Jack Lessenberry Politics & Prejudices
26 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 3 years ago - ★★★★★ - 4 ratingsEntertaining, common-sense, and in-depth commentaries from award-winning writer and media personality, Jack Lessenberry.
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Episodes
Supreme Justice
October 09, 2020 10:52 - 27 minutes - 64 MBWhat’s it like to actually be ON the Supreme Court? Michigan Supreme Court Chief Justice Bridget Mary McCormack was elected to the court in 2012 and became the Chief Justice last year. In addition to having a key role in deciding the constitutionality of laws, she also has the job of overseeing all of Michigan’s other state courts. Find out what goes on behind the bench, gavel, and black robes of the Michigan Supreme Court.
What Will Be the Effect of 3rd Parties In This Year’s Election?
February 18, 2020 12:41 - 44 minutes - 40.4 MBThere’s no question that some people blame third parties – especially the Libertarians and the Green Party – for Donald Trump’s surprising election four years ago. Six million people voted for either the Green or Libertarian candidates for President, and the difference was more than Trump’s winning margins in most states, including Michigan. But the leaders of those parties say that not only do they have as much right as the Republicans or Democrats to run, they aren’t running to tip any e...
A Candid Conversation with Dana Nessel, Michigan’s Attorney General
February 11, 2020 12:37 - 32 minutes - 29.5 MBDana Nessel was elected Michigan’s Attorney General in November 2018. She is the first woman to hold that office in state history, the first openly gay person to hold that office, and the first Democrat to hold it in nearly twenty years. Since taking office, she has been a whirling dervish of activity and hasn’t been afraid of controversy or of standing up to interest groups in either party. Find out more about this gutsy Attorney General and her thoughts about the job, unemployment compensat...
Geoffrey Fieger - Why We Need a "Clear Vision for 2020"
January 22, 2020 16:17 - 47 minutes - 43.9 MBGeoffrey Fieger is one of Michigan’s most fascinating personalities and Michigan’s most successful medical malpractice lawyer. He became nationally famous in the 1990s for his defense of Dr. Jack Kevorkian in five trials and before the world’s media. He defied the odds and the party establishment to win the Democratic nomination for governor in 1998 and beat what he believes was a politically driven attempt by the Bush administration to convict him of campaign finance violations. Now, he sa...
Women Who Shouldn't Be In Prison
January 15, 2020 17:42 - 38 minutes - 35.3 MBWomen who shouldn’t be in prison -- and the effort of a few dedicated people to free them. The vast majority of Michigan’s state prisoners are men. Women inmates are all housed in a single prison, the Huron Valley Correctional Facility near Ann Arbor, which has been plagued with problems from overcrowding to sanitation issues. Some of these women were dangerous criminals. But an appalling number of them were sentenced to long terms, often life, for crimes they were forced into by people, oft...
Is American Democracy Really in Serious Danger?
January 07, 2020 15:27 - 56 minutes - 52 MBWe have a President, Donald Trump, who often doesn’t appear to understand the nature of the presidency or its traditions. Nor does he seem to understand the central role of our Constitution. Mr. Trump also doesn’t seem to recognize that in our system, the President is not just a political leader, he is the head of state, the symbol of our nation and its heritage to our people and the world. It’s important to note that I am not talking here about his specific positions on the issues, but a...
Is Detroit's Comeback Sustainable?
December 24, 2019 13:17 - 52 minutes - 47.9 MBWe all know that Detroit has made a big comeback in recent years – at least we have been told it has. And it’s true that anyone walking around downtown or the midtown area will see streets that look better than they have in decades. But how deep does the comeback go? And what needs to happen next? Joining me to talk about all of this: Karen Dumas is a communications and media professional who has been well-known and respected in Detroit for many years; she has hosted a number of radio sh...
What Future Does The US Auto Industry Have?
December 17, 2019 16:12 - 47 minutes - 43.4 MBMetro Detroit is the place that put the world on wheels. Eleven years ago, there was a very real possibility that the domestic auto industry might not survive. Now, after billions to bail out the industry, a confusing landscape of what does “American Made” really mean, the growth of electric and driverless cars, and the far-reaching scandal in the UAW, where do we go from here and how will it impact this country and the “Motor City?” Joining me is Kristin Dziczek, VP of industry, labor, and...
