Under Rocks
Arts & Culture Podcasts
What’s so great about the Midwest? WNIJ’s Under Rocks podcast isn’t afraid to dive into that question head-first every month. In fact, our team won’t leave a stone unturned when it comes to hunting down the most interesting people, places, and events in northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin.What are you excited about? We’re always looking for a shove in the right direction, so send us on our next adventure by messaging us at Rocks@niu.edu.
Location:
United States
Genres:
Arts & Culture Podcasts
Description:
What’s so great about the Midwest? WNIJ’s Under Rocks podcast isn’t afraid to dive into that question head-first every month. In fact, our team won’t leave a stone unturned when it comes to hunting down the most interesting people, places, and events in northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin.What are you excited about? We’re always looking for a shove in the right direction, so send us on our next adventure by messaging us at Rocks@niu.edu.
Twitter:
@WNIJNews
Language:
English
Email:
rocks@niu.edu
Episodes
A feast for your ears! Our favorite food shows | Under Rocks podcast
11/26/2025
The Under Rocks team is thankful for all the fine food and drink here in northern Illinois. So pile your plate high as we revisit some of our favorite culinary adventures. Plus aspic! We hope you're hungry.
Duration:00:48:33
Leave the ghost light on: the spirits of DeKalb's Egyptian Theatre | Under Rocks podcast
10/30/2025
Who’s haunting your local theater? The Under Rocks team goes in search of theater ghost lights…and finds a whole lot more.
Duration:00:27:59
Sixty years of print-making, one more show | Under Rocks podcast
8/28/2025
A new exhibit at Northern Illinois University’s Art Museum is an ambitious look at the school’s vaunted print-making program, which is in its 60th year. It also marks the end of a chapter for the museum. In the latest Under Rocks podcast, curator Peter Olson takes us on a tour of the exhibit and clues us into what the future holds for the campus museum.
Duration:00:40:13
Perspective: From Rockford, with gratitude
8/14/2025
Wendy Larson Bennett is grateful for the years Rockford has benefitted from the presence (and hard work of Rev. Dr. Matthew Johnson.
Duration:00:01:59
A stalwart friend: Revisiting the Rock River Trail ride | Under Rocks
7/31/2025
In June of 2018, two brave correspondents set out to make history. WNIJ's Carl Nelson and Dan Libman would be the first to bike the Rock River Trail. Pedaling 320 miles in just five days, they even managed to send dispatches out to listeners every morning. We revisit their journey.
Duration:01:00:59
The Luthier Next Door | The Under Rocks podcast
5/29/2025
In a quiet wooded neighborhood on the south side of Rockford, there’s a man making magic in his basement workshop. Tom Asher uses the tools, knowledge, and creative skills he’s gathered over a lifetime as a musician, woodworker, and artist -- to craft violins.
Duration:00:33:22
Hiding history, preserving our past | Under Rocks podcast
4/24/2025
2000 called and wants its phone book back. And now it's in the hands that last touched it 25 years ago. Join Northern Star reporters past and present as they relive the past and plan for the future through a time capsule in a wall at Northern Illinois University.
Duration:00:23:14
Inside the snow globe: Putting Edith back in the Farnsworth House | Under Rocks podcast
3/27/2025
One of the world’s most precious architectural gems rests on the banks of the Fox River in northern Illinois. Maybe you’ve seen the Edith Farnsworth House in Plano: It’s a mid-century glass and steel marvel designed and constructed by Ludwig Mies van der Ohe. The Under Rocks team got a chance to visit and learn more about the woman who commissioned her glass get-away in the woods, Edith Farnsworth.
