Speaker 1: Welcome to the Tutor Dixon Podcast. So today we are
Speaker 1: kind of turning the tables. It could be fun, it
Speaker 1: could be a total disaster. I'm not sure what to
Speaker 1: expect because today I am bringing a Detroit based reporter
Speaker 1: into my podcast.
Speaker 2: His name is Sam Robinson.
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Speaker 1: watched what you do on Twitter every day or ex
Speaker 1: whatever we call it now, and I think you're one
Speaker 1: of the most genuine reporters out there that's constantly talking
Speaker 1: about what is good for your community, what your community needs,
Speaker 1: and you've just recently started your own site. I want
Speaker 1: to talk about all of that, but I have a
Speaker 1: lot of respect for what you do, and that's why
Speaker 1: you You actually reached out to me, and I was like, Hey,
Speaker 1: how about you come on and I interview you. And
Speaker 1: I don't know what you thought about that, but I'm
Speaker 1: glad you said yes.
Speaker 3: Yes, I didn't even hesitate, did I really? No, No,
Speaker 3: I talked to everyone. I uh, you know, I.
Speaker 4: Appreciate you for bringing me on and being willing to, uh,
Speaker 4: you know, have this sort of long form discussion. You
Speaker 4: were willing to have it with us when you were
Speaker 4: a gobernatorial candidate back a couple of years back. I remember, uh,
Speaker 4: you know, covering you asking questions. You know, you weren't
Speaker 4: afraid to go where the tough questions were with Beth
Speaker 4: LeBlanc or Craig Mauger at the News. So, you know,
Speaker 4: kudos to you. Everyone in the press corps seemed to
Speaker 4: the consensus was, you know, Tutor, you know.
Speaker 3: She's a care she's a she's she's.
Speaker 4: Willing to take our heart and tough and sometimes repeat
Speaker 4: over and over and over again questions questions that you
Speaker 4: know people, was this the issue that that people cared about?
Speaker 4: I think when you talk about issues, whether it's in
Speaker 4: ben Harbor, Kalamazoo, Flint, Midland, Saginaw, Detroit, Ann Arbor, you
Speaker 4: know they talk about kitchen table.
Speaker 3: They say that phrase for a reason.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And actually before we started recording, I was talking to
Speaker 1: you about your hometown right now is not represented by
Speaker 1: a state senator. The governor is supposed to call a
Speaker 1: special election, but she hasn't done that yet. And I said,
Speaker 1: how do you feel about that? And you were like,
Speaker 1: you know, I don't think people there even realize. And
Speaker 1: that was such a good point because when you talk
Speaker 1: about kitchen table issues, people hear that term and they're like,
Speaker 1: what does that actually mean? I mean, people in Michigan
Speaker 1: want to know about jobs, they want to know about
Speaker 1: the economy. They want to figure out what's going to
Speaker 1: happen to bring those that money back into their own household.
Speaker 2: It's not about the bigger picture, I think, no.
Speaker 4: I mean, I just think that even when you get
Speaker 4: down to the arguments in the legislature, a lot of
Speaker 4: the issues that we know that you know, lawmakers know
Speaker 4: that they will need to pass once that deadline hits,
Speaker 4: they pass it. You know, we haven't had a governor
Speaker 4: shut down in Michigan sometimes. I mean, we'll see that
Speaker 4: this year with this upcoming state budget. But it's really interesting,
Speaker 4: you know, I think Matt Hall is a different kind
Speaker 4: of leader than we from Joe Tate a few months.
Speaker 4: Detroit's Joe Tate. He's a state rep in the first
Speaker 4: ever black House speaker. A lot of Democrats are looking
Speaker 4: back at that and wishing that they had a different
Speaker 4: House speaker.
Speaker 1: But you say that, and I think, let me explain
Speaker 1: a little bit about why I think you're saying that.
Speaker 1: I think at the end of not a lot happened.
Speaker 1: Not a lot of bills were passed during his time there.
Speaker 1: I think he faced a few challenges. He had a
Speaker 1: tie in the House for a while, so during his
Speaker 1: tenure he didn't have exactly the opportunity that people might
Speaker 1: have thought he had. But then at the end it
Speaker 1: was sort of a everything kind of exploded and there
Speaker 1: were these what is it, it's nine bills, right that didn't
Speaker 1: go to the governor.
Speaker 4: Yes, yeah, it was nine bill that were supposed to
Speaker 4: be sent to the governor to be signed that just
Speaker 4: didn't somehow end up getting sent. You know, current court
Speaker 4: battles are playing out to see whether or not those.
Speaker 3: Are going to be assigned and sent to the governor.
Speaker 4: But it's it's a really, you know, interesting thing that
Speaker 4: happened that Detroitter's were watching along where we had our
Speaker 4: Karen Witset State representative. She covers the west side of
Speaker 4: the city side with Matt Hall, really trash and disparage
Speaker 4: Joe Tait, who she hadn't had a reason to do
Speaker 4: do that before this lame Duck session. She was, you know,
Speaker 4: going for her own sort of Detroit agenda.
Speaker 2: I think that there's there is.
Speaker 1: You know, it's interesting because I was watching this happening obviously,
Speaker 1: and I think for it's that same thing that you
Speaker 1: just were talking about. People are concerned about their own
Speaker 1: personal life situation and they're like, I don't care about this.
Speaker 1: So she was kind of fighting on a few different fronts,
Speaker 1: I think water and then wanting to lower the cost
Speaker 1: of water for Detroit for people in her district.
