- [Narrator] Coming up on "One Detroit," mayor Mike Duggan talks with one Detroit contributor, Nolan Finley, about his decision to run for governor.

Plus, we'll have a report on a local woman whose idea to uplift the community during the pandemic became an annual event.

And PBS commentator David Brooks discusses his New York Times bestselling book focusing on human connection.

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

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(uplifting music) - [Narrator] Just ahead on "One Detroit," a story about the woman behind the creation of the annual Ypsilanti Artisan Holiday Market.

Plus, bestselling author David Brooks talks with "One Detroit" contributor Zoe Clark about his latest book, "How to Know a Person."

But first up, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan recently announced his plans to run for Michigan Governor in 2026.

After serving three terms in the mayor's office, his decision to run as an independent candidate instead of a Democrat was a surprise to many, but the mayor feels people are fed up with partisan politics.

One Detroit contributor, Nolan Finley from the Detroit News, sat down with Mayor Duggan to discuss his next political move.

(mellow dance music) - Mayor Mike Duggan, you've had some big announcements lately.

They seem to be coming one right after another.

First, you've announced you're not gonna run for reelection as as Detroit mayor after 12 years when your term ends next year.

Why did you decide to leave that job and make a run for governor?

- Well, there were two different decisions.

The first was that I really did what I came here to try to do, and the city was in bankruptcy, and you know, I was born here, and I've watched things be taken away from us for 60 years and I thought I could help turn it around.

But you know, we've gotten rid of nearly all of the abandoned houses down to our last 3,000, which we're working on.

We rebuilt the Riverfront, we're building the Joe Lewis Greenway, population is growing again, businesses growing are again.

And so we certainly have our challenges, but I feel like what I wanted to do and the tone of attacking the problems of working together, I felt like it had taken root and it was gonna be just fine.

- So you're gonna leave this job and try to move into the governor's office in Lansing.

What's appealing about that job to you after all these years as mayor?

- You know, it's back to the same thing.

I'm not somebody who wants to sit in an office and have a title.

But you look at what's happening in Michigan, and we gotta stop closing our eyes.

I mean, the economy, this country is being built on the East and the West Coast and somewhat in the South, and Michigan leads all of America in young people under 30 leaving the state.

And that's not just recent.

That's been going on for a long time.

Our children, 60% of 'em, don't read at the fourth grade level.

That's not new.

That's been declining for 20 years.

And for all of the every two year Republican-Democratic fights, nobody is talking about what we have to do to change the direction of the state.

And I thought, you know, maybe the kind of politics that we built in Detroit, of people working together, that maybe the state could benefit from it as well.

- So you've decided to run for governor, but not as a Democrat, the party that you belonged to for most of your career.

Why make the decision to run as an independent?

- You know, I really reached a conclusion that a partisan governor couldn't succeed.

And this last year in Lansing was the worst that I've ever seen.

But at this point, the partisan relationship in this country is toxic.

But in this state, it's so closely divided in the House and Senate, everything is about, are the Democrats gonna get control of the next cycle?

The Republicans are gonna get control of the next cycle?

Republicans spend a huge amount of money to get control of the House this last November, and the Democrats are gonna pour a ton of money in to try to get it two years from now.

And in the meantime, nobody is dealing with the long-term problems of the state.

And I just realized that if I ran as a Democrat, all of the Republicans would line up against me, 'cause you have to line up against a Democrat.

Of course, in the Democratic party, there is a left wing that has never supported me.

So it isn't even like I'm gonna have all the Democrats on my side.

It just didn't seem like there's a path, I don't think for any partisan governor, to make the kind of transformational change Michigan needs.

But I didn't see a way for me to do it.

- Is there a path for you as an independent to win the governor's race?

That's never happened in this state, at least in anybody's memory.

- Yeah, well, a white guy hadn't run for mayor of Detroit in anybody's memory.

And had never run- - That's true.

- As a write-in, in history.

So I don't worry too much about what's happened before, but I look at what is the path.

And you know, Gallup, since the 1980s, does a poll every year.

"Do you consider yourself a Democrat, or Republican, or Independent?"

And this year it is stunning.

We're down to 27% think they're Democrats, 27% think they're Republicans, and those numbers are dropping.

43% consider themselves independent, and the number is growing.

You just look at that, and any business person would say, "Do I wanna be at the declining market share or the growing market share?"

But people in Michigan, and really in this country, just have always been fed only two choices, a Democrat or a Republican.

And they assume those are the only two choices that are there.

When I see, and as we were talking, I just came back from New York, I just came through the airport.

All through the airport were stopping me.

"I'm with you, I'm voting for you.

And independent, I'm an independent too."

There is something about this that is already capturing the imagination of folks.

And I do think I'd rather be on the side of the 43% that are Independent than the 27% that are Republican or Democrat.

- But the mechanics are challenging.

I mean, you'd be running without a party structure, without all of the things a political party normally does for its candidate.

How do you replace that as an independent and how do you build an organization?

- The party structure is more myth than reality.

But think about this.

When you run as mayor, you're nonpartisan.

There's no party structure.

I built it myself.

When you run in a primary, there's no party structure.

The party doesn't kick in until after the primary elections.

You build that yourself.

But the infrastructure is people.

And if the people of this state say, "I'm fed up with the two parties and where they're going," I'll put together an organization much like I did when I ran for mayor that will be an active group that believes in change.

And if that happens, it'll be okay.

But for 13,000 signatures, I'm on the November ballot.

The Democrats and Republicans I'm sure are gonna go through a nasty primary where they all attack each other, and two of them will come out, and we're gonna have a debate.

