The 78

Radio legends have become an endangered species, their voices fading beneath algorithms and playlists. But every so often, if you know where to listen, you still hear one. In Chicago, that voice belongs to Nick Digilio.

For more than four decades, Digilio has been a constant on the city’s cultural frequency. A film critic, broadcaster, podcaster, live-event host, and unapologetic movie obsessive, he represents a particular Chicago ideal: deeply knowledgeable, relentlessly curious, and profoundly human. In a wide-ranging conversation with Tom Barnas, Digilio reflects on a life shaped by cinema and radio, two mediums that taught him how to listen, how to watch, and how to connect. Digilio’s career spans over 35 years in radio, much of it at WGN, where the station once felt less like a corporation and more like a family kitchen table. He recalls an era when broadcasters weren’t brands but neighbors, trusted voices keeping company with late-night insomniacs and early-morning commuters. That sense of community, he says, is what made radio matter and why its loss still stings.

Movies, however, were there first. Growing up in Wrigleyville, Digilio was the kind of kid who didn’t just watch films, he studied them. Seeing John Carpenter’s Halloween wasn’t merely frightening, it was formative. It taught him how direction works, how tone is built, how a filmmaker’s choices ripple outward. Long before he had the language of criticism, he had instinct, curiosity, and a love that never faded.

That lifelong devotion now finds its fullest expression in Digilio’s new book, 40 Years, 40 Films, a deeply personal and sharply observed collection that functions as film criticism, cultural history, and memoir all at once. Organized one movie per year, from Albert Brooks’ Lost in America (1985) to Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two (2024), each chapter pairs Digilio’s favorite film of the year with a snapshot of his life at that moment.

The result is intimate without being indulgent. These essays are funny, incisive, and emotionally grounded, revealing how movies didn’t just entertain Digilio but accompanied him through sobriety, upheaval, reinvention, and survival. Alongside the essays are full Top 10 lists from every year since 1985, plus selections from his pre-critic childhood, when moviegoing was pure discovery.

This is not simply a book about films. It is a candid biography told at 24 frames per second.

Digilio writes openly about triumphs and failures, about losing jobs and rebuilding identities, about the quiet resilience required to stay creative in a shrinking industry. The COVID-19 pandemic, which disrupted radio and accelerated many of its long-simmering changes, forced him to pivot yet again. Podcasts, film screenings, live events, and direct audience engagement have become his new airwaves.

Still, Chicago remains the constant. Digilio speaks of the city not as a backdrop but as a collaborator, a place that shaped his voice and continues to sustain it. That love is echoed in the book’s framing, with an introduction by legendary Chicago artist Tony Fitzpatrick and a foreword by filmmaker Don Coscarelli, creator of Phantasm and Bubba Ho-Tep. It’s a gathering of kindred spirits, bound by art, endurance, and a belief in stories.

Audrey Wilson didn’t abandon screenwriting when she turned to novels. She simply widened the frame.

A Chicago-based writer with deep roots in both film and fiction, Wilson has built a career exploring what unsettles people long after the lights come up. Her latest novel, The Ever End, marks a significant evolution in that pursuit, shifting from the collaborative world of screenwriting into the solitary, immersive terrain of psychological horror literature.

At its core, The Ever End is less concerned with jump scares than with the slow, suffocating tension that creeps in when instinct collides with social conditioning. The novel draws inspiration from a deceptively simple idea: the way politeness can override survival, and how often people are taught to ignore their gut in favor of being agreeable. That tension becomes fertile ground for terror, unfolding through characters who feel achingly familiar rather than safely fictional.

Wilson’s creative process reflects her screenwriting background. She is an enthusiastic outliner, mapping emotional beats and narrative turns before drafting a single page. Whether she’s working in screenplay format or long-form prose, structure remains her compass. But where film demands economy, the novel allows her to linger, to let dread ferment, to explore interior lives with greater depth.

The Midwest plays a quiet but persistent role in her work. Growing up in Chicago, Wilson absorbed a particular kind of atmosphere: wide spaces, harsh winters, and an undercurrent of isolation that can exist even in crowded places. It’s a region that doesn’t announce its menace, but waits patiently. That sensibility seeps into The Ever End, where horror isn’t imported, it’s already embedded in the landscape.

Wilson’s relationship with horror began early, shaped by formative encounters with films that treated fear as psychological terrain rather than spectacle. Those influences still guide her approach today. For her, horror is most effective when it reflects emotional truths, when it uses fear as a lens to examine identity, vulnerability, and power.

