Video Essays & Interview Podcasts

This episode has also been published at www.RadioFreeFlint.media and can be heard everywhere your podcasts are available. Arthur Busch discusses the awakening of the northern Hillbillies in the heartland of America. Intellectuals call parts of the country where globalization has decimated manufacturing jobs the "Rustbelt". Income inequality has given rise to white American nationalism. It has found a home in places like Wisconsin, Ohio and Michigan with profound social and political implications. To better understand the ingredients that give rise to this political unrest in the heartland of America, Arthur Busch describes the stark divide between rich and poor in his hometown of Flint, Michigan Southern auto migrants paved the way for an American golden age that brought about incomes, outstanding schools, good quality of life and strong families. These were hallmarks and results of the handwork, grit and determination giving rise to the modern American middle class. It has …

Watch a 4 minute clip of The Boomer Zone to get a feel for upcoming episodes. The first full episode is also posted here on YouTube.

Why are Baby Boomers looking back with reveling in memories of the "golden age" of the 1960's and 1970's? Hot Rod cars, movies, music, girls and all that made up their youth seem to be fair game for conversation these days. Is it a look away from chaotic times? Is is a fair assessment that times were really better than now? This podcast features Arthur Busch and Scott McKinstry who met in the 1960's and grew up in the 1970's. One rather liberal and the other a self-described "anarchist". One that went to Michigan State University and the other the very conservative christian college, Bob Jones University. They have interesting perspectives as they look back to the "golden age". This podcast will make you smile, laugh and send you back to the "good ole days. Baby Boomers represent the 76 million people born between 1946 and 1964. They rejected and then redefined traditional American values. They are also the wealthiest, most active and have the most disposable income for fo…

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 in having developed and funded concept of the Community Schools Program. The Flint School District was the envy of the nation. It's Community Schools based system drew people from across the nation and the world to study the system. The concept was replicated in thousands of school districts in the United States and abroad. The product of that district's efforts were after-school programs that enriched the community and provided learning experiences for the whole family after school was in recess. Skip Harbin, a life long native of Flint as well as a former teacher, school administrator and school board member shares with us the "golden years" of the Flint Community Schools. Skip provides context and insight to the devoluti…

Flint natives Scott and Michael McKinstry started and published Old Time Baseball News, a national baseball publication spotlighting retired baseball players. The paper was published in Flint for 12 years until the business was sold due to illness. Scott recounts meeting up with numerous major league baseball players including the members of the 1968 Detroit Tigers. Scott traveled the nation interviewing the past greats of baseball including Detroit Tiger great Charlie Gerhinger, Hall of Fame Member Ted Williams, Dennis McLain, Mark "the Bird" Fidrych and many others. Scott tells of the fun and joy he got from being around baseball for a dozen years. Scott spoke of how he took his passion for baseball to develop a baseball publishing business. Scott and his brother Michael were inducted into the Ohio Baseball Hall of Fame for their work with major league baseball

Rachel Cole is a Nashville, Tennessee musician with Flint roots. Rachel has a singing style that is best described as Nashville soul with Americana roots. She is a remarkable singer/songwriter whose passion fills every ballad. Her song Rugged Road is a wonderfully done tune, the kind you cannot get out of your head. Rachel reminds me of a combination of singer/songwriters Ricky Lee Jones and Bonnie Rait. She is a vibrant young musician whose first album is to be released summer 2020. All songs on this album were written and recorded in her hometown of Nashville. During the interview she shares a view of the road a talented young musician travels. She shares advice for others who want to pursue in musical performance. Rachel Cole is a Nashville, Tennessee musician with Flint roots. Rachel has a singing style that is best described as Nashville soul with Americana roots. She is a vibrant young musician whose first album is to be released summer 2020. All songs on this album were written…

Arthur shares a few thoughts on one of his first jobs, delivering the Flint Journal. It was one of the most important jobs he ever held.. Paper routes can teach teenagers everything they need to know about politics. Unfortunately, paperboys and papergirls were replaced by technology. There is one less way to teach kids some of life's important lessons.

