end of his career, but now his attitude is much more open-ended.

In this week’s edition of the IBJ Podcast, Lofton chats with host Mason King about his longevity in the TV news business; the offers he’s had—but not taken—to move up from the Indianapolis market; the close shaves he has experienced in the field; and whether there is room on local TV news to talk about the politically charged topic of climate change.

The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

Former school board member now drives bus for district Aug 01, 2022

Tony Dzwonar had just wrapped up three consecutive terms on the Washington Township school board—serving from 2008 to late 2020—and was looking for a way to spend his extra free time. He remembered that the district –like most school corporations—needed bus drivers.

He received the required training and a commercial driver’s license before becoming one of about 100 district bus drivers in fall 2021. He worked daily, running two or three routes in the southeastern portion of the district that included elementary children, middle schoolers and high school students.

In the latest edition of the IBJ Podcast, Dzwonar tells host Mason King about what he learned waking up at 5 a.m. every school day and getting behind the wheel of a 40-foot bus. He explains how he dealt with his most disruptive students as a newbie driver. He also shares his new street-level perspective of the district and how it gave him insight into the impact of at least one of the school board’s student-focused initiatives.

The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

The audacious challenge of choosing leaders for the inaugural Indiana 250 Jul 24, 2022

IBJ Media last week released its inaugural Indiana 250, a list of the most influential and impactful business and community leaders in Indiana.

The list — researched and developed by IBJ, Indiana Lawyer and Inside INdiana Business — includes CEOs, philanthropists, entrepreneurs, attorneys, economic development officials and more from across the state.

Host Mason King talks with IBJ Media CEO Nate Feltman and IBJ Editor Lesley Weidenbener, who oversaw production of the Indiana 250, about the goal of the program and the challenge of choosing the honorees.

The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

The state has $6.1B in reserves. What will lawmakers do with it? Jul 18, 2022

Lawmakers are preparing to return to the Statehouse next week for a special session that will focus on two key issues: abortion and how to spend some of the state’s $6.1 billion the state has in reserves.

That's right—$6.1 billion. That huge balance in the state's reserve accounts is the result of higher than expected tax receipts as well as pandemic relief money the federal government sent to the state. Gov. Eric Holcomb wants lawmakers to send some of that money back to Hoosiers in the form of $225 tax refund checks.

In this week's podcast, IBJ Editor Lesley Weidenbener—in for vacationing host Mason King—talks about the upcoming session with Peter Blanchard, IBJ’s new Statehouse reporter, and managing editor Greg Weaver, who has spent much of his career writing about and editor reporters who cover politics.

The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

Pete The Planner: ‘The best thing you can do right now is stop spending money’ Jul 11, 2022

Americans are back in the throes of financial anxiety. Folks with most of their savings in the stock market have been in the profoundly uncomfortable position of watching their portfolios lose 20% to 25% of their value since the beginning of the year. Gas is still near its all-time high and is continuing to play a major factor in skyrocketing inflation. And most experts agree that if we’re not already in a recession, there’s still a very good chance we’ll get stuck in one soon.

IBJ Podcast host Mason King calls on frequent guest Peter Dunn—aka Pete The Planner—to give listeners a pep talk, or at least some straight talk about what’s happening and what to expect. He hits the major topics from inflation to recession, as well as the strategies for riding out the latest fiscal downturn such as gas-tax holidays and Fed rate increases.

To be frank, Pete’s major takeaway is a return to frugality. And be ready for more anxiety this fall, when we really start to feel the restrictions of recession.

The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

What lies beneath downtown’s Diamond Chain site? Jul 04, 2022

IBJ reporter Mickey Shuey broke the story last month that Indy Eleven majority owner Ersal Ozdemir has purchased the Diamond Chain industrial site downtown to be home to Eleven Park, a mixed-use development that is to include a 20,000-seat soccer stadium.

Shuey joins the IBJ Podcast this week to discuss the Diamond Chain site, which is located at the corner of South and West streets downtown, and what sorts of surprises it might hold for the development.

Of course, there's the usual concerns about environmental impacts that come with any industrial site. But this particular spot was also the city's first burial ground. Shuey and podcast host Mason King dive into the details.

The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

Ryan Vaughn talks sports, the tech sector and whether he might ever run for mayor Jun 27, 2022

Ryan Vaughn has spent the past eight years leading the Indiana Sports Corp., a job that requires constant work attracting big sports events to the city and then pulling them off once they arrive. The goal is to always have a pipeline of events coming to help bolster the region's tourism industry and economy overall.

IBJ reporter Mickey Shuey (in for vacationing host Mason King) talks with Vaughn about what he's learned during his time in the post and why he's leaving to take a job in the tech sector.

Plus, Shuey presses Vaughn about the challenge the next Indiana Sports Corp. president will face—and whether Vaughn might someday run for mayor.

The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

Examining the $175M plan for downtown’s City Market block Jun 20, 2022

The city has endorsed a $175 million proposal from two Indianapolis-based developers to significantly recast the entire block that contains the Indianapolis City Market.

The proposal from Gershman Partners and Citimark included the following: A $90 million redevelopment of the Gold Building (which is the 9thlargest office complex downtown) into an apartment building with 350 units and an entirely new façade with a darker, more neutral color.

Next up: Construction of a $40 million, 11-story apartment building with 60 units, plus office and retail space, on the site where the market’s east wing currently sits. Next, $30 million in ongoing improvements to the 11-story office building at 251 E. Ohio, and $12 million in improvements to the parking garage that’s between 251 E. Ohio and the Gold Building, which are all on the northern half of the block.

For this week’s edition of the podcast, host Mason king talks with Scarlett Andrews, director of the Indianapolis Department of Metropolitan Development, and Eric Gershman, principal at Gershman Partners, about the project and the timeline.

