The Mitten Channel is a Michigan podcast and media network created by former Genesee County Prosecutor Arthur Busch. We produce original programs that blend legal expertise, investigative storytelling, and deep Michigan history — including true crime analysis, environmental investigations, employee rights, and rich biographies rooted in Flint’s working-class culture. Our mission is to preserve Michigan stories, examine the systems that shape our communities, and give voice to the people who…
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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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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 Lee…