Photographer, journalist, and Speaking of Phenomenal podcast host Amy Boyle joins Ashley Phillips to talk about turning a Maya Angelou–inspired photo series into a podcast. She explains why owning your own greatness is so hard and tells the story of a once-in-a-career photo of Oprah, Elton John, and Jesse Jackson. She and Ashley also talk about where Chicago journalism goes from here.

Follow Amy Boyle:

* Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/speakingofphenomenal

* Website: https://www.speakingofphenomenal.com/

* Speaking of Phenomenal podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/speaking-of-phenomenal-journalism-for-women-and/id1536659454

Follow Notes from Chicago:

* Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0qkYwUroGt4hMZQlhTg32z

* Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/notes-from-chicago/id1838675173

* YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@NotesfromChicago

* TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@notesfromchi

* Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/notesfromchicago

* Website: https://www.notesfromchicago.com/

Notes from Chicago is a weekly interview show hosted by Ashley Phillips, centering the voices, stories, and neighborhoods that make up the real Chicago.

Host: Ashley Phillips

Producer & Editor: Tanisha Blakely, https://www.tanishablakely.com/

We made it to 50! To celebrate, host Ashley Phillips pulls producer Tanisha Blakely out from behind the laptop to look back on the moments that stuck with them most. They talk about past guests and play a Family Feud-style quiz on what 50 episodes of guests said they love most about Chicago and which spot gets recommended the most.

Then they ask past guests one question: what do you want to see change in Chicago over the next 10 years?

Sandra Steinbrecher (documentary photographer), Johnny Jones (of The Lingo Chicago), Allison Yates (of Read & Run Chicago), and Clare McDermott (of Active Transportation Alliance ) share their vision for Chicago.

Thank you to every guest who trusted us with your story. Here’s to 50 more!

Edited and produced by Tanisha Blakely. Follow Notes from Chicago on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and wherever you listen.

Follow Notes from Chicago:

* Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0qkYwUroGt4hMZQlhTg32z

* Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/notes-from-chicago/id1838675173

* YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@NotesfromChicago

* TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@notesfromchi

* Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/notesfromchicago

* Website: https://www.notesfromchicago.com/

Notes from Chicago is a weekly interview show hosted by Ashley Phillips, centering the voices, stories, and neighborhoods that make up the real Chicago.

Host: Ashley Phillips

Producer & Editor: Tanisha Blakely, https://www.tanishablakely.com/

What does a longtime Chicago restaurant critic actually eat when nobody’s assigning the story?

This week, Ashley sits down with Maggie Hennessy, a freelance food journalist, former Time Out Chicago restaurant critic, and author of The Burger Bible: Everything You Need to Know About the Humble Hamburger. Maggie left a financial journalism job covering hedge funds at Reuters for night classes at culinary school, and she’s covered Chicago’s food scene ever since.

Follow Maggie Hennessy:

* Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/edible_words/

* Website: https://www.maggiehennessy.com/

Follow Notes from Chicago:

* Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0qkYwUroGt4hMZQlhTg32z

* Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/notes-from-chicago/id1838675173

* YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@NotesfromChicago

* TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@notesfromchi

* Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/notesfromchicago

* Website: https://www.notesfromchicago.com/

Notes from Chicago is a weekly interview show hosted by Ashley Phillips, centering the voices, stories, and neighborhoods that make up the real Chicago.

Host: Ashley Phillips

Producer & Editor: Tanisha Blakely, https://www.tanishablakely.com/

Jean Cate is a Chicago artist and the owner of Martha Mae: Art Supplies & Beautiful Things and The Center of Order and Experimentation, a coffee and gift shop on Grand Avenue in West Town. In this episode of Notes from Chicago, she tells Ashley how she opened her first shop in Andersonville while still at SAIC and rebuilt it after the original concept failed. She also explains how running that shop pulled her through severe anxiety, and why she believes shops can be a container for connection.

Follow Jean Cate:

* Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jeanmcate

https://www.instagram.com/orderandexperimentation

https://www.instagram.com/marthamae.beautifulthings

* Website: https://marthamae.info/ , not-a-cult.org , https://www.jeancate.com/

Follow Notes from Chicago:

* Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0qkYwUroGt4hMZQlhTg32z

* Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/notes-from-chicago/id1838675173

* YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@NotesfromChicago

* TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@notesfromchi

* Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/notesfromchicago

* Website: https://www.notesfromchicago.com/

Notes from Chicago is a weekly interview show hosted by Ashley Phillips, centering the voices, stories, and neighborhoods that make up the real Chicago.

Host: Ashley Phillips

Producer & Editor: Tanisha Blakely, https://www.tanishablakely.com/

At 29, Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann was living in Los Angeles when the idea of building the synagogue she actually wanted to go to pulled her back to Chicago.

Host Ashley talks with Rabbi Lizzi, Senior Rabbi and Founder of Mishkan Chicago, about growing up in Hyde Park, the South Side synagogue that shaped her, and why she set out to build a community for young adults who said, "Why would we go to synagogue?"

She shares how Mishkan went from a Honda Civic full of speakers to a 19-person staff, a religious school, and a teen program, with services that wander from Jefferson Park's Copernicus Center to Wicker Park.

Host Ashley talks with Rabbi Lizzi, Senior Rabbi and Founder of Mishkan Chicago, about growing up in Hyde Park, the South Side synagogue that shaped her, and why she set out to build a community for young adults who said, "Why would we go to synagogue?"

