Annika O’Melia is welcoming all aboard the Rock Island Line, a podcast about the people who live in and shape Rock Island.
O’Melia hosts the podcast, interviewing locals about what is happening in the city and changes they want to see along the way. The free episodes are all recorded in her downtown Rock Island podcast studio.
She drew inspiration for the name from the song Rock Island Line, by Lead Belly. It’s also close to the name of the late Roald Tweet’s WVIK show, Rock Island Lines.
“He’s a huge Rock Island icon, so it’s a bit of a nod to him, and the trains, Lead Belly, the kind of cultural pieces of Rock Island and then for me … there’s a line that runs through the city that carries stories and carries people and carries ideas from place to place that connects us,” she said. “It’s like an invisible hand or an identity of the city that is rooted deep in the past but hopefully will shape us today, holding onto the stories of old, telling the stories of new. The name is meaningful to me.”
O’Melia was born and raised in Rock Island but left at 18 to attend Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, and then Washington University in St. Louis. With her husband, a fellow Rock Island native, the pair made an even bigger move and lived in Vancouver, Canada, before moving back to the Quad-Cities in 2008.
“Rock Island is home, and both of us really appreciated growing up here, and wanted our kids to grow up here,” she said.
O’Melia also is a therapist and owner of Quad City Psychotherapy. Having her own private practice, she said, has offered her the freedom to delve into a new creative outlet.
“I’ve listened to people for years, so this is an opportunity to talk,” she said. “For 20 years I’ve been listening, and now I’m going to say what I think.”
Listening, and talking, however, were not initially in O’Melia’s plan for her life. Prior to starting her own practice, O’Melia was the CEO of CHC Edgerton Women’s Clinic in Davenport and completed a master’s program in social and economic development. She thought she might end up working on policy in Washington, D.C., but life took her in a different direction.
“Life is just taking you where you go and where you can get a job. So the podcast also just feels like a return to some of the things that I really loved that I didn’t really get the chance to do professionally,” she said.
She loves storytelling, movies, TV, books and other podcasts, she said. But policy and how that impacts people’s lives is even higher on that list, and is part of what pushed her to start the Rock Island Line.
“I really like talking to people and listening. I feel like there’s a gap in local storytelling because we spend so much time and attention focusing on national issues and there’s all these podcasts that talk about national themes,” she said. “Why can’t we do that for Rock Island?”
Podcasts help her stay engaged, she said, and to understand where other people are coming from by hearing their perspective. Listening to how others think helps her understand where they are coming from and check in on her own way of thinking.
Since launching her podcast in June, O’Melia has had a variety of guests, including Laura Evans Mahn, owner of NEST Cafe; Sharon Williams, superintendent of the Rock Island-Milan school district; and Alan Carmen, a former Rock Island development administrator.
“These are people that I’ve reached out to because I think they’re interesting, or they have cool things that they’re doing,” O’Melia said. “I’ve tried to cast a really wide net … I really want to interview people with a really diverse set of views and perspectives (to see) how all that interacts with our city specifically.”
O’Melia has had the Rock Island mayor, members of the council and even the police chief on her podcast in the past. The history of Rock Island belongs to everyone, but so does its future, she said.
“This is to help people who live in Rock Island stay more informed and connected to the heartbeat of what’s going on here,” she said. “It’s hard to pay attention to everything, and even I can’t pay attention to everything, but it’s just to highlight the people in the places that make this city what it is.”
Episodes stream for free and come out every Tuesday at 5 a.m. on Apple podcasts, the Rock Island Line website and its accompanying YouTube channel and on Spotify.
Love
0
Funny
0
Wow
0
Sad
0
Angry
0
The business news you need
Get the latest local business news delivered FREE to your inbox weekly.
* I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy.
Gretchen Teske
Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily!
Your notification has been saved.
There was a problem saving your notification.
{{description}}
Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items.
Followed notifications
Please log in to use this feature
Log In
Don’t have an account? Sign Up Today