Jiggle It A Little It'll Open - A Podcast

09/05/2025

But wait, there's more!

We're sorry we've been gone so long, to make it up to you we have a whole other new episode for you to enjoy right away:

Ep. 21: Keep Your Spaceship Running While You Build More Spaceship

Former Chicagoans and current residents of Leeds, UK, Tony Macaluso and his son Giulio, spoke to Aaron & Ira from the community radio station Tony runs about a road trip they took with Giulio's mother and Tony's partner, Glenda, plus another friend through the American West, which included a stop at the urban design project Arcosanti in Arizona, where Ira and Aaron have both lived. The conversation covered the concept and the experience of Arcosanti, its past, its present, and its future.

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1400386/episodes/16823028

(As with the previous episode, this episode was recorded quite some time ago - late summer, 2024.)

We are very glad to be back in your lives, or at least your ears. We can't say exactly when the next episode will arrive, but they will most likely not be coming with the regularity we tried to maintain over our first two seasons. More on that to come. For now, you can expect to hear from us sporadically, but more frequently than you have been. Thanks for waiting, and listening!

09/05/2025

We have been gone so long, even we thought we might be gone for good. But to everyone's surprise, we are back with TWO new episodes literally almost two years in the making, both dropping today! First up:

Ep. 20: Apikorism

Seth Zurer joined Aaron & Ira quite some time ago to discuss his family roots in Clarion, Utah, a long-gone early-20th Century Jewish agrarian settlement where his grandmother was born, and the cultural and linguistic reverberations of early attempts such as that one to establish Jewish life in America. Seth also shared his own then-recent westward move from Chicago to Riverside, CA and his attempts to establish his cottage bakery Zurer Bread (now going strong,) as well as his many personal and professional dalliances with all things treyf.

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1400386/episodes/16483938

PLEASE NOTE: This conversation occurred in August of 2023 (we know, we know), so it comes from a time before October 7th, 2023 when it was still possible to mention Israel-Palestine without mentioning the Israeli hostages and Israel's war in Gaza.

16/06/2023

Ira S. Murfin's 'An Interview' returns to the Rhino Fest in Chicago tomorrow, Saturday June 17th at 3pm.

A double Bill with a Play produced by Timothy Rey and an ongoing interview series by Ira S. Murfin.

02/06/2023

If you like Jiggle It A Little It'll Open, and you happen to be in Chicago, you might like JIALIO co-host Ira S. Murfin's performance project 'An Interview' tomorrow, Sat. June 3rd at 3pm as part of Rhino Fest.

The Monologue Play is an ongoing series of pieces that use found language and creative non-fiction to create short monologues that examine the issues of race, religion, s*x, identity, politics...and the American Myth. Producer: Timothy David Rey Director: J'Sun Howard Actors: Joy Young, Catrina Ev

19/05/2023

Surprise! The 19th episode of Jiggle It A Little It'll Open has arrived almost a week early!

A second surprise: following up on our first guest in a long while, we unexpectedly welcome another guest, who offers a window onto a particular moment in young adulthood when the world seems suddenly to open up and the young person feels compelled to capture what they are experiencing as it happens.

Episode 19: Once Removed
Following a thread about falling into things, Jiggle It a Little It’ll Open welcomes a surprise third guest, who also happens to be the grandson of the podcast’s first guest, and Aaron's first cousin once removed.
Jesse Schumann stops by the virtual podcast studio with a tale to tell about the last six weeks. Since taking a temporary break from college for some self-discovery and recalibration, Jesse has practiced mindful self-compassion on a Canadian meditation retreat, launched a rap career in collaboration with his Venezualen barber in Argentina, and started gathering material for a novel about his grandfather and himself covering, in part, these last six weeks.
Additional topics along the “corridors of self-revelation” include the role of mushrooms in the development of human consciousness, pop songs named after famous people, the family trees of Jewish Mormons, and perceptions of the most intimate of human interactions in popular culture.

