Sarah sits down with independent journalist Tom LoBianco of 24sight News to catch up on his years-long investigation into Life Church, lead pastor Nathan Peternel, his son Jonathan Peternel, and Indiana Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith.

What started as one disturbing criminal case has grown into a much bigger story.

Jonathan Peternel pleaded guilty to four felony counts involving more than 200 videos of child sexual abuse material.

Then former members of Nathan Peternel’s youth ministry began coming forward. They described disturbing sexual conversations, treatment of teenagers, and experiences they say harmed them for years. Some now call themselves the “Survivors of Stormfront.” Nathan has not been criminally charged over these allegations.

And then there is Micah Beckwith — Indiana’s lieutenant governor, a friend and longtime associate of Nathan Peternel, and a pastor at Life Church. Beckwith’s office has also faced a separate controversy after LoBianco reported allegations that members of Beckwith’s staff viewed a sexually explicit AI deepfake of an Indiana lawmaker’s wife. Beckwith has denied that happened.

Meanwhile, pastors, staff, and families have continued leaving Life Church.

How is this allowed to happen? Who holds powerful church leaders accountable? What happens when sex, religion, politics, and power become tangled together? And how do we protect our children when the people we are supposed to trust are the ones raising serious concerns?

Tom has spent years digging, talking to people, finding records, and following this story wherever it leads.

Watch as Sarah and Tom break down what he has uncovered, what former members are saying, what is still unanswered, and why this story matters.

Please support Tom LoBianco and the incredibly important work being done at 24sight News⁠.

Sarah Blessing sits down with Clark County Sheriff candidate Tim Deeringer to talk about the Jamey Noel scandal, problems with EMS and 911, corruption and accountability, community policing, the ICE detention center, Flock cameras, and mass surveillance.

How do we make sure this never happens again?

Tim came in person for this important conversation. Watch it, and tell us what you think.

Data centers. Flock cameras. Mass surveillance. These issues are showing up in communities across America, including ours.

Today on Project Next, Dustin Cerda and Sarah Blessing talk about something even bigger: what regular people can actually do about it.

We don’t have to roll over and accept every loss of freedom. We don’t have to be senators or members of Congress to make change.

Dustin and Sarah are helping start movements in their own communities, and you can do it, too.

🇺🇸 We the People still have power. Freedom belongs to all of us. And sometimes change starts with a few neighbors who decide to stand up.

Watch, share, and find out how you can start where you live. 💜

It may feel like we’ve lost our voice in Washington. In Indiana, it can feel the same way.

But locally? We still have power.

Sarah Blessing sits down with her close friend Adam Schneider, candidate for Harrison County Council District 3, to talk about something we ALL need to understand:

If we want our power back, we start at home.

Your town. Your city. Your county.

We share real stories of regular people speaking up, talking to local leaders, and actually creating change.

Stop waiting on Washington to fix everything. Learn how YOU can make a difference right where you live.

Local first. State next. National after that.

💜 This is how we get our voice back. Together.

Join Sarah Blessing as she sits down with her new friend Kayla, a Navy veteran who served 10 years on active duty as an Aerographer’s Mate (AG), working with weather and ocean conditions to support Navy missions.

Kayla shares why she joined, what her job was like, and some of the amazing places her service took her, including Japan and Germany.

They also talk about something many of us may not fully understand: the sacrifice that comes with military service. Service members don’t always get to speak freely about what is happening or simply walk away when they disagree with a mission. They have a duty to serve and protect, even when that can be incredibly difficult.

The conversation also looks back at Vietnam and Korean War veterans, mental health, and how our understanding of what veterans need has changed over the years.

Most of all, this is a conversation about learning to hold two ideas at once: We can be deeply thankful for the people who serve and the sacrifices they make, while still asking hard questions of our government and working to do better.

Tune in for a thoughtful conversation about the real people behind the uniform—and what their service means.

And before you come for us… hear us out. 😂

Sarah Blessing and her book-loving neighbor Ashley Ballard sat down for one of our favorite Project Next conversations yet—and this one went places.

