Announcer 1: The views and opinions expressed in to the point are those of the host of the program and its guests.

They do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of WGTE public media.

Doni: Today, we're diving into a story that's reshaping the narrative of the American Midwest.

One idea, one voice, and one city at a time.

Joining us are two visionary leaders from Mid Story, a nonprofit media think tank based right here in Toledo, Ohio.

Mid stories on a quest to revitalize post-industrial cities through storytelling, research and youth engagement.

From tackling brain drain to amplifying unheard voices, their work is sparking a new kind of civic and imagination.

With us in the studio, our editorial director, Logan Sander, whose storytelling lens brings depth and nuance to the region's most pressing issues.

And Samuel Chang, president, whose leadership is helping to chart a bold new course for the Midwest future.

I'm Doni Miller, and welcome to the Point.

Connect with us on our social media pages.

You know that.

You can email me at Doni Underscore Miller at wgte dot org.

And for this episode and other additional extras, go to wgte.org.

To the point.

I'm really excited to introduce this brand new, I don't know that it's so new.

Actually, we're going to find that out.

Organization called Mid Story.

We have with us today its editorial director, Logan Sander and President Samuel Chang.

I was intrigued, so intrigued, and so excited to find out about mid story.

It is a marvelous idea for a nonprofit.

And Logan, why don't you tell everybody else what it's all about?

Logan: Sure.

Well, I really appreciate that introduction.

Mid story is a nonprofit.

We're dedicated to progressing the Midwest narrative.

So that essentially means telling the stories of this region.

Working with other organizations, universities, institutions to do research and tell the region about that research and also programing with young people.

So we bring in dozens of high school, college, and recent graduates, to Toledo every year to engage them in our mission and get them excited about Toledo and the Midwest at large.

Doni: Sam, you're nodding.

Sam: Yeah.

I mean, that's that's pretty much the mission in mid story, really is, you know, the name when we first came back in 2018.

It's part of a canopy of trees.

And the mid story is, is that ecological balance in that.

Doni: I've read that.

Sam: Yeah.

So there's the there's the lower story right in the upper story.

As part of a rain forest and whatever those stories the understory are or the upper story, you know, I think it's up to the imagination in terms of how we strike that balance.

When I was out in the East Coast, I was working out there, but also, you know, I did four years of my undergrad there as well.

You realize how much negative stigma people had towards the Midwest?

Especially Ohio, you know, corn, farmland, rust belt, corn belt, you know, all these things.

And I, I used to get made fun of for saying pop.

Right?

So even the language and how we decide to talk about, you know, the things that we eat and the things that we do, it's always a topic of conversation.

And when we're out there, you kind of feel a little bit, you know, displaced, misplaced, right.

Like you don't really quite belong.

And so we realize that part of it is how we tell our own story, right?

And how disconnected we are from national conversations that really are on the coasts, whether it's on the West Coast or the East Coast.

And part of mid story is really to bridge those gaps, and hopefully we can tell our story in a way that our national audience can also appreciate and come to, to understand and, really to love the Midwest.

Doni: So what is the what does the Midwest get wrong about itself?

What do.

Logan: That's an incredibly astute question because most people ask, what do other people get wrong about the Midwest, right?

Well, your question is, what do what do we get wrong about ourselves?

Doni: Yeah.

Logan: Sometimes we have a little bit of a self-esteem problem, I think.

Right.

A lot of times we don't view ourselves as crucially important in a lot of these national conversations that are going on.

I think in the last decade that has changed a bit.

Right?

A lot of people are talking about middle America, you know, about this swath of land between the East and the West Coast, which does exist.

Yeah, there are people there.

Yeah.

You know, I think historically there are a lot of reasons that the Midwest has been disconnected.

Geographically, it's it's really big, right?

If you compare Kansas to Ohio, it's two completely different places.

So there really isn't one sort of singular iconic culture or image.

And so, you know, I think we've been disconnected.

I think we maybe have a lack of a cohesive identity.

I think we don't necessarily value the viewpoints that we hold here and the perspectives that we can give.

So in a lot of popular culture, in a lot of, research and a lot of scientific issues, cultural issues, we just don't see ourselves as players in that game.

And I really think that with mid story, what we're trying to do is say, hey, our perspectives are valuable, right?

