With the 2026 Mackinac Policy Conference underway, politicians, policymakers and journalists are gathering on Mackinac Island this week to discuss major issues facing Michigan and metro Detroit. 

WDET’s Russ McNamara heard about how Michigan’s leadership is handling big issues like gridlock in the state congress, data centers and international conflict. Read some of the key takeaways from today’s interviews and press conferences. 

Gary Peters on the war in Iran 

The ongoing war with Iran has led to a substantial rise in the cost of living. Oil prices rose sharply after Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz 

Michigan U.S. Senator Gary Peters says higher diesel prices are only one part of the problem. 

“You’ve got a third of the fertilizer that goes through the Strait of Hormuz. That’s why food prices are going up dramatically,” Peters said. “Farmers are scrambling to try to get fertilizer, and it’s a whole lot more expensive.” 

Peters says the U.S. will be dealing with economic fall out for a long time, and that the attack on Iran was poorly thought out and hastily executed.  

Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed a bill today that provides $150 million in state money to support upgrades to Selfridge Air National Guard Base in Southeast Michigan. 

According to Peters, the money will help support a new mission for the base and unlock federal funding for further improvements.  

“The really important, exciting thing about it is that because of this seed money… we’re going to bring in nearly $800 million from the federal government,” says Peters. “So we’re going to have the best Air National Guard base in the country.” 

The base is set to get a new fighter jet and air tanker mission. The defense industry adds more than $30 billion to the state economy each year, according to the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. 

Ranjeev Puri wants to see programs continue under next state budget

The budget process in the Michigan House is on a much better track than last year. 

House Minority Leader Ranjeev Puri says the political will is there to get the budget done on time this year.  

“Last year, noticeably, the speaker dragged the budget out well past the constitutional deadline into September, October,” Puri says. “This year, I think there is a motivation to try to get it done on time.” 

Republican Matt Hall held up a lot of the process during his first year as speaker of the House, hoping to send a political message and drive cuts. The deadline to present budget bills to the governor is July 1. 

Representative Puri says Hall is motivated to get a budget done this year so legislators can hit the campaign trail. 

Democrats have a two-seat advantage in the Michigan Senate and Republicans have a six-seat advantage in the House, so a drawn out budget fight is unlikely. 

Democrats are ready to fight to keep things like the RX Kids program for infants and new moms, states Puri. “If we’ve gotten to a place in our political discourse that’s saying that newborns are waste, fraud and abuse, we’re just not going to agree.” 

Puri says another program Democrats see as a sticking point is universal free school meals. 

He praises the state for setting a standard by guaranteeing breakfast and lunch to public school students. “I think that’s something we should take a lot of pride in, just being able to make sure that kids are learning on a full belly.” 

Hall has been critical of the free meal program, and tried to have it cut last year. He targeted mostly social programs for cuts while championing a rollback of the state’s property tax and education tax as a broader drawdown of state spending. 

DTE Energy plans energy storage for data centers 

DTE Energy is using battery energy storage to help provide power for planned data centers – including one in Saline Township.  

LG Energy Solution Vertech will provide energy storage with batteries manufactured in Holland, Michigan. DTE Energy CEO Joi Harris says they’re hoping to get the project completed by the end of next year.  

“It’s not a matter of if these projects will come to fruition – it’s when,” says Harris. “And when the first data center project we’re supporting comes online, expected by the end of 2027, our intention is to pause rate increase for at least two years.” 

Harris said the battery storage facilities will be located near the data center. 

“It’s not going to be on the Saline footprint. It will be built outside the Saline area. And this is clean generation,” Harris said. “What this does is allow us to take excess electrons off the grid and dispatch them as needed.” 

Residents in Saline Township and nearby areas have largely been against the data center despite potential economic benefits. The project was approved by the Michigan Public Service Commission and has moved forward with construction after Saline settled in a lawsuit.

DTE Energy says the battery energy storage represents a $1.6 billion investment. 

Former Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan announced the end of his independent campaign for Michigan governor. Duggan said he aimed to ease “the toxic two-party atmosphere in Lansing that’s holding this state back.”

At a press conference in Detroit, Duggan said the two biggest components of the race that held him back were dropping poll numbers and a lack of funding.

“The truth of the matter is, when you’re down 11 points and you’re down in the fundraising, the path is not realistic,” Duggan said.

