Truscott Rossman

Recorded at 7 a.m., about 11 hours after Michigan’s polls closed, this episode picks up where election night left off. Democrats ran the table: Jocelyn Benson is governor-elect, Abdul El-Sayed becomes the first Muslim elected to the U.S. Senate, and a flipped state House gives Democrats full control of Lansing again. Allie Walker, Chris Moyer and John Truscott break down what happened and why. Was...

Hundreds of thousands of ballots are already in, early voting opens statewide Oct. 24, and Michigan’s two biggest races are open seats. In our final episode before Election Day, Allie Walker takes the host seat and puts John Truscott and Chris Moyer on the record for Nov. 3. First up is the governor’s race between Jocelyn Benson and John James: James’s distance from Trump, Benson’s roughly five-to...

Six weeks from Election Day, Michigan's general election is here. Absentee ballots are about to hit mailboxes, early voting starts next month, and both the Senate and governor's races remain within the margin of error. Recorded at the 50-day mark, this episode features Chris Moyer and John Truscott, with Ryan Gajewski moderating. They size up where things stand. Can Abdul El-Sayed hold his...

Long before she was Director of Marketing at HexArmor, Amber Ginop was working the promotions team for the West Michigan Whitecaps — running t-shirt tosses, hamburger costume races, and dizzy bat contests in the summer sun. It was there she made an unexpected connection: every fun promotion was really a brand awareness campaign. That realization launched a career that took her through the Detroit...

Greg Deja accepted his first teaching job before he even knew the school's name. On this episode of My 1st Gig, host Ryan Brown talks with Greg Deja — now President of Catholic Central High School in Grand Rapids — about the winding path that took him there. Greg's first gig had him teaching English, coaching football, and serving as dean of students at a Massachusetts high school, all whi...

Tiffany Gunter's first gig was answering phones at 13 — receptionist duty at her church rectory, complete with a state work permit and a dog to walk. Today, she's the General Manager and CEO of SMART, Southeast Michigan's regional transit system. On this episode of My 1st Gig, host Ryan Brown talks with Tiffany about the winding path between those two points: a supervisor role at 18 ma...

Michigan's primary is over, and the fall campaign starts now. Chris Moyer is joined by John Truscott and Ryan Gajewski to break down the results — Mike Rogers vs. Abdul El-Sayed for Senate, Jocelyn Benson vs. John James for governor — and what each side signals about who's built the coalition to win in November. They dig into authenticity in political communication, the risk of guilt-by-as...

With five days until Michigan's August 4th primary, Chris and Allie go on the record with their predictions for the Democratic Senate race between Haley Stevens and Abdul El-Sayed — and they disagree. Chris breaks down Stevens' communications missteps and the progressive energy fueling El-Sayed. Allie makes the case for Stevens' polling lead and her strength with non-college-educated v...

At 22, Ali Anderson was running a 900-student dorm — "like a toddler watching a nine-month-old," she jokes. That first job in residence life taught her to lead without authority and manage chaos on the fly, lessons that carried her through corporate telecom, a decade of running her own photography business, and eventually into the spirits industry as CEO of Craft Co, the company behind J...

Before she was building Opnr — a platform reshaping how live music gets booked — Andrea "Dre" Wallace was driving a farm gator and sorting blueberries on a West Michigan farm at 14. In this episode, Ryan Brown sits down with the two-time founder and professional musician to trace her path from blueberry fields to touring with Bassnectar to launching a startup at the intersection of music...

Josh Paciorek has worked in the Michigan Governor's office, the White House, and Capitol Hill — and it all started with a job on a 2014 reelection campaign. In this episode, Josh traces his path from campaign staffer to Chief of Staff for Dick DeVos, sharing the lessons that shaped him along the way: why being a "sponge" early on matters more than having it all figured out, and why t...

America turns 250 this year — and Detroit turns 325 just days later, a city that predates the country itself by 75 years. Chris and Allie open with an honest look at the American founding story: its real contradictions, and why the honest version is harder (and more useful) than either the all-heroism or all-failure telling. Chris also shares what he learned retracing America 250 history through B...

