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This bridge episode sits in the tension of the current moment. Across two seasons, the underview has traced power in Northwest Arkansas from indigenous removal through racial terror to the displacement happening right now, asking what our institutions resisted and what they accommodated. The answer, consistently, has been accommodation: going along, choosing comfort over confrontation, narrowing the scope of who counts as neighbor. That history matters because we're watching the same choice play out nationally. 

When cultural agreement breaks down, when we lose our capacity to see each other, all that's left is force. The work ahead isn't shouting louder. It's the slow, patient labor of expanding who we see as "us" through stories, conversations, and relationships. Season 3 turns toward the faith communities of Northwest Arkansas to ask: where are the empathy makers, and how does faith create or breakdown belonging?

https://www.theunderview.com/episodes/the-moment-with-mike-rusch

About the underview:

The underview is an exploration of the development of our Communal Theology of Place viewed through the medium of bikes, land, and people to discover community wholeness.

Website: ⁠⁠theunderview.com⁠⁠
Follow us on Instagram: ⁠⁠@underviewthe
Host: @mikerusch

Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theunderview/message

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What happens to a community when no one is paying attention? Since 2005, America has lost more than 3,200 newspapers and the number of journalists per capita has dropped from 40 to just 8 per 100,000 people. The consequences are measurable: voter turnout drops, fewer people run for office, and communities lose the capacity to know what's happening to themselves. Bentonville had local journalism since 1857, but when local papers consolidated into regional coverage in 2015, nearly a decade passed without a news outlet focused solely on one of the fastest-growing cities in America.

Sam Hoisington, a Bentonville native whose father worked at local newspapers for 30 years before the layoffs came, returned home in 2023 after building a successful news startup in Wisconsin. What he found was a gap. In 2024, he launched the Bentonville Bulletin, and his analysis reveals that 69% of the stories he's published have no equivalent coverage anywhere else. In this conversation, Sam discusses the real cost of growth, the infrastructure challenges facing the city, why belonging and local journalism are deeply connected, and what it takes to rebuild the connective tissue that helps a community see itself.

https://www.theunderview.com/episodes/the-journalist-sam-hoisington-bentonville-bulletin

About the underview:

The underview is an exploration of the development of our Communal Theology of Place viewed through the medium of bikes, land, and people to discover community wholeness.

Website: ⁠⁠theunderview.com⁠⁠
Follow us on Instagram: ⁠⁠@underviewthe
Host: @mikerusch

Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theunderview/message

Send us a text

In Northwest Arkansas, where housing affordability was once the region's greatest draw, working families are increasingly being pushed to the edges. Women with children in their cars are showing up at church doorsteps asking a question congregations struggle to answer: "What do I do? Where do I go?" When Christ and Neighbor Church in Rogers was approached about the Urban Land Institute's Faithful Foundations program, Pastor Scott Page saw an alignment between what his church had been given and what neighbors desperately needed. Land. And a willingness to use it to make a difference.

This episode continues the Faithful Foundations conversation by going directly to one of the six churches in the first cohort. Scott Page, a lifelong Ozarker, shares why his church said yes to a program that asks congregations to consider affordable housing development as ministry. He describes the people Christ and Neighbor serves on the gritty east side of Rogers, people who are overlooked and undervalued, who work jobs in plants and live paycheck to paycheck in fear.  And he reflects on holding this dream with open hands, trusting that even if this specific project doesn't happen, the passion for affordable housing and the commitment to neighbors won't stop.

https://www.theunderview.com/episodes/the-faithful-foundations-scott-page-christ-and-neighbor

About the underview:

The underview is an exploration of the development of our Communal Theology of Place viewed through the medium of bikes, land, and people to discover community wholeness.

Website: ⁠⁠theunderview.com⁠⁠
Follow us on Instagram: ⁠⁠@underviewthe
Host: @mikerusch

Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theunderview/message

Send us a text

In a region where home prices have jumped 70.9% in five years and median rent has increased by double digits across every major city, affordable housing solutions can feel elusive. But the Faithful Foundations program, created by the Urban Land Institute of Northwest Arkansas, offers a different approach: what if churches could use land they already own to help address the crisis?