Representation is central to that mission. Wilson is intentional about creating characters who feel seen, particularly in a genre that has historically relied on familiar archetypes. She believes horror is uniquely positioned to explore marginalized experiences, not as metaphors, but as lived realities. By grounding terror in authenticity, she aims to build deeper connections with readers who recognize themselves on the page.

With The Ever End, Audrey Wilson isn’t just telling a scary story. She’s expanding the emotional vocabulary of horror, proving that the most unsettling monsters often emerge from everyday decisions, unspoken rules, and the quiet spaces where fear has room to grow.

Babe’s Sports Bar is calling, and it’s answering with volume, visibility, and victory laps for women’s sports.

Tucked into Logan Square at 3017 W. Armitage Ave., Babe’s is Chicago’s newest love letter to women athletes and the fans who show up for them. With eight TVs capable of running four women’s sports games at once, Babe’s is built for watch parties, sports-themed movie screenings, and all-year-long celebrations that don’t ask for permission.

After a successful crowdfunding campaign, nearly a year of renovations, and a deep dive into donated sports history, Babe’s officially opened its doors with a soft launch that felt anything but quiet. The bar is the brainchild of Nora McConnell-Johnson, a Humboldt Park native, lifelong athlete, and former rugby coach who turned zoning headaches, building permits, and community feedback into a fully realized space that finally gives women’s sports the room they deserve.

The interior pops with green and pink hues, glowing accent lights, red trim, and bathrooms so perfectly chaotic they’ve earned their own Instagram account. Disco balls hover overhead. Tables are sealed with vintage sports photos, pins, and varsity jacket letters. Donated trophies line the walls, including one from McConnell-Johnson’s own rugby coaching days. Everywhere you look, women are frozen mid-stride, mid-play, mid-history.

The old space was completely gutted to make room for a new bar counter, an improved patio, fresh wallpaper, a photo booth, and soon, bleachers. When installed, those bleachers will seat 12 people beside a vintage Illinois recreation center scoreboard, turning the bar into something that feels equal parts neighborhood hangout and rec-league shrine.

Babe’s was founded by college best friends and rugby co-captains Nora and Torra, a duo united by sport and the belief that women athletes deserve a dedicated home base. This isn’t a novelty bar or a pop-up moment. It’s a permanent fixture built on celebration, representation, and community.

Planning a visit? Babe’s is a short walk from the California Blue Line stop, near the Armitage and California bus routes, with free street parking on Armitage right out front. Check the Babe’s website for updates on watch parties, New Year’s Eve events, and upcoming programming.

This New Year, raise a glass where women’s sports are always on the big screen and never treated like the undercard.

For more Stories From The 78, follow @tombarnas78 on Instagram and @storiesfromthe78 on TikTok.

We’re getting an exclusive, behind-the-scenes look at Adalina Prime, the buzziest new steakhouse to hit Chicago’s Fulton Market, and it’s clear from the moment you walk in that this isn’t your grandfather’s steakhouse.

Chef and partner Soo Ahn leads the way through the restaurant’s striking design and moody, high-glam atmosphere, a space that feels equal parts old-world luxury and modern swagger. The experience only deepens downstairs, where sommelier Colin Jones opens the doors to Adalina Prime’s jaw-dropping, two-story wine cellar, home to more than 4,000 bottles curated to match the restaurant’s elevated yet playful approach to fine dining.

For Ahn, the menu is deeply personal. “I love infusing the flavors I grew up with, fell in love with while traveling, or enjoy at home into new dishes,” he says. Guests familiar with Adalina’s original menu can taste that philosophy throughout the restaurant, from the lobster spaghetti dusted with furikake to the duck mole lasagna, dishes that quietly bend tradition without breaking it. Bringing that same energy to Adalina Prime was non-negotiable.

“It’s a key part of how we do things differently,” Ahn explains. “We’re elevating classics in unexpected ways.”

That philosophy extends beyond fine-dining convention into something more fun, more human. Ahn openly embraces his love of street food and chain-restaurant icons. “A Crunchwrap hates to see me coming,” he laughs. That sense of humor finds its way onto the menu in surprising forms, like housemade chicken nuggets served as an add-on to the caviar service, or lobster cheesy corn that bridges indulgence and nostalgia. The result is a menu that feels luxurious without taking itself too seriously.

The tour wraps with Ahn pulling Jackie behind the scenes for a sneak peek at the restaurant’s salt library and a hands-on dish demonstration in the kitchen, where technique, creativity, and personality collide. At Adalina Prime, luxury isn’t just about excess. It’s about curiosity, memory, and the confidence to have a little fun along the way.

For more Stories From The 78, follow @tombarnas78 on Instagram and @storiesfromthe78 on TikTok.

