The Cold Oatmeal Podcast: Recent Episodes
Resch Strategies
Welcome to Cold Oatmeal, a production of Resch Strategies, concocted from the creative think tank that is 300 S. Washington Square, Suite 415. With topics ranging from the latest news headlines and future crisis communications case studies to what we had for dinner last night and what’s happening across Michigan and the nation.
We are one week out. Who’s gonna win this thing?
We know it won’t be the American people, but respected pollster Richard Czuba joins us to share who’s trending to at least get the most votes.
Richard owns the Glengariff Group and has been doing non-partisan opinion research and polling for more than 30 years. He’s the pollster for the Detroit News and WDIV TV 4 in Detroit, and today he’s our election-preview guest on the Cold Oatmeal Podcast!
Yay, more politics!!
Residents and regular visitors to East Lansing – Heck! Even college football or basketball TV viewers across the country – know there are only a few iconic “college bars” in town. Mike Krueger owns them both.
For decades now, Crunchy’s and the Peanut Barrel have been “the places to go” for MSU students and local residents alike, serving good beer, amazing burgers and great – although maybe slightly hazy – memories. Mike didn’t start either place, but he’s leading them now. And today, he’s with us on the podcast.
What’s the secret? How’d he come to own them both? Which burger does he like best? It’s Mike Krueger, and it’s the Cold Oatmeal Podcast!
17 years ago, Jim Tobin started the first social media consulting firm in America while working here in Michigan. Let that sentence sink in for a minute.
Jim literally wrote the book on social media marketing back then, and today, he and his social media and influencer marketing companies – Ignite Social Media and Carusele – are going strong.
Is Twitter dead? Is AI scary? Is social media still just like a cocktail party? How’d he become a major college mascot? Jim Tobin is our guest, and he answers these questions and more.
Plus, engagement updates!!!
It’s the Cold Oatmeal Podcast.
Ferguson for three???… Money!
Desmond Ferguson grew up in Lansing. He played high school, college and pro basketball, including a stop in the NBA. In 2002, he founded Moneyball Sportswear, a Lansing-based company providing customized team uniforms and individual apparel. Today, he’s on Cold Oatmeal.
Plus, a quick engagement update and some whale watching.
It’s the Cold Oatmeal Podcast.
Moneyball Sportswear
One might argue this is the most self-indulgent episode of Cold Oatmeal to date, and one is probably correct. But we’ve got big news to announcement and bucket list experiences to share.
Joe and Carly took a long walk on a beach in Michigan in March. Steph sat a long time in a jury box in St. Johns. And the rest of us have been working here long enough to mark the occasion.
It an engagement, an anniversary and a jury, and it’s the Cold Oatmeal Podcast.
It’s the Reschies! The year-end awards show you didn’t know your holiday week needed until this very moment.
Join us, the Resch Strategies team as we bestow our awards upon the things that made or annoyed our 2023.
Lunch of the Year. Person of the Year. Distraction of the Year. Dumpster Fire of the Year. Heck, Nick’s rambling Reschie earns its own Reschie for being the worst Reschie of the year. Everyone gets a Reschie!
It’s the Cold Oatmeal Podcast!
For more than 20 years, John Lindert has been a leading golf pro in mid-Michigan serving as director of golf at the Country Club of Lansing. This follows tours teaching the game at clubs around the country, and all those rounds, lessons, relationships, and – of late – airline miles recently landed John a new job. Late last year, he was elected and began his two-year term as president of the PGA of America.
If you wonder what that means, just turn on the PGA Championship in a few months and John will be the one standing on the 18th green handing the huge trophy to the tournament winner late Sunday afternoon. But first, he stopped by for some Cold Oatmeal.
Fore!! It’s the Cold Oatmeal Podcast!
State Representative Angela Witwer has had herself quite a few months. First, she led the MI House Democrats to an Election Day victory that earned the party majority. Then, she chaired the influential effort that assigned all House members to their committees. And then, she was named chair of the all-powerful House Appropriations Committee. But today, after all that, she’s truly arrived.
Angela Witwer is our guest on the Cold Oatmeal Podcast.
Plus, Laura’s plan to spend $9 billion. It’s the Cold Oatmeal Podcast!
If you’re a life-long fan of Michigan State basketball, there may not be a better job in the world than the one held by today’s guest.
For every home game throughout the fall and winter, Jeremy Sampson has a courtside seat for it all. He’s the public address announcer for Spartan basketball, and today he joins the podcast to give us a behind the scenes look at a Sparty dream job.
Then, Carly lands Swift tickets… finally.
It’s the Cold Oatmeal Podcast!
Your 143-day nightmare is over. Our extended summer sabbatical has lasted longer than MSU’s football season, but the Cold Oatmeal Podcast is back!
We are back in the studio to kick off season six of the pod with two of Michigan’s leading political journalists. It is campaign time, after all.
Emily Lawler, politics editor at the Detroit Free Press, and Chad Livengood, politics editor at the Detroit News, join us to talk about the state of journalism in Michigan and beyond and to pundificate (just made that up) on campaign season.
Two fierce and accomplished journalistic competitors brought together by the chilled gooeyness of the Cold Oatmeal Podcast.
It’s great to be back, and it’s the Cold Oatmeal Podcast!
We did it! We made it to 100 episodes! We know you all were counting.
Today, we celebrate the century mark by talking to our third Chris in a row. (You don’t get to 100 episodes without planning like that!)
Chris Sell, Executive Director of Lansing 5:01, joins us to talk Lansing, its future, and its here and now. He has a ton going on and a lot to say.
Then, we bring back our friends who helped us start it all, Zach Gorchow, Executive Editor and Publisher of Gongwer News Service, and Emily Guerrant, Vice President and Spokesperson for Michigan State University.
