It’s the American Dream

“We were good workers, and we did our job well, but we didn’t have a passion. You have to have a passion in life.” Transcript for It’s the American Dream You come here for work, and you work in the steel mills, and it’s simple as that. I mean, my grandpa worked in the steel […]

Lives That Are Totally Alien

“The use of the car, I think, has dramatically changed the way people live.” Transcript for Lives That Are Totally Alien It used to be that people could either walk to downtown Gary or take a bus and the car was not as prevalent as it became later on, but now it’s a car to […]

Just Got the Impression

“All they saw was the violence. They did not see the peace. They did not see the change.” Transcript for Just Got the Impression I grew up in the Tolleston area of Gary which was, at the time, very Germanic and some Polish. I went to St. John’s Lutheran Church which was the first church […]

Vulnerability Is Power

“If you can find security in where you are, then you can open up your ability to be vulnerable.” Produced by intern Marcus Boas. Vulnerability Is Power I started to understand during my time here…and I found to be effective that, because people would do ignorant things it did not mean that it should prompt […]

Inmates Are People, Too

“I have learned some amazing, life-changing thoughts and ideologies from inmates.” Edited by Thu Nguyen. Transcript for Inmates Are People, Too I was a correctional officer here in Indiana for five years and that is a very taxing job emotionally and physically. When you think about a prison environment, there’s all kinds of horrific stuff […]

Military Vibe

“You realize the strength of your mind…just by convincing yourself of how strong you are.” Edited by Thu Nguyen. Transcript for Military Vibe When I was in high school, there was a group of recruiters that came to school and there was one from every branch and I just remember the soldier that was there […]

You’re Not White

“It was like something switched in my head…” Edited by Thu Nguyen. Transcript for You’re Not White When I look back at a lot of things, I’m viewing them through a different lens, you know, and so I’m trying to absorb everything I can from those vivid memories and so I appreciate everything–the good and […]

Double Whammy

“Now, we talked about the white flight; we didn’t talk about what really made it worse in Gary.” Double Whammy is part of our Flight Paths initiative. Double Whammy So the white flight in Gary—there are differing viewpoints as to what caused that and what fueled it. And I think the popular one, primarily by […]