Is a funding slowdown hitting the local tech sector? Jun 13, 2022

The amount of venture capital invested into Indiana-based tech companies was down overall in the first quarter of the year—despite several recent announcements. That tracks with national trends, and has local venture firms urging their portfolio companies to think about ways to make their cash last longer.

IBJ tech reporter Susan Orr talked with local tech firms and venture funders about the trends and tells host Mason King about their concerns and expectations.

But Orr said there’s plenty of optimism about the area’s tech sector. And she offers a reminder that sometime slowdowns help weed out weaker companies while making others stronger.

You can read Orr’s story at IBJ.com.

Inside the risk-taking mindset of Maven Space’s co-founder, CEO Jun 05, 2022

The name Leslie Bailey might ring a bell. She was a reporter for The Indianapolis Star from 2012 to 2016 and penned a regular column titled "The Adventuress." She’d jump into some new sport or activity or an unusual situation and write about it. As she discusses in the latest edition of the IBJ Podcast, taking risks is in her DNA.

In 2019, Bailey and business partner Amanda Kingsbury co-founded Indy Maven, a lifestyle website and membership organization focused on providing a wide variety of content and networking resources for women. As Bailey learned more from the women who were consuming the content and pursuing networking opportunities, she realized that the next obvious move was to create a physical space that could serve that community.

So she and another partner co-founded Maven Space, which at heart is a co-working space—again, primarily intended for women—but also offers an abundance of amenities including a full gym, a podcast studio and a room for new mothers. This was a much bigger risk, which entailed digging deeply into her personal savings and getting a zero-interest credit card for charging necessary expenses.

Maven Space opened in mid-May. Bailey was fortunate to find a space to sublease in downtown's historic Gibson building that already was outfitted with many of the features she wanted to offer. But the sublease is up in about two years, meaning a new set of important decisions is waiting just over the horizon.

In this week’s edition of the podcast, Bailey discusses her approach to entrepreneurism, which some would describe as building the plane while you’re trying to fly it. She readily admits that she wouldn’t necessarily advise other new entrepreneurs to take the same path. But, as she says, she believes in the idea and wasn’t interested in the time and energy needed to try to find investors when women-led businesses historically get so little attention from funders.
The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

What Indiana’s auto industry must do to adapt to EVs May 31, 2022

Carmaker Stellantis NV made big news in Indiana last week when it announced it will build a $2.5 billion electric-vehicle battery plant in Kokomo with partner Samsung SDI. The plant—which is expected to employ 1,400 people—is one step in a fledgling transition in the auto industry from vehicles with internal combustion engines to those with electric motors.

But what does that transition mean for a state like Indiana, which has five vehicle assembly plants and more than 500 auto industry suppliers. In all, more than 110,000 people are employed by the auto industry.

Podcast host Mason King talks with Ananth Iyer, a professor of management at Purdue’s Krannert School of Management, who is part of a group studying the potential disruption in the auto industry and how Indiana manufacturers can adapt.

Iyer sees tremendous potential for those plants and their workers, even if that means a bit of retooling and retraining to realize it.

For more about the disruption EVs are causing in the auto industry, read Susan Orr's story in IBJ's Innovation Issue here.

Doug Boles is the Speedway’s chief evangelist May 23, 2022

As most racing fans know, Doug Boles is president of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. But that title isn’t quite adequate.

Boles is the Speedway’s chief evangelist, its omnipresent public face and its buck-stops-here customer service guru. Beyond presiding over the day-to-day management of a 300-acre venue that hosts dozens of large, complicated events annually, Boles is the protector of its legacy as Indy’s symbol of industry and speed, while lifting its vital role in the city’s aspirations to create strong connections between innovative industries.

And that’s important, although to thousands of fans on race day, he is the guy in the suit and tie who remembers your family and where you traditionally sit and is happy as hell to take a picture with you, the kids, grandpa and the cooler.

In this week's podcast, host Mason King talks with Boles about what his daily life is like in May, why he calls race fans every day on his drive home from work and what's ahead for the hundreds of acres of undeveloped land IMS owns.

The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

How favorite son Mayor Mark Myers is changing the face of Greenwood May 16, 2022

When Larry Myers was mayor of Greenwood in the 1970s, about 20,000 people lived in the Johnson County city. Today, Larry's son, Greenwood Mayor Mark Myers, leads a city of more than 64,000. But he says some of the most important duties haven't changed: Fill potholes, pick up the trash and plow the snow (without blocking anyone's driveways).

Still, Greenwood has definitely changed. And during Mark Myers' three terms, downtown has been revitalized, parks and trails have been greatly expanded and the new Greenwood Fieldhouse—the first piece of a larger development called The Madison—has opened.

Host Mason King talks with Myers about how Greenwood is changing, but also about his life, which has included working for his parents' ambulance business, as a police detective, a missionary and in security for a foreign embassy.

The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

Pete the Planner: A financial loss doesn’t define you—and you can recover May 09, 2022

In the latest issue of IBJ, financial advice columnist Peter "Pete the Planner" Dunn shares a letter from reader who for undisclosed reasons has spent a great deal of the money that he made through a successful business.

It’s evident from the letter that this person has hit an emotional low. And in his response, Dunn addresses the dangers of linking your self worth to your financial worth.

IBJ Podcast host Mason King picks up on that thread for this week's podcast and talks to Dunn about steps to stabilize and buttress your finances if you've suffered a big loss or are just behind in saving for retirement.

There's good news: Dunn says even later in life you can make your finances work—but it's more about adjusting your spending than it is about saving.

You can read Dunn's columns here.

The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

The ’surreal’ story behind filming supernatural thriller in West Baden May 02, 2022

Best-selling author Michael Koryta of Bloomington based his book, “So Cold the River,” at the West Baden Hotel in Orange County. In fact, you could argue the hotel is essentially a character in the book. And so when it came time to make "So Cold the River" into a movie, there could be no other spot to do it.

Enter Pete Yonkman, president of the hotel's owner, Cook Group. Yonkman is friends with Koryta and the folks at Pigasus Pictures, a Bloomington-based film company.

