Stacy Bridavsky - Side A: Internet Cat, Side B: Cold Case
Bloomington Stories
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...
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The Many Faces of Anurag Bhat
Bloomington Stories
Anurag Bhat has been a policeman in India and a mosh pit participant at the Bishop. He has abandoned his childhood home under the cover of the night in Kashmir and facilitated a heat mapping study under the glare of the sun in Bloomington. In our conversation with this IU grad student, we talk about everything from ice water to climate change. He may not be long for Bloomington, but this episode can serve as a time capsule for his time in our town. Thank you to our sponsors, Gretchen and Ruth Nall and for their support of the pod. And thanks as usual to Designed by and sponsored by ....
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PowerPoint Love with Bloomington Singletons
Bloomington Stories
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 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,...
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Pam Thrash Pities the Fool Who Doesn’t Listen to This Episode
Bloomington Stories
The voice of Pam Thrash has been part of the soundtrack of so many of our lives in Bloomington. Currently the host of the popular Retro Lunch Hour on B97, Pam has been broadcasting tunes and joy on the radio waves for over thirty years. An ice-skating injury as a child sparked her DJ journey and began a wild ride of a life. Pam Thrash is living proof that, if you’re lucky enough to find the thing you love, you’d better hang onto it for dear life and be willing to pretend like you know how to do the things that will get you in the door. And did we mention that Mr. T once sent her flowers?...
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&#%!@ in the Wind with Josh and Chris
Bloomington Stories
Well everybody, we didn’t have time to interview an official guest because Josh is heading to Spain with Virginia to hang with her badass family. But we did get some excellent Mellencamp stories from our friend, Angie Cannon, who is a real-deal townie. Other than that, unfortunately for you, what you are getting here is the kind of episode that gives podcasts a bad name: a couple of dipshits talking about nothing and having the audacity to invite you to put your earbuds in and enter their void of absurdity. That said, we twa hae run about the braes, and pou'd the gowans fine; But we've...
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So Many Cigarettes with Maria Douglas
Bloomington Stories
Maria Douglas is one of those people who really holds down the fort for Bloomington. She is badass social worker-community servant-activist, currently serving the Monroe County Women’s Commission, NAACP Youth Council, and Hoosier Asian American Power, which she helped found. During all of this, she has been on an intense journey, making sense of her experience as a transracial Korean adoptee. Last but not least, if you were around in the 90s in Bloomington, you may have wandered around town drunk with her, probably smoking too many cigarettes. Episode links: Maria contact...
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It Was the Best of Times. It Was the Wurster of Times
Bloomington Stories
We highly recommend that you go back and listen to our episode if you have not already. Jon Wurster is the drummer for The Mountain Goats and Bob Mould. He was the drummer for Superchunk for over three decades. He is also a comedy writer and performer, known best for his hilarious characters in The Best Show, including Ronald Thomas Clontle, the fictitious author of the book, Rock, Rot & Rule. Clontle claims that his book is the ultimate argument settler when it comes to deciding whether famous bands and musicians rock, rot, or rule. This interview brings to a close a story that has been...
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Sorry But We’re Gonna Ghost You
Bloomington Stories
We spent September putting our lives on the line, hunting for ghosts. We made Instagram posts. We texted people. We stopped people in hallways at work. We even slid into DMs. We almost went to a haunted train tunnel. We did this all for you. And now, safe and sound from the netherworld, we’re delivering four ghost stories right into your earholes. Enjoy tales from Kate Crum, Aaron Brewington, Leigh Henderson and Blaine Rothrock,and the one and only Misha Bridavsky. Episode links: and her recommended Scary movie that permanently damaged a young Josh: Check out “We envision a world...
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GHOSTS!!!
Bloomington Stories
Do you have a ghost story? Do you have a haunted bicyle? Is there a lil witch in your closet? Want to share your spooky story on the podcast? Just record it on your most cherished recording device and email the file to us at mmmmkay? Thank you to our sponsors, Gretchen and Ruth Nall and for their support of the pod. And thanks as usual to Designed by and sponsored by . Check it out! Support: Contact & Follow: Content Warning: It is never our intention to hurt or offend people, and we plan to be mindful about not punching down. We are always open to...
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Peace, Love, and Brotherhood
Bloomington Stories
Dian Krumlauf is our eldest interviewee to date, but don’t get all ageist on us, ya bitches. By the time you finish listening to this one, you’re gonna wish you were as badass as this Bloomington hippie who we got to sit down with at a nursing home two days before she moved to Fort Wayne to be closer to her family. Not only did she share her circuitous life adventure but she also dropped some serious wisdom on us. Enjoy. Thanks to Andrew Behringer for sharing his Mellencamp Moment! Thank you to our sponsors, Gretchen and Ruth Nall and for their support of the pod. And thanks as usual to ...
info_outlineSummer in a college town, stolen TCBY signs, selling popcorn to John Cougar Mellencamp, and meeting one of your best friends in Sociology class after you’ve spent the night in jail. That’s Jim Granato, our first guest. Jim grew up in Unionville, a little town right to the east of Bloomington. He and Josh became fast friends during high school, which is also when Jim found himself at home behind the camera. Jim is now a freelance filmmaker in San Francisco. His films and documentaries have appeared on PBS, including A Day with My Boy: Slug War and D-Tour, a documentary that follows professional drummer and Bloomington native, Pat Spurgeon, as he does daily dialysis and searches for a new kidney while on tour with rock band Rogue Wave. Spurgeon’s story is deeply intertwined with those of several other Bloomingtonians.
More about Jim:
Jim Granato is a self-taught, award-winning filmmaker based in Oakland, California. Born in Chicago, Jim moved to the Bloomington area with his family when he was 5 years old (1978) and his earliest memories there are seeing the movie trucks and lights that were set around town when BREAKING AWAY (released 1979) was being filmed. He grew up fascinated with movies ever since, making up scenarios with childhood friends creating movie drawings and shooting polaroids and occasional super 8 before video cameras were available. In 1991, he started making short films on VHS with a dedicated group of friends that included trick or treaters getting run over, killer puppets, nude serial killers with plenty of the era's local underground music scene sprinkled in between. Jim left Bloomington in 1994.
Since 1996, he has lived in the San Francisco Bay Area and has directed and produced several short films and music videos. His shorts, A Day With My Boy: Slug War (2014), was licensed by PBS and premiered as part of their series PBS Indies, and Angels (2013) was nominated for a Golden Gate Award at the San Francisco International Film Festival. He has made music videos for Sonny & The Sunsets, Rogue Wave, Ramon & Jessica, Pancho-San and The Bobbyteens.
D TOUR (2009), which partially takes place in Bloomington, is his first feature film as director and producer. D TOUR won several awards including the Golden Gate Award for Bay Area Feature Documentary from the San Francisco International Film Festival and the Jury Prize for Best Documentary from the Bend Film Festival. D TOUR premiered nationwide on the PBS Emmy award-winning program Independent Lens in November 2009. He is currently working on a second feature film project with underground "budget rock" legends, The Mummies, and has plans to write and direct a feature length project based on growing up in Bloomington.
Check out some of Jim's projects:
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Contact & Follow:
Content Warning: It is never our intention to hurt or offend people, and we plan to be mindful about not punching down. We are always open to feedback about this because we want to keep growing and evolving until we croak. However, we do like to joke around and we are middle-aged, so our sense of humor may not be for you.