It's the stories that I get and what I'm doing matters to them. One tenth the who's your pride that Samson has. Undisputed greatest place on earth. I'd tell you Indiana is the most important state ever. What was the first secret where you were like it's crazy that more people don't know this about Indiana? From South Bend to Evansville and everywhere in between.
This is Get In, the show focused on the Hoosier State and the incredible stories happening here today. I'm Nate Spangle, founder of Get Indiana, and I will be your host for today's conversation. All right, folks. Mother's Day is around the corner, and I'm going to help you get prepared. Ditch the Amazon or Target candle and get mom something from Warm Glow Candle Company. They're based out in Centerville, Indiana, and they make some of the best candles I have ever smelled.
They have made my house smell unreal. They aren't your average candle that burns out in 5 minutes. Oh no, your mom is going to get tons of use out of this. And every time she lights it, she's going to be thinking about how you are her favorite child. I love the apple cinnamon and the creamy vanilla bean. But my absolute favorite is the blueberry cobbler.
It smells just like visiting my grandma's house after she spent all Saturday morning baking. If you've ever driven east down 70, you have probably seen their massive candle where the shop is, but you can also order online and they'll ship them right to your door. I know you're going to get your mom a candle for Mother's Day. Now you can do that and support an awesome who's your business in the process. Head to warmglow. com to check out all their amazing scents.
Now, let's get back to the episode. Today I'm joined by Samson Levston, a passionate Indiana native dedicated to unearthing the hidden history of his state, our state. As the creative force behind Through Two Eyes, a platform that began as a blog and evolved into immersive walk-and talk experiences, Samson artfully blends personal narrative with Indiana's rich cultural and historical tapestry. His work shines a light on everything from iconic local figures to lesserk known stories, inviting residents to rediscover the amazing place Indiana truly is. Today we're going to be talking about his Indiana roots and how this passion for history really grew, the evolution of Through Two Eyes, and the future for who's your heritage storytelling. Samson, welcome to Get In.
Man, I'm excited to be here. Dude, I'm pumped. This is going to be a good one. So I mean I've probably gotten and this is not being gener like 10 to 15 people reaching out saying like you got to do an episode with Samson like people that have gone on the walk and talk experience or just know you and I think we got to connect like briefly at the hanger for uh IU Notre Dame game. I don't know what I don't know what what it was there. Maybe it was like a Colts tailgate.
I don't think I I don't think I went there. It was a Friday night. I think it was the Was it the IU Notre Dame game at the hangar? I don't think I watched it there, but Or was it a different I was at the hanger. I don't know what was going on. And our boy Steve Lindsay was like, "Yo, dude, if you haven't met Samson, I've been seeing him everywhere, dude."
Uh, and maybe you've seen him recently on the cover of Indianapolis Monthly, the best of Indiana, the true Indianapolis ambassador, which we love to see, dude. Congrats on that. Thank you. Um, well, you know, like every young boy that grows up and says for Career Day, he wants to be an Indianapolis historian, man. Right. like where did this passion for Indianapolis and the history come from?
Um, I really kind of credit my mom and the public library. I think one of the first cool history stories that I found was we had we were on Pendleton Pike and we drove by the old Lawrence High School and it was apartments now and I was like and I saw the old building title and said Lawrence High School and I was like what the heck is this? And my mom didn't know she's not from Indianapolis. So she took me to the Castleton branch of the library. She's like, "Ask the librarians." And they sat there with me for like an hour, probably like fifth, sixth grade, and they pull out um old yearbooks of Castleton High School, Oakland High School, Lawrence High School.
And I'm like, "This is crazy." And in my head, I just thought that was so cool. And so, anytime I could like figure out different things about history, I would try to dive into it. Like, why is this street name like I'm on Pendleton Pike? That takes [ __ ] to Pendleton. You know, things start to make sense the more you look into them.
And I just kind of wanted to make things make sense. Yeah. And like not just accepting that it is it is what it is because it is and being like why though? Cuz like someone someone however long ago had to be like from Pendleton to Indianapolis and be like we're paving this road and we're going to name it Pendleton Pike or whatever it was. Right. No, exactly.
It's all that stuff like I was a kid that asked why a lot. Did adults ever get annoyed with you? Yeah, probably. I think my dad definitely did as we're like riding around me ask him like why does McDonald's yellow and red like he's like I don't know and but eventually like you can find out answers to your questions if you look it's very rare that things are just halfhazardly put together I think there's a piece that I I do now right with Google it's never been easier but when we were growing up man it's like I don't know smartphones weren't totally all the way out yet so you had to go to the library or like go do some like I would like write stuff down like that I needed to like learn about uh in my like everyday world. I think it's I think that you're probably similar way, right? No, exact way.
Now it's a lot easier like you said like I can watch a YouTube video on almost anything that I want to know like if I if I'm curious about something like how does that work? I just go look it up on YouTube and now you can like and if there isn't that's where like you can do really well or I do it's like oh what's the question that people have? Like the first time I ever realized this was like what are questions that I'm assuming a lot of hooers have and it was I was at the corner of Massaf and I looked up and I saw those pen houses up there on the top uh like right by Rascaler and I was like I wonder what the inside of those look like and then a few emails later I got like a private tour of them and then I shared that with the world and they're like oh my gosh I've always wanted to know cuz I've heard like Pacers live up there and this that and it's like dude they're sweet and it's like all it takes is like a little bit of curiosity and like you know you know send in a few emails or whatever it is and you can wind up finding finding out these questions and then sharing those.
I think that's what I mean that's really helped like elevate your platform is sharing these lessons that you're learning with the public. No. Yeah. At first I thought like I had these Indiana secrets, you know, like things that I kind of like held dear to me that I felt like I knew that other people didn't know. And then when I told it it was like I told it to you. Then I realized like over time this is all of our information.
And the moment I figure it out and figure it out in a way that's truthful and engaging, I need to tell as many people as I can. Yeah. And then they will they will always keep coming back to want to know more stuff. And so for a while there was like that, you know, that I I figured out some Indiana secret. Yeah. What was the first secret where you were like, it's crazy that more people don't know this about Indiana.
example like there's like even what Indiana means or Indianapolis means far as being like land or place of Indians or Native Americans and then Polish being a Greek uh you know suffix for city. It's like we're in the city of the land of the Indians and we don't see them too overly represented why we're here in Indiana. that's what we're named after and there's so many different elements even from like the mile square with north south east and west street and so much in between there that you could elaborate on but just people not even realizing that you know this is a this was only planned to be a mile square city you know rston who planned our city kind of kind of screwed us after that he's I'll do the first mile square for you and then after that you're on your own and so there's a lot of like little secrets just kind of walking around that you can pick up where you have time to like question and think why.
And it's and it's uh from the name of this place that we're in even to like the streets that we walk. And I feel like those are things that I like telling people things they kind of already knew but they didn't quite know. Like they knew they drove by Walker Theater but some people didn't know who Madison J. Walker was. Dude and that's the first self-made female millionaire. Yeah.
Made a lot of that money right here in Indianapolis. And so people see Walker Theater all the time and they but they don't quite and they're probably like Walker. I wonder who that guy was. And it's like hold the hold the phone. Come on. Yeah.
And then it's like especially I think um I used to have an office down at the AMP. And so I was in that area and then there was some piece of something that I like put all the dots together and I was like, "Oh, Madam CJ Walker, Walker Theater over in that like near west side of Minneapolis area." Even by the amp they named her street uh her her real name her maiden name is Breedlove. Her name is Sarah Breedlove. And there's a breed love lane that's right there in 16 tech and the ant and that's named after Madam CJ Walker. So there's a lot of stuff that I feel like we don't quite know.
