ML Soul of Detroit

One of Detroit's most notorious crimes inspires a murder mystery set Up North. Author Bryan Gruley joins ML and Marc to explain how. STRAIGHT DOPE SPECIAL OFFER: Get 15% off Detroit City FC tickets by entering promo code SOUL at check out when you buy tickets at http://www.detcityfc.com.  LIMITED TIME OFFER: Our summer merchandise sale ENDS TONIGHT, TUESDAY July 7 at 8 pm. Look great while support...

ML Elrick and the crew dive deep into one of the most tragic, surreal, and downright chaotic chapters in Metro Detroit crime history: the 1987 Bungalow Motel shootout in Inkster. Michigan Journalism Hall of Famer and former Detroit Free Press colleague Joe Swickard breaks down his firsthand coverage and rare jailhouse interviews with a family operating on a completely distorted wavelength. STRAIGH...

Bus workers playing hooky for nookie expose deeper problems with Detroit's transportation agency, as Detroit's Inspector General Kamau Marable tells ML and Marc. STRAIGHT DOPE SPECIAL OFFER: Get 15% off Detroit City FC tickets by entering promo code SOUL at check out when you buy tickets at http://www.detcityfc.com.  LIMITED TIME OFFER: Our summer merchandise sale runs through June. 30. Look great...

Erika Erickson makes a big splash with a story about a pool party gone wild before ML discusses the disastrous Detroit judge back on the ballot. STRAIGHT DOPE SPECIAL OFFER: Get 15% off Detroit City FC tickets by entering promo code SOUL at check out when you buy tickets at http://www.detcityfc.com.  Marc returns from vacation to find a full house -- Erika, ML and a lawyer trying to knock disgrace...

Dan Austin's back with us to explore the vanished history of the city's skyline, mourning the mid-century losses of landmarks like Old City Hall, the old Federal Building, and the Lafayette Building.  Austin explains that post-war economic decline and the pressure to compete with modern suburban office parks drove city leaders to trade historic craftsmanship for uninspiring modern boxes. STRAIGHT...

Brad Galli left WXYZ to start his own sports reporting venture. He drops in to explain how it will work ... and to make ML, Shawn and Marc feel old. STRAIGHT DOPE SPECIAL OFFER: Get 15% off Detroit City FC tickets by entering promo code SOUL at check out when you buy tickets at http://www.detcityfc.com.  After 15 years of bringing you the news from Broadcast House, former WXYZ-TV sports director B...

Mackinac politics, Mike Duggan’s surprise exit, Muskegon memories, Memorial Day reflections, and why Michigan never stops being complicated. STRAIGHT DOPE: SPECIAL OFFER: Get 15% off Detroit City FC tickets by entering promo code SOUL at check out when you buy tickets at www.detcityfc.com. ML broadcasts from an unlikely luxury retreat — his mother-in-law’s porch in Muskegon, complete with toast an...

Shawn gets rooked by a crook who hooked his son's wreck and strippers in Montreal are on strike. SOLIDARITY! STRAIGHT DOPE SPECIAL OFFER: Get 15% off Detroit City FC tickets by entering promo code SOUL at check out when you buy tickets at www.detcityfc.com. Shawn is back, and full of hot air -- especially at nationally-televised press conferences. Listen and learn what he and the geysers ML saw in...

Turns out ML's local connection in Reykjavik is really from Rochester. She zooms in to discuss how she became a professional soccer player in Iceland. DCFC women's team coach and captain also dial in to help kick-off their season. STRAIGHT DOPE SPECIAL OFFER: Get 15% off Detroit City FC tickets by entering promo code SOUL at check out when you buy tickets at www.detcityfc.com. DCFC women's team co...

This week, the Soul goes international — broadcasting (allegedly) live from Dublin, where the Guinness flows, the accents get thicker, and the stories get… weirder. STRAIGHT DOPE: From Detroit to Dublin (with a few questionable detours) Elrick and globe-trotting reptile enthusiast Sergei Morris set up shop in a Dublin WeWork, proving once again that journalism — like beer — travels well.  Between...

Detroit's great buildings are Dan Austin's passion -- and his legacy. Before colon cancer claims him, he needs your help to preserve his life's work documenting our city's past and present. STRAIGHT DOPE SPECIAL OFFER: Get 15% off Detroit City FC tickets by entering promo code SOUL at check out when you buy your tickets at detcityfc.com. Dan Austin has been putting his journalistic skills to work...

Deadline Detroit thinks the Michigan Democratic Party may have a Jewish problem. Editor Allan Lengel tells ML and Marc what that means.  STRAIGHT DOPE Pro-Israel U.S. Senate candidate Haley Stevens and U-M Board of Regent member Jordan Acker, who is Jewish, were shouted down at Sunday's Michigan Democratic Party endorsement convention. ML was shocked by the hostility, and Deadline Detroit Editor A...

