Health isn’t just influenced by the choices we make. It’s also determined by public policy.

That’s the message of a new report that examines how health in Michigan is limping behind others around the country. On average, resident lifespans are shorter, infant mortality rates are higher, and Michiganders are more likely to suffer from cancer and other diseases. 

Why is this the case? And, what is the state’s role in getting us to move our bodies more, and to expand our minds so we can live longer, healthier lives?

Karley Abramson is a health policy research associate for the Citizens Research Council, which published the report. She spoke with host Robyn Vincent.

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In America, we have a lot of very big problems, including climate change, income and wealth inequality and hyper partisanship.

How should we tackle these problems? 

Paul Fleming is an associate professor of public health at the University of Michigan. He believes we need to focus more on preventing problems from occurring in the first place.

It’s that mindset, detailed in his book, “Imagine Doing Better,” that he hopes will help us get to the root of the problems we seek to resolve before they turn into crises.

WDET’s Sam Corey spoke with Professor Fleming. They began by talking about why policy is important to focus on at all.

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Home ownership is considered to be a critical piece of the American Dream.

Wealth is often passed down from generation to generation through homes. But, in Detroit, there are many properties that have not been properly passed down from parent to child or relative. Why? And, how can that be changed?

Detroit Future City is working with several foundations and the City of Detroit to offer a solution. 

WDET’s Sam Corey spoke with Shari Williams, the Director of Equitable Neighborhood Planning for Detroit Future City, to learn more.

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America’s health insurance is distributed in a patchwork way. There are public health insurers, like Medicaid and Medicare, and then there are private ones. That’s where a lot of citizens and state residents get their health insurance — through their work or through the private market. 

That insurance may become harder to come by for over 200,000 residents. Two health insurance agencies, Health Alliance Plan and Molina Healthcare, will no longer offer coverage through the Affordable Care Act in Michigan. And, Meridian Health Plan will be significantly shrinking its coverage for state residents. 

That’s happening as premium costs are expected to go through the roof because the Republican-controlled Congress did not include an extension of health insurance tax credits in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. 

Robyn Vincent spoke with Brian Peters, CEO of the Michigan Health & Hospital Association, about what these changes will mean for Michiganders who sign up for healthcare through the Affordable Care Act, and how hospitals will be impacted.

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Birthing is a fragile process. That’s why, with new life coming into the world, it’s the responsibility of a lot of people — doctors and nurses and caregivers and family members — to ensure that such life is properly cared for. 

But in order to do that well, we have to care for pregnant women. In this state, we’re being told that we’re not doing a great job of that task, specifically for Black mothers. 

A new report shows that about 1 in 6 babies born in Detroit were born prematurely. And this issue is directly related to that of infant mortality and maternal health. Two years ago in our country, over 20,000 babies died before their first birthday, with the highest rates occurring in the South and Midwest regions. 

Why is maternal healthcare, particularly for Black mothers, so bad in the U.S. and worse in the Midwest? And what can we do about it?

Tamika Jackson is a reproductive justice and maternal health organizer for Mothering Justice. She spoke with Robyn Vincent.

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In 2021, Detroit residents voted to create a reparations task force. The goals include creating housing and economic programs to repair harms committed against Black Detroiters who have been city residents for at least 20 years. 

When reparations are discussed, the conversation is often about money. But the recent report released by Detroit’s Reparations Task Force goes well beyond cash payments. 

If what’s laid out is ever implemented, it would radically transform the lives of many Black Detroiters. It would create job opportunities and transform health outcomes. It would remove scarcity and friction in peoples’ daily lives.

It would do so, in part, by creating two city departments: One dedicated to the cultural prosperity of Black residents, and another meant to repair harms created by past government entities, be they national, state and local. 

What are the specific harms the task force seeks to remedy? And, how did constructing such a document change the people who worked on it?

Cidney Calloway, the co-chair of the Detroit Reparations Task Force, joined Robyn Vincent to discuss. 

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Detroit has finally started to regain some population, but it has a long way to go. And that means there’s still a lot of vacant land — 18 square miles of it — that’s just sitting around. What should be done with it?

The local think tank Detroit Future City has an idea. 

They are creating a conservancy to protect and steward the land today and well into the future. The Detroit GreenSpace Conservancy wants to protect forests and meadows, and build walking paths and opportunities for agriculture. 