A lot of time we're in our day-to-day lives. You know, I tell people all the time like, "How do you know all this stuff?" I'm like, "Well, I during the day I go look it up while you go to work and do everything you do to help Indiana running. I get to go do these little fun side projects." Yeah. Exact.
And it's like and then you share that and that's like a it's it's like people spend their time learning sports stats or about accounting principles or tax code or whatever it is. And it's like when you're in the space of content and historian and all that stuff, it's like this is what we go learn about. And I I think that's super super cool, man. No, it's great. And it's uh Yeah, it's really exciting. And so you got the start, you had the blog.
Yeah. And you were just talking about which I think is a fun name through two eyes and your football number was two. Yeah, that's it. So, it was kind of like it was just like my perspective. When I graduated college, I just felt like the world was in need of a fresh perspective and not to say it was mine, but I just wanted to tell people what I thought about what was going on. So, I figured I'd give it to him like through two eyes through the experiences that I have and the experiences that you have looking at both sides of stories.
But, I just I wanted to express myself essentially. Yeah. Right. And it's like whether one person or a hundred people or a thousand people, it's like having that outlet. It's just the way I mean you see it on Reddit or you see it different places like this like people are nerdy about tons of things like from freaking video games to board games to I mean football Colts you know and people and when you know stuff and you share it you people start to know like okay this guy's going to talk about Indiana history so I'm going to turn to his page because I know what he's going to talk about. Yeah.
Before I was just talking about like anything and it makes a lot easier when Indiana is your So So what were like the first couple blog posts that you got that really started to get some traction that people were interested in. One I really liked the one that I I was telling you about where I where I um realized how much I like writing about Indiana history was um one about Poges Run. I was doing some work trying to figure out and Poges Run is this it goes underneath the city. It used to be a nuisance. It was in the Mile Square and it was essentially this river that ran through the mile square and the city determined that it was too too dirty, too in the way that they were going to put it underground and it goes underground around like New York Street and like Pine I think and then it'll it'll spill back out underneath Lucas Oil Stadium and people have ridden their bike through the underground like river part like the the city kind of put it in a tunnel and I went down there to see it right where it went under and it really made me think cuz My big thing about the Indiana stories is trying to do a self-reflection piece at the end.
I'm like, there's this whole river that runs underneath Indianapolis that I didn't know about, but it's there and it's breathing and it's alive and it's an entity that has history. And it made me think about like what rivers or life forms are flowing like beneath my soul that I don't know about. You know, that just cuz I don't see it doesn't mean it ain't there. And so you can be like walking down on the Rolls-Royce campus. There's a blue line that's um right by the hanger. We're talking about that.
There's this blue line and you can see it. And somebody told me from Rolls-Royce, "That's where the river runs, underneath the ground." And I was like, "Really?" So I looked into it and I'm like, "Yeah, that's that's this is it." And it's just like little stories like that that make me really appreciate my love for Indiana history, dude. Right.
Is that uh like McCarti Street? Yeah, Marty. That's it. McCarti. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. And Henry Street's right over there, too. That's crazy. Like I always find that interesting and and like the people that are closest to me probably get so annoyed where it's like, "Hey, do you know this little tidbit about But it's like, dude, I love it. And there's people that love I think the first video that I saw of yours that I was like, "Holy cow, this is so sick." was at Broadle Park when we originally hosted the Olympic swim trials back in like the 50s or 1924.
We hosted the women's trials in 52 and I don't I think the men's and women's was there that year. I'm not quite sure, but in 24 we had the men's trials in that large pool of Broadripple Park. Like the the people that don't know, Broader Park used to be like a an amusement park, giant swimming pool, like and you can still go see those pool deck tiles, right? They're they're tucked underneath this like bridge into the new housing edition that's over there. But people had told me about them. I'd seen old YouTube videos, seen Reddit posts about like I'm going to go find them.
And because I was doing all this work with Sports Score and I was like, I'm going to go find them. And I went down there and at first I couldn't find them. I was getting frustrated. And then I was like, I'm not leaving until I do. And eventually I did. in that video did like really well.
The news people were coming out there asking me, "How do you find these?" I'm like, "Okay, I'll tell you. I'll tell you my little secret." He's going to reveal his secrets. There we go. There's a ton of like I think it's actually right there along the banks.
There's also like old se uh like cement beams and stuff that are all I'm assuming from that. I live over in that area, right? And u it was crazy to see like, oh my gosh, like Samson's five minutes from my house or whatever and he's finding this cool gym and I didn't even know about it. And so I I actually went over there and looked after I saw your video and I was like, "Dang, man." Like that's so cool. But I'm like a nerd about that stuff.
I feel you. Same way. And you see actually you're walking through Broadle Park, there is like a big there's some big columns and pillars and like there are definitely hints of what used to be there. And I just find that stuff so fascinating, man. No saying. Um and so what took you from Blogger to then starting to take people on these tours?
Well, really it was the the pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement that really inspired me to get moving. I went I was in my house pandemic dignity illegal to leave and I'm a really outgoing person on social media all the time and then for like three days I didn't post anything nothing on my story and one of my friend people were checking on me and they were right to do so because I was really in a bad headsp space like what's going on in the world I need some connection connectivity and my friend asked if I wanted to go down to one of the protests that was happening in uh the downtown I'm like yeah I'll go and the energy there was so great it was so much love it wasn't like with the news had portrayed them to be as like just a fire burning the town down. So everybody was there like it was it was just great and I wish I could have spoke like that's and people didn't know really who I was or what I was doing or why I would want to speak and I thought like man I wish I could say something in this moment and so I posted on Facebook there are a few people who followed my blog I was like hey I think I'm going to lead a walking tour down Indiana Avenue so we can talk just a little bit more about why people are so upset with the state of the country like what's happened to different cities and so um I did I posted that I would do one of them it went amazing was one of the most amazing feelings I can ever How many people showed up to your first walking tour?
19 people. So, we had 19 people. Lot a lot of people who had some people had never met me. They just know about this young black kid talking about Indiana history. They're reading his blog post. And then a couple of my friends who had had um come on the tours.
And so it was it was just a great experience and I knew I had to do it again. And so from there I just kept on rolling. Really? Like and now it's like Monday nights, right? Yeah. I'll be doing Monday nights when it's like I tell people when it's baseball season.
So, if like the Indianapolis Indians are down there playing a game, then uh it's walk season for me. And how many people do you think have come on a walk and talk? Man, I wish that would have been data that I would have kept from the very beginning and where they all came from and all that stuff, but I know I've given over probably 1,200 tours like 1,200. Uh we did three in New York City last July, which was just a bucket list thing for me, but really Wait, you did three walking tours in New York City talking about New York history? Really? talking about Indiana history in New York and how that we are a little microcosm of New York City in a way.
When we're in Harlem, we were talking about Indiana Avenue and we're in Central Park, we were talking about White River State Park and the steps that we made to create spaces. How many people were on this tour? We had probably about like seven to 12 on all three of them. So, I did one at two, one at four, one at six, I think, or something like that. We spaced them all out. Told people take the subways to get there.
great public transportation, so shouldn't have any any issues getting around. And then we did the last one, Empire State Building, where we talked all about Indiana Limestone for the most part because that building is Indiana limestone. And if you want to build something great, it never hurts to have a little bit of Indiana. Did you know that Indiana has been a hub for sports innovation for over a century, starting with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where pioneers tested gamechanging tech like seat belts and anti-lock brakes? That forward-thinking spirit is still in overdrive today, and Sports Tech HQ is at the center of it. They're on a mission to scout the most groundbreaking sports tech that is shaping the future of sports and to bring those innovators right here to Indiana.
