Editor's note: This story was produced for the ear and designed to be heard. If you're able, WCMU encourages you to listen to the audio version of this story by clicking the LISTEN button above. This transcript was edited for clarity and length.
David Nicholas: Ahead this Wednesday, the nonprofit online news organization Bridge Michigan will be hosting their inaugural issues summit in Detroit. Their team of reporters, alongside policymakers, civic leaders, and community members, seek to break down some of the most pressing issues facing the state ahead of election day.
I had a chance to speak earlier today with Bridge Michigan's executive editor of innovation, Kathy Kieliszewski, to learn more about what people can expect and how they can get involved.
Why now for this type of event? Where do you see it fitting in and why was it important to do this now?
Kathy Kieliszewski: You know, we're a few weeks out from the election and when we started thinking about how we are going to cover the midterms, we really wanted to turn to our readers and really understand in this point in time what are the most pressing issues impacting Michiganders and how that is playing out in the campaigns.
Both in the Senate campaign, what's happening in the governor's race, as well as the congressional districts, and then of course the whole House and Senate in the state legislature is up for grabs. And so, we thought it was really important at this moment to take the pulse of what we were seeing and hearing from Michiganders and focus on the issues.
And so, the Issues Summit was an outgrowth of what we call Bridge Listens, which is an initiative to hear from Michiganders about the things that they're seeing kind of up on the front lines of their lives.
DN: Is there a breakdown or kind of a distinction then in terms of how this will work, different kinds of panels or discussion focus? How are you structuring this?
KK: Right, we're having… we're building the program around four major conversations. We're focused… again, this is what readers told us were the most pressing issues through a series of surveys and community listening projects that we did, and we had over 5,000 Michiganders weigh in throughout the first part of the year.
And education, healthcare affordability, kind of pocketbook realities, and just general overall affordability, including housing, and then kind of the collision of kind of Michigan striving to be a 21st century innovation hub and what that means for the communities where some of those projects would go into place, specifically around data centers.
So, we're focused on education, healthcare affordability, overall affordability, including housing, and then the kind of clash between environmental realities and Michigan's focus on trying to drive economic development and where the tensions are in that conversation.
DN: I know that as we sit down today, this Monday afternoon, that your venue, those slots for people to be there, that is sold out, but there is a way that people can participate and link into all of this. What are the specifics of how they do that?
KK: Yep, we are live streaming statewide, thanks to a partnership with Detroit PBS. And so, going to Bridge Michigan and our YouTube page, it'll be live streamed via that channel.
I want to note too, especially for Northern Michigan audiences, we are hosting a satellite viewing event at Alpena Community College. And so, folks are invited to join the conversation in person. They'll be watching the live stream, but then hosting a conversation after the four panels have completed to talk about how those issues really reflect in Northwest and Northern Michigan. And so, there is still an in-person opportunity up in Alpena. But live streaming across the state through the Bridge Michigan's YouTube channel is where anybody in the state can watch it.
DN: It's a critical time with a lot of things being discussed and a lot of issues. Further attention and those certainly coming to our attention even for the first time as we are in this campaign season. Kathy Kieliszewski of Bridge Michigan, thanks so much for taking the time to talk with us and all the best with the Issues Summit coming up this week.
KK: Thank you.
DN: Kathy Kieliszewski is the executive editor of innovation at Bridge Michigan. I had a chance to talk with her earlier this afternoon. We note that WCMU is an official media partner for the Issues Summit.
