ISSUE ONE
AUGUST 12
2026
BUILDING THE CONVERSATION
Report. Listen. Think. Talk.
A weekly newsroom journal from Michigan: We Need to Talk
Before the show is finished
Tomorrow night, Michigan: We Need to Talk begins, with a tale from Dowagiac that has lessons for all of Michigan.
But today, because you’re a subscriber to Building the Conversation, you get to hear what we’ve got coming — before we're quite finished with it.
The audio below is the opening of our first conversation.
It's been reported, recorded and edited. But we're still working. We may tighten before airtime. We may change a piece of tape. What you hear on the radio might be a little different from what you hear here.
That's the point.
Building the Conversation is an invitation behind the curtain — not just to see the finished show, but to see and hear us making it.
And there's another reason we're giving you this early.
We don't want your first response to have to be your fastest response.
Listen now. Spend some time with what you hear. Think about what surprises you, what you disagree with, what you still want to know — and what the story in Dowagiac makes you think about your own community.
Then, when we gather on the radio, bring that thinking into the conversation.
Michigan: We Need to Talk
Thursday at 8 p.m. on Michigan Public
Call: 734-412-7155
Email: [email protected]
So, before we talk Thursday, here's what we heard in Dowagiac.