Zach was our pilot guest, and Emily was with us for episode #1.
It’s the 100th Cold Oatmeal Podcast. We don’t look a day over 93.
High on the list of yet unanswered questions is, “Can one make the Michigan state budget sexy?”
Today, you can take it off the list because we have an answer.
Chris Harkins, Michigan’s State Budget Director, is our guest. Chris is a long-time friend and contributor to the podcast, but some may argue his “day job” of managing the state’s spending is more important. It’s debatable.
State budget fun, and the FBI calls Nikki.
It’s the Cold Oatmeal Podcast!
3:30 a.m. has got to come early when the old iPhone alarm starts going, but that’s how today’s guest starts each day.
For going on eight years, Dave Akerly has hosted the Morning Wake Up each weekday morning on Lansing’s talk radio station, WILS 1320 AM. And that’s only after more than 20 years at Lansing TV news and sports anchor desks.
Conversations with Magic Johnson and Tom Izzo have now given way to interviews each morning with state and national political leaders and commentators, and Dave has stories about all of them.
Set your alarms. It’s the Cold Oatmeal Podcast.
The history of Downtown Lansing restaurants is a checkered one, and today, we take a stroll through the graveyard of 25 years of Washington Ave. eateries.
Dusty Fancher of Midwest Strategies Group, Rob Macomber, Chief Deputy Clerk of Kent County, and Zach Gorchow of Gongwer News Service are our hungry historians.
What’s your favorite sandwich place? The boldest flop? The fastest flame out? Place to go for an incognito meeting? Most cursed location?
It’s time to talk turkey.
Order up! It’s the Cold Oatmeal podcast.
We here at the podcast like to think of ourselves as part of “the Biz.” Today, a well-lit look behind the curtain.
Jonathon Terpstra’s IMDB profile lists 74 lighting and gaffer credits, including blockbuster movies like Avengers: Endgame, Black Panther, The Suicide Squad, and TV series like the Walking Dead, Ms. Marvel, and Ravenswood, to name only… well, six.
He also happens to be our own Nick DeLeeuw’s brother-in-law in town for the holidays.
What’s life like lighting the biggest movie productions on the planet?
Coming soon! It’s the Cold Oatmeal podcast.
It’s the official Christmas plant, and today we learn all about the poinsettia from a man who has grown them for more than 30 years.
Roger McGaughey is now mostly retired, but his career as a horticulturist brought him from Ireland to West Michigan with a bajillion poinsettias along the way, and he knows his stuff.
Then, we stay across the pond to celebrate Adele Day.
Ho, ho, ho, it’s the Christmas episode of the Cold Oatmeal Podcast!
It’s been almost 30 years since I first met Ben Bodkin. High school classmates, college roommates, and now adult friends and professional colleagues, this episode was supposed to be a rip-roaring blast from our shared past. Instead, a story of miracles and gratitude broke out.
Ben is a partner at the Lansing lobbying firm, Capitol Services. He’s been my friend since high school biology class. He’s our guest this week, and we cover a lot of ground.
Happy Thanksgiving! It’s the Cold Oatmeal podcast.
So, you may have heard Michigan is getting new congressional and legislative maps as part of the decennial redistricting process. Or, maybe you’re like Joe and Carly and could not care less. Either way, Michigan has a new system for drawing these power maps, and whatever words you want to use to describe the old process, this new process has been… interesting (Laura has another word).
Today, we talk to Ben Solis, reporter at Gongwer News Service. As part of a questionable, new-employee hazing process, our friend Zach Gorchow assigned poor Ben to follow every minute of this redistricting process and write about it. Now, Ben is quite an expert on it all.
What’s up with redistricting? How is it working? Who is doing it? Do they know what they’re doing? Will it ever be over? Ben answers all these questions and more before Nick’s attempted bromance moves the conversation to the Cleveland Browns.
It’s the Cold Oatmeal podcast.
Before the squirrels ever started running in the wheels that power this little podcast, a name was added to our target guest list: Kurt Berryman, long-time Lansing figure and now lobbyist for the Auto Dealers of Michigan.
With agility and cunning, Kurt has evaded us these past many years, but no longer. As many know, Kurt is routinely named Michigan’s most effective lobbyist in the MIRS News Capitol Insiders Survey. Today, his stature grows even larger, because at long last, Kurt Berryman is our guest.
Call me Cold Oatmeal. Because this is the Cold Oatmeal Podcast.
Today, we come out of our summer podcast siesta for a special one-time-only, news-breaking episode.
We have a new colleague joining the Resch Strategies/Cold Oatmeal team, and today you get to meet her… or him. I guess you’ll just have to listen.
It’s some personal news on the Cold Oatmeal podcast.
It’s the season finale, and we go out big!
Tim Skubick, Michigan’s Senior Capitol Correspondent and host of public television’s “Off the Record,” is our last guest of season four. Tim has more than 50 years in covering Michigan’s political beat.
Never underestimate the power of a podcast because today we make dreams come true. Peter Ruddell has long dreamt – quite publicly really – of being on the Cold Oatmeal Podcast. Today, we make it happen.
Aside from being a diehard COP fan, Peter is a partner and co-leader of the Government Relations and Regulatory Practice Group at the Honigman law firm. He’s a sought-after hire around the Michigan Capitol with 25 years of Lansing experience and expertise.
Today, the whole team is back in the studio for the first time in 422 days to continue our Four Questions series with Peter.
It’s the Cold Oatmeal Podcast.
Zach Gorchow is Executive Editor and Publisher of Gongwer News Service and a Cold Oatmeal Podcast Hall of Famer.
Zach was the last guest to visit the studio before the 2020 lockdown. Now, as we emerge from behind our masks, Zach is back!
