The 18th season of Across Indiana premieres with companion pieces to Ken Burns’ telling of the World War II tale, some new and some from the archives.

Across Indiana Episode 1813 Description
Monday, April 28 at 7:30 pm and
Saturday, May 3 at 6:30 pm

Poetry of the Soul
Host Michael Atwood has known Michael McColly since they were in high school. Two Michaels, friends then, not yet aware of the similar paths their lives would take. Michael A. helps others grieve the death of a loved one through his work as a hospice counselor. In Chicago, Michael McC.’s story is more personal. He’s had to face his own death, when he was found to be HIV positive. A writer, his diagnosis made him a world traveler, examining first hand the suffering caused by AIDS around the globe. The result? A book titled The After-Death Room, a place he walked into at a hospice near Bangkok where victims of AIDS were left unburied as a way to help the living connect with their own suffering. The room deeply moved him. That’s because, Michael MColly says, we are all living in the aftermath of something. It’s how we cope with it that determines whether we thrive—or wither.

Produced by Jim Simmons
Contact: michaelmccolly<at>hotmail<dot>com

Healing the Present by Finding the Past
In 2005, “Across Indiana” told you about Robert Snow, a policeman who had a past-life regression and discovered that he might be the reincarnation of an early 20th century artist. Since then, we’ve wanted to do a regression on-camera. Now, we have a willing volunteer. Producer Sarah Mynett has a passion for the Civil War and has often wondered if she might have lived back then. She went to Indianapolis’ Westside to find out, only to uncover the healing power of walking through the past.

Produced by Sarah Mynett
Contact: www.allmyrelationsindy.com

I’ve Been Everywhere
In the 18 seasons that “Across Indiana” has been on the air, the show has visited a lot of Hoosier counties. Did you know that all 92 of them are represented on the façade of the Indiana State Museum in Indianapolis? Do you know which county is associated with stained glass? How about a typewriter? And which is represented by an ear of corn? With a little traveling music provided by the Dynamic Agenda Bassoon Quartet from Butler University, we’ll provide answers.

Produced by Jim Simmons
Visit the Indiana State Museum, 650 West Washington Street, Indianapolis
Bassoonists c/o Douglas Spaniol, Butler University School of Music

Hollyhock Wisdom
There’s a famous saying that “it is never too late to be what you might have been.” You’re about to meet Nadine Baker, a woman who took that to heart by becoming a published author at the age of 85. Her topic? Growing up in the very conservative southern Indiana town of Ogilville. How conservative? In the 50s, when television came to Ogilville and antennas began to sprout, the local pastor told everyone that it was sinful and that, according to Nadine, “he could tell all the sinners by the ‘horns’ on their rooftops.”

Produced by Jim Simmons
No contact information.

History Matters: When Patriotism and Freedom Collide
Hoosiers have never been shy in expressing their beliefs—and that means, sometimes through protest and, occasionally, in times of war. And the US government has never been shy, either, in “discouraging” people it deems “unpatriotic.” The time was World War I, but this trip’s “History Matters” draws some strong parallels between “the war to end all wars” and the headlines today.

Produced by Kyle Travers and Jim Lindgren
Narrated by Carrie Wood-Hoppenjans, Indiana Historical Society
Contact: www.indianahistory.org

All My Friends Drive Chickens
In the cliches’r’us category, “the more things change, the more they stay the same.” Although the skyline, the population, the fashions and the sports teams have morphed and moved around, if there has been one staple of the Indianapolis scene over the last trillion years, it has been the sight of the ubiquitous “Chicken Limo,” and according to its owner, John Barker, “you’re truly a ‘D-list’ celebrity if you ride around in it.” Having always had a fantasy about being a “D-lister,” producer Aric Hartvig takes John up on his offer of a night on the town.

Produced by Aric Hartvig
contact: www.chickenlimo.com

See our special 1991 interview with Hoosier literary legend Kurt Vonnegut:

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