Kara and Andy thought they’d be able to find community in Chicago, the big city, and they went there partly for its diversity: they wanted to be in a place that was less white. But it was so expensive to live there, it meant they had to work a lot, and it seemed like everyone around them was stressed, so they decided to leave, and go to the small town in southern Indiana where Kara grew up: Paoli. Population 3,666. It’s a whole lot cheaper to live there, which means they don’t have to spend all their time working for other people. They bought an old factory building that used to make tomato products and now they live in it. Kara teaches yoga there. Andy makes bagels that he sells on Saturdays. They host lecture series there. They’ve been instrumental in putting on a festival for the town. They’ve been busy, in other words. This is a story about making community in a small town. It’s also a postcard from Paoli, a photo taken from one angle, with a fairly narrow lens. Which means there are at least twelve other ways of looking at Paoli, Indiana.
After the postcard from Paoli, we have a short (but great) poem. It's actually selections from a poem: Michael Luis Dauro, reading from his poem The Woman With No Name, originally featured on WFIU's Poets Weave.
Inner States is produced and edited by me, Alex Chambers, with support from Violet Baron, Eoban Binder, Mark Chilla, Avi Forrest, LuAnn Johnson, Sam Schemenauer, Payton Whaley, and Kayte Young. Our Executive Producer is John Bailey.
Our theme song is by Amy Oelsner and Justin Vollmar. We have additional music from the artists at Universal Production Music and Ramón Monrás-Sender.
Special thanks this week to Kara Schmidt and Andy Gerber of the Tomato Products Company, as well as their friends and guests, Heather Nichols, Patricia Basile, Darren and Espri Bender-Beauregard, Rosemary Park, and Rosemary’s good friend Lauren. And a special thanks to Gabriel Piser, of the Indiana University Center for Rural Engagement, for helping to make this happen.