We talk movies, takeout, travel, James Craig, and the Gov’s fancy flight.
Plus, Joe’s fender bender.
It’s the Cold Oatmeal Podcast.
Murder of an Elvis Girl: Solving the Jenny Maxwell Case
Think Space
When the pop-up book is written about the story of Resch Strategies, Kevin McKinney will get his own chapter. Kevin was our first landlord.
For some, that might be enough, but Kevin adds to that a 40-year career between the Michigan legislature and the Lansing lobby corps. He’s led McKinney and Associates since 1991.
Today, we bring back “Four Questions,” and we talk to a friend, colleague, and destination for solid advice.
Oh, and Matt drags out the stupid t-shirt conversation for yet another episode. We have winners!
It’s the Cold Oatmeal Podcast.
We kicked off season four of the podcast with the idea of asking the same four big picture questions to interesting Lansing people. We could have asked Kathy Wilbur 400 questions.
Kathy is the Senior Vice President of Government Relations at Michigan State University, but this is just the latest stop in an amazing career.
We ask her four big questions (and a few little ones), and then top it off, of course, with house cleaning tips from Bobby O’Meara.
It’s the Cold Oatmeal Podcast.
Movie trailers
Batman v. Superman
Kelly Cawthorne
Happy the Hobo
Quarter Pounders
Bob Olson, voice talent
Running a restaurant in a pandemic.
EnVie
Sal the Skunk Guy and the Battle Creek alligator sanctuary.
New season. New feature. New guest.
We kick off season four of the Cold Oatmeal Podcast with Four Questions for long-time, recently retired Lansing lobbyist, Steve Young.
We were lucky to catch Steve before his weekly trip to Sam’s, and he didn’t disappoint with his stories and perspectives from a successful career lobbying the Michigan State Capitol.
Plus, a new season, a new intro. Joe plants a tree, and Matt gets his boat in the water.
We know you’ve missed us. Cold Oatmeal is back!
Our summer vacation is coming to an anticlimactic close, so we’re leaving it to Joe to bring us home with his pick.
Bob Olson, championship golfer, renowned professional voice talent, and FOCO (Friend of Cold Oatmeal) is our encore guest.
Laura is about to have a baby boy, so she gets to pick this week’s encore episode, and she’s picked a good one (This episode is loaded!).
We talked to Ahmad Bajjey, the award-winning meteorologist from Flint’s NBC25, in February of 2019… back when all we had to complain about was the weather. Ahmad is awesome, and we learned so much!
Also awesome is Joe’s run-in with a skunk and his introduction to Sal the Skunk Guy, and Nick’s fight with all of us over US History knowledge.
This episode is so good, Laura has announced that if you all listen she will name her son either Ahmad, Sal or Publius.
Today, in our latest Throwback Thursday encore episode, we say good-bye and best wishes to Mikenzie Frost.
Mikenzie is a tireless TV journalist covering Michigan politics who visited the podcast last fall. This week is her last in Michigan. She’s heading off to a new gig at Fox Baltimore.
Thanks for your work, Mikenzie. Good luck and be sure to pack your mug!
Nikki’s turn, and Sal the Skunk Guy it is!
We talked to Sal Palombo of Michigan Animal Control back in February. By far one of the most fun guests we’ve had on Cold Oatmeal, and it’s a good pick too because a family of raccoons threw a midnight dance party on Matt’s roof this last week.
Better call Sal for the second Throwback Thursday episode of the summer.
We were so little!
This is our first Throwback Thursday podcast of the summer, and it’s Matt’s pick. We go back to the very beginning: the pilot episode of Cold Oatmeal with Zach Gorchow of Gongwer News Service.
Zach is the full-fledged Executive Editor and Publisher of Gongwer now, and we like to think this pilot episode sent him on his way.
Even though it was our first, it's one of our best conversations with Zach. He’s always so good. Thanks Zach.
Today, we drop anchor on season three of the Cold Oatmeal Podcast.
We drift about recapping our favorite moments and guests of the passed 20 episodes. We’re looking at you Jean Doss, Sal the Skunk Guy, Hypnotist Man, Chad Livengood, Laura Webber David and Charlie LeDuff.
Then, Matt and his pandemic lie.
It’s the season finale of the Cold Oatmeal Podcast.
Cheyna Roth’s first book, “Cold Cases”.
Laura’s intro streak continues.
Three months of home workin’.
If you held five people hostage and made them participate in a podcast, what would it look like? THIS PHOTO! Wait, no. That’s not how this is supposed to go.
How do you run a statewide, daily radio program in a pandemic? Yeah, that’s more like it.
The Cold Oatmeal Podcast is back, and today we talk to a great friend and an even better talent, Laura Weber Davis. Laura is the Executive Producer of Stateside a radio program produced and aired each day on Michigan Public Radio.
How DO you run a statewide, daily radio program in a pandemic? Which member of Michigan’s Congressional delegation was she MOST excited to interview? And what’s Laura’s minor beef with Grand Master Flash?
It’s the Cold Oatmeal Podcast, and despite the pic, it’s a good one.
In September of 2018, we talked with Matt Mencarini. At the time, he was reporting for the Lansing State Journal and wrapping up his remarkable coverage of the Larry Nassar sexual assault case.
Shortly after we talked, Matt moved south and took a job with the Louisville Courier-Journal.
This week, he was part of a reporting team that won a Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Coverage.
You’re welcome, Matt! The luck of the Cold Oatmeal Podcast is strong.
In Matt’s honor and because it was a really interesting conversation, we are re-upping “Reporting ‘True Evil.”
It’s an encore Cold Oatmeal.
The COVID crisis impact has been both health and economic and few sectors of our economy face a longer runway to reopening as we remember then our friends who run restaurants.
