Beyond Both Sides: Round Zero | Episode 34

Recorded at 7 a.m., about 11 hours after Michigan’s polls closed, this episode picks up where election night left off. Democrats ran the table: Jocelyn Benson is governor-elect, Abdul El-Sayed becomes the first Muslim elected to the U.S. Senate, and a flipped state House gives Democrats full control of Lansing again.Allie Walker, Chris Moyer and John Truscott break down what happened and why. Was this a referendum on Donald Trump, and what do the wave elections of 1974 and 2006 say about what comes next? What should a new trifecta take on first, and how does it avoid signaling that Michigan is closed for business? Plus: what El-Sayed’s campaign got right about modern communication, where John James’ campaign fell short, why Prop 2 is likely headed to court, and two Southeast Michigan millage wins close to home.Smart. Civil. Real.

Hundreds of thousands of ballots are already in, early voting opens statewide Oct. 24, and Michigan’s two biggest races are open seats. In our final episode before Election Day, Allie Walker takes the host seat and puts John Truscott and Chris Moyer on the record for Nov. 3.First up is the governor’s race between Jocelyn Benson and John James: James’s distance from Trump, Benson’s roughly five-to-one cash advantage, and whether an October surprise still matters when so many votes are already cast. Then the U.S. Senate race between Abdul El-Sayed and Mike Rogers, where they look at the Benson-Rogers voter, crossover appeal with Jewish, Black, and union voters, and why one host sees a possible recount coming. Last, control of the Legislature: can Democrats flip the House, can Republicans take the Senate, and is a trifecta headed to Lansing?Plus: the one thing every Michigan voter should know before casting a ballot.

Six weeks from Election Day, Michigan's general election is here. Absentee ballots are about to hit mailboxes, early voting starts next month, and both the Senate and governor's races remain within the margin of error.Recorded at the 50-day mark, this episode features Chris Moyer and John Truscott, with Ryan Gajewski moderating. They size up where things stand. Can Abdul El-Sayed hold his momentum against Mike Rogers? Why hasn't John James defined himself yet against Jocelyn Benson? And how much is the Trump factor weighing on Republicans up and down the ballot? They also dig into whether polls are missing quieter conservative voters, how campaigns should spend their scarcest resource (time), and which House and Senate races could decide control in Lansing.Stick around for the predictions. There's no consensus.

Long before she was Director of Marketing at HexArmor, Amber Ginop was working the promotions team for the West Michigan Whitecaps — running t-shirt tosses, hamburger costume races, and dizzy bat contests in the summer sun. It was there she made an unexpected connection: every fun promotion was really a brand awareness campaign. That realization launched a career that took her through the Detroit Tigers, Nike, MLive Media Group, and a move to Alabama before landing at HexArmor, where she's spent the last decade building the brand. Ryan and Amber talk career pivots, the power of showing up with energy, why connections matter more than you think, and her advice for anyone afraid to take the next leap: try new things, and it's okay to fail.

Greg Deja accepted his first teaching job before he even knew the school's name. On this episode of My 1st Gig, host Ryan Brown talks with Greg Deja — now President of Catholic Central High School in Grand Rapids — about the winding path that took him there.Greg's first gig had him teaching English, coaching football, and serving as dean of students at a Massachusetts high school, all while earning his master's at night. From there, he led a $20 million capital campaign at Catholic Central, ran the Catholic Foundation of West Michigan, and returned home in 2025 to launch the Catholic Promise — a 10-year commitment capping tuition sacrifice at $6,000 to keep Catholic education within reach for working families.Greg also shares the advice he gives anyone starting their career: "You should be scared. And if you're not scared, you're doing something wrong."

Tiffany Gunter's first gig was answering phones at 13 — receptionist duty at her church rectory, complete with a state work permit and a dog to walk. Today, she's the General Manager and CEO of SMART, Southeast Michigan's regional transit system.On this episode of My 1st Gig, host Ryan Brown talks with Tiffany about the winding path between those two points: a supervisor role at 18 managing coworkers twice her age, a stint at Kmart corporate where she built her own demand-forecasting model before the term "AI" was part of the conversation, and a detour through the auto industry that led her, almost by accident, into public transit. Tiffany also opens up about riding SMART buses incognito to understand the system from a passenger's seat, the lesson she learned when a driver passed her by at a stop on a scorching summer day, and the blunt advice from her father that sent her into public service in the first place.It's a conversation about curiosity, service, and figuring out — sometimes the hard way — what actually motivates people.

Michigan's primary is over, and the fall campaign starts now. Chris Moyer is joined by John Truscott and Ryan Gajewski to break down the results — Mike Rogers vs. Abdul El-Sayed for Senate, Jocelyn Benson vs. John James for governor — and what each side signals about who's built the coalition to win in November. They dig into authenticity in political communication, the risk of guilt-by-association, and why this fall might be the most unpredictable election Michigan's seen in years.

With five days until Michigan's August 4th primary, Chris and Allie go on the record with their predictions for the Democratic Senate race between Haley Stevens and Abdul El-Sayed — and they disagree. Chris breaks down Stevens' communications missteps and the progressive energy fueling El-Sayed. Allie makes the case for Stevens' polling lead and her strength with non-college-educated voters. They also call the Republican gubernatorial primary (it's John James's race), weigh how a low-turnout August could shape November, and close with a "disagree better" story about the new Gordy Howe International Bridge connecting Detroit and Windsor — proof that infrastructure can outlast an argument.

At 22, Ali Anderson was running a 900-student dorm — "like a toddler watching a nine-month-old," she jokes. That first job in residence life taught her to lead without authority and manage chaos on the fly, lessons that carried her through corporate telecom, a decade of running her own photography business, and eventually into the spirits industry as CEO of Craft Co, the company behind Joseph Magnus and Copper Craft Distillery. She joins Ryan Brown in Holland, Michigan to talk about the 1892 whiskey bottle discovery that changed her path, why "people are drinking less" headlines miss the bigger story, and her advice for anyone starting out: ask the dumb question.

Before she was building Opnr — a platform reshaping how live music gets booked — Andrea "Dre" Wallace was driving a farm gator and sorting blueberries on a West Michigan farm at 14. In this episode, Ryan Brown sits down with the two-time founder and professional musician to trace her path from blueberry fields to touring with Bassnectar to launching a startup at the intersection of music and data. Dre shares what farm work taught her about teamwork, why she insisted on pairing her music degree with a business degree, and the advice she gives every first-time founder: know why you're building, and know what you want your life to look like.