In Nebraska, it’s extremely common to be late to the party as far as pretty much all social trends go--or to miss the party entirely. But medical uses of marijuana have been legalized in 37 states, and it looks like the movement has a kind of national momentum that Nebraska will continue to grapple with in the years to come. We’ve seen proponents of medical marijuana produce ballot measures and introduce bills at the legislature for nearly a decade now. The fight isn’t going away. So what is the...
Apr 14, 2023•53 min
A lot of media is not especially interested in discourse. You see a lot of dramatic headlines and hours of “What’s the guy mad about today?” but today Jay Jackson, attorney and author of the new book Decent Discourse: Saving Your Country By Loving Your (Wrong) Neighbor , is in conversation with Tom Knoblauch about the value of true conversation. Jackson sees a way to solving our polarized climate, and then the problems that a polarized climate cannot solve, through being decent. His book on the ...
Apr 09, 2023•53 min
Eli Rigatuso was born and raised in Omaha and has more than 30 years of experience as an artist, photographer and videographer. He’s also an activist who has spent decades fighting for civil rights in Nebraska. He helped found Heartland Pride in 2010 and serves on Mayor Stothert’s LGBTQ+ Advisory Board. More recently, Rigatuso founded 'Frankly Speaking,' a virtual show he hosts with Avalisa Ellicott. He is also a board member of Omaha For Us, a nonprofit founded in 2021 to service and create spa...
Apr 03, 2023•53 min
In 2023, journalism exists in this precarious space, driven by clicks and corporate ownership and punditry–none of which are new, but, in the social media age, what constitutes news at all has become a source of conflict. On today's show, Matt Wynn, who previously worked at the Omaha World Herald and USA Today and more recently co-founded the Flatwater Free Press , is in conversation with Tom Knoblauch about the state of journalism, both in general and here in Nebraska, as well as what he sees f...
Mar 24, 2023•54 min
Many episodes of this show grapple with the question of how to get people to care about issues and to inform themselves? Or really how do you get them to want to when they can instead find limitless entertainment all around them, accessible at all times from their pockets? On today's show, Michael Griffin is in conversation with Tom Knoblauch about merging the hard questions with entertainment through his comedy. His new special, 27 Club, was filmed at Culxr House and is available now on YouTube...
Mar 19, 2023•54 min
It’s been two-and-a-half years since Metro Transit began operating the ORBT bus system on Dodge Street. Now, the service is approaching a milestone: its one-millionth rider. The occasion comes at an interesting time for public transit, as younger generations become more vocal about their desire for a high-speed national rail system, and Omaha embarks on the controversial streetcar project. Today Metro Transit CEO Lauren Cencic and communications and community relations manager Nicole Ebat are in...
Mar 13, 2023•54 min
Music is everywhere. It’s hard to imagine that there was a point where you couldn’t constantly listen to music, a time before recordings of music even existed. But there’s something in our brains that can’t resist rhythm and harmony and the way music makes us feel. Today director of the Omaha Symphony Maestro Ankush Kumar Bahl and VP of Artistic Administration Dani Meier are in conversation with Tom Knoblauch about the power of music and what you can expect this year at the Omaha Symphony, inclu...
Mar 03, 2023•54 min
Billionaires are all over our media right now, such as HBO's The White Lotus or recent hit films like Knives Out and Glass Onion , which combine the troubles of the ultrawealthy with the whodunit. Today Sean Doolittle is in conversation with Tom Knoblauch about his new novel, Device Free Weekend, in which seven friends and one eccentric billionaire go on an all-expenses paid reunion on a private island where no phones, tablets, or laptops are allowed. Quickly it becomes clear that their old frie...
Feb 26, 2023•54 min
Meridith Dillon is the executive director of Front Porch Investments, which was founded in 2021 to work toward affordable housing solutions in Omaha. In this conversation with Maria Corpuz, Dillon talks about how housing injustice shapes the city, how systemic racism has played a role, and how we can curb its effects. She also shares her vision for a brighter future for Omaha with safe housing for all. Learn more about Front Porch Investments here ....
Feb 12, 2023•54 min
The Nebraska State Legislature is back in session. This is often a chaotic moment where it can be difficult have a good sense of what the agendas at play really are–what is being debated, how initial proposed legislation evolves over the course of a session, or what all of the implications are of what is passing. So Wes Dodge is back today in conversation with Tom Knoblauch to parse through the current state of the legislature, what we might expect to pass this session, and how you can get invol...
