The Moment with Brad LaPlante

This weekend, the United States marks 250 years — and the birthday itself has become a fight, with dueling celebrations and competing claims about how the country's story should be told.Thoughts? Email me at [email protected] our show on YouTube: Watch our show on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqgS30Rc4L7OvWFdZCKMpQaiNw5iVA357For transcripts and more, visit wlns.com/originals/moment

Hey there, it’s Brad. We’re off this week. So I’m sharing an interview from the past week with Demetri Morgan. I had not originally planned to release this in full, so please excuse the poor audio.

Sheffield speaks about Frederick Douglass and Dr. King, about fatherhood and power, about whether the Black church still has the force to organize a generation drifting away and about why he believes — as King did — in an “innate goodness” in people, even now.Thoughts? Email me at [email protected] our show on YouTube: Watch our show on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqgS30Rc4L7OvWFdZCKMpQaiNw5iVA357For transcripts and more, visit wlns.com/originals/moment

The East Lansing Democrat died on a hill pushing for an Epstein investigation. Now she’s paying the price.Thoughts? Email me at [email protected] our show on YouTube: Watch our show on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqgS30Rc4L7OvWFdZCKMpQaiNw5iVA357For transcripts and more, visit wlns.com/originals/moment

Brad here. We're off this week, but please enjoy this episode of The Moment: our interview with Tom Leonard.Thoughts? Email me at [email protected] our show on YouTube: Watch our show on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqgS30Rc4L7OvWFdZCKMpQaiNw5iVA357For transcripts and more, visit wlns.com/originals/moment

A Michigan bill would make it easier for wrongfully convicted people to win state compensation. This week, Wayne County exonerees Roderic Pippen and Eric Anderson, WMU-Cooley Innocence Project's Dr. Marla Mitchell-Cichon, and bill sponsor Sen. Staphanie Chang about what the fix would — and wouldn't — change.Thoughts? Email me at [email protected] our show on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqgS30Rc4L7OvWFdZCKMpQaiNw5iVA357For transcripts and more, visit: wlns.com/originals/moment

Aric Nesbitt was first elected to the Michigan House of Representatives in 2011. He served as state Lottery commissioner in the final years of Gov. Rick Snyder’s term. He ran for state Senate in 2018 and won, eventually rising to Senate Minority Leader. Now, Nesbitt is running for governor.

Will Lawrence grew up in East Lansing watching soccer fields give way to subdivisions. He spent years trying to stop that kind of development, or at least redirect it, as co-founder of the Sunrise Movement, the youth-led climate organization that helped push the Green New Deal into mainstream Democratic politics. Now, he’s running for Congress in Michigan’s 7th District, a seat Tom Barrett flipped red in 2024 when he defeated Democrat Curtis Hertel.

Tom Leonard joins the Moment after he's dropped out of the governor's race.

Attorney General Dana Nessel is suing Eli Lily for alleged price gouging in Michigan. A bill in the Michigan House would eliminate Nessel's legal theory for her lawsuit and change how the state can sue businesses.

Curtis Hertel's job, as chair of the Michigan Democratic Party, is to put Democrats in the best position to win elections. But the party is railing against former Democrat Mike Duggan. Republicans say he's "100% a Democrat," but Hertel says he is running a campaign fueled by the GOP. Duggan, meanwhile, says he's running a campaign for those sick of both parties.

Matt Maasdam, a Democratic candidate in Michigan’s 7th Congressional District, says the Trump administration’s war in Iran is a personal litmus test. He traces the war back through his 20-year Navy career, his deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan and his tenure as the military aide who carried the nuclear codes for former President Barack Obama.

State Sen. Mallory McMorrow says she wants Democrats to deliver results for the people who elected them.

Michigan Senate Republican Jim Runestad, now in his second year as chair of the state GOP, is using his role to sharpen criticism of Democrats on immigration enforcement and the 2026 gubernatorial race.

Barely more than a week ago, a synagogue in West Bloomfield, Michigan, was attacked. In the aftermath, elected leaders are posting Islamophobic tweets, and antisemitism is still a concern.

Michigan state Rep. Alabas Farhat (D-Dearborn) says his district doesn't want war with Iran.

State Sen. Stephanie Chang says Michigan can’t wait to rein in immigration agents she and other Democrats describe as increasingly aggressive and opaque, so she and other lawmakers are trying to write new guardrails into state law.

Former Ukraine Ambassador Bridget Brink joins The Moment to discuss foreign policy, how she would reform Congress and why she believes U.S. Democracy is at stake. Also, Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Birmingham) walks through a tour of an ICE facility in Baldwin, Michigan, where a Bulgarian national died in December.

State Rep. Mark Tisdel, R-Rochester Hills, sat down with Brad LaPlante to discuss his landmark K-12 cellphone ban, how politics influences the media and what's next for kids and technology.

Gary Peters talks retirement from the Senate, health care and bipartisanship. Also, Dr. Natasha Bagdasarian joins the show to discuss vaccine policy.

Republican governor candidate Tom Leonard, in many ways, is your typical conservative: small government, lower taxes and focuses on job growth. He also says that Republicans need to be the party of solutions, not the blame game.

Abdul El-Sayed is a progressive. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., endorsed him in the 2018 Democratic primary for governor, a race he eventually lost to Gretchen Whitmer. Sanders has also endorsed him in this election.Thoughts? Email me at [email protected] our show on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqgS30Rc4L7OvWFdZCKMpQaiNw5iVA357For transcripts and more, visit: wlns.com/originals/moment

Brad LaPlante sits down with Nasim Barghouti, a Palestinian student attending Michigan State University. He has family in the West Bank. He talks about the peace deal brokered by Donald Trump and if he has hope for lasting peace. Also, The Hill White House Correspondent Brett Samuels joins the call to discuss the deal.Thoughts? Email me at [email protected] our show on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqgS30Rc4L7OvWFdZCKMpQaiNw5iVA357For transcripts and more, visit: wlns.com/originals/moment

U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens talks the shutdown, Israel and more.Thoughts? Email me at [email protected] our show on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqgS30Rc4L7OvWFdZCKMpQaiNw5iVA357For transcripts and more, visit: wlns.com/originals/moment