Hoosier History Live

Originally aired 09/20/2025. ​ Ashley Petry, the author of , "Amazing Indianapolis", that describes some creepy events that have occured in Indianapolis. 

Originally aired on 8/2/2025. Charles Braun, the host of Legally Speaking, a live call-in radio show on WICR 88.7 FM at the University of Indianapolis, joins Nelson to answer listener questions.

Amid the focus on electric cars present day, the show which originally aired on 7/26/2025 explores how Studebaker in South Bend made electric cars during the early 1900s. Nelson's guest, Justin Clark, describes how Studebaker marketed the electric cars to "city businessmen and society women" beginning circa 1902. 

Originally aired 7/19/2025. Architectural historian James Glass will share insights about the evolution in the Hoosier capital city of skyscrapers, which date back more than 120 years. From the 1960s to the 1990s, a new "tallest building" in the city was constructed each decade. 

Originally aired 07/12/2025. Nelson welcomes father-daughter duo, Chris Taelman and Kate Newman to the show. They have been on a quest to hike up to - then climb into - every fire tower that's open in Indiana, many of which are in the state parks. Chris and Kateshare what they have learned about the history of these fire towers, particularly from the 1930s into the 1950s.

Originally aired 07/05/2025. Nelson's guest is journalist Will Higgins, who created a pop-up museum that spotlights obscure history called the Museum of Fabulosity. The exhibit was up at CAMI throughout the summer of 2025. Highlights included an Olympic gold medalist in 1904 who later was a bank embezzler, and rock singer, Jinx Dawson, who in the late 1960s and '70s was associated with the occult.

Originally aired 06/28/2025. A massive sculpture of Bigfoot at Patoka Lake; a horror-themed pizza parlor in Decatur, and a former Presbyterian church in Richmond with 62 genuine Tiffany stained glass windows. All of these and other off-the-beaten-path sites are the center of discussion between Nelson and his guest Jamie Ward. Jamie is the author of  "Secret Indiana: Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure."

Originally aired 06/21/2025. Alan Hunter, the history columnist for the Weekly View newspaper that covers the east side of Indy, is Nelson's guest. The two discuss Nazi sympathizers who, during the late 1930s, lived on the eastside of Indianapolis. Families who were members of the German American Bund, a pro-Hitler group, also had connections to Brown County. 

Originally aired 06/07/2025.  Before the first Indy 500 in 1911, there were auto races at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in May 1910 after the track was paved with bricks. Those thrilling early races and the spectacular aviation shows at the Speedway in June 1910 that featured the Wright Brothers are discussed with  Nelson's guest, racing historian Mark Dill.

Originally aired on 5/3/2025. Indiana "went dry" before Prohibition went into effect nationally in January 1920. Guest Jason Lantzer, assistant director of the honors program at Butler University, talks with Nelson about a range of aspects of this colorful and controversial era including moonshine makers and one of the largest raids in the Midwest unfolding in southeastern Marion County.