Here at the Cold Oatmeal Podcast, we love eating out. A lot. Joining us today to talk about restaurants and the COVID realities they face is Justin Winslow, President and CEO of the Michigan Restaurant and Lodging Association.
Plus, a blast from the past dials in from her new life working at the center of Michigan’s tourism industry to talk Mackinac Island in the spring and offer advice to new college grads.
Order up! It’s the Cold Oatmeal Podcast!
Curious about the new realities of news reporting in the COVID-19 era? We go to the source and talk to Chad Livengood, senior editor at Crain’s Detroit Business.
Chad, like many of us, is banished to a spare bedroom. He’s unshaven, wearing flannel, and endeavoring to do his job with only a phone and a Zoom.
Plus, quarantine hobbies and the Muppet Show.
It’s the Cold Oatmeal Podcast!
The long national nightmare is over. The Cold Oatmeal Podcast is back!
Last week’s regularly scheduled episode was declared “non-essential,” but Joe, wearing only a crocheted mask, marched in protest around the state Capitol building seven times singing “Dancing in the Dark” and bang… order reversed!
We celebrate by talking to Matt’s sister, Allison Breininger. Allison and her husband, Sean, are nine years into battling Sean’s very rare genetic disease, Fanconi anemia. The experience of caring and advocating for her husband has brought to the surface an amazing writing talent which Allie has endeavored into a website, articles and speaking gigs on the unsung role of a caregiver.
It’s our first long-distance conversation, and we think we pulled it off. Be sure to listen to the bitter end for the outtakes of when it was all a little more in doubt.
It’s the Cold Oatmeal Podcast!
Up, up and away. Today, we take social distancing to new heights.
Angela Madden is not only the Executive Director of the Michigan Association of Ambulance Services, she is also the pilot of her very own hot air balloon and our guest on this week’s Cold Oatmeal Podcast.
How to drive a balloon? How do you compete in balloon competitions? What’s the craziest thing seen from up high? We find out.
Plus, Joe goes before the cameras, and the pod gets some pub.
Please, step six feet back, wash your hands, and listen to the latest episode of the Cold Oatmeal Podcast.
Calling all political junkies. Smack dab between Super Tuesday and Michigan’s Primary Day, we go deep on the state of the race with two of the best political minds we know.
It’s voting trends, turnout predictions, and the ever-shifting political landscape with Dr. Cory Smidt, political science professor at MSU, and Zach Gorchow, editor and publisher of Gongwer News Service.
Cory’s run the numbers and has his official voter turnout prediction ahead of Michigan’s election on Tuesday. You can’t do better than that!
Mike Bloomberg didn’t pay for it, but it is the Cold Oatmeal Podcast.
So, it all started with Joe’s harem of skunks, but I won’t ruin the ending.
Sal Palombo is our guest on the podcast, aka Sal the Skunk Guy.
Sal owns and operates Michigan Animal Control. If you have critter problem anywhere in Michigan (and here’s what we’ve learned… everyone does whether you know it or not), Sal has the solution and an amazing story to match (See: Giant lizard knocking on your front door).
We head into the crawlspace with Sal, Michigan’s renaissance man of pest control and the official skunk catcher of the Cold Oatmeal Podcast.
It’s a 5-star episode, trust me.
It’s gut-check time. We’re taking it one episode at a time, and we’re just going to go out there and give it 110 percent.
Graham Couch, sports columnist for the Lansing State Journal, is our guest. The dude is a physical freak; a true student of the game.
Nothing comes easy in this league, but Graham brings his “A” game today because he’s just a natural born leader… and sports journalist.
Plus, Stephanie tackles Megxit! It’s what her fans paid good money for, and she just would not be denied.
You win as a team, you lose as a team. Splash. It’s episode 50 of the Cold Oatmeal Podcast.
Today, we take all controversies and opinions out of the podcast by asking the evergreen question: How would you grade Lansing’s food scene?
What’s missing? What’s good? What’s changed?
We go to the experts on Lansing food and talk to the people behind He Ate/She Ate, the monthly restaurant review column in the Lansing City Pulse.
Mark Nixon and Gabrielle Lawrence are our quests, and they dish out restaurant hot takes faster than Matt can serve up dad jokes.
It’s the Cold Oatmeal Podcast.
Hey, hey, it’s prediction time!
Helping us kick off 2020, Emily Lawler of MLive, Beth LeBlanc of the Detroit News, and Kyle Melinn of MIRS News join us. It’s simple. We put topics in a bowl, the reporters pull them out, and the predictions for the new year start to fly.
Who wins Michigan? Does GOP keep the MI House? Biggest story for 2020? Royal watch, Detroit sports, and true love. We touch all the bases.
Happy New Year from the Cold Oatmeal Podcast.
Fixing Michigan’s crumbling roads continues to be the white whale (wink, wink) of state politics. Every pol pledges to fix them; no one actually does. So, what’s the deal with our roads?
Today, we talk to an expert… Joe’s dad.
When you think of Christmas in Michigan, you think of Bronner’s Christmas Wonderland in Frankenmuth. Today, we load up the sleigh to visit the Christmas capital of America, and Wayne Bronner, the second generation owner of the store, is our guest.
Plus, the verdict on Laura’s hypnosis, and Joe’s holiday card hits a mailbox near you.
Ho, ho, ho, from the Cold Oatmeal Podcast.
We’ve been talking about it for months, and today we do it. We hypnotize Laura Biehl… and a couple others.
See, Laura is a picky eater, but she doesn’t want to be. As caring coworkers, we want to help. So we brought in hypnotist and magician Keith Kocher to help broaden Laura’s palate… just in time for Thanksgiving.
It’s the Cold Oatmeal podcast.