Speaker 2: And then also this restaurant bill.
Speaker 1: So in Michigan, this bill passed that people are gonna
Speaker 1: the restaurants will have to pay minimum wage instead of
Speaker 1: the tipped wage, and then the tipped wage they think
Speaker 1: will go away. And there were a lot of there
Speaker 1: are a lot of restaurants that are very upset about
Speaker 1: this because it increases their cost and their servers are
Speaker 1: sometimes getting less money. So we actually had a group
Speaker 1: of restaurants on our side of the state that brought
Speaker 1: in five legislators, and to your point of people being
Speaker 1: out of touch, they just kind of I give them
Speaker 1: credit for sitting down with the restaurants, but the restaurant
Speaker 1: owners were begging them, please help us, please help us.
Speaker 2: And they were like, this is how it goes.
Speaker 1: It's you know, a battle, because we if we give this,
Speaker 1: they're going.
Speaker 2: To want that.
Speaker 1: And these people are like, I don't care about your
Speaker 1: political games. What are you going to do for the people.
Speaker 1: And I feel like that's kind of where we've gotten
Speaker 1: away from it in the government is realizing that everything
Speaker 1: that is passed in Lancing has a personal effect on
Speaker 1: someone's life, and they're not concerned with the games.
Speaker 2: They want to make sure they can feed their kids.
Speaker 4: They're not I mean, it's just political game after political gamesmanship.
Speaker 4: We watch over there and you know, guys, it's it
Speaker 4: really is either side of the aisle that you stand on.
Speaker 4: You know, there's things that lawmakers are going to deliver
Speaker 4: to their communities because if they didn't, they get voted
Speaker 4: right out because their communities are expecting them to do so.
Speaker 3: You know, I really think that you.
Speaker 4: Saw this past election, you know, a culmination of a
Speaker 4: few different things on the Democratic side, a few different
Speaker 4: things on the Republican side.
Speaker 3: I mean, I will never forget to it.
Speaker 4: Or John James at Lorenzo School's one any church talking
Speaker 4: about you know, Democrats are the party, are the Party
Speaker 4: of inclusion, are the party of diversity, and and you
Speaker 4: know fairness.
Speaker 3: He pointed out, it sounded like Minister fair account or something.
Speaker 4: John James, right, talking about your governor White, You're I
Speaker 4: mean a director white, your attorney general, your secretary of
Speaker 4: state white. I really do think that Republicans sort of
Speaker 4: leaned in. And you saw it with I Will load
Speaker 4: for Trump. You saw all these different communities rarely get
Speaker 4: behind Republicans in a way that we haven't seen in
Speaker 4: some time. Was that because maybe they leaned in a
Speaker 4: little bit to that, you know, diversity representation.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 4: On the other side, Democrats certainly leaned into the you know,
Speaker 4: we're going to keep the status quo. We're going to
Speaker 4: keep things how they are, and everything right now is great,
Speaker 4: nothing is wrong. The inability to sort of address reality.
Speaker 1: Well, and I do think to a certain extent there
Speaker 1: is that feeling that like the Democrats preached something and
Speaker 1: then you have Joe Biden on the ticket, and you
Speaker 1: think this is a lifelong politician who is a wealthy
Speaker 1: white man, you know, who seem to say that's not
Speaker 1: our jam, but it's the person They end up putting
Speaker 1: up and then the representation in Michigan in areas that
Speaker 1: are traditionally minority areas haven't been minority representation.
Speaker 2: And so I do think that.
Speaker 1: There has been kind of like a hey, what's going
Speaker 1: on because Democrats have been in control.
Speaker 2: But that aside, I mean, I think that we do.
Speaker 1: Get caught up in these social issues of is there fairness,
Speaker 1: is there a number of people here?
Speaker 2: Did they check all the boxes here?
Speaker 1: And I think Trump has been an interesting I mean
Speaker 1: Trump is always interesting because you know, he's not one
Speaker 1: to sit down and go I've got to check the
Speaker 1: boxes and I've got to make everything right. He's like,
Speaker 1: I've got to achieve a goal. I think he has
Speaker 1: very much a business mindset of achieving a goal. But
Speaker 1: in achieving that goal, he has put a lot of
Speaker 1: people in place that are very diverse and come from
Speaker 1: diverse backgrounds but also you know, diverse ethnic groups. And
Speaker 1: I don't think he was trying to do that. I
Speaker 1: think it just came together that way. But the message,
Speaker 1: I mean, I think when you look at what's going
Speaker 1: on in twenty six, because twenty six is going to
Speaker 1: be different, a different kind of race across the country,
Speaker 1: in all of these diff You know, I think we've
Speaker 1: got thirty six scubernatorial races across the country in twenty
Speaker 1: six in Michigan. We will have one in Michigan. Right now,
Speaker 1: there's kind of this battle over is Donald Trump doing
Speaker 1: the best thing for Michigan? And Democrats would say no
Speaker 1: and Republicans would say yes. And then the automakers came
Speaker 1: out yesterday and met with him and they said, well,
Speaker 1: we actually kind of like what Donald Trump is doing
Speaker 1: and we see a future here. But I think people
Speaker 1: are very nervous about what does it mean. We just
Speaker 1: saw I think six hundred and sixty people will be
Speaker 1: laid off in Dearborn because they're going to get rid
Speaker 1: of a factory there. What do you see from Southeast
Speaker 1: Michigan those folks saying what are their main concerns? Do
Speaker 1: they They've a lot of them voted for Trump that
Speaker 1: weren't expected to do. They like what he's doing. What
Speaker 1: do you think they want to see for the state.
