This week, we got DIBS on Jeff Mauro, Food Network host, comedian, musician, and proud Chicagoan who built a career by blending two hometown obsessions: comedy and sandwiches. Jeff takes us from a big Italian-American kitchen to Taste of Chicago, from Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding to the Food Network Star stage, and shares what it really takes to turn a point of view into a long-lasting career.

We talk about growing up in the Chicagoland area with food at the center of everything, the moment Jeff realized humor was his superpower, and why he never stopped chasing the dream, even when he was ready to be “good” with a normal life. He also breaks down Chicago sandwich culture (yes, we go there), what people still get wrong about Italian beef, and how food TV is evolving in the age of YouTube, influencers, and short-form clips.

Jeff is also bringing a live, variety-style show to City Winery Chicago on January 22, a night of stories, music, food, and off-the-cuff comedy that feels like the most Jeff Mauro thing possible.

In this episode, we cover:

1. Jeff’s Chicago upbringing and why food was always the epicenter
2. How comedy became his superpower in third grade
3. Moving to LA and finding the Chicago community out west
4. The long road to Food Network Star and what finally made it click
5. Why “being famous” is not a career and what creators miss today
6. Sandwich King's origins and the power of a clear culinary point of view
7. Hot dog as a sandwich debate (with a surprisingly poetic answer)
8. Jeff’s current favorite Chicago sandwich picks
9. Food Network’s shifting landscape and why live performance is the next wave
10. Why Jeff loves Chicago: grit, beauty, authenticity, and zero tolerance for nonsense

Episode Resources:

1. Jeff Mauro live at City Winery Chicago — January 22
2. Mauro Provisions (including Jeff’s Jardiniera, now available at Whole Foods across the Midwest and Walmart)

Listen now and don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and comment; it helps us continue to bring you the voices behind the institutions, people, and places that make Chicago extraordinary.

Connect with the hosts of DIBS on Instagram Nick Sarantos and Mallory Waxman

This week, we got DIBS on Chris Candy, actor, musician, and executive producer of the new Amazon Prime documentary John Candy: I Like Me. From Planes, Trains, and Automobiles to Uncle Buck to Home Alone, John Candy helped define Chicago on screen for a generation. Now, his son Chris is pulling back the curtain on the man behind the roles: the working actor, the dad, and the human being who was as generous off-camera as he was hilarious on-camera.

Set against the backdrop of the holidays, when John Candy movies are basically required viewing in Chicago, this conversation dives into grief, legacy, and what it means to share a parent with the world. Chris talks candidly about losing his dad at just eight years old, why the family waited three decades to make a documentary, and how I Like Me became his way of both honoring and finally processing that loss.

If you grew up on John Candy movies, love Chicago holiday classics, or are navigating your own “Dead Dad Club” grief, this one’s going to hit you right in the feelings.

In this episode, we cover:

1. How John Candy: I Like Me came to life, from early ideas to teaming up with Colin Hanks and Ryan Reynolds
2. Why the Candy family saw this as the definitive documentary and decided now was the right time
3. What it was like for Chris to grieve in public and privately at the same time
4. The emotional weight of revisiting his dad’s life through old footage, friends’ stories, and fan memories
5. Macaulay Culkin’s powerful recollection of working with John on Uncle Buck and how John treated kids on set
6. The Chicago DNA running through John’s most iconic roles and why the city still feels like “America in one place”
7. How comedy, kindness, and vulnerability can all coexist in one person
8. What Chris hopes people remember about his dad after watching the film
9. The strange, tender camaraderie of the “dead dads’ club” and why talking about grief matters
10. Why John Candy felt like someone audiences could trust, especially kids watching him on screen

About John Candy: I Like Me

John Candy: I Like Me is an intimate look at the beloved actor’s life, career, and inner world, from his early days on SCTV to Hollywood stardom. Featuring interviews with friends, collaborators, and family, the film explores not just the characters we love but also the man who played them and the son still learning who his father was.

