Bloomington Stories Podcast

08/01/2025

New ep! Catching Babies with Mary Helen Ayres. Mary Helen claims that we are all celebrities in Bloomington. And yeah, she’s got a point. But, c’mon, she is one of the few local celebrities who can claim that, on a regular basis, she goes into a home and leaves after another human has magically appeared. In this episode, we get to talk about one of our favorite subjects: screwing life up in your teens and twenties. We also discuss Russian literature, Led Zeppelin, the fight to legalize midwifery in Indiana, Tom Donahue of TD’s CDs and LPs, and much more. We also get a rollicking Mellencamp moment, courtesy of James Robinson.

07/17/2025

Here at Bloomington Stories, we already loved our Landlocked t-shirts, but this one just leveled up.

07/09/2025

One of the hosts of Bloomington Stories just pulled put of the driveway with this on the back of his vehicle. Who was it?

07/05/2025

New Ep tomorrow!! Josh Got Effed and Chris Effed Up: A Summer Check-In--We’re on vacay but couldn’t resist throwing together an ep so we don’t break our 26 episode streak. So, that leaves you having to hear us on our bu****it again with no guest to redeem us. In this lil bitch chat, we discuss falling utility poles, mustaches, customer service, Facebook Marketplace deals gone very wrong, falling limbs, and so on. The only redemption this episode enjoys are jokes from Jon Hancuff and a Mellencamp Moment with Dason Anderson. Happy July and eff you.

06/29/2025

06/02/2025

New Episode! Tom Shelton, Hoosier Artographer. in a 1999 song, Tom Waits persistently asks, “What's he building in there?/ What the hell is he building in there?” In his humble garage art studio, Tom Shelton has been making magical “pictures,” often landscapes, rendered through the ordered lens through which he sees the world. In fact, a piece on Journey Indiana describes him as a “system painter.” Not only did we discuss his paintings but also his childhood, partially defined by his mother’s alcoholism, and his circuitous and beautiful life path.

05/03/2025

NEW EP! Stacy Bridavsky - Side A: Internet Cat, Side B: Cold Case

Most of us have that event in our life that seemed insignificant at the time but ultimately defined the trajectory of our life. For Stacy Bridavsky, it was an internet cat film festival after an exhausting day of orientation for a new job at an art museum in Minneapolis. It was here that her future husband Mike, also known as Lil Bub’s dude, fell head over heels for her. In less than a year, she was living with him (in sin) in Bloomington, which was where she learned of the heartbreaking and suspicious 2015 death of IU student Joseph Smedley, who was found dead in Griffy Lake with 66 pounds of rocks strapped to his back. Although it was ruled a su***de, Joseph’s family believed there was foul play. So does Stacy, who created the podcast A Heavy Weight to advocate for Joseph and his family.

05/01/2025

Ep gonna be delayed by a coupla days

03/19/2025

The man in the bathrobe is not the guest on our April episode, but he does streak through it.

03/16/2025

This is what happens when Chris shares a note with Josh to collaborate on interview questions. 'mJoshBennettandI'malittlebitch

03/01/2025

NEW EP! PowerPoint Love with Bloomington Singetons. Mallory Elver was tired of sitting on her couch, swiping left and right to look for love. Then, her pal Nicole Bennett discovered an alternative to internet dating in Indianapolis, and Bloomington Singletons was born. Months later, Nicole was standing in the front of a private room at Heartworks Brewery, pitching her friend Mallory to a crowd of live humans. Josh and Chris were on the scene, interviewing so many fascinating attendees — including the emcee, pitchers (one from Trinidad!), pitchees (including a standup comedian), and other gawkers and spectators. In the immortal words of so many 80s newsletters, “Fun was had by all.”