The 812
Steve Volan / Plateia Media
The 812 is a daily show about the basic workings of city government in Bloomington, Indiana. Hosted by Steve Volan, a recently-retired five-term member of Bloomington's City Council, The 812's primary feature is a half-hour interview with elected and appointed officials in city government, as well as with members of boards, commissions and not-for-profits providing services to the city. Produced by Plateia Media.
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Top 10 The 812 Episodes
Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best The 812 episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to The 812 for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite The 812 episode by adding your comments to the episode page.
![The 812 - 198 [S3E45]: New Services Galore from Bloomington Transit](https://storage.buzzsprout.com/1bzb2j1j18js4txbvfwbv1jlujlk?.avif)
05/16/25 • 33 min
There's bus service to Ivy Tech and Cook at long last. A dozen new fully-electric buses in the fleet. And, this summer at long last, the first experiments with a free downtown circulator. John Connell, General Manager, returns for a 2025 update with Shelley Strimaitis, BT's Planning & Special Projects Manager, to discuss many improvements coming or already implemented: the new #13 route, the new downtown shuttle-bus route, an update on the Green Line (the name of BT's "bus rapid transit" initiative), and more.
A production of Plateia Media ©2024-5. All rights reserved.
Water, water everywhere, but every drop you drink, dear city dweller, is cleaned somehow. Who delivers -- and takes away -- your water? We talk with Holly McLauchlin, the communications director for City of Bloomington Utilities. She'll explain the ginormous operation that provides us drinking water, carries off and cleans our wastewater, and disperses our stormwater. Topics include the prospect of a new headquarters facility at Winston-Thomas, what "MS4" is, and the downtown "Hidden River" project.
A production of Plateia Media ©2024-5. All rights reserved.
03/07/24 • 34 min
This one's a doozy. In our game of Pokemon Go City COuncilmember edition, we've landed one of the two most elusive creatures in the Bloomington legislature. But one of his powers is to turn the tables.
Today, the newest at-large member of the city council, Isak Asare, all but takes over the show, and the putative interviewer finds himself as often as not the interviewee. The conversation went so long The 812 has recorded its first Overtime segment. It'll be uploaded as a separate bonus episode.
A production of Plateia Media ©2024-5. All rights reserved.
04/25/25 • 36 min
It's The 812's first look at one of the most basic local services, the fire department. Our guest, Tom Figolah, is the Department's Fire Prevention Officer, and his title reflects a trend that may not be self-evident to people who are used to fire departments being just about putting out fires. That's reactive; better is to anticipate potential fires so that they don't start in the first place. Our conversation gets into what they call "community risk reduction", as well as the city's fire insurance rating, the effect of the new union contract on retaining firefighters, and their new initiative to making medical runs more effective through their innovative Mobile Integrated Health initiative.
A production of Plateia Media ©2024-5. All rights reserved.
199 [S3E46] Councilmember Sydney Zulich (D-6) on Ongoing Improvements to Downtown Bloomington
The 812
05/19/25 • 38 min
City councilmember Sydney Zulich (D-6) returns to the show to talk about:
- downtown beautification, including planters and the new art going up at last on traffic control boxes;
- some of the logic behind this year's Kirkwood closures;
- Bloomington Transit's summer experiment with a new downtown shuttle; and
- the breaking of ground on the convention center expansion.
A production of Plateia Media ©2024-5. All rights reserved.
Community Access Television Services is the television station in the Monroe County Public Library. For 50 years, CATS (formerly known as Bloomington Community Access Television, or BCAT) has provided access to channels over cable and the Internet for public meetings and then some, and has provided access to equipment and studio space for the public to make television programming. It's one of the first organizations in the country to provide live and recorded coverage of local government meetings. Our guest today is Martin O'Neill, the general manager of CATS, who'll tell us about the other services it provides, and the not-so-trivial challenge of maintaining 50 years of video archives.
A production of Plateia Media ©2024-5. All rights reserved.
04/04/24 • 36 min
When you hear the words "public" and "works"... what do you think of first? Potholes, maybe? Street paving? Yeah, that's not uncommon. But it definitely depends on the city you're in. In Bloomington, Public Works does everything from animal control to sanitation. Michael Large, the Operations Manager for the city's Public Works department, lays it all out for us, and surprises host Steve Volan more than once along the way.
A production of Plateia Media ©2024-5. All rights reserved.
04/19/24 • 36 min
How does a building get declared "historic"? Who decides what should be saved or not? We find out some of the answers today, from the guy who sets up the questions. Noah Sandweiss is the new program manager for historic preservation for the city. In our interview, he unpacks the portfolio he's charged with, which includes working with federal and stage agencies, reviewing and preparing for presentation cases to be considered by the local Historic Preservation Commission, and his background that led him to the job.
With this episode, the show goes on hiatus. We return with new shows May 13.
A production of Plateia Media ©2024-5. All rights reserved.
01/29/24 • 32 min
Selected clips of last week's conversations with: City Councilmember Matt Flaherty, City Human Rights Director Michael Shermis, former Fire Chief and now candidate for the open District 5 Council seat Jason Moore, and Charlotte Zietlow, who was the city's first-ever female council president in 1972.
A production of Plateia Media ©2024-5. All rights reserved.
05/30/24 • 32 min
We're plowing through a new landscape on the show: the wonderful world of county governance. Today we meet Kate Wiltz, the District 2 representative on the Monroe County Council. She talks about her district, explains the county budget process, some of her governing priorities, and how she decided to become a councilmember in the first place.
A production of Plateia Media ©2024-5. All rights reserved.
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FAQ
How many episodes does The 812 have?
The 812 currently has 203 episodes available.
What topics does The 812 cover?
The podcast is about Interview, Local, Explainer, Podcasts, City, Government and Indiana.
What is the most popular episode on The 812?
The episode title '010: The812's Digest for the Week of January 22' is the most popular.
What is the average episode length on The 812?
The average episode length on The 812 is 34 minutes.
How often are episodes of The 812 released?
Episodes of The 812 are typically released every 2 days.
When was the first episode of The 812?
The first episode of The 812 was released on Jan 16, 2024.
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