The Mitten Channel

A Flint lawyer helped end a Jim Crow relic—and the hometown paper barely noticed. We sit down with Robert Steiger, a retired civil rights attorney whose argument before the Warren Court contributed to striking down Virginia’s poll tax. From Detroit roots and Michigan training to a chance move to Flint, Bob’s journey shows how a small, principled firm can punch far above its weight. He recalls coll...

Margarette Eby was murdered in 1986 . In an investigation led by Genesee County (MI) Prosecutor Arthur Busch and the Michigan State Police, two cold case rape-murders were solved using the most advance forensic science available. Key details regarding the case: Date: She was found on November 9, 1986, having last been seen on November 7, 1986. Location: She was murdered in her home at the Mott fam...

A vanished hometown. A son who came back different. An elder on a quiet porch waiting for someone to say hello. We follow John Prine’s trail from Maywood, Illinois, to the coal seams of western Kentucky and the factory streets of Michigan, mapping how his songs became a living record of America’s working‑class migration. We start with the family story: parents who left Muhlenberg County for steadi...

Remastered edition: re‑edited and shortened for clarity and pace. A cargo aircraft built for tanks, not toddlers. A city collapsing in April 1975. And a young Air Force medic from Flint who boarded anyway. In this Radio Free Flint interview, Flint‑born Air Force hero Sgt. Phillip Wise recounts the harrowing crash of an Air Force transport plane loaded with hundreds of orphaned Vietnamese‑American...

Remastered edition: re-edited and shortened for clarity and pace. We trace Jeff Natchez’s path from Flint open gyms and sandlots to a Detroit Tigers draft pick, rookie ball under a young Jim Leyland , and a second career in optometry. Honest reflections on choices, mentors, and coming home frame a story about resilience and community. A Flint kid grows up in the city’s golden era, spends every spa...

Flint, Michigan, has given the world legendary athletes—now meet one of its rising musical icons.   Joe Ryan III is a producer, songwriter, composer, engineer, and DJ whose creative reach spans television, film, and the global music scene. At just 30, he’s worked with FOX, ABC, NBC, MTV, VH1, ESPN, and BET, crafting scores for Lethal Weapon , The Voice , Teen Titans Go! , Ellen DeGeneres , Dancing...

Do federal officials have “absolute immunity” from state criminal law? No. But they do have a powerful defense described as the Supremacy Clause immunity.  This legal doctrine can block a state prosecution when a federal officer was acting within lawful federal duties and used only what was necessary and proper.  See Lawfare  for more details. In this episode, former prosecutor Arthur Busch breaks...

Over the past thirty-five years, the United States has quietly transformed its criminal-justice system into something resembling a permanent domestic battlefield. In this episode, we trace how successive “wars” at home—the war on crime, the war on drugs, the war on terror, and the war on immigration—have steadily altered the relationship between the citizen and the state. Each was justified as tem...

Flint on the Brink is a clear-eyed examination of an American rust-belt city struggling to decide who controls its future. In this episode, former Michigan prosecutor and legal educator Arthur Busch reads and expands on his essay Flint on the Brink: How Broken Systems, Billion-Dollar “Saviors,” and Flint-First Leadership Are Fighting for the City’s Future . The episode explores how decades of econ...

 When water systems fail, the damage is not the same for everyone.  In Flint, the deepest harm lives in children’s brains.  In other cities, the damage is buried in pipes, mains, and hydrants.  In this episode, Arthur Busch examines what really gets damaged when public water systems fail—and why the law treats those harms very differently. The episode opens in Flint, Michigan, with the story of Le...

I Left My Blue-Collar Hometown On A Schwinn And Learned How The "Other Half" Actually Lives Have you ever felt that crushing pressure to leave home just to "figure out your future"? 🤔 In this episode, I’m looking back at 1970, when I ditched the factory smoke of Flint, Michigan, for a 2,000-mile cross-country bicycle odyssey that changed everything . Expect to hear about: Why...

This is a short excerpt from an upcoming episode of Flint Justice . In this preview, Arthur Busch explores the real Michigan homicide case that inspired Anatomy of a Murder and the lawyer behind it, John D. Voelker—prosecutor, defense attorney, Supreme Court justice, and writer. The full episode examines what this case still teaches us about jury trials, reasonable doubt, and the uneasy line betwe...