Speaker 4: Well, it's interesting, you know, the UAW came out actually
Speaker 4: in support of tariff, saying we need to blame corporations
Speaker 4: if you know economic calamity ensues.
Speaker 3: You know, I hear that from a lot of workers,
Speaker 3: construction workers.
Speaker 4: My neighbor Tommy, who I play basketball with, he is
Speaker 4: a he works for Wallbridge, actually John Raccolta's company, and
Speaker 4: you know, he's sort of that style of economic populism
Speaker 4: where you're hearing people are are, you know, really against
Speaker 4: subsidizing tax incentive. You know, you talk about the SORE
Speaker 4: program as an economic tool to bring large scale manufacturing
Speaker 4: projects here.
Speaker 3: Like what's happening in Marshall Goshen. You know a lot of.
Speaker 4: People are wanting to see Michigan turn a page. Right
Speaker 4: Southeast Michigan has been reliant on the auto industry for
Speaker 4: the last you know, almost a century.
Speaker 3: Now, where are we going to go next?
Speaker 4: A lot of people are looking at ann Arbor as
Speaker 4: a potential to be sort of the Silicon Valley of
Speaker 4: the Midwest. The tech incubators that are over there. You
Speaker 4: got all the VC and startup money that's going on,
Speaker 4: and they're looking at connecting the region. Really, you saw
Speaker 4: in Lansing communities that were opting out of smart transit
Speaker 4: millages are no longer able to do so.
Speaker 3: Government resigned that law a few months back.
Speaker 4: That was a big priority for Wayne County Executive Warren
Speaker 4: Evans to try to convince the other communities that felt
Speaker 4: like in the past maybe they didn't need smart transit
Speaker 4: buses coming through now realizing, hey, you know.
Speaker 3: If we want to stay competitive, we need.
Speaker 4: To put our young residents in ann Arbor in downtown
Speaker 4: Detroit where the diversification of the economy is happening. Yeah,
Speaker 4: we're looking for different kinds of jobs. To answer your question,
Speaker 4: you give a long breath answer.
Speaker 1: We've got more coming up with Sam Robinson, but first
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Speaker 1: I had somebody yesterday say to me, you know, I
Speaker 1: don't understand why we would put this semiconductor plant in
Speaker 1: a county that doesn't want the semiconductor plant. Why aren't
Speaker 1: we putting it in Detroit? And why aren't we putting
Speaker 1: it in in Flint? Why don't why don't we open
Speaker 1: up one of those old factories. And I was like, Okay,
Speaker 1: from the perspective of someone who had a factory, let
Speaker 1: me explain to you if I'm coming.
Speaker 2: Into the state of Michigan.
Speaker 1: First of all, the state of Michigan actually has laws
Speaker 1: that say once you buy a piece of property, it's
Speaker 1: not like you're you start new. You are responsible for
Speaker 1: everything that happened in the past.
Speaker 2: There.
Speaker 1: That's an immediate deterrent if I'm a factory owner, because
Speaker 1: that's a massive amount of cost every year that I
Speaker 1: have to pay for the sins of the past. You know,
Speaker 1: the state's not going to help. I'm taking this on
Speaker 1: my owner. I own the sins of the past. So
Speaker 1: there's not going to be a whole lot of motivation
Speaker 1: for a company to come in and take that on
Speaker 1: because the environmental cost is extreme. So you think about
Speaker 1: these regulations how they affect our communities that really do
Speaker 1: need those businesses, but they're they're moving people out, and
Speaker 1: then you think, well, I could also build up a
Speaker 1: whole new community. Everything builds around my factory. You know,
Speaker 1: I bring in a factory with high paying jobs, and
Speaker 1: we're talking about high paying hourly jobs. But then you
Speaker 1: know it's a big deal when you have different levels
Speaker 1: of income as well, because you've got your sales force,
Speaker 1: then you've got your managers there, and then you've got
Speaker 1: your presidents, and you've got your managers of the factories,
Speaker 1: and everybody has a different level that they're bringing to
Speaker 1: the community, and then your restaurants build up, and your
Speaker 1: schools build up, and all those things build up around it.
Speaker 1: So you have to kind of look at the state
Speaker 1: of Okay. If we want to build up our communities
Speaker 1: that used to be thriving in art anymore, is there
Speaker 1: a way to cut some of that regulation so we're
Speaker 1: not punishing people for going into those communities. But then
Speaker 1: how do we convince communities who have historically been farming communities,
Speaker 1: but maybe they are struggling and they do need some
Speaker 1: different types of industry in there to diversify their industry.
Speaker 1: How do we convince them that change is not a
Speaker 1: horrible thing. And I think that's something that we've been lacking.
Speaker 1: And maybe that's something that even from the legislature, from
Speaker 1: from the standpoint of you talked about all of the
Speaker 1: back and forth between Republicans and Democrats. Well, if it's
Speaker 1: something that your side is inherently against, maybe you can't
Speaker 1: go to your community, or you can't see how you
Speaker 1: go to your community and talk through this is actually
Speaker 1: a good thing. And I do think that the subsidies
Speaker 1: have been part of a problem. That problem and maybe
Speaker 1: this is getting blown up now with Doge because you
Speaker 1: see the government at the federal level and then the
Speaker 1: news every night talking about like we don't and we
Speaker 1: the taxpayers don't want to pay for all this this
Speaker 1: stuff and it has soor hasn't been successful because it
Speaker 1: hasn't built the jobs. So I can see how Michigan
Speaker 1: can be a powerhouse. But there has to be some
Speaker 1: coming together.