So he connected the two—and stayed involved. In fact, Yonkman and Cook CEO Carl Cook (the son of Bill and Gayle Cook, who funded the hotel's renovation) invested in the movie and facilitated Pigasus' use of the hotel, which closed down for several weeks to accomodate filming.

Host Mason King talks with Yonkman and Zack Spicer, CEO of Pigasus Pictures, about the hotel, the story and making the movie. But they also delve into a new law that will offer tax credits to future productions filmed in Indiana.

The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

Kevin Lee on broadcasting the Indy 500 and the business of motorsports Apr 25, 2022

As spring turns into the month of May and Indy 500 season, broadcaster Kevin Lee is reviewing his notes for many hours on radio and TV, explaining the nuances of IndyCar and its drivers to fans.

Lee has had a 30-year history covering sports, a career that included doing play-by-play work for the Indianapolis Colts and the Indiana Pacers but is focused today largely on auto racing. He’s in the pits for most IndyCar races and hosts the radio show “Trackside” on The Fan, 93.5-FM and 107.5-FM, among other racing duties.

And in his spare time, Lee manages a racing team in the USF2000 Championship—a rung in the Road to Indy developmental program—for which his son, Jackson, is the driver.

Lee talked with host Mason King about his broadcasting career, what it takes to prepare to announce an IndyCar race and how managing a racing team has helped him better understand the sport.

The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

Jeff Simmons on Elanco’s global HQ and creating a magnet for talent, innovation Apr 18, 2022

Elanco Animal Health on March 12 broke ground on its $100 million headquarters campus on the former GM stamping plant site just west of downtown Indianapolis.

CEO Jeff Simmons explains why the project is far more than simply an office building. He tells host Mason King that the goal is to create what the company calls "a post-COVID workplace destination" that attracts talent to the city and the company and gives workers more flexibility and engagement.

And Simmons is aiming to make the campus an epicenter for animal research and innovation, while connecting the neighborhood to downtown.

The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

Lebanon’s millennial mayor navigates path between charm, change as state seeks land Apr 11, 2022

Matt Gentry was just 26 when he was elected mayor of Lebanon in 2015, after running a campaign in which he argued it was time for the Boone County city to embrace change, attract jobs and revitalize its downtown.

Since then, Lebanon has become one of the fastest growing communities in the state—both in terms of population and commercial development. And now, the state is negotiating to buy as many as 7,000 acres of land just outside Lebanon for what could be a high-tech business park.

Gentry talks with podcast host Mason King about his approach to growth, why he's excited about the state's efforts and how he's trying to ensure Lebanon retains its character while embracing change.

The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

The story behind Andrea Bocelli’s big gig with ISO in Indy Apr 04, 2022

The Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra announced last week that Andrea Bocelli, the operatic star who has sold more than 90 million albums worldwide, will perform Dec. 7 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse along with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra.

In this week's episode of the podcast, IBJ arts reporter Dave Lindquist talks with James Johnson, the CEO of the orchestra, about how the show came to be and what will make it special for the ISO and the city.

Plus, they dive into what’s upcoming for the orchestra, how the hunt for a new music director is going and how the symphony is working to diversify its organization as well as the works its performs.

Dave is filling in for host Mason King, who is on vacation and will return next week.

The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

Pete the Planner goes car shopping during an auto-industry shortage Mar 28, 2022

Anyone who has driven past a car lot knows that dealers have virtually no inventory. So what do you do if you need a car?

IBJ personal finance column Peter "Pete the Planner" Dunn found himself in just that predicament recently. And he tells host Mason King that shopping for a car was like nothing he's experienced before.

Buyers have no negotiating power. Zilch, he says. And that's because there are as many buyers on a lot looking for a vehicle as there are cars. In fact, dealers are pre-selling the cars they're expecting to receive.

The upshot, Dunn says, is to try to avoid buying or leasing a car right now. But if you have little choice, you might want to listen to this conversation before you head out to the lot.

For more, read Dunn's latest IBJ column:

Pete the Planner: Time bigger purchases (if and when you can)

The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

Children’s Museum CEO talks dinosaurs, COVID and the price of admission Mar 21, 2022

The Children's Museum of Indianapolis has just reopened its Dinosphere exhibit after a year of renovations that added two huge long-necked sauropods and a new prehistoric marine area—all based on bones found in a museum-owned dig site.

CEO Jennifer Pace Robinson, who took on the museum's top job about a year ago, talks with Mason King about the importance of the exhibit, the logistics of hanging all those bones, and what makes the experience different than visitors might find at other museums.

Plus, King quizzes Robinson about what's ahead for the museum, what it plans to do with the historic Drake building that it owns and why it costs so much to buy a family membership.

The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

Group recruits IU athletes to help not-for-profits via NIL deals Mar 14, 2022

Hoosiers For Good Inc., the brainchild in part of Cook Medical Group President Pete Yonkman, is a new organization that is looking to pay Indiana University athletes to represent and promote Indiana not-for-profit organizations.

Just a year ago, such an arrangement would not have been possible. But last summer—under pressure advocates for student-athletes as well as states legislatures and Congress—the Indianapolis-based NCAA approved new rules that let student-athletes be paid for endorsements, autographs and more.

In most cases, companies will pay athletes for the right to use their name, image or likeness—referred to as NIL—to sell shoes or endorse other products. In many cases, that will involve athletes using their social media accounts to align with brand.

But the organizers of Hoosiers for Good thought the new rules could also be used to pay athletes to endorse causes or charities. So the group has well more than $1 million, according to Yonkman, and will use that to connect athletes with not-for-profit groups they believe in. The goal is to benefit the not-for-profit but also to help student-athletes become community leaders.

Host Mason King talks with Yonkman and the group's executive director, Tyler Harris, about the mission.

To learn more, read IBJ reporter Mickey Shuey's story about Hoosiers for Good.