The experiences that we have on the ground here do contribute to a lot of these conversations.

Doni: Our identity crisis, if you would call it that, is to be expected, though, don't you think?

I mean, Detroit's down the road one way.

Cleveland's down the road the other way.

Chicago is four hours away, depending on, you know, where you start your drive here.

So our identity crisis do you think is influenced by our location?

Logan: To Toledo here specifically?

Are we talking greater Midwest Toledo?

Doni: Toledo.

Logan: Toledo for sure.

I think it's funny that we usually talk about Toledo in proximity to the nearest other big cities.

It's a great place to be because, you know, Doni: That's true, that's true.

Yeah.

That's true.

Logan: You know, because we're only four hours from Chicago.

I think that can be both a weakness and a strength in some ways, strength because Toledo is really centrally located.

I mean, historically, Toledo was supposed to be the next great big city of the world, right?

Doni: Was it?

Lohan: It was.

Sam: What is it, The mural says like the glass Logan: It was Joseph Scott who said, Sam: yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Logan: Who said that Toledo was going to be bigger than Chicago?

Sam: Yeah and back in the 1900s, early 1900s.

Right.

Toledo is population was one of the top for 20 cities in America.

You know, you realize that a lot of the industry ended up moving up north to Detroit and then to Chicago.

Right.

And so that's how those cities were really founded.

You know, we talked about westward expansion and trudging through the great Black Swamp into to found Toledo.

That was pretty much our history here.

But Toledo is a really interesting city.

I think we really treat it as our project because our storytelling goes actually beyond Toledo.

But we really see Toledo as that kind of, you know, prime Midwest, you know, mid-sized city.

That are kind of experiencing our own, you know, like re identification or redefinition of what the city is really meant to be.

Right.

And I think that's really interesting, you know, as a city that's kind of struggling to figure out what's next.

And then really a lot of great interview and innovators in the area that are working towards finding that identity.

And I think that's what makes Toledo so interesting.

So we're really happy to be here until it is a home.

We grew up here.

And I think it's it's really the best place to, to have the home base for a project like a nonprofit, like mid story, to tell that story from that authentic, post-industrial, kind of, you know, narrative.

Doni: You know, it's really interesting that you say that, though, when, one of the major conversations in Toledo over the past decade or so has been that issue of brain drain, people leaving and going off to all of those other, cities in the Midwest that that we've talked about this morning.

And you all decided to come back.

What's that all about?

Logan: Well, that is, the Genesis story of Mid story?

Sam: Yeah.

Logan: You know, we were all out and on the East Coast, so we were raised in this region, have a lot of ties to Toledo.

But like many young people that are looking for quote unquote, bigger and better things.

Sure.

Right.

You know, we we left, we four co-founders, three of us at our undergrad at Princeton, one did his undergrad at MIT, and then Ruth, who's not here today to her master's at Harvard.

So she's the smart one.

You know, we were all we left.

We did our things were all in very different disciplines.

And so my background is in comparative literature and journalism.

Sam was in policy, Ruth and architecture and Alex in bioengineering.

So I don't I don't really think in any other life, our paths, career paths crossed.

Doni: That's right.

Logan: But we were all from the Midwest.

Alex was from Kalamazoo, Michigan.

We were out in the coast doing our thing, getting our degrees.

Some of us were working.

And in 2018, it really was sort of a crossroads for all of us.

It was a moment that we thought none of the paths that are set out for us right now, we'd back home, but what if we could make one?

And that was that moment where we had one another.

We dropped full time jobs or were graduating, packed up or came home and.

And here we are.

And I think what we hoped was that that path that we were trudging, we would just be the first of many young people who could find a way to return home.

Doni: So all right, so you've got this platform this morning.

Tell young folk whatever that means, why they should stay.

Logan: Yeah, Doni: why they should choose here.

Sam: Yeah.

I mean, I think, you know, it's it's a it's a challenging question.

And the answer is equally as challenging because I don't think I really have a solution for you.

I think that's really what we're trying to do is to craft, you know, an environment for young people to see the value of the Midwest.

But even for ourselves, you know, I was one of those kids that left and really never looked back.

Never would have thought that my career, especially in policy, would have led myself back to a place like Toledo.

