M.L. Elrick (@elrick), Marc Fellhauer (@MarcFell) and Shawn Windsor (@ShawnWindsor) are chillin’ in the Red Shovel Network basement studios like […]

Free Press Investigations Editor Jim Schaefer (@DetroitReporter) reunites with his former parter M.L. Elrick (@elrick) to tell some stories you’ve […]

Free Press Investigations Editor Jim Schaefer (@DetroitReporter) reunites with his former parter M.L. Elrick (@elrick) to tell some stories you’ve […]

Free Press Investigations Editor Jim Schaefer (@DetroitReporter) reunites with his former parter M.L. Elrick (@elrick) to tell some stories you’ve never heard about the work that went into their 2009 Pulitzer Prize-winning reporting. Marc Fellhauer (@MarcFell) peppers the pair with questions before Shawn Windsor (@ShawnWindsor) dials in for The Great Debate. Reaction to a sexy selfie earns some school officials Geek of the Week honors. And M.L. books another NuWave band with a sexy lead singer for a stay in Room 7609.

THE STRAIGHT DOPE: The boys start the show with a trip in the way-back machine by cueing up Amy Lange’s 2009 report from the Detroit Free Press newsroom on the day M.L. and Jim won the Pulitzer Prize for their investigation into Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.

To mark the 10th anniversary of their Pulitzer Prize – has it really been that long?!? – M.L. and Jim share some behind-the-scenes stories of the night before they published a story revealing that Hizzoner and his chief of staff/lover Christine Beatty lied under oath in a whistleblower trial.

Marc puts M.L. on the spot, asking him why he left WDIV/Loco 4 to return to the Free Press – just in time to get in on the text message story.

Jim interrupts a rare tender moment to complain that M.L. failed to provide the Stroh longnecks he had promised if Jim came on the show.

Continuing his insensitive streak, Jim harshes on the Red Shovel Network green room. M.L. counters with the bad news that it wasn’t bacon Jim found wrapped around the oysters he noshed on.

M.L. and Jim – in unison – reveal the greatest headline in Detroit Free Press history (which, at 187 years, is a pretty long history).

For guys who don’t like to talk about their accomplishments, M.L. and Jim sure have a lot of Pulitzer-related stories – including what happened when they visited the New York Times days before the 2009 Pulitzer Prize winners were announced. M.L. then shares notes for a bitter essay he never ended up having to write.

Marc’s query about when the boys learned they had won the Pulitzer unearths an ironic story about the failure of their attempt to use text messages to learn whether their exposes involving text messages had won the Pulitzer. 

Recollections of the tensions in the hours leading up to the announcement of the Pulitzer Prizes prompts Jim to disclose his radical plan for how to deal with disappointment while M.L. explains what he planned to drink, depending on the news out of New York (where the Pulitzers are based). 

Marc asks the boys whether they knew they were primed for a Pulitzer when they first got Beatty and Hizzoner’s texts. Their answer might surprise you. Or it might not. Just listen for yourself!

Marc wonders whether sex played a role in the boys’ winning the Pulitzer Prize. Then Jim explains why he wasn’t surprised that Hizzoner lied under oath about his affair with Beatty.

Jim reveals when M.L. first tried to get text messages. (Hint: It’s a lot sooner than you might think.) Then M.L. sets the record straight, disclosing that the boys didn’t have the text messa...

Mayor Mike Duggan’s Chief of Staff Alexis Wiley ventures into the basement with M.L. Elrick (@elrick) and Marc Fellhauer (@MarcFell) […]

Mayor Mike Duggan’s Chief of Staff Alexis Wiley ventures into the basement with M.L. Elrick (@elrick) and Marc Fellhauer (@MarcFell) […]

Mayor Mike Duggan’s Chief of Staff Alexis Wiley ventures into the basement with M.L. Elrick (@elrick) and Marc Fellhauer (@MarcFell) as the second guest in Soul of Detroit history. Shawn Windsor (@ShawnWindsor) joins us via telegraph wire for The Great Debate. M.L. gets in your face with Geek of the Week. And a listener inspires this week’s selection for Room 7609.

THE STRAIGHT DOPE: A defensive M.L. lists just some of the stories he’s done that scrutinized Mike Duggan before and after he was elected mayor. A soliloquy follows on how race is used to mask the real issues plaguing Our Fair City.

Marc challenges Alexis on why Duggan isn’t more accessible to the press. Alexis counters that Hizzoner does sit down with reporters — most recently taking time to meet with M.L. in the mayor’s office. Businessman’s secret recordings revealed in bitter legal battle with Mayor Duggan

The discussion turns to the Detroit Free Press investigation into Duggan’s effort to raise money for a program connected to a Wayne State University doctor rumored to be the mayor’s mistress. Mayor Mike Duggan set her up to succeed. That raises questions.

Alexis defends the need for the program — which was established to improve the city’s infant mortality rate — and says even the Free Press says there’s no indication the program was shady. 

M.L., who knows a thing or two about mayors and sketchy nonprofits, says the program to help Detroit babies grow up healthy is no Kilpatrick Civic Fund (the dirty-as-hell non-profit that helped send Kilpatrick to prison for 28 years).

