Today on Stateside, how should Congress respond in the aftermath of two mass shootings this weekend that left more than 30 people dead in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio? Plus, with the controversy surrounding CTE and other brain damage in professional football players, should parents be worried about their kid's safety in the sport?
Listen to the full show above or find individual segments below.
Rep. Levin argues more restrictions on guns won’t infringe on ability to hunt, self-protect
- After the shootings in El Paso and Dayton over the weekend, the nation is again talking about how to prevent future massacres. Congress has failed to move on efforts to curb gun violence deaths over the past several years. Now, President Trump says he would favor background checks, but would like to see them tied to comprehensive immigration reform.
- Representative Andy Levin is a Democrat from Michigan’s 9th District. He shares his thoughts on what it would take for Congress to enact gun control measures, and on the proliferation of white supremacist sentiment and violence in America.
Research contradicts claim that violent video games contribute to mass shootings
- As members of Congress struggle to respond to the latest series of mass shootings, Republican leaders have been pointing the finger at violent video games. Both President Trump and House Minority leader Kevin McCarthy have cited violent video games as partly to blame for the increasing number of mass shootings.
- Whitney DeCamp is a professor of sociology at Western Michigan University, where he researches the connection between violence and video games. He says that research does not support the claim that violent video games contribute to real life violence, and that politicians use video games as a scapegoat to avoid addressing the real roots of violence.
Wayne State field archivist discusses lifetime documenting labor movement, civil rights, and Detroit
- Library collections are known to hold the depth and breadth of human experiences, but have you ever thought about how those important pieces of the past were gathered and preserved? Well, you can thank an archivist for that!
- Louis Jones is the field archivist for the Walter Reuther Library at Wayne State University, and he will soon be inducted as a fellow of the Society of American Archivists. Jones tells us what inspired him to become an archivist, and reflects on his work preserving the stories of the American civil rights and labor movements.
Find Caribbean clear water, history stories, and diverse nature at North Higgins Lake
- As Michigan’s state parks celebrate a big 100th birthday this year, we’re looking at these parks through the eyes of the people who work there. Josh Pellow is park manager at North Higgins Lake State Park, northwest of Roscommon in Crawford County. He tells us what makes his park special and why he thinks people should visit it.
Should parents be worried about concussions in youth sports? Not necessarily.
- It's football season, and that means it’s time for renewed attention to the safety issues wrapped up in the sport, particularly concussions and other head injuries. Michigan Radio’s sports commentator John U. Bacon explores these questions in his upcoming book Overtime, and Jeffrey Kutcher runs the Sports Neurology Clinic in Brighton. They join Stateside to talk about the disconnect between the focus on brain damage sustained by older professional football players, and the risk to kids playing the sport today.
Retired journalist reflects on L. Brooks Patterson’s contentious relationship with Detroit
- Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson died Saturday at the age of 80. Many colleagues, and some in the media, are praising Patterson for the way he ran Oakland County’s government. Others are pointing to his decades of criticizing the city of Detroit and its leaders and residents as his true legacy.
- Bill McGraw is a journalist and co-founder of Deadline Detroit. He talks about the reactions from other journalists following Patterson’s death, and lays out what he believes Patterson’s legacy will ultimately be.
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