And frankly, you know, I was working for a few years to receive the fellowship that worked in prison education on the East Coast.

7 to 8 different correctional facilities.

And managing that educational resources and studying for the Lsat.

And, you know, all the dreams are in front of you, right?

And none of those paths point back to Toledo, Ohio.

You know, my hometown.

And I think for young people these days, you know, the really great thing is we have a program.

It's our flagship program called the Think Lab, and we work with students year round, but especially in the summertime, where we bring 25 young people, undergraduate students from across the country.

Now we engage with over 200.

And these are really the brightest of the brightest students.

We did the numbers.

I think 72% of those students that we bring in are from the top 50 universities across the country, and we bring them here to Toledo and they live on campus.

Our office is based out of the University of Toledo.

And at their business incubator.

And they kind of explore this region for about ten weeks.

And we really pride ourselves to really get them here, and get them a good experience and get them to see for themselves.

What is the Midwest like?

Many of them have never come to the Midwest before.

And, you know, the challenge is truly it's it's more difficult than most people might think.

You know, some of these students don't drive.

If you put them on campus, you know, how do they get access to groceries when they don't have a vehicle?

What's their social life going to be like?

You know, in the evening times.

You know, so all those things are difficulties when they're not from the Midwest, and they have to kind of figure figure out this region for themselves.

And so we have to handhold them a little bit in that program.

But it's we've seen just tremendous growth, in that program specifically, but also in their mindset over the course of their summer time with us just realizing, wow, I didn't know a place like this existed.

Doni I want to talk a little bit more about that when we come back from break?

I want to understand how you craft that experience for them.

And what do you hope that they take away from it that helps you on meet your mission?

Okay, well, stay with me.

All right?

We'll be back in just a moment.

Doni: Connect with us on our social media pages.

Again email me at doni underscore miller at wgte dot org.

And for this episode and any others you think you might want to see.

Go quickly to wgte dot org to the point we are talking to two folks from this amazingly creative organization called Mid Story Logan Sander Sam Chang.

When we went to break Sam, you were talking about the experience of bringing undergraduate kids to Toledo, to have them sort of reconnect with or connect with, perhaps for the first time, the Midwest.

What's that experience actually like?

What what do you how do you craft it?

What do you hope they'll take away?

What do you hope they'll learn?

Sam: Yeah, well at the core of mid story is telling stories.

Doni: Right.

Sam: And I think more people need to be doing that in a quality way.

Right.

And I think the best way that we found to connect these young people to this region is for them to be part of that storytelling process.

Right.

And so when they're here with us for about ten weeks in the summer, and also we have some part time fall and spring and winter opportunities, they're here and they're engaged with that storytelling process.

You know, they go we go through a pretty extensive AP style kind of training, as well as some media training for them.

And we kind of set them loose.

Right.

And we say, hey, pitch us some things that you guys are interested in, whether it's stories related to the environment or stories related to urban planning and and history.

Right.

And they usually come back with a number of different pitches and they're all extremely creative.

And again, we cover all 12 Midwest states.

And we kind of that through some of those pitches and say, hey, go ahead.

You know, we'll help you through that storytelling process, whether the output it becomes a podcast or a physical exhibition.

We do a lot of art installations or traditional, more traditional thought, you know, journalism and and written pieces or, or social media.

You know, we really work together with our students and we believe that's really the best way to get them invested in this region.

Story.

I'm sure Logan has better answers than I do.

Doni: Yeah, that's a really pretty good answer.

But I am going to ask you, Logan, how long have you guys been back?

Logan: This will be now over seven years.

Sam: Yeah Doni: seven years.

All right.

So when you look at that decision, has it been a good decision to come back to the Midwest or has it been a sacrifice?

Logan: I think it's certainly been a good decision.

Of course I think in any case, you have to know what you want out of a place and out of your life, right.

And I think what we tell young people, which is the same thing, is if you're looking for somewhere that you can live a meaningful life, right, that you can make impact on the community around you, that you can have agency to make change.

I mean, when these students are here doing the work with mid story, they are literally seeing the impact they're having on people they are talking to members of the community, they're getting feedback on the work that they're doing.

You know, they're getting people who are looking at these stories and going, who wrote this?

You know, and it's a place like Toledo that can give that to you.

