Malcolm X would have turned 100 years old today. We revisit a series of conversations about why Americans so often overlook Malcolm X when it comes to Black History Month celebrations and formal education spaces. GUESTS: John Aerni-Flessner , associate professor for the Residential College in the Arts and Humanities at Michigan State University Kidada Williams , associate professor of African American and American history at Wayne State University Herb Boyd, Detroit writer, journalist, and activ...
May 20, 2025•29 min
When Rachel Blistein couldn't find hair products that worked for her curly texture, she took matters into her own hands. Mixing formulas in her kitchen, she launched Original Moxie. It’s a hair care company rooted in Ypsilanti, Michigan, focused on sustainability while celebrating diverse hair types. In addition to the non-toxic and environmentally friendly ingredients, Blisten decided to ditch the plastic containers. That was right before the COVID pandemic. She described her research into sust...
May 19, 2025•22 min
If you have little kids under ten who tune to PBS on a regular basis – its likely you know about Wimee’s Words . The PBS children’s show that reaches 30 million homes around the country is originally from Grand Rapids. It features Wimee the Robot, an animated puppet, who teaches kids about science, technology, engineering, art and math. GUESTS: Michael Hyacinthe, creator, Wimee's Words Wimee , robot star of Wimee's Words Want to support shows like Wimee's Words and Stateside ? Sign this petition...
May 16, 2025•18 min
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May 15, 2025•13 min
Five Black and Latino teenagers were wrongfully convicted of raping and brutally assaulting a white woman in 1989. The boys’ legal case gripped and divided the nation, and symbolized systemic injustices within the legal system for communities of color. All five men were exonerated over a decade later. Detroit Opera brings the Pulitzer Prize-winning opera The Central Park Five to audiences on May 16 and 18. Award-winning director Nataki Garrett talked about bringing this powerful piece to the sta...
May 14, 2025•20 min
Jeffrey Seller is one of the biggest Broadway producers. Beyond ‘Hamilton’ and ‘Rent,’ Seller’s work has grossed billions of dollars. The 60-year-old Tony award winner is nothing short of a living Broadway legend. But before the spotlight, Seller was another Michigan theatre kid – an outsider everywhere but school play rehearsals. Seller's new memoir, Theater Kid: a Broadway Memoir , explores the path that took him to Broadway. GUEST: Jeffrey Seller, Broadway producer and author of Theater Kid S...
May 13, 2025•19 min
Ever feel the need to get away? Perhaps, to a galaxy far, far away? Michiganders did just this past May the 4th. Every year for two weekends a warehouse in Detroit’s Milwaukee Junction neighborhood gets converted into a Star Wars universe. A small army of do-it-yourself artists, makers, and fun-seekers transform a half-block of space into, well, outerspace. The detail is otherworldly – streetscapes closely resembling Tatooine (otherwise known as Luke Skywalker’s home planet), stucco storefronts,...
May 09, 2025•17 min
A mistrial was declared when a jury in Grand Rapids failed to reach consensus on the conviction or acquittal of Christopher Schurr, the police officer who shot and killed Patrick Lyoya. GUESTS: Dustin Dwyer , Michigan Public Michelle Jokisch Polo , Michigan Public To listen to full episodes of Stateside, head over here . See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....
May 09, 2025•12 min
Ann Arbor Writer Michelle Yang came to the states as a child, after growing up in a Chinese family in South Korea. Her debut Memoir, Phoenix Girl: How a Fat Asian with Bipolar Found Love , is a warm, engrossing story of becoming unmoored, and finding connection and community, even as she’s fighting with fierce cultural pressures about her own body image and identity as a woman. GUESTS: Michelle Yang : author, Phoenix Girl: How a Fat Asian with Bipolar Found Love Looking for more conversations fr...
May 08, 2025•26 min
Students at East Kentwood High School interviewed their family members about their immigration stories in a project marking the 50th anniversary of the fall of Saigon. They will be sharing those stories this week at events celebrating West Michigan's Vietnamese American community. GUESTS: Le Tran, art teacher at East Kentwood High School Christina Le, junior at East Kentwood and one of the student speakers at GR Stories event EVENT DETAILS: GR Stories: This is our home now, 50 years of building ...