Following a thread about falling into things, Jiggle It a Little It’ll Open welcomes a surprise third guest, who also happens to be the grandson of the podcast’s first guest, and Aaron's first cousin once removed.Jesse Schumann stops by the virtu...

11/05/2023

Jiggle It A Little It'll Open has found its way back to hosting a guest - Melissa Lorraine of Chicago's Theatre Y, talking about her company's new home and new direction.

Find out more at www.theatre-y.com

Episode 18: Theatre Why?
For only the second time in its short history, Jiggle It A Little It’ll Open welcomes a guest. Melissa Lorraine, Artistic Director of Chicago’s Theatre Y, discusses her company’s journey from its founding as a venue for the work of Romanian playwright András Visky to its recent move from the neighborhood of Lincoln Square, where it was one of over 250 theatre companies dotting Chicago’s North Side, to North Lawndale on the city’s West Side. Melissa talks about what it means for a historically white arts organization to move to a predominantly black, under-resourced neighborhood with the aim of driving revitalization without triggering gentrification, and the inevitable mistakes they are making along the way. She shares their experiences creating youth programming for the first time, learning to listen to her critics in new ways, and addressing needs beyond a theatre company’s usual purview, such as providing much-needed public space during the day and piloting a geothermal home heating project to reduce utility costs and help keep their neighbors in their homes. Plus, as befits a tale with this many twists and turns, there will also be a labyrinth.

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1400386/12823190

For only the second time in its short history, Jiggle It A Little It’ll Open welcomes a guest. Melissa Lorraine, Artistic Director of Chicago’s Theatre Y, discusses her company’s journey from its founding as a venue for the work of Romanian playwr...

27/04/2023

Your all-access pass to Jiggle It A Little It'll Open's latest episode has been issued.

Episode 17: Unmarked Doors
The world is full of unmarked doors that some people know how to find and how to get through, and some people - by design or otherwise - do not. Aaron and Ira are thinking about ways that controlled access can both exclude and protect. When we offer each other access, what are we offering? And what are we giving up? Nascent online communities, clandestine cocktail bars, and city neighborhoods all maintain barriers to entry of one sort or another, until they don’t. And we can rarely control what happens then. But, as always, it seems to matter who gets and grants access, and who benefits from denying or providing it. Just remember, if you miss the Mega Mall, you can always hit the small Target.

The world is full of unmarked doors that some people know how to find and how to get through, and some people - by design or otherwise - do not. Aaron and Ira are thinking about ways that controlled access can both exclude and protect. When we off...

13/04/2023

Immerse yourself in the latest episode of Jiggle It a Little It'll Open. Once you acclimate to the temperature, you'll never want to get out.

Episode 16: Immersion Blender
Immersion is all around us, and perhaps it always has been. But we keep discovering it anew every time an experience is unique enough that we notice we are having it. From Greek tragedies and Medieval passion plays to 1960s happenings and environmental theatre to installation art, live action game play, and pricey Instagram-ready themed “experiences,” immersion as aesthetic approach and marketing ploy always offers irresistible novelty amidst the ordinary. Immersive theatre and art over the last few decades in particular has walked a line between deliberate obscurity and globally marketed phenomenon, sometimes, as in the cases of companies like Punchdrunk and Meow Wolf, with little space between. Aaron and Ira discuss the relative value of the hard-to-find experience that rewards pursuit, but of necessity must exclude, and discuss the need for some critical distance, and the impossibility of maintaining that distance while on mushrooms. But is putting it all on Gossip Girl the only democratizing alternative? Some things to consider over a few bites of the World’s Largest Sandwich. ¿Conoces la mayonesa?

Immersion is all around us, and perhaps it always has been. But we keep discovering it anew every time an experience is unique enough that we notice we are having it. From Greek tragedies and Medieval passion plays to 1960s happenings and environm...

30/03/2023

Listen to Jiggle It A Little It'll Open's 15th episode, on process orientation -- we don't necessarily know where we're going, but we hope you'll enjoy getting there as much as we did...

