Mike Stephen gets warm and cozy with: David Merriman, co-director, Fiscal Futures Project; OTL Winter Tavern Tour Stop #2: The Friendly Tap Plastic Crimewave (aka Steve Krakow) about Chicago blues artist Smilin Bobby for this week’s edition of The Secret History of Chicago Music This week’s local music is powered by Black Road. To subscribe to the OTL podcast, please visit our iTunes page or RSS feed.

Mike Stephen chews up mad hawt topix with: Miguel Jimenez community organizer for the Metropolitan Tenants Organization about rent control in Illinois; Plastic Crimewave (aka Steve Krakow) about Chicago blues artist Mary Lane for this week’s edition of The Secret History of Chicago Music, and Meg Ormiston, teacher and author of NOW Classrooms. This week’s local music is provided by The Ions. To subscribe to the OTL podcast, please visit our iTunes page or RSS feed.

OTL#589- Boystown’s future, Chicago News Landscape, WLLU-LP in Decatur, IL

Mike Stephen talks with:   Zach Stafford, Documentarian and Editor-In-Chief of INTO about the future of Boystown;   Emily Van Duyn, researcher and co-author of Chicago News Landscape, and   Alexander Martin, station president at WLLU-LP in Decatur, IL.   This week’s local music is powered by Devil in a Woodpile. A young Mike Stephen interviews Chicago Pride Parade participants back in 2006. To subscribe to the OTL podcast, please visit our iTunes page or RSS feed.

OTL: #579- Teamwork Englewood, The Stamp King of Chicago, Chi Hack Night

This week Mike Stephen chats with:   Perry Gunn, the executive director of Teamwork Englewood;   Chicago’s “Stamp King” Charles Berg about ChicagoPEX 2017 and   Emily Drevets, organizer and Master of Ceremonies for Chi HackNight.   This week’s tasty local music was powered by WC and the Fam! Mike looks into bettering Chicago by using public data at Chi Hack Night. To subscribe to the OTL podcast, please visit our iTunes page or RSS feed.