Who is the best shortstop in Chicago these days, Javier Baez or Tim Anderson? Will you ever see Addison Russell play in Wrigley for the Cubs again? How did the Bears do in the NFL draft? And Kyron Brown has his eye on the prize at the national Golden Gloves boxing tournament. All this in this episode of Chicago Sports Odyssey.

Chicago Sports Odyssey brings you the story behind the headlines. Episode 2.

Cheryl Raye-Stout has covered Chicago's professional sports teams for decades. Michael Puente is a radio news guy but loves sports. Listen to this podcast to hear the latest news on your favorite Chicago sports teams.

CCSJ's 2019 Humanities Festival

On Wednesday evening around 7, when temperatures were falling far below freezing, Michael Brothers headed toward a McDonald’s restaurant in East Chicago, Indiana to stay warm. But the restaurant, like most businesses in the area, had closed.

"I was going to be one of those people frozen, seen outside -- they made a story about him on social media," Brothers said who dreaded staying in the cold much longer.

As Brothers would soon find out, a group of concerned citizens had opened a makeshift, 24-hour shelter inside a cafeteria of St. Patrick Roman Catholic Church in East Chicago.

(Photo: Michael Brothers, 38, plays cards while staying at a temporary homeless shelter in East Chicago, Indiana during this week's historic cold snap. Come Saturday, Brothers isn't sure what his next move will be once the shelter closes. (Photo by Michael Puente/WBEZ)

On Wednesday evening around 7, when temperatures were falling far below freezing, Michael Brothers headed toward a McDonald’s restaurant in East Chicago, Indiana to stay warm. But the restaurant, like most businesses in the area, had closed.

"I was going to be one of those people frozen, seen outside -- they made a story about him on social media," Brothers said who dreaded staying in the cold much longer.

As Brothers would soon find out, a group of concerned citizens had opened a makeshift, 24-hour shelter inside a cafeteria of St. Patrick Roman Catholic Church in East Chicago.

(Photo: Michael Brothers, 38, plays cards while staying at a temporary homeless shelter in East Chicago, Indiana during this week's historic cold snap. Come Saturday, Brothers isn't sure what his next move will be once the shelter closes. (Photo by Michael Puente/WBEZ)

This is our big Thanksgiving Day episode. In this one, we take another look at the Donnelly-Braun U.S. Senate race, try to make sense of the fiasco in Porter County and introducing Indiana's youngest state legislator and possibly the first Asian-American state representative in Chris Chyung, a Democrat from Dyer, Indiana.

These are the final days leading up to the Nov. 6 mid-term election. Things are heating up in Northwest Indiana with a visit by former President Barack Obama in Gary to campaign for incumbent U.S. Senator Joe Donnelly. President Donald Trump visits Indianapolis to stump for Republican Mike Braun. We learn that Lake County, Indiana is drawing big early voting numbers. And we remember the late great Indy Star political columnist Matt Tully.

Just outside of Chicago lies an area that is no stranger to rough and tumble politics. That area is called the Region, short for the Calumet Region, aka Northwest Indiana. This independently-produced podcast aims to tell interesting stories and analysis of local and state politics from two veteran journalists, Michael Puente of WBEZ Chicago and Tom Maloney of Lakeshore Public Media.