Truscott Rossman

Six weeks from Election Day, Michigan's general election is here. Absentee ballots are about to hit mailboxes, early voting starts next month, and both the Senate and governor's races remain within the margin of error.Recorded at the 50-day mark, this episode features Chris Moyer and John Truscott, with Ryan Gajewski moderating. They size up where things stand. Can Abdul El-Sayed hold his momentum against Mike Rogers? Why hasn't John James defined himself yet against Jocelyn Benson? And how much is the Trump factor weighing on Republicans up and down the ballot? They also dig into whether polls are missing quieter conservative voters, how campaigns should spend their scarcest resource (time), and which House and Senate races could decide control in Lansing.Stick around for the predictions. There's no consensus.

Long before she was Director of Marketing at HexArmor, Amber Ginop was working the promotions team for the West Michigan Whitecaps — running t-shirt tosses, hamburger costume races, and dizzy bat contests in the summer sun. It was there she made an unexpected connection: every fun promotion was really a brand awareness campaign. That realization launched a career that took her through the Detroit Tigers, Nike, MLive Media Group, and a move to Alabama before landing at HexArmor, where she's spent the last decade building the brand. Ryan and Amber talk career pivots, the power of showing up with energy, why connections matter more than you think, and her advice for anyone afraid to take the next leap: try new things, and it's okay to fail.

Greg Deja accepted his first teaching job before he even knew the school's name. On this episode of My 1st Gig, host Ryan Brown talks with Greg Deja — now President of Catholic Central High School in Grand Rapids — about the winding path that took him there.Greg's first gig had him teaching English, coaching football, and serving as dean of students at a Massachusetts high school, all while earning his master's at night. From there, he led a $20 million capital campaign at Catholic Central, ran the Catholic Foundation of West Michigan, and returned home in 2025 to launch the Catholic Promise — a 10-year commitment capping tuition sacrifice at $6,000 to keep Catholic education within reach for working families.Greg also shares the advice he gives anyone starting their career: "You should be scared. And if you're not scared, you're doing something wrong."

Tiffany Gunter's first gig was answering phones at 13 — receptionist duty at her church rectory, complete with a state work permit and a dog to walk. Today, she's the General Manager and CEO of SMART, Southeast Michigan's regional transit system.On this episode of My 1st Gig, host Ryan Brown talks with Tiffany about the winding path between those two points: a supervisor role at 18 managing coworkers twice her age, a stint at Kmart corporate where she built her own demand-forecasting model before the term "AI" was part of the conversation, and a detour through the auto industry that led her, almost by accident, into public transit. Tiffany also opens up about riding SMART buses incognito to understand the system from a passenger's seat, the lesson she learned when a driver passed her by at a stop on a scorching summer day, and the blunt advice from her father that sent her into public service in the first place.It's a conversation about curiosity, service, and figuring out — sometimes the hard way — what actually motivates people.

Michigan's primary is over, and the fall campaign starts now. Chris Moyer is joined by John Truscott and Ryan Gajewski to break down the results — Mike Rogers vs. Abdul El-Sayed for Senate, Jocelyn Benson vs. John James for governor — and what each side signals about who's built the coalition to win in November. They dig into authenticity in political communication, the risk of guilt-by-association, and why this fall might be the most unpredictable election Michigan's seen in years.