Speaker 4: Yeah, there does. I think there's plenty of that going
Speaker 4: on right now. Obviously, you know, our mayor of Detroit
Speaker 4: is running for governor as an independent.
Speaker 3: His State of the City address it was sort of
Speaker 3: a victory lap.
Speaker 4: On Tuesday night, sort of a ten year highlight reel
Speaker 4: of what he has accomplished over.
Speaker 3: His tenure tutor. It's really interesting.
Speaker 4: I talked to Trump voters on the ground that tell
Speaker 4: me that they would vote for Doug in.
Speaker 3: I say, you know, Eric Nesbitt, John James.
Speaker 4: They say, no, we want John James to stay in Congress.
Speaker 4: I do think he would have success in a in
Speaker 4: a Republican governor royal primary. But yeah, it's it's very
Speaker 4: interesting when you talk about the Democratic candidates who don't
Speaker 4: have uh sort of the ten year decade run up
Speaker 4: of I save Detroit. Is what the pitch is going
Speaker 4: to be, not saying he did, but saying what he
Speaker 4: is going to say about his campaign and himself. We
Speaker 4: heard it last night, you know, and it's it's a
Speaker 4: it's a compelling pitch. It is one that no other
Speaker 4: candidate running for governor is.
Speaker 3: Going to be able to make.
Speaker 4: You're going to see Democrats like Alibus Farhak come out
Speaker 4: and say, you know, I'm open to voting for Dugan,
Speaker 4: certainly Karen Whitsett, who she's had a relationship with with
Speaker 4: Doug in over the years. But I'm curious to know,
Speaker 4: you know, what what Republicans are are kind of thinking,
Speaker 4: because when I asked people like Bill Shooty, g Shooty,
Speaker 4: he's my fellow Midland theer, you know, he tells me,
Speaker 4: no way, Sam, no way in How our Republicans going
Speaker 4: to support a guy that was just stumping for Kamala
Speaker 4: Harris and Joe Biden the year previously.
Speaker 1: Well, I think there, I mean, I think there's a
Speaker 1: lot of truth to that. I think there's a lot
Speaker 1: of people that go, well, wait a minute, you don't
Speaker 1: get to just leave your party because you think you
Speaker 1: can't beat Jocelyn Benson if you think you can't beat
Speaker 1: Jocelyn Benson, then how do you bail on your own party?
Speaker 1: And I get the whole like, well, I'm rebranding because
Speaker 1: I don't like the progressive side of the party, and
Speaker 1: I do think that they are kind of a metaphor
Speaker 1: for the party, the Democrat Party in general. Right now,
Speaker 1: if you look at the race for the Michigan governor's race,
Speaker 1: why would Duggan step out from his party unless he
Speaker 1: thinks that he can't beat Jocelyn And if he can't
Speaker 1: beat Jocelyn Benson, what is his argument going to be.
Speaker 1: Is it going to be that she is part of
Speaker 1: the progressive wing that people feel is out of touch
Speaker 1: with the average Democrat voter.
Speaker 2: So I think you're making a good point.
Speaker 1: He's going to come out and he's going to say,
Speaker 1: you know, we've done all of this in Detroit and
Speaker 1: hope that that registers with the rest of the state.
Speaker 1: I think that what you're hearing from Republicans is probably true.
Speaker 1: The rest of the areas that are Republican are not Detroit,
Speaker 1: you know, And so are those people going to say,
Speaker 1: well that you know that was important enough to me
Speaker 1: to say I'm going to vote against what I know
Speaker 1: his value set is because he has this record in Detroit,
Speaker 1: and if you if you are not fully connected to Detroit,
Speaker 1: if you're connected to grun Rapids, if you're connected.
Speaker 2: To Traverse City, if you're.
Speaker 1: In the up, then that may not be enough to
Speaker 1: say I'm going to go with someone who I know
Speaker 1: historically was a Democrat who did stump for Kamala Harris,
Speaker 1: who has has not shown the values that I think
Speaker 1: are Republican. And so I think it's kind of interesting
Speaker 1: to watch what's happening in Michigan. This is this is
Speaker 1: the ultimate split of the Democrat Party. So when does
Speaker 1: it come back together?
Speaker 2: And what?
Speaker 1: How does he defined Jocelyn Benson. How do you see
Speaker 1: him defining Jocelyn Benson in this race and saying he's
Speaker 1: better than her for some reason?
Speaker 3: Authenticity?
Speaker 4: Jocelyn Benson struggles connecting with with a you know, mass
Speaker 4: such a young black audience. I don't think her campaign
Speaker 4: would would argue with that, particularly when we see the
Speaker 4: response to Garland Gilchrist's campaign. We have not seen Jocelyn Benson.
Speaker 4: I mean I haven't personally, So if you guys have
Speaker 4: done it, I apologize Jocelyn Benson campaign. I haven't seen
Speaker 4: her stand in front of supporters yet. We've seen Chris
Speaker 4: Swanson do blowout people. I saw Garland Gilcrest in New
Speaker 4: Center here in Detroit do a big event, you know,
Speaker 4: with with a few hundred people. We have not seen
Speaker 4: Jocelyn Benson in front of standing with at an event
Speaker 4: with supporters.
