- [Announcer] Coming up on "One Detroit."

We'll preview this year's Detroit Regional Chamber Mackinac Policy Conference, plus "One Detroit" contributor Stephen Henderson and Nolan Finley talk with Zoe Clark about their new book on civility.

Also ahead, the CEO of Black Leaders Detroit discusses the group's bike ride for equity from Black Wall Street to Wall Street.

And we'll tell you about some of the activities taking place over the Memorial Day weekend.

It's all coming up next on "One Detroit."

- [Narrator 1] From Delta faucets to Behr paint, Masco Corporation is proud to deliver products that enhance the way consumers all over the world experience and enjoy their living spaces.

Masco, serving Michigan communities since 1929.

Support also provided by the Cynthia & Edsel Ford Fund for Journalism at Detroit PBS.

- [Narrator 2] The DTE Foundation is a proud sponsor of Detroit PBS.

Through our giving, we are committed to meeting the needs of the communities we serve statewide, to help ensure a bright and thriving future for all.

Learn more at DTEFoundation.com.

- [Narrator 1] Nissan Foundation, and viewers like you.

(light music) - [Announcer] Just ahead on "One Detroit."

A new book by "One Detroit" contributor, Stephen Henderson and Nolan Finley encourages people to find value in their disagreements.

Plus, we'll tell you about a national bike ride for equity that will cover more than 1,600 miles.

And we'll have some suggestions on what you and your family can do in Metro Detroit this holiday weekend.

But first up, the Detroit Regional Chamber's Annual Mackinac Policy Conference takes place next week on Mackinac Island.

The event brings together hundreds of government, business, community, and philanthropic leaders for conversations on Michigan's future.

"One Detroit" contributor Zoe Clark from Michigan Public got a preview from the Chamber's President and CEO, Sandy Baruah, and this year's Conference Chair Peter Quigley, President and CEO of Kelly.

(light music) - So Sandy, let's start with you, first, just for someone right now watching, a Michigander, why does the conference matter to the state of Michigan?

- Well, it is Michigan's center stage, it's also Michigan's management retreat.

It's the only place where you bring 1,500 leaders from the philanthropic community, the education community, and of course, the business community, you know, together in one spot, and they're all on equal ground.

They're all, I mean, it is Switzerland, Mackinac Island is Switzerland of Michigan.

So there's no better place to do this.

And you know, it's been around 50 years.

If I had to recreate it, I couldn't do it.

- Well, so Peter, as chair, you do get to choose the theme.

Tell me a little bit about it this year and what it directly means to you.

- First of all, I'm really honored to be the chair for this esteemed conference.

And I think this is a particularly unique time, given all that's going on.

And I think, I don't think there's an organization in Michigan that hasn't been impacted by what's going on in the federal level, but whether it's a business or an educational institution, a not-for-profit, media, educational institutions all have been impacted by what's going on at the federal level, but also locally.

And I think with so much change and so much disruption and so much polarization, I think this is a really good time for a group to come together and talk about the issues that are impacting the region and the state.

And so, the theme for this year is Equation for Impact.

And the idea is to take the vision plus tools, resources, and they need action.

And that's really what we're trying to communicate is the importance of getting impact and a result and outcomes from all of the great ideas and cooperation that we get on the island.

- So this equation, the first part is about vision.

I'm curious, Sandy, when you think about the conference and you think about the folks who are coming to the conference, who is determining what that vision looks like for our state?

- Well, the conference is a gathering of 1,500 of the top leaders in our state, from government, from philanthropy, from business, from education.

And, you know, those are really the leaders of our state.

And the only way, and Peter talks eloquently about this, the only way to actually, you know, make change, to make progress is that are we aligned?

And, you know, when you look at the history of, say the City of Detroit, Detroit went through, you know, bankruptcy and came rocketing out of it, thanks to the alignment of those very sectors, we just need to do that at the statewide level as well.

- And then the other part of the equation, Peter, are the tools.

What are the tools?

What's the toolbox that you're providing at this conference or that you're hoping people think about?

- Yeah, well, we're talking about the things that we have access to.

So in Michigan, that's incredible economic resources, but we need to build some of those tools, the capabilities that we need for the next generation of business, AI, some other important enablers of economic prosperity and growth, and we'll have speakers and we'll have hosted sessions that we'll deal with each of the relevant tools that we can bring to bear.

But to Sandy's point, we need to do it collectively.

- And then there's a real call to action, right?

Because I think sometimes that's the part that gets missed, the actual doing.

You know, Sandy, you've often talked about at the end of this conference, sort of a playbook or just sort of a like go out, do the things.

What are you hoping people are going to take away from this specific conference this year?

That action part of the equation?

