Radio Free Flint Podcast
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© 2023 Radio Free Flint Podcast
Description
We present audio and video podcasts about life and culture in middle America. Our essays and life histories share the story of people in America's rust belt.This podcast is born of blue-collar, working-class values. Our podcast has its roots in the greater Flint area. We dedicate this podcast to the beleaguered town of Flint, Michigan, and communities like it across America.Our podcasts subjects include true crime, law, history, sports, arts & literature, and the Flint water crisis, and more. Our interviews focus on society and culture in middle America.
115 Episodes
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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 model....
Our guest is musician Howard Ryan, a native of Wisconsin who now lives in San Francisco, California. Ryan, also known as Hauras composed a song, "Flint, Michigan," intending to make a social statement about the problems of the beleaguered rust belt city. Ryan is a musician and composer who is known for his work in the drone music genre. He has released several albums and EPs that showcase his unique style of electronic music, which often incorporates elements of experimental and ambient ...
Our podcast guest is Daniel Moilanen, a Fenton area native now living in Flint. Dan is currently the Executive Director of the Michigan Association of Conservation Districts (MACD). His leadership in this organization brings conservation-minded farmers together to reduce toxic algal blooms in the Great Lakes by encouraging environmentally sound agricultural techniques. The Michigan soil conservation districts have been working to modernize farming practices to protect Lake E...
We discuss how the roads got so bad and how to fix the problem with road and infrastructure expert Dr. John Daly. Michigan has a significant problem with its roads and bridges. The state has one of the highest numbers of structurally deficient bridges in the country, and many of its roads need repair. This problem has been exacerbated by years of neglect and insufficient funding.One of the main issues is the lack of funding to maintain and repair the roads and bridges properly. Michigan ...
Midnight in Vehicle City by author Edward McClelland is a book that tells the story of Flint, Michigan, during the Great Recession and the struggles of its residents as they try to survive in a city that has been hit hard by the economic downturn. The story centers around autoworkers struggling to make ends meet and their challenges of working for General Motors Corporation in the 1930s. Those challenges included poor pay and working conditions.The author does an excellent job of capturing th...
Millions of American "Snowbirds" seasonally migrate from the Rust Belt to the Sunbelt. They seek more comfortable, warmer climates during the cold winters "up north." Many of the Snowbirds also come from Canada.What is a "Snowbird," and why do they want to move around the country chasing the sunshine? Is there something this lifestyle says about us and our culture? Have our patterns of life mimicked the ducks and the geese? In this essay, Arthur Busch explains why he became a Snowbird a...
Musician George Winters has performed for audiences for over 50 years across America. The Michigan native is well-known in music venues in southeastern Michigan for his fabulous keyboard skills, especially on a Hammond organ. George plays the keyboard, guitar, and harmonica and also sings. This podcast includes a conversation with George Winters about his long career and several unreleased tracks that include his distinctive mellow jazz and upbeat popular music. Winters...
This is a conversation with Sarah Carson about her book of poems, How to Baptize a Child, in Flint, MI. Carson's poems are a jarring portrayal of life in a declining, once mighty, and still proud American rustbelt town, Flint, Michigan. "How to Baptize a Child in Flint, Michigan" is a heartwarming and thought-provoking exploration of faith, family, and community in the midst of challenging circumstances.The book tells the story of a young mother, Sarah, who is struggling to raise h...
Emily Doerr is a candidate for the Flint Community Schools Board of Education. The election will be on November 8, 2022. She joined a slate of four other individuals running to serve the Flint Community Schools. These candidates agree on core principles governing their service on the Board of Education should they be elected on November 8, 2022. The other candidates on the slate are Dylan Luna, Terae King Jr, Melody L. Relerford, and Michael Clack.The Flint Community Schools are at a crossroa...
Is it possible to make Flint laugh? If anyone can, it's Flint native Bryan McCree, a nationally known comedian, actor, and writer. He regularly tours America with shows marked by their insight into American culture and the oddities of life in our country. He is particularly astute at using humor to make us laugh at ourselves. In this interview, Byran shares hilarious clips of his shows featuring humor about Flint, making the audience laugh at itself and its stereotypes about race and be...
