The IBJ Podcast with Mason King

2025 will probably go down as the year artificial intelligence became an inevitable aspect of our lives. Anyone wishing to use it as a research tool, business strategist, data filter, personal coach or just a chatty companion has easy access to the technology. Indeed, most of the biggest companies in the world have been implementing AI in one way or another. AI can help automate tasks, interpret data, predict needs, improve efficiency, assist customers, assist coders, generate social media content, manage communication and translate it into any known language. If your company isn’t at least investigating how it can integrate AI, leaders should at least have a compelling case for sitting on the sidelines.   There are many reasons why companies are hesitant to take the plunge—or even get their feet wet. But those obstacles—including cost, employee resistance and lack of technical expertise—are easier to leap than you might think. In this week’s edition of the IBJ Podcast, host Mason King presents a series of scenarios from the point of view of an AI skeptic and asks a business education expert to respond to them. Our guest is Carolyn Goerner, faculty chair of executive education programs at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business, which among many things teaches executives and other company leaders how to implement and use AI. She also goes into greater depth on how to coax reluctant employees to become AI adopters.

Convenience stores are having a cultural moment. It’s more than a moment, actually—but they do like to emphasize speed. And after decades of being the butts of culinary jokes, they now like to emphasize fresh, ready-to-eat food—as well as plenty of gas pumps, product inventories that could rival a small Walmart and sophisticated branding strategies that market them as immersive experiences instead of roadside quickie-marts. We soon should have a chance to sample a few of the biggest names. Buc-ee’s, Wally’s and Wawa are converging on the Indianapolis area—as would befit the crossroads of America.   Wawa was the first to the Indy market with a store that opened in May, followed by several more local stores and plans for about a dozen in total. In terms of size, they’re definitely bigger than your typical 7-Eleven. IBJ recently broke the story that iconic Texas-based chain Buc-ee’s was close to sealing a deal for an Indy-area store potentially larger than a football field. And Illinois-based Wally’s, with a model strikingly similar in some ways to Buc-ee’s, recently provided an opening date for its 54,000-square-foot store under construction in Whitestown.   For this week’s episode of the IBJ Podcast, we’ve invited an expert in the industry to discuss the sea change in the C-store marketplace and delve into the specific calling cards of each of these three brands. Jeff Lenard of the National Association of Convenience Stores tells us what to expect, where they make their profit, how they’re building devoted fan bases and why they see opportunity in central Indiana.

If you’re someone who believes the drummer is more than someone at the back of the stage who keeps time, this week’s Percussive Arts Society International Convention, otherwise known as PASIC, is your kind of event. Joshua Simonds, executive director of the Indianapolis-based Percussive Arts Society, says the artistry of drummers is celebrated at the four-day event. While Indianapolis is locked in to host PASIC through 2028, this year’s gathering carries landmark significance because it’s the 50th annual edition. Nearly 7,000 attendees, on target to set a new record, are expected to check out concerts, workshops and an exhibition hall. Drummers who play in the touring bands of Taylor Swift and Beyoncé will attend, but PASIC isn’t confined to mainstream sounds. The lineup spans world music, jazz, marching percussion and contemporary classical. In this week’s episode, IBJ arts reporter Dave Lindquist talks with Joshua Simonds about the event, scheduled Wednesday through Saturday.

Gov. Mike Braun has called a special session of the Indiana Legislature, set to begin Monday, Nov. 3, that could make Indiana one of states to redraw its congressional maps before next year’s midterm elections. The Trump administration has lobbied Braun and Republican lawmakers since at least August to reapportion the state’s nine districts in hopes of engineering a GOP sweep next year. Indiana’s congressional delegation already is dominated by Republicans, but two of the state’s nine seats in the U.S. House of Representatives currently are held by Democrats.   Braun called the special session despite a definitive report from Senate President Pro Tem Rodric Bray’s office that there wasn’t enough support in the Indiana Senate to redraw the maps. But Braun believes the votes will be there. In this edition of the IBJ Podcast, host Mason King is joined by two local journalists with significant experience covering the legislature to dissect the events that led to the special session and explain how it could play out. They also discuss the history of redistricting in Indiana and the decades-long battle to expand political power by changing boundaries on a map. 

We’ve developed a romantic ideal of entrepreneurism in recent decades closely connected to startup culture and the brave souls who want to create something that can disrupt a product type or even a whole industry. But for a variety of reasons, a growing number of aspiring entrepreneurs of all ages are choosing to become business owners by acquiring a company rather than starting one from scratch. Among the benefits: Folks who acquire companies are working with products or services that already are proven in the marketplace. They can immediately start paying themselves from existing sales. And getting financing can be easier when your business has an established track record.   Our guest this week on the IBJ Podcast is a great example of the surging interest in ETA—shorthand for entrepreneurship through acquisition. Pat East and his wife founded a digital marketing company from scratch in the early 2000s and turned it into a behemoth with 75 employees and $10 million in annual sales. They sold it in 2020, which allowed East to focus more on his other role as executive director at The Mill, a nonprofit Bloomington co-working space and entrepreneurship center. He recently stepped down from The Mill in hopes of getting back into business for himself, and he discovered that Indiana doesn’t have a very robust community for aspiring entrepreneurs interested in ETAs. So he’s hosting meetups across the state to help fill that gap while he searches for his opportunity. In this week’s podcast, East discusses his exit from Hanapin Marketing, provides tips for those considering ETAs and breaks down the warning signs entrepreneurs should beware.