The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

These women wanted a mid-life career change—and bought franchises Mar 07, 2022

Buying a franchise is one way to become an entrepreneur—and it can be an effective way. You’re starting with an established brand, some built-in marketing and, hopefully, a solid business plan provided by your franchisor.

But that doesn’t mean it’s easy. Just ask Lori Meyer, owner and operator of Garbanzo Mediterranean Fresh in Zionsville, and Melinda Rowan, owner and operator of The Human Bean at 5405 N. Keystone Ave.

On this week’s IBJ Podcast, the new business owners detail just how much money and time they spent launching their stores in the middle of a pandemic. And they tell host Mason King about the biggest hurdles (think rising labor costs and supply chain troubles) and why they don’t regret their mid-life career changes.

The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

Why the Irsays are spending millions on ’Kicking the Stigma’ effort Feb 27, 2022

In 2020, Colts owners Jim Irsay and daughters Kalen Jackson, Carlie Irsay-Gordon and Casey Foyt launched the "Kicking the Stigma" campaign to boost awareness about mental illness and raise money to help not-for-profits expand addiction and mental health treatment.

Since then, the effort has committed more than $16 million to local and national organizations—and most of that was donated directly by the Irsay family. The Irsays have created and paid to broadcast several national public service announcements, many featuring prominent celebrities and athletes, including Snoop Dogg, Rob Lowe, Mike Epps, Carson Daily and Peyton Manning.

More than a dozen organizations have received game-changing grants, and the Irsays recently donated $3 million to Indiana University to create a research institute to study mental health issues.

Jackson is a vice chair in the Colts organization, overseeing operations and community relations, including the club's philanthropic efforts. That includes overseeing the Kicking the Stigma campaign.

She talked with host Mason King about why the family decided to focus on mental health, what they've learned about the problem along the way and how they got so many celebrities to participate.

The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

Groundbreaking history of African Americans in Indianapolis debuts Feb 20, 2022

Entrepreneur Madame C.J. Walker. International sports star Marshall “Major” Taylor. The Indiana Avenue commercial and entertainment district. Crispus Attucks High School. The foundations and luminaries of Black history in Indianapolis have received due attention in recent decades and have been the subjects of books and documentaries. But there hasn’t been an authoritative history of African Americans in Indianapolis—featuring the highlights as well as the crushing obstacles thrown in the path of the Black community—until this month.
Historian David Leander Williams has built on his previous works documenting the city’s jazz and rhythm-and-blues legacies with “African Americans in Indianapolis: The Story of a People Determined to Be Free,” published by Indiana University Press. It covers the 150-year period between 1820 and 1970—from the establishment of the Black community on the banks of the White River after a ruinous flood and malaria epidemic to the destruction of Black neighborhoods due to the construction of Interstate-65 through downtown and the expansion of IUPUI.
In this week’s edition of the IBJ Podcast, Williams discusses his personal connections to some of the key figures and places in the Black community, including jazz legend Wes Montgomery, the Bethel AME Church and Crispus Attucks High School. He also explains the clever ways he was able to reconstruct Black life in the city’s first decades, when record keeping was rare. And he pinpoints the ways the Black community has been set back economically, including the loss of thousands upon thousands of jobs in the city’s manufacturing sector that once served as passports to the middle class.

The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

Stephen Goldsmith talks Circle Centre revamp, equity in workforce development Feb 14, 2022

Stephen Goldsmith is the Indianapolis mayor who pushed Circle Centre Mall into reality some 27 years ago. But he's not surprised the mall needs some reimagining—something its owners are now undertaking.

In fact, Goldsmith—who is now a professor at the Harvard Kennedy School—says he's surprised the mall remained as successful as it did for long. That's because the project was less about creating a retail space, he says, and more about spurring downtown revitalization.

Host Mason King talks with Goldsmith about how the city and the mall owners should think about what's next. And they talk about Goldsmith's new book, "Growing Fairly: How to Build Opportunity and Equity in Workforce Development," which includes some examples from Indianapolis.

The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

Is nuclear power headed to Indiana? Feb 07, 2022

The Legislature is debating a bill that could clear a path for nuclear energy to come to Indiana, a controversial move that could help the state reduce its reliance on fossil fuels.

Indiana has never had a nuclear plant—and the one attempt to local one in southern Indiana failed when the utility building it ran out of money.

So why are Indiana and other states talking about nuclear power now? IBJ reporter John Russell joins the podcast to explain how the technology is changing and why lawmakers are interested.

The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

Columnist Mickey Kim on surviving a volatile stock market Jan 30, 2022

Following an unexpectedly strong year for the stock market, 2022 is starting with far more volatility, as concern about interest rate hikes and lingering supply chain issues have kept investors jumping.

So what do you do as you watch the balance in your 401(k) fund rise and fall (and so far this year, mostly fall)? IBJ investing columnist Mickey Kim said to stick with your plan—which probably means doing nothing, although that can be tough.

"When things get rocky, we want to protect ourselves," he tells host Mason King. "We are thinking: Don't just sit there, do something. And I will tell you: Doing something is the wrong thing to do."

Kim explains why and offers some thoughts on why the market is so jittery.

You can read more from Kim at IBJ.com.

The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

Tom Griswold on the evolution of ’The Bob & Tom Show’ Jan 23, 2022

In a wide-ranging conversation with IBJ reporter Dave Lindquist, Tom Griswold — Tom of "The Bob & Tom Show" — talks about working with his sons (one on the air and one off), recovering from heart surgery and the future of the iconic radio program.

Plus, Griswold offers his take on the show's cast, including Chick McGee, Kristi Lee and Ace Cosby.

The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

How the sale of Christel DeHaan’s estate could expand her legacy Jan 17, 2022

The 150-acre estate of the late Indianapolis philanthropist Christel DeHaan is on the market for $14 million, with the proceeds earmarked for an endowment that will help support and expand Christel House International, which operates schools in poor areas around the world.