Carl Paul came to America through Ellis Island in New York from a country few in Flint, Michigan, know much about. North Macedonia, officially the Republic of North Macedonia, is a country in Southeast Europe. In 1991, the tiny country became recognized as one of the successor states of Yugoslavia. Today, the Slavic country is a member of NATO.Carl and many of his fellow Macedonian immigrants eventually found their way to Flint. They came from a small mountain village in southern Macedonia ne...
Flint, Michigan, has long been touted as a hotbed for high school basketball. Indeed, Flint has produced some of the top basketball talents in the nation. Many Flint athletes are playing in the National Basketball Association (NBA) and at major colleges and universities. Flint basketball players have had lucrative careers playing internationally.Flint area residents are accustomed to watching high school talents honing their skills in high school gyms against their favorite teams. However, wa...
Former Bishop Airport Public Safety Director Chris Miller discusses a 2017 terrorist attack at the Flint, Michigan, airport. He also talks about the changes the 9/11 terrorist attacks on America had on current operations at Bishop International Airport.The retired Public Safety Director at Flint Bishop Airport, Chris Miller, was a hero in 2017 when he and an airport maintenance worker subdued a terrorist who stabbed a fellow police officer. Miller's quick actions helped save the l...
In our highly mobile society, figuring out what to do with our old papers, photographs, and keepsakes is challenging. We accumulate boxes of possessions over a lifetime, and when moving, retiring, or upon the death of a parent it sits in your house begging for a home. Your junk can be true treasures that preserve the history of your community or your family. What do you do with all those boxes and files that you will "someday" get around to sorting out? What is valuable, wha...
Colleen Marquise, Associate Archivist at the University of Michigan-Flint, Francis Willson-Thompson Library, takes podcast listeners on a virtual tour of the Genesee County (MI) Historical Center archive collection. This historical collection has a fascinating collection of oral histories, documents, papers, etc. The Center has three primary collections: Flint Labor History, Civil Rights, and Community Organizations such as the UAW Local 599. The local archives also contain the most defi...
John Norman Collins was an all-American boy. He was handsome, lived in Ann Arbor, and belonged to a fraternity. But there was a dark side to this young man. The media and others dubbed John Norman Collins "The Michigan Murderer." In the late 1960s, Collins stalked college-age women like prey. His hunting grounds were near the campuses of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, Michigan. The Michigan murderer terrorized the public. The me...
Ben Pauli, a Kettering University Political Science Professor, is a water rights activist. Pauli embedded himself with a group of Flint residents during the Flint Water Crisis. This is the group that brought the tainted Flint drinking water problem to the public's attention. The group also was successful in advocating that government fix the cause of the toxic water problem. Professor Pauli discusses the historical activism that helped Flint survive economically and environmentally for a...
The Life of Mr. Flint, Charles Stewart Mott. Charles Stewart Mott (1875-1973) was an American businessman and philanthropist born in Flint, Michigan. He is best known for his involvement in the automobile industry and his philanthropic work.Mott began his career as a clerk in his family's business, which manufactured carriage and automobile parts. He eventually took over the company and expanded it into a major parts supplier to the automotive industry. Mott was also involved in developing th...
Flint Poet Laureate Semaj Brown gives a fascinating reading of her environmental injustice poems. Poet Semaj Brown shares stories of working with the child victims of the Flint Water Crisis. Brown is on a mission to help heal the trauma victims in Flint, Michigan. Semaj Brown is an amazingly accomplished woman who is a poet, author, playwright, and educator; she was named the first poet laureate of Flint, Michigan, in 2019. In 2021, she received an Academy of American Poets Laureate Fel...
Marquise Gray, the former Michigan State Spartan, is now the head basketball coach at Flint Beecher High School. Marquise Gray has excelled at every level of his sport, including coaching and professional basketball. Gray played at Michigan State from 2005-to 09. Marquise Gray has blazed a remarkable trail in basketball. He is currently the acting Athletic Director, head basketball coach, and a teacher for the Beecher Community Schools. Gray's Flintstone values of grit, hard work, a...
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