Ep. 15: Better Than Real Theatre
The hour or so spent in this episode on the concept of process orientation both illustrates something about the topic, and demonstrates how slippery it can be. Ever gravitating to theatre no matter what the topic, Aaron and Ira weave a network of connections between resisting perfection, eschewing deliberate meaning, and valuing participation, hoping to find process orientation cocooned someplace within. The clouds start to part a bit around the parallels that become evident between holistic models of verisimilitude and the rejection of authorial intention in favor of pure chance, when viewed through a process lens. Robert DeNiro, psychotherapy, Oklahoma!, Jerzy Grotowski, improv, the Wooster Group, and Sacred Harp singing all put in appearances as your hosts consider what theatre might be good for if not primarily for putting on a show. This is perhaps particularly relevant in light of an insight offered to Aaron by one of his most objectively successful friends just before heading onstage to meet a roomful of screaming fans, that in the third decade of the 21st century “only theatre people like theatre.”

The hour or so spent in this episode on the concept of process orientation both illustrates something about the topic, and demonstrates how slippery it can be. Ever gravitating to theatre no matter what the topic, Aaron and Ira weave a network of ...

23/03/2023

Gentle Jigglers (or should we say Eager Openers? JIALIO-ld Souls?): Thank you for your patience as we mix another episode together and leave it to set for another week. Tune in next Thursday (3/30) for more exciting adventures!

09/03/2023

"Come on, people now / Smile on your brother / Everybody get together / Try to love one another right now" because JIALIO Ep. 14 is out now, and it's all about The Collective...

Ep. 14: Beautiful Cacophony
The idea of the collective suggests a set of possibilities that do not rely upon personal vision or independent will. It can expand upon, enable, and obscure individual contribution – sometimes all at once – and, at its best, it surprises everyone. But the collective also requires a certain level of individual sacrifice to larger organizing principles – be they theatre, yoga, or architecture. It can be easy to confuse the collective impulse with a desire for what may actually be its opposite: absolute individual autonomy. All too often that becomes the only opening that those who value neither need in order to exploit others and do harm. Aaron and Ira begin by thinking about the ephemeral processes of collective theatre-making. They end up discussing two very concrete prototype habitats, each built by an unusually collected group of people in the Arizona desert. One of these projects counterintuitively turns out to also have its roots in collective theatre-making, though it is remembered and evaluated as a scientific laboratory. The other is intentionally and explicitly a laboratory, a specifically urban one, in the form of an incipient model city that may or may not still be in progress.

The idea of the collective suggests a set of possibilities that do not rely upon personal vision or independent will. It can expand upon, enable, and obscure individual contribution – sometimes all at once – and, at its best, it surprises everyone...

23/02/2023

Ambition: we've all got it, but only some of us know what to do with it. Lucky episode 13 of Jiggle It A Little It'll Open is all about that ever-present but elusive desire to do or achieve something, such as getting through a lengthy episode of your favorite Chicago-Paris based podcast.

Episode 13: Ambition, Ambition! Ambition!
Either Aaron and Ira have become mature adults, or they’re rationalizing their own failure, but either way, ambition no longer seems to hold the same power for them that it once did. As Ira puts it, “We do not want to live our lives as sacrifices to what might happen in the future.” So is ambition by definition a young person’s game? And is letting go of it a sign of maturity, or resignation? Gradually abdicating long-held and largely unexamined ambitions, a couple of middle aged guys might start to notice something that can feel like a kind of success, uncoupled from rubrics of notoriety, power, or wealth. At the same time, ambition will always to some extent be shaped by the historical and technological moment – whether that is Restoration England, 1920s Hollywood, or post-COVID America and Europe – and by the particular identities and inheritances with which everyone has to grapple. Still, it might be nice if a few people knew who you were when you died.

Either Aaron and Ira have become mature adults, or they’re rationalizing their own failure, but either way, ambition no longer seems to hold the same power for them that it once did. As Ira puts it, “We do not want to live our lives as sacrifices ...