Duggan launched his campaign in December 2024, one month after Donald Trump won the state in the presidential election.

Duggan said his plan at the beginning of his campaign was to earn 20% of Republican votes and 20% of Democratic votes. This idea, he said, was based on polls that showed 65% of both Republicans and Democrats in Michigan were open to supporting an independent candidate.

“There is a national clamor for someone who will stand up and say ‘I’m tired of these two parties fighting with each other’,” Duggan said.

According to Duggan, his fundraising team raised “more money than the major party candidates,” and 94% of it came from the state of Michigan. However, he said that national funding for independent candidates is still in its infancy. He believes that person will need to be an independent – and independently wealthy.

“Somebody is going to break through, but I’ll make a prediction. It’s somebody who’s got the wealth to be self-funded,” Duggan said.

Duggan’s advice for the remaining partisan candidates is to make sure their platforms are not based on attacking the other side. Having “something that you stand for positively,” he said, is what will make an impact on voters.

“There are people in this state who want change and are willing to work for it, and I’m hoping you’ll see the Democratic and Republican candidates reach out and embrace those folks,” Duggan said.

Reactions roll in

Duggan was a frequent target of criticism from the Michigan Democratic Party, but Chair Curtis Hertel’s tone was more conciliatory.

“As we look ahead, we welcome Mayor Duggan’s supporters into our growing coalition as we work to elect a Democratic governor this November who will continue to move Michigan forward,” Hertel said.

The Detroit Regional Chamber was one of Duggan’s earliest champions, as well as a source of campaign contributions. The Chamber’s president and CEO Sandy Baruah said the organization is still appreciative of the ex-mayor’s efforts.

“Obviously, I am disappointed that Mike Duggan’s campaign for governor is ending, but we are thankful for his leadership for Michigan and driving a critical conversation about how to move our state forward,” Baruah said.

What comes next for Duggan

Concerning his next steps, Duggan said he planned to spend time with his family before he thinks about endorsing candidates who match his beliefs.

“If there are candidates in this state that take up the message of fixing the schools, fixing affordable housing, getting the jobs of the future by working together, I’m going to be open to endorsing them in the fall campaign,” Duggan said.

After a stressful run, firefighters are always looking for ways to unwind.  

For some, like Fire Engine Operator (FEO) Sean McSpadden, the koi pond at Engine No. 7 is his go-to method.  

“We see a lot of stuff, so it’s always good to come back, sit down, take a breath, just relax, collect yourself, and get ready for the next run,” McSpadden said. “Just the water slapping around, that’s a stress reliever.” 

Sergeant Jeffrey Hess noticed most firefighters in Detroit have the same opportunity during their downtime. 

“I’ve been around every firehouse in the city, and I would say ninety percent of them have some kind of pond, fish tank, something going to where you can sit in that room or outside here, and that’s the background noise, a stream of water,” Hess said.  

Japanese culture’s influence 

While none of the firefighters knew exactly how or why their stations came to have koi ponds, Rie Masuda, professor of Japanese culture and language at Wayne State University, offered an interesting connection.  

In the five elements in Japanese and Chinese philosophy, or gogyo, koi represents water.  

“The water is going to go over the fire, then fire extinguish,” Masuda said, “so that usually the fish figure, which is usually on top of the roof, that is supposed to protect the whole entire (samurai) household, or usually the castle, we call it shachi ho ko.”  

Koi ponds are a luxury in Japan, Masuda said, but they are more common in the U.S. because of how much space is available.  

“The people who are working so hard for the people of Detroit, they need to have some relaxing moment,” Masuda said. “I think that’s one of the reasons that somebody started to have koi.” 

In 1960, Detroit became a sister city to Toyota, Japan. Symbols of friendship have been shared between the two cities including hundreds of cherry trees and 12 Japanese snow monkeys. But there’s no record of gifting koi.

Another possible explanation for the origin of koi ponds could be a lighthearted rivalry between stations, according to Battalion Chief Troy Klann.  

“It was way before me, but all the houses around us had ponds, so it was kind of a competition thing, too,” Klann said. “You know, who could get the biggest fish?”  

Klann said it takes work to build and maintain the ponds, but they provide great therapy on and off the job. 