Host Mason King talks with Mike Johnson, the Sothebys International agent who has listed the property, about what makes the house and grounds special, what kind of interest the estate has generated and whether it's likely to remain a single family residence.

In addition, Christel House CEO Bart Peterson, a former mayor of Indianapolis, and Mark Willis, chief investment officer at CD Enterprises and president of the Christel DeHaan Family Foundation, join the conversation to talk about DeHaan's wishes for the proceeds and how the money will help expand the not-for-profit organization's reach.

The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

What’s the ultimate value for Indy of hosting the college football championship? Jan 09, 2022

The population of Indianapolis swelled by about 100,000 headed into Monday night’s College Football Playoff National Championship game. Fans from Georgia and Alabama filled hotel rooms, injected adrenalin into the local restaurant scene, rented cars, shelled out for keepsakes and, hopefully, told their friends back home how much they’re enjoying the city despite absolutely dreadful weather.
City tourism officials say their best estimate of the economic impact from hosting the championship is about $150 million. But how can they possibly produce an accurate prediction in such a complicated economic environment? Wasn’t the economic impact prediction for March Madness last year off by $50 million? In the first half of this week’s edition of the IBJ Podcast, Visit Indy’s Chris Gahl explains how precisely the estimates are calculated—when good data is available—and why the CFP figure should be more accurate.
Decades into Indianapolis’ sports tourism strategy, we essentially take it as an article of faith that hosting huge sporting events is worth all of the trouble and expense. But why? Beyond the dollars visitors drop in Indianapolis, what is the ultimate value of repeatedly playing host? In the second half of the podcast, Mark Rosentraub, a sports business expert at the University of Michigan, explains the less quantifiable benefits and why Indianapolis might always have to prove it’s worthy.

The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

The headlines and headliners of 2021 Jan 02, 2022

In this week's episode, IBJ Editor Lesley Weidenbener steps in for host Mason King to lead a year-in-review discussion about 2021 and the people who made headlines in 2021.

IBJ Managing Editor Greg Weaver and reporters Dave Lindquist and Mickey Shuey talk about the reasons that IBJ named The Sports Corp.'s Ryan Vaughn its newsmakers of the year and why the new IU president, chair of Newfields, High Alpha partners, a SPAC specialist, an arts community power couple and the head of a local real estate investment trust all made the newsmakers list.

The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

Kids, COVID and Christmas ... what’s safe? Dec 19, 2021

With the holidays upon us—and only a small percentage of kids vaccinated against COVID-19—host Mason King has been wondering what's safe when it comes to family gatherings, parties and public events

So he called Dr. James Wood, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Riley Children's Health, to talk about vaccinations for children, how latest strains of coronavirus are affecting younger kids and whether it's safe for grandkids to gather with their grandparents at the holidays. (Hint: You're safest if the kids are vaccinated and the adults are boosted.)

Plus, King asks Dr. Woods to share what he's done about vaccinations with his own young kids and how they're treating family outings.

The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

How has the Vogue been able to weather the pandemic? Dec 12, 2021

Local tech executive Eric Tobias and two partners bought the entertainment business that stages events at the Vogue in Broad Ripple in early 2019. “When people ask me about this, I say, ‘Owning a music venue—best first year of my life … but maybe one of the most challenging second years,’” Tobias says.
The Vogue closed abruptly on March 12, 2020, just as that night’s band—Drive-By Truckers—was warming up on stage. The pandemic of course hit the live entertainment industry like a sledgehammer, and Tobias and his partners had to think outside the box—literally, outside the venue itself—to keep the business going.
In this week’s edition of the IBJ Podcast, longtime local music journalist (and newly minted IBJ reporter) Dave Lindquist catches up with Tobias to discuss how the group has been able to weather the pandemic. Tobias says he has seen convincing proof that some patrons aren't sold on attending live events. The ownership group is getting more involved in livestreaming concerts and promoting shows in other venues. Tobias also explains the Vogue’s policy on health checks for patrons, how the Vogue intersects with his high-tech daytime gig, and what he sees as a vital need in order for the local music scene to thrive going forward.
The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

Pete the Planner on new rules for retirement Dec 06, 2021

Investment adviser Morningstar has issued new guidance that changes the conventional wisdom about how much you can expect to withdraw from your investment accounts in retirement.

The change in the so-called 4% rule has podcast host Mason King worried, and so he and Peter "Pete the Planner" Dunn dive into the details in search of clarity.

Pete also predicts what the omicron variant will mean for the market and why the debate about the debt ceiling might actually be more important.

You can read more from Pete at IBJ.com.

The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

Buy your gifts now (and other tips for the 2021 holiday shopping season) Nov 28, 2021

Experts expect shoppers to drop a record amount of money this holiday season. The National Retail Federation forecasts sales for November and December to grow between 8.5% and 10.5% over the same months in 2020. In total dollars, that would be between $843.4 billion and $859 billion.
At the same time, the supply-chain issues that have plagued commerce since the start of the pandemic are expected to complicate gift buying and limit stock for some products.
The answer is to get your shopping done as soon as possible, because you might not get a second chance, says John Talbott, the director of the Center for Education and Research in Retailing at the Indiana University Kelley School of Business. In the latest edition of the IBJ Podcast, Talbott explores other big questions with host Mason King. Does Indy’s status as a leading U.S. logistics hub give Hoosiers a leg up on gift availability? What role might inflation play in this year’s shopping season? Why are gift cards even more valuable than usual this year? How can we avoid cybercrime? And are there any blockbuster, must-have gifts for this season?

The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

Part 2: Martha Hoover explains how the restaurant industry is broken Nov 21, 2021

In the second part of a two-episode interview, Martha Hoover—founder of the Indianapolis-based Patachou Inc. restaurant company—explains how the pandemic pulled back the curtain on problems in the restaurant industry, especially how little workers are paid and how vulnerable most eateries really are.