StoriesAbout

Daniel Moreno didn’t go looking for a winter tradition to chase. It found him instead, hissing into a frozen platform like some neon comet stitched together from peppermint stripes and CTA steel. For five years, he followed Chicago’s Holiday Train through the city’s arteries, letting its glow guide him across Loop trestles, into wind-battered stations, and through neighborhoods wrapped in frost and streetlight.

What started as a simple photograph became a pilgrimage. A way of honoring his city. A way of proving that even in the hardest months, Chicago still hums with warmth if you know where to aim the lens.

The Holiday Train isn’t just a seasonal stunt. It’s the city cracking a grin. It’s transit workers decking rail cars in thousands of lights, Santa waving from a flatcar throne, families chasing platforms like they’re chasing miracles. And Moreno documents all of it with the intensity of someone who understands that traditions aren’t just observed — they’re preserved.

His images capture the moment the train slices through the Loop, lighting sparks off glass towers. They capture bundled-up commuters snapping out of their winter trance as color erupts across the tracks. They capture the quiet corners too: snow drifting over the Brown Line, a lone rider smiling into the glow, the city remembering itself.

Moreno’s new book, Chicago’s Holiday Train, turns this obsession into something permanent. Part love letter, part time capsule, it’s built for locals who crave a hit of nostalgia, transit geeks who worship rolling stock, and anyone who needs proof that beauty doesn’t wait for perfect moments. Sometimes it arrives on rails, jingling through the cold.

In a world that often feels like it’s rushing past us, Moreno reminds us to look up. Look out. Look for the color in the gray. Because in Chicago, magic doesn’t hide — it arrives right on schedule.

For more Stories From The 78, follow @tombarnas78 on Instagram and @storiesfromthe78 on TikTok.

Chicago’s creative pulse just got a jolt worthy of a stadium encore. Two giants of the independent music world, The Music Building and Smash Studios, have officially joined forces to launch a new era for artists in the Midwest. It’s a collision of legacy, grit, and future-forward ambition that feels perfectly at home in the city that gave us everything from Muddy Waters to Kanye West.

Born in 1979, The Music Building became the gravitational center of New York City’s indie universe, a hive where early-era Madonna, a sneering Billy Idol, and The Strokes sharpened their teeth. Smash Studios followed in 1989, raising the bar with its sleek, cutting-edge performance and production spaces that attracted legends ranging from Paul McCartney to Post Malone. Together, they arrive in Chicago with nearly eighty years of combined credibility and an artist-driven ethos baked into their DNA.

The sprawling new Chicago facility lands in the West Loop, just a guitar string’s vibration away from Fulton Market’s buzzing restaurants and after-hours energy. Inside, the renovated complex sprawls across more than 115 studios, with a shape-shifting mix of hourly and monthly rehearsal rooms, production suites, lounge spaces built for collaboration, and performance-ready rooms engineered for artists at every stage.

Smash Studios will run the hourly and lockout rehearsal spaces, while The Music Building will helm the long-term studios. But the real spark comes from what’s next: Smash Studios is gearing up to launch new showcases aimed at spotlighting undiscovered artists. Translation: Chicago creatives are about to get their shot on a much bigger stage.

The transformation also honors the heritage of the Music Garage, the beloved West Loop institution that has served as a creative home for Chicago musicians for two decades. Its legacy isn’t erased; it’s amplified, tuned up, and plugged into the city’s next generation.

“For nearly five decades, The Music Building has been the foundation of New York’s independent music scene,” says Roget Lerner, president of The Music Building. “Expanding to Chicago allows us to continue that legacy while also honoring and building upon the Music Garage’s own history. Together, we’re creating a space that not only continues these traditions but provides the next generation of Chicago musicians with a space to create, collaborate, and thrive.”

“Chicago has always had deep musical roots and an incredible artist community,” adds Smash Studios founder Clay Sheff. “This facility gives us the opportunity to deliver a world-class creative experience that reflects the spirit of this city while building on everything we’ve cultivated in New York.”

With its mix of history, innovation, and raw artistic energy, The Music Building Chicago is shaping up to be a new landmark for musicians hungry to push boundaries and carve out something loud, honest, and unforgettable.

The Music Building Chicago

345 N. Loomis Street

Chicago, IL 60607

smashstudios.com

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Pilot Project has always operated less like a brewery and more like a recording studio. Ideas come in raw. Styles get workshopped. Founders collaborate, experiment, and polish until something distinctive is ready for the world. It’s a model that’s helped turn Chicago and Milwaukee into unlikely epicenters of beverage innovation and it’s also where Years, a design-forward, culture-first non-alcoholic beer, found its voice.