- It's hard to anticipate in advance because we don't script our speakers, right?

And so what we're hoping is that some of the big things that we need to focus on are actually kind of very immediate things as well, such as, you know, how does this state, how does its government, how does its industry respond to the national policy environment?

We have a very dramatically different national policy environment.

You know, some people love it, some people don't love it quite so much.

But the question is, regardless if you love it or don't love it, we have to respond to it.

So how do we handle that?

- Yeah, well, that's the question.

I mean, and you've talked about the unprecedented times that we find ourselves in.

There's some economic certainty, there is political uncertainty.

How do you see the conference playing a role right now in the environment in which we find ourselves?

- Well, I think even or notwithstanding this really turbulent environment, I think there are certain things where there is common ground among the disparate constituents that are represented at the conference.

An example is 60 by 30.

So getting more of our citizenry who are graduating from high school to either get a degree or some kind of credentialing.

To a person, I think everybody thinks that's a good idea, notwithstanding all of the challenges that may be facing us because of what's going on in the macro-environment.

But if we can focus on that, we can marshal the resources that we have at the conference to focus on that, for example, would be a great outcome and one that I think we could move the needle on getting to 60 by 30.

- Sandy, it does feel like that is what folks want, right?

Some pillar, at least, moving the needle, making some change.

But as we've talked about, there are some folks out there that are just sort of angry, angry at systems, angry at institutions, right?

This sort of just break it all down.

I'm curious how you are thinking this year about the conference's role in whether it be bipartisanship, whether it be civility, and can we have those things right now in America?

- Well, I think that's one of the beauties of the conference is because one of its cornerstones is civility, right?

There's a reason why people of all political stripes come to the conference because they know it's one of the few places now where you can have a calm and even friendly conversation with someone of a different political stripe, a different geographic stripe, a different industry stripe.

And you know you're gonna get value out of it because that's what the conference is built on, right?

I mean, there's a reason why we say, "Hey, no ties."

And there's a reason why we occasionally serve a cocktail or two because we want people to get, you know, we want people to let their guard down.

And that happens at the conference, no matter who you are, you could be the CEO of a major global company, or you could be a little plebe like me and everyone's equally accessible on that porch.

- [Announcer] And you can catch our livestream coverage of the Mackinac Policy Conference from May 27th to the 29th on the Detroit PBS YouTube channel or at onedetroitpbs.org.

We'll also bring you highlights of the conference on a "One Detroit" hour-long special airing Thursday, May 29th at 7:00 PM on Detroit PBS.

"One Detroit" contributor, Stephen Henderson of "American Black Journal," and Nolan Finley from "The Detroit News" will discuss their new book at the Mackinac Policy Conference.

It's titled, "The Civility Book: A Guide to Building Bridges Across the Political Divide."

Henderson and Finley, who often have vastly different political views, talked with contributor Zoe Clark about their approaches to civility and their longstanding friendship.

(light music) - Nolan, I'm gonna start with you.

What does it mean to have a book about civility come out now in this moment that we find ourselves?

- Well, you know, we've been doing this for a number of years, and every year we think, we say to ourselves, "Gosh, we need this this year more than ever."

And, you know, I would think that's absolutely true in 2025, as we continue to slide toward, slide into this great divide we have as a nation, and we become, we're becoming much more entrenched in our positions and much less willing to discuss issues, politics, what have you, productively with people who don't agree with us.

- And Stephen, it's not just that folks are sort of wary or not doing it, you actually write in the book that there's actually some fear around talking to folks who may be in a different party.

- Yeah, I mean, I think if you spend any time on social media, if you watch cable news, you know, the 24-hour cable news stations, fear is the thing that kind of hangs in the air over a lot of this, that, you know, people feel like they'll be attacked, they feel like they'll be belittled, in some extreme cases, you know, people have been doxed, or these other kinds of things all over politics.

And look, politics has always been a contact sport in this country.

And there's nothing wrong with that.

People are passionate, they should be, but there have to be some guardrails.

There have to be some ground rules that allow us to get to that exchange of ideas, which I think sits at the heart of the Democratic experiment.

If we can't exchange ideas with each other it's really hard to manage the country.

But it's also hard to perfect the country, that wonderful phrase that is in the preamble of the Constitution about a more perfect union.

- So the book is not just about the need for civility, it's in many respects, the sort of how to.

Nolan, I'd like to think most folks don't wake up in the morning thinking, "I wanna be really angry, I wanna be uncivil today."

But they may wake up and not be exactly sure how to go about modeling this behavior with one another.

Talk to me about what that looks like on a day-to-day basis for you.

- Yeah, I mean, so they may not wake up that way, or wanting to be that way, but they certainly, too many of 'em are waking up that way.

