Michigan's Upper Peninsula can get buried in snow during the winter. Some simply thank Mother Nature. Others use meteorology to explain it all. But to some members of the Finnish-American community in the Hancock area, the snow is because of Heikki Lunta. Legend has it, the mystical man's dancing has the power to summon snowstorms.

Hilary-Joy Virtanen wrote her master's thesis on the the legend of Heikki, his not-so-ancient origins, and his role in preserving Finnish-American culture.

GUEST:

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Music in this episode by Blue Dot Sessions.

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Lyndsay Green is a dining and restaurant critic for the Detroit Free Press, and the first Black person at the publication to hold that role. She finds that a lot of people in the restaurant world don’t expect to see her.

Green recently commemorated her first year at the Free Press by writing about her year in review. The essay, which documents her experience in the food industry as a 4’10” Black woman critic, went viral. She joined us to share the ups and downs of her past year in the Detroit food scene, plus what the fine line between anonymity and invisibility reveals about upscale dining and our culture more broadly.

GUEST:

Support for arts and culture coverage on Stateside comes in part from Michigan's Arts and Culture Council.

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Music in this episode by Blue Dot Sessions.

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In April 2020, Gov. Whitmer assembled a taskforce to target biases and barriers that have long prevented racial minorities from receiving adequate medical care; something that was made abundantly clear during the early weeks of the pandemic. The Michigan Coronavirus Task Force on Racial Disparities was called to identify and help reduce the disparities in COVID cases.

GUESTS:

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Music in this episode by Blue Dot Sessions.

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Tapestry in Black is a new podcast that gives Black Michiganders a space to share their experiences in their own words. Each episode of the show is a new story, told from the perspective of someone who lived it. Season 1 features tales from the Civil Rights era from the 1960s to the early 70s.

GUEST:

Khaliph Young, Tapestry in Black director

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There's a lot to think about when you're at the grocery store: your meal plans, your taste, your budget. But what about your plastic bag consumption? Today on the show, one artist’s cheeky take on the problem of single use plastics through art. And then, the Democratic effort to reverse the state's ban on local plastic bag bans.

GUESTS: 

Robin Frohardt, Brooklyn-based artist and filmmaker

State Senator Jeff Irwin, Democrat representing Michigan's 15th district  

More information about The Plastic Bag Store over here.

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This last weekend, nine candidates vying for Michigan Republican Party Chair took part in a forum in Midland. All nine endorsed false claims that the last two elections had fraudulent outcomes. Among the candidates for the top spot are some failed nominees for statewide office, including former attorney general nominee Matt DePerno and former secretary of state nominee Kristina Karamo. Craig Mauger of The Detroit News has been following the candidates as they look to lead one of Michigan’s two major parties.

Guest:

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At the age of 15, Leslie King was sex trafficked in Grand Rapids. For 20 years, she endured sexual exploitation, violence, and drug addiction, until finally escaping in the summer of 2000. Today, King runs an outreach organization in Grand Rapids called Sacred Beginnings. Its mission is to connect with others who may be victims of sex trafficking, and provide them with supplies and support. 

After years spent rebuilding her life, filling out applications, working with lawyers, and receiving denial after denial for expungement petitions, Leslie received a phone call she'd been waiting so long to hear: the governor had pardoned King for crimes committed decades ago when she was a victim of human trafficking.

Hear Leslie King's story of survival, and of her legal battle for a new beginning. 

GUESTS:

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Two months before Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech at the March on Washington, tens of thousands gathered to watch him speak in Detroit — a city that’s home to so many Black activists, artists, and entrepreneurs. 

Since then, it hasn’t all been easy for Black Detroiters, but the elections of Mayor Coleman A. Young, and Congressman John Conyers brought forward a new era of Black leadership. 

In recent years, Detroit has lost Black representation in both local and national leadership. In the latest election, two non-Black candidates came out on top to represent the city in Congress, meaning, for the first time in 70 years, Detroit has no Black lawmaker representing the city.

Bridge Detroit and public radio station WDET have partnered to create a podcast called “What Had Happened Was." The limited series interrogates in real-time what loss of Black representation means for the city.

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GUEST:

Orlando Bailey, engagement director at Bridge Detroit, co-host of "What Had Happened Was"

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Remember video rental stores? We went to one of the last ones in Michigan.

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"Cheers!" has been a longstanding Stateside feature, and now co-hosts Tammy Coxen and Lester Graham have prepped their last call. After 100 drinks from the mixology team, they'll wrap up their run in February. Today, we toast them!

GUESTS:

Lester Graham and Tammy Coxen are co-hosts of the radio series "Cheers!" and co-authors of the book Cheers to Michigan: A Celebration of Cocktail Culture and Craft Distillers. 

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