• Do you have the stuff to be a Great Lakes lighthouse keeper?
    Jul 3 2025

    The Stateside Podcast is taking a summer break as producers prepare a new podcast project that's all about Michigan. You can download or stream the new Stateside On Air podcast, which is the full daily show broadcast on Michigan Public. Stay subscribed here for our relaunch at the end of summer.

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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    19 mins
  • M.L. Elrick on local journalism and the state of newspapers
    Jun 30 2025

    This summer, the Scripps Howard Fund gave Detroit Free Press reporter M.L. Elrick an award for his column “On Guard”, in which he publishes all manner of exposes, in the muckraking tradition.

    Back in 2009, Elrick and his colleague Jim Schaefer shared a Pulitzer prize for covering corruption in the administration of then-Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.

    Elrick is also the creator of a student journalism project called Eye on Michigan at MSU.

    GUEST:

    M.L. Elrick, journalist, Detroit Free Press

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    23 mins
  • Around the world in 499 days
    Jun 27 2025

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    25 mins
  • Rising from the wreckage: Kegan Gill's Phoenix Revival
    Jun 26 2025

    For a pilot, ejecting mid-flight is always a bad scenario.

    Lt. Kegan "Smurf" Gill narrowly escaped from a fighter jet traveling 695 miles per hour, approaching the speed of sound. It’s the fastest survived ejection in naval aviation history.

    “I have a very clear linear memory, right up to the point where I pulled the ejection handle, and after that I have no linear memory,” he said about the experience. “But over the course of the years, I'd gotten a lot back in flashbacks, which were often night terrors. So maybe not the most pleasant way to remember something, but that gave me some insights into what had happened.”

    A former Naval fighter pilot, Gill flew a training exercise off the East Coast in 2014 when his F/A-18 ran into trouble. His subsequent injuries, including head trauma, changed his life forever.

    Gill wrote about the experience and aftermath in his new book “Phoenix Revival: The Aftermath of Naval Aviation's Fastest Ejection.”

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    24 mins
  • How Iranian American identity has shifted with global politics
    Jun 25 2025

    Everything you hear on Stateside is made possible by listener support. Please become a member today and help keep Michigan Public strong.

    In the wake of the U.S. military airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, an Iranian-American scholar at the University of Michigan-Dearborn reflects on how public perception of Iranians has evolved alongside U.S. relations with the country over the years.

    GUEST:

    Camron Amin, professor of Middle East Studies and Iranian Diaspora Studies at the University of Michigan-Dearborn

    Looking for more conversations from Stateside? Right this way.

    If you like what you hear on the pod, consider supporting our work.

    Music in this episode by Blue Dot Sessions.

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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    21 mins
  • Ann Arbor's summer reading game goes way beyond books
    Jun 24 2025

    As the weather heats up in Michigan, so does the excitement of the Ann Arbor District Library's 15th annual Summer Game. We talked to AADL library director Eli Neiburger about the origins of the beloved tradition and how it's changed through the years.

    If you're already a Summer Game fan, we've got a treat for you! Enter the word 'STATESIDE' as a summer game code to earn 500 points. You can also text the code to (734) 327- 4200 to be signed up for the game and start earning points.

    GUEST:

    Eli Neiburger, director of the Ann Arbor District Library

    Looking for more conversations from Stateside? Right this way.

    If you like what you hear on the pod, consider supporting our work.

    Music in this episode by Blue Dot Sessions.

    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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    19 mins