In 1952, a saloon killing in a small Upper Peninsula town became one of the most important—and controversial—criminal trials in Michigan history. The lawyer who defended the accused was John D. Voelker: former county prosecutor, defense attorney, future Michigan Supreme Court justice, and a gifted writer who would later publish the landmark legal novel Anatomy of a Murder under the pen name Robert...

The Age of Anxiety: Political Media, Dementia, and the Boomer Fear In Michigan living rooms—from Flint to Saginaw to small towns up north—older Americans watch political news that feels less like reporting and more like a public trial of aging itself. Every stumble, verbal slip, or moment of confusion by national leaders is clipped, replayed, and mocked. For older viewers, this coverage is not abs...

Join Arthur Busch on location in downtown Detroit as he takes you inside the magic of the 99th Annual America’s Thanksgiving Parade . In this special field-report episode, Arthur walks Woodward Avenue, captures the sights and sounds of the morning, and talks directly with the people who make this iconic tradition come alive. From families bundled up in the cold, to lifelong Detroiters describing w...

In 1937, a 23-year-old Flint woman stood between General Motors security, Flint police gunfire, and the workers fighting for their lives inside Fisher Body. Her name was Genora Johnson Dollinger — and she did more than rally the Women’s Emergency Brigade. She dodged bullets for the UAW and helped spark a labor uprising that reshaped the American middle class. This episode begins with a cinematic r...

In 1937, a 23-year-old Flint woman stood between General Motors security, Flint police gunfire, and the workers fighting for their lives inside Fisher Body.  Her name was Genora Johnson Dollinger — and she did more than rally the Women’s Emergency Brigade. She dodged bullets for the UAW and helped spark a labor uprising that reshaped the American middle class. This episode begins with a cinematic...

Welcome to the Detroit comeback. With a voice as warm and familiar as the streets themselves, we take a tour of the Motor City's stunning revitalization. From the iconic RenCen and the architecture of the Whitney Building to the vibrant Riverwalk and the energy of the city's sports scene, this video captures the enduring, tough, and durable spirit of Detroit. This is more than a travel d...

The Flint Sit-Down Strike of 1936–37 wasn’t just a labor dispute — it was a turning point in American history . In this short documentary segment, former Genesee County Prosecutor Arthur Busch breaks down what really happened inside the Fisher Body plants, why the strike succeeded, and how Flint became the birthplace of modern union power. This video explores: The strategy workers used to shut dow...

He was handsome, popular, and lived the perfect fraternity life in Ann Arbor. But behind John Norman Collins’s all-American image lurked one of Michigan’s darkest secrets. In the late 1960s, a series of brutal murders terrorized the college towns of Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti . Seven young women—mostly students—were abducted, raped, and murdered. The media called the killer “The Michigan Murderer.” I...

Few Flint residents know that one of the city’s most beloved traditions began with immigrants from a tiny mountain village in North Macedonia . In this episode of Radio Free Flint , host Arthur Busch welcomes Karen Paul Holmes , daughter of Carl Paul , co-founder of Angelo’s Coney Island —the restaurant that helped define Flint’s working-class culture for decades. Carl Paul came to America through...

 What’s a “Snowbird,” really—and why do millions of Americans and Canadians head south every winter? In this video essay, Arthur Busch—former Genesee County Prosecutor and host of Radio Free Flint —shares why he became a Snowbird and what the lifestyle reveals about working-class culture from the Rust Belt to the Sunbelt. From union paychecks and shift work to HOA meetings and pickleball courts, t...

Good school districts are more than a function of how much money they collect from taxpayers.  Schools must connect with the community where they are located in ways that go beyond math, science and reading.   Flint, Michigan at one time was the envy of America. Flint leaders developed and funded the concept of the Community Schools Program.  The Flint School District and its Community Schools Mod...

Our guest is musician Howard Ryan, a native of Wisconsin who now lives in San Francisco, California. Ryan, also known as Hauras composed a song, "Flint, Michigan," intending to make a social statement about the problems of the beleaguered rust belt city.  Ryan is a musician and composer who is known for his work in the drone music genre. He has released several albums and EPs that showca...

Our guest is Daniel Moilanen , a Fenton-area native now living in Flint, and the Executive Director of the Michigan Association of Conservation Districts (MACD) . Under Dan’s leadership, Michigan’s soil conservation districts are bringing conservation-minded farmers together to modernize agricultural practices—reducing nutrient runoff, protecting wetlands, and addressing the toxic algal blooms thr...