U of M's Brand Appeal is Undeniable

Allie Volpe, Vox: "Small talk is what you make it. It can be a delightful way to spend a few minutes with a stranger while in line at the grocery store, it can be your superpower at a party, or it can lead to your next career move."

Rose White, MLive: "Unseasonably warm weather, little snowfall and muddy trails have hollowed out the winter tourism industry across the Upper Peninsula. This crisis has devastated the small communities that rely on a thick blanket of snow to keep the economy humming. Although visitor numbers peak in summer, winter plays a vital role in tiding businesses over between shoulder seasons."

FULL EPISODE aired on WJR 760AM Radio: Jeff Sloan, Kristin Kujawa, and Mark Pastoria highlight Michigan schools making the top envied list, the pros and cons of daylight savings time, and the new standard for spring break vacations. (07:49) Rose White, MLive, The UP tourism reckons with warm weather (19:31) Allie Volpe, Vox, The art of mastering small talk.

FULL EPISODE aired on WJR Radio 760AM: Jeff Sloan, Kristin Kujawa, Mark Pastoria talk about health in many formats: Potato chips and the importance to the MI economy, Exercise, supplements, Detroit style pizza, and mental health and the stamina to live a year in a Mars simulator. Rose White, MLive, Michigan's potato industry and Jamie Ducharme, Time, Why you don't want to exercise, join the show.

Rose White, MLive, "Plucked from the dirt, most MI potatoes are sliced, peeled, fried, salted and turned into chips. As the 8th largest producer of potatoes in the country, MI plays a “critically important” role in the chip industry. About 70% of the MI-grown spuds become chips for brands like Frito Lay, Herr’s, Utz Snacks, Better Made Snack Foods and Great Lakes Potato Chip Co."

Jamie Ducharme, Time, "Why is it so tough to get people to do something so good for and accessible to them? Physical limitations and health problems are certainly a factor for many people. Modern life deserves much of the blame, too, with long, sedentary work days and infrastructure that often makes it easier to hop in the car than walk or bike somewhere. But research suggests there’s another obstacle that affects all of us: our brains don’t want us to exercise."

Janelle D James, BridgeMI: Fluctuating temperatures can be particularly troubling for fruit farmers who rely on cold temperatures to help the trees “sleep” during the winter. If temperatures are consistently too warm, crops can start to bud too early, putting the flower at risk of freezing and jeopardizing spring and summer fruit production when the temperatures drop again.

Juliana Kaplan, Business Insider: The costs of rearing a child have skyrocketed. Raising a kid could cost parents upward of $26,000 this year. Being a DINK has always been a way to save money, but as the stigma around the choice to be child-free has faded, more Americans see being a DINK as the key to a new American dream of financial stability, freedom of choice, and a comfortable retirement.

FULL EPISODE aired on WJR 760AM radio: Jeff Sloan, Kristin Kujawa, and Mark Pastoria promote volunteering for the Greening of Detroit, feral goldfish in our lakes and the city in MI with the best tasting water. Also (09:18) Benji Jones, Vox, The Earth is Getting Greener! Hooray? (16:34) Juliana Kaplan, Business Insider, DINKs are living the new American dream (26:34) Janelle D James, BridgeMI, Unseasonably warm weather a challenge for fruit farmers in MI. Wrapping up: what your Detroit suburb says about you.

Benji Jones, The Vox, Greening is complicated. It’s not inherently good. Sometimes it’s very bad. Context matters a lot. Listen to our interview to explain what is happening to the Earth.