Speaker 3: When she announced.
Speaker 4: You remember, I was actually the first one to report
Speaker 4: that her website went live and that she was in
Speaker 4: fact running for governor as expected.
Speaker 3: And the very next day, you know, hours after my
Speaker 3: report is published.
Speaker 4: She goes to the Richard Austin Building to officially file
Speaker 4: her candidate committee for governor and takes questions from reporters there.
Speaker 4: We haven't heard much though, in fairness to all of
Speaker 4: these campaigns, Tutor, it is still a year and you know,
Speaker 4: several months out, but that really hasn't stopped these campaigns.
Speaker 4: I mean, we're seeing Instagram stories from Jocelyn Benson, from
Speaker 4: Mike Duggan, from Chris Swanson reacting on the various things
Speaker 4: happening in Lansing and DC every day, and so they
Speaker 4: these campaigns are actively campaigning, how much money they're spending, you.
Speaker 3: Know, too early, I think to say yet, but.
Speaker 4: It's going to be interesting to see once we get
Speaker 4: closer to twenty twenty six.
Speaker 1: I'm just hit the endless campaigning is getting annoying to people.
Speaker 4: It is. I mean, it's not annoying to us reporters
Speaker 4: who get to just you know, constantly be in the
Speaker 4: campaign season, but it is. I think, you know, the
Speaker 4: idea of getting out in front this early is just
Speaker 4: name recognition. You know Jocelyn They joke that she has
Speaker 4: eighty three campaign offices in each county. Mike Duggan obviously
Speaker 4: has all of Fox two, Channel four, the Metro Detroit.
Speaker 4: You know, he's being blasted to five and a half
Speaker 4: million people every day. And then Chris Swanson has his
Speaker 4: you know, when you drive to Lansing, at least from
Speaker 4: where I am, you see.
Speaker 3: His billboards for his ghost operation on.
Speaker 4: It's like a sex trafficking operation that he is deployed.
Speaker 4: I suppose I should know more about Chris Swanson's ghost program,
Speaker 4: but he's up there in Jesse County, so down here
Speaker 4: in Detroit, man, he's got some work to do in
Speaker 4: terms of catching up, and he's not shy about it.
Speaker 3: I've talked to him at length already I'm still looking.
Speaker 4: To get get my twenty minutes, you know, in person
Speaker 4: or on the phone with Jocelyn Garland gave all the
Speaker 4: reporters ten minutes over the phone a couple.
Speaker 3: Of days before they launch. Yeah, so I mean they're
Speaker 3: still connecting with us.
Speaker 4: That was the big thing with with Kamala Harris's campaign
Speaker 4: that the campaign themselves even said guys, you have to
Speaker 4: talk to local media, and they just refuse to do so,
Speaker 4: I think.
Speaker 1: So what do you think about the podcast circuit that
Speaker 1: Trump went on. Do you think that that helped him?
Speaker 1: Because I do think there's a difference. I mean, you
Speaker 1: talked about me taking questions, but you get you get
Speaker 1: a minute to answer and then they clip what they
Speaker 1: want and they put it out there. Yes, was different
Speaker 1: because he went on these long form podcasts. And I
Speaker 1: think he's also unique in that he can say things.
Speaker 2: And still live through them.
Speaker 3: But yes he can. He can because they clipped him,
Speaker 3: they asked him.
Speaker 4: I think it was Alex Friedman's podcast where he sort
Speaker 4: of admitted that the election wasn't stolen, but then sort
Speaker 4: of backtracked and said that it was.
Speaker 3: And so, you know, the long form.
Speaker 4: Podcasts have the opportunity to get stuff that you wouldn't get.
Speaker 4: We just saw Lebron James do do an hour long
Speaker 4: with Pat McAfee yesterday on ESPN.
Speaker 3: You know, Lebron doesn't go on stephen A.
Speaker 4: Smith, He's not going on Sports Center after every you know,
Speaker 4: so to get the president doing these it was almost
Speaker 4: a little bit surreal at first, especially for the younger audiences,
Speaker 4: Like we're watching podcasts every day. We're watching all these guys,
Speaker 4: you know, the THEO Bonds or whatever.
Speaker 3: You know he would do.
Speaker 4: He did Aiden Ross, you know, like he stopped shy
Speaker 4: of Kay Sinnett and I Show Speed, you know, but
Speaker 4: the streamers.
Speaker 3: And you know, it's like a whole new world we're
Speaker 3: going in.
Speaker 4: I think it wasn't so much of that he went
Speaker 4: on the podcast. It was his campaign's openness and just
Speaker 4: really willingness to go to space. Is that they didn't
Speaker 4: have control of and Karma's Democrats in mass right now,
Speaker 4: if they do not.
Speaker 3: Have control of the media space, they don't go on it.
Speaker 1: And I think that is it is a very scary
Speaker 1: thing to go into a place where you have no
Speaker 1: control because anything can happen and then you know, if
Speaker 1: you've run for office, you know that you are just
Speaker 1: you're destroyed, right.
Speaker 2: The one thing you have is your reputation.
Speaker 1: And I think that anybody would tell you that your
Speaker 1: reputation is very important to you, no matter who you are,
Speaker 1: no matter what age you are. If your reputation is ruined,
Speaker 1: it's very demoralizing. But he was willing to go out
Speaker 1: there and say what else can.
