Hanging Question Marks

This episode is a conversation with my long-time friend Chris Dart, recorded on August 29, 2020.

Chris lives and works in Oregon, and we begin our conversation by talking about how different the response to COVID-19 has been in sparsely populated Oregon from the response in cities like New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. From there, the conversation jumps around to the simple life, music in general and movie music in particular, au...

This episode is a conversation with Jacob Torbeck.

Jacob is a PhD candidate at Loyola University in Chicago's Integrated Studies in Ethics and Theology program. Jacob and I have crossed paths many times over the past 20 or so years, but have never gotten to know each other well. In this conversation, we talk a bit about his background, then turn to a host of other topics: Jesuits and liberation theology, the unity and diversity wit...

This episode is a conversation with Sherry Nelson, recorded on August 16, 2020.

Sherry is a long-time activist and a teacher for Chicago Public Schools. She teaches 8th grade in Little Village, a Chicago neighborhood in which the vast majority of the residents are of Mexican descent. 

The conversation begins with Sherry's background as an educator and then quickly turns to U.S. foreign policy in Central and South America. Sher...

This episode is a conversation with Cortney Ritsema. (Twitter: @CRitsem)

Cortney is my neighbor—and more importantly an activist, a mother, a clinical psychologist, and more. In this episode, we talk about political activism, Cortney's work over a decade ago as a counselor at a detention facility for "unaccompanied minors," and finally the reopening of Chicago Public Schools in the fall.

If you want to jump around, here is a brief ...

This episode is a conversation with Katie Gore—a speech language pathologist, an entrepreneur, a communications educator, and a friend. The conversation begins with Katie's origin story as an American growing up in Canada. We then discuss various topics, including the intersection of class and stuttering (and other disabilities), as well as the challenges of discussing politics in a culture in which the words most often used in our...

This episode is a conversation with Lara Scott, a visual artist living in upstate New York. We begin by talking about Lara's background, with the conversation centering around her thoughts on growing up in a mixed family: the families of both her mother and father have been multi-ethnic/multi-racial going back many generations. The conversation then turns to current events. Among other things, we discuss whether the ...

In this introductory episode, I talk about the what and why of this podcast.

In short, the format of the podcast (initially) will be interesting conversations with interesting people who are interestingly not famous. People you've probably never heard of but who have something of substance to say. 

I hope you give it a go.

Also, if you'd like to come on the podcast and talk to me, I'd love to talk to you. So get...