Why might reading romance actually help men in their own relationships?

Because these books are filled with people trying to figure each other out. Communication. Attraction. Conflict. Vulnerability. Consent. Friendship. Trauma. Trust. What makes someone feel loved—and what makes them feel unheard.

And maybe there’s something we can all learn from that.

We also need to talk about the way our culture treats the things women enjoy.

Why is reading a romance novel a “guilty pleasure”? Why should someone hide the book they’re reading because another person might think it’s silly, trashy, unrealistic or too spicy?

Read the book. Enjoy the book. You don’t need to feel guilty.

And partners: your spouse reading a romance novel isn’t necessarily a critique of you or your relationship. Sometimes a dragon is just a dragon. 😂🐉

We get into fantasy romance, Twilight, Fifty Shades of Grey, Ali Hazelwood, the enormous variety within romance, the books we love—and why we love them.

But this conversation becomes about something much bigger than romance novels.

It’s about being less judgmental of one another.

Just because you don’t understand why someone loves something doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with it.

People are stressed. People are carrying trauma. Money is tight. Life can be exhausting.

And sometimes having a book waiting for you at the end of a hard day is exactly what you need.

Reading can be an escape. It can be entertainment. It can build empathy. It can expose us to people and experiences different from our own. And after thousands of books between us, Ashley and Sarah talk about how reading has helped them better understand people and communicate with the world around them.

So let’s stop calling books a guilty pleasure.

Let’s stop the stigma. Let’s stop the shame. And let’s start talking about what we’re actually reading.

📖 WHAT ARE YOU READING RIGHT NOW?

Show us your book in the comments. Seriously. Take a picture and post it.

And MEN—we especially want to hear from you.

Are there men out there reading romance novels? 👀

We KNOW some of you are.

Tell us what you’re reading. Tell us what you think. And if you’ve never picked up a romance novel before…

maybe it’s time. 😉📚

👇 Drop your current read below.

That was only 13 months ago.

Now they’re popping up all over Indiana and across the country.

Jonathan came back on Project Next to talk about why this is happening so fast and the enormous amount of money behind it.

It’s bigger than people simply using AI. There is a huge race happening over who controls the technology, the computing power, and ultimately the money.

Meanwhile, local communities are left dealing with the land, water, electricity, noise, tax breaks, and other impacts these massive projects can bring.

Sarah and Jonathan talk about what regular people can actually do, why local government matters, and why we have to work together if we want to protect our communities.

Pay attention. Work together. Follow the money.

#ProjectNext #DataCenters #Indiana #FollowTheMoney

This was one of the most fascinating — and hopeful — conversations on Project Next.

Sarah Blessing sat down with Terry Miller, who served 17 years as a Harrison County Commissioner, including during the transformational years when casino revenue began coming into the county.

Terry described a Harrison County government that might sound almost foreign today.

Republicans and Democrats didn’t always agree. They questioned each other. They held each other accountable. But they also worked together.

They had plans for the county’s money. They balanced budgets. They told the public what they were doing. People could ask questions — and instead of treating questions like an attack, they wanted people to ask.

Compare that to where Harrison County is today.

The last five State Board of Accounts audit periods have documented recurring financial reporting, internal-control, recordkeeping, and transparency problems. There have been errors involving millions of dollars in county financial reports and findings that continued from one audit to the next.

Our tax dollars deserve better accountability.

And that’s why this conversation matters.

Terry Miller is now running for Harrison County Auditor.

During his 17 years as Commissioner — including time serving as president of the Commission — Terry helped govern through some of the most consequential financial decisions in Harrison County’s history.

Now he wants to bring that experience to the Auditor’s office with a very simple goal:

Account for every single penny of the taxpayers’ money.

Watch this episode and hear Terry explain what Harrison County government used to look like. How Democrats and Republicans worked together. How they planned. How they handled the casino money. How they communicated with the public. And what he believes needs to change today.

Most importantly, this conversation is hopeful.

Because it proves something important:

Harrison County government doesn’t have to operate the way it does today.