Professor Avon Burns, of C.S. Mott Community College, spent a career training people to become cops, lawyers and probation officers. She worked to bridge the gap between the community and the police. In the age of outrage about police misconduct she has suggestions for communities like Flint. Michigan. Her vantage point in Flint, a city that has consistently ranked at or near the top in violence of large and mid-sized cities in the nation helped her become a respected leader in criminal justice education. She shares her work in developing the largest criminal justice career fair in Michigan. She served as Chairperson of the Michigan Correctional Officer's Training Council, a body that sets training requirements for all of Michigan's Correctional Officers. She was appointed to that position by Governor Jennifer Granholm.

In spring of 1975, the US government decided to save as many orphans as possible during the tumultuous fall of Saigon in the last days of the Vietnam War. On April 4, an aircraft lifted off the ground with hundreds of babies and young children crowded into its upper and lower decks, attended to by a crew of dedicated military men and women and a few civilian volunteers fleeing the chaos on the ground. Then a mysterious event occurred: A rear door blew open and the horror began 25,000 feet in the air. Fragile Delivery: Operation Babylift C-5A Crash sheds light on the doomed flight, the brave men and women involved in Operation Babylift, and one man's story of near-impossible survival in the horrifying shadow of death as the plane split violently apart in swampy rice paddies. It is the story of Flint, Michigan native Sgt. Phillip R. Wise and his decades-long quest to find the answers about the crash; bond with the children his mission saved and the few other adults who survived the flig…

Safetyville, Flint Michigan has a very special place in the hearts of a lot of boomers. STOP-LOOK-LISTEN remember that lesson? Many Flint baby boomers received their first drivers license at Safetyville in Flint. It was located at Kearsley Park. The powered cars were actually vintage replicas of the Ford T-Bird and just for good measure there were a few Corvettes. I interviewed Len Exline who is a collector of these miniature cars. Len explains there were just four parks like Safetyville in the entire United States. The cars were used in a Taco Bell commercial and a movie or two. I know you will find this to be an interesting interview because any kid in Flint waited the hours down to their visit to Safteyville. TO LISTEN TO THE PODCAST AUDIO OF THIS EPISODE: ANCHOR.FM anchor.fm/radiofreeflint APPLE PODCASTS https://podcasts.apple.com/…/…/radio-free-flint/id1506799868 SPOTIFY https://open.spotify.com/show/3AaqgPJWkaiIGmmdQo7aKb

Rev Fr. Phillip Schmitter, currently assigned to Christ the King Catholic Church. He has spent nearly 50 years of his life serving Flint's catholic community at a variety of churches. His career has been marked by his passion and devotion to serving the poor. In the finest of Catholic traditions, Father Phil has been a fierce advocate for Flint's minority community on such issues as environmental racism, poverty, hunger and seeking dignity for those who are the least among us. His work is legendary in Flint's minority community. He lived in public housing in Flint for three decades to be closer to the people he wanted to serve. Father Phil currently serves at Christ the King Catholic Church in Flint, Michigan, a church founded by Father Norman DuKette. In this interview Father Phil discusses his life and his career as a priest. He was raised in Mason, Michigan where coincidentally Malcolm X was sent to live as a teenager. Father Phil recounts that his inspiration to serve the …

Mark Parsell operates South Main Studio, a Memphis, Tennessee recording studio. The studio attracts recording artists from across the globe. He is also known as the "Mayor" of South Main. After 27 years as a sales and advertising executive, Mark entered the music business with the promoters flair of his late father, Vern Parsell, a pioneering automobile dealer. His stories of the history of advertising in Mid-Michigan are full of humor. He also reveals himself as a "chip off the old block" with his flair for promotion. Mark Parsell is entertaining and insightful, giving us insights into a side of television advertising the viewers never see.