She shares how Mishkan went from a Honda Civic full of speakers to a 19-person staff, a religious school, and a teen program, with services that wander from Jefferson Park's Copernicus Center to Wicker Park.

Follow Mishkan Chicago:

* Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mishkanchicago/

* YouTube: mishkanchicago.org/high-holidays-livestream-landing-page

* ‘Contact Chai’ podcast: https://contactchai.buzzsprout.com

* Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MishkanChicago/?fref=ts

Follow Notes from Chicago:

* Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0qkYwUroGt4hMZQlhTg32z

* Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/notes-from-chicago/id1838675173

* YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@NotesfromChicago

* TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@notesfromchi

* Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/notesfromchicago

* Website: https://www.notesfromchicago.com/

Notes from Chicago is a weekly interview show hosted by Ashley Phillips, centering the voices, stories, and neighborhoods that make up the real Chicago.

Host: Ashley Phillips

Producer & Editor: Tanisha Blakely, https://www.tanishablakely.com/

Jane Beachy calls Chicago "the fountain of youth," a city where new ideas are always being born. She would know. As founder of Salonathon, the beloved weekly salon that ran from 2011 to 2018, she gave hundreds of Chicago artists a stage to share things they'd made just for that night, or had been quietly working on for years.

Ashley talks with Jane, Senior Director of Public Engagement at Illinois Humanities, about why she chose to end Salonathon at its peak and what it taught her about "the secret to life." They also cover Envisioning Justice, a two-year Chicago initiative on mass incarceration that grew into a national movement, and why who's in the room matters so much when you're bringing people together across Chicago's 77 neighborhoods.

Follow Jane Beachy:

* Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/janebeachy

* Illinois Humanities: https://ilhumanities.org/

* Illinois Voices 250: https://ilhumanities.org/programs/illinois-america-250

* Salonathon: https://www.salonathon.org/

Follow Notes from Chicago:

* Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0qkYwUroGt4hMZQlhTg32z

* Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/notes-from-chicago/id1838675173

* YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@NotesfromChicago

* TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@notesfromchi

* Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/notesfromchicago

* Website: https://www.notesfromchicago.com/

Notes from Chicago is a weekly interview show hosted by Ashley Phillips, centering the voices, stories, and neighborhoods that make up the real Chicago.

Host: Ashley Phillips

Producer & Editor: Tanisha Blakely, https://www.tanishablakely.com/

This week on Notes from Chicago, we're at the Garfield Park Conservatory Alliance with President & CEO Jennifer Van Valkenburg. Jen breaks down what it actually means to run one of the three largest conservatories in the country, from the 30-year public-private partnership with the Chicago Park District, to the community advisory board and youth council that shape every decision, to why they retired a beloved event (RIP Beer Under Glass) in favor of programming built with, not just for, the neighborhood.

We talk about the conservatory's evolution from "hidden gem" to the "shining jewel of the West Side," the 220,000 visitors who came through last year, and what's next.

Follow Jennifer Van Valkenburg, Garfield Park Conservatory Alliance:

* Website: https://garfieldconservatory.org/

* Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gpconservatory/

Follow Notes from Chicago:

* Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0qkYwUroGt4hMZQlhTg32z

* Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/notes-from-chicago/id1838675173

* YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@NotesfromChicago

* TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@notesfromchi

* Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/notesfromchicago

* Website: https://www.notesfromchicago.com/

Notes from Chicago is a weekly interview show hosted by Ashley Phillips, centering the voices, stories, and neighborhoods that make up the real Chicago.

Host: Ashley Phillips

Producer & Editor: Tanisha Blakely, https://www.tanishablakely.com/

Mark Payne has spent his career developing Chicago's next generation of civic leaders, and he learned to do it the same way he learned to love the city: from his family. His father, Jimmy Payne, was a celebrated Afro-Cuban and tap dancer who taught dance in Chicago from 1947 into his 90s; his mother drove the family up and down King Drive telling stories of the Great Migration. That upbringing in Bronzeville, Englewood, and Auburn Gresham shaped Mark into a Public Allies alum himself, and today he leads the organization Michelle Obama founded in 1993 to train young people for careers in nonprofits and government.

In this episode, Mark talks with host Ashley Phillips about what he learned serving as Deputy Chief of Staff for Public Safety under Mayor Rahm Emanuel during a difficult stretch for the city, what actually makes someone a good community leader, and why he started his own podcast, "Keep the Faith, Baby."

This conversation is about neighborhoods, patience, and the long arc between doing the work and seeing it pay off.

Follow Mark Payne:

* Public Allies Chicago Website: https://publicallies.org/chicago/

* Keep the Faith, Baby podcast Website: https://keepthefaithbaby.org/

* Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/empane360

Follow Notes from Chicago:

* Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0qkYwUroGt4hMZQlhTg32z

* Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/notes-from-chicago/id1838675173

* YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@NotesfromChicago

* TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@notesfromchi

* Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/notesfromchicago

* Website: https://www.notesfromchicago.com/

Notes from Chicago is a weekly interview show hosted by Ashley Phillips, centering the voices, stories, and neighborhoods that make up the real Chicago.

Host: Ashley Phillips

Producer & Editor: Tanisha Blakely, https://www.tanishablakely.com/