Does Our Legal System Still Work? A Legendary Judge’s View - Judge Avern Cohn
December 10, 2019 11:59 - 35 minutes - 32.6 MBU.S. District Judge Avern Cohn has now been a federal judge for more than forty years, has served during the administrations of seven presidents and witnessed a lot of history – and is still on the bench and going strong at 95. But what does he think about the judicial system he has served so long? Does the system still work? Does the public understand it? And what does he think about what’s happened to politics and government in America today?
Downstream from Here: A Big Life in a Small Place
December 03, 2019 02:08 - 33 minutes - 31 MBCharles Eisendrath covered some of the major stories of the 1970s as a foreign correspondent for Time Magazine, before returning to Michigan to reinvent and revitalize one of the world’s most prestigious journalist fellowship programs. He knew everyone from Mike Wallace to top fashion mavens and brought them to Ann Arbor to speak. But he had another life as an inventor, hunter, cherry farmer and very much a man of northern Michigan. Now, he has written a fascinating memoir, “Downstream Fro...
Detroit’s Black History: More Fascinating Than You Ever Knew!
November 25, 2019 19:13 - 48 minutes - 44.4 MBThere’s so much more to black history than that black people were once slaves, that Martin Luther King made a famous speech called “I Have A Dream,” that there were riots in the 1960s, that segregation has ended, and the fact that Barack Obama got elected President. Black history and black history in Detroit and Michigan is richly textured, endlessly interesting, and completely interwoven with all our history in a way few people know about it. It’s relevant, absolutely fascinating and somethi...
Asking the Top Sheriffs: What Can We Do About Crime in Metro Detroit?
November 19, 2019 15:39 - 48 minutes - 44.2 MBDid you know violent crime dropped in Detroit last year? Even so, the city still ranked as the nation's most violent, according to FBI crime data. Whatever your background, income or status – you are concerned about crime. It affects everyone. What’s going on and what can be done to make Metro Detroit safer? Some top cops in Metro Detroit join me to talk about it. Michael Bouchard, Oakland County Sheriff, Benny Napoleon, Wayne County Sheriff, and Anthony Wickersham, Macomb County Sheriff.
The Gordie Howe Bridge Across the Detroit River…Will It Ever Really Happen?
November 05, 2019 11:10 - 40 minutes - 37.2 MBFor nearly twenty years, a battle has raged over building a new bridge across the Detroit River. The Ambassador Bridge is nearly ninety years old, in questionable shape, wasn’t built for today’s huge trucks and is in a location that, given today’s traffic patterns, doesn’t make much sense. But it is also privately owned. And its owner, 92-year-old billionaire Matty Moroun, has spent millions fighting every attempt to build a new bridge – even though Michigan business interests have been nea...
The Truth About Impeachment: Will it happen? What would it mean?
October 29, 2019 17:48 - 49 minutes - 45.1 MBThe House of Representatives has begun an “impeachment inquiry” into President Donald Trump’s behavior, specifically in regard to the Ukraine. It’s alleged he tried to get that nation’s President to get dirt on former Vice-President Joe Biden’s son in return for aid. A majority of Americans now think that’s justified, but there’s still a long way to go. Only two US presidents have ever been impeached, and none have ever been convicted and removed from office. There’s also a broad misunderst...
Crisis in Michigan’s Messed-Up Mental Health System
October 22, 2019 11:15 - 35 minutes - 32.8 MBThere is a crisis in mental health care in Michigan. A single mother had to wait for months to have her son hospitalized, even though he had repeatedly tried to kill her. A 19-year-old autistic, severely mentally ill man kicked an elderly man to death in an adult foster care facility. He needs help – but authorities could not find or agree on where to put him, and there is an increasing percentage of state prisoners are mentally ill, many severely so – and for them and society, prison is the ...
Wrongly Convicted: One Woman’s Lonely Search for Justice for Her Husband
October 15, 2019 14:49 - 39 minutes - 36.2 MBLouise O’Connell is a senior banking executive, accountant and fraud investigator. Her husband Jim was semi-retired and spent time helping out at the church they belonged to and a preschool it ran. One day in 2013, a seven-year-old former pre-school student said “Mr. Jim” had abused her more than a year before. There was no evidence, no witnesses, and he had no prior record of any sexual misbehavior, but he was swiftly convicted and given what amounted to a life sentence. His wife Louise i...
Politics & Prejudices Podcast: Will the census really count all of us? And will redistricting reform really happen?