May 07, 2025•19 min
A look back at Santa Ono's career in higher education thus far, and what's been particularly challenging about high education administration in the last several years. GUESTS: David Jesse : senior writer, Chronicle of Higher Education Jamal Watson , PhD: editor of "Diverse: Issues in Higher Education," professor of Strategic Communication and Public Relations, Trinity Washington University Looking for more conversations from Stateside ? Right this way . If you like what you hear on the pod, cons...
May 06, 2025•24 min
The Scarab Club has played an important role in Detroit’s arts and cultural scene for more than a century. But like many other Detroit arts lovers, the club’s new gallery director first stumbled into it by chance. On today’s pod, we’re going to be talking to Scarab Club gallery manager Donna Jackson about her approach to community engagement–and the profound impact the Detroit arts scene has had on her own life. GUEST: Donna Jackson, gallery manager at the Scarab Club Looking for more conversati...
May 05, 2025•18 min
A new storytelling event in Grand Rapids called Unfiltered aims to bring people together through the sharing of experiences in and around the city. Similar to the format of The Moth , Unfiltered features folks in and around Grand Rapids sharing stories about first loves, scary job interviews, weird interactions in grocery stores, make-or-break moments of adversity, and more. Storytellers are invited to tell a 12-minute story around a common theme. Raul Alvarez , lead organizer for the event, ini...
May 02, 2025•19 min
Back in September 2024, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel charged seven Pro-Palestinian protesters for allegedly defying orders from University of Michigan public safety officers. The individuals were charged with trespassing, a misdemeanor, and for resisting arrest, a felony. In this episode we break down why the U-M Pro-Palestinian protestors want AG Nessel off the case. GUEST: Beenish Ahmed, journalist at Michigan Public Looking for more conversations from Stateside ? Right this way . If ...
May 01, 2025•12 min
We are a time and place in America where more children of Holocaust survivors are with us than survivors themselves. In some ways this is the lens through which many Americans understand how the Nazi regime murdered 6 million Jews in the 1930's and 40's. Sassa Akervall's mother survived the Holocaust. She shared part of her family's story in the book, The Ones Who Remember: Second-Generation Voices of the Holocaust. It was published in 2022 by members of Temple Beth-Emeth in Ann Arbor and contai...
Apr 30, 2025•19 min
Daria Burke ’s life wasn’t easy growing up. Her parents split up, and her mom struggled with grief and addiction, forcing Burke to take on adult responsibilities at a young age. Years later, she became a marketing executive in the beauty industry. Her hunger to understand her own mind led to a season of deep self-investigation, resulting in a new book, Of My Own Making: A Memoir . Burke joined us to talk about the book. She'll be in Detroit May 13 for an event with Fresh Air ’s Tonya Mosely at t...
Apr 29, 2025•20 min
Please take a moment to fill out our listener survey . Your feedback helps The Dish team make the show great! The Dish , Stateside's spinoff podcast for Michigan foodies, met up with Eric Kinsler-Holloway, the baker and businessman behind EK's Cheescakes. More than a decade ago, Kinsler-Holloway turned to baking as a way to rebuild his life after several run-ins with the law. He's since turned his life around, and runs a humble but thriving cheesecake bakery based in Milan, Michigan. Read his fu...
Apr 28, 2025•20 min
West Michigan author and preacher Jeff Chu took the long way to the seminary. And once he got there, faith led him farther than he expected back out into the world. It all started with a compost pile on the seminary farm. On this episode, we’ll talk to Chu about his new memoir–titled Good Soil: T he Education of an Accidental Farmhand –which details his journey into community, stewardship, and love of the land. GUEST: Jeff Chu, journalist, preacher and author of Good Soil: T he Education of an A...
Apr 25, 2025•22 min
President Donald Trump wants Michigan automobile manufacturers to move entire supply chains to the U.S. And he’s put steep tariffs on the automotive industry in an attempt to spur that change. But many of these manufacturers are taking a wait-and-see approach because of the administration's constantly changing policies, and the cost associated with moving production. After President Donald Trump’s 25% automotive import tariffs went into effect on April 3, a report from R euters estimated auto sa...
Apr 24, 2025•15 min
Ecorse, about 15 minutes south of Detroit, is facing major financial challenges. The city could run out of cash by the end of this month. On this episode, we hear how Ecorse ended up here—and its options for digging itself back out. GUEST: Louis Aguilar, Wayne County reporter for the Detroit News Looking for more conversations from Stateside ? Right this way . If you like what you hear on the pod, consider supporting our work. Music in this episode by Blue Dot Sessions. See omnystudio.com/listen...
