The Mitten Channel
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© 2026 Mitten Channel is a production of Radio Free Flint Media, LLC. © 2026 All Rights Reserved.
Description
The Mitten Channel is a Michigan podcast and media network created by former Genesee County Prosecutor Arthur Busch.
We produce original programs that blend legal expertise, investigative storytelling, and deep Michigan history — including true crime analysis, environmental investigations, employee rights, and rich biographies rooted in Flint’s working-class culture.
Our mission is to preserve Michigan stories, examine the systems that shape our communities, and give voice to the people who define our industrial past and future.
Mitten Channel Podcast Shows: Radio Free Flint, Flint Justice, The Mitten Works, Mitten Environmental and The Mitten Biography Project
To listen to full audio podcast interviews visit https://www.radiofreeflint.media
Radio Free Flint is a production of the Mitten Channel where you can find podcast shows Mitten Environmental, Flint Justice, The Mitten Works.
130 Episodes
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Margarette Eby was murdered in 1986. In an investigation led by Genesee County (MI) Prosecutor Arthur Busch and the Michigan State Police, two cold case rape-murders were solved using the most advance forensic science available. Key details regarding the case: Date: She was found on November 9, 1986, having last been seen on November 7, 1986.Location: She was murdered in her home at the Mott family estate in Flint, Michigan.Perpetrator: Jeffrey Gorton, a sprinkler system installer who worked ...
A vanished hometown. A son who came back different. An elder on a quiet porch waiting for someone to say hello. We follow John Prine’s trail from Maywood, Illinois, to the coal seams of western Kentucky and the factory streets of Michigan, mapping how his songs became a living record of America’s working‑class migration. We start with the family story: parents who left Muhlenberg County for steadier pay, weekend drives back down the Green River, and the language that knit southern memory to n...
Remastered edition: re‑edited and shortened for clarity and pace. A cargo aircraft built for tanks, not toddlers. A city collapsing in April 1975. And a young Air Force medic from Flint who boarded anyway. In this Radio Free Flint interview, Flint‑born Air Force hero Sgt. Phillip Wise recounts the harrowing crash of an Air Force transport plane loaded with hundreds of orphaned Vietnamese‑American babies, his survival in the cargo hold, and his decades‑long quest to honor the lost and the resc...
Remastered edition: re-edited and shortened for clarity and pace. We trace Jeff Natchez’s path from Flint open gyms and sandlots to a Detroit Tigers draft pick, rookie ball under a young Jim Leyland, and a second career in optometry. Honest reflections on choices, mentors, and coming home frame a story about resilience and community. A Flint kid grows up in the city’s golden era, spends every spare hour on open courts and dusty diamonds, and learns how far grit can take you. That kid becomes ...
Flint, Michigan, has given the world legendary athletes—now meet one of its rising musical icons. Joe Ryan III is a producer, songwriter, composer, engineer, and DJ whose creative reach spans television, film, and the global music scene. At just 30, he’s worked with FOX, ABC, NBC, MTV, VH1, ESPN, and BET, crafting scores for Lethal Weapon, The Voice, Teen Titans Go!, Ellen DeGeneres, Dancing with the Stars, and more. In this Radio Free Michigan interview, Arthur Busch revisits Joe’s ear...
Do federal officials have “absolute immunity” from state criminal law? No. But they do have a powerful defense described as the Supremacy Clause immunity. This legal doctrine can block a state prosecution when a federal officer was acting within lawful federal duties and used only what was necessary and proper. See Lawfare for more details. In this episode, former prosecutor Arthur Busch breaks down the real test courts apply, how cases can be removed from state court to fede...
Over the past thirty-five years, the United States has quietly transformed its criminal-justice system into something resembling a permanent domestic battlefield. In this episode, we trace how successive “wars” at home—the war on crime, the war on drugs, the war on terror, and the war on immigration—have steadily altered the relationship between the citizen and the state. Each was justified as temporary. None truly ended. Drawing on constitutional history, crime data, and lived legal experien...
Flint on the Brink is a clear-eyed examination of an American rust-belt city struggling to decide who controls its future. In this episode, former Michigan prosecutor and legal educator Arthur Busch reads and expands on his essay Flint on the Brink: How Broken Systems, Billion-Dollar “Saviors,” and Flint-First Leadership Are Fighting for the City’s Future. The episode explores how decades of economic decline, segregation, and institutional failure have weakened Flint’s economy and its ability...
When water systems fail, the damage is not the same for everyone. In Flint, the deepest harm lives in children’s brains. In other cities, the damage is buried in pipes, mains, and hydrants. In this episode, Arthur Busch examines what really gets damaged when public water systems fail—and why the law treats those harms very differently. The episode opens in Flint, Michigan, with the story of Lee Anne Walters and her twin sons, who lost developmental skills after drinkin...