Guess what? It's working. Sports Tech HQ already has 38 companies in its collective that call Indiana home. With 16 relocating from around the world in just the past year, home to a worldclass sports infrastructure, Indiana provides the perfect foundation for entrepreneurs to advance innovations that can change the game for fans, athletes, and teams. Sports Tech HQ is the leading global hub for an industry that is projected to reach 100 billion dollars by 2030. Discover how these companies are driving the future of sports through Indiana's robust ecosystem of partners at stthq.
org. Yeah, you got to know how firm a foundation of Indiana Limestone, baby. Let's go, dude. 1,200 tours. Let's say you're even averaging five people, right? Like you're probably it's like that's 6,000 people that have listened to you give an hourong walk and talk.
Yeah. It's like sometimes they're anywhere from like 45 minutes to two hours. The first one I ever did was two hours and that that felt good and I thought they all had to be that long, you know, and then I realized like there's kind of a sweet spot in that 45 minutes to an hour 15. If I can keep people's attention, keep them energized, they're not dead tired. Sometimes it's 95 degrees, two hours out there in that sun on the avenue, that's it for the day. Yeah.
Right. It's like it's and and it's like uh not everyone is like a 10 out of 10 in Indiana history. I might be like a six or a seven and I'm trying this out. So like Exactly. And I want to keep the energy up. I want I don't like even when I got kids on a field trip, we're not going to make you hate this field trip.
That's what So we're not going to do like if you What do you guys want to do? And I can promise you I can make this engaging about history and if you know what what's going on here, you guys grumpy because y'all ain't had y'all lunch yet. Well, I'll get you back on the I'll get you to lunch. Like what time is lunch? It'll be over by lunch. And then they're all yay.
Like okay, let's go, dude. And it's like when you're doing these walk-in talks, Yeah. What's been the most impactful moment of any walk and talk that you've hosted? But really, it's the stories that I get from people and and I can tell that what I'm saying, what I'm doing matters to them. You know, whether it's people that grew up on Indiana Avenue and they walk by like the spot where they were born, there's nothing there. Or maybe it's a parking garage now.
or if I'm walking through Irvington and people have always like love the Irvington history and they like the ghost tours are great like but also some people they don't they don't want the ghost tours they just want like a story about their community and they feel like they can add to it. I think my favorite things about the tours are when I first I was intimidated by what if somebody knows more than me like then what happens? Well then I let them talk because how could I know everything? So like no I I went to high school here I know the principal. Would you like to share anything, sir? And then and then you can pick up a few things from that.
Yeah. And that's and then it becomes you're more of a um host like steward of this. Yeah. Versus like the end all be all like if you don't know it, no one knows it. Exactly. And so that's kind of that those are my favorite things for me is that like I get to learn while I'm on the tours the things that people are interested in, things they have questions about.
Then I can go look it up, go back the next tour, somebody asked me that same question. You know, people's questions are the same. And I'm like, I know this now cuz the guy last week asked me. I looked it up and now you asked me and I can tell you the answer. What uh what's your favorite area? Like what's been the most I don't know the most entertaining to you to learn about and then share with people.
Um Indiana Avenue is uh it's my favorite one. It's like very dear to me. There's a lot of connections to other communities all across the country. Um but one that may surprise people that I enjoy giving is my caramel tour because people don't see Caramel as a place that's had a lot of black history. And it does. There's a book called the early black history of Carmel that I cite and I read and I talk about the rural communities in Carmel, the the early black kids in the Caramel schools and then also the things that makes Carmel not look as diverse as it could or should be.
And we kind of people grew up in Caramel and maybe wondered why there weren't too many black kids in their classroom. Well, it's not like your parents didn't necessar like banned them, but there's different movement patterns in America that would make Caramel a little bit more white than Indianapolis. And we can explain that a little bit and talk about that and make people just kind of like history explains what happened you know and I think like for some people they don't know what happened like what happened. Yeah. And it's like, you know, you're a Carmelite and it's like, oh well, I don't think they walk around saying like, oh, we don't want any black people there, but there were like definitely decisions or things that went into place that then like made it that way over the course of decades. Exactly.
Exactly. And so kind of walking like Caramel has a city of 1500 people in 1950. Now there's over 100,000 there. So as Indianapolis grows and people spread out, like if you can afford an automobile, afford to buy a big lot up in Caramel, then you can go up there and start creating your life. And just the way patterns in our in our country's history has happened, there may not be too many black families that are ready to make that big leap up to Caramel and have adequate transportation back into the city where they may work or whatnot. And the schools, we did busing in Indianapolis and we bus kids from like inner city schools out to the townships and Karma wasn't a part of that.
they were at first were supposed were supposed to be and that would have made the school just as diverse as North Central or Lawrence Township or Pike Township, but then they said we're not in Marian County so we don't really have to do that. And I think that was a fair point that they made and the Supreme Court said, "Yeah, you're right." And so they didn't get bus loads of Indianapolis black kids up there. Well, let I do want to talk about this because I think one interesting piece of uh our modern culture is the state of like Indianapolis public schools. Yeah. Yeah.
And the history, like if you go back, man, like you don't want to talk about a place that's fun to walk through and you can just feel the history is Arsenal Tech High School, man. Like like the campus, it's crazy. Like we step foot in that gym and it's like they have a poster of like the track team from like the 1920 or something like that. The state championship team and just like years of just uh being a top school from ar literally an arsenal. Yeah. From Army.
Yeah. Arsenal. Yeah. But you walk, you go through the that south gate, you're just like, "What kind of military school am I rolling up to?" Yeah. I couldn't believe it when we were when I was in high school, I went to Cathedral, we would come down and play play tech or play some home games at Tech.
And I just couldn't believe you can see the skyline from the field. Like I'm like, "This is really this is really cool." Like, and we have so many great schools, whether it's Broadripple or Addicts or Short Ridge that are all proud of their history and it's, you know, just things have changed all over the country. But it's cool. Oh man, who is the uh the addicts? Oscar Robertson.
Oscar Robertson coming from Addicts. You think about Broadripple like right over here like a couple blocks away. Yeah. Like it's and it's like it makes me sad. Same, right? When you see these cool old schools that have so much history and legacy and and there's a lot of pride and then Yeah.
You know, like whether it's private schools or whether it's township schools or whether it's the outlying doughnut counties to see participation or numbers or just things down at IPS is tough. It is. And then from a history perspective, what what kind of like timeline do you see around like IPS schools? Is that something you like look into? Yeah. Well, really like with uh with the schools like school funding becoming a big issue now, you know, a lot of people IPS was kind of one of the first to integrate when IPS starts integrating their schools.
If you were just kind of, you know, leerary of that, you could go to a township school and I went to Catholic school. So, like I'm not talking about anybody in particular, right? and just like decisions that their family made. You could go to Lawrence, you could go to Decatur, you could go to these other schools and those townships become very white and IPS starts to become very black. And then once we realized this isn't probably the best way to do it, we start integrating IPS schools with the township schools. And then if you didn't really like that, you could leave and go to Hancock, Hendricks, Hamilton, Johnson County and go to school there.