We’ve done better before.

We can do better again.

But collectively, as a county, we have to decide that it’s time for change.

🎥 Watch this episode of Project Next with Terry Miller, then share it with another Harrison County resident.

People deserve to know what a functioning, transparent, and accountable local government can look like.

This might be one of the most fun Mental Fitness episodes Ellen Morrison Kelley and I have done.

We laughed. A LOT. 😂 But we also talked about something that gets into so many of our heads:

The pressure to be perfect.

Perfect parent.

Perfect wife.

Perfect employee.

Perfect body.

Perfect house.

Perfect response.

Perfect life.

And heaven forbid you make a mistake — especially where other people can see it. 😬

But here’s the problem:

Human beings are messy. Life is complicated. Most things are gray, not black and white — and NONE of us are perfect.

So why do we expect ourselves to be?

In this episode, we talk about the toxic messages we absorb from our culture and how easily they become the voice inside our own heads.

I share what I’ve learned from being heavily judged online — and how I’ve had to learn to let some of it go.

Ellen shares a story about a man who said something absolutely SHOCKING to her while she was walking in a parade. 😳

And we talk about the expectations placed on women — especially the generations of women who came before us — and how much of that baggage we’re still carrying around without even realizing it.

Thankfully, Ellen is a retired therapist, because at several points we basically had to ask:

WHY DO WE DO THIS TO OURSELVES?! 😂

One idea kept coming back:

❤️ What if we talked to ourselves the way we would talk to our best friend?

We would never expect our best friend to be perfect. We wouldn’t tear her apart over every mistake. We’d remind her she’s human, tell her to learn from it, laugh when appropriate, and KEEP GOING.

Maybe we deserve that same kindness.

This episode is funny, honest, messy and VERY relatable — and I think a lot of people are going to see themselves in this conversation.

🎥 Watch “Beating Perfectionism” and then tell us:

What pressure did you spend years putting on yourself that you finally realized you could LET GO?

And what do you do when that little voice in your head starts demanding perfection again?

👇 We really want to hear your answers.

Sarah Blessing and Ellen Morrison Kelley break down the wild world of local government in Floyd and Harrison Counties, where yearly state audits keep raising the same basic question:

Where did all the money go?

We laugh, we shake our heads, and we talk about just how crazy it is that local governments can struggle to clearly account for taxpayer dollars year after year.

But we also get into what regular people can actually do about it.

You don’t have to run for office. Grab a friend, go to a local meeting, get dinner afterward, ask questions, and start paying attention to where your money is going.

National politics gets all the attention, but local government affects our everyday lives — and it’s one place where showing up can actually make a difference.

Come for the ridiculous audit stories. Stay for some surprisingly simple ways we can all help make local government better.

In this episode of Project Next, Sarah Blessing and James Coogle break down what Senate Enrolled Act 1 means for Harrison County and why our county councils and commissioners need to understand what is coming.

With less property-tax revenue available than previously projected, local governments, schools, libraries, fire protection and other community services will be competing for increasingly limited dollars.

That means now is not the time for careless spending.

We talk about Harrison County’s numbers, multimillion-dollar building purchases, and a question taxpayers should always be able to ask:

Do we actually need this — and can we afford it?

If millions of taxpayer dollars are going toward a building, the public deserves to see the need, the true cost, the alternatives considered, and the long-term impact on our community.

SEA 1 is changing the financial reality for local government. Our local leaders need to understand it, plan for it, and start being extremely careful with our money.

🎥 Watch this episode of Project Next. This is one local-government conversation every Hoosier should understand.

Sarah Blessing sits down with Rhiannon Ryan of Do Something Southern Indiana, a nonpartisan community organization working to educate, organize, and empower local residents around issues affecting Southern Indiana.

Together, they take a deep dive into Clark County’s agreement to house ICE detainees in the Clark County Jail, the questions surrounding federal funding for that agreement, and why transparency matters. Reports have raised questions about whether the county is receiving the funding originally expected, making public records requests more important than ever to understand how the program is operating and what taxpayers should know.