“Some guys do the koi ponds at home, too,” Klann said. “I thought about it a few times. I just never dug the hole.”  

Therapy dogs 

Along with the koi ponds, firefighters have access to other ways to relieve stress. One of those ways comes in the form of two golden retrievers, Oakland and Luca with First Responder Therapy Dogs who visit different stations to entertain the firefighters. 

Senior Chief Darnell McLaurin said the dogs are a result of Detroit Fire Department leadership taking mental health seriously. 

“We have our personal guidance unit, as well as the peer support team, and they have access to the first responder therapy dogs, amongst other things,” McLaurin said.  

Therapy dog handler Kathy Deland said the work she does is rewarding for both her and the dogs.  

“When they see the dog, they instantly go (gasp), and then they exhale, and that exhale is everything,” Deland said.  

Leaning on each other  

Firefighters also often rely on each other. FEO Andrew Simmons learned how to meditate on the job and said he hopes to help his coworkers do the same. 

“Yoga really helps with the maneuvering and moving around in such big, bulky gear a lot,” Simmons said. “I’m really looking forward to more firefighters actually getting into yoga.” 

Even if the origins of the koi ponds are still uncertain, Hess said they tie into two important things for firefighters: distraction and purpose during the downtime of a stressful and dangerous job.  

“You never know when it’s going to be the worst day of your life,” Hess said, “so in the meantime, let’s just have as much fun as we can.”  

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University of Michigan Professor Derek Peterson wanted to highlight the work of school activists – both past and present – in his commencement speech over the weekend.

What he got was controversy.

Peterson discussed the work of suffragette Sarah Burger Stearns, the woman who worked for years to get the University of Michigan to admit women to the school. He talked about the Black Action Movement of the 1970s and ’80s that sought to make campus life better for people of color. Peterson championed Moritz Levi, the first Jewish professor at U of M.

However, it was a short clip of Peterson praising the work of campus pro-Palestinian protesters that drew the ire of conservatives, pro-Israel activists, and school leadership.

Elyssa Schmier of the Michigan Anti-Defamation League called it “inappropriate, divisive, and deeply unfair” to Jewish students.

Interim U of M President Domenico Grasso apologized for the speech, calling it “hurtful and insensitive.”

In response, the University removed the YouTube video of the entire commencement.

For his part, Peterson is unfazed.

He’s a tenured history and African studies professor and has been with the university since 2009. He’s a former MacArthur “genius grant” recipient and the outgoing chair of the Faculty Senate.

He tells WDET’s Russ McNamara that he’s surprised by the controversy – especially after his remarks were approved by the U of M leadership.

Derek Peterson: I thought I was giving a speech that was meant to congratulate all these students on the success of their time at Michigan. And I wanted to honor student activists. We had these two consequential athletes on the rostrum sitting beside me, Michael Phelps and Jalen Rose, both of whom I greatly admire. And I wanted to give equal time to student activists who I think have done more than most to push our university along the path toward social justice. So the goal of the address was not to provoke or cause controversy. It was to expand the kinds of things that we honored at our commencement ceremony and to bring into view how much I myself have learned and benefited from the work that generations of activists have done here in Ann Arbor.

Russ McNamara: It seems like – recently – there’s been a measure of work done by some to minimize activism at the University of Michigan.

DP: Faculty Senate leaders don’t often get an audience with the regents and with opinion leaders across the state as much as one does at commencement. And we’ve been trying for the past year, and past two years, in fact, to make an argument about how Michigan’s acquiescence to federal authorities around student protests has damaged our collective culture.

The space for protest on campus this past couple years has been dramatically constrained. The administration has instrumentalized the Student Conduct Code and made it much more difficult to organize protests.

Meanwhile, federal authorities have gone after international students and made the cost of protesting, regardless of what kind of person you are, much higher, specifically, if you speak on behalf of Palestinians.

So I’m a tenured professor. I’ve got all these titles after my name, and I felt it was a good occasion to honor the work that activists have done, and to bring it into view in a place in which it was increasingly difficult to see how much activists have contributed to our collective life.

RM: Is it surprising to you that when someone like Regent Sarah Hubbard says commencement is not the time or place for political messages? Because I read that and I’m kind of surprised that someone who graduated from the University of Michigan would not feel that at any point, there couldn’t be a political message attached to the university or in that city.