Ashley Diersch has spent 20+ years raising money for missions she believes in — and the skill she credits most isn't a polished pitch. It's listening. In this episode, Ashley traces her path from a movie theater in Southgate, Michigan to competitive figure skating to leading fundraising and communications at Paws with the Cause, a national nonprofit that trains custom assistance dogs for p...

Before she was mayor, Rosalynn Bliss was working the counter at Taco Bell and waiting tables in Sault Ste. Marie. She'll tell you those jobs taught her more than she realized at the time. On this episode of My 1st Gig , Ryan Brown sits down with former Grand Rapids Mayor Rosalynn Bliss — now Assistant Dean and Chief External Relations Officer at Michigan State University College of Human Medicine...

Beyond Both Sides covers Michigan politics. But the World Cup is here — and we're taking a detour. Chris Moyer and guest host Ryan Gajewski are both former soccer players, and they made a deal a long time ago: if the World Cup came back to the U.S., they'd talk about it on whatever platform they had. This is that episode. Their guest is Darrius Barnes, President of AC Grand Rapids — West Michigan'...

Mike Duggan is out — and the Michigan governor's race just got a whole lot clearer. In this week's deep dive, Chris and Allie break down why Duggan's departure was the right call, what the numbers actually showed, and what a two-person race between Jocelyn Benson and the Republican primary winner really looks like. Is this Benson's race to lose? What does she need to say — and do — between now and...

Michigan's leaders are heading to Mackinac Island this week for Mackinac Policy Conference with an urgent message and a big question: can urgency and relationship-building happen at the same time? Chris and Allie break down what the Detroit Regional Chamber's "house is on fire" alarm actually demands of conference attendees, why the new format is a genuine improvement, and how to...

Michigan Senator Elissa Slotkin and Ohio Senator Bernie Moreno just introduced legislation to ban Chinese connected vehicles from the American market — what Slotkin called "a driving surveillance package on wheels." The bill is bipartisan, the auto industry supports it, and Allie Walker calls it "a messaging bill with legs." But here's the question Chris Moyer and Allie dig...

Mallory McMorrow deleted 6,000 tweets before launching her U.S. Senate campaign. When CNN's KFile surfaced it, she defended herself by invoking authenticity — but the deletion itself was the opposite of authentic. Chris Moyer and Allie Walker unpack the contradiction: why the scrubbing is always the story now, why the old political consultant playbook is dangerously outdated, and the more hone...

In this episode of  Beyond Both Sides , we go on the road—recording live from the grand opening of a new Sheetz in Novi—to explore a bigger question:  what is the cost of saying no to development? Sheetz announced its Michigan expansion in 2022. It took years—and real resistance—to open its first locations. And that’s not unusual. From data centers to housing to retail, Michigan has developed a re...

In this episode of  Beyond Both Sides , we explore a growing challenge in modern politics:  the performance of authenticity . After Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear criticized the use of “advocacy language,” we dig into a deeper question—whether the problem is the words themselves or a broader  breakdown in trust  between politicians and the public. From “food insecurity” to “hunger,” does changing...

In this episode of  Beyond Both Sides , we unpack a striking moment in Michigan’s economic conversation: a Detroit developer saying to Grand Rapids,  “we want to be you.” It’s a shift in how the state thinks about growth—not as a competition between cities, but as a question of whether Michigan has  enough strong places to compete at all . We break down what Grand Rapids has done differently, from...

In this episode of  Beyond Both Sides , we take a closer look at  Michigan’s travel and tourism industry —and ask a critical question: is it time to rethink  Pure Michigan ? Tourism drives more than  $25 billion in annual visitor spending  and supports over  200,000 jobs statewide , but the industry is entering a more uncertain phase. As  consumer confidence softens  and  international travel—espe...

In this episode of  Beyond Both Sides , we break down a stark warning about  Michigan’s economy : “the house is on fire.” The  Detroit Regional Chamber’s State of the Region report  argues that while headlines point to growth—new projects, stabilized population, and investment—Michigan is still  falling behind peer states  in job growth, income, and talent attraction. We explore what’s really driv...

In this episode of  Beyond Both Sides , we break down the  political shift in suburban America , focusing on  Oakland County, Michigan —once a Republican stronghold and now a key  battleground suburb  shaping elections. As  J.D. Vance  and others push national narratives about cultural change, we examine what’s actually happening: a suburb that is more  diverse, highly educated, and politically co...