The 812
The 812 is a daily show about the basic workings of city government in Bloomington, Indiana. Hosted by Steve Volan, a recently-retired five-term member of Bloomington's City Council, The 812's primary feature is a half-hour interview with elected and appointed officials in city government, as well as with members of boards, commissions and not-for-profits providing services to the city. Produced by Plateia Media.
Episodes
224 episodes
187 [S3E34]: GIS Coordinator John Baeten, on the Mapping of Monroe County [ENCORE]
[This is an encore presentation recorded in April. We'll be back with a new episode Thursday.]John Baeten came to town as a visiting assistant professor in IU’s geography department, where he spent time doing, among other things, a recon...
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31:20
221 [S4E15]: Melanie Vehslage and the Youth Services Bureau
Melanie Vehslage works for the Youth Services Bureau, which serves to "reduce negative childhood conditions" in Monroe County. A department of county government, the Bureau also strives to promote what they call "safe, stable, nurturing relatio...
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Season 4
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Episode 221
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37:54
220 [S4E14]: Defending Tenants with Stacee Williams of Student Legal Services at IU
The local university enrolls 43,000 students in person but only houses 13,000 of them. The other 30,000, almost all of them tenants, live in the city of Bloomington, a city that is only 80,000, students included. That's where our guest comes in...
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Season 4
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Episode 220
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36:19
219 [S4E13]: Protecting Local Waters: Maggie Sullivan of the Friends of Lake Monroe
Lake Week at The 812 continues with Maggie Sullivan, the Watershed Coordinator for the Friends of Lake Monroe. It's a non-profit organization whose goal is to bring together the many entities that have some responsibility for the reservoir: the...
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Season 4
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Episode 219
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35:20
218 [S4E12]: Lake Lemon Conservancy District Manager Adam Casey
It's Lake Week on The 812: we're talking about one of the Bloomington metropolitan area's great glories: its freshwater lakes. Reservoirs, actually. Our subject is not the smallest, Lake Griffy, nor the largest, Lake Monroe, but the one in betw...
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Season 4
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Episode 218
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36:59
217 [S4E11]: The Community Kitchen Tackles Food Insecurity: Vicki Pierce and Kyla Cox Deckard
The Community Kitchen of Monroe County is part of the local safety net for people experiencing food insecurity. While it targets those in need, there are no eligibility requirements to receive a meal there. Vicki Pierce, their executive directo...
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Season 4
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Episode 217
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33:36
216 [S4E10]: Elizabeth Conley of BridgeUSA at IU, on Constructive Political Dialogue
There have been cries lately for "viewpoint diversity" in academia, but for years in this college town there's been a student organization actively soliciting viewpoint diversity. Our guest today, Elizabeth Conley, is the president of the IU ch...
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Season 4
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Episode 216
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33:02
215 [S4E09]: Mark Figg on the Cooling Bloomington Rental Market
When it comes to the housing market, we've had city departments, and we're working on guests who can talk about the demand side of the equation such as advisers for tenants' rights. This week, we're talking with people from the supply side of t...
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Season 4
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Episode 215
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34:38
214 [S4E08]: The State of the Housing Market with Real Estate Broker Tracee Lutes
The affordability of housing in Bloomington, or rather, its increasing unaffordability, has been an issue for more than a decade. Indiana University has grown its enrollment without growing even its first-year-student housing stock, per a recen...
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Season 4
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Episode 214
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33:43
213 [S4E07]: Susan Hingle and the Monroe County Women's Commission
Although we hope to have a representative from the City Commission on the Status of Women, we're talking today about the separate, seven-member Monroe County Women's Commission. Where the city commission has a budget to throw events like the an...
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Season 4
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Episode 213
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30:59
212 [S4E06]: Anna Killion-Hanson on Housing, Redevelopment and Habiltability
It's another round of questions for Anna Killion-Hanson about the city Housing & Neighborhood Development, which she directs. She tackles questions like what's happening now in the Hopewell development where the hospital used to be, good ad...
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Season 4
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Episode 212
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36:32
211 [S4E05]: Caleb Hoagland and Dan Caldwell from the Severe Winter Emergency Shelter
Our topic today is emergency winter sheltering, the last resort for Bloomingtonians with no place to call home when it is most dangerous outside. For years there was a coordinated effort among local churches called the Interfaith Winter Shelter...