The conversation also examines the recent ICE operation in Clark County, where at least 28 people were detained over two days—Wednesday and Thursday, July 8-9, 2026—an event that many Southern Indiana residents still know very little about.  

Sarah and Rhiannon discuss concerns about local law enforcement’s role, why the upcoming Clark County sheriff’s race could shape the future of the jail’s ICE partnership, and why local elections often have a much bigger impact on our communities than many people realize.

Most importantly, this episode is about refusing to give in to hopelessness. Whether you agree or disagree on immigration policy, democracy works best when people stay informed, ask questions, and get involved. Rhiannon shares how organizations like Do Something Southern Indiana—and groups like Indivisible, with chapters across the country—give ordinary people a way to make a difference close to home.

If you’ve ever wondered, “What can I actually do?” this conversation is a reminder that change begins locally—and that every community needs people willing to show up, learn the facts, and care about their neighbors.

Don’t tune out. Get informed. Get involved. Be part of the solution.

After serving on her local school board, Jessica saw serious problems with how elections were being run in Porter County. It took five days to count the votes in the election she won. She ran for Porter County Clerk, won, and is now finishing her second term.

Jessica transformed the clerk’s office, improved election operations and helped develop an app that showed voters wait times at early-voting and Election Day locations. Her team’s work earned statewide and national recognition.

Now she wants to bring that same innovation and accountability to the Comptroller’s office, helping Hoosiers clearly understand how our tax dollars are being spent.

Jessica is part of an outstanding statewide team with Beau Bayh for Secretary of State and Coumba Kebe for State Treasurer. Watch this episode, meet Jessica and see why she is ready to help clean up Indiana state government.

Whether it’s a proposed data center, Flock cameras, public schools, libraries, local development, taxes, or the future of your community, local government is where these decisions often begin. The good news? This is also where your voice can make the biggest difference.

In this episode, Sarah Blessing is joined by Floyd County Commissioner candidate Ellen Morrison Kelly to pull back the curtain on how local government really works. Together, they explain why attending a meeting, asking questions, speaking during public comment, or simply staying informed can have a real impact on the future of your town.

If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by national politics or wondered if one person can really make a difference, this conversation is for you. Stop doom scrolling and start discovering where your time and energy can create real change. What matters most to you—protecting farmland, supporting public schools, strengthening libraries, lowering utility costs, protecting privacy, helping your neighbors, or encouraging responsible growth? Whatever your passion, there’s a place to get involved.

Real change doesn’t begin in Washington. It begins with neighbors showing up, paying attention, and working together. Watch this episode to learn why local government matters more than ever—and how you can become part of the solution.

Sarah Blessing and Ethan Sweetland-May spent nearly 90 minutes exploring that question during a powerful conversation at the historic All-Wool & A Yard Wide Democratic Club—the oldest Democratic social club in the country.

Together, they talked honestly about why so many Hoosiers feel unheard, why Indiana has fallen behind on so many measures, and why giving up isn’t an option if we want a better future for our children and grandchildren.

This wasn’t about political talking points. It was about people. About hope. About courage. About what everyday citizens can do to build stronger communities and a stronger Indiana.

The evening ended with thoughtful audience questions and an inspiring conversation about working together—even when we don’t all agree.

If you care about Indiana, your community, and the future we’re leaving the next generation, this is a conversation worth watching.

🎥 Watch, share, and join the conversation. What stood out to you? What do you think it will take to build a better Indiana?

In this powerful Project Next conversation, Sarah Blessing sits down with Kate Hess Pace, Executive Director of Hoosier Action, to explore how everyday people can create real, lasting change in their communities.

This isn’t about telling people what to think. It’s about helping people discover that they have more power than they realize.