Speaker 2: They do to me?
Speaker 3: You know?
Speaker 1: I mean, he's kind of like that guy where it's like,
Speaker 1: I've been ruined in every sense of the word. I'm
Speaker 1: going to show them who I really am. Now I'm
Speaker 1: at the point where I can only show them who
Speaker 1: I am. And I think people who get to know him,
Speaker 1: a lot of people, not everybody, but a lot of
Speaker 1: people went actually, actually, I kind of like it. He
Speaker 1: seems sort of like a normal person. And if you
Speaker 1: get that opportunity to sit down with people and say, well,
Speaker 1: I want to hear what you have to say. I
Speaker 1: want to hear what is what the worst thing is
Speaker 1: that's happening to you right now? How can I help you?
Speaker 1: You learn whether or not the person actually wants to
Speaker 1: help you, or whether or not the person just wants
Speaker 1: that position, and I do think there is a lot
Speaker 1: of that in politics.
Speaker 2: I want the title. I want the title. But you
Speaker 2: talk about controlled.
Speaker 1: Environments, and you said you haven't been able to talk
Speaker 1: to Jocelyn Benson. She has done events, but they've been closed.
Speaker 1: So what does that say.
Speaker 3: I mean, it's a book out of the you know,
Speaker 3: Whitmer playbook. After the kidnapping, the I and Tapman, however
Speaker 3: you want to spin.
Speaker 4: The story, her staff or office staff became much more
Speaker 4: sensitive to giving out where events would be, you know,
Speaker 4: you know, in fairness to her security and safety. But
Speaker 4: it would creep on and on and on, and you know,
Speaker 4: sometimes we'd be like, oh, you're inviting us to this
Speaker 4: thing six in the morning, and the thing is at
Speaker 4: ten thirty or eleven am. It's like, you know, our
Speaker 4: the ABC news staff is over there in seven and
Speaker 4: you drive away on the Lansing.
Speaker 3: So that kind of thing would happen, you know.
Speaker 4: I just think that, you know, I think Democrats can
Speaker 4: start talking more people honestly and more openly.
Speaker 1: But I don't know that it's just I think that
Speaker 1: it seems like it's just Democrats because the commander in
Speaker 1: chief was very open you know, we just came off
Speaker 1: of that Trump campaign, and he was very open versus
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Speaker 1: to regret it. We have seen where there's been on
Speaker 1: these town halls where Republicans have been attacked in the
Speaker 1: town halls, and so they've shied away from town halls. Now,
Speaker 1: I think a lot of these are also unfair because
Speaker 1: they've done it while Republicans are in session, and then
Speaker 1: they put the seed up in all he wouldn't come.
Speaker 2: Well, he's in Washington, you.
Speaker 1: Know, he does have a job. So some of them
Speaker 1: are unfair. But I do think that that people are
Speaker 1: uncomfortable in a situation where they don't know if they're
Speaker 1: going to be attacked and humiliated and put on the spot.
Speaker 1: And so I think that as politics have gone back
Speaker 1: to more of that. You know, there was a time
Speaker 1: when it was you.
Speaker 2: You were only what.
Speaker 1: The media said about you, you know, and there wasn't
Speaker 1: somebody recording you around every corner. So these last ten
Speaker 1: years have really changed because there's someone tracking you, and
Speaker 1: there's someone trying to catch you on camera, and anything
Speaker 1: that you say that can be interpreted the wrong way.
Speaker 1: It can be deadly to you, but not just to
Speaker 1: your campaign. It's like forever, you know. I mean, I
Speaker 1: order on the Starbucks app and I'm like, my name
Speaker 1: is on there, what are they going to think of me?
Speaker 1: I went into Kedova yesterday and the guy was like, oh,
Speaker 1: I like your outfit.
Speaker 2: What do you do for a living?
Speaker 1: And I was like, oh, I'm a podcaster and he said,
Speaker 1: is it what's the topic? Is there like a topic
Speaker 1: and I said it's politics and he was like, oh,
Speaker 1: are you affiliated with like a party or.
Speaker 2: Or just politics in general?
Speaker 1: And I said I'm a Republican and he went oh.
Speaker 2: But he goes, you know what, I'll listen to it anyway,
Speaker 2: so write it down.
Speaker 4: I was like, Okay, all right, hopefully he's listening out
Speaker 4: to it over but I like Chipotle a little bit.
Speaker 1: But I know, well, we don't want to insult him.
Speaker 1: He's already struggling to come over to the Republican podcast side,
Speaker 1: but I did. I said, I'll come back and see
Speaker 1: what you think of it. So I don't know, we'll see.
Speaker 3: We're listening to a lot of conservative podcasts. I've been
Speaker 3: listening to the people that they tell me how to
Speaker 3: listen to.
Speaker 4: You know, I grew up liking Kanye's music, so I
Speaker 4: you know, I still kind of am the Russell Westbrook
Speaker 4: meme eating the chips listening to his new music as
Speaker 4: they tell me not to.
Speaker 3: It's really important. I think Gavin Newsome and Steven A.
Speaker 3: Smith and all these.
Speaker 4: Left of center guys bringing on the conservatives. It's Magan
Speaker 4: for interesting conversations. You know, I really think that we're
Speaker 4: more we're all humans, like we're all Americans, we're all Michiganders.
Speaker 1: We're not as far apart as people.