And it really you pull all that wealth out of these schools and not just IPS but our local township schools here in Indie and here in Marian County. And so as anytime people leave an area, especially people that are affluent, people with wealth, people with influence, it's going to have an impact on the communities that they leave behind. I think that the township school districts are just so huge. It's crazy. Like if you look at like the the I don't know what the border of North Central is, but it's like Washington Township is like everywhere on that. Yeah.
all the way like into like Broadripple, you know? So, it's like which and now after Broadripple closed, it's like if if you are a student and you live in Broadripple. Yeah. I like Is it Short Ridge? It would be your name. Shortidge is your high school.
Yeah. Short which is not close. No, it's not. Yeah, it's not it's not the closest by any means. I know Broadripple Middle School, they're getting things rolling back with that and IPS is trying to trying to encourage families to stay in the district and provide things that is at a school like Carmel or Cathedral or Brownsburg. They're trying to get all these amenities that make the schools appealing to families.
But yeah, it's not like the the era of neighborhood schools. Like I think it's so nostalgic when you look back at history. Like like I grew up in a small town northern Indiana and my first house that we lived in was like two blocks from school. So when I was like in kindergarten, my mom would like walk me to school and then I think I got to like fourth grade maybe and she was like, "Okay, you can walk to school now." I feel like that's how it's supposed to be. She's like looking out the window like making sure I make it there on time and like don't stop to play with too many sticks and it's like that was those are the days man.
My mom first day of school she followed the school bus to make sure it took me to the right school. I'm looking and I'm like that's my mom like hood up like no dude no chill chill like I got it. I got it. Oh man I love it. I want to talk about like the one thing that that you probably realize and see a lot is there are a lot of people that want to talk some smack about Indiana and people are like why would you like like Samson you're probably you're so smart and talented and outgoing like why are you dedicating your life to preserving Indiana history I'm from here and if you don't show love and respect to the places that you're from then people can say whatever they want to about them in a negative light it's just like your family like in a way everybody has my I don't really even when and this is going to sound crazy. I don't know how like political that you guys get on here, but when recently Elon Musk was saying that Todd Young was some deep state puppet and I'm not the biggest Todd Young fan, but he's talking about Indiana senator and his I'm like, "Hey, hey, hey, like ch like that's an Indiana guy and we're not I'm not really going to I'm not really going to hear that.
I don't want to hear that from you. I may hear that from somebody here in Indiana. We could criticize. It's one of our own." Yeah, one of our own. But I don't want to hear that from you, buddy.
Yeah. It's like like Elon, how much time have you spent in Indiana? Yeah. Like, you don't know what's going on here. And he like, so for me, like when it comes to we're talking about rural Indiana when I say I did a video in Richmond or I just got done filming in my or were you at the uh the Guanette Riverwalk in Richmond? I Yeah, I went there did a great story about like I mean Ganette Studios had dude Hogi Carmichael, right?
Come on. Like, and when people tell you, "Don't go to Richmond. It's nothing there. It's drug addicts and it's a dying town." And I'm like, "Don't say that about your town." You know, like, "Tell me something good about Please tell me three good things about your hometown before you start just taking a dump on it."
Yeah. Right. And it's like, I think that so many of that is people are so unhappy with anything. Like, you could put them in India, you could put them in Southbend, you could put them in Richmond, you could put them anywhere, and they'd find something to complain about. something and there's so much like good that's happened and good people in the community that if you don't highlight them and let people know that they're there then of course people get the perception that there's nothing in Cookamo cuz when they asked you from Cookamo you told them it was nothing there and like just take one% of the energy you are like hating on it and do something good like you put out 10 hateful comments just like say one nice thing like compliment your neighbor or something and like just make it a better place. Yeah.
like you you are who you are. Like I mean like it's like do you hate yourself? Is that the issue? Because it's part of who you are is is this town that you're from and to just completely throw it into the river is ridiculous. And my favorite part is and it's it's very much back to like we're from here, right? So there's always the like Indianapolis versus the world beef.
Like Indianapolis versus uh even the doughnut counties or beyond and it's like oh you like the big city. Like it's not like it is here in Crawford'sville. I love and it's like I love the people that can be like okay maybe Crawford'sville is not where I want to live but I can respect the history of what's going on in Montgomery County and what's happened there before and then people from there can respect like hey big city life isn't for me but I know there's good stuff going on and and if Crawford'sville and Montgomery County wins then Indie wins and if Indie wins Crawfordville wins it's it man really like we don't I don't like the Indianapolis slander you know especially when groups from outside of Indianapolis apolis or outside of, you know, from above 96th Street or whatever, like is it safe? You should hear the stories I hear about your town, you know, like and I still want to go there and and love it and figure out what it's all about and just like be a part of what's going on that day.
So, don't let whatever you hear or seek out about my town discourage you from like it's a great I mean, this everything happens in Indianapolis. And the bottom line is, right, it's like the one thing we won't stand for is someone from Ohio talking smack about Indiana. It's like whether it's Richmond or whether it's Indies, like we got to have their back. Yeah. And I and I'm here to defend all of Indiana, all of our history, all of our flaws even. Not necessarily to defend them, but embrace them and let you know that we are we are moving forward.
Like, and that's the piece where it's like uh when you especially when you're in the storytelling business, right? And it's like every single like every thing single video I put out you can find something that is wrong with something in it, right? Like I mean I just put out a video about Angola, Indiana. I didn't like and I didn't check my case for like one of the business owners that I like and they're like I can't believe you would highlight this person. And I'm like my like I didn't know he was embezzling money. Like that's my my bad, dude.
I didn't know. Like I Yeah. Like I'm sorry. And like I won't do like I'm not going to continuously like put that out there. But it's like if I stopped and like went through and fact checked to the my case like I give it like okay if it has a few good like news sources and things like I like take that for truth. Right.
Right. Right. Right. And it's like if I went through there and had to like run a 10step process I'd never get any videos out and you wouldn't learn anything. Right. If I had to second guess and say everything right you know and and Angola is cool because there used to be a black like resort town up there called Fox Lake.
It was kind of like essentially I tell people it's like Lake Wawa Sea but for black people. And it was like and it was like people from Detroit and Cleveland and and uh Indianapolis would make their way to this lake in Angola, Fox Lake. It's still there. It's on the National Register of Historic Places. I actually just got on the phone with a professor um talking about the project that they're working on to just let more and more people know about this stuff. Fox Lake.
Fox Lake. It was all black like lake resort town area up there in Angola. Dude, that's sick. You want to know a place that has some some interesting history? French lake. I haven't I I I got stories but I haven't like been Yeah.
So the locals I met a guy I was down there. I mean he was probably at the bar. He was like 85 years old. Those are the best people to meet. Dude, and he talked about his first job was delivering groceries to the French lick brothel. That's and dude he talks about the first time he ever like he was the new guy on the job and he has no idea like they deliver groceries to anyone like they didn't know that it was just going to address right he shows up and his buddy knows and his buddy's like you knock on the door so he knocks on a door and this is like 80 he was probably like 16 so you think 70 years ago like you weren't so accustomed to seeing like everyone wore lots of clothing when they were out and about knocks on this door and lady opens it up in something kind of revealing and he said he said I'm 16.
I dropped the groceries and ran out the door and he's dude this 85year-old guy at the bar is telling me this story and I'm dying dude and like he said that uh Al Capone and like people would come down and there used to be a train that ran from Indie and ran from Chicago down there. Crazy fascinating story. Yeah. It's like, no, there's so much. Then that's the thing I tell people about Indiana. Like, if you you you collect the stories in your town, so when people want to share them, you're ready to share them.