DP: Yeah, I don’t know if she’s ever really spent time with Michigan students. The idea that graduation ceremonies should be apolitical, nostalgic, that sort of thing, is just bunk.

The University of Michigan is not a finishing school for polite men and women, and our students are not freaking wilting flowers. They’ve just finished their degrees at the foremost public university in the United States. They can freaking well-handle controversy. They don’t need to have sentiment and nostalgia slathered upon them.

What they need is a spine stiffening. They need encouragement to face injustice and inequity with the tools that we’ve given them here at the U of M. It’s take what you’ve learned at this public institution and go and serve the public to which we are beholden as the world’s leading public university. So I fundamentally disagree with the idea that graduations should be, you know, romantic and uncontroversial. That’s a betrayal of the purposes of public education.

RM: You wrote a book that came out last year, A Popular History of Idi Amin’s Uganda. In this moment, are there lessons that can be learned about the United States, about world politics from Idi Amin’s Uganda?

DP: The book, which I wrote over the course of something like 20 years, is grounded on a lot of research that I did with archives that had been deliberately suppressed or lost or forgotten over the course of generations after Amin fell from power in 1979.

As a scholar, much of my work is about how through industrious historical research, we can uncover lessons and materials and ideas that have been either forgotten or suppressed by people in power. So as a scholar of African history looking at events in 2026 in Ann Arbor and around the United States, where it’s increasingly difficult to say anything at all about what happened in Gaza, I can’t play along with that deliberate silencing of an act of great violence.

And let me say I’m full of sympathy for Jewish people who suffered, including students at U of M who suffered as a result of the awful actions of Hamas on the seventh of October 2023.

I don’t have any sympathy for Hamas sympathizers, but as the leader of the Faculty Senate and as a faculty member who studies colonial and post-colonial African history it’s really important that we don’t invisibilize Palestinian suffering, particularly in a state in which many of our students come from the Middle East and have relations who have died in the course of Israel’s war in Gaza.

So honoring their experience at commencement seemed to me to be as vital as it was, also as I did to honor the experience of Jewish students who have found a safe haven in Ann Arbor over the course of generations.

I’m troubled by the fact that this speech has been portrayed as being antisemitic. It’s not. It was not. And I don’t feel the need to apologize for the speech, as I’ve been asked to do by people in administration here at U of M.

I do regret that Jewish attendees might have found themselves on the back foot, troubled by the remarks. I didn’t have the purpose going into it of provoking unhappiness on a happy day. And if I did it over again, I probably would add a sentence to the end of my speech. I would have phrased it something like ‘sing for Jewish students at the university who, over the past two years, have kept the memory of their loved ones who died on the seventh of October alive and have brought their suffering into view here at the university as well.’

I can honor the violence and trauma and be appalled by the awfulness of the seventh of October 2023 and also be vigorously pro-Palestinian and appalled also at the violence of Israel’s war in Gaza. I think both things are possible.

Perceived failures by the Trump Administration regarding affordability and immigration enforcement—plus the ongoing war with Iran—has led to very low approval ratings for the president. Yet, approval ratings for the Democratic Party are somehow still worse.

The Michigan Democratic Party recently held its nominating convention in Detroit and it wasn’t without controversy.

WDET’s Russ McNamara recently caught up with Party Chair Curtis Hertel, who took over leadership following the disastrous 2024 campaign cycle. He says he’s excited by most of what he saw at the convention.  

The following interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Curtis Hertel: I think some of the best moments were people cheering for their candidates, and the energy in the room was, was really great. You know, some of the booing that happened and other things you know, were not my favorite part, and certainly are things that violate our code of conduct and everything else. But I think if you look at it as a whole, we walk out of convention with the united slate of candidates that I think are poised to win in November.

You have Eli Savit, who has a record of being a prosecutor… and was an environmental lawyer taking on corporations. And when you think about what’s the most important thing for the attorney general’s office, it’s a People’s Lawyer.

The powerful, the rich, the corporations—they all have access to lawyers. What we need is people that can actually fight for the people of Michigan, the People’s Lawyer, like Frank Kelly and Dana Nessel—

Russ McNamara, WDET: I wanted to ask you about that booing real quick. Where does that come from?

