For Derek's final episode as host of the Monthly, Weekly he's joined by Indy Monthly editor-in-chief Michael Rubino to talk about his vision for the magazine, how it survived the pandemic, and the role he sees city and regional magazines playing in their communities. They discuss the unique challenges (and joys) of putting together a magazine for such a general audience, how to identify stories that will not just amuse, but enrich that audience, and what's lost when magazines lose track of the many small, human-scale stories that together make up a city in their own right.

This week Indianapolis Monthly's home editor, director of editorial operations, and Good Bones recapper Megan Fernandez joins the podcast, to talk about her profile of Two Chicks and a Hammer's Mina Hawk in our June issue. With the sixth season of "Good Bones" underway, Megan recounts why she decided to turn feature-length attention to Mina and her cohort at this point in the show's run, what it's like to recap fundamentally formulaic reality television every week, and what makes Indianapolis the right city for a program with Good Bones' particular charms. "Mina Hawk's Quest For "Attainable Comfort" — And Great Reality TV," Indianapolis Monthly, June 2021

Insider national politics features correspondent Adam Wren joins the podcast this week to discuss his August feature about Scott Jones, the Indianapolis tech mogul who's experienced, in Adam's words, an unlikely "riches-to-rags" story. Adam explains how the story first came on his radar, the tricky calculus of framing a feature that revolves around ongoing legal proceedings, and how Jones ended up spilling his guts to him from a barstool near Butler's campus in the first place. "Scott Jones Got Rich Inventing The Next Big Thing. Can He Reinvent Himself?," Indianapolis Monthly

Niki Kelly has reported on state government and politics for the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette since 1999, when Eric Holcomb was gearing up for a failed congressional run and Pete Buttigieg was planning for his senior year of high school. This week, she brings the insight she's gained to bear on the odd family feud that's been unfolding in slow motion over the past year in Indiana politics: the Republican governor, suing the Republican-controlled legislature, represented by Republican attorney general Todd Rokita. She also talks about her work as one of the last of a valuable, yet dying breed as a bureau reporter in the state's capitol, and what the rest of this year has in store, including the all-important redistricting process.

Michael DeCourcey, the Indy-based Sporting News reporter and columnist, has covered college athletics for four decades. With the benefit of that experience, he joins the podcast this week to analyze the recent unanimous Supreme Court ruling in favor of increased financial compensation for student-athletes, and what it means for the NCAA. Mike and Derek talk about the history of the NCAA's legal struggles going back to the 1980s, why they continue fighting a battle they've already mostly lost in the court of public opinion, and how an NCAA with more player compensation might not look very much different from the one we already have. Note: This episode was recorded before the NCAA's announcement Monday that it would recommend players be allowed to monetize their likenesses, so that decision is not discussed. "If NCAA had never taken on Ed O'Bannon, it might not have been dunked on so furiously by the Supreme Court," Mike DeCourcy, the Sporting News, June 21 2021

Indiana University's newly-minted Chief Health Officer joins the Monthly Weekly once more now that COVID numbers are on the retreat, to look back on our statewide response to the pandemic, as well as how universities handled it in their own right, and to talk about the unique challenges around health communication, including in his own writing. Aaron Carroll, New York Times: "You Can't Rely on the C.D.C. to Make Your Pandemic Decisions"

The Rev. Dr. Charles Harrison of Barnes United Methodist Church is one of the founders of Indianapolis Ten Point Coalition, which dates back to the late 1990s as a community group that patrols the streets of high-crime neighborhoods in an attempt to defuse and de-escalate violent crime. As those crime rates creep back toward levels not seen since the group's founding, and Black community organizations are simultaneously rethinking their ties to police, we spoke with Harrison about how and why Indy Ten Point does the work that it does, and how he works to maintain credibility both with the police who apprehend violent criminals and the people who suffer from violence at both the hands of those criminals and, occasionally, the police themselves.

James Briggs became the Indianapolis Star's metro columnist in October 2019, just a few months before the world as we know it turned upside-down. This week, he joins the podcast to talk about some of the biggest news stories of the past year, from the wild rise in Indy home prices, to the city's emergence from the COVID-19 pandemic, to the controversy over Carmel Clay Schools' hiring of a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion director. He also talks about what it's been like to transition from beat reporting to the columnist's perch, and why he's optimistic about the future of the daily newspaper.

Sheila Kennedy has done just about everything there is to do in Indianapolis civic life, from practicing real estate and business law, to running to represent the city in Congress in the early 1980s, to working extensively in city government, and now in her current position as professor emeritus of law and public policy at IUPUI's O'Neill School. This week, she joins the podcast to talk about the unique structure that's governed that civic life for roughly as long as she's been a part of it: Unigov, the consolidated city-county government that's run Indianapolis and Marion County since 1970, impacting everything from education and segregation, to local politics, to the COVID recovery. She also talks about the striking rise in polarization over the course of her career in politics, and how it's reflected in the ongoing struggle between the city and Indiana's General Assembly.

Derek Schultz is back on the podcast this week to catch up on everything that's happened in the world of Indy sports since his last visit, including the return of fans to the Speedway, the Colts' eyebrow-raising draft choices, and the chaos in the Pacers' locker room. The two Dereks also talk about the unexpected resurgence of the New York Knicks and attendant 1990s nostalgia, and play a round of "overrated or underrated" that settles scores on everything from Twitter to pork tenderloin.