Indiana's past, one documented life at a time.
Episodes usually drop into a charged moment, like a scratching sound downstairs at midnight or a regiment crashing into a Confederate line, then pull back to explain it through letters and period newspapers. Subjects run from temperance fights and early electric cars to Indianapolis's Chinese community and the courtship behind St. Mary Catholic Church.
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Talking Hoosier History is a narrative history series from the Indiana Historical Bureau, and it looks at the state at close range: one parish, one regiment, one restaurant on Washington Street. Episodes are written scripts credited to individual writers. Most drop straight into a scene before stepping back to explain it. The Civil War story begins in Mississippi on May 16, 1863, as the 34th Regiment of Indiana Volunteers pushes into Confederate lines and Lt. Col. William Swaim is shot and severely wounded. From there it turns to his letters to Hannah, who ran the farm, sold corn and grain, made payments on the house and never asked him to come home. Primary sources carry the weight. In West Baden, a 1902 letter warning Black waiters of hidden dynamite anchors a story about intimidation in the resort-lined French Lick Valley, where hotel manager Lee Sinclair had reportedly replaced about forty white waitresses with Black men from Louisville. Fred Rohrer's own temperance paper, the Witness, supplies his voice. He spent a summer biking the 24-mile round trip between Berne and Decatur to oppose liquor licenses, and he wrote that the saloon must go. Newspaper reports from Pittsburgh and Boise describe society women taken with Studebaker's electric cars, an appeal the company kept leaning into. Historian Anita Morgan's work adds suffrage leaders touring by automobile in 1912 and giving speeches from atop their vehicles. Not every story is grim. 'The Love Story that Built St. Mary Catholic Church' follows a Catholic priest in Indianapolis who introduced architect Herman Gaul to Mary Seider, a daughter of a German family in his parish, and later officiated their 1896 wedding. The Moy Kee story centers on a 1904 lunch for Prince Pu Lun, with the Indianapolis mayor, William Fortune and poet James Whitcomb Riley at the table, and on the prince's recommendation that Moy receive the fifth rank. Race, immigration, reform campaigns, war and invention keep coming up, and many stories fall in the years around 1900. The narration stays exact about names, dates and quoted documents. Several episodes close by pointing to a related historical marker, and one mentions a Studebaker marker still to be dedicated. Justin Clark signs off each episode, and A.J. Shraplevy is credited as producer. Transcripts and show notes are posted alongside. The result is Indiana history met one named person at a time.
Made for: Suits a listener who wants state and local history told through named people, quoted letters and period newspapers rather than broad surveys, and who is ready for hard chapters on racial violence next to lighter stories of courtship and invention.
What sets it apart: It is produced by the Indiana Historical Bureau and often tied to a related historical marker. Each story is built from letters, newspapers and specific individuals instead of broad overview, so even a small-town temperance feud arrives with dates and documents attached.
Talking Hoosier History is an Indiana History podcast produced by the Indiana Historical Bureau. Join us each month to explore the people, places, and events that shaped the Hoosier state. Credits, Notes, and more info: https://blog.history.in.gov/talking-hoosier-history/
Dynamite under a temperance editor's porch gives your local-history curiosity a pulse.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A citizen-soldier's battlefield courage is sharpened by the letters and duties waiting at home.
William Swain comes through as a citizen-soldier still learning what command demands while the war presses on. The episode places his advance against a Confederate hill alongside the quieter burdens of leadership: writing to Hannah, stepping into authority above his rank, and…
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William Swaim, a Wells County farmer turned lieutenant colonel, told his wife Hannah that he was proud to risk everything to abolish 'that monster slavery.' Talking Hoosier History follows his rise through the 34th Regiment Indiana Volunteers, from camp commander at Anderson to leadership in the campaigns at New Madrid and Vicksburg.
Fred Rohrer used the 1896 Berne Witness to oppose saloons as Berne, Indiana, faced population pressure after a 1902 oil discovery.
Theodore Luce put a dilapidated house on the Statehouse lawn to secure housing for Mrs. Allen's family.
On a city-county elevator, Nixon asked Lugar to represent the United States at a NATO conference in Brussels.
Talking Hoosier History traces John A.
Talking Hoosier History traces roller derby from Leo Seltzer's 1935 Chicago Coliseum marathon to its full-contact format.
This episode explores the civil rights and black power movements in the 1960s, focusing on violence against activists and resistance to change.
This episode explores the Notre Dame football team's 1924 season and their media campaign against the Ku Klux Klan in Indiana.
This episode of Talking Hoosier History explores the 1902 case of confessed body snatcher Rufus Cantrell, who desecrated over 100 graves in Indianapolis.
This episode covers the final push for women's suffrage in Indiana, culminating in the first votes cast by women in the state after the 19th Amendment.
This episode explores the reinvigoration of the women's suffrage movement in Indiana, focusing on activists like Grace Julian Clark and their innovative tactics.
This episode explores the 1968 firebombing of the Black Market in Bloomington, Indiana, and its lasting reverberations.