Despite his desire to someday return to the Free Press, M.L. questions the value of the Free Press’ investigation. Then he knocks the city for demanding that the newspaper submit its questions in writing. Alexis responds with some lavish praise for M.L., which may have been sincere, but which will almost certainly only lead to more claims that M.L. is soft.

The conversation turns to public officials’ obligation to answer reporter questions — whether they like the questions or not.

M.L. follows up by asking Alexis whether administration officials are frustrated that the mayor’s after-hours activities have cast a cloud over everything they’re doing.

The Free Press made a big deal out of Alexis’ e-mail to the Wayne State doctor telling her city officials would help raise money for her program. So M.L. asks her whether she has sent similar e-mails designed to raise money for other programs.

Like so many discussions of city politics these days, Duggan nemesis Bob Carmack comes up. Carmack claims Hizzoner is out to get him. Alexis points out that Carmack hired private investigators to follow the mayor hired planes to fly banners critical of the mayor during the Detroit Tigers’ home opener, then asks “who is harassing who?”

After M.L. makes another comment or two that pretty much guarantees he’ll never be able to get rehired at the Free Press, he again admonishes the Duggan administration for failing to meet with reporters to take all of their questions. Alexis lays out her position on the matter.

THE GREAT DEBATE: As Hall of Famer Steve Yzerman does his best imitation of a vulture waiting for legendary Red Wings GM Ken Holland to drop,

Daniel Ferguson III, who is Kwame Kilpatrick’s brother-in-law, joins M.L. Elrick (@elrick) and Marc Fellhauer (@MarcFell) in the basement as […]

Daniel Ferguson III, who is Kwame Kilpatrick’s brother-in-law, joins M.L. Elrick (@elrick) and Marc Fellhauer (@MarcFell) in the basement as our first-ever guest. Also with us, rolling video for Daniel, is Tobias Smith. Tobias is the creative force behind “kMk,” the Kwame Kilpatrick documentary you can find at www.kwamemovie.com. Shawn Windsor (@ShawnWindsor) joins us via fiber optic wire from Minneapolis for The Great Debate and Geek of the Week.

PROGRAM NOTE: Because we try to not to take any more of your valuable time than necessary (and to torture Marc), we had to trim a lot of killer conversation from the podcast to make it fit our approximately hour-long format. If, as Depeche Mode says, you “Just can’t get enough,” get the full, unedited conversation here: ML Soul of Detroit 

THE STRAIGHT DOPE: Before the boys start chopping it up with Daniel, the show starts with one of the WORST imitations of Mike Valenti EVER! (Just who thought that would be funny anyway? Listen and find out …!)

When we say Daniel fills a room, we mean it! But M.L. — standing 6-foot-1 and 1/2 inch calls him out for giving Drew his height at 6-foot-7 and 3/4 inch — as if fractions matter to a dude that big!

For March Madness, Daniel recounts his championship days at Cooley High School — and his brief career as a member of the University of Missouri Tigers.

The conversation turns to Daniel’s time in federal prison and he makes it clear that it was a GATE PASS — and not what M.L. thought he heard — they helped him learn how to handle tools so well.

M.L. sets the record straight on the work history of Daniel’s cousin — and Kilpatrick crony and co-defendant Bobby Ferguson. In the process, they tell the origin story of Ferguson and Kilpatrick’s friendship. A discussion of Kilpatrick’s plowing ensues.

Marc asks Daniel how often he talks with his brother-in-law, which prompts Daniel to comment on Kilpatrick’s lack of contrition — and a lively debate on whether Hizzoner owes restitution follows.  

Following on last week’s Black Trump theme, Daniel claims that the media went wild with Kilpatrick stories as a way to bolster their bottom line. Not surprisingly, M.L. disagrees. 

Marc tries again to find out more about the current status of Kilpatrick family members. 

A lively discussion of the appropriateness of Kilpatrick’s sentence addresses the myth that Kilpatrick got the heaviest sentence ever. Can Daniel and M.L.’s beautiful friendship survive this exchange?

Daniel asks M.L. if it’s true he told Kilpatrick he wasn’t going to stop reporting until Hizzoner “was federally indicted.”

The conversation turns to M.L.’s affection for Kilpatrick, Kilpatrick’s culpability for Detroit’s bankruptcy and whether Mayor Mike Duggan is responsible for everything going on in Detroit today.

In a rare moment of total agreement, M.L. and Daniel that Duggan is not facing the same level of scrutiny that Kilpatrick did. Then they get back to sparring on whether Duggan gets a free pass — and why Charlie LeDuff left Fox 2.

Marc marks how the decline in media fortunes means EVERYONE faces less scrutiny these days. 

Daniel posits that M.L. and Duggan’s joint Irish heritage has garnered the mayor a free pass — a blatant example of Celtic profiling!

Daniel Ferguson III, who is Kwame Kilpatrick’s brother-in-law, joins M.L. Elrick (@elrick) and Marc Fellhauer (@MarcFell) in the basement as […]