Listen now and don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and comment; it helps us continue to bring you the voices behind the institutions, people, and places that make Chicago extraordinary.

Connect with the hosts of DIBS on Instagram Nick Sarantos and Mallory Waxman

A Red Orchid Theatre is one of Chicago’s most intimate and fearless stages, with just 60 to 70 seats, no distance between actor and audience, and storytelling that asks you to lean in. This week on DIBS, we sit down with Kirsten Fitzgerald, longtime ensemble member and Artistic Director of A Red Orchid Theatre, to talk about the craft, community, and Chicago spirit that have kept the company pushing artistic boundaries for more than 30 years in the heart of Old Town.

Kirsten takes us from growing up in Lake Bluff and discovering theater as a calling, to training in the Midwest, to returning to Chicago in the mid-90s and finding her artistic home at A Red Orchid after seeing a production in 1995 that changed everything. Along the way, she shares the company’s origin story, founded by Guy Van Swearingen, Michael Shannon, and Lawrence Grimm, why the name A Red Orchid carries deeper meaning than most realize, and what it takes to build art that lives right on the edge of something honest.

In this episode, we cover:

• The making of an actor: The first productions that blew Kirsten’s mind, why theater felt like a real calling in high school, and how Midwest training helped shape her craft.
• Returning to Chicago: Coming home after grad school, building a sustainable acting life, and how her day job at Thresholds turned into theater-driven work through games, interviewing skills, and social practice.
• How A Red Orchid started: The founding story, the Old Town space, and how a firefighter's schedule, a DIY mindset, and a rented room turned into a company that’s lasted more than 30 years.
• Why the room matters: What it means to do theater with 60–70 seats, how intimacy changes performance, and why audiences sometimes need time to sit and process before they can even stand up.
• Choosing a season as an ensemble: How the company reads year-round, votes on plays, balances classics with new work, and builds seasons around urgency, relationships, and what’s “eating at” the group.
• What’s coming next: Kirsten’s excitement for Birds of North America (which she’s directing), the themes she’s drawn to this season, and why she wants everyone to “just walk in the door.”

Purchase tickets to Birds of North America here.

Listen now and don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and comment; it helps us continue to bring you the voices behind the institutions, people, and places that make Chicago extraordinary.

Connect with the hosts of DIBS on Instagram Nick Sarantos and Mallory Waxman

As the Bears gear up to face the Packers, we sit down with Super Bowl-winning quarterback Jim McMahon to talk about the city that adopted him, the team that defined a generation, and what it means to live with the long-term impact of the game he helped shape.

Jim takes us from San Jose to Soldier Field to Lambeau: how a kid who loved baseball wound up under center for the 1985 Bears, why he saw rebellion as a form of leadership, and what it was really like inside that famously intense Ditka–Buddy Ryan locker room. Along the way, we get the stories behind the headbands, the sunglasses, and the day he wore a Bears jersey to the Packers’ White House visit.

If you grew up hearing the ’85 Bears described like Greek gods, if “Go Bears” has ever been your version of “hello,” or if you’ve ever wondered what happens to a body and brain after football, this one’s for you.

In this episode, we cover:

• Bears–Packers, from both sidelines: How a player who spent seven years as the ultimate Bear ended up in Green Bay and why he wore a Chicago jersey to the Super Bowl ring ceremony at the White House.
• The legend of #9: Jim’s journey from BYU record-breaker to the swaggering, sunglasses-wearing quarterback of the 1985 Bears, and why he saw “us against them” as pure Chicago energy.
• Cannabis over opioids: How he and other former players got off pain pills, what he’s learned about the body’s endocannabinoid system, and why he calls marijuana a medicinal plant, not a drug.
• Troops, USO tours, and perspective: The story of visiting bases in Iraq during wartime, staying in Saddam’s palaces, meeting wounded soldiers in autograph lines, and how that reshaped his sense of service and sacrifice.
• The headband heard ’round the world: From getting fined for an Adidas band to trolling NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle on national TV, then turning the spotlight to charities during the Super Bowl.
• Hockey dads and golf trips: Raising kids in Northbrook youth hockey, early memories of brutal ’70s hockey fights, and dream foursomes that include Michael Jordan and rounds at Augusta, St. Andrews, and Pebble Beach.