CH: There’s always going to be people who disagree. You know, we’re a big tent, and it’s important that there’s a place in the party for people that have differing views. I think we can differ respectfully. I think that’s the way it should be.

I think that Republicans behave in a way where they eat their own. We shouldn’t be doing that but, but I don’t think it’s the the few hundred people that were at convention that were doing that we’re not the representative of the 7,250 people who were there who were cheering the people on. And I think we’re united. So, you know, I understand it’s interesting to focus on things where but, but I think it was a small part of it was the noise, not the frequency of what actually happened at convention.

Primaries vs. conventions

RM: There’s been talk by some at the convention about changing to primaries and away from convention endorsements. Is that something you can get behind?

CH: So I’ve always supported that. When I was in the Michigan legislature, I supported that. Primaries are good. Discussions are good. We want people to be able to be part of the choices. A primary would be a better system, but you have to change the Michigan Constitution to do that. I don’t think it’s happening tomorrow.

RM: Why do you think there’s the push right now to get it done? Because there weren’t whispers of this eight years ago…

CH: I can’t speak for those that are talking about it now. I mean, you you might want to have them on the show, but, but I will say that I I’ve always supported the exact same position that more people should be involved in the decision making process and any decisions. I think the more people that you allow in your decision making process, the better that is, because they feel connected to it.

Right now, (Republican candidates) are in a game of ‘who can stand with Donald Trump the most’. Trump is the most unpopular president in the history of this country, who has raised the health care cost on everybody and cut taxes for billionaires that has used a war of choice and tariffs of choice to actually increase the cost for every single American.

I paid $4.20 for gas this morning in East Lansing, before I drove here. They promised people that tax that their lives would be better, that there would be America First, so they’d be sick of winning, that the cost of groceries would go down, that the cost of gas would go down, that they wouldn’t be focused on foreign wars, all of that’s going to lie and whether it’s the Epstein files that they haven’t released, or the foreign wars of choice that they continue to go into, or the focus on billionaires and their bottom line instead of the American people’s, they have lied to the people of Michigan, and I think we got a good story to tell.

How can Democrats work for working people?

RM: Affordability is set to be the big story for the midterm elections, but if Democrats win, what happens after? What’s the plan?

CH: The Democratic Party has to remember that we are the party of working people. And when you look at when Democrats had the trifecta in Michigan, we did things to lower the cost for people. We passed the largest tax cut for working families, brought 30,000 kids out of poverty and gave free breakfast and lunch for every kid. The largest investment in affordable housing in our history, the largest investment in lowering the cost of childcare, we have the record to do that.

We didn’t run on it.

So Democrats have a responsibility to both provide solutions, but also to talk about them to the electorate.

There’s a line Maya Angelou has. “It’s not what you do for people, it’s how you make them feel.” (Ed. Note: This quote in many paraphrased forms is often attributed to Angelou, but there’s no evidence she ever wrote or said it.) We didn’t have the conversation about the things that we had accomplished for people.

This generation right now is the slowest generation in American history to buy a house, to buy a car, to start a family. That is a long systemic problem that we have not fully solved, and I think it’s important to acknowledge that, but they’re only making it worse.

On the other side, there’s a line in the movie “The American President” that if you don’t give people water, they’ll drink sand. Trump is to blame. He is trying to pit people against each other in order to maintain power, but we got to give people water. That’s the history and the soul of who the Democratic Party is, and that’s what we have to do as we’re heading into after the elections.

RM: But there’s always that sense that Democrats are going to get into power and they’re going to raise taxes.

CH: I just told you—

RM: Yeah, but what’s the plan you’re talking about making people ‘feel’ alright…

CH: It’s important to acknowledge the fact that in Michigan, we actually lowered the taxes for most working families and brought 30,000 kids out of poverty. We’re the ones that ended the retirement tax. (Former GOP Gov.) Rick Snyder is the one that put it on. So I do think that there are good examples of that. At the end of the day, I don’t want to raise the taxes on any Americans, except for those that are in the top 1% that I think can afford to pay them in order to provide what is guaranteed to all of us, which is the life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

“We’ve got to stop giving up on places.” 

RM: So Democrats are reconnecting with the working class in Michigan. But you know, nationally, that seems like it’s a lesson from 2024. What else can you glean from that election?