Feb 05, 2023•54 min
This show is ostensibly about the Midwest. The culture we create. The culture we consume. The way culture leads to art, to politics, and to history. But the Midwest can be a squishy concept without obvious shape or definition. Jon Lauck hopes to change that through his work contextualizing the overlooked cultural story and influence of the Midwest. He teaches history and political science at the University of South Dakota and is the author of The Good Country: A History of the American Midwest ....
Jan 27, 2023•54 min
Keith Rodger is a musician, producer and audio engineer who performs as Kethro. Rodger has made a name for himself in the music industry while based in his hometown of Omaha. In 2014, he started touring as an engineer with The Faint, Tuxedo, and CeeLo Green. He honed his craft as a DJ and sound designer at local outlets including eighty-nine-seven The River, Make Believe Studios and Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts. Today, he’s in conversation with Maria Corpuz about the Omaha music scene, how...
Jan 21, 2023•54 min
Mixed media artist Jeff Sedrel has a series of floral paintings in an exhibition at the Garden of the Zodiac Gallery through January 29. He was a 2017 Fellow at the Union for Contemporary Art under a collaborative multimedia project with Noah Sterba called Slowed Soul. Sedrel was nominated for two Omaha Entertainment and Arts Awards in 2020. His recent work has also been featured at Project Project, Landlock Gallery and the Michael Phipps Gallery, where he exhibited with Holly Kranker. Today he ...
Jan 13, 2023•54 min
If you’ve been listening to Riverside Chats for a while, you’ve heard conversations with a lot of people running for office. Some of them got elected. A lot didn’t. The kind of people who want this platform, to have an hour on the radio, are often ones looking to break into the political scene or to move from a lower level to something more prominent. But Nebraska, just like the country at large, often instead reelects incumbents. So though this show has highlighted many visions for a significan...
Jan 06, 2023•54 min
Tim Guthrie is a visual artist, art professor at Creighton, and an award winning filmmaker. His work has been included in collections at the Boise Art Museum, the Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art, the Plemmons Collection of Contemporary Art, and the Leigh Lane Edwards Collection of Contemporary Art. His documentary, Missing Piece , which chronicles his own grieving process after the death of his wife, has garnered significant attention and awards across the globe. In conversation with Tom Knobl...
Dec 11, 2022•54 min
Charles Kay Jr. is a first-generation Thai-American visual artist whose work explores assimilation, identity and the American Dream. Kay’s parents immigrated from Thailand in the 1960s and anglicized their names to fit in. Much of Kay’s work explores the toll of assimilation on his own family and the immigrant experience at large. His exhibition “Unseen: Emerging from the Currents of Assimilation” is on display at Kaneko through February 5, 2023. In this conversation with Maria Corpuz, he shares...
Dec 03, 2022•54 min
We talk about the climate crisis a lot on this show and a common theme that comes up is not just that we need to hope for miracle cures but that we need to rethink our relationship with the natural world. But what does that look like? Some people work to reduce their emissions through who they vote for or where their electricity comes from, and others seek to reduce the amount of plastic they consume. Another option is to embrace nature–which actually starts right in your yard. Today Tom Knoblau...
Nov 27, 2022•54 min
A lot of waves have been made in the past decade regarding student loans and the sometimes predatory nature of higher education. It has become a common refrain among Democrats to support varying degrees of student loan relief and forgiveness, essentially framed as an economic stimulus and a salve for those stuck with crippling debt. Republicans generally find this kind of targeted debt relief to be ridiculous, such as Don Bacon in September lamenting that reducing the debt incurred by young peop...
Nov 18, 2022•54 min
Many episodes of this show grapple with the perhaps unanswerable question: why is America the way it is? Is there something inherent in American culture that answers where we're going? Kurt Andersen has been exploring the nature of American culture throughout his varied career, from co-founding Spy Magazine , writing for Time and The New Yorker , writing several novels, hosting the public radio show Studio 360 , and most comprehensively through his recent two volume history of America: Fantasyla...
Nov 12, 2022•54 min
Ballot initiatives can be a pain to read and to put in context, so today's show is an in-depth look at two of the initiatives on this year's ballot, 433 and 432: their scope, the reasons why they made the ballot, and what it means for Nebraska if they pass or fail. In the first part of today's show, Maria Corpuz talks with Senator Terrell McKinney about Initiative 433, which would incrementally increase the state's minimum wage from $9 to $15 by 2026. Then, Tom Knoblauch talks with Heather Engda...