And I think for us, there's a lot of reasons, right?

Family, community, you know, that we want to be in Toledo.

But I think primarily it's not because we think Toledo is the best place on earth.

We're here because I think Toledo needs young people.

We might not be that young anymore, but we'll bring more.

Yeah, we'll bring more young people here.

You know, we need ideas.

You know, we can't be afraid of of people coming in from with different perspectives and different ideas.

Sam mentioned these students pitch stories, things we never would have thought about.

They're bringing in perspectives, ideas, and it's exciting.

They're motivated, right?

They're energized.

Sometimes we're here too long.

We get a little jaded.

You know, we get a little tired.

And these are kids who are Doni: new eyes.

Logan: Exactly, exactly.

Doni: So that's really that's really pretty cool.

You guys, though, are focused on telling stories.

Whose story are you missing?

Whose story do you want to tell that you're not quite getting to?

Logan: That's a great question.

I would say Doni: Yeah I do my homework on this stuff.

Logan: She's got the hard questions.

Yeah.

No, that's that's a really good question.

We do our best to cover a very wide swath of stories, right?

We cover 12 Midwest states.

We cover individual stories, so like profiles and talking to individuals, organizations.

But everything is related to something going on nationally.

So this idea, the idea of our storytelling is that everything should be locally grounded but nationally relevant.

I would love if people from California in New York can read one of our stories and find it incredibly compelling or relevant, right?

I think where, the Midwest struggles, as I had alluded to earlier, is we just have such a, like diverse amount of stories here, right?

Like finding that that farmer who is, you know, experiencing difficulties with crop yields.

Right, right.

And then comparing that to this, the story of someone who may be a Clevelander, right, who's in the urban core, who is experiencing certain issues.

I mean, our stories are so wide reaching, right, that I think it takes a lot of energy.

And I think most people don't know that.

You probably know that being in this industry, but telling one story, I mean, going out somewhere, talking to the right people, getting a feel for what things are like on the ground, the amount of reporting, effort, fact checking, like media work that goes into one story that people might just, you know, fly by on the internet.

It's a lot.

Doni: It's a lot.

Logan: And I think we want to be able to tell more stories because we understand there are a lot of stories we haven't yet been able to tell.

Doni: you know, that makes me think of, of of this question.

How do you measure the impact of your work when your work is really all about changing mindsets?

All right.

That's tough, that it's tough to know if you're having an impact.

How are you looking at that right now either either of you.

Logan: Well a couple of different ways.

Measures of success are a big thing in the nonprofit world.

Again with the key questions here, it depends on what aspect we're talking about.

So for our programing, you know, we've brought in over 200 young people here to Toledo.

We survey them extensively every year.

I think probably the most powerful statistic is that with this past year, just under 100% of our interns had improved impressions of the Midwest and Toledo.

So there's there's some small ones.

I mean, we, you know, we surveyed them on their likelihood to look in them at the Midwest as a feature in their career path.

Every year, we get a majority of our students who say that they are now more likely to consider the Midwest as a place that they could see themselves being, on the storytelling.

And of course, there are there are metrics, right?

There are ways to look at social media reach.

I mean, we're right now looking at about 50% of our audience being local here to Ohio and 50% national.

So we take a lot of pride in numbers like that because it means not only are we telling our own stories to people here, but we are also reaching people elsewhere.

But beyond that, and I'm a softy, you know, it's when you tell those stories that, you know, the people that you're writing about, you know, the stories that you're telling.

When those people come back to you to say that was it.

You know, we once had, we told the story of an individual who, his entire family had been interned during World War two.

He's a Japanese American.

As we were getting his story on camera, his wife came out weeping.

I mean, she was just she said, I have never heard my husband tell his entire story from start to finish, let alone have it on recording.

But something I, my family, and I can cherish for the rest of our life.

So it's moments like that that maybe are not a key metric of success, but I think they're metrics to us.

Doni: but they're metrics.

Absolutely.

They change.

Change lives.

Yeah.

Change lives.

So you all as I read your mission, it was pretty diverse.

And in the way that you approach this work, you talk about research, you talk about civic engagement.

You talk about brain drain.

How do you really make all of that work, Sam?

Sam: Yeah, I mean, I think in terms of the kind of product, if you will, that we produce, and the deliverables at the end of the day, it's any form of, of content and forms of expression, right.

