The IBJ Podcast

Driverless race cars to compete in first-ever challenge at Speedway

Nine teams representing students, researchers and autonomous vehicle experts from across the globe will convene at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Oct. 23 for an auto-racing competition without drivers.

Or at least without a human in the cockpit. The "drivers" in this case are software systems coded in advance by the teams, who must just sit back on "race day" to see if the cars can direct themselves out of the pits, around the track and avoid obstacles (which might or might not include another car).

The Indy Autonomous Challenge has been more than two years in the making. And so podcast host Mason King talks with Paul MItchell, CEO of Energy Systems Network, the Indianapolis-based not-for-profit that dreamed up and organized the event, about why the competition is important and what the group wants to achieve.

And then he talks with Michael Saxon, who is leading the Black & Gold Racing team, made up of students and researchers from Purdue University, West Point and IUPUI.

To learn more, read IBJ reporter Mickey Shuey's story about the challenge.

Photo courtesy of Central Indiana Corporate Partnership.

Should the men’s and women’s Final Fours be played in the same city?

In the wake of criticism about conditions at last spring's women's basketball championship, the NCAA is considering a number of changes, including whether the men's and women's Final Fours should be played on the same weekend in the same city.

IBJ's sports business reporter Mickey Shuey talks with host Mason King about why that would significantly shorten the list of cities that could host the Final Four and whether Indianapolis could handle a combined event. 

And King talks with Michelle Perry, a former NCAA executive and now a sports consultant, about what the change would mean for the women's game—and its fans.

You can read more about the issue in Mickey's story in this week's IBJ.

 

Looking for another podcast to try? Check out IBJ's The Freedom Forum with Angela B. Freeman, a monthly discussion about diversity and inclusion in central Indiana's business community.

 

Baby-delivering biz shifting with Riley’s $142M maternity tower

Riley Hospital for Children is preparing to unveil its $142 million maternity center—five floors of renovated space that will house labor and delivery rooms, intensive-care-unit rooms, emergency and triage rooms, operating rooms, and infant-resuscitation rooms.

It's a new direction for Riley, which has traditionally served sick children and babies who need special care. But Indiana University Health is now moving its well-baby maternity services from Methodist Hospital to Riley, giving moms and their babies one place to receive all the care they need.

IBJ health reporter John Russell toured the facility and talked with host Mason King about what he saw and how the tower fits into the increasingly competitive business of maternity care.

You can read more about the maternity tower in John's story here.

Here‘s how to keep the Great Resignation from hitting your company

Some 11.5 million Americans quit their jobs in April, May and June, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. And a recent Gallup poll found that nearly half of all workers are actively searching for other work.

It's part of what's become known as the Great Resignation—and if you're a manager, you might be wondering whether there's anything you can do to keep your employees on the job.

Host Mason King talks with IBJ workplace columnists Garrett Mintz, founder of consulting firm Ambition in Motion, and Mandy Haskett, a leadership consultant at Carmel-based Advisa, about the trend and how companies can engage with workers in a way that encourages them to stay.

You can read IBJ's weekly workplace column here.

The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by First Person Advisors, a subsidiary of NFP.

Pete the Planner explains how to pay (and how not to pay) for college

Podcast host Mason King recently used an online calculator to estimate what it might cost to send his 5-year-old son to college someday—and the answer shocked him.

So he's talking with Peter "Pete the Planner" Dunn this week about when parents need to start saving, what savings vehicles to use and whether parents should go into debt to fund their kids' education.

 

The IBJ podcast is brought to you by First Person Advisors, a subsidiary of NFP.

 

 

Dale Neuburger explains what Indy can learn from the Tokyo Olympics

Dale Neuburger is a former president of the Indiana Sports Corp. and treasurer of FINA, the International Federation for Aquatics.

He spent several weeks in Japan for the Olympic Games, where he served as the International Olympic Committee’s competition director for swimming, with additional responsibilities for diving, water polo, artistic swimming and open-water swimming.