Oct 30, 2022•54 min
Last year, a petition circulated which would replace the Nebraska State Board of Education, Education Commissioner, and Nebraska Department of Education with a new, ambiguous Office of Education, which would be accountable directly to the Governor. It didn’t pass, but it’s not the first time this idea has been floated here, and such proposals have passed in states like Oregon. But what is the Nebraska State Board of Education? Who is on it? What do they do? Today, Deborah Neary is here in conver...
Oct 20, 2022•52 min
If you’ve ever voted before, you probably were really excited or scared about a couple of candidates at the top of the ballot. We talk all the time on this show about how a healthy democracy requires some investment in the less splashy stuff lower on the ballot too–like the county attorney or municipal board director–but another element of the ballot that can cause headaches for the average, not particularly nerdy voter is the section with initiatives. Ballot initiatives are often written in den...
Oct 09, 2022•52 min
Chip Davis has been making music for over five decades, scoring his first chart-topper in 1976 with "Convoy," the song he co-wrote with Bill Fries. He was named Country Music Writer of the Year in 1976 and of course you’ve probably heard of the group he founded, Mannheim Steamroller, and the label he created to release its music, American Gramaphone, both of which have captivated listeners and audiences since 1974. Today he tells his story to Tom Knoblauch of succeeding against the odds, making ...
Oct 02, 2022•1 hr 3 min
The culture war these days is heavily focused on schools, with many prominent elected officials in Nebraska calling for defunding public education in favor of vouchers for charter schools. Today Rachel Gibson and Sarah Smolen talk to Tom Knoblauch about the education climate, how to navigate a culture war that often is intentionally vague and operating in bad faith and possible solutions they are offering through their work on the Education Policy Action Team for the League of Women Voters of Ne...
Sep 23, 2022•52 min
Wes Dodge is on the boards for Rank the Vote Nebraska, Common Cause Nebraska, Represent Us Omaha, and Non-Partisan Nebraska. He sees the possibility of meaningful reforms to our political chaos through adopting ranked choice elections and moving toward a nonpartisan vision of governance instead of our highly polarized current climate. Today he and Tom Knoblauch talk about what ranked choice voting would look like compared to what we are used to as well as how polarization is largely rooted in mo...
Sep 17, 2022•53 min
Dr. Lisa Knopp teaches creative nonfiction at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and has written several books, including Bread, What the River Carries, and Field of Vision. Her latest book is From Your Friend, Carey Dean: Letters from Nebraska’s Death Row, which chronicles her friendship with Carey Dean Moore, who spent 38 years on death row before his execution in 2018. On today's show, Knopp talks to Tom Knoblauch about how her earlier writing, which was largely focused on place, has come to...
Sep 08, 2022•53 min
Cindy Maxwell-Ostdiek is an independent candidate running to represent District 4 on Nebraska's State Legislature. She is the president of Rank the Vote Nebraska and serves on the advisory board for Nonpartisan Nebraska . Today she talks to Tom Knoblauch about her vision for a nonpartisan approach to governing as both a way to address hyperpolarization and to better ensure that constituent concerns get represented without the middle man of national party operations. You can learn more about her ...
Aug 27, 2022•53 min
A common concern expressed on this show is about not just the climate crisis but the seeming inability that we have to talk about existential risks like global warming because so much of our bandwidth is taken up by the noise of culture wars. In previous conversations regarding updating our grids to accommodate renewable energy, a concept has come up that didn’t get much time but is gaining traction as a model for what can help undo the damage of the past: regeneration. Commonly this is employed...
Aug 20, 2022•53 min
Sarah Slattery is running to represent district 2 in the Nebraska State Legislature, a seat currently held by Senator Robert Clements. She tells her story to Tom Knoblauch along with her vision for a legislature that looks like the populace. Her campaign is centered around small businesses, education, school nutrition, healthcare accessibility, and workers' rights. You can learn more here.
Aug 14, 2022•53 min
You may or may not know that this show began as a series of live conversations in Benson, before transitioning into a podcast that was recorded at Petshop for almost a year. Petshop is the headquarters for BFF, also known as Benson First Friday, which is celebrating its tenth year of operations as a hub of Omaha artistic expression and bringing the community to the artists. BFF co-founder Alex Jochim is here with Zach Schmeider to talk to Tom Knoblauch about BFF’s evolution and its upcoming musi...
Aug 06, 2022•53 min