If you let other people tell the story of your town, you're at the mercy of whatever they say. Like, as I was doing research for Martinsville video I put out last night, you know, there's a lot of narrative about the clan being headquartered in Martinsville. They were never the clan was all over Indiana and they were very influential and nasty, but they were never headquartered there. But so many people from outside of Martinsville have told the story of their town that even they internally believe it, you know, and it's like you got to be able to tell the story about your community. Yes, there's bad things that have happened there. There's awful things that have happened in Martinsville.
There's a lot of great things that have happened there. And you can mix the bad with the good and tell a complete story that gives people a lot of hope moving forward. And that's the key, right? And it's only like one, if you fail to talk about the bad, then you're just like, "Okay, that's not real." But two, it only continues to be bad if you don't do anything to fix it. And you continue to be like, "Maybe that is the narrative."
I think another like on the opposite end of the spectrum here will be the rap that Gary gets nationally. Yes. Maybe globally, dude. No, it's it's and I it's it's a place I haven't been there to walk around in a while, but yeah, people say a dead people if you go on YouTube videos will say it's an abandoned city. Like they make it seem like I mean I grew up in northern Indiana. They made it seem like if I like walked if I step foot if my car drove into Gary murdered gun down robbed and I just met a guy yesterday lives in Gary and he's like dude it's like right on the beach too.
People live here even like in communities like Hallville here in Indianapolis. I do a walking tour in Hallville. You know there's a perception that that's not a safe place. Like I'm like well people people live here. People go to school here. People work here.
Like do whatever they need to do right here in this community. They never leave it. And when you walk through there and get to meet people, you're always like, "This is a good place." There's plenty of places that I would not recommend being in the country after 1:00 a. m. if you don't know anybody there because you're at the mercy of whatever.
I could say that about any place at any time. I mean, I can say that about where I live right now. But it's like you show up and you start having conversations with the residents there and they start to know like oh like that's Samson and his crew and they're they're like uplifting our community not like perpetuating a negative narrative you know like yeah if you roll into Gary you're like yeah right here this place sucks somebody was killed right get out of here get out of our town spewing that because we know the problems that we have and we're working to fix them and here you are coming here just highlighting all the negative neative things that have happened here and none of the positive. Yeah. And none of the momentum. I think that like again like we're here in Broadripple today and like there even in the past couple years like I'm the first one said like it's not the same that it was in 2019 but there are some people and I would say myself included that are working to make it better.
No for sure. Right. It's you have to own up like you it was 2019 brought up was ripping. It was so sick. It was hands down the coolest place. If you It was it was massive.
like what what I perceive mass sav as now was like was what I thought broad like broad ripple was like you like on on the night on a Friday night you you didn't know whether you want to be in broad or downtown you really didn't and it was like it was a toss up like it was hard it was now it's not even a choice I'm going downtown I'm going downtown for sure and and I remember I graduated college in 2019 and like there was always something to do here there were always lines out the door everywhere and now it's like ghost And it's like, and I've been talking with people that have, you know, that have been in the community for years, like decades, and they're like, it's not right. Like, this place is a vibrant hub of culture and fun and leisure in in the north side of Indianapolis, and they're working to bring it back. Obviously, you have to address the issues that are that be and they're working through that.
But I think that if I had to say, I think with this new apartment complex and the money that's going in here, it's going to swing back up and there's going to be some cool stuff coming to Brad. I think so for sure. Dude, uh this is incredible. I could literally talk I I do about this all day long. I do want to get like three fun pieces of Indianapolis history that you think everyone should know. And you know how it is like the perception of what you know and what everybody else knows.
It's kind of hard to figure out. Like I'm doing trivia for the Pacers staff and I'm like okay I don't want to assume that they don't know anything but also if I go up there and nobody gets a question right I'm feel like an [ __ ] I did that. Uh I thought that like everyone knew. I had a CEO on and I was like, "You want to do uh county hot seat trivia?" Yeah. I was like And first question was, "Do you know the state?"
"Oh, I know the state really well." I was like, "Okay, let's do county hot seat trivia." And I started ripping off like, "I'll give you uh the seat and you tell me what county it is." Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
I like that. And we got through like three and he went over for three and I was like, "Brother, these ones are the easy." Like I these were my layups. Like it took you it took you 15 seconds to get Monroe County from Bloomington. Like it's going to be a dis. So I was like and now I never assume that people know and are as big of fans about Indiana as I am.
Okay. One thing I've said and I said this on a national TV show recently is that our street grid and I was mentioning this earlier. So you know we are a mile square norththeast, south and west street. Meridian right in the middle market right in the middle. But when you go north of Market Street, you're going to hit streets that are north of Indiana, like Ohio, Vermont, New York, Michigan, North Street. When you go south of Market Street, same story.
Think Washington DC, Maryland, Georgia, Louisiana, South Street. When you go east of Meridian, states east of Indiana, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Alabama, New Jersey, East Street, first state rest of Meridian, the first street west of Meridian is Illinois. The first state west of Indiana is also Illinois. used to be a Tennessee and Mississippi street in that grid. They renamed those Senate and Capital. And then there's West Street.
Think about the diagonals. If you're northeast part of the country, northeast diagonal is Massachusetts, southeast Virginia, southwest Kentucky, southwest of us. And the old northwest territory, look at an old map is Indiana. And that'll take you northwest right on out the city. And so that is stuff I feel like we should all know all the time because it helps orient us. My mind is blown on that.
Yeah, I figured out. Does that one get like a lot of people where you're That's one of my favorite things to share. Wow. So, wait. Well, Ohio goes Ohio it's a little bit north. If you look at if you look on a map like Ohio, it gets way more north than Indiana does.
Look at the most northern part of Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I got you there. You know, and then and then from there all those are north.
Vermont, you know, New York, Michigan, North. Same thing. You know, it's a grid. It's a planned city. That's why I said like [ __ ] don't just I don't know if you cuss on here, but [ __ ] don't just happen just like by mistake. Like there's an exp there's an explanation for everything that you look at.
And so I did a blog post on that probably like 2018. I called it street smarts. And I just figured that out from looking at an old map. I was like, there's no way these states are just on here in random order. Like that would make no sense. and things make sense.
Yeah. You know what I'm saying? So, that's one of my favorite ones to share. Okay. One, not just about Indianapolis in particular, but I'd say just like in Indiana, there were that we know of, there were over 60 black settlements, and that's like a black city in Indiana. There's one up in Hamilton County called, it was called Robert Settlement.
It's in Atlanta, Indiana. It's like northern edge of Hamilton County. There was one in Rush County called the Beach Settlement. There was one in Gibson County that was Ly's I think Gibson count is Gibson uh down by Evansville. Yeah. But is that where um is Princeton in Princon?
Okay, it's Gibson. Yeah. So Gibson County and there's all these different areas where there were like black towns and just the way agriculture shifted and farming not being as maybe profitable or just different external factors to cause people to move. It's also internally too. But we've always had black people here in Indiana. always had black people here in Indianapolis.
And so for me, people like, "How do you know so much black history?" I'm like, "Because there's because there is so much, you know, and like just like like I said, just like anybody knows anything, how do you know so much about the Colts? Because there's a lot of stuff to know, you know, if they're talking to the Colts historian or something. I'm like, damn, this dude's a genius." I'm like, "This is how some people kind of think about the stuff that I know and talk about." I give you one more and let me think.