Speaker 4: And a lot of times it's like you're you know,
Speaker 4: really close together, actually on on on issues that the
Speaker 4: majority of people are against. And now we think about
Speaker 4: we go back to the conversations about economic developed and
Speaker 4: subsidy and tax capture. Mike Duggan calls it a discount,
Speaker 4: which is a really good right way to frame it
Speaker 4: so people.
Speaker 3: Will support, you know, allow large.
Speaker 4: Companies and billionaires get discounts on the tax revenues generated
Speaker 4: off large projects.
Speaker 3: And the buildings that they build. Tuoter.
Speaker 4: You know, I do wonder though, as Democrats were arguing
Speaker 4: with me over tipped wage. You know, you want to
Speaker 4: take the side of the worker. You want to take
Speaker 4: the side of you know, unpaid leave. What happens, you know,
Speaker 4: if all these small businesses are no longer to say, well,
Speaker 4: if if the business can't afford to pay somebody a
Speaker 4: living wage, then that doesn't sound.
Speaker 3: Like a business to me.
Speaker 4: And I asked them, I asked them, well, do you
Speaker 4: just want Amazon and Jeff Bezos land and target, you know,
Speaker 4: like we because those are the going to be the
Speaker 4: many people that are able to provide the you know,
Speaker 4: forty hours sickly even and these these benefits, and so
Speaker 4: a lot of the issues really just horseshoe right back into.
Speaker 3: The other you saw.
Speaker 4: Dylan Wegelaw and Steve Kara introduced legislation that I'm not
Speaker 4: sure what the status legislation is, but to ban lawmakers
Speaker 4: signing no discussion agreements when crafting legislation.
Speaker 3: Likes sore, Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because then you don't as a taxpayer, you don't
Speaker 1: if they have a non disclosure, then you don't know
Speaker 1: what your money is going to. But let me just
Speaker 1: I know I'm getting I'm a little over time, but
Speaker 1: I want to get to this because I want to
Speaker 1: ask your opinion. You have Doug In saying that these
Speaker 1: big corporations are getting discounts. That's a nice way of
Speaker 1: saying that they aren't paying taxes, which seems odd because
Speaker 1: all I keep hearing from Democrats is.
Speaker 2: We're going to raise the corporate tax rate because you
Speaker 2: have to pay your fair share.
Speaker 1: But then the corporations that have lots of money are
Speaker 1: getting a tax break. Mom and pop who owned the
Speaker 1: restaurant are getting screwed.
Speaker 3: I mean, they everything.
Speaker 4: Would say, don't group me in with those Democrats. I'm
Speaker 4: not a Democrat anymore. You got to ask you them.
Speaker 1: Well, but okay, regardless, it doesn't matter party, because I agree.
Speaker 1: I think that these corporations have gotten tax breaks for
Speaker 1: a long time, but it hasn't worked in the state.
Speaker 1: You know, if you look at it, our main street
Speaker 1: is dead, and then you've got these big corporate entities
Speaker 1: that are kind of like sucking off the teat of Michigan.
Speaker 1: And there's not going to be any more people to
Speaker 1: suck off of if every little small business can't survive anymore.
Speaker 1: And when we talk about you know, it's funny because
Speaker 1: the paid leave. I was like, what are the small
Speaker 1: businesses who aren't paying paid leave? And I was out
Speaker 1: at at lunch one day and this woman said, I
Speaker 1: work for Consumers, And another lady looked at her and
Speaker 1: she said, oh, you must love it there. You get
Speaker 1: such great benefits. And she said, I'm only in my
Speaker 1: fourth year, so I don't get benefits. And I said,
Speaker 1: what do you mean And she said, they don't hire
Speaker 1: you on as a full time employee until you're fifth year,
Speaker 1: so I'm a contractor. And I was like, oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: you're the person. You're the person who doesn't get paid leave,
Speaker 1: You're the person that doesn't get insurance. This is no
Speaker 1: health and no benefits at all.
Speaker 2: And I was like, the people who are are paying politicians.
Speaker 1: Here, You've got this big corporate entity who is not
Speaker 1: actually hiring people on And it was like this moment
Speaker 1: where I thought, that is so upsetting to hear that
Speaker 1: this big corporation is skirting its responsibility of giving its
Speaker 1: employees the.
Speaker 2: Benefits that they deserve.
Speaker 1: And you've got mom and pop restaurant next door who's saying, Hey,
Speaker 1: I have girls that work here on a Friday and
Speaker 1: Saturday night and they make eighty dollars an hour and
Speaker 1: they don't have to work the rest of the week
Speaker 1: and their husband's work and they can stay home with
Speaker 1: the kids during the week. And now they won't make
Speaker 1: eighty dollars an hour because they're going to be at
Speaker 1: this capped wage. Consequences. But when unintended consequences happen, then
Speaker 1: we have to come together. And we're so divided.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I do think that.
Speaker 4: In Michigan we tend to come together more than we
Speaker 4: don't know. I mean, I know am grateful for the
Speaker 4: folks that make that happen. It's interesting out here where
Speaker 4: we you know, go left, we go right. But at
Speaker 4: the end of the day, we're all just people in
Speaker 4: the world living.
Speaker 1: So that's why I wanted to have you on because
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, he seems really genuine.
Speaker 2: Like I think when you put stuff out it's you.
Speaker 3: I try to be honest.
Speaker 4: And that's the biggest thing is, you know, the Detroit
Speaker 4: one million we're talking about a generation of Michigan is
Speaker 4: growing up in a state without a city with a
Speaker 4: million people.
