The History of American Music, as Recorded in Richmond, Indiana
How one Midwestern record company changed the course of popular music.
Rust Belt Labor: A Reading List
Stories of Rust Belt workers--their lives, histories, memories, and resistance.
Riding the Fort Wayne Line
A proposed Amtrak route would restore passenger service between Chicago, Fort Wayne, Columbus, and Pittsburgh. Can new federal investment make it happen?
The Legend of Baby Huey
After fifty years and hundreds of hip hop samples, the iconic Chicago musician’s only record remains urgent and imperative listening.
Climate Emergency and Environmental Justice in the Rust Belt
Stories on climate change, industrial legacies, and planning for a just future.
East Chicago’s Failed Utopian Visions
A century ago, East Chicago, Indiana drafted its ideal future. Here's how that went.
Exhibit O: A Look Inside Indiana’s Opioid Crisis
A new exhibit at the Indiana State Museum wants to break the taboos around addiction and recovery.
Black Freedom, Black Joy: A Juneteenth Reading List
Honoring Black joy and freedom struggles in the Rust Belt.
The Long Tail of Indiana’s Oil and Gas Boom
The state’s early industry remade more than the landscape.
Trouble
"The jukebox at Pizza King didn’t bump any songs past / 1978 but we fed it quarters anyway"
When the Federal Theatre Project Came to Gary
The program's director wrote that "no federal money was better spent" than on a children's theatre program in Gary, Indiana.
Belt’s Top Stories of 2020
Eleven pieces our readers kept coming back to.