I don't know. Maybe our black baseball teams, like we've had a few of them. Even Noblesville had a team for a while, but we got like the Indianapolis Clowns, the Indianapolis ABCs. There's a lot of cool history there. And Hank Aaron, who was the um you know, at one point the home run king, you know, he played in Indianapolis for the Clowns in 1952. And so like a lot of people don't know how influential Indiana is to everything.
And that's like, and it's because of course I see all things through an Indiana lens, but at the same time, like I'd tell you Indiana is the most important state ever. That's what I would tell you and I and I'd back it up. I believe this stuff and I'm telling you. Quick pause to tell you about one of my new favorite spots in Indianapolis, Back N Golf. If you haven't been yet, you're missing out. This is the perfect way to get your swings in no matter what the weather's like outside.
This place isn't your average golf range. It's a full-blown experience. Locally owned, locally operated, these guys are all about bringing the community together for a good time. They've got climate controlled bays, great food, live music, and a bar that keeps the drinks flowing. And if you're looking for a place to host an event, birthday, corporate outing, bachelor party, Back N is the spot. They know how to throw down and make sure your crew has an unforgettable time.
So next time you're looking for a night out that's more than just another bar, head to Backn. Swing some clubs, grab some drinks, and support a business that's keeping it local. Check them out at backnolf. com or just pull up and see what all the hype's about. Tell them you heard about it on Get In. Dude, I I love that.
I think that those are such great I don't know. I think that if more people had a fraction of that like pride in the state Yeah. then it not saying that it's not the best. I believe it's the best state but it really would be and it would be undisputed if everyone just had one tenth the who's your pride that Samson has. Indiana would be undisputed greatest place on earth. There was a lady on Jeopardy last night from West Lafayette.
I stood up when she said her name like did she just say Indiana? Like I'm like let's go girl. like you got like I wasn't rooting for you. You haven't got many questions, right? But now all of a sudden I'm back in She says she's from West Lafayette. All right, let's come on.
Present us. Let's go. Let's go, girl. Uh, okay. Two questions left and then we have some fun segments here at the end. Let's go.
I'm excited. Uh, first, if you could design one ultimate historical tour of Indiana, what would the must-have stops be? I would start people in my mom's hometown of Mount Vernon, Indiana. Um, Mount Vernon down south. down south by Evansville County. Come on, county seat, man.
Let's go. And so, uh, talking about, uh, just talking about like our roots in Indiana, like I am a Hoosier through and through. And I think that can look like a lot of different things. And I and I would definitely love to show like that area and like what created my passion for walking around. I was I'm from Minneapolis, so I wasn't allowed to really walk around like Castleton where I grew up. There was nothing really to walk to.
It's just a neighborhood. You can't like But then my dad used to work in New York City a lot and I'd go with them sometimes. I could walk around New York all the time. We walked everywhere. We didn't have a car out there. And then in Mount Vernon, I could walk to my mom's one of 10.
I could walk everywhere there. And so like I want people to like know what it feels like to walk around a small town and meet the people and just see like the city. And I would go right up. I damn near do my tattoos. I go from Will you show that to the camera? state take uh state road 62 over to 41 and I'd shoot straight up 41 into Teroot and then I'd get to Teroot and I talk about the old crossroads of America and how cool that city was.
I went to college out there. All this stuff you got realized Nate is like I'm telling people not just about Indiana but about me when we're walking and talking. I think that's what people kind of resonate with in a way. And I would take Old State Road 41 all the way up to Teroot and then I would cut across US40 right there and and take it to Indianapolis. Then I get to Indianapolis and I'd start talking about just like the things I do all the time here. And I wish I could get more into the northern part of the state.
But um that's what I would do if I could get a whole day with people. I'd start meet Indiana and we'll make we'll end in Evansville and maybe we'll circle back down. We'll take like 65 or 31 south. Dude, Teroot has an interesting history, right? I think I just saw them post about uh the original Coke Yeah. bottle.
Birthplace of the Coke bottle. Birthplace of the Coke bottle. Clabberg girl. Like there's some seriously cool stuff that's happened out there now. It's called the Homeman family, you know, and all their influence and owning the track. They just sold it to the Pinskys.
But yeah, Teroot's a city where another city where I walked around and and found myself. And so like I I just want to show people that you can do what I'm doing anywhere whether that's Mount Vernon I think it's small town to hope medium town Indianapolis Indian I mean it's the big dog in our state and you can do this and you can find yourself anywhere you are. What is going on around us now? Yeah that you think people in 40 50 60 years are going to be talking about or that you hope is preserved if they find this artifact online. Yeah. What do they hope that you're talking about?
What do we hope they're talking about in regards to Indiana? Man, I think we are in a incredible space to kind of like show people the things that we care about and whether that is like preserve like Walker Theater of course has been there since 1927 and you know even Monument Circle and that gets completed like early 1900s. I think we we hold on to things that we know are about 100 years old. But to your point, there's a lot of people and places that are doing stuff right now that I I hope they get remembered for their efforts. I can't think exactly like one in particular. Like I know like, okay, think about this.
The butter art fair that happens that Gang Gang started in 2020 or 2021 kind of with realizing that we need a space for black artists here. This gets national acclaim. And yeah, there's other similar art fairs to it, but you know how I am in Indiana, ain't nothing like ours. So, I think people look back on the moment like things that Gang Gang has done, things that even like Sports Corps has done, the things that we've done to get people to Indianapolis and the way that we provide a service. I think other cities will want to emulate that and I hope that always happens here. I hope we're not a city where in 354 years we talk about we used to host a Super Bowl or we used to host the All-Star games or like we used to have a stadium there.
Like, you know, teams leave, things change. Like Evansville had an NFL team in the 1920s, the Evansville Crimson Giants and that they don't have like but Green Bay still has theirs. So I don't want to be a city that things leave and never come back, you know? And so like we're doing a great job keeping things here, attracting people, but I don't want them to ever leave, you know? Dude, one that was just a knowledge bomb right there. The Evansville Crimson Giants.
Yeah. Like I think they pulled it after a year. They were in the NFL as as NFL as you could be. Like wouldn't it be cool? let's say in 70 years like they've moved the JW and maybe people sleep in floating hotels or something now, but they're like this this is this used to be the world's biggest billboard and like people would stay in it and like Taylor Swift would come to town and it was a giant statue or a giant decal Taylor Swift or the Super Bowl or this that or the other thing like or it's like this is like let's say Caitlyn Clark is a lifer in Indiana and just like goes nuts hall of fame career stay right and it's like this is her step. Like she is the one that like really helped accelerate growth in women's sports and like you know just break through so many ceilings and I mean that would be pretty cool.
Yeah. Like there could be a like it's probably going to be a statue for Caitlyn. Hope I hope I hope she stays. Like I I had a group of ladies from Iowa bus up here for a tour because Caitlyn plays here and they want to see the city that Caitlyn Clark plays in. That's so cool. That's dope.
And they hire this all white ladies hire this young black historian to show them to town. It's like thank you Caitlyn. That's a great that's a great business card. It's like Sam says young black historian dude and sometimes I don't know if they know that cuz a lot of historians sometime and I love historians so this is like out of love but they kind of appear stale and old and I'm like I hope that you weren't expecting like an old guy but this is who you got really good. They booked you online and they're like, "We're waiting for we're waiting for your dad to show up." Right.
No, really. Like they they when I ran onto their bus cuz I had across Maryland, they're like, "We saw that guy running in a Santa hat and we thought like he's in a great mood." And then you tap the door to get on the bus and like, "Oh, that's our guy." They're like, they were excited though. They just weren't like sick. Yeah.