Speaker 3: If you look at it map of the United.
Speaker 4: States, you'll see the cities or the states rather that
Speaker 4: have cities of a million people, the states that don't
Speaker 4: tell the story. Detroit is the only city in America, Tutor,
Speaker 4: to ever lose a million people. Doing it all from
Speaker 4: first person perspective, talking to you, do you know, competing
Speaker 4: with the free press and the news and gong were
Speaker 4: and mers for you know, Lancing News, City Council, Detroit scoops.
Speaker 3: Doing it in a way Tutor, that's just here. I am.
Speaker 4: I'm Sam Robinson, the first person you're gonna, you know,
Speaker 4: hear my voice, hear the things that I think about
Speaker 4: when you know people are talking. And I really think
Speaker 4: that's the future is being really honest about where you
Speaker 4: are doing news.
Speaker 3: You know, be honest about your own biases.
Speaker 2: What is Detroit one million? Tell people what exactly it is.
Speaker 4: It's my own website dot com Detroit one million. You know,
Speaker 4: it's a journalism project that I started in December really
Speaker 4: only because the free per of the news didn't want
Speaker 4: my Mary Sheffield went to a Trump party story and
Speaker 4: I knew that was gonna be a big thing in Detroit.
Speaker 4: Mary Sheffield is our city council president. She is running
Speaker 4: for mayor. Some would say she is the lead. She's
Speaker 4: the front runner to become the mayor this fall in
Speaker 4: Detroit to replace Dougan.
Speaker 3: She went to a holiday party that was Trump themed.
Speaker 4: Person that hosts the party every year as an annual
Speaker 4: holiday party put on by an event planner here in Measure, Detroit.
Speaker 3: She decided to go to the party.
Speaker 4: I didn't have anywhere else to publish it, so I
Speaker 4: decided to go on substack Onto substack man. A lot
Speaker 4: of us laid off and sort of disaffected journalists are
Speaker 4: landing on substack and realizing that they're taking care of us.
Speaker 3: It's been really fun. I appreciate everyone that has signed
Speaker 3: up so far. Truly, Guys like.
Speaker 4: You're literally allowing for news and information to be distributed
Speaker 4: to you in a way that if you were not
Speaker 4: supporting it, it wouldn't exist. And so it's been a
Speaker 4: surreal feeling so far. And that's what I tell people.
Speaker 4: I say, it's kind of like a Detroit version of
Speaker 4: Mercer Going, or kind of an insidery thinking about young people.
Speaker 4: I'm always centering young people in the stories and thinking
Speaker 4: about the future. So we're going to talk about AI
Speaker 4: and crypto and all of the things that people that
Speaker 4: are under thirty or even under forty, born after nineteen
Speaker 4: seventy five even might be able to appreciate, because you know,
Speaker 4: you know, it's sort of this gerontocracy that we live in.
Speaker 4: The news is paid for by that garontoxy.
Speaker 3: The people that are senior.
Speaker 2: Even old people like me, could find something there.
Speaker 3: They all tutor You can find plenty at Detroit one million.
Speaker 3: It really is.
Speaker 4: I try to take an interesting look at these stories
Speaker 4: that are the biggest stories in Michigan, polity.
Speaker 1: So how do people They sign up at the website
Speaker 1: and then that they can support you financially too, right,
Speaker 1: they can.
Speaker 3: It's eight dollars a month.
Speaker 4: There's a founding member version where you can get but
Speaker 4: eight dollars a month is all you need to get
Speaker 4: behind the paywall. Some of the stories that I do
Speaker 4: a weekly free read is a roundup of everything in
Speaker 4: the world, not just politics, but pop culture and sports
Speaker 4: as well, and taking a look at what's going on
Speaker 4: across Michigan, you know, all over the state, not just Detroit,
Speaker 4: but really reframing Detroit as like the cultural center of
Speaker 4: the state.
Speaker 3: Which you know, I think it is.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I went.
Speaker 1: I was there for my daughter's basketball or volleyball tournament
Speaker 1: a few weeks ago, and I was on the people
Speaker 1: mover and I was like, I mean, there is so
Speaker 1: much cool stuff that people don't know about. So I
Speaker 1: think that's what's critical and that's really what draws me
Speaker 1: to you. So for anybody out there, I think that
Speaker 1: you would really enjoy it. Detroit one million if you
Speaker 1: go there, because this is someone Sam is someone who
Speaker 1: is doing this because it's genuine. He loves the city,
Speaker 1: he loves getting the message out. He loves the state
Speaker 1: and that's why I want to have you on. So
Speaker 1: I want to say thank you for coming on.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much. All strikes too.
Speaker 4: It's a nonpartisan you know, we're not going to put
Speaker 4: on my own political spin and bias on it.
Speaker 3: Which we all know that all reporters have.
Speaker 4: We can stop pretending that reporters don't have personal, you know,
Speaker 4: feelings on issues. They do, but that's not in there. Tudor,
Speaker 4: thank you so much for having me on your show.
Speaker 2: Here absolutely okay.
Speaker 1: Remember it's Sam Robinson, It's Detroit one million. Thank you
Speaker 1: so much, Thanks Judor, and thank you all for listening
Speaker 1: to the Tutor Dixon Podcast.
Speaker 2: For this episode and others.
Speaker 1: Go to Tutor dixonpodcast dot com, the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you get your podcasts and join us next time.
Speaker 1: Have a blessed day.