October 08, 2019 16:32 - 39 minutes - 36 MBThe U.S. Census is next April -- and it’s more important than ever for Michigan. For the first time, redistricting has been taken away from the politicians and given to the people. Kurt Metzger is probably Michigan’s best-known and most experienced demographer and population expert. After working for the U.S. Census bureau for years, he ran a program at Wayne State and went on to work for United Way and then found Data Driven Detroit. Today, he still studies demographic trends and keeps an...
Are Our Politicians Bought and Paid For?
October 01, 2019 09:36 - 37 minutes - 34.2 MBAlmost everybody knows that it takes indecent amounts of money to run political campaigns nowadays. But what you might not know is that politicians often try to hide just how much is being spent – and more importantly, where it is coming from. But a too-little known nonprofit outfit called the Michigan Campaign Finance Network (MCFN.org) is out there trying to hold the campaigns accountable and bring the facts to you. Craig Mauger has been executive director of the Michigan Campaign Finan...
USA & China – Trade, Tariffs and Tension
September 25, 2019 00:41 - 39 minutes - 36.6 MBEconomically, China and the United States are the two most important superpowers in the world – and now they are involved in an escalating trade war. Does this make sense? Who is most likely to be hurt? The answer may surprise you. Listen to my guests, Tom Watkins, and Bernard Swiecki and let me know what YOU think. Tom Watkins has held a wide variety of important jobs in Michigan, from Director of the State Department of Health to State Superintendent of Schools, but he is now devotin...
What does a coffee company and a bus company have to do with the Detroit comeback story?
September 19, 2019 16:03 - 30 minutes - 28 MBHere’s what happens when two guys from Detroit take different and unique paths to step up and make a real community and economic impact. A.J. O’Neil is a regular guy. He was a roofer until he fell off a roof and almost died. No longer able to stay in that career, he remade himself and is now the founder and CBO, (Chief Bean Officer), of Detroit Bold Coffee, which is selling a ton of beans a week, and employing folks in beaten-down Highland Park. Andy Didorosi created Detroit Bus Company to ...
How the (BLEEP) Did This Guy Make An Award Winning Movie?
September 11, 2019 19:43 - 30 minutes - 27.7 MBThere's no way millennial Mike Rott could have made an award-winning documentary film about a Tuskegee airman. He'd never had a day of film school. But since he didn't know he couldn't do it .... he did. Luft Gangster has won awards and been shown nationwide and overseas. And now, he's getting funding and working hard on a potentially even more important film: "Why the bleep do they hate us?" Listen to the story of how he did it -- and what he plans to do next.
Living Transgender, The Real Story
September 11, 2019 19:33 - 27 minutes - 24.8 MBCivil rights and women’s rights have come a long way. America has even begun to recognize that gay and lesbian people have legitimate rights to live their lives the way they want to. However, society has lagged much further behind about respecting the rights of transgender Americans, as well as understanding anything about them. That’s why Julisa Abad, a transgender Latina woman and Alanna Maguire, president of FAIR Michigan, an organization that is fighting to end discrimination in the state...
The Truth About Michigan's New Car Insurance Law
September 11, 2019 19:23 - 36 minutes - 33.8 MBGov. Gretchen Whitmer signed a bill designed to significantly reduce car insurance rates. But when you read this bill it contains loopholes for the insurance companies and turns out that it may not be all it’s said to be. Find out the truth the law and how it could affect you and your family.
The War We Can't Forget - Civil War Citizen-General, Alpheus S. Williams
September 11, 2019 19:05 - 32 minutes - 29.9 MBMichigan historian Jack Dempsey talks about his new biography of Citizen-General, Alpheus S. Williams, one of the most important Civil War general you never heard of.
Markie Miller – Lake Erie Bill of Rights
September 11, 2019 16:30 - 21 minutes - 19.5 MBMarkie Miller is the driving force behind the Bill of Rights ballot initiative for Lake Erie to reduce the toxic pollution to this Great Lake. Opposed by both major political parties and outspent in advertising forty to one, Markie successfully led the fight and helped this Great Lake win by a landslide. A modern-day David and Goliath story of passion and perseverance.
More Than the Geoffrey Fieger You Thought You Knew
September 11, 2019 16:16 - 46 minutes - 42.4 MBEverybody knows Geoffrey Fieger is the toughest and most flamboyant attorney around. But do you know that he thinks Donald Trump is a “criminal and scam artist?” Did you know that he thinks that the intelligence in our country has gone down dramatically? Learn a lot more about the man you thought you knew.