When he died last month, words like “legend” and “icon” were used to describe Hugh McDiarmid, Sr. Hugh was a political reporter and columnist for the Detroit Free Press, and for most of us on this podcast, his career spanned a time before ours. So, we set out to do some learning and asked two of Hugh’s colleagues to talk about their friend.
Long-time political reporters, John Lindstrom of Gongwer News Service and Chris Christoff of the Detroit Free Press, are our guests.
Plus, new music from Westrin and Mowry, and Joe’s Christmas card.
It’s the Cold Oatmeal podcast.
For a podcast based in Michigan’s capital city, we’ve made it 42 episodes without talking to a lobbyist. No longer.
Trunks full of cash, porn collections, and life advice from Jean Doss, partner at Capitol Services. She’s been working in the advocacy business for almost 25 years.
Buckle up and Happy Halloween from the Cold Oatmeal Podcast!
There aren’t many TV reporters in Michigan who can say their coverage of the State Capitol is seen by viewers in four different TV markets across the state. In fact, there’s just one… Mikenzie Frost.
Mikenzie is still pretty new to Michigan’s Capitol press corps, but her reach is wide covering state government for WWMT TV 3 and the Sinclair Broadcast Group.
Why’d she pick politics? Why does she carry around a box? What’s a viral scrum, and how do you treat it?
It’s the Cold Oatmeal Podcast.
Just the facts… the Lansing Facts. (Dad joke, Nikki?)
Today, we talk our hometown with the creators of the wildly popular parody social media account, @LansingMIFacts.
Frandor, Horrocks, QD, and Stobers… all of Lansing’s greatest hits. We talk about all of them, along with how the online community was started, how it’s managed, and what’s next.
Plus, Nick’s trip to the Mile High City, and we answer our first listener Twitter question.
It’s the Cold Oatmeal Podcast.
Your long summer of silence is over. The Cold Oatmeal podcast is back. It’s season three, and we start it with Charlie.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning, former New York Times, Detroit News and Fox 2 reporting, book writing, podcast hosting and fascinating Charlie LeDuff, that is.
We traveled to Detroit to talk with Charlie in his natural habitat. He talked writing, reporting, his roads plan and latest book. Buckle up, and earmuffs kids.
Plus, our summer break, a new office, and dad jokes. Welcome back!
How many “hits” must one have in order to compile a “Greatest Hits” album? Today, we push this existential question to its limits.
Before our summer furlough, we listen back to our favorite moments with some of our favorite guests from season two. Joe even gets sappy.
A clink of the mug to Brian Calley, Deb Hart, Bob Olson, Chris Johnson, Zach Gorchow, Jonathon Oosting, Cheyna Roth, Chris Harkins, Steve Wilson, Chris Gautz, Matt Ottinger, and the Whale (Steve Japinga).
It’s the season finale of the Cold Oatmeal podcast. We hope you have enjoyed!
You know those times when you have to get up super early, and you toss and turn afraid you’re going to sleep through your alarm? Now, imagine “super early” actually means 1:30 a.m., and you have to do it every day, and after you do it you have to go on LIVE TV for four hours.
That’s the life of today’s podcast guest, Ann Marie LaFlamme. Ann Marie is a reporter and morning news anchor for WXYZ TV 7 in Detroit, and she’s also Laura’s buddy.
We talk working her way up the TV news business, TV news in a social media age, America’s Most Wanted, and Laura’s fear of dolphins.
It’s the Cold Oatmeal podcast.
It’s the “Nikki Summit,” and on the agenda are social media strategies and tips, John Beilein, online pet peeves, broccoli, and news embargoes.
Nikki Sunstrum is our guest, and she is the nationally-recognized, rock star Director of Social Media and Public Engagement for the University of Michigan.
Our own Nikki geeks-out a bit on the topic, and we find out if Joe was a cool kid.
It’s the Cold Oatmeal podcast.
It’s time to spin the wheel, draw a card, and hit the buzzer.
Today, Matt Ottinger is our guest on the podcast. For 29 years, Matt hosted “QuizBusters” on PBS. He’s also a game show expert and a former contestant.
We talk Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune, Alex Trebek, and Pat Sajak. Quizbusters, from creation to its final episode. And… get ready… we flex our trivia muscles, girls versus boys, in the first-of-its-kind Cold Oatmeal Bowl.
Brenda Resch and Bob Olson help us out, and we have a blast.
It’s the Cold Oatmeal podcast.
We love stories about people who take a chance and start something cool. We especially love stories about people who take a chance, start something cool and become the very best in the country at doing it.
That’s Linda Hundt’s story, creator of the Sweetie-licous bakery and winner of 19 National Pie Championships. Her pie crust is not the only thing started from scratch.
Linda is our guest today. She talks about her love of baking, the birth and growth of her business, supertasters, her national TV appearances and all those stinkin’ awards.
Plus, the podcast debut of two budding pie critics.
It’s the Cold Oatmeal podcast.
If we’ve said it once, we’ve said it a million times: running the Cold Oatmeal podcast is just like running the programing for Michigan’s biggest public radio station, and today we prove it!
With us is Zoe Clark, program director for Michigan Radio.
We talk about Zoe’s job, a little politics, podcasting, and she humors some of our best questions. Also, Zoe brought a surprise with her.
It’s the Cold Oatmeal podcast.
Play ball! The national pastime is back, and so is the Cold Oatmeal podcast.
Today we talk a little baseball with a guy whose job it is to literally talk about baseball. Jesse Goldberg-Strassler, the radio voice of the Lansing’s minor league baseball team, the Lansing Lugnuts.
His Mt. Rushmore of baseball broadcasters. Road trips. Crazy names. Game prep. We make fun of Nick a lot and celebrate Resch Strategies’ 10th anniversary… kinda.