Duration:00:35:48
Where the cities meet the cornfields: Who's preserving our stories? | Under Rocks podcast
2/27/2025
There's a museum around every corner in Illinois. The Under Rocks team explores three of them near us to see how they are preserving our histories. Got a favorite? Tell us at rocks@niu.edu
Duration:00:44:43
Vexed! The Illinois Enthusiast vs. The Illinois Flag Commission | Under Rocks podcast
2/10/2025
Does Illinois really need a new flag? Or is the old "seal on a bedsheet" good enough? In this Under Rocks Extra, we call on our favorite expert, self-proclaimed state symbologist and Illinois Enthusiast John Kokoris to review the options the state's flag commission is offering. And he is, respectfully, not pleased.
Duration:00:51:21
Here we go again! Groundhog Day in Woodstock | Under Rocks podcast
1/30/2025
Thanks to a small town in northern Illinois, Groundhog Day is bigger than one chubby rodent and its shadow dropping a dubious weather forecast. In Woodstock, the groundhog takes a backseat to the real cause for celebration: the 1993 Bill Murray movie that was filmed there. The Under Rocks team visited the famed town square with the head of the annual festival (and Groundhog Day movie extra!) Rick Bellairs.
Duration:00:34:45
The Napa Valley of Corn | Under Rocks podcast
12/19/2024
Craft distilleries are the new craft breweries: There’s a growing number of these small operations in northern Illinois, offering their own take on the art of whiskey-making. And to wrap up another year of the Under Rocks podcast, our team heads out in search of some holiday spirit at Whiskey Acres in DeKalb.
Duration:00:42:07
The End of Things II: A walk in the woods at Lorado Taft | Under Rocks podcast
11/21/2024
We say goodbye to a field campus that meant a lot to northern Illinoisans during its decades of serving students interested in the environment and the arts. And we revisit a deep dive we took into one of the works of art that made the Lorado Taft campus so special.
Duration:00:18:18
There's always a cemetery | Under Rocks podcast
10/17/2024
There's a big sprawling graveyard in northern Illinois where the people of Belvidere have been laid to rest for nearly 200 years. In the heart of the Belvidere Cemetery is a tiny community space with a big history: Pettit Chapel, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. The Under Rocks team met with Sam Larson there to learn more about the history of the sacred space and the role of a sexton.
Duration:00:36:34
A Game of Action and Exercise, or: How I stopped worrying about the Sox and learned to love vintage baseball
9/19/2024
As this year’s season winds down, some unhappy White Sox fans turn to another era for their baseball fix. The Under Rocks team heads to Creston, IL for a vintage baseball match.
Duration:00:37:09
Perspective: The lessons in a 75-year-old tragedy
8/16/2024
In 1939, a group of refugees tried to dock in the U.S. Frankie DiCiaccio asks people to turn their eyes toward a new human disaster in the mking,
Duration:00:01:45
Reach! It! Out!: Chasing the dragon boat | Under Rocks podcast
8/15/2024
What do you get when you combine dragons, boats, a touch of “oh my!” and 22 dedicated athletes? The coolest sport you’ve never heard of! Dragon boating has roots in ancient China and branches all over the world…including a lake near you. The Under Rocks crew dons life vests and heads to Shabbona Lake for their latest adventure.
Duration:00:31:10
From parks to Peaches to pickleball: The siren call of the Rockford Adventure Trail | Under Rocks podcast
7/25/2024
Fun-starved explorers find gold (and prizes!) along the Rockford Adventure Trail. Join us for what could be the most ambitious Under Rocks ever!
Duration:00:44:46
Lustron: It's a good starter home, it's a good finishing home | Under Rocks podcast
6/20/2024
Lustron Houses. They're in your neighborhood. You just have to look for these mid-century metal marvels. You Under Rocks team heads to Mt. Morris to check out a cluster of Lustrons.
Duration:00:29:07
Strike while the iron's hot: Forging ahead at the blacksmith's shop | Under Rocks podcast
5/16/2024
We go at it hammer and tongs during a visit to the Phineas Vaughan Blacksmith Shop at the Glidden Homestead in DeKalb. Will Dan be able to upset the steel in time to open his beer before it gets warm? Or does he have too many irons in the fire?
Duration:00:30:57