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.
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Contact path
Verified email
Booking probability
30%
Guest openness
Selective
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Signup to Generate a PitchWhat’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?
Recent episodes include "Carl Sandburg, pawpaw poet? This and other pawpaw oddities & mysteries | Under Rocks podcast" (24 September 2026, 38 minutes), "Little bits of magic: Mysterious Toynbee Tiles appear in Rockford | Under Rocks podcast" (25 June 2026, 42 minutes), and "Restoring the Geneva Grotto's glory | Under Rocks podcast" (28 May 2026, 25 minutes).
Under Rocks publishes roughly monthly, with episodes averaging 36 minutes across 20 episodes.
Booking probability for Under Rocks is 30%, and the host is rated Selective on guests. Under Rocks requires a Pod Score of 80 or higher. Under Rocks's contact route on record: verified email.
Under Rocks is a history show with 20 episodes published.
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Under Rocks
Poet Carl Sandburg knew blue collar culture – You know, “hog butcher for the world” and all that. Maybe that’s why he latched onto the lowly pawpaw, the “poor man’s banana,” as the root of a decades-long joke he shared...
Under Rocks
Toynbee idea in movie 2001. Resurrect dead on planet Jupiter. What? And why is this message on a tile in the streets of Rockford, Illinois? The Under Rocks team investigates.
Under Rocks
Thousands drive past it every day, but only a few lay eyes on it. It's the Geneva Grotto. And nearly a century after it was built by local Catholic priests, the mosaic and stone structure is returning to serve as a...
Under Rocks
The Under Rocks team goes on a treasure hunt with a real life detectorist.
Under Rocks
If you grew up anywhere near Rockford, Illinois, in, oh, the last century or so, you probably have eaten at least a handful of Mrs. Fisher's potato chips. This regional delicacy started in Ethel Fisher's kitchen and...
Under Rocks
Curling fever doesn't have to end on the Olympic medal podium! Join your local curling league and the next four years will fly faster than a granite stone across a sheet of ice. We revisit our 2022 curling adventure at...
Under Rocks
It’s been just over a year since Northern Illinois University closed its outdoor education campus high above the Rock River in Oregon, Illinois. While its future is still in limbo, a group called Together for Taft is...
Under Rocks
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.
Under Rocks
Who’s haunting your local theater? The Under Rocks team goes in search of theater ghost lights…and finds a whole lot more.
Under Rocks
A new exhibit at Northern Illinois University’s Art Museum is an ambitious look at the school’s vaunted printmaking program, which is in its 60th year. It also marks the end of a chapter for the museum. In the latest...
Under Rocks
Wendy Larson Bennett is grateful for the years Rockford has benefitted from the presence (and hard work of Rev. Dr. Matthew Johnson.
Under Rocks
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...
Under Rocks
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...
Under Rocks
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...
Under Rocks
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...
Under Rocks
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
Under Rocks
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...
Under Rocks
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...
Under Rocks
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...
Under Rocks
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...
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