It’s the Cold Oatmeal podcast.
Road trippin’ it! Joe bought a plastic tub, and the team hit the road to visit Michigan’s oldest restaurant.
The White Horse Inn in Metamora was built 171 years ago. It wasn’t called the White Horse back then, but it did serve as a gathering place for people from miles away. Just like it still does today.
We talk to its owner, operator, and restorer, Victor Dzenowagis. Ghost stories, an amazing restoration, and a fantastic meal came too.
Also, our friend and yours’, Andrea Bitely was passing through and joined us in the guest hosting chair.
Today, we tackle a topic ignored by the masses for just too long… the weather. That’s right. It’s time we shine the light of day on this issue that no one ever wants to talk about.
Ahmad Bajjey joins us to bring some serious weather knowledge to the podcast. Ahmad is an award-winning meteorologist with NBC25 in Flint, and he’s awesome.
Best weather movie, how to predict snow falls, a new segment, Joe’s pet skunk, James Madison and a “popular” return guest, all on today’s Cold Front Oatmeal podcast.
After a 30-year career in a radio market like Lansing, you don’t really need to say much more than that.
Deb Hart is an icon… a fixture on Lansing drive-time radio since she got into the business at the age 19.
Last month, she walked away from the radio studio for the yoga studio and the next chapter in her life. Today, she’s our guest on the Cold Oatmeal podcast.
How’d she get her start? What’s changed in the business? What allowed her to walk away on her own terms from an industry known for chewing people up and spitting them out? And, why yoga? Why now?
You’re listening to the Cold Oatmeal podcast.
You may have heard that it’s cold and every thing is closed. Well, we don’t call it COLD Oatmeal for nothing!
The Resch Strategies team is back, and we welcome in Kelsey Snyder, the youngest daughter of former governor, Rick Snyder. Kelsey traversed her high school and college years with her dad running Michigan, and we talk with her about that.
Also, a surprise guest, a new segment, and a little announcement.
Michigan may be closed, but the studio is open and our mics are on. You’re listening to the very, very Cold Oatmeal podcast.
What do Marla Maples, Tom Arnold, and a Ph.D.-holding political scientist all have in common? You are about to find out.
Corwin Smidt is our guest today. Cory is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at MSU. He’s an expert in polling, voting patterns, turnout modeling, and studying the electorate and has been interviewed in places like Time Magazine, the Washington Post, the New York Times, and Politico.
We talk polling and voters and media. And did I mention Marla and Tom?
Well, we set out to stage a Burger King/Jimmy Johns intervention for our good friend, Nick, but ended up having a fascinating conversation with Chris Johnson instead.
Chris lives here in Lansing and is an international speaker, an adviser, health and fitness expert and Founder and CEO of On Target Living.
Chris has sprinkled his magic nutritional dust on our beloved Joe Becsey, and look how well that has turned out.
Plus, he was pushing cold oatmeal before we made it cool.
What do cod liver oil, comic books, resolutions and a fitness guru all have in common? The New Year’s episode of the Cold Oatmeal podcast… it’s good for you.
Just when you thought this podcast couldn’t get bigger. Today? The Beard.
No, not Santa’s. It’s Brian Calley’s beard.
That’s right. We are wrapping up 2018 with bow made of whiskers, self-deprecation and insights from 8 years working with Rick Snyder.
It’s an exit interview with Michigan’s out-going Lt. Governor, and you’re listening to the Christmas episode of the Cold Oatmeal podcast.
Ok, for anyone not in Lansing, MI this week, our little town is in the throws of the Legislature’s Lame Duck session.
Minds are being lost. Chants are being chanted. Large ducks, both inflatable and with actual people inside of them are showing up holding signs and wearing name tags.
It’s off the hook. So, trying to find a good time to get our podcast out this week as been a bit of challenge. It’s also been hard to figure who might be a good person to have on to help us make sense of it all.
Our first 93 invited guests declined, so Chris Harkins is with us. He’s a legislative guy and he knows stuff.
Chris Harkins, Lame Duck and the Golden Turkey winners. It’s either a really bad band, or the poultry episode of the Cold Oatmeal podcast.
Hey, it’s the Friendsgiving episode of the Cold Oatmeal podcast.
Well, not really. Because Friendsgiving isn’t a real thing. It’s a fake thing. But we are having some friends over today to talk about politics and to grade the job performances of others. So, if Friendsgiving was a real thing, this might be close.
Cheyna Roth of Michigan Public Radio. Jonathon Oosting of the Detroit News. And the Alec Bladwin of the podcast, minus the assault chargers, Zach Gorchow of Gongwer News Service are with us.
Also… The Golden Turkey Awards.
Happy Thanksgiving! You are listening to the Cold Oatmeal podcast.
The election is over. The campaigning is done. The ads are gone.
We talked about it here and wanted to bring a guest into the Cold Oatmeal studios to help us wrap it all up. So, we invited a stand up comedian, of course.
Dwayne Gill, the funny cop, is our guest today, and we don’t spend a minute talking about politics.
Dwayne’s been a Michigan state police trooper for more than 25 years and a stand up comedian for about the same amount of time.
How’d he get started? What do you learn at comedy school? Yes, there is such a thing. How to get a gig and build your name in comedy?
A little parental discretion may be advised. You are listening to the Cold Oatmeal podcast.
This next year, our team here at Resch Strategies will celebrate 10 years in business. Our guest today on Cold Oatmeal has been running his business for 153 years… with some help from his father, and grandfather and great grandfather.
Kositchek’s is a men’s clothing store located in downtown Lansing, a block from the State Capitol building, that was founded the year the Civil War ended. Yes, you read that right.