Listen now and don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and comment; it helps us continue to bring you the voices behind the institutions, people, and places that make Chicago extraordinary.

Connect with the hosts of DIBS on Instagram Nick Sarantos and Mallory Waxman

This episode is a love letter to Chicago’s lakefront icon. As we head into the holidays, we sit down with Marilynn Gardner President & CEO of Navy Pier, to talk about what it means to steward “Chicago’s front porch”, a place where history, culture, and core memories all collide.

Marilynn takes us on a journey from freight to festivals: how a municipal pier built in 1916 became a Navy training site, a University of Illinois campus (a.k.a. “Harvard on the Rocks”), and eventually one of the most visited spots in the city — complete with the Centennial Wheel, public art, theater, restaurants, FlyOver Chicago, and more.

If you’ve ever flown into Chicago, seen Navy Pier out the window, and thought, “Okay, I’m home,” this one’s for you.

In this episode, we cover:

• A pier with a thousand lives: Marilynn traces Navy Pier’s evolution from shipping hub to Navy training ground, university campus, and finally the civic space we know today.
• Why Navy Pier is “Chicago’s front porch”: How the pier brings people together across neighborhoods, backgrounds, and generations, and why Marilynn sees her role as stewarding a mission-based cultural center, not just a tourist attraction.
• Winter WonderFest is back: The beloved holiday tradition returns after a five-year hiatus, with indoor ice skating, rides, and family-friendly fun for those long Chicago winter days.
• FlyOver Chicago & falling in love with the city (again): Nick shares his unexpectedly emotional experience on FlyOver Chicago, and Marilynn explains why it captures the grit, resilience, and beauty of the city so well.
• Events that shape the city’s cultural life: From EXPO CHICAGO to volleyball tournaments, weddings, fundraisers, and everything in between, how Navy Pier balances public space, local businesses, and significant events.
• Balancing history and what’s next: How Marilynn and her team protect the pier’s legacy while reimagining underused spaces and bringing in new experiences that keep people coming back.

Episode Resources:

Navy Pier

Winter Wonderfest Tickets

Marilynn Gardner LinkedIn

Listen now and don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and comment; it helps us continue to bring you the voices behind the institutions, people, and places that make Chicago extraordinary.

Connect with the hosts of DIBS on Instagram Nick Sarantos and Mallory Waxman

This week, we got DIBS on Rocky Horror at the Music Box, the Midnight Madness shadow cast that’s been turning a 35mm print, a midnight showtime, and a lot of fishnets into one of Chicago’s longest-running queer rituals. From a scrappy 1990s Rogers Park crew to five sold-out Halloween shows in 2024, this is the story of how a “weird little movie” became a pillar of the city’s cultural fabric and a home for anyone who’s ever felt like an outsider.

In this episode, Nick takes you inside the Music Box on Halloween night, live from the lobby, the balcony, and backstage, to talk with cast president Marnie Thompson, Franks Elise and Amy, historian/DJ/security chief Chris, veteran cast members Bones and Billy, newer faces like Mark, Sarah, and Colby, staging manager Logan, and Music Box special events director Matt Carr. Together, they unpack why Rocky still matters 50 years later, what it means to build a truly welcoming “padded room” for self-expression, and how a volunteer cast keeps this tradition alive month after month.