Apr 23, 2025•12 min
The city of Dearborn is launching RX Kids, a financial assistance program aimed at providing thousands of dollars for expectant mothers and their newborns. The program first begun in Flint and has expanded to Kalamazoo and several other counties in the Upper Peninsula. GUEST: Abdullah Hammoud is the mayor of the city of Dearborn. He announced the launch of the program in Dearborn during this year's State of the City address. Looking for more conversations from Stateside ? Right this way . If you...
Apr 22, 2025•10 min
Since Michigan legalized marijuana more than five years ago, cannabis has become pretty visible in everyday life. Dispensaries are everywhere, you can get marijuana in the form of candy and baked goods, and the industry is generating billions of dollars every year. But there’s also growing concern about how that normalization is affecting kids. A record number of Michigan kids were hospitalized last year for cannabis, according to the state’s poison control center. In the last five years, they r...
Apr 21, 2025•15 min
With vaccine hesitancy and measles infections rising among children in the state — some parents are concerned. Here's what you should know about the virus and how to protect against it. GUEST: Dr. Rebecca Schein, a pediatrician specializing in infectious disease and a Michigan State University assistant professor, is paying close attention to the measles cases in the state. Looking for more conversations from Stateside ? Right this way . If you like what you hear on the pod, consider supporting ...
Apr 18, 2025•19 min
Singer-songwriter May Erlewine’s new album offers a different side of an artist known for warm, intimate lyrics and bespoke acoustic arrangements. But the qualities that draw fans into May Erlewine’s music are still here, just with a less-compliant exterior. What It Takes is the second album she’s made with friend and producer Theo Katzman, of the post-funk band Vulfpeck. Erlewine has been thinking about the chaos of the moment and the moral choices she feels compelled to make. See omnystudio.co...
Apr 17, 2025•19 min
Jaden Jefferson is 17-years-old and a senior in high school in Toledo. He's also a seasoned reporter, who has interviewed big name politicians like Elizabeth Warren and Tim Walz. Jefferson recently talked to Stateside about how he started his journey as a journalist at just 11-years-old, and what he has learned as the youngest reporter in the room. GUEST: Jaden Jefferson, Toledo-based journalist and host of the Behind the Byline podcast from the Toledo Free Press. You can find him on YouTube , I...
Apr 16, 2025•20 min
A Michigan Supreme Court is considering who has the rights of a frozen embryo created using in-vitro fertilization after a couple gets divorced. The case involves Sarah and David Markiewicz who turned to egg donation and IVF to have children. Since 2019, the couple has been at odds on what would happen to their remaining embryo and after five years of legal battles the state's highest court is deciding on the matter. GUESTS: Bonsitu Kitaba, a deputy legal director at the American Liberties Union...
Apr 15, 2025•19 min
Some public finance experts worry that the unpredictability of President Donald Trump’s tariff policy will dampen consumer spending, putting state revenue generated by sales tax at risk. With consumer sentiment on the decline, some wonder if Michigander will continue to support state and local budgets through spending. GUEST: Kevin Bain, senior strategist for climate and project finance at Public Sector Consultants; former director of strategy for the city of Detroit See omnystudio.com/listener ...
Apr 14, 2025•13 min
A new study from the University of Michigan suggests that rethinking how lithium ion batteries are manufactured could fix some of the key concerns keeping potential electric vehicle buyers on the sidelines. GUEST: Neil Dasgupta , associate professor of mechanical engineering and materials science and engineering at the University of Michigan See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....
Apr 11, 2025•15 min
The Trump administation has revoked visas of hundreds of international students across the nation. An unspecified number of students at Michigan State University and Central Michigan University have had their visas revoked. Two students at Grand Valley State University, four at Wayne State, one at Eastern Michigan University, and twelve enrolled students and ten graduates of the University of Michigan have also been affected. The reasons are not clear. The Trump administration says it’s focused ...
Apr 10, 2025•15 min
At 19, Michigan writer Lauren Roberts self-published her debut YA novel Powerless. Now, a few years later, Roberts is one of romantasy's biggest stars. We talked to Roberts about how she turned her passion for reading romantasy into a full-fledged literary career writing it. GUEST: Lauren Roberts, author of the Powerless series. The third and final installment in the series--titled Fearless--hit shelves April 8. Looking for more conversations from Stateside ? Right this way . If you like what yo...
Apr 09, 2025•19 min