CH: Here’s the thing, it’s not just a lesson from 2024 I want to be perfectly clear. We need to build a party that is not just survive on one election alone. Like, like, that’s part of the problem is that we didn’t learn the actual lessons in 2018 because we won. And to me, there’s, there are really important lessons that the Democratic Party has to learn.

Part of it is, we’ve got to stop giving up on places. I was in 32 counties last year working to do the work of a Democratic Party.

It’s hard to sell a Democrat from California in Kalkaska, but it is easy to sell people that are actually from that community. And so we’ve got to rebuild.

So it’s not just about redoing one election and trying to win one election, this is about the structural problem that we have got to refocus back and try to win everywhere. It’s why we have an office in Detroit, because a lot of times, people in Detroit felt like we had abandoned them, that we were showing up in September and asking for their vote. We’re in as part of the community now, because it’s important to do that work.

Trying to bring people together after losing trust

RM: There was a major rift within the Democratic Party about Israel’s war in Gaza. A lot of that affected Dearborn, Hamtramck—metro Detroit’s Muslim and Arab communities. How do you rebuild that trust? Because a lot of them either stayed home or ended up voting for Donald Trump because he was the “peace candidate.”

CH: So I was endorsed for chair by both the Jewish Caucus and the Arab caucus, because there is a real want and need to build spaces where people communicate together.

There’s not going to be a Democratic party where everyone agrees on every single issue that that that that is out there, but there has got to be room for people to have conversation and be able to find places they agree with.

So for example, on ICE and the changing of what ‘America’ means when we have immigrants actually carrying their own papers because they’re afraid… I met with an American citizen who carries his passport every single day because he’s terrified of being stopped in the street.

That’s something the Jewish Caucus and the Arab caucus agree on, and they work together on. I think that’s what’s really powerful, is actually finding the spaces of agreement between people. My job is not to decide where the Democratic party goes. That’s the people’s job. Like the idea that the chair of the Democratic Party is supposed to set the position for all these people is just nonsense.

RM: I’m talking about outreach, really. There was a lot of trust broken. I talked with a ton of people, and we had 100,000 people vote uncommitted in a primary that took place in Michigan.

CH: We actively avoided conversations. And that does not work. I’m spending a lot of time in the Arab community and the Jewish community right now, actually, because I think it’s really important that we actually provide a space.

And I think that really the biggest thing that I am trying to solve is that people have felt forgotten by the Democratic Party. And I can tell you that that’s why I was in 32 counties last year. It’s why I was at more iftars than I’ve ever been in my entire life last year. It’s why finding that space between people is so important, and showing up and being part of the conversation and listening, which I think is probably the most important part politicians and party people have a tendency to talk a lot, but not to listen a lot. So that’s what I’m I’m doing as chair of this party, trying to bring people together.

Democrats need to fight back

RM: You talked about Eli Savit and Garlin Gilchrist being fighters for Michigan.

CH: Yes.

RM: Is that in response to the perception nationally of Democrats not being fighters for what they want? Because there’s a reason why the Democratic Party has a very, very low favorability rating right now. From the people I’ve talked to, especially at protests, they don’t feel like the Democratic Party or Democratic candidates are doing enough to fight for what they want.

CH: I will say that my best days are when Democrats are fighting back. I think we had the most progressive six months in the history of Michigan, when Democrats had the trifecta. But I get it like people are frustrated and they’re angry, and I would say two things about that.

One, we should always push our leaders to do more, and I’m all for that, and that’s important. But I will also say that for each of us, we’re waiting for the calvary to come, and we have to realize that we are the cavalry.

We have got to do the work to change and take the Republicans out of power.

We do these things called “People’s Town Halls.” It’s my favorite thing that I do as chair. We go into Republican districts and we actually bring people in because they refuse to meet with their own constituents, and we listen to people and what they’re feeling and the anger and the frustration.

And I get that people want that to change, but I will say this: right now, unfortunately, Democrats are in minority in the house by three seats, and in the Senate. We can change at this election. Democrats do have to prove they’re willing to fight back, absolutely, but we got to get to the place where in the power to actually change that first. And I have full faith that, when I’m going around the state, that we have Democrats that are ready to go out and do that work.

There’s no doubt the Detroit Lions have scarred many of their fans, being the first team to ever go 0-16.