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Season 4
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Episode 211
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35:56
210 [S4E04]: Danielle Benedek and the Medical Child Abuse Clinic
Our guest today is a Nurse Practitioner who specializes in OBGYN, and works for IU Health as the Regional Director for Advance Practice Providers. But Danielle Benedek is also a co-founder of the Riley Physician's Medical Child Abuse Clinic, ho...
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Season 4
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Episode 210
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30:45
209 [S4E03]: Eddy Riou on the South Central Community Action Program
There are almost a thousand agencies around the country called "community action programs", whose mandates are to reduce the extent and impact of poverty in a given area, and date to the 1960s War on Poverty launched by the administration of LB...
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Season 4
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Episode 209
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35:54
208 [S4E02] Lisa Ridge and Toby Turner Explain the County Highway Department
Any roads outside Bloomington, Ellettsville or Stinesville are the jurisdiction of Monroe County. Today, we talk to the County Highway Department about how they manage the condition of more than 700 miles of roads.Our guests today are Lisa Ridg...
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Season 4
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Episode 208
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35:05
207 [S4E01]: Rafiul Shefar, Producer of the "government.exe" Podcast at WFHB's Youth Radio
The 812 is back after an extended summer break with a new season!Our premiere guest of season 4 is a fellow traveler. He too started a local government reporting series...and he just finished high school. Rafiul Shefar gradua...
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Season 4
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Episode 207
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37:45
206 [S3E53]: Shelli Yoder Returns with a Post-Mortem on the 2025 Legislative Session
Shelli Yoder returns to The 812, now as the Indiana Senate minority leader (a title she got unexpectedly the day after she was last here in December). Whatever plans she mentioned then for this legislative session were upended by the behemoth c...
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Season 3
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Episode 206
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35:17
205 [S3E52] Godzilla Day in Bloomington, with Beth Bredlau, Godzilla Scholar
On June 27, the Buskirk-Chumley Theatre will host a screening of the original, uncut, 1954 Toho Studios film Gojira, in Japanese with English subtitles. There will be a special presentation before the film, and a Q&A panel discussi...
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Season 3
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Episode 205
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35:49
204 [S3E51]: Steve "Roc" Bonchek, Founder and Principal of Harmony School
Steve Bonchek, whom everyone just calls "Roc", is founder and principal of Harmony School, the independent, non-religious school not funded by the state, which is about to celebrate its 50th anniversary, 40 of which have been in Bloomington's o...
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Season 3
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Episode 204
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38:51
Next episode out Tuesday
Due to unforeseen circumstances, the episode scheduled for today has been delayed until tomorrow, Tuesday, June 3. Look for it in your podcast feed then!
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Season 3
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0:12
203 [S3E50]: Nathan Ferreira of the BHA: Filling Housing Needs in a Difficult Time
When last here in December, Nathan Ferreira was the director of real estate development for the Bloomington Housing Authority. He's now executive director of the BHA, and at a trying time for government-assisted housing, with cuts facing the Ho...
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Season 3
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Episode 203
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37:41
202 [S3E49]: Helping People with Horses: Christine Herring of PALS
People and Animal Learning Services, or PALS, is a nonprofit center, dedicated to providing meaningful, therapeutic hands-on experiences with horses for individuals with disabilities, veterans, senior citizens, and underserved youth through par...
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Season 3
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Episode 202
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36:42
201 [S3E48]: Erica Penna, Managing Stormwater in Monroe County
NOTE: The 812 will take Memorial Day off; new episodes resume Wed., May 28.Stormwater needs to be channeled somewhere -- lakes, rivers, retention ponds -- or it becomes floodwater. If there aren't ditches or box culverts near wh...
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Season 3
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Episode 201
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39:45
200 [S3E47]: Erin Reynolds and Katie Hopkins on the Status of Children and Youth
Children have very real-world needs, and sometimes face problems that adults would have trouble dealing with. That's why the city's Commission on the Status of Children and Youth exists. The commission advocates for local youth, collects data o...
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Season 3
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Episode 200
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39:25
199 [S3E46] Councilmember Sydney Zulich (D-6) on Ongoing Improvements to Downtown Bloomington
City councilmember Sydney Zulich (D-6) returns to the show to talk about:downtown beautification, including planters and the new art going up at last on traffic control boxes; some of the logic behind this year's Kirkw...
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Season 3
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Episode 199
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38:40