Whatever the business, if you can manage to last from Lincoln to Trump, you’ve got a story to share and David Kositchek will tell us some of that story today.
Anna Heaton just left arguably the highest-profile spokesperson job in the State of Michigan. For the last few years, she’s been press secretary for governor.
Most memorable moments. How social media has changed the press secretary job. A day in the life of the governor’s communications office.
We cover it all on today’s episode and share our own “highlights” from our collective times serving as spokespeople.
We like to have a little fun on this podcast, as Kongo Kong can attest from last time, but on today’s episode our fun takes a more serious twist.
Over the last couple years, Lansing, Michigan has been ground zero for one of the largest sexual assault scandals in our country’s history. The investigation, prosecution and sentencing of predator doctor Larry Nassar has forever impacted this community, the hundreds of victims and their families who live nearby and the major university at the center of it all.
From the beginning, Matt Mencarini has been covering the scandal as the criminal justice reporter for the Lansing State Journal. Today, on the Cold Oatmeal podcast, we talk to Matt about reporting true evil.
Our good friend and Resch Strategies team member, Nick DeLeeuw, is an interesting cat. One of the most unique people we know. So, I guess we should not have been surprised when he told us one of his very best, long-time friends is a six foot, seven inch, 350 pound professional wrestler from “the deepest darkest jungles.” Yes, the one and only, Kongo Kong.
As we talked about topics to cover here in season two of Cold Oatmeal, we thought through PR best practices, case studies and the latest trends. Then we thought, “Screw that, let’s talk to Kongo!”
So Kongo Kong, a.k.a Steve Wilson, is with us today, and he’s great. He talks about how he got into the biz. How he markets himself and his character. How he uses social media. And, he picks Joe up over his head.
What’s summer without a good road trip?
Today, we kick off summer and wrap up season one of Cold Oatmeal with a conversation with Rick Albin, veteran political reporter for WOOD TV 8 and a podcast visit to the Grand Rapids Chamber’s cool, new digs.
The Chamber’s Andy Johnston, Cold Oatmeal groupie, joins us in the guest-hosting chair, as we hear about Rick’s first interview, most memorable interview, and take on #fakenews. We also hunt the whale and reminisce on all that has been season one. Good times.
It’s episode 18 of the Cold Oatmeal podcast, the season finale. No cliffhangers… maybe.
About a month and a couple episodes after Nikki joined us at Resch Strategies she asked the logical question, “So what’s the actual point of this podcast?”
Blank stares.
Well today, we truly kick the PR tires of this little communications vehicle and examine the age-old question: What happens when the chaos and creativity of social media meet the procedures and priorities of state government?
What we found is that a statewide social media and digital content administrator is born, naturally.
Andrew Belanger is that administrator for the State of Michigan, and he is today’s guest on the Cold Oatmeal podcast. What’s it like to ultimately bear the responsibility for every tweet, post, and snap coming from Michigan state government? Let’s find out.
Sometimes you have good ideas. And sometimes you have today’s episode of Cold Oatmeal. You, faithful listeners, be the judge.
Meegan Holland, Chris Harkins, and the ghost of Bob Olson join us for today’s episode with Meegan and her amazingly diverse career in journalism, public relations, political communications, small business and community improvement the focus.
Meegan was an original member of the podcast’s Dream Guest Bucket List.
We add in some sound effects, inside jokes, legal disclaimers, and shrinkage and what you have is Episode 16 of the Cold Oatmeal podcast.
Let’s spin the wheel!
Aw shucks. No Helen Keller truthering on today’s episode. But, our cold open to Cold Oatmeal will give Stormy, Alec, and Ben a run for their money.
Ever wonder what it’s like to hear your voice on the radio or TV… every single day? Or, maybe as you walk into stores or catch a plane at the airport?
The “Man of a Couple Voices,” Bob Olson, joins the podcast to tell us.
Bob’s a 20-year voiceover pro and here’s betting some dried elderberries and flaxseed you’ve heard him once or twice or two dozen times. Bob talks the radio business, how he got started doing voiceovers and how he markets and maintains his pipes. And for Nikki, Bob just talking about anything was enough.
Nick’s three-legged pig friend and some Russian robots also stop by.
Yep, it’s official. Fergie was not a member of the Spice Girls. My bad.
I think when we look back at this episode, episode 14 of the Cold Oatmeal podcast, we’re gonna say, “Man, that’s when we really hit our stride.”
Or maybe, “Well, it was fun while it lasted.”
We do have a big announcement on today’s episode. Big. Super big.
We also hit the NFL draft, royal babies, Helen Keller and whether Rose really should have hooked up with George Clooney on the Titanic.
There’s no going back now.
Today, we actually have a radio broadcasting professional on the podcast.
It’s a little bit like asking a celebrity chef over for some Kraft mac and cheese and a nice white Zinfandel from a box.
Cheyna Roth, the capitol correspondent for Michigan Public Radio, is our celebrity chef, and we talk journalism movies, sandwiches, fighting crime on the streets of Ionia and what makes for good radio.
Dig in. You’re listening to the Cold Oatmeal podcast.
Today, we do a podcast about podcasts.
How do you start one? What do you say? Well, the hell if we know, so we talk to Chris Gautz, former reporter for Gongwer News Service and Crains Detroit, now the Public Information Officer for the Michigan Department of Corrections. He also happens to be the co-host of an award-winning podcast.
We also run the picket fence at our bad dreams and reveal our Resch Strategies NCAA bracket supreme champion.
Is this thing on?
We’ve heard you fans, loud and clear. We’ve turned up the volume a bit and moved closer to the mic for this week’s episode after our experiment last time podcasting in mime… Sorry about that John. Apparently actually being able to hear a podcast is an important feature.