No, that's a And I think that's super cool. And that's I mean, if you're going to stand out at something, bring young, vibrant energy into it. Um, okay. Okay, we have come down to the the last part of the show. We're going to rip through some lightning round questions. So, the first one is our younger year segment.
It's brought to you by our friends at Or Fellowship. They're a great organization here in Indiana helping develop young business leaders across the state. Samson, they did the first walk and talk of 2025, by the way. The Orfells did Butler Tarkington. Yes, sir. Yeah.
Butler Tarington. That's the one they did. Yeah. Hey, great work Orfells. Keep up the good. What advice would you give to your 22-year-old self?
Believe in yourself. like full on belief because a lot of the things that intimidate you, you should have no reason to feel intimid intimidated or insecure about. Like just be yourself, believe in yourself and trust yourself. I can reflect on things and decisions that I made and be proud on them because like I am who I say I am and to stay that way, you know, don't compromise like who you are. Understand there's times to turn it on and off. There's times where you have to, you know, work the room and just get this agreement signed or whatever and then you can then you can figure out how you want to bring your personality into it.
But like don't shy away from who you are. What's special is who you are. Like being an athlete, you know, being able to resonate with kids, you know, I was doing this stuff with the symphony and I jump on and off the stage and one of the musicians was like, "Why do you do that?" I'm like, "Cuz I can and it's fun." You know, she's like, "Oh." I'm like, "Yeah, that's just who I am.
I want to have fun up here. I don't want to just walk down the stairs. I want to be myself." And I think it entertains people. And so, that'd be one thing, you know, and you know, you're capable of a little like three foot freaking vert jump like and like we played football in college, so like we we acquire skills that we don't necessarily need. You played I was on the team.
But no, you get it. Like, you know, like I don't need to break a tackle during the day. This is not a scenario that's going to present itself, but I know how to do that. So, you know what I'm saying? So, if so, if that lady from the symphony wants to do talking, so it's like I have these I have these skills that I've acquired my whole life and I don't want to just throw them out the window, you know, like thinking on my feet like, you know, when you're playing sports, you split second to make a decision. You're going to pass or you going to shoot it.
And sometimes when we're doing a tour, hey, which way you going to go? I'm the only one who knows. I I change the route on the go and I'm trying to read read the kids wherever they want to go and show them and so yeah I love it man. Well we've come to our lightning round. This is where we're going to wrap things up. We have a few questions and I'm going to do we are going to put you in the who's your hot seat.
Okay. I love that. You're going to see how well you know the state of Indiana. I love to learn anyways. Oh boy. All right.
So first question. What your favorite historical figure from Indiana? I I think I think it's Wes Montgomery just because he was a self-taught guitarist. His sound was heard all over the world. It was very unique. It's Indianapolis and I People come here from all over the world and they're just amazed that West Montgomery is from here and I think I draw a lot of inspiration from Wes, especially cuz he was someone who I didn't learn about growing up.
So, I'll say West for now. I have never heard of West Montgomery, so I'm going to do my research. Yeah. Yeah, that's great. No, come on the Avenue tour sometime. Like I know like we haven't got a chance to know each other and you already doing everything you can do to uplift Indiana, but I think it'd be like good for like just like what we do and me like listening to your podcast and stuff like like dude for sure.
Like I because I'm fascinated by history. I got a book that I need to read. It was uh Vanishing Indianapolis maybe. Yeah. By Ed Fujawa. Yeah.
And he does a lot of cool stuff on Twitter, right? He's great. He's great, dude. Uh and I'm excited to that's my 2025 one of my I usually do audio books. I'm going to read this one. I'm not a big cover to cover reader.
I'm more of a like reference. Like I have the book about that. Okay, let me go to it. Find the page. What is the most underrated Indiana town? I I really like Fort Wayne a lot.
I like Jeffersonville, but I remember when I was going around before I started the walking talks, cities would host me to go up there and make a little video about it, write a blog post about the town, normally pay for my hotel stay, and give me tickets to do a whole bunch of stuff. And I remember we had so much fun in Fort Wayne. I brought my friend Marcus with me that we asked to stay another day. And the coolest thing about it was that the largest public genealogy center in the country is in Fort Wayne at the public what? Genealogy center. So the Allen County the Allen County Public Library.
They were able to date my family's history back to 1719. This is on my mom's side of the family. As a black person here, you don't you know there's going to be a cut off where you where you don't know all the answers that you may. And it's like that for white people, too. But you just know that our records weren't prioritized as we were moved over here. And so just to see that much history that I had here and that some of these members in my family and that 1800s owned land in different places and I'm like what the heck?
And my friend Marcus found out that his great-grandfather was a jazz musician and they found jazz music that he had made and he's sitting there listening to his greatgrandfather name is Charles Avery. And it was just like it made me feel so much more in love with Indiana and myself and the incredible resources that we have here that I think Fort Wayne is a really really cool place, dude. Yeah, that's powerful. It was It was What's one myth about Indiana that you love debunking? Uh, one is that there's no black people here. And that is like I had a I did a segment with the Colts and they got a player uh from I think he was from the he was on the Rams for a few years and then he makes his way to Indianapolis and you just didn't know like what to expect and a moment that was uh Samson Ebon.
So I was doing like a he's a defensive end. He was hurt I think his first year but like great energy like loved Indiana just didn't know like what we had. And I think for a lot of people getting people to Indiana I think that debunks I think that debunks it right away. Like you got to show up. You got to show up. You got to show up.
And so for me like when people get here I think it almost I think Indiana starts to debunk itself. We're going to do the who's your hot seat. All right. So you have one minute. I'm gonna give you a city. Okay.
So, I would say Indianapolis. All right. And you would say the county. Marion. I'm gonna give you the city. You give me the county.
So, Indianapolis, Marion. All right. Let's go. Let's roll. And we're going to go through and see how many you can get. I hope I do.
Hey, we'll see. You know, all right. We're all over the state. Uh, and we're going to go in three, two, one, go. Columbus. Bartholomew Lafayette typic No kasco no I know it's it's pass Bedford Lawrence yes sir Bloomington Monroe Vernon pass Mount Vernon Posey uh Terraote VGO Crown Point Lake Yes sir uh Bluton pass Albian And that's north.
Uh, I'm going to just I'm going to throw one out there. Uh, it's not Allen. There's one more north of there I can't think of. Okay, I'm out. New Albany. Jefferson.
No, Clark. No. All right. No. Close. Uh, Marian.
I'm so mad. Grant. Uh, Versailles. Versailles. Is is it in the count? Is it the county too?
That's the county seat. Not not No. Uh, I'll pass. Final one. Warsaw. Warsaw is up north.
I don't know. You said it. You said it. Warsaw early. E early in the You said it. Kasi.
Yes, sir. Dude, that's actually pretty good. That's actually pretty good. The ones that we missed were uh Vernon is Jennings County. Okay. Uh Albian is Noble County.
Yes. And uh Bluff, did I say Bluffton? That's Wells County. Okay. I wouldn't have got Dude, that's actually pretty good. I I figured I should have gone more south on these ones.
You're good. That's good. That's pretty good. I I'm pleased with it. Right. And if we go like you could have cuz you would have gotten like Princeton gets it.
Like you got some of those down there. I'm mad I miss New Albany. But that confuses. Oh, that's Floyd County. Floyd Knobs is down there, dude. That's right there.
Cuz Clark is right there and Harrison County is down there, too. That's Those are the I'm impressed. I'm impressed there. That's a good one. I like that. Uh all right.