Hoover—known for restaurants including Cafe Patachou, Public Greens and Napolese—tells host Mason King that because she came from outside the restaurant world, she charged appropriate prices from the start, with the goal of providing a living wage to workers. But she said the industry has historically put too much emphasis on quantity and price at the expense of quality, as well as the people making the food.

She talks about what she thinks the public and the media get wrong about the industry and what might change things.

Click here to listen to Part 1 of the interview with Hoover.

The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

Patachou‘s Martha Hoover on surviving the pandemic and prepping to expand (part 1 of 2) Nov 15, 2021

Indianapolis restauranteur Martha Hoover launched her first Cafe Patachou at 49th and Pennsylvania in 1989 and has since expanded her company to 13 eateries spread across several distinct concepts.

Like other restaurants, though, Hoover had to close the doors at all of her Patachou Inc. locations when the pandemic hit, a time she calls "frightening."

But Hoover tells host Mason King — in the first of a two-part interview — that Patachou is now "very healthy," in part because she and her leadership team started making some tough decisions pre-pandemic to streamline and become more efficient.

Now, Patachou is looking to expand.

Tune in next week for part 2 of King's interview with Hoover, when she explains what she thinks the public — and especially the media — don't understand about the restaurant business.

The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

‘Old-school’ agent Matt McLaughlin hits $1 billion in career home sales for Tucker Nov 08, 2021

Veteran real estate agent Matt McLaughlin reached more than $1 billion in career sales in September after some 22 years as an agent for F.C. Tucker. It's a milestone the firm's CEO, Jim Litten, called "one of the most challenging to attain in our industry."

And yet McLaughlin said it was not particularly a goal and he wasn't fully aware he was approaching it until the folks in his office mentioned it earlier this year.

Host Mason King sat down with McLaughlin to learn how he closed so many sales (he attributes some early success to the gray hair he had as a young man), what makes his approach different (he still dresses up for clients) and what he thinks about central Indiana's red-hot real estate market (it's not a bubble).

Plus, McClaughlin shares the advice he'd give a young broker.

The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

Indiana‘s workforce leader talks unemployment, the labor market and the minimum wage Oct 31, 2021

Indiana’s unemployment rate inched down to 4% in September, but what does that actually mean? How many people are in the Indiana workforce? And why are so many companies struggling to find workers?

Host Mason King talks with Fred Payne, commissioner of the Indiana Department of Workforce Development, about what the state is doing to help more Hoosiers find jobs and more companies find workers.

Plus, King quizzes Payne about whether Indiana should join most of its neighbors in raising the minimum wage.

The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Taft.

Can you afford to quit your job and be part of the Great Resignation? Oct 25, 2021

A record 4.3 million workers in the U.S. quit their jobs in August and more are expected to do so as part of what analysts are calling the "Great Resignation."

But can you afford to join them?

Host Mason King talks with Peter "Pete the Planner" Dunn about how to prepare financially to leave your job. Plus, Pete offers a prediction about the stock market as the year comes to a close.

Looking for another podcast to try? Check out IBJ's The Freedom Forum with Angela B. Freeman, an exploration of diversity and inclusion issues in the central Indiana business community.

Driverless race cars to compete in first-ever challenge at Speedway Oct 18, 2021

Nine teams representing students, researchers and autonomous vehicle experts from across the globe will convene at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Oct. 23 for an auto-racing competition without drivers.

Or at least without a human in the cockpit. The "drivers" in this case are software systems coded in advance by the teams, who must just sit back on "race day" to see if the cars can direct themselves out of the pits, around the track and avoid obstacles (which might or might not include another car).

The Indy Autonomous Challenge has been more than two years in the making. And so podcast host Mason King talks with Paul MItchell, CEO of Energy Systems Network, the Indianapolis-based not-for-profit that dreamed up and organized the event, about why the competition is important and what the group wants to achieve.

And then he talks with Michael Saxon, who is leading the Black & Gold Racing team, made up of students and researchers from Purdue University, West Point and IUPUI.

To learn more, read IBJ reporter Mickey Shuey's story about the challenge.

Photo courtesy of Central Indiana Corporate Partnership.

Should the men’s and women’s Final Fours be played in the same city? Oct 11, 2021

In the wake of criticism about conditions at last spring's women's basketball championship, the NCAA is considering a number of changes, including whether the men's and women's Final Fours should be played on the same weekend in the same city.

IBJ's sports business reporter Mickey Shuey talks with host Mason King about why that would significantly shorten the list of cities that could host the Final Four and whether Indianapolis could handle a combined event.

And King talks with Michelle Perry, a former NCAA executive and now a sports consultant, about what the change would mean for the women's game—and its fans.

You can read more about the issue in Mickey's story in this week's IBJ.

Looking for another podcast to try? Check out IBJ's The Freedom Forum with Angela B. Freeman, a monthly discussion about diversity and inclusion in central Indiana's business community.

Baby-delivering biz shifting with Riley’s $142M maternity tower Oct 04, 2021

Riley Hospital for Children is preparing to unveil its $142 million maternity center—five floors of renovated space that will house labor and delivery rooms, intensive-care-unit rooms, emergency and triage rooms, operating rooms, and infant-resuscitation rooms.

It's a new direction for Riley, which has traditionally served sick children and babies who need special care. But Indiana University Health is now moving its well-baby maternity services from Methodist Hospital to Riley, giving moms and their babies one place to receive all the care they need.

IBJ health reporter John Russell toured the facility and talked with host Mason King about what he saw and how the tower fits into the increasingly competitive business of maternity care.

You can read more about the maternity tower in John's story here.

Here‘s how to keep the Great Resignation from hitting your company Sep 27, 2021

Some 11.5 million Americans quit their jobs in April, May and June, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. And a recent Gallup poll found that nearly half of all workers are actively searching for other work.

It's part of what's become known as the Great Resignation—and if you're a manager, you might be wondering whether there's anything you can do to keep your employees on the job.

