The Structural Transformation of the Public (Radio) Sphere

This, sadly, is the last episode of Nice Work. It was a good run, but a short one. The first episode of Nice Work aired on October 10, 2025. We were genuinely excited by what we could do, and now nine months later we are still excited about what we made.

Since this is our last episode, we'll spend it reflecting on what we did, and why we did it. As well as playing some of our favorite moments in the show.

We really did try to tell as many stories as possible that covered all of the arts and culture you can find here in Bloomington. But we also talked about the wider art world, design, film, video games and board games. We talked to authors, musicians, painters, singers, so many creative, curious people.

We feel lucky to have gotten to do it. We believe making this show was important, and we think Philosopher Jürgen Habermas makes a pretty good case for it. His first major book is called The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere. He says robust public debate about politics started with periodicals that were reporting on sales of goods - think about commodity prices. Then they started writing about art and literature. Habermas says the “critical debate ignited by works of literature and art was soon extended to include economic and political disputes.”

So basically, lively thoughtful conversations about art and culture lead to more critical thinking and more informed debate about a lot of other stuff. We are not exactly saying that arts and culture programs like Nice Work are a vital part of democracy in southern Indiana. But we’d kind of like to say that... but won’t go that far. 

We do think we were trying to give you, our listeners, a sense of how creative activity in our area is always evolving, and of the people involved in that. And to feel that you can also be part of that, if you’re not already. We tried to tell interesting stories in interesting ways—in our own voices—not just the same old way that public media tends to tell arts stories. And we think that helped us bring listeners along for the ride. Occasionally we interrogated ideas, concepts, and observations that might broaden perspectives, if just a little bit.

That was our goal, at least. We’ll leave it up to you to decide if we were successful. Either way, it felt good to be reaching toward that.

It was a good run. And now we’re at the end. So hey, thanks for listening.

Many, many, many thanks to our late cohost and friend, Kayte Young. This show, and countless other good things in this world, would not have happened without her.