And then these are the same three questions we asked everyone who sits in the chair. Okay. Uh first thing, what's something the world needs to know about Indiana that we're we have our hands in everything. And then Kurt Vonag has a quote that you know wherever you go, you can always find a Hoosier there doing something very important. And so I I just think that we're we're everywhere doing everything. It's a it's really reflective of the rest of the country in a way.
We've got big cities. They're not too big, but we've got small towns that aren't too small. And I think the people here, they can do anything. Amen. I'm gonna get that quote put up somewhere in here. I think I have to.
Yeah, it's it's perfect. Like ever I travel, I I post that while I'm there because I'll meet someone from Indiana who's doing I was in Seattle. They they toss the fish at Pikees Place Market. I don't know if you like ever seen this. I'm familiar. The dude tossing it was from Fort Wayne.
One of them had like Indiana. I like to you know, we wear Indiana stuff when we travel so people know just where we're from. He's like, "You're from Indiana." I said, "Yeah." He's like, "I'm from Fort Wayne." I'm like, I had a fish.
You tossed that fish, dude. I knew it. I could tell. I knew it. I could tell by how much you were working there that you were a Hoosier fan. I told you, Dad.
I told you somebody would be from Indiana. Oh, dude. I love it. Uh, what is a hidden gem in Indiana? That fascinated me ever since I was a kid. We took a field trip to Maringo Cave U when I was in like third or fourth grade.
And it's like the caverns that we have here. Those are super cool. the largest underwater or longest underwater river in the continental United States. Like right here in Bloomington, Bedford, that area. Yeah, that's that's cool. You know, I think Yeah, like that's cool to me.
Those creepy little fish or whatever. Like the like Yeah. You can't see and they like cut the lights off and like you can't see your hand when you're in there. Isn't that nuts? I like I'm kind of claustrophobic on that kind of stuff. Like I don't think it's for me, but like I know that it's here and I like it.
Yeah. And a kid found Maringo Cave. So like any kids like listening or watching like any age, any time you can, you know, make your mark in Indiana. Dude, think about that. Like back in the day, back when men were men and they used to go back there and discover new things. Dude, they found a gas boom in Indiana.
People thought they found hell. They when they found natural gas up in northeast Indiana. At first they sealed it back up cuz they thought like it was hot coming from there like, "Oh, that's that's got to be hell." I hate respect, bro. Like we ain't risking it. And it's like, hey, I know people like this talk smack about Fort Wayne, but it's not hell.
Come on now. Exactly, dude. Uh, final question for you. I know you talk to so many people. This is a chance for you to share the love. Who's a Hoosier that we need to keep on our radar, someone who's doing big things.
Highlight a lady named Ununice Troder who runs Indiana Landmarks. And they like in 2020, 2021, we're realizing like we may not have preserved some of these black landmarks the ways that we preserved other ones. And it's just it's just not familiar to a lot of people. If you there's an old black church in your rural town and there's no more black people there, you don't necessarily know that it's important to preserve. But when I come to that town, I'm looking for it like, "Hey, where's that old black like cemetery at?" They're like, "Oh, we we don't really it's gone."
Like, but Ununice Charter is going all over the state like letting these communities know the importance of their history that's there. And when a lot of these organizations are applying for National Register nominations or Indiana Landmark nominations, she's letting them know the value of their black history that's there. And that will get you approved. Like I was in Salem, Indiana one time and she wasn't a part of this project, but I was a consultant. They're trying to get all this farmland historically protected and there's a black cemetery there. And I asked if you guys are putting that in the application and they're like, "Well, no, we didn't know the historical significance."
So I said, "Put it in there." Like, "Do you not understand how the world's working right now? Like, put that put that in the application." Then they wrote me back and let me know like, "Hey, we got approved and we've got like it's all protected now and your recommendation was a big part of the federal government approving it." And so she's doing that all of the time, just letting these communities know the value of their history. So they want to share it with people because sometimes you don't know what to share or how to talk about it.
She's going there and telling people like, "Yes, it's okay to talk about black history. It's okay to talk about whatever it is. be respectful and it's part of your story and we want you to share it. Dude, I think that that is a big piece too that people are trying not to offend anyone so they don't say anything. Exactly. Like if I don't say anything, I don't risk stepping on someone's toes.
100%. And whether and I've had to like learn that with myself whether I'm talking about LGBTQ history or women's history or native history and very intentional about speaking to members of that community. Okay. What would you say? Because y'all know like not everybody gets to talk or enjoys talking like we do. And I've realized like my role sometimes you just get mad like people ask me to do something.
People probably ask you to do a topic on stuff all the time. You're like you do a topic on it. Like but also it's like no they want me to do it. They want me to speak like represent them, you know. And for a while I used to get mad like you should do a tour in Garfield Park. I'm like well damn you do a tour in Garfield Park.
Well I can't do everything. Yeah. Right. Like oh you want me you want me to know Garville? You want me to know figures? You want me to know the near east side, the west side, not Garfield Park?
Like I'm like, no, but they want me to do it. They want me to tell the story of their community, you know? And it's like it's a place of respect. Like they know that you're good at what you do. Yeah. And so like Yeah.
So just trying to figure out how do I tell the story of an, you know, of this person's neighborhood? Like they grew up right by this house. Can you tell me about my house? You You probably have to start. But also like I respect it. Like weird.
I was going to ask you about the history of your house. Yeah. But I like I respect it and I think the way the more you listen to Indiana, the more you can not speak for Indiana, but you can speak in a way that represents who we are. I think this is going to have to be a recurring segment and like maybe like once a quarter you come on, we like pick a topic and we just like go really deep on like a specific topic. That'd be really fun. That would be sick.
That's what I like. And it's like the history buffs out there will love it. And we'll just like, you know, 30 45 minutes and we'll just riff on like Madam CJ Walker and just like go through and like I'll do some research, you do some research and like we'll both like and it's like we both go out and learn and then we like share what we learned about it. I think that would be fun. That would be great. All right, we're going to we're going to book that one.
We'll get it on the on the calendar. Samson, I appreciate you stopping by, man. This was awesome. Thank you so much for all the work that you do uh with the walking tours and through Two Eyes. I think that again like the the the moral of the story here is that if everyone listening to this took a sliver of your who's your pride. Yeah.
This would be an even better place to live. And I'm I'm fired up coming out of that, man. No, I love it. Like and the passion that you bring to the podcast that we bring like that people understand energy. They speak that language no matter if you're what what what race you are, what where you're from. Like you see somebody excited, you're like, "What's going on?"
About Indiana, dude. It's the Hooas, baby. Well, we're going to have you back on in a couple months and we'll we'll find a topic. So, if you have a topic out there and you're listening, something you want us to go deep on, shoot me a DM or shoot me an email, natepangle. com, and we'll find a topic. We'll give it like, you know, 2 3 weeks to research it and we'll come back together and we'll talk about it.
Oh, that's fun. I love it, dude. All right, we'll talk to you soon. Thank you for listening to this episode of Get In. If you like what you heard, make sure you leave us a review wherever you listen to podcasts. This show is made possible by our friends up at Sweetwater.
Whether you're looking to start a podcast or take your content to the next level, click the link in the description to see all of my gear recommendations at sweetwater. com. If you want a behind-the-scenes look at everything we're doing across the state, make sure you follow me on Instagram and Tik Tok @ Nate Spangle. Thank you so much for listening and being part of what makes the Who's Your State great. We'll see you next time here on Get
