Why 60185?

May 6, 2025, 12:15 am

I (Liuan) received an email from Laura with the title “Hear me out.” We had just survived an epic swearing-in ceremony for West Chicago’s new mayor Daniel Bovey and several newly-elected city council members. Dan had warned us there might be some fireworks, but I don’t think anybody in the audience was ready for the level of conflict that took place.

Laura wrote:

“I just recorded a 22 minute Marco Polo for a handful of friends explaining everything that happened tonight.

“That’s… a podcast.

“I am going to start one purely for WeGo residents — possibly time limited — to process all of this stuff. I think podcasts are so much more constructive than social media. People are always asking what is going on… this is how to fill them in.”

The first recording

I sat in Laura’s dining room later that day, admiring the blue and white porcelain dishes on the wall. I thought, “No biggie, just talking with a friend over tea and sending it to a few other friends.”

Laura has podcasting experience from previous jobs, and somehow managed to drop the first episode about an hour after we recorded it.

In the first couple days, we got over 100 downloads. We were expecting, maybe, 15.

There was definitely an information gap here that people have been hungry to fill.

Since then

We’ve had Attorney Jeff Jacobson, Mayor Dan Bovey, Maria Correa and José (Pepe) Gutierrez from Casa Michoacán, Jonathan Wolfe from We Go for the People, Winfield Township Trustee Rebecca Holmes, and several aldermen on the show. When we can, we record episodes in both English and Spanish.

While social media can be a helpful place to get the latest scoop, our community needs more than hot takes and rumor mills. A podcast format gives listeners a chance to go deeper into a topic, getting past surface-level arguments that fuel an us-them mentality and truly understanding where decision-makers are coming from and the issues on the table.

It’s not us-them. It’s all of us. We all have a place here in West Chicago, and it’s time to sit down to an honest, respectful conversation.

Moving forward

We started the podcast specifically explain what happened on May 5 for our friends and neighbors, but with a larger purpose in mind: our community cares a lot—and has a lot going on. Our goal was (and is) to provide easy-to-digest updates on West Chicago’s taxing bodies, especially our city council. After overwhelming interest in our episodes so far, we’re planning to keep this up! You can expect episodes every few weeks or more frequently if we’re feeling ambitious. We’re busy working moms, so this is a side project for us. We’ll cover major city council decisions, interspersed with news on township, school district, and park district happenings, and anything else that’s of interest to West Chicago residents.

Subscribe below to get an email in your inbox every time a new episode drops. We’ll also post informative tidbits that don’t make it into an episode here on this Substack page.

Have ideas for topics? Comment below.

If you think our work is valuable, would you become a paid subscriber? We’re looking for 20 committed residents to become paid subscribers at $5 a month.

That will help us pay for our graphic designer (Joey Waltz) who made our beautiful banner and logo, as well as tech subscriptions and other costs here and there. And honestly, maybe a cup of coffee every once in a while.

And please share this with your friends and neighbors. We want everyone to be part of the conversation. You—each and every one of you—are what make West Chicago the quirky and wonderful town that we all love.

Thanks for reading 60185 Podcast! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work.

P.S. A couple of updates since we recorded this episode several months ago—

* Liuan and Matt’s children’s book, My South American Classroom, has launched!! Find it here!

* Heather Niziolek of The West Chicago Voice has concluded the platform, and Merle Burleigh’s column on the city website will not continue after this year… so we’re feeling even more committed to keeping this podcast and Substack active going forward.