Mike Stephen plays some quarantine harmonica in his basement home studio.

Mike Stephen discusses how local musicians are coping without the ability to play gigs with Mike Jeffers, host of Chicago Music Revealed, learns about Tone Deaf Records, a Portage Park record store that now delivers albums, and discovers the Secret History of 60s pop-rockers The Apocryphals. Plus, we debut a new song about COVID-19 from The Black Oil Brothers and in the OTL Wrap Party segment Mike and Producer Collin express hope that local venues will rise again. The local quarantine music this week comes from the late great John Prine. To subscribe to the OTL podcast, please visit our iTunes page or RSS feed.

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Mike Stephen views the beautiful Son of Juice hazy IPA from Maplewood Brewing in Chicago.

Mike Stephen discusses how COVID-19 impacts prisons with the executive director of the John Howard Association of Illinois, learns how local breweries are navigating the pandemic with Josh Noel of the Chicago Tribune, and chats about the impact of a pandemic on our local transportation with John Greenfield, editor of Streetsblog Chicago. And in the OTL Wrap Party segment, Mike and Producer Collin discuss the choice of whether or not to use grocery delivery services during this time.  The local quarantine music this week comes from Red Cent. To subscribe to the OTL podcast, please visit our iTunes page or RSS feed.

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Mike Stephen (center) from his home studio talks to teachers Dave Narter and Paula Di Dominico about the Teachers Teachwell podcast.

Mike Stephen talks about the impact of the recent pandemic on educational practices with the hosts of the Teachwell Teachers podcast, discusses whether our tech infrastructure is ready for our work from home scenarios with the co-owner of TMC Squared, and learns the Secret History of local blues guitarist Lurrie Bell. Also, this week we have a special guest in the OTL Wrap Party segment: Producer Collin’s wife, Katie Aquino! She’s a local educator and we continue the conversation on the impact of COVID-19 on our education system.   The local music this week comes from The Kynd.

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