Erika, a $1 million soccer challenge, a DCFC legend, an epic Irish pub and a discount on an MLS game -- how much more good stuff could we pack into one podcast?!? STRAIGHT DOPE TUESDAY SPECIAL: Get 15% off tickets to TONIGHT's (4/14) U.S. Open Cup match with MLS side Chicago Fire by using promo code SOUL at http://www.detcityfc.com/tickets. Then catch up with ML before the game at Bumbo's! ML star...

Rob Wolchek and Darren McCarty star in this bonus-laden episode Marc put together so ML would let him leave town. Plus- Elrick wants to avoid Michigan's National Championship. STRAIGHT DOPE ML compares Marc to a Biblical figure, even though the only miracle he's trying to pull off is getting out of town with his family. In our last episode, ML told Marc what he would look for at Mayor Mary Sheffie...

Kwame Kilpatrick is back in the news and Shawn is gone, so ML and Marc catch up on Hizzoner's latest caper as well as reveal some secrets behind a few of his greatest hits. STRAIGHT DOPE LIMITED TIME OFFER: You could get FREE tickets to Wednesday's (4/1) 7:30 p.m. U.S. Open Cup match between DCFC v. Flint Bucks FC in Grand Blanc. Go to https://tickets.uslleaguetwo.com/  and enter the promo code SO...

Shawn got a pee pass that lets him cut the line in an emergency, prompting Marc and ML to wonder where they can get one of these amazing documents.  STRAIGHT DOPE SPECIAL OFFER: The first five new Soulmates, listeners with suggestions for Room 7609 or who send feedback will receive four tickets to the April 1st U.S. Open Cup match between DCFC v. Flint Bucks FC in Grand Blanc. Everyone else can bu...

The Governor and Speaker of the House flipflopped on their claims they want you to have access to information about what the hell goes on in Lansing. A state senator who has been working to expand Michigan's Freedom of Information Act joins ML and Marc to tell the tale. STRAIGHT DOPE We're recording on St. Patrick's Day, so ML starts off with a phrase Americans believe the Irish use every day -- b...

Shawn shares his adventures with balloons before ML goes ham on a (former?) listener. STRAIGHT DOPE Shawn is back in the basement ... and in a bit of a fog. But it's nothing like the fog ML went through to get to Rob Wolchek's going away party. ML gives an account of the festivities, where the dean of the Hall of Shame seemed both flattered by the attention -- and overwhelmed by it. ML offers a ho...

Darko State News talks about his big scoop on the latest Sherrone Moore scandal before Shawn Windsor steals the show by zooming in to tell fart stories! STRAIGHT DOPE You may know him from X as Darko State News, the Spartan fan and hardcore news man, but to the rest of us he's just Justin Spiro. Justin/Darko State News zooms in to discuss the Coach LaTroy Lewis scandal that even the national media...

Darren McCarty is into wrestling, but ML and Marc are lovers, not fighters, so they ask D Mac to tell them all about his new Grind Time wrestling program. STRAIGHT DOPE Darren McCarty has wrestled with his share of demons -- from Claude Lemieux to addiction -- and now he wants to help kids build confidence through his Grind Time wrestling program. Hear all about it here! Darren schools ML on "deat...

Presidential candidate (?) Rahm Emanuel joins ML and Marc to talk about everything but his political ambitions.  STRAIGHT DOPE Who's Rahm Emanuel, you say? Just a former top adviser to President Bill Clinton and President Barack Obama who became a congressman, then mayor of Chicago and then ambassador to Japan and, now, maybe, a candidate for president. Why is Rahm hanging out in a basement with M...

Erika Erickson is BACK! ML is, too, but from Quebec City. Marc is always here. ALWAYS. STRAIGHT DOPE Erika and Marc excoriate ML for missing Super Bowl LX ... before acknowledging it wasn't much of a game. Still, they're not very impressed by his alibi -- participating in an American expeditionary force that challenged a Canadian Armed Forces team in a friendly hockey tournament in Quebec City. Ma...

Charlie Langton, Jennifer Hammond and ML are HACKED! Hear all about their troubles with X. STRAIGHT DOPE Soulmates already know, but the rest of you should consider joining to catch our new bonus episode with Rob Wolchek of Fox 2 News, telling some of his favorite stories from his storied career. It's exclusive to our Patreon subscribers club. Forget what you read on ML's X account about all the m...

The Detroit newspaper war fizzled. So ML, Marc and author Bryan Gruley look back at the last great Detroit newspaper battle for supremacy. STRAIGHT DOPE: Before he wrote "Starvation Lake," "The Hanging Tree," and "Skeleton Box," Bryan Gruley was a Detroit News reporter who became the city's foremost expert on the Joint Operating Agreement that tied the Detroit News and Free Press together in a dea...

ML is impatient for peace in Ukraine, while Marc says he's fine if we snatch Greenland. Disagreement over college football and an exploration of Mike Duggan's campaign follow.   STRAIGHT DOPE: Before getting to the news, ML is wistful about last week's guest Rob Wolchek and he and Marc recount one of Rob's greatest "Fame or Shame" segments, which involved sticking celebrity pawn broker Les Gold in...