Sarah and Kate discuss:

• Why Hoosier Action is political but nonpartisan

• How organizing neighbors can accomplish things that individuals cannot

• Why we’ve lost so much local control over our communities—and how we can get it back

• The importance of supporting local people, local businesses, and local leadership

• Why social media profits from fear and division, while real change happens through relationships

• Why we need to build a bigger tent, not a smaller one

• How meeting people where they are—with curiosity instead of judgment—creates stronger communities

• Why there’s still so much reason to hope

If you’ve ever felt discouraged by politics or wondered whether one person can really make a difference, this conversation is for you.

To learn more about Hoosier Action and find ways to get involved in your community, visit hoosieraction.org, scroll to the bottom of the page, and sign up for their newsletter.

Across Floyd County, too many of our neighbors are struggling with food insecurity, housing instability, and the rising cost of simply getting by.

For years, the Floyd County Library has been more than just a place to borrow books. It has been a place where people found connection, resources, and hope. Today, community members are fighting to preserve the library’s Community Corner food pantry because they know that for some families, it can make the difference between having dinner or going hungry.

This week on Project Next, Sarah Blessing sits down with Lane Stumler to explore homelessness in Floyd County, the challenges facing the Floyd County Library, and why this conversation matters to every one of us.

This isn’t about politics.

It’s about people.

It’s about asking what kind of community we want to be when our neighbors are struggling.

We’ll talk about:

• Why food insecurity is growing.

• The role libraries can play in serving their communities.

• How local government decisions affect everyday people.

• What each of us can do to help.

Real change starts long before Election Day. It starts by paying attention, showing compassion, volunteering, supporting organizations doing the work, and electing leaders who understand the needs of the entire community—including those who are struggling the most.

If we want stronger communities, we have to be willing to care for one another.

Join us for this important conversation, and let’s ask one simple question:

How can we build a community where no one is forgotten?

If you are able: Please drop off needed food and bathroom items to the Floyd County Food Drive this Saturday, July 11 from 10-12. Brad Meyer is hosting this food drive to help our local communities.

Sarah Blessing sits down with Rachel, a former LifeWise teacher, and Zach Parrish from the Secular Education Association for an eye-opening conversation about Rachel’s firsthand experience working for LifeWise.

Rachel explains:

    •    Why she wanted to become a LifeWise teacher.

    •    What she hoped to accomplish.

    •    The concerns that caused her to question the organization.

    •    Her claim that a supervisor instructed her not to accurately report all of the hours she worked.

    •    Why she ultimately chose to leave.

    •    Why she believes it’s important to speak publicly about her experience.

The conversation also explores how local LifeWise programs are funded. Rachel shares her perspective that communities—not LifeWise itself—must raise significant amounts of money to keep these programs operating.

Whether you support LifeWise, oppose it, or are still making up your mind, this episode offers a rare opportunity to hear directly from someone who worked inside the organization. Rachel’s story provides an important perspective for parents, educators, taxpayers, and anyone interested in understanding how LifeWise operates.

A sincere thank you to Rachel for having the courage to share her story, and to Zach Parrish for joining this thoughtful discussion.

Watch the episode and join the conversation. As always, Project Next encourages respectful dialogue, thoughtful questions, and a willingness to listen to different perspectives.

But this conversation is about much more than a festival or a movie.

It’s about friendship, authenticity, and what happens when we choose compassion over judgment.

Adam is one of the kindest, most empathetic people Sarah has ever known. Over the years, his friendship has helped shape her into a better person. His ability to forgive, accept people where they are, and see the humanity in everyone has challenged her to do the same.

They talk about Adam’s experience growing up and living as a gay man in rural Southern Indiana, helping start Corydon Pride, and why creating spaces where people can be themselves matters.

They also discuss Will & Harper, the powerful documentary that follows Will Ferrell and his longtime friend Harper Steele on a cross-country road trip after Harper comes out as transgender. The film reminds us that behind every label is a human being with hopes, fears, struggles, and a desire to belong.

At its heart, this episode is about a simple idea: when people are free to be their authentic selves, there is less fear, less hate, and more understanding. The more we get to know one another as people, the harder it becomes to judge and the easier it becomes to love.

Join us for an honest conversation about friendship, acceptance, and the courage it takes to be yourself.