And whatever way that we can use those, those mediums to reach people where they're at is really our intention.

And so, you know, whether it's a podcast, whether it's, you know, a piece of writing or recently we've been doing a lot of what we call data arts installations, right?

Where there are exhibits that are installed in the communities themselves, where people are, we really try our best to be able to bring all those things together, Mid story at the end of the day and, and something we you know, as our core team, we when we first came back, we already knew this was the foundation of mid story is is interdisciplinary.

And so everything that we cover we recently did a project on adaptive reuse.

We looked at six different, buildings across the state of Ohio.

And you know, when you look at that, it seems like it's a very architectural kind of project, looking at the blueprint blueprints and the floor plans and, you know, but it's also a history project.

It's also an anthropology project.

It's also looking at urban planning and communities in neighborhoods.

And so when you think about that project, it's it's not just like one field can kind of close their eyes and ears and only focus on the floor plans or the blueprints or whatever, but it's an opportunity to really engage with the other pieces of our community, right?

That, that, that fit it together to, to make this mosaic.

And I think that's the beauty of the work that we do is it's not one project.

It's kind of by itself and doing its own thing, but it's how those things kind of work together, integrate with one another to tell a larger story of the Midwest.

And I think that's what makes us powerful.

All those diverse stories that Logan is talking about, that's what makes the Midwest strong.

And I think the more that we realize, you know, the different kinds of perspectives that we have, and then being able to find in some ways that middle ground or that balance to be able to share our stories, our human stories with one another.

I think that's really going to be better for our whole community here in the Midwest.

And, and hopefully, you know, leads to better civic engagement, better decisions made on the policy end of things, better environments for whether it's a tech ecosystem or transportation, you know, all those things that we need for the success of this region.

Doni: Yeah.

So I'm going to go back to something that that Logan mentioned a little earlier.

And, what do you all think we get wrong about ourselves?

Wait, why aren't we in the Midwest more excited about being in the Midwest?

Sam: Okay, I guess I can start this.

All right.

You know, I think when we talked about that kind of inferiority complex, I think this is, you know, it's not just Toledo, but a lot of mid-sized cities are like this.

You know, we we're kind of, allergic to competition.

You know Doni: An interesting way to put it.

Allergic to competition.

And I like that.

Yeah.

Doni: You know, I, we we love food.

You know, my.

I'm Taiwanese, you love Chinese food.

You know, I think of, the local restaurants that are here, there's a fantastic Chinese food restaurants.

But when you go to LA, right?

I mean, there's hundreds if not thousands of restaurants and, you know, so a chicken fried rice probably just won't cut it if that's, you know, one of the top ten items on your menu right here, it you know, people when they go to a Chinese restaurant.

I have a lot of friends who own restaurants as well.

You know, they they're like, yeah, I'm looking for the Chinese takeout, you know, because that's what.

What?

Well, what kind of fit?

The American palate.

Right.

And so when it comes to even food, imagine if suddenly we had 100 Chinese restaurants in the area, right.

It really changes the way we think about Chinese food.

I mean, you realize, well, China's huge.

There's all different kinds of food, from northern cuisine to southern cuisine, and suddenly you have a different perspective.

And I think then we don't just look at a restaurant and rate their fried rice, for instance.

Right?

We look at some of their other more authentic cuisines.

And I think that's really what we're missing.

I'm using food as a metaphor here, but when we don't have, you know, a mass or a, you know, when we don't have competition in a region like this, suddenly everything that we do is great, is great, you know, and and we celebrate that.

I'm not saying we shouldn't celebrate that, but I think from us we're looking at it from kind of an outside in.

And it also the inside out.

Right?

We have to see things from how other people see us.

Yes.

Doni: And I think that push yourselves to challenge ourselves.

Boy, there's so much more to talk about, so much more to talk about.

You guys will come back, right?

Sam: Absolutely right.

Doni: And you still are young.

Trust me, you're still one of the young people.

Thank you guys for joining us today.

We will see you next time.

Until the point.

Announcer 1: The views and opinions expressed in to the point are those of the host of the program and its guests.

They do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of WGTE public media.

Announcer 2: To the point is supported in part by viewers like you.

Thank you.