And this book, "The Civility Book" published by Wayne State is about our experiences together.

I mean, we are not two people who in today's world should be friends or as close as we've become over these last 17 to 18 years we've been working together.

I mean, we don't agree on anything and we have some very passionate disagreements, but we've learned to have those disagreements and extract some value from them without destroying our friendship.

In fact, our friendship has only become stronger.

And what we do in this book is offer a whole series of tips and share our own experiences and those of others on how you do this.

- Stephen, give me some examples of some of the approaches.

- We start with this idea of dropping assumptions.

You know, right now when we meet somebody and they tell us they're a Republican, or a Democrat, or a conservative, or a liberal, we draw all kinds of conclusions about what that means about who they are and what they believe.

We ask people to hold off on that, let that person tell you who they are, what they believe, and why.

We talk about setting reasonable expectations when we're having these conversations with people we disagree with.

I think a lot of times right now, people wanna beat the other person into the ground, right?

Show them how wrong they are.

Instead, we talk about trying to extract value from the differences in the way we think and feel and not think about winning or losing the conversation.

We talk about listening, investing in the other person's ideas, and we talk about the fact that we've been at this for 18 years and neither one of us has ever gotten up from one of these arguments and said, "You know what?

That's it, I'm done with this guy."

I think the intentionality of that is one of the things that's really required to say, you know, a lot of times there's hurt feelings between us.

A lot of times there's anger, there have been times when we've stopped, you know, recording an argument and not spoken to each other for a couple of weeks, that's okay.

But saying, "I'm done with this person because I don't like what they say is how we've gotten to where we are."

And so you've gotta make that decision that it's worth having this relationship and the ability to exchange those ideas even under the most uncomfortable circumstances.

- I wanna grab on to what you talked about is this intimacy of this relationship that the two of you have had now for nearly two decades.

- That's a private matters, though.

(Zoe laughs) - And I am curious, Nolan, about what this can mean for someone who doesn't have that kind of relationship.

You know, you also, Stephen, talk about these kind of conversations that you've had with family members, right?

These are people with whom you have deep relationships, but it seems to me where much of the work also needs to be done in society today is with folks that were just passing on the street.

- Yeah, that's it.

And I mean, Steve and I of course didn't start out close when we first met each other.

We had a lot of learning to do.

But you know, we offer a couple of truisms that I think help people take this the first step and sort of put these conversations in the right context in a civil context.

First thing we say is that all good people come to their opinions in the same way.

They take the information, the data available, they run it through the filters of their own experiences and their own personal values, and they come up with a viewpoint.

If it's different than yours, it doesn't make them evil, it simply means they've lived a different life and they've had different experiences, whole different values.

It's important to find out to learn what those experiences and values are before you sit down and start to engage.

It leads for a lot more respectful interaction.

The other thing we say is that a conversation's not a competition.

And so, if you're sitting down with the goal of converting someone, give it up.

I mean, nobody enjoys that, and it's not really possible.

We've been at this for a long, long time.

I've never converted Steve to my way of thinking on hardly anything.

And so we ask people to switch their, to set a more honest goal for a conversation, and that is to learn from each other, to understand each other a little better.

- [Announcer] Let's turn now to this year's ride for equity presented by the nonprofit Black Leaders Detroit.

The group will take off on a bike ride from Tulsa, Oklahoma to New York City on May 31st.

The goal is to promote Black businesses and raise awareness about the need for access to capital.

Black Leaders Detroit CEO, Dwan Dandridge sat down with "American Black Journal" host and "One Detroit" contributor Stephen Henderson to provide details on the bike ride.

(light music) - So let's start with Tulsa to New York.

- Yes.

- It's a long ride, but there's also some important significance to choosing Tulsa as the sort of beginning of that ride.

Talk about how this idea comes together.

- Yeah, no, 100%, right.

So what we do at Black Leaders Detroit is we're trying to create wealth again, right, in our communities.

And as we had thought about, like a ride that would kind mimic and show the world kind of like what we're up to on a national level, I guess, at least, riding from Black Wall Street to Wall Street- - To Wall Street.

- Was the only thing that kind of made sense at the end of the day.

And I've pretty much, because we'd know that there's been disruption to wealth that we've been creating in the Black community, and it's always been intentional, but I think Tulsa has the richest history or the most recognizable history.

So that's the reason that we're starting there.

- Yeah, for viewers who don't know, just give them a thumbnail of Tulsa, what it was and what happened to it.

- Yeah, so the Black Wall Street Greenwood District in Tulsa, Oklahoma was a very thriving Black community where there were homeowners and business owners that had some very successful businesses and it was disrupted in a very violent way, something that's called the Tulsa massacre built off of a lie.