That voice recently got a familiar cadence.

As Sober October kicked off, Years announced that comedian, writer, and actor John Mulaney had officially partnered with the brand, launching its first national creative campaign. It wasn’t a celebrity endorsement cooked up in a boardroom. It started the way most good things do: organically. Mulaney tried the beer through friends, liked it, kept drinking it, and eventually found himself reaching for it on set. The relationship grew from there, rooted in authenticity rather than optics.

Years is proudly Midwestern, brewed with the belief that non-alcoholic beer shouldn’t feel like a compromise. It should feel like a reward. Mulaney immediately understood that ethos.

“Years actually tastes like beer, which is a relief because that’s kind of the point,” Mulaney said. “It feels like the beer you grab out of a cooler in a driveway while someone struggles to light a charcoal grill. It’s completely and totally Midwestern, but it still works for a fancy city crowd. It feels authentic.”

That authenticity is the backbone of the brand.

Founded by Chicago-based brand builder Pat Corcoran, who is alcohol-free himself, Years was created to challenge the stigma that still lingers around non-alcoholic choices. For Corcoran, the idea wasn’t about subtraction. It was about expansion.

“I started Years to prove that alcohol-free living is about more, not less,” Corcoran said. “More fun, more connection, more life, and zero hangovers. Partnering with John felt natural. His story is real, his humor disarms people, and he brings humanity to a space that desperately needs it.”

To bring that vision to life, Corcoran partnered with Pilot Project Brewing, the rapidly growing beverage accelerator co-founded by Dan Abel. Known for incubating and scaling standout brands, Pilot Project provided both the infrastructure and creative freedom to treat non-alcoholic beer with the same seriousness as its alcoholic counterparts.

“With Years, we weren’t trying to imitate beer,” Abel said. “We were trying to make great beer. Period. From the Original Pils to the Belgian Wit, every style is built to stand on its own. This isn’t about compromise. It’s about raising the bar for what non-alcoholic beer can be.”

The new campaign reflects that philosophy with humor, warmth, and cultural fluency. Developed in collaboration with Mulaney, it reframes non-alcoholic beer as something social, joyful, and rooted in everyday life. Supported by social content, paid media, and in-store activations, the campaign leans into the brand’s guiding idea: It’s not the years in your life, it’s the life in your years.

At a moment when drinking culture is evolving, Years doesn’t feel like a trend. It feels like a correction. And with Pilot Project’s studio-style approach and Mulaney’s unmistakable voice, it’s one that’s resonating far beyond the Midwest.

For more Stories From The 78, follow @tombarnas78 on Instagram and @storiesfromthe78 on TikTok.

In Bucktown, where creativity has always thrived between record stores, coffee counters, and back-room art studios, The T-Shirt Deli has spent the last 22 years quietly redefining what custom apparel can be. Founded in November 2003, the shop is part print studio, part neighborhood institution, and part performance art, serving up made-to-order T-shirts the way a classic deli serves a perfect sandwich: fast, personal, and exactly how you want it.

Step inside and the theme snaps into focus immediately. Gleaming white deli cases line the space. Rolls of bleached butcher paper stand ready. Bright stickers pop from every surface. Open-air wicker baskets hold what the shop calls its “freshest tees,” waiting to be assembled to order. Everything about the design reinforces the joke and the genius behind it: these shirts are made hot, wrapped while they’re still “steamy,” slipped into a doggy bag, and finished with a bag of chips. It’s retail as ritual, and it turns a T-shirt into a gift, an experience, and a story.

The menu is deep. Custom T-shirts, baby items, accessories, and even dog tees are all made to order using soft, homegrown Bella + Canvas blanks. Customers can design in-store or online, choosing from an almost comical number of fonts, colors, and graphics, or uploading their own images. It’s DIY without the intimidation, supported by hands-on design assistance when ideas need a little extra polish.

Speed is part of the appeal. Most in-store custom orders using standard design elements are ready within 24 to 48 hours, while more complex image uploads typically take up to 72. Walk-ins can often have a shirt made on the spot, depending on store volume. And for the truly last-minute crowd, the shop’s legendary Emergen-Tees option promises same-day pickup if you order before 3 p.m. It’s fast fashion without the disposability, powered by intention rather than impulse.

Behind it all is Ninel Pompushko, whose story is woven into every stitch. Born in Odessa, Ukraine, and raised in the U.S. after her family immigrated when she was two, Pompushko brought an advertising copywriter’s instinct for clarity and connection into the retail world. When she opened The T-Shirt Deli, the idea wasn’t just to sell shirts. It was to create a space where people could say something, share something, and feel seen in the process.