Host Mason King talks with IBJ workplace columnists Garrett Mintz, founder of consulting firm Ambition in Motion, and Mandy Haskett, a leadership consultant at Carmel-based Advisa, about the trend and how companies can engage with workers in a way that encourages them to stay.

You can read IBJ's weekly workplace column here.

The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by First Person Advisors, a subsidiary of NFP.

Pete the Planner explains how to pay (and how not to pay) for college Sep 19, 2021

Podcast host Mason King recently used an online calculator to estimate what it might cost to send his 5-year-old son to college someday—and the answer shocked him.

So he's talking with Peter "Pete the Planner" Dunn this week about when parents need to start saving, what savings vehicles to use and whether parents should go into debt to fund their kids' education.

The IBJ podcast is brought to you by First Person Advisors, a subsidiary of NFP.

Dale Neuburger explains what Indy can learn from the Tokyo Olympics Sep 12, 2021

Dale Neuburger is a former president of the Indiana Sports Corp. and treasurer of FINA, the International Federation for Aquatics.

He spent several weeks in Japan for the Olympic Games, where he served as the International Olympic Committee’s competition director for swimming, with additional responsibilities for diving, water polo, artistic swimming and open-water swimming.

IBJ sports business reporter Mickey Shuey talked with Dale about his experiences in Tokyo and what Indiana can learn from them.

You can read a column written by Dale in this week's IBJ.

The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by First Person Advisors, a subsidiary of NFP.

Why did IBJ Media buy Inside INdiana Business? Sep 07, 2021

IBJ Media’s recent acquisition of competitor Grow Indiana Media Ventures and the Inside INdiana Business and Inside Edge multimedia platforms raises a series of questions, starting with the extent to which the state’s two biggest business news brands actually overlap. Some see the deal as a combination of complementary businesses with different audiences, but the irony of the acquisition is that one is often mistaken for the other in central Indiana.
In this week’s edition of the IBJ Podcast, IBJ Media CEO and co-owner Nate Feltman joins Gerry Dick, formerly the owner of Grow Indiana and now president of the new Inside INdiana Business division of IBJ Media, to break down what the deal means for subscribers, other news consumers and the business community in general. They push back on any suggestion that this is yet another example of media consolidation, promising that this will lead to wider and deeper coverage of business around the state that preserves the Inside INdiana Business brand and perspective. At the same time, the deal gives IBJ the ability to make a strong push into new mediums and grow outside the Indy area.
Feltman and Dick tell host Mason King that they foresee very few changes in the two brands’ editorial output and products in the near term. But how might IBJ influence Inside INdiana Business, and vice versa? How much will one bleed into the other? Are there any redundancies between the two businesses? How big is IBJ Media now? How closely will the teams be working? They address these questions here.

Will the Prosecutor's Office move to the new Community Justice Campus? Aug 30, 2021

Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears told IBJ last week that he hasn't decided whether his office will move to the new Community Justice Campus, which remains under construction in the Twin Aire neighborhood.

The office was expected to be part of a second office building that Browning Investments planned to build at the site to complement a jail, Sheriff's Office and court system that will be moving to the campus at the end of the year.

Host Mason King talks with IBJ reporters Leslie Bonilla Muñiz and Mickey Shuey about their reporting on the topic, including the reasons Mears gave for his hesitancy and why the mayor wants the prosecutor at the campus.

The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Resultant, formerly KSM Consulting.

How the Big Car arts group is changing the Garfield Park neighborhood Aug 22, 2021

It was about six years ago when Indianapolis arts organization Big Car bought an old factory in the Garfield Park neighborhood and started working on a plan to create an arts campus there.

Fast forward to today and the group owns the Tube Factory Artspace in that former factory, an audio art space that houses a radio station, nine houses it has renovated for artists and another factory—this one 40,000 square feet—that it is starting to renovate. Plus, it's creating a public green space between the buildings.

Host Mason King talks with Big Car CEO Jim Walker about the vision, what the project means for the neighborhood and how the group is trying to ensure artists aren't eventually priced out of being there.

You can read more about Big Car's Garfield Park project in this story by IBJ reporter Susan Orr.

The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Resultant, formerly KSM Consulting.

Why are emergency rooms sending ambulances to other hospitals? Aug 16, 2021

At emergency rooms across central Indiana, “No Vacancy” signs are flashing at unprecedented rates. Emergency rooms are often overflowing with patients, prompting hospitals to divert ambulances to other hospitals for hours at a stretch, provided the cases aren’t life-threatening. On July 26, for example, at least 10 large hospitals in central Indiana went on diversion at some point, causing ambulance drivers to look high and low for a place to take their patients.
In the latest edition of the IBJ Podcast, reporter John Russell explains that this is the latest indication that local and area hospitals are struggling with a growing nursing shortage and, to a lesser extent, that the pandemic is roaring back to life.
Unfortunately, it’s very difficult to pin hospitals down on just how often this has been happening. No federal or state agency tracks ambulance diversions or requires the hospitals to report it, so the fine details are closely guarded secrets.
The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Resultant, formerly KSM Consulting.

Climate change could scorch and soak Indiana while reshaping key industries, Purdue center says Aug 09, 2021

While intense heat waves and wildfires scorch the Western U.S. and freak rainstorms spawn massive floods in Europe and China, the weather in central Indiana has been fairly tame so far this year.
Indeed, Indiana very well could sidestep some of the most extreme effects of climate change, but don’t get lulled into complacency, says Jeffrey Dukes, director of the Purdue Climate Change Research Center and a professor of forestry and natural resources.
Indiana’s weather already has been altered by man-made climate change, and the effects could be significantly more intense in coming decades, Dukes says. Since 1895, Indiana’s statewide annual average temperature has risen by 1.3°F, and some models show it rising another 5°F by mid-century. Winters will be shorter and the number of days above 95°F could rise by dozens per year.
The state also is getting wetter. Since 1895, average annual precipitation in Indiana has increased by about 15%, or about 5.6 inches. Models show winters and springs are likely to be much wetter by mid-century. Heavy rain events will increase flooding risks and increase the amount of pollutants washing into waterways from city streets and farm fields.
In this week’s edition of the IBJ Podcast, Dukes explains to host Mason King how these changes will impact our day-to-day lives and some of the state’s most important industries, such as agriculture, energy and tourism and recreation.