And, you know, when folks came to stand up for themselves, they were attacked.

And I believe that historically it was the one time where you had, you know, bombing taking place in this country and it was done by countrymen.

- Yeah, yeah.

When you think about what happened there and sort of carrying that physically forward to New York today, I mean, there is still this gap.

I mean, I'm thinking of the distance between the two, you know, this gap that still exists between what African Americans had and what we have access to now, and that's really what your work is about.

- Definitely.

You know, what we do, we provide grants and no-interest loans to entrepreneurs of African descent here in the city of Detroit.

And we are still seeing huge disparities in the wealth, but we're also seeing huge disparities when it comes to accessing capital.

The access, yeah.

- Right.

So instead of waiting on the systems to self-correct, we figured we'd put something in place, be it the grants and no-interest loans that we've done for the last four years, and we've been able to deploy over $4.8 million to entrepreneurs in the city.

And we think we're just getting started.

- Yeah.

All right, let's talk about this bike ride.

It's an insane bike ride, Tulsa to New York.

How many miles is that?

- So we're talking about 1,643 miles.

- Okay.

- From start to finish.

- Yeah.

- And we're doing over the course of 35 days, as you mentioned, we're taking off May 31st, the anniversary of the Tulsa massacre landing in New York on the 4th of July, and we're going to stop in several cities.

The major cities will be St. Louis, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, Columbus, Dayton, and then, you know, somewhere in New Jersey.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- Wow, how many miles a day are you riding?

- So we're averaging 50 to 75 miles a day, so, you know, it's ambitious and it'll be painful, but we ride six days and we rest a day.

- Yeah, and people who are here who can't make the ride from Tulsa to New York can also participate.

- 100%.

- Because now we live in a world where you don't have to be in the place where you're doing something, you can actually be on a bike ride in your living room.

- Technology, yeah.

- And do it that way, that's pretty cool.

- Technology's found a way to have us together even when we're not like together, right?

So we are asking people to come out and join us in one of the cities if you're able to meet us there.

But if you are not, we welcome you to join us.

We're hoping to get 9,000 people to ride with us remotely, either from home, riding around your neighborhood.

If you're a avid cyclist, of course you can match the amount of miles we're riding on a given day.

If you have a Peloton, you can sign up and join us through that way as well.

And we just ask that you would register and tag us in a picture showing us that you actually riding with us.

- [Stephen] That you're actually riding with you.

Yeah, yeah.

- [Announcer] Monday marks the unofficial start to summer.

And there are plenty of ways to kick off your Memorial Day weekend in metro Detroit.

Peter Wharf and Cecelia Sharpe from 90.9 WRCJ have today's "One Detroit" Weekend.

- Hi everyone, Cecelia and Peter here with some fun ideas for your Memorial Day weekend.

Peter, what's up first?

- On Friday, May 23rd, Asian Sound Revolution performs at Rivera Court inside the Detroit Institute of Arts, infusing traditional Asian instruments with modern sensibilities.

- [Cecelia] Now, if techno is more your style, the Movement Music Festival takes over Hart Plaza from May 24th through 26th as one of the biggest electronic music festivals in the country.

It's a nonstop celebration of Detroit's musical roots.

- [Peter] For art lovers, the Kensington Art Fair happens at Kensington Metropark, May 24th through the 26th, where you can meander through beautiful outdoor displays of sculpture, painting, jewelry, and more.

- [Cecelia] You can also honor history and heritage at African Liberation Weekend, May 24th and 25th at the Charles H. Wright Museum.

There will be music, panel discussions, family activities, and celebrations of African and African American communities.

- [Peter] And opening May 25th, "Our War Too: Women in Service" at the Henry Ford Museum honors the incredible contributions of women during World War II.

The exhibit runs through September 7th.

- And of course there's even more going on in Detroit, so stay tuned for a few more suggestions.

(light music) - [Announcer] That'll do it for this week's "One Detroit."

Thanks for watching.

Head to the "One Detroit" website for all the stories we're working on.

Follow us on social media and sign up for our weekly newsletter.

- [Narrator 1] From Delta faucets to Behr paint, Masco Corporation is proud to deliver products that enhance the way consumers all over the world experience and enjoy their living spaces.

Masco, serving Michigan communities since 1929.

Support also provided by the Cynthia & Edsel Ford Fund for Journalism at Detroit PBS.

- [Narrator 2] The DTE Foundation is a proud sponsor of Detroit PBS.

Through our giving, we are committed to meeting the needs of the communities we serve statewide, to help ensure a bright and thriving future for all.

Learn more at DTEFoundation.com.

- [Narrator 1] Nissan Foundation, and viewers like you.

(light music) (light piano music)