Producer Sam Corey spoke with Kimberly Faison, the vice president for thriving and resilient neighborhoods and Sarah Hayosh, the director of land use and design for Detroit Future City.

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Detroit has a number of famous representatives. Representatives John Dingell, labor leader Patrick McNamara, and Congressmember John Conyers. 

Charles Diggs Jr. doesn’t often make these lists. But should he? The first Black congressmember from Michigan, he worked with Martin Luther King, Jr, helped pass the Voting Rights Act, advocated for the end of apartheid in South Africa, and changed America’s foreign policy stances toward many nations in Africa.

Why don’t more people know about him? 

It’s partly because the congressmember ended his professional career in disgrace, having to retire because of a payroll kickback scheme he orchestrated.

But what should we remember about this representative who built cross-ideological and cross-political coalitions to achieve civil rights for more people in America and around the world?

Marion Orr is a professor of political science at Brown University. He spoke with Producer Sam Corey about his new book, “House of Diggs: The Rise and Fall of America’s Most Consequential Black Congressman, Charles C. Diggs Jr.”

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Detroit has changed a lot in the last two decades. 

There’s more investment in the downtown and midtown areas. There are more people milling about the city. The parks and public areas have improved. 

Stephen McGee witnessed those changes up close.The photographer and award-winning filmmaker came to Detroit decades ago and began photographing the city for the Detroit Free Press. He aggregated a lot of that work into his documentary, “Resurgo.”

In it, he focuses his lens on decaying infrastructure, new investments injected into the area, and the people who never left.

Who gets credit for all these changes? And, how can the investments in Detroit be more inclusive of those that have always been here?

These are some of the questions that McGee’s “Resurgo,” asks. It will be playing at the Emagine theater Thursday, Nov. 12 in Royal Oak at 7 p.m.

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Last week, Democrats ran across the country on alleviating the issue of affordability. 

Those people spreading the message were often young, 30-somethings. 

That was true in New York City, where Zohran Mamdani became mayor-elect. And it was true in Detroit, where Mary Sheffield won as well. The voters who brought those people to victory — particularly in the New York mayoral race and the Virginia governor’s race — were young voters. 

Amanda Litman, the co-founder and president of Run For Something, recently told a reporter that of the over 200 left candidates affiliated with her organization, nearly every one who achieved victory did it by discussing affordability, particularly housing costs. 

So, how much does the issue of “affordability” translate to more liberal and more conservative places across the country? And, how much can we understand about what young people want from what we saw last week?

Litman joined The Metro to discuss.

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Mayor-elect Mary Sheffield ran on several promises: creating job opportunities for young people, improving schools, and investing in neighborhoods. 

It’s no question that her platform was appealing, as the candidate won 77% of the vote. Detroit has a lot of poverty, a significant amount of crime, and many residents are in need of better job opportunities. 

How are residents reacting to Sheffield’s victory? What do they hope she accomplishes? And, what kinds of organizing and coalition building will the new mayor have to do to live up to her promises?

Donna Givens Davidson, the president of the Eastside Community Network and a co-host of the Authentically Detroit podcast, joined Robyn Vincent to discuss.

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Political junkies have their minds on the elections that just happened this past week. But one year ahead, there are a lot more elections in the state.

That’s true for the governor’s race, where a slate of Democratic and Republican candidates, in addition to an independent candidate, are running for the seat. 

Currently, Congressman John James and former Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox are in the lead for the Republican nomination. Why? And, what do they need to do to win?

Producer Sam Corey spoke to longtime Michigan Republican strategist Jeff Timmer to find out.

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For the first time, a woman is mayor-elect for the City of Detroit.

Mary Sheffield is a 38-year old Black woman and the current Detroit City Council President. In becoming mayor, she’ll have a much brighter spotlight flashing on her. And many agree that that light, because of her gender, will carry scrutiny that Mayor Duggan never had to face. 

Notably, Detroit already has many women leading organizations and departments across the city. So how significant is Sheffield’s win? And, what kinds of things might she need to be concerned about that a man wouldn’t?

To discuss all this now, we have Raquel Constañeda-Lopez served on Detroit City Council at the same time as Sheffield. Now she runs an organization called Restorative Democracy, which supports women of color who hold public office. 