Heartbreaking losses that seemed to defy the rule book, like Calvin Johnson’s non-catch in Chicago. Or the picked up penalty in the playoffs vs the Cowboys.

Losing affects the players too, like Hall of Fame running back Barry Sanders faxing his retirement to his hometown newspaper.

It’s not easy for anyone around that franchise, apparently. The same goes for Dearborn-raised, Brooklyn-based comedian Joel Walkowski.

In his book “Honolulu Blues: How Loving a Losing Team Created a Winning Man” Walkowski recounts the story of his family’s personal trauma, alongside the failings of his favorite team, the Detroit Lions. It’s incredibly funny and deeply personal in a way that many can relate to.

Walkowski has been on stages across the country. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, on Comedy Central and a bunch of other places. He tells WDET’s Russ McNamara why he decided to write the book.

Joel Walkowski: It was during the [Lions coach Matt] Patricia era, and you knew that fourth quarter collapse was always coming, and knowing that the hard thing was coming kind of made it easier. And that made me think, like, ‘oh, being a Lions fan impacted me in a profound way’.

And then as part of my, like, sobriety journey, I was tasked to do goals for myself. Like, what do I really want out of life? What do I think maximizes who I am? And it was like, “Oh, if I don’t write this book, I will always regret it.” So it became my purpose, my number one goal, and like I revolved my life around writing this book.

Russ McNamara: It says a lot about the depth of a book when a historically bad franchise with its own share of tragedy isn’t the darkest stuff in it.

JW: I’ll say that there is maybe every bit of darkness that could exist is in this book, but it’s handled with lightness. And I do think the overlap is there because I started to get very serious about my sobriety, September 2021 exactly.

And I don’t know how familiar you guys are with Lions history, but things started to be done very different. So it’s Campbell-Holmes era. It’s Sheila Ford. I’m bouncing back from, like, my darkest points. So like looking at Jared [Goff] and Dan [Campbell] and Brad [Holmes], as I’m like, you know, white knuckling 90 days of sobriety and thinking, like, “Oh, is there a different way to do this?” It was so helpful.

RM: In the book, you’re very open about your experience growing up, and you specifically mentioned essentially getting addicted to speed as a child—as many people of our age did. At what point did you, even as a child, kind of realize something’s not right?

JW: I was seven years old when I was put on very high doses of Adderall. Then I get to high school and there was a high school video program. I started to want to make different videos. I wanted to have more ambitions, but I would just start taking pill after pill after pill, pulling all-nighters and really string myself out.

But along those same lines, every time I’d produce something, I got validation. I was seen for the first time. So this finding of my identity was happening while I was abusing a substance.

I didn’t become an addict because I was letting loose or partying. I became an addict alone in my room, fostering some ambition, because putting something out there was the only way I had any value, any worth, right?

RM: How much of that value and worth did you sort of get tied into with following the ins and outs of the Detroit Lions?

JW: My life revolves around Sundays, but I try and make them only value added. Regardless of a win or loss, I play basketball from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. If we win, I show my girlfriends the highlights. If we lose, I turn off my phone and don’t check any football news until Tuesday.

If you get to the very ending of this book, which dovetails with, you know, a certain 17-point halftime lead, [Lions vs 49ers in 2023 NFC Championship Game] that lesson was given to me is “the win is the friends and relationships we make along the way.” And that it took me nearly 40 years to learn that.

Joel Walkowski’s book “Honolulu Blues: How Loving a Losing Team Created a Winning Man” is out July 14, 2026 just in time for the start of Detroit Lions training camp. It is available for pre-order now.

The Michigan Democratic Senate Primary is heating up a bit. Polls largely show the trio of Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, Congresswoman Haley Stevens, and State Senator Mallory McMorrow all within the margin of error of each other.

Stevens and McMorrow have been trading off the lead.

The race has simmered with the candidates not really taking shots at each other. That’s now changed.

Yesterday, El-Sayed rallied at the University of Michigan and Michigan State with left-wing influencer Hasan Piker.

Piker’s livestreams – and political commentary – have drawn over three million followers on Twitch.

In 2024, Piker was invited to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, but was kicked out over his criticism of Democrats and candidate Kamala Harris – for their failure to stop or criticize Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

The 34-year-old Piker has made some controversial statements and his inclusion by the progressive El-Sayed has drawn sharp criticism by centrist Democrats.