Candi Adams, Director of Signature Programs for ULI Northwest Arkansas, joins the conversation to discuss how this pilot program brought together six congregations from across the region to learn the fundamentals of real estate development. ULI's research revealed over 1,600 parcels covering 7 square miles owned by more than 650 faith organizations in Benton and Washington counties alone. Adams shares her journey from architect to nonprofit leader, the unlikely partnerships forming between faith communities and real estate professionals, and why hope remains the essential ingredient in this work. From Historic St. James Missionary Baptist Church's vision for HUD housing with hydroponic gardens to Trinity United Methodist's plans for housing the unhoused, these congregations are asking a profound question: how do we use what we have to care for who needs it most?

https://www.theunderview.com/episodes/the-faithful-foundations-candi-adams-urban-land-institute-arkansas-housing

About the underview:

The underview is an exploration of the development of our Communal Theology of Place viewed through the medium of bikes, land, and people to discover community wholeness.

Website: ⁠⁠theunderview.com⁠⁠
Follow us on Instagram: ⁠⁠@underviewthe
Host: @mikerusch

Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theunderview/message

Send us a text

In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Perla Guerrero, Associate Professor of American Studies at the University of Maryland and author of Nuevo South, to explore one of the most significant transformations in Northwest Arkansas history: what happens when a place that was overwhelmingly white through most of the 20th century experiences rapid demographic diversification. Dr. Guerrero shares her own journey as an undocumented immigrant who moved from California to Fort Smith at age 16, drawn by her father's search for work in the poultry industry, and how that experience shaped her understanding of racialization, belonging, and public space in the American South.

Through her research and lived experience, Dr. Guerrero helps us understand how Northwest Arkansas responded to the arrival of Vietnamese refugees, Cuban refugees, and Mexican immigrants from the 1970s forward. We explore concepts like acts of spatial illegality, how immigrant communities were tolerated when hidden in factories but criminalized when they became visible in public spaces, and the plantation bloc, the enduring power structures that have controlled racialized labor from slavery through Jim Crow to contemporary immigration enforcement. This conversation bridges historical patterns to the urgent present, examining how regional legacies of racial violence shape who feels welcomed today and asking what community wholeness might look like in a place still reckoning with its past.

https://www.theunderview.com/episodes/the-underview-nuevo-south-dr-perla-m-guerrero

About the underview:

The underview is an exploration of the development of our Communal Theology of Place viewed through the medium of bikes, land, and people to discover community wholeness.

Website: ⁠⁠theunderview.com⁠⁠
Follow us on Instagram: ⁠⁠@underviewthe
Host: @mikerusch

Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theunderview/message

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Solomon Burchfield, Executive Director of New Beginnings NWA, brings both lived experience and professional expertise to one of Northwest Arkansas's most urgent challenges. Growing up in a family that faced the real possibility of homelessness. That formative memory, combined with years working directly with chronically homeless neighbors, has shaped his vision for what he calls "universal dignity," a community where everyone has access to the basic resources needed to survive and thrive.

This conversation moves beyond stereotypes about homelessness to examine the interconnected systems that either support people or allow them to fall through the cracks. Solomon explains how housing functions as infrastructure, why exclusionary zoning and NIMBYism create the homelessness we claim to want to solve, and what it would look like for Northwest Arkansas to grow in a way that doesn't push more people to the margins. 

Through New Beginnings' innovative approaches, including micro-shelter communities, medical respite programs, and mixed-background neighborhoods, Solomon demonstrates that homelessness is a solvable problem when communities commit to housing-first solutions and recognize that everyone's well-being is interconnected. With homelessness increasing 23% in the region and housing costs rising 71% over five years, this conversation challenges us to see the gap between those who thrive and those who struggle not as inevitable, but as a choice we're making about what kind of community we want to build.

https://www.theunderview.com/episodes/the-underview-neighborhood-solomon-burchfield-new-beginnings-homeless

About the underview:

The underview is an exploration of the development of our Communal Theology of Place viewed through the medium of bikes, land, and people to discover community wholeness.

Website: ⁠⁠theunderview.com⁠⁠
Follow us on Instagram: ⁠⁠@underviewthe
Host: @mikerusch

Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theunderview/message

Send us a text

In this episode of the underview, we sit down with Victor Gurel, CEO of Trailblazers, the organization shaping how Northwest Arkansas moves, connects, and imagines its future. From singletrack to city streets, Trailblazers leads the region’s effort to design trails, tunnels, and active transportation systems that connect communities through shared infrastructure. Their work reminds us that movement is about more than recreation; it’s about access, equity, and belonging.

