This week Sarah and Maddie talk with Tom and Rachel Carlin, the husband-and-wife team behind Burl, Evanston's farm-driven, open-fire restaurant. We chat about all of their combined experiences in Chicago’s best restaurants, how they met, their first smooch, why they chose Evanston to be their home and the home of their first restaurant, and how Tom builds a menu around the farms they've worked with for years. We also get into what it's like to run a restaurant while raising a family in the community you serve. This one is full of good feels and mouth-watering food talk! Make a reservation at Burl’s website below! Get the cabbage!

Burl’s website: https://www.burlevanston.com/

Burl Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/burlevanston/?hl=en

This week Sarah and Maddie chat with Stephanie Mendoza, Evanston’s city clerk running for mayor. She kicks off our mayoral series where we talk to every candidate running for mayor. In this episode, we ask Stephanie about why she's running, what she sees as Evanston's biggest challenges right now, and what her vision for the city looks like if she wins. Whether you've interfaced with her at the Clerk's office or are just getting to know her, this is a great primer on one of the names to watch in the upcoming race.

In this episode we do talk about District 65’s TWI program and how being bilingual can have real cognitive benefits. While this isn’t just folk wisdom, the studies we reference talk more about the effects that tend to be specific (number, gender, spatial/temporal metaphors, color categorization) rather than a wholesale "different worldview," and the strength of the effect scales with proficiency and how much a person is actively using each language. This was studied in John Lucy's Yucatec Maya Study (1992): https://www.researchgate.net/scientific-contributions/John-A-Lucy-2079095222

Please note: in our intro, we said that Stephanie was born in Tijuana. She was actually born in San Diego, CA and raised in Tijuana.

We should also note that in our conversation we talk about how the mayor’s salary is $25,000 a year; this is no longer accurate. There was a salary increase last year, up to 32,000 a year.

https://www.instagram.com/downtownevanston/

We also mention Stephanie’s most underrated Evanston spot! She references Sissy Mary’s Kitchen. Look them up here: https://www.facebook.com/p/Sissy-Marys-Kitchen-61565915276906/

Stephanie’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thestephaniemendoza/

Stephanie’s Campaign website: https://stephanieformayor.com/

He's led Evanston for years — now he's setting his sights on Washington. In this episode, we sit down with Mayor Daniel Biss for a wide-ranging conversation about his time in City Hall and what people misunderstand about the role and responsibilities of mayor, what he's most proud of (and what he'd do differently), and why he's decided to run for Congress in the 9th District. He takes our concerns about getting better Evanston merch seriously (thank you!), talks about what it was like growing up in Indiana and running out of math classes by 8th grade, and doesn't take offense when we tell him dads are annoying!

We talk through some of the issues that have defined his mayorship (Ryan Field, D65 drama, Envision Evanston) and why he has to leave us for Washington D.C. It's part retrospective, part campaign preview and a candid look at a local leader stepping onto a much bigger stage.

This episode is the first in our mayoral series where we speak to our current mayor, and then in subsequent episodes to the candidates running to replace him in the new year. We hope you enjoy!

Daniel Biss for Congress: https://www.danielbiss.com/

Daniel Biss Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/daniel.biss/?hl=en