In this episode, we cover:

• The first time it hits you: cast “Rocky stories” that start with high school theater, late-night TV, strict parents, anime conventions, and end with joining the cast.
• Why it endures: Rocky Horror as queer sanctuary, counterculture church, and a rare third space where you don’t have to drink to belong.
• Halloween vs. every other month: what makes the October run feel like “our Christmas,” how five shows sold out by early October, and why the energy on Halloween is unlike anything else in the city.
• Behind the corsets: staging managers juggling five nights of casting Tetris, months of rehearsals, handmade prop bags, and the nerves that never quite go away.
• Life on stage: playing Frank, Riff Raff, Eddie, Rocky, and more, embodying confidence, messiness, and joy, and what it feels like to have 700 people scream and dance with you at midnight.
• Queer history in real time: Midnight Madness as a 40-year Chicago institution, a place to figure out gender and sexuality long before language caught up, and a space where new generations keep finding themselves.
• The Music Box as home: how a once-run-down neighborhood theater became a thriving, analog, all-year destination, from Rocky at midnight to White Christmas sing-alongs and why people “just keep coming back.”
• If you’ve never been: how to pick your first show (Halloween chaos vs. deep-cut regulars), what to expect from the callbacks and crowd, and why the only real rule is simple: don’t be a dick.

Episode Resources:

The Music Box

Listen now and don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and comment; it helps us continue to bring you the voices behind the institutions, people, and places that make Chicago extraordinary.

Connect with the hosts of DIBS on Instagram Nick Sarantos and Mallory Waxman

This week, we got DIBS on filmmaker Gabe Polsky. It’s just me and Gabe in the room talking through his new documentary, The Man Who Saves the World? — the unbelievable, real-life story of Reverend Patrick McCollum and his mission to protect the Amazon. We delve into why Gabe was drawn to this journey, how the film came together, the moments that shook him, and what it means when one person decides to undertake something this significant.

It’s a straight, honest conversation about belief, impact, and Chicago roots — the kind of talk you only get when it’s one-on-one.

Episode Resources:

Follow Gabe: @gabepolski

Listen now and don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and comment; it helps us continue to bring you the voices behind the institutions, people, and places that make Chicago extraordinary.

Connect with the hosts of DIBS on Instagram Nick Sarantos and Mallory Waxman

This week, we got DIBS on Kevin Shaw—Emmy-winning director, cinematographer, and one of Chicago’s most essential storytellers. From ESPN field producer to red carpets at the Chicago International Film Festival, Kevin has spent a career capturing the city’s heart. His latest documentary, One Golden Summer, revisits the 2014 Jackie Robinson West Little League team—how they united Chicago, what really happened when the headlines turned, and why this story is bigger than baseball.

In this episode, Kevin pulls back the curtain on making the film without easy access to TV archives, centering the players’ voices a decade later, and challenging lazy narratives about the South Side. We talk youth sports as a media product, the whiplash from hero to “cheater,” and the resilience of young men who still love the game despite the spotlight’s burn.

In this episode, we cover:

• The summer that gripped Chicago: Jackie Robinson West’s run, the joy of Williamsport, and kids sneaking in wiffle ball between interviews.
• When the cameras turned: media incentives, racial stereotyping, and how a complex residency rule became a national “gotcha.”
• Centering the players: why Kevin stepped back on premiere night, and what it means to let the team tell their own story now as adults.
• Youth sports on TV: visibility vs. exploitation; why putting 12-year-olds on a national stage can help and harm.
• Chicago myths vs. reality: Morgan Park, community, and the cost of a single-story narrative about the South Side.
• Life after the storm: mental health, rebuilding identity, and the players’ paths—in baseball, music, and beyond.
• What’s next for Kevin: a new project on Oscar Robertson, labor rights, and how the NBA changed forever.

Episode Resources:

Vision Construction & Consulting

One Golden Summer

Listen now and don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and comment; it helps us continue to bring you the voices behind the institutions, people, and places that make Chicago extraordinary.

Connect with the hosts of DIBS on Instagram Nick Sarantos and Mallory Waxman