Victor reflects on his journey from a gravel road in rural Arkansas to leading one of the state’s most influential organizations in trail and infrastructure development. Through his leadership, Trailblazers is helping Northwest Arkansas see trails not just as amenities, but as essential public spaces that shape how we live, relate, and grow together. This episode explores what it means to build systems of movement that reflect the wholeness of a community, not just its privilege or pace.

https://www.theunderview.com/episodes/the-underview-trailblazers-victor-gurel

About the underview:

The underview is an exploration of the development of our Communal Theology of Place viewed through the medium of bikes, land, and people to discover community wholeness.

Website: ⁠⁠theunderview.com⁠⁠
Follow us on Instagram: ⁠⁠@underviewthe
Host: @mikerusch

Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theunderview/message

Send us a text

In this episode of the underview, host Mike Rusch sits down with Michael Spivey (President & CEO), Brannon Pack (Senior Director of Operations), and Bobby Finster (Project Lead) from the Ozark Foundation to explore the future of the Arkansas Rural Recreational Roads Initiative (R3).

As the cycling community in Northwest Arkansas continues to grow, it also finds itself navigating complex divisions, from the All Bikes Welcome mural debate to the conversations sparked by The Ozark Podcast. Yet within these tensions, the Ozark Foundation is building something new: a movement rooted in inclusion, listening, and bridge-building across urban and rural communities.

The R3 program, now under the Ozark Foundation, is more than an infrastructure project, it’s an invitation to slow down, see one another, and reconnect with the people and places that define Arkansas. Together, Mike and his guests discuss how cycling can help heal divides, strengthen rural economies, and honor the dignity of every community. From Benton County to the Delta, this conversation explores what it means to build connection mile by mile.

https://www.theunderview.com/episodes/the-underview-rural-recreational-roads-ozark-foundation

About the underview:

The underview is an exploration of the development of our Communal Theology of Place viewed through the medium of bikes, land, and people to discover community wholeness.

Website: ⁠⁠theunderview.com⁠⁠
Follow us on Instagram: ⁠⁠@underviewthe
Host: @mikerusch

Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theunderview/message

Send us a text

In this episode, we sit back down with Andy Chasteen, co-founder of Rule of Three and Oz Gravel, to reflect on the state of cycling in Northwest Arkansas. Andy first joined us in season one to share his vision for cycling as a force for belonging in this place. This follow-up conversation explores how that vision has evolved against the backdrop of national division, local debates, and the ongoing growth of our cycling culture.

Andy speaks candidly about the challenges of polarization and how simple practices like a wave on the trail or a shared ride can counteract division. He reflects on the transition of Arkansas Rural Recreation Roads into the Ozark Foundation, the conversations sparked by the Ozark Podcast, and his perspective on the “All Bikes Welcome” mural decision in Bentonville. At the heart of it all is his conviction that cycling can bring people together across differences, creating opportunities for inclusion, bridge-building, and community repair.

This episode is both an honest reckoning with the tensions we face and an invitation to imagine how the cycling community can lead with kindness, humility, and shared humanity.

Episode webpage:  https://www.theunderview.com/episodes/the-underview-cycling-community-andy-chasteen-rule-of-three-oz-gravel

About the underview:

The underview is an exploration of the development of our Communal Theology of Place viewed through the medium of bikes, land, and people to discover community wholeness.

Website: ⁠⁠theunderview.com⁠⁠
Follow us on Instagram: ⁠⁠@underviewthe
Host: @mikerusch

Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theunderview/message

Send us a text

In this episode, we continue the story of the “All Bikes Welcome” mural, this time from the perspective of the artist, Paige Dirksen, whose vision and brushstrokes brought it into being. What began as a joyful community project with more than 80 participants under the 3rd Street bridge at Coler Mountain Bike Preserve became the center of one of Bentonville’s most divisive civic debates.

Paige reflects on the joy of creating public art, the harm and exhaustion of months of controversy, and the sobering realization that inclusion itself was put on trial. She shares how public art can reveal both the beauty and the divides of a community, and what it means to hold integrity as an artist when your work becomes the stage for larger struggles over power, identity, and belonging. This episode, paired with our previous conversation with Dr. Rachel Olzer, reveals how art and advocacy intersect in shaping Bentonville’s character and in asking the deeper question: who truly belongs here?

https://www.theunderview.com/episodes/the-mural-with-paige-dirksen-all-bikes-welcome

About the underview:

The underview is an exploration of the development of our Communal Theology of Place viewed through the medium of bikes, land, and people to discover community wholeness.

Website: ⁠⁠theunderview.com⁠⁠
Follow us on Instagram: ⁠⁠@underviewthe
Host: @mikerusch

Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theunderview/message