IBJ sports business reporter Mickey Shuey talked with Dale about his experiences in Tokyo and what Indiana can learn from them. 

You can read a column written by Dale in this week's IBJ.

The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by First Person Advisors, a subsidiary of NFP.

Why did IBJ Media buy Inside INdiana Business?

IBJ Media’s recent acquisition of competitor Grow Indiana Media Ventures and the Inside INdiana Business and Inside Edge multimedia platforms raises a series of questions, starting with the extent to which the state’s two biggest business news brands actually overlap. Some see the deal as a combination of complementary businesses with different audiences, but the irony of the acquisition is that one is often mistaken for the other in central Indiana.

In this week’s edition of the IBJ Podcast, IBJ Media CEO and co-owner Nate Feltman joins Gerry Dick, formerly the owner of Grow Indiana and now president of the new Inside INdiana Business division of IBJ Media, to break down what the deal means for subscribers, other news consumers and the business community in general. They push back on any suggestion that this is yet another example of media consolidation, promising that this will lead to wider and deeper coverage of business around the state that preserves the Inside INdiana Business brand and perspective. At the same time, the deal gives IBJ the ability to make a strong push into new mediums and grow outside the Indy area.

Feltman and Dick tell host Mason King that they foresee very few changes in the two brands’ editorial output and products in the near term. But how might IBJ influence Inside INdiana Business, and vice versa? How much will one bleed into the other? Are there any redundancies between the two businesses? How big is IBJ Media now? How closely will the teams be working? They address these questions here.

Will the Prosecutor's Office move to the new Community Justice Campus?

Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears told IBJ last week that he hasn't decided whether his office will move to the new Community Justice Campus, which remains under construction in the Twin Aire neighborhood.

The office was expected to be part of a second office building that Browning Investments planned to build at the site to complement a jail, Sheriff's Office and court system that will be moving to the campus at the end of the year.

Host Mason King talks with IBJ reporters Leslie Bonilla Muñiz and Mickey Shuey about their reporting on the topic, including the reasons Mears gave for his hesitancy and why the mayor wants the prosecutor at the campus.

 

The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Resultant, formerly KSM Consulting.

 

 

How the Big Car arts group is changing the Garfield Park neighborhood

It was about six years ago when Indianapolis arts organization Big Car bought an old factory in the Garfield Park neighborhood and started working on a plan to create an arts campus there.

Fast forward to today and the group owns the Tube Factory Artspace in that former factory, an audio art space that houses a radio station, nine houses it has renovated for artists and another factory—this one 40,000 square feet—that it is starting to renovate. Plus, it's creating a public green space between the buildings. 

Host Mason King talks with Big Car CEO Jim Walker about the vision, what the project means for the neighborhood and how the group is trying to ensure artists aren't eventually priced out of being there.

You can read more about Big Car's Garfield Park project in this story by IBJ reporter Susan Orr.

 

The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Resultant, formerly KSM Consulting.

 

 

Why are emergency rooms sending ambulances to other hospitals?

At emergency rooms across central Indiana, “No Vacancy” signs are flashing at unprecedented rates. Emergency rooms are often overflowing with patients, prompting hospitals to divert ambulances to other hospitals for hours at a stretch, provided the cases aren’t life-threatening. On July 26, for example, at least 10 large hospitals in central Indiana went on diversion at some point, causing ambulance drivers to look high and low for a place to take their patients.

In the latest edition of the IBJ Podcast, reporter John Russell explains that this is the latest indication that local and area hospitals are struggling with a growing nursing shortage and, to a lesser extent, that the pandemic is roaring back to life.

Unfortunately, it’s very difficult to pin hospitals down on just how often this has been happening. No federal or state agency tracks ambulance diversions or requires the hospitals to report it, so the fine details are closely guarded secrets.

The IBJ Podcast is brought to you by Resultant, formerly KSM Consulting.