“More to Morris”: City of Morris debuts new podcast

The City of Morris has debuted a new podcast that aims to show its title: There’s “More to Morris.”

Community Affairs Director Stan Knudson said it’s been on the city’s radar as a project for close to a year, but it took some coaxing to get Mayor Chris Brown on board. Once they started, though, the overwhelmingly positive response kept them moving forward. The podcast currently has seven episodes featuring guests like Economic Development Director Julie Wilkinson, City Clerk Lori Werden, Grundy County Chamber of Commerce CEO Christina Van Yperen, and Police Chief Alicia Steffes.

“The numbers we’ve looked at say millennials are the folks listening to the most podcasts,” Knudson said. “You know, probably 50% of millennials listen to podcasts. That was really our drive behind it. It’s not replacing anything.”

Knudson was clear: The podcast is a way to open another means of communication. It’s not meant to replace other ways of getting local news. The podcast as a way to share information and break down barriers between the city and residents who might not typically interact with it.

“I was a little skeptical at first because I have not been an avid podcast listener,” Brown said. “But based on the overwhelming positive response we have received, I am very happy with this being added to our means of communicating with the citizens of Morris and I hope it will last well into the future.”

Knudson said the podcast is a good place to get in the weeds of topics that aren’t quite news but are still important for the public to know. The episode with Wilkinson dove into aspects of economic development, and a future episode will explain bits and pieces of the zoning process that residents wouldn’t think about.

“It’s a great avenue for it and we get to have a little fun,” Knudson said. “I wouldn’t call it a serious thing, but we’re getting information to the people. Since Mayor Brown came into office, we’ve done some things and added different avenues to communicate like updating our website.”

Knudson said episodes of the podcast are recorded after office hours, and it’s available in places like Spotify, iTunes, iHeartRadio, and anywhere else that hosts podcasts.