When the campaign stops were announced, McMorrow was quick to compare Piker to Nick Fuentes—a far-right white supremacist holocaust denier. Stevens and current Michigan U.S. Senator Elissa Slotkin also criticized the move.

Detroit-based reporter Tom Perkins looked at the controversy for The Guardian.

He tells WDET’s Russ McNamara that this fight is indicative of an internal struggle within the Democratic Party.

A party divided

Tom Perkins: I think this is really part of the ongoing civil war between the sort of Hillary Clinton wing of the party and the more progressive Bernie Sanders / AOC (Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez) / Zohran Mamdani wing of the party.

You have El-Sayed and Piker, who are very progressive, and Piker has campaigned or interviewed AOC, Sanders, Zohran Mamdani, etc. And while McMorrow is a little bit younger and more progressive than somebody like Hillary Clinton, a lot of her surrogates, her aides, etc., come from that camp. And so that’s sort of the broader dynamic here and worth keeping in mind.

Accusations of anti-semitism

TP: Piker has been highly critical of Israel. He’s criticized it over its genocide, its rampaging through the Middle East, its war crimes, its atrocities, and he speaks about it in very strong terms. So that’s that alone has drawn some criticism, but he’s also said some pretty controversial things.

[Piker] said Hamas is lesser of the two evils with the Israeli government. Hamas is 1000 times better than the Israeli government. And he said this in the context of looking at who causes more death in the Middle East. And while it’s a controversial statement, people have said, “Oh, well, that’s antisemitic.” But he’s defended himself and said, “No, that’s a criticism of the Israeli government. That’s not a criticism of all Jewish people.”

[Piker] called a sect of Orthodox Jews in Israel who are ethno-supremacists, “inbred.” And that ignited a huge controversy, and that’s been used against him. People have said, “Oh, well, he called all Jews inbred.” He’s, defended that, and said, “No, I use that term to describe Nazis. I use that term to describe ethno-supremacists and racial supremacists of all kinds.”

When I talked with him about it, he said, “Look, there’s a super cut out there of an hour long of me calling different groups inbred, and it has nothing to do with with Jewish people or Jews. It’s just a term that I use to describe supremacists.”

Arab American views

Russ McNamara: What do Arab American leaders say here in Michigan?

TP: For my story, I spoke with seven local and national Arab American and Lebanese American leaders. They all said some variation of the same thing, which is that these attacks on El-Sayed and Piker show that the establishment Democrats are making the same moral and strategic blunders that they made in 2024 that led to Dems electoral demise in Michigan and nationally.

They say this is an attempt to censor criticism of Israel, and they say that it shows the anti-Arab bias that imbues the political establishment. McMorrow in her criticism of El-Sayed and Piker said, “Well, you know, Piker shouldn’t be here, because this happened in the wake of the Temple Israel Synagogue attacks,” which she said that Jewish people are suffering from that. Which is true that Jewish people are suffering from that, and that should be acknowledged, but she doesn’t acknowledge the suffering of the 120,000 Lebanese American people in Michigan.

Their families are from southern Lebanon. Israel has invaded Lebanon, virtually every one of these 120,000 people, either have a family member, a loved one, a friend who has been killed by Israel, or displaced by Israel. A million people are displaced right now in southern Lebanon. Many, many people from Michigan have family members who are suffering. That suffering is reverberating across Southeast Michigan, and that is not being acknowledged by McMorrow or centrist Democrats or establishment Democrats.

RM: How much impact will this actually have on the Democratic Primary?

TP: One of the one of the folks I spoke with for the story was Abed Ayoub, who’s the spokesperson for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), an Arab American civil rights group in Dearborn.

He said to me: “Look, Republicans are making inroads here. If there’s somebody like McMorrow, if there’s a Democratic candidate who’s not considering us, who’s not thinking about our suffering, who’s telling us to be quiet about Israel, then the same things that happened in 2024 are going to happen again. People are going to vote for a Republican. They’re going to stay home, they’re going to vote third party. So yes, if you want to win in Michigan, you might want to acknowledge this suffering. You might want to acknowledge that this is happening.”

I should stress that everybody I spoke with said some variation the same thing, which is the suffering of both people can be acknowledged at the same time. We don’t have to exclude one or the other.