Who Gets What?

Courtney Johnson, with spouse and two children, still finds time to direct a powerful youth center ( "Y & E," which stands for "Young and Established"), to serve as a professional life coach, manage a food bank, maintain a marketing company, work as director of community and resources for The Evansville Housing Authority, and he is at-large member of The Evansville City Council. Whew!!

Inappropriate use of statistics, a prominent element in politics, is considered, criticized, and evaluated, in this conversation between the moderators of Who Gets What.

Public schools serve all residents. Vouchers do not. They do not serve populations in small towns having only one school, itself barely supported. Vouchers tend to subsize wealthy persons who can afford private school tuitions. Perhaps as much as 90 % of voucher subsidizes go to schools having support from a single religion. These are just a few of the powerful points in this discussion.

Since 1992, Senior Home Companions has provided personal caregivers for the memory challenged and infirm. More recently, it has built Story Cottages, fully-staffed facilities for as few as 8 resident guests. Its leader is David Morgan who tells us about planning for the later years and, of course: Aging In Place.

Drum Major Larry Lafferty compellingly describes his experiences starting with the 1968 Indiana Marching Hundred, The Rose Bowl Year. Now a retired school administrator from Bedford, IN., Larry reflects on Indiana sports history and movies in which his band made appearances. Meanwhile, podcast host Morton reveals that his son was a high school drum major.

The Big Car Collaborative, a nonprofit art and design organization, utilizes tools of culture and creativity to build community and social cohesion — helping connect people as a way to boost quality of life. Its co-founder* and Executive Director, Jim Walker, covers many topics, such as use of color in housing, reducing the housing burden on artists, the park-like project on The Circle, and its primary facility, Tube Factory Artspace.

*With his wife, Shauta Marsh, Director of Programs and Exhibitions.

Dedicated, energetic, non partisan Julia Vaughn has been working to improve Indiana's democratic systems, to foster transparency and to extend voting rights to all eligible Indiana citizens, talks about recent actual and proposed restrictions on voter eligibility.

In her view, Indiana does not have an election security problem. Instead, it has a voter participation problem. In 2022, Indiana was 50th in vother turnout.

John Ketzenberger, Director of Government Relations, The Nature Conservancy (Indiana Chapter), reminds us of its many projects, as well as the opportunities to share and to understand nature in Indiana. John thanks Morton for "cranking me up on a Friday morning," after Morton wonders why so many different environmental organizations exist.

Local mass transportation, a new soccer stadium and the new judicial center are just a few of the topics in this exchange with Greg Ballard, 48th Mayor of Indianapolis.

This rambling dicussion between two economists, our host Morton Marcus, and our guest Bruce Jaffee, covers money in athletics, history disappearing, news as entertainment, regulating business, and the compelling need to teach critical thinking--the ability to ask questions, to see the difference between fact and fiction. For over four decades, Bruce was a teacher, an observer, an author of impact studies, and a faculty representative to the NCAA.