The Cold Oatmeal Podcast

Classic Travel

Your 143-day nightmare is over. Our extended summer sabbatical has lasted longer than MSU’s football season, but the Cold Oatmeal Podcast is back! We are back in the studio to kick off season six of the pod with two of Michigan’s leading political journalists. It is campaign time, after all. Emily Lawler, politics editor at the Detroit Free Press, and Chad Livengood, politics editor at the Detroit...

We did it! We made it to 100 episodes! We know you all were counting. Today, we celebrate the century mark by talking to our third Chris in a row. (You don’t get to 100 episodes without planning like that!) Chris Sell, Executive Director of Lansing 5:01, joins us to talk Lansing, its future, and its here and now. He has a ton going on and a lot to say. Then, we bring back our friends who helped us...

Shepler’s Mackinac Island Ferry

High on the list of yet unanswered questions is, “Can one make the Michigan state budget sexy?” Today, you can take it off the list because we have an answer. Chris Harkins, Michigan’s State Budget Director, is our guest. Chris is a long-time friend and contributor to the podcast, but some may argue his “day job” of managing the state’s spending is more important. It’s debatable. State budget fun,...

Great Lakes Reality Labs

Lansing Curling Club

Sweet Encounters Bakery and Cafe

3:30 a.m. has got to come early when the old iPhone alarm starts going, but that’s how today’s guest starts each day. For going on eight years, Dave Akerly has hosted the Morning Wake Up each weekday morning on Lansing’s talk radio station, WILS 1320 AM. And that’s only after more than 20 years at Lansing TV news and sports anchor desks. Conversations with Magic Johnson and Tom Izzo have now given...

Josh’s Frogs

The history of Downtown Lansing restaurants is a checkered one, and today, we take a stroll through the graveyard of 25 years of Washington Ave. eateries. Dusty Fancher of Midwest Strategies Group, Rob Macomber, Chief Deputy Clerk of Kent County, and Zach Gorchow of Gongwer News Service are our hungry historians. What’s your favorite sandwich place? The boldest flop? The fastest flame out? Place t...

We here at the podcast like to think of ourselves as part of “the Biz.” Today, a well-lit look behind the curtain. Jonathon Terpstra’s IMDB profile lists 74 lighting and gaffer credits, including blockbuster movies like Avengers: Endgame, Black Panther, The Suicide Squad, and TV series like the Walking Dead, Ms. Marvel, and Ravenswood, to name only… well, six. He also happens to be our own Nick De...

On Target Living “Eat. Rest. Move.” By: Chris Johnson

What’s with the Pineapple Podcast

It’s the official Christmas plant, and today we learn all about the poinsettia from a man who has grown them for more than 30 years. Roger McGaughey is now mostly retired, but his career as a horticulturist brought him from Ireland to West Michigan with a bajillion poinsettias along the way, and he knows his stuff. Then, we stay across the pond to celebrate Adele Day. Ho, ho, ho, it’s the Christma...

It’s been almost 30 years since I first met Ben Bodkin. High school classmates, college roommates, and now adult friends and professional colleagues, this episode was supposed to be a rip-roaring blast from our shared past. Instead, a story of miracles and gratitude broke out. Ben is a partner at the Lansing lobbying firm, Capitol Services. He’s been my friend since high school biology class. He’s...

So, you may have heard Michigan is getting new congressional and legislative maps as part of the decennial redistricting process. Or, maybe you’re like Joe and Carly and could not care less. Either way, Michigan has a new system for drawing these power maps, and whatever words you want to use to describe the old process, this new process has been… interesting (Laura has another word). Today, we ta...

“When Evil Came to Good Hart”

Before the squirrels ever started running in the wheels that power this little podcast, a name was added to our target guest list: Kurt Berryman, long-time Lansing figure and now lobbyist for the Auto Dealers of Michigan. With agility and cunning, Kurt has evaded us these past many years, but no longer. As many know, Kurt is routinely named Michigan’s most effective lobbyist in the MIRS News Capit...

Short’s Brewing Company

Today, we come out of our summer podcast siesta for a special one-time-only, news-breaking episode. We have a new colleague joining the Resch Strategies/Cold Oatmeal team, and today you get to meet her… or him. I guess you’ll just have to listen. It’s some personal news on the Cold Oatmeal podcast.

It’s the season finale, and we go out big! Tim Skubick, Michigan’s Senior Capitol Correspondent and host of public television’s “Off the Record,” is our last guest of season four.  Tim has more than 50 years in covering Michigan’s political beat.

Detroit Crime Commission Andy Arena Lansing Cold Case Initiative

Never underestimate the power of a podcast because today we make dreams come true. Peter Ruddell has long dreamt – quite publicly really – of being on the Cold Oatmeal Podcast. Today, we make it happen. Aside from being a diehard COP fan, Peter is a partner and co-leader of the Government Relations and Regulatory Practice Group at the Honigman law firm. He’s a sought-after hire around the Michigan...

Zach Gorchow is Executive Editor and Publisher of Gongwer News Service and a Cold Oatmeal Podcast Hall of Famer. Zach was the last guest to visit the studio before the 2020 lockdown. Now, as we emerge from behind our masks, Zach is back! We talk movies, takeout, travel, James Craig, and the Gov’s fancy flight. Plus, Joe’s fender bender. It’s the Cold Oatmeal Podcast.