And what better episode to be able to hear than our conversation today with signer/songwriter/lawyer/father Brian Westrin of the band Westrin and Mowry.
Brian is going to talk music. Marketing a band. Releasing a record and singing for Billy Joel. Also, brackets, Bucknell and cheese burgers… just the meat the cheese and the bun.
You’re listening to the Cold Oatmeal podcast.
Did you know that if you catch a swordfish and go to measure it so you can brag to your friends, the fish’s sword nose isn’t included in the actual measurement?
Did you know you can hop a plane to Mackinac Island in the winter for 30 bucks?
Did you know Stephanie is really good at podcast announcing?
We learned all these things talking to John Reurink, owner and publisher of MIRS News, a daily newsletter covering Michigan government, and to Sarah Ombry, our adventurous former colleague who broke our hearts, moved away, and by herself doubled the winter population of Mackinaw City.
And, we may also touch on the principles of journalism, the changing media landscape, the impact of term limits, and the true meaning of job satisfaction. Blah!
So what do the Michigan State University response to the Larry Nassar tragedy and cancer have in common? Well, first, they are both pretty horrible. Second, we are going to talk about both on today’s podcast.
Sound fun? No?? We have a laugh track.
We also talk about Joe’s cheerleading career, an NBA All-Star, mice stomachs, phantom turtles, and welcome Joe's sister to the guest hosting chair.
So, cell phones are pretty cool. And I think one of the reasons why is that pretty much all of us are walking around with cameras in our hands with the ability to take pictures of things.
But does taking a picture make you a photographer? Ehh. No.
Today on the Cold Oatmeal podcast we talk to a photographer and a great one at that.
Khalid Ibrahim is owner of Eat Pomegrante Photography. He is an amazing talent and one of the most interesting people we have come across in our work.
How did he become a photographer? How does he work with PR firms? What’s his favorite picture and why were those guys in Nigeria chasing him with machine guns?
Ladies and Gentlemen… the state of our state is… oh, who cares.
What is important is that Zach Gorchow from Gongwer News Service back on the podcast and he is being joined by Dave Eggert of the Associated Press.
The Governor’s State of the State speech is coming up and on today’s episode we are going to talk with Zach and Dave about how they cover the political pageantry that is this annual event.
The tight deadlines. The “shout outs.” Gauging response. Memorable moments.
We also talk dreams and coffee mugs.
A new year is always a time when people take a look at themselves, evaluate and look for ways to do things a little differently. Maybe a new look. A new approach. We call them resolutions of course.
For a business or organization, it’s called rebranding. It’s obviously a much more complicated and important process than your typical resolution because unlike a resolution, your brand actually needs to last.
Today, we are going to rebrand 2017, call it 2018 and talk to Karen Stefl, a friend and a Principal at Rendor Studies, who took much of last year to put a new look, a new name and new brand around her business.
A little more than a year ago, Ron Fournier returned home to Michigan after covering three US Presidents for the Associated Press in Washington DC. He joined Crain’s Detroit Business and today is the publication’s publisher and editor.
What was the single most important day he spent covering the White House? How has he found the transition from journalism to the business of journalism? Is social media leading journalists to show too much of themselves?
We ask Ron these questions and more. We also welcome in our first-ever guest host to the podcast and talk about the Resch Strategies annual holiday cartoon.
You’re listening to the Cold Oatmeal podcast.
Despite what some on this podcast may think, there is more to owning and operating a soccer club than “kicking and stuff.”
This past summer, Lansing United wrapped up its 4th season in the National Premier Soccer League. Aside from all the kicking and the running, what goes into starting something like this? How do you market a new sports team to a community? How did the press react? How do you fill the bleachers?
Today, we talk about the PR behind the PKs (that’s penalty kicks) with Jeremy Sampson, the President and CEO of Lansing United. And, we discuss our own back-of-napkin moments of brilliance.
This is the Cold Oatmeal Podcast.
TODAY'S MUSICAL FEATURE: "Favorite Part" off the Rogues album by Westin and Mowry.
When we first started to map out plans for this podcast on public relations and the media, one of the very first names we wrote down on our guest wish list was Dawson Bell.
Dawson is retired now, but it’s too cold to be golfing, so he is with us to talk about his 27 years as a reporter with the Detroit Free Press. Also, his thoughts about journalism today and how he spent last Election Day.
This is the Cold Oatmeal podcast.
Cue the cozy piano and string music, and get Tim Allen on the horn. The “Pure Michigan” campaign is more than a decade old.
How did it start? How is it doing? Where is it headed?
Today, on the Cold Oatmeal podcast, we talk with Lindsay VanHulle of Crain’s Detroit Business and Bridge Magazine about her reporting on the coming of age of Michigan’s popular tourism campaign.
Then, we say so long and good luck to a great colleague.
Also, a very special thank you to our podcast musical partners, Westrin and Mowry and Nick Piazza. Brian, Pete and Nick are great talents and their willingness to share their work really helped to bring this project to life. Check them out. Buy their music.
How do you market an entire state? How about some advice every PR professional should follow? How many burpees are too many burpees? Let’s find out.
Today, we talk with Emily Guerrant, a great friend and the vice president for marketing, communications and public relations for the Michigan Economic Development Corporation.
Welcome to the Cold Oatmeal Podcast, and if you like it, below, a little “extra helping” of Cold Oatmeal where we talk to Emily about her three trips to China with Governor Snyder and the ins and outs of handling PR for a trip like that.
Zach Gorchow, editor of Gongwer News Service, joins the Resch Strategies team for the pilot episode of the Cold Oatmeal podcast. We talk with Zach about news in 2017 and his pet PR peeves.
Then, Nick shares the words and phases that annoy him most, and we share the origins of the Cold Oatmeal name.
It's our first time. Join us!