Welcome to Brain Drain, a brand new Midstory podcast that looks at an average American city through the eyes of the people who’ve left it behind. The decision to move away from home is often difficult and charged with deep and complicated emotions, and people have a wide range of motivations for leaving. But they all stem from the same, central question: When is home no longer enough?

In 1868, Jesup W. Scott claimed that by the year 2000, “Toledo would be the largest city in the world.” Unfortunately, Scott’s vision of Toledo never came true. At least, not fully. In 2000, Toledo, Ohio, was not the largest city in the world.

In 1973, John Denver sang a song about Toledo to an estimated 30 million viewers of the Johnny Carson show. It was not flattering. “Saturday night in Toledo, Ohio, is like being nowhere at all …” What follows describes a place where there is nothing to do except “sit in the park and watch the grass die” and where “great entertainment” is watching “the buns rise” in the bakery. In this episode, we explore Toledo’s efforts to create an exciting and social urban scene.

The Toledo region is known for its affordability. The promise of having it all — a family, a house, a job — combined with the possibility of remote work makes moving to Toledo a no-brainer. Right? Even in the midst of a tech spring in the Midwest, remote workers in America would rather pay skyhigh rent to live in New York City or Chicago than move to much more affordable places like Toledo. In this episode, we explore Toledo’s efforts to attract the workforce of the future.

Jake Vriezelaar loved being a creative in Toledo, but after a stint in LA, realized the scale of his ambitions in the film industry would lead him elsewhere. Now, he lives in New York. Alyssa Brutlag grew up in Toledo, and dreamed of one day being a professional dancer — but Toledo just didn’t have a big enough appetite for the arts. Now, she lives in Chicago. In this episode, we explore what it takes to make room for the arts — and young people looking to work in the arts — in Toledo’s post-industrial economy.

Toledo isn’t short on amenities. It’s got a world-class art museum, an award-winning library system, a zoo that could rival any across the nation, and an ambitious parks system looking to revitalize the city’s riverfront. That, coupled with the low cost of living, makes it — in theory — the perfect place for anyone to build the life they want to live. In this episode, we take a closer look at Toledo’s calling card and ask whether it’s enough to continue to define this city.

Many choose to leave Toledo, but there are those who choose to stay. Their awareness of the exodus around them strengthens their resolve to dig deeper, keep insisting on Toledo’s promise and to encourage their friends and neighbors to work harder on behalf of this city. But, how long can Toledo keep counting on its biggest advocates to swim upstream? In this episode, we tackle the recurring and thorny matter of investing in a city that might not always love you back.

In the last eight years, Midstory has brought over 200 bright, young people from across the nation to Toledo through their internship and fellowship programs. In this first part of the season finale, we bring the Midstory interns back into play to talk about what would make a city like Toledo worth living in and fighting for.

Welcome to the season finale of Brain Drain. In this episode, we talk to Midstory’s cofounders, who graduated from Princeton and Harvard and gave up careers on the coast to help build Toledo’s tomorrow.