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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Music in this episode by Blue Dot Sessions.

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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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In Ottawa County - in West Michigan, a slate of nine new commissioners just took office. In their first meeting on January 3rd, they made some sweeping changes to county operations. Not everybody was happy about it. Today on the pod, a new kind of Republican takes control in reliably red Ottawa County. 

GUEST:

Dustin Dwyer, Michigan Radio's West Michigan reporter 

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Music in this episode by Blue Dot Sessions.

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French documentary filmmaker Dorian Degoutte couldn't bare dumping his 1997 Ford Fiesta. So instead he took took his car from France for one last journey to where it all began: Detroit.

Read the original article here.

GUEST:

Dorian Degoutte, filmmaker

Phoebe Wall Howard, reporter at the Detroit Free Press

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Michigan Supreme Court Justice Richard Bernstein publicly admonished a colleague on the court for hiring a clerk whose past Bernstein thought unbecoming of the court. Bernstein's decision to lambast Justice Kyra Harris Bolden, and her clerk, has drawn sharp criticism. Bernstein issued a statement to apologize today, but not before the clerk resigned under duress. Here's Bernstein's statement:

“Today, I apologized to my colleague Justice Kyra Harris Bolden in-person at the Hall of Justice and she has accepted my apology. I regret overstepping Justice Bolden’s hiring process and should not have disturbed her ability to lead her Chambers.

I would also like to apologize to Mr. Peter Martel. Mr. Martel is not an elected official and my actions invited people into his life in a way that he had not signed up for and he deserved more consideration.  

I am committed to working with Justice Bolden in the coming years to advance our many shared values, including immediately working to expand opportunities in the legal field for those who have repaid their debts to society.

My day-to-day priority going forward will be to fulfill the confidence placed in me by the people of Michigan. I will not take that for granted and will focus on evaluating each case based on its merits and the laws of Michigan, as the citizens of our State expect.”

GUEST:

Colin Jackson, Michigan Public Radio Network

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“Liar, Dreamer, Thief,” which is listed as a Most Anticipated Book of 2023 by Goodreads and Overdrive, is about a young woman trying to repair her glitched-up life as she surveils a man she works with – a man with whom she believes she shares some kind of connection. The truth that unravels turns out to be more surprising than she can imagine.

Author Maria Dong joined us to talk about how her Korean-American identity and experience living with ADHD informed the protagonist's adventure in her debut novel. "Liar, Dreamer, Thief," will be released on Tuesday, Jan. 10.

GUEST: 

Maria Dong, author of "Liar, Dreamer, Thief"

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