podcast


23
Feb 18

Then the Men in Black moved to the Bermuda Triangle

There was text here, but “they” removed it. It must be part of a larger conspiracy, which was the subject of today’s episode of the podcast. My former boss and longtime friend, Ken Booth, joined me to talk about conspiracy theories. No tinfoil hats are necessary here, but do keep an eye out for black helicopters.

And if you still haven’t been abducted by UFOs being flown by Bigfoot, go check out Ken’s projects. He’s the co-founder of Shorpy.com, which is full of historical photos and fine prints, and of Vintagraph.com, which h as loads of great posters. We have a couple at the house; they’re high quality.

Ken hired me a lifetime ago, when I was getting out of broadcasting. He was the editor at al.com and I worked for him as a producer for four-and-a-half years. I was always appreciative that he took me on. I learned a lot, and I was able to to be helpful to the project. We did some great stuff there, some incredibly important hurricane work and of course sports and I managed to work in some political coverage and some new storytelling features. And then I left, and he eventually moved on as well. They’ve done some other great things there since then, but it started with Ken, and those early sales and design and editorial teams. My time there served me well for what was to come later.

If it sounds like a grand scheme, it probably is.


22
Feb 18

Tomorrow is going to hurt, but tonight was a blast

We’ve had a lot of sports on my little podcast lately, so I turned to a straight up newsman for today’s episode. Dominick Jean is a news editor at the IDS, and he’s telling us about a historic drought that could mean the end of running water in Cape Town, South Africa:

Meanwhile, in South Korea:

And, later, or much later which became a time better described as “early,” women’s hockey was offering an incredible product:


20
Feb 18

Spent the night in the studio

Talked a little tackle football on the podcast today. There’s a bill pending in Sacramento, California that would ban a tackle version of the sport before high school. That’s the story sports researcher Jimmy Sanderson brought to us today. Pretty interesting stuff.

In the evening, we were in the television studio. The students were making news shows. And Zoe was giving us our weather forecast:

Anna and Katrina were holding down the news desk:

Then we had some sports banter with Joe Canter:

Later, Laura and Alex recorded an episode of What’s Up Weekly:

There were other things, but they were mostly as exciting as email. It was one of those days when you just spent most of your time hacking away at a thicket of emails and attachments and replies and drafts and they never seem to thin out. Sometimes the studio is easy to get to, other days you really must work at it.


19
Feb 18

They got away with it too, I’m no meddling kid

Indianapolis Star sports writer Zak Keefer came into the studio today and talked about a fine story about Jim Crow-era high school basketball. It started with a jumpshot, one of the first, in fact, and Keefer takes us through a bit of a great old story:

From the weekend, at the pre-admit event on campus:

She took that one, just before she went and talked about the sports media program and I went and talked about the television studio. And, later, at home I put on the mask and started sanding on a project:

I cut up some lumber on Friday night and then today I got to know the many pieces. Sometime soon I’ll try putting them all together and make something of it.

Hanging out with Allie, The Black Cat:

I found myself exploring in a mostly empty warehouse this evening:

I walked in, looking for a local company. I ran across three people, and none of them paid any attention to me — a confident stride and a neutral expression will get you into a lot of places — and a fourth person who was busily working on some sort of project and never noticed I was there.

It isn’t at all clear what they are doing there:

This was the point where, simultaneously remembering all of the episodes of Scooby Doo, I left the warehouse. I’ll find the folks I need by phone.


16
Feb 18

Sometimes Friday is just another Thursday

I can’t tell you what this is. If I told you what this is, as the spy movie joke-cliche goes, I’d have to kill you.

Which is, of course, ludicrous. If I told you what that is I would only have to take out a reduction of your salary, powers of the purse being very humbling things, of course.

Which is also rather silly. Oh, alright, it’s a remote control. You’d only guess it from the left and right, forward and back buttons. And maybe from the peeling label, which is no longer accurate. One presumes it once was a remote that lived in some room labeled 207. Why, in the new building (which is 111-years old, mind you) there isn’t even a room numbered 207. We have a 206 and a 208. And across the hall there’s a 206A and a 209, but no 207. It sounds very Harry Potteresque, I know.

Also, I’ve never seen the door to 206A opened. No idea what’s inside. Maybe that’s where they keep all of the extra remotes. Maybe it is is a closely guarded state secret.

Anyway, tomorrow I’ll be at work, because we’re doing a Saturday event for incoming students and it will be my job to stand around and point and occasionally talk to people or plug things in when there is a need for plugging in things. I will also hand this remote and a microphone to various people. It is decidedly less Potteresque, I know.

Today on the podcast, Carley Lanich, the editor-in-chief of the campus paper, joined me once more to talk about an investigative series being produced by The Indianapolis Star.

Lanich is a very recent winner of a Hearst Award. She won a $1,500 scholarship for her investigative story that examined the university’s sexual assault investigation process. Her’s was a four-parter, and it is was an impressive thing, year-long thing. She’s a sharp young woman on her way to big things, no doubt, and I’m always glad when she comes on my little program.

Anyway, off to your weekend. Mine starts sometime tomorrow afternoon. I hear they store them in Room 207.