That philosophy still defines the shop. Every design tells a story. Every customer becomes part of the narrative. Over the years, The T-Shirt Deli has evolved into a creative hub where personal expression takes center stage, whether someone is designing a single shirt, hosting a private in-store party, or booking the shop’s on-location “catering” service, which brings the full custom T-shirt setup directly to events.

The T-Shirt Deli ships nationwide via UPS within 24 to 48 hours when items are in stock, but its heart remains firmly rooted in Bucktown. After 22 years, the shop stands as proof that a simple idea, executed with heart and humor, can become a cultural fixture. Here, creativity is always on the menu, and everyone leaves wearing exactly what they came to say.

For more Stories From The 78, follow @tombarnas78 on Instagram and @storiesfromthe78 on TikTok.

The Midwest has always been misunderstood. Reduced to flyover shorthand or nostalgic caricature, it’s often treated as a blank space between coasts. But in Lingering Inland, editor Andy Oler and a chorus of contemporary writers prove that the heartland is anything but empty. It’s crowded with memory, contradiction, grit, and quiet beauty, if you know how to listen.

In a wide-ranging conversation, Tom Barnas and Oler dig into the idea that place is not just where stories happen, but why they happen. Their discussion circles around a deceptively simple question: how do the stories we tell about Midwestern places shape who we are, and how do our lived experiences reshape those stories in return?

Oler’s Literary Landscapes project gathers 73 original short essays, each rooted in a physical location that has echoed through Midwestern literature. From the legacy of Toni Morrison to the enduring presence of Willa Cather, contributors return to these sites not as tourists, but as pilgrims. They linger. They listen. They let the land speak back.

What emerges is a portrait of the Midwest that resists mythmaking while embracing meaning. These essays wrestle with masculinity and memory, with nostalgia sharpened by honesty, and with the resilience of communities that endure not because they are loud, but because they are stubbornly alive. Grain elevators, small towns, neighborhoods, and back roads become emotional coordinates, mapping longing as much as geography.

There’s a particular pride here, one that doesn’t announce itself. Oler emphasizes the beauty found in ordinary places, the kind you pass every day until someone teaches you how to see it. This is literature that understands the Midwest as a lived-in space, shaped by labor, weather, inheritance, and hope.

Lingering Inland stands as a singular work of creative nonfiction, binding personal reflection to collective identity. It reminds us that regional literature matters most to the people who call that region home, not as a mirror of stereotypes, but as a record of survival and imagination. Beyond the clichés, beyond the punchlines, the Midwest emerges as a landscape of interior lives, still unfolding, still worth lingering over.

For more Stories From The 78, follow @tombarnas78 on Instagram and @storiesfromthe78 on TikTok.

Billy Branch has spent five decades shaping the sound of modern Chicago blues — now he’s finally telling the story in his own voice. With The Blues Is My Biography, the highly anticipated new album dropping November 7th via Rosa’s Lounge Records, the legendary harmonica master delivers a raw, urgent, soul-deep testament to the life he’s lived and the genre he’s helped sustain.

The title isn’t metaphor. It’s mission.

Produced by the esteemed Larry Batiste, the album is stacked with heavyweight collaborations. Bobby Rush brings thunder on “Hole In Your Soul,” trading vocals and harmonica with Branch in a way only two blues titans can. Shemekia Copeland’s powerhouse vocals transform “Begging For Change” into a spiritual reckoning. And anchoring it all is Branch’s longtime band, The Sons of Blues — a group whose chemistry hits like a heartbeat, steady and unmistakably Chicago.

But before the Hall of Fame inductions, Emmy wins, Grammy nominations, and Blues Music Awards, Branch was just a kid with a harmonica and a city that refused to let him go. His journey started at 10 years old, thrown headfirst into the electric tapestry of Chicago’s blues clubs. Mentored by giants like James Cotton and Willie Dixon, he learned early that blues wasn’t just music — it was inheritance.

His breakout came in 1975, when he joined the Willie Dixon Chicago Blues All-Stars. Seven relentless years on the road, shoulder-to-shoulder with legends, forged him into a force. And he’s been expanding the boundaries of the genre ever since — not only as a performer but as a devoted educator and advocate, ensuring the blues is taught, preserved, and lived by future generations.

In our conversation, Branch reflects on the evolution of the music industry, the rebirth of blues among young listeners, and the community that keeps the genre alive. His passion is as undeniable as his tone: gritty, warm, and unmistakably Chicago. The Blues Is My Biography is more than an album — it’s a cultural document, a love letter, and a roadmap for where the blues goes next.

Check out the upcoming show at Rosa’s Lounge.