
CONVERSATIONS! 2022
Sat May 7, 2022 @ 8:00 am - Thu December 7, 2023 @ 5:00 pm
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CONVERSATIONS! Show Host Chuck Newman
To watch past shows click on the buttons below.
Yalcin Yanıkoğlu, Sergio Martinez-Beltrán, Bob Chunn and Mark Brewer
Now that the Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission has issued new maps, come learn what that means for you and for future elections. Guests on Conversations! will be Sergio Martínez-Beltrán, Capital Reporter for Bridge Magazine, Bob Chunn and Yalcin Yonikoglu of Next Vote and Mark Brewer of Goodman Acker P.C.
Dr. Richard Solomon and Rebecca Newman
Often called “The fun doctor,” Rick Solomon M.D., Medical Director at Ann Arbor Center for Development and Behavioral Pediatrics, will be one of the guests on Conversations! where he will answer questions and discuss the latest advances in autism. Dr. Solomon is a developmental pedriatician. His widely admired PLAY Project Autism Intervention Model helps young children improve their language, development, and autism severity and his book, “Autism: The Potential Within”, details the intervention. He will be joined by Rebecca Newman who will describe her life as someone with autism.
Terry Swartzberg, a Jewish “Ethical Campaigner” who has lived in Germany for 45 years, speaks with us from his home in Munich Germany. Terry Swartzberg became a reporter for the International Herald Tribune. Terry talks about the time he met with Presitent Vladimir Putin and the profound effect the invasion of Ukraine is having on Germany.
Terry answered questions about his experiences openly wearing a kippah in Germany for the last 9 years as well as his involvement with the Stolperstein project, the world’s largest distributed commemoration project. The project has installed over 100,000 concrete cubes bearing a brass plate inscribed with the name and life dates of victims of Nazi extermination or persecution in the sidewalks in front of their last place of residence before becoming victims of the Nazis.
Nurit Gery, Christina, Te’ena and Hussein
Guest speaker Nurit Gery, director of Givat Haviva International School in northern Israel along with students Christina, Te’ena and Hussein from GHIS which is a coed boarding high school that brings together promising young students from diverse communities and varying economic backgrounds. Over three years they train to become leaders for cross-cultural cooperation and conflict resolution.
Their stories are fascinating and will give you hope.
Shanay Watson-Whittaker and Renee Chelian
Learn why the loss of abortion rights in Michigan is a real possibility and what’s being done about it. It happened in Texas and other states and it most likely will happen in Michigan.
Shanay Watson-Whittaker of Reproductive Freedom for All and Renee Chelian of the Northland Family Planning Centers illustrate why this freedom for women is so important. They share personal stories, why it’s in jeopardy and how it can be avoided.
Derrick Miller and Nataliya Starak
Derrick Miller is the Executive Director of the Community Action Network in Ann Arbor Michigan and he felt he had to do something to help the people of Ukraine. The experience was intense, to say the least, but it was also highly impactful. While he was there he was assisted by Nataliya Starak who has fascinating and heartwarming stories to share with us.
On Conversations they will touch on experiences at 2 refugee centers, a hostel with nearly 300 Ukrainian women and children, multiple border crossings, and hundreds of interactions with a myriad of foreign volunteers, refugees, Polish and Ukrainian authorities and even the pets of Ukrainian refugees.
Nancy Wang – Executive Director of Voters Not Politicians
What are the very real possibilities that it will become much more difficult to vote in Michigan and how the Promote the Vote ballot initiative can block the current effort to suppress the vote?