It’s been a year.

Shutdowns, marathon zoom meetings, compensating for patchy internet and dealing with the stress of a global phenomenon. We got through it all, and came out with some stories to tell.

Hosts Jim and Elaine take a moment to look back at the wild ride that was this year, and the challenges and creativity that saw us to this hopeful summer.

They talk through favorite episodes this year - including with physicist and writer Doug Hofstadter, vaccine developer John Patton, political scientist Jeff Isaac, and Media School students like Lexi Haskell and Jacqueline Ferguson who are leading the next generation of meaningful and important journalism.

Can’t wait to see you next year! Meanwhile, check your feeds this summer for some bonus content and favorite looks back.

After an historic win for women’s b-ball at IU, Elaine and Violet sit down with Nicole Cardano-Hillary to hear what it means to taste victory while being a full-time student, gender in a male-dominated sport, and what might be next for a sport champ at the Media School

What if every baby could get the COVID-19 vaccine in its first month of life? Dr. John Patton, Professor of Biology at the College of Arts and Sciences, is on the case.

Dr. Patton's lab is developing an inoculation that would modify the Rotovirus vaccine to incorporate immunity from the novel coronavirus as well. Host Elaine Monaghan and producer Violet Baron get the facts and the timeline on this episode of Through the Gates.

We're taking a look back at an episode from last year. Advocates and Allies is growing; learn more at https://tinyurl.com/sw6h573f

In this episode, host Elaine Monaghan sits down with Indiana University professor of psychology Tom James.

James is one of the founders of "Advocates and Allies for Equity", which runs auxiliary to the Center of Excellence for Women and Technology. Advocates and Allies focuses their work on educating themselves, and other men, about gender equity through workshops dedicated to removing unconscious bias and promoting awareness of gender discrimination.

James' background in psychology gives him unique insight into these biases, and he discusses how, even beyond gender discrimination, we all carry these biases with us and how we can work to be better.

IU First Lady Laurie Burns McRobbie has devoted her career to supporting women's leadership and technology. Now, the Serve IT Clinic has been named in her honor.

She sat down with host Elaine Monaghan and producer Violet Baron to talk women in tech, philanthropy, and her tenure at IU.

Will IU have a giant vaccination pod in a couple months’ time?

Will vaccinations be required for students to come back to campus in the fall? What WAS that lingering cough I had right before the outbreak?

Sounds like the kind of thing you’d ask Aaron Carroll.

We did! After two semesters of answering every question the IU community could think of in weekly webinars, he gamely came on the show to answer Dean Shanahan and Professor Monaghan’s burning questions as we round the corner toward mass vaccinations and a hopeful return to on-campus life.

This country’s political system has been through a lot in the past two months - ahem - four years.

James H. Rudy Professor of Political Science Jeff Isaac joins host Elaine Monaghan and producer Violet Baron to consider how the government will reckon with its recent past, where Trumpism goes now, and what a kid from New York turned Bloomington public intellectual can bring to the conversation.

IU Archives of African American Music and Culture Director Tyron Cooper has an insider’s view of Black music and the culture behind it, much of which goes back to the Black church.

He says that’s part of what makes AAAMC different: it looks at the broad context and origins of Black music, and makes it accessible for both scholarship and casual listening.

Cooper joins Dean Shanahan on Through the Gates to tell us more about the archives and share AAAMC Speaks, a documentary series hosted by the archives in partnership with the Office of the Provost.

The series brings the archives alive in a series of interviews with industry executives and performers in various genres of Black music. The first episode on Eddie Gilreath shows one of the first Black professionals to work at the executive level in the music industry.

Coming up are features on AAAMC founding director Dr. Portia Maultsby and the foundational jazz musician Reggie Workman.

Go to aaamc.indiana.edu to learn more about the archives.

Deplatforming. Incitement. Section 230. Buzzwords are flying in the aftermath of the United States’ first transfer of power that was anything but peaceful. As online platforms grow and proliferate, How do we regulate social media while protecting the right to dissent?

The Media School’s Tony Fargo and Maurer School of Law’s Steve Sanders join Dean Shanahan to talk about what makes speech free and what keeps it that way, while protecting the institutions that hold this country together.

When George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery were killed this summer, thousands of people across the country rose up and took to the streets in protest. Out of that chaos and hope emerged a new urgency in the fight for racial justice in America. And out of that urgency emerged an exciting new initiative here at IU: Black Voices at the Indiana Daily Student.

Black Voices' founding editor Jaclyn Ferguson sat down with Elaine Monaghan and Violet Baron to share her experience starting something totally new and growing it into a vibrant and much-needed space for art, poetry, opinions and reporting on the Black student experience at IU