I Left My Blue-Collar Hometown On A Schwinn And Learned How The "Other Half" Actually Lives Have you ever felt that crushing pressure to leave home just to "figure out your future"? 🤔 In this episode, I’m looking back at 1970, when I ditched the factory smoke of Flint, Michigan, for a 2,000-mile cross-country bicycle odyssey that changed everything. Expect to hear about: Why riding at dawn in the Mojave Desert is basically a 110-degree survival horror movie. 🐍The "poor man's air conditioner" ...
This is a short excerpt from an upcoming episode of Flint Justice. In this preview, Arthur Busch explores the real Michigan homicide case that inspired Anatomy of a Murder and the lawyer behind it, John D. Voelker—prosecutor, defense attorney, Supreme Court justice, and writer. The full episode examines what this case still teaches us about jury trials, reasonable doubt, and the uneasy line between truth and proof. Full episode coming soon. "Photography by Jim Hansen, LOOK Magazine Phot...
In 1952, a saloon killing in a small Upper Peninsula town became one of the most important—and controversial—criminal trials in Michigan history. The lawyer who defended the accused was John D. Voelker: former county prosecutor, defense attorney, future Michigan Supreme Court justice, and a gifted writer who would later publish the landmark legal novel Anatomy of a Murder under the pen name Robert Traver. In this episode of Flint Justice, Arthur Busch examines: the real Big Bay homicide that ...
The Age of Anxiety: Political Media, Dementia, and the Boomer Fear In Michigan living rooms—from Flint to Saginaw to small towns up north—older Americans watch political news that feels less like reporting and more like a public trial of aging itself. Every stumble, verbal slip, or moment of confusion by national leaders is clipped, replayed, and mocked. For older viewers, this coverage is not abstract or partisan. It is personal. This investigative audio essay examines how constant media foc...
Join Arthur Busch on location in downtown Detroit as he takes you inside the magic of the 99th Annual America’s Thanksgiving Parade. In this special field-report episode, Arthur walks Woodward Avenue, captures the sights and sounds of the morning, and talks directly with the people who make this iconic tradition come alive. From families bundled up in the cold, to lifelong Detroiters describing what the parade means to them, to first-timers experiencing the floats, balloons, and Big Heads wit...
In 1937, a 23-year-old Flint woman stood between General Motors security, Flint police gunfire, and the workers fighting for their lives inside Fisher Body. Her name was Genora Johnson Dollinger — and she did more than rally the Women’s Emergency Brigade. She dodged bullets for the UAW and helped spark a labor uprising that reshaped the American middle class. This episode begins with a cinematic reenactment of the Flint Sit-Down Strike and Genora’s electrifying moment on the picket line. Fro...
In 1937, a 23-year-old Flint woman stood between General Motors security, Flint police gunfire, and the workers fighting for their lives inside Fisher Body. Her name was Genora Johnson Dollinger — and she did more than rally the Women’s Emergency Brigade. She dodged bullets for the UAW and helped spark a labor uprising that reshaped the American middle class. This episode begins with a cinematic reenactment of the Flint Sit-Down Strike and Genora’s electrifying moment on the picket lin...
Welcome to the Detroit comeback. With a voice as warm and familiar as the streets themselves, we take a tour of the Motor City's stunning revitalization. From the iconic RenCen and the architecture of the Whitney Building to the vibrant Riverwalk and the energy of the city's sports scene, this video captures the enduring, tough, and durable spirit of Detroit. This is more than a travel documentary; it’s an ode to the city that refuses to quit. As the "big brother" to the state's industrial he...
The Flint Sit-Down Strike of 1936–37 wasn’t just a labor dispute — it was a turning point in American history. In this short documentary segment, former Genesee County Prosecutor Arthur Busch breaks down what really happened inside the Fisher Body plants, why the strike succeeded, and how Flint became the birthplace of modern union power. This video explores: The strategy workers used to shut down General MotorsHow the UAW was born inside the factory wallsWhy General Motors feared the sit-dow...
He was handsome, popular, and lived the perfect fraternity life in Ann Arbor. But behind John Norman Collins’s all-American image lurked one of Michigan’s darkest secrets. In the late 1960s, a series of brutal murders terrorized the college towns of Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti. Seven young women—mostly students—were abducted, raped, and murdered. The media called the killer “The Michigan Murderer.” In this Radio Free Flint episode, Arthur Busch interviews Gregory Fournier, author of Terror in Yps...
Good school districts are more than a function of how much money they collect from taxpayers. Schools must connect with the community where they are located in ways that go beyond math, science and reading. Flint, Michigan at one time was the envy of America. Flint leaders developed and funded the concept of the Community Schools Program. The Flint School District and its Community Schools Model drew people from across the nation and the world to study the educational mode...
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