The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Resultant, formerly KSM Consulting.

Indy Chamber's shift in focus pays dividends Aug 02, 2021

Indy Chamber last month was recognized by its peers for work it has been doing that's not quite typical of chambers of commerce nationwide.

The group won the 2021 Chamber of the Year award from an association that represents 1,600 chambers and economic development organizations. And it earned the honor for the work it has done on inclusive growth—primarily a rework of the city's economic incentives program—and for the Rapid Response Hub it deployed during the pandemic.

Guest host Lesley Weidenbener interviews Indy Chamber CEO Michael Huber and the group's director of economic development, Vincent Ash, about the programs and the honor.

The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Resultant, formerly KSM Consulting.

Downtown hotel projects pipeline largely intact despite pandemic Jul 26, 2021

The pandemic wreaked havoc on the hospitality industry in Indianapolis and across the nation.

Still, IBJ reporter Mickey Shuey finds that many of the hotels in the planning stages for downtown Indianapolis before the pandemic are still moving forward today. In fact, three hotels have opened since COVID-19 struck the state in March 2020.

Host Mason King chats with Shuey about the state of the hotel industry in Indy and which projects are completed, underway and on hold.

For more, read Shuey's story detailing the city's downtown hotel pipeline.

The IBJ podcast is brought to you by First Person Advisors, a subsidiary of NFP.

Pete the Planner answers questions about retirement, college savings, mortgages Jul 19, 2021

Host Mason King and the folks in the Midtown Parents Facebook Group in Indianapolis have a lot of questions about money—specifically how they should be saving it for retirement and college.

Should homeowners pay off a mortgage early? How do you plan for the future when one partner in a relationship is significantly older than the other? Should you prioritize retirement savings over college savings for your kids?

So Mason asked IBJ personal finance columnist Peter "Pete the Planner" Dunn to come on the podcast to get some answers to those questions and others.

The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by First Person Advisors, a subsidiary of NFP.

Black drag racing champion Antron Brown on his move into team ownership Jul 12, 2021

Drag racer Antron Brown of Pittsboro has won three NHRA championships in his 14 years in the sport, but he may be about to take on his biggest challenge yet: racing team owner.

Next year, Brown will become one of the few Black team owners ever in the 70-year-old NHRA— and one of the few Black majority team owners in any motorsports series. He will be the only Black owner in the modern era of Top Fuel or Funny Car racing.

Brown talks with host Mason King about why he decided to make the move, what it will cost (hint: a lot) and why the sport is more diverse than you might think.

For more, read this profile of Brown by former IBJ reporter Anthony Schoettle.

The IBJ podcast is brought to you by First Person Advisors, a subsidiary of NFP.

Chatterbox owner explains why iconic bar waited until this month to reopen Jul 05, 2021

If you've ever been inside the historic Chatterbox Jazz Club on Massachusetts Avenue downtown, you have a pretty good idea why it didn't reopen at 50% or even 75% capacity.

It's so tiny, the restrictions would have meant only about 20 patrons could be inside at any given time. And owner David Andrichik said that's a recipe for losing more money than being closed completely.

But now that Marion County health officials have eliminated all pandemic restrictions, the Chatterbox is about to reopen for the first time in more than 15 months.

Andrichik talks with podcast Mason King about what it will take to reopen the bar, what the closure has cost him and what he's been thinking about while he's been waiting.

The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by First Person Advisors, a subsidiary of NFP.

Why a Chicago trade show displaced by the pandemic picked Indy Jun 28, 2021

The Sweets & Snacks Expo, hosted by the National Confectioners Association, is typically held in Chicago. But when the Windy City wasn't yet recovered enough from the pandemic to host this year's event, the group decided to come to Indianapolis.

IBJ reporter Mickey Shuey talks with John Downs, the CEO of the association, to find out how the group decided to become one of the first trade shows to meet in person again and why it picked Indianapolis to host the show.

Shuey asks about the group's experience in Indy and whether it might return.

You can also read a column by Downs at IBJ.com.

The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Resultant, formerly KSM Consulting.

Chef Baker explains what's happening at the AMP food hall at 16 Tech Jun 21, 2021

In the mood for some barbecue? Or maybe some poke? A peanut butter and jelly sandwich? Or maybe just a cold beer?

It's all available at the AMP food hall at the 16 Tech Innovation District on the northwest edge of downtown. And Chef Craig Baker is the coordinator who has has helped make it all happen.

He crafted the overall feel of the 40,000-square-foot space in the HqO building at 1220 Waterway Blvd., which includes shipping containers and booths for each restaurant and retailer. But each of the eateries is responsible for their space, creating a eclectic spot for lunch or an event.

Baker talked with host Mason King about how the space came together—and why, for him, success will be when some of those same eateries grow up and move out.

For more about what's opening this month at the AMP, check out this story by reporter Susan Orr.

The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Resultant, formerly KSM Consulting.

Newfields' new board chair is leading inclusion effort Jun 14, 2021

The Newfields board last month elected Darrianne Christian as its new chair, making her the first Black woman to lead the museum's board.

Christian was already serving on the board in February when the Newfields president resigned following allegations of racial bias. Christian, who was then the board's only African American member, led the effort to develop the institution's new plan to embrace diversity, equity, inclusion and access.

Christian talks with host Mason King about what the museum is doing to get past the controversy and how her background growing up in poverty is helping her move Newfields in new directions.

The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Resultant, formerly KSM Consulting.

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