Big Talk

She thought it might be fun but terribly scary to model in the 2017 Trashion ReFashion Rundway Show. She did it anyway and had the time of her life. Now, Nicki Stewart Ingersoll is a key member of the group of volunteers who put on the annual show featuring fashion designs made of recycled and retrieved materials or clothing that …

She expected to stay in Paris for a short time, enjoying the sights, the culture, the arts. Then the world changed. It was March, 2020 and Michelle Facos found herself unable to leave the city of lights. The COVID-19 pandemic may have shut the world down but Facos, an art history professor at Indiana University, opened her eyes and ears …

They were the last Big Talk guests before the COVID 19 pandemic hit and our WFHB studios were closed for nearly two years. Now, they’re back in that same studio, helping us put a punctuation on the shutdown. The Rogers boys will appear Sunday, November 13th, at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater as the opening act for another Bloomington institution, essayist and …

While studying filmmaking at Columbia College in Chicago, John Duffy envisioned a career making fictional narrative movies, but events got in the way. Duffy watched as the War on Terror, institutionalized racism, and so many other 21st century American ills and missteps compelled him to turn his talents toward uncovering them. His work has focused on the 9/11 attacks and …

Many of Bloomington’s trees have died off or suffered mightily from natural causes, aging, and climate change over the last few decades. While shut-in during the pandemic, Sarah Mincey and Sheryl Woodhouse decided to do something about it. Mincey, an urban forestry professor, and Woodhouse, a businessperson, founded CanopyBloomington in early 2021. The urban canopy is the “umbrella” tree tops …

She found her way to Bloomington and a reporter’s job at the then-Herald Telephone (now the Herald Times) in 1984. Since then Laura Lane has covered every big news event in town. From her H-T bio: “She covers crime, courts, cars and more, following issues and the struggles and triumphs of people in rural southern Indiana.” Lane is optimistic about …

Antonia Matthew lived through air raids, blackouts, rationing, and the absence of her father when she was a small child during World War II. Her father, a major in the British army stationed in Burma, regularly wrote her letters until he was killed in action. She has written an audio play, “Antonia’s Home Front,” based on those letters and her …

More than a decade ago, preservation developer Cindy Brubaker walked past the old I Fell building on 4th Street every day on her way to work. She dreamed of restoring it to its former glory and transforming it into an arts center. Now the I Fell Gallery anchors the burgeoning arts district just southwest of downtown Bloomington. The Gallery celebrates …

Bloomington native Jennifer Raff hit the New York Times bestseller list earlier this year with her first book, Origin: A Genetic History of the Americas. In it, Raff traces the human development of the two continents using DNA science and relying on her own innate curiosity. Reviewers called the book accessible while still scholarly. One reviewer wrote it was “heavy …

For the second week of Fall Fund Drive 2022, we feature more music created and performed by guests who’ve appeared on Big Talk through the years. Last week and this, we’ve presented music by Amanda Biggs, Busman’s Holiday, Henry Leck and the Indianapolis Children’s Choir, Jason Fickel and Ginger Curry, Jeff Isaac and the Postmodern Jazz Quartet, Kacie Swierk, Krista …