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For a long time, Michigan’s roads didn’t have the funding they needed. Last month lawmakers placed a 24%tax on marijuana products sold in the state to fill that gap. The vote was mostly along party lines with Democrats supporting it, and Republicans rejecting the measure.

But the vote needed bipartisan support, and they got it from Upper Peninsula State Senator Ed McBroom. Last week, Metro Producer Sam Corey spoke with the Republican about why he gave a “yes” vote, and how he’s found common ground with Democrats who live in Michigan’s cities. 

They spoke before the state Senate voted to cover SNAP funding and before President Donald Trump complied with rulings to temporarily and partially fund SNAP for this month.

At the end of the conversation, state Senator McBroom was asked about whether he would support state funding for SNAP. Senator McBroom, along with several other Senate Republicans, did not attend the vote for that in the state senate later the same day. 

McBroom’s office said that the senator was told by Democratic leadership that they wouldn’t be voting on anything and that the SNAP bill wasn’t originally on the day’s agenda. Democratic state Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks’ office said the Senate Republican caucus was provided the bill and had time to meet to discuss it ahead of the vote.

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Next week, the Hamtramck will residents will elect a new mayor. 

That’s because the outgoing mayor, Amer Ghalib was picked to be the Kuwait ambassador. His Senate confirmation is stalling because of a positive remark he made about Saddam Hussein, liking a social media post comparing Jews to monkeys, and for his refusal to condemn Hamas’ attacks on Israeli civilians. 

Still, in Hamtramck, residents have a choice of who they want to be the next mayor. Those candidates include Adam Alharbi, Hamtramck City Council Member Muhith Mahmood, and write-in candidate Lynn Blasey.

WDET reporter Nargis Rahman reported on the race, and joined The Metro to discuss.

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One of the biggest issues Detroiters face has to do with their homes. There are a fair number of homes in the city, but over 20,000 of them are in dire need of repairs. That includes leaky roofs, electricity issues, and asbestos in the walls. 

The problem is large, but one retired firefighter, Gary Ringer, is trying to chip away at it. The Detroiter, who mostly helps people on the West Side, has been spending a lot of his time going to peoples’ homes, and assisting them with repairs. 

What inspires Gary’s volunteerism? What are the repairs people need? And, with the mayoral election next week, what kinds of investments does he think the next mayor should make to facilitate more home repairs? 

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Almost a decade ago, President Donald Trump began campaigning on a very different American policy than the one we previously had. He wanted America to be tougher on China, to build a wall across the Mexico-American border, and to put “America first.”

Today, a lot of that strategy has remained intact, some of it even influencing the Biden administration’s policies.

How do Americans feel about our country’s foreign policy stances? And, how do they want to see America lead?

Rebecca Lissner is a Senior fellow for US foreign policy at the Council on Foreign Relations and a Brady-Johnson distinguished practitioner in grand strategy and lecturer with the Jackson School of Global Affairs at Yale University.

This month, she began speaking with people around the country about what they make of American foreign policy. She is in town to understand how people in metro Detroit feel about the topic, and joined The Metro to share her findings.

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Poverty is going up in Detroit. So too are the costs of food and housing. All of this means that many are struggling to pay their bills, and homelessness—particularly for kids—is on the rise.  

A lot of these problems are big. To solve them, Detroit relies on money from the federal and state government. 

So, how much can one city with limited resources do to halt the rate of homelessness—and even reverse it?

With the mayoral election next month, Anthony Eid joined The Metro to discuss these things. He’s the senior director of public policy for the Community Development Advocates of Detroit, and the policy and advocacy coordinator for COTS, a housing agency in the city. 

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When it comes to our federal system, we often don’t have a representative, majoritarian democracy. That means the idea of “one person, one vote” often does not hold. 

Gerrymandering favors one party to be elected in the House of Representatives. The electoral college overrides the popular vote. Money is considered speech, which means that people with more of it have more influence in our politics. 

What would it look like to have a democracy that represents people more than it does geography, and to have a politics that doesn’t favor the rich over those with fewer means?

Osita Nwanevu is a writer at The New Republic and The Guardian and the author of the book, “The Right of the People.” And in it, he argues that if we had a majoritarian democracy, we would collectively be better off. 

Producer Sam Corey spoke to Osita about that prospect, and whether some ballot proposals initiated in Michigan would create a more representative democracy in the state.

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