Civic Conversations

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (18.6MB)Subscribe: RSS | MoreIn January, Civic Conversations welcomed Thomas Kaufman, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Biology at Indiana University, to discuss the impact of the loss of science funding in the United States.  In 2025, over 3,800 grants from the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation were terminated or frozen by …

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 18:15 — 16.7MB)Subscribe: RSS | MoreThis month, Civic Conversations’ Jim Allison welcomed Ray Boomhower, esteemed Indiana biographer and senior editor of the Indiana Historical Society Press, where he edits the quarterly popular history magazine, Traces of Indiana and Midwestern History. In the podcast, Boomhower discussed his book about the photo of the …

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 14:22 — 13.2MB)Subscribe: RSS | MoreThis month, the League of Women Voters Bloomington-Monroe County’s Civic Conversations welcomes Chris Fox, the Land Stewardship Director for the Sycamore Land Trust, to discuss reforestation and land renovation in Monroe County. In the podcast, Fox shares the work that the Sycamore Land Trust is doing to …

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 22:58 — 21.0MB)Subscribe: RSS | MoreThis month, Civic Conversations welcomes Erik Coyne, Chancellor of Ivy Tech of Bloomington, to discuss the value of community colleges. Erik oversees a campus of more than 11,000 students who are obtaining workforce training or preparing for a four-year college education. One of Ivy Tech’s biggest goals …

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 20:58 — 19.2MB)Subscribe: RSS | MoreThis month, Civic Conversations welcomed Indiana University Professor Jeffrey Isaac. Isaac is the James H. Rudy Professor of Political Science and served as editor in chief for Perspectives on Politics, a flagship journal of the American Political Science Association, from 2009 to 2017. In 2017, he was awarded …

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 21:59 — 20.1MB)Subscribe: RSS | MoreThis month, the Civic Conversations Podcast welcomes Kathleen Johnston, the director of the center and a 30-year veteran of investigative journalism, as well as a Media School professor of practice, who is the center’s founding director. Johnston, an IU alumna, has worked at numerous national and local …

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 22:47 — 20.9MB)Subscribe: RSS This month, we welcome Anne Kibbler to discuss the importance of Indiana’s wetlands.  Kibbler wrote about environmental issues for the Down to Earth page for The Herald-Times. She later worked for five years as the editor of Indiana Environmental Reporter at Indiana University’s Media School until the publication lost …

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 13:44 — 12.6MB)Subscribe: RSS | MoreThis month, the League of Women Voters-BMC, Civic Conversations talks to Steve Hinnefeld, author of the nationally recognized blog School Matters, which can be found at https://inschoolmatters.wordpress.com/. Steve is a longtime journalist and writer in Bloomington. In the podcast, Jim and Steve discuss how the school voucher …

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 21:09 — 19.4MB)Subscribe: RSS | MoreThis month, Civic Conversations welcomes Indiana University’s Media School Professor Jim Kelly, to talk about his book, From AIDS to Population Health: How an American University and a Kenyan Medical School Transformed Health Care in East Africa. In the podcast, Kelly explained how the AMPATH-Academic Model for …

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 15:28 — 15.1MB)Subscribe: RSS | MoreThis month, on LWVBMC’s Civic Conversations, we welcomed Erika Oliphant of the Monroe County Prosecutor’s Office. During the podcast, Prosecutor Oliphant shared how her office determines what cases to prosecute, the role of the prosecutor, and how plea bargains impact what cases are brought to court. She also …