And I feel like this is a conversation the state needs to have.

And my guess is from what I'm starting to hear, some other states in the country may start to see.

- So you've been a centrist in a party that has moved steadily to the left.

As a business-oriented politician and candidate, could you have won the Democratic Party primary?

- I don't consider myself a business-oriented politician, but I'm in the city of Detroit that is 94% Democratic.

And so people in the city realize that if we're gonna have good jobs for our residents, we've gotta have businesses who want to invest here.

It's gotta be a good climate.

And I say to the businesses, "I'm gonna help you land here, but you've gotta give Detroiters preference in getting in and support training and career path."

That's been a bargain that we have made that has dropped us the lowest unemployment rate in 30 years, but I don't consider that centrist.

I consider that results-oriented, and I think the great majority of Detroiters think so too.

- So you've got two years to convince Michigan that you're the guy who can fix this thing.

What is your message?

What is your plan over these next two years as a candidate for governor?

- So when I started running for mayor, I didn't start out going into people's living rooms saying, "I have all the answers, I'm here to help you."

I went into the living rooms and I sat and I listened carefully to their people's hopes and dreams and the obstacles they were running up against.

And a lot of what's developed in the city, the Department of Neighborhoods, Motor City Match, many of the strategies came outta those conversations.

And I am going to start now going to every corner of this state.

I'm not gonna go up and sit with farmers and tell 'em I have the answers, but I am gonna sit there until I know the answers.

I'm gonna sit with school teachers and say, "How is it that 42 states have figured out how to teach third graders to read better than us?"

I don't know what the answer is, but I know those teachers know the answer.

And I'll be in a position where I'm gonna listen, I'm gonna learn, and I'll present a plan that the public can judge for themselves whether it makes sense.

- Have you thought out the formula?

How many Republicans you're gonna have to win over, how many Democrats you're gonna have to keep?

- My goal is 20% from each side and win with 40% of the vote.

- Okay.

So you've got still a year left as mayor, so you're not gonna be spending all your time on the campaign trail.

- Right, right.

- What's left to do here over the next years?

What are your priorities?

- Yeah, so we're on a 10 straight balanced budget.

The finances are in good shape.

I'm really glad that Ralph Wilson Park's gonna be built out.

It'll be a big part of completing the Riverfront.

We're building out the Joe Lewis Greenway.

We're continuing to build three new rec centers in the city.

We're down to now 3,000 abandoned houses.

I'd like it to as close to zero by the time I leave as I can.

So right now it is basically a strategy of executing competently the plans we've laid forward the last 11 years.

- So we've already seen people starting to jump in the mayor's race.

How confident are you that when you leave, you'll be leaving it in the hands of competent leadership who can keep this momentum going?

- I think there is a lot of talent.

The biggest question, and I've said this for 11 years, Detroit was going down the tubes because the bickering and the us versus them politics as the problems sunk into the city.

But I just watched Mary Sheffield's kickoff, which was, "I'm gonna continue the progress and we're gonna work together."

I'm gonna predict, she had a very successful kickoff, she set the bar high.

I'm gonna predict you're gonna see a number of other candidates also come out with a strong message of unity and continuing progress.

And if that happens, this city's gonna be on a good path for a long time to come.

- And is that your legacy?

- I really do, I think I've changed politics in this city.

- Mayor Mike Duggan, thanks for joining us.

We appreciate you.

- Thanks for having me, Nolan.

- Thank you.

- [Narrator] The holiday season is here and that means it's time for the annual Ypsilanti Artisan Holiday Market.

The event is the brainchild of a local woman who came up with the idea four years ago during the pandemic.

I spoke with the founder, Angela Scott, about how she created the market to help her neighbors and uplift the community.

(mellow dance music) As the end of the year approaches, the holidays are in full swing, and this season, Americans are expected to spend a record amount of money with the National Retail Federation predicting an average of $902 per person, much of that on gifts.

While the NRF says 57% of shoppers will purchase online, this Future of Work holiday segment will step into a freight house, not to crunch numbers, but to hear how the Ypsilanti Artisan holiday market went from one woman's idea to help her neighbors during the pandemic to an annual community holiday destination.

This is the market organizer, Angela Scott.

- It was the fall of 2021.

We were still in COVID, obviously.

And I was out walking my dog in the neighborhood, and I bumped into a neighbor.

She was having some economic troubles.

All of the craft shows that she did to supplement her retirement income had been canceled, and she was kind of hurting.

And bumped into another neighbor, she wasn't even looking forward to Christmas.

She was tired of buying online, she was tired of the atmosphere.

And I just thought, "I wonder if we can do a European style holiday market."

I thought out in the park, we'll have some tents, it'll just be something.

And I talked to the city, and they gave me the use of this venue, because all of their events were canceled too.

I thought, "This is gonna be a one and done.

We're gonna get through COVID, we're never gonna do this again."

My husband said, "You're gonna have a second job."

I'm like, "No, it's a one and done."

And here we are on our fourth year, and it's become an annual event.

- [Narrator] The market is free to attend and hosts 40 plus independent vendors.

- When we put out the call for vendors, we don't charge for the table.

You have to live in the city or you have to live in the township, and that's our requirement.

We try to cram as many people in here as possible so that we can highlight the city, because we have this incredibly vibrant community.

And it's not just the craft community, it's the brick and mortar stores, it's the restaurants, it's the vibe.

- [Narrator] To catch the vibe, we spoke to a few vendors.

- The business name is Donum Ex Machina.

It's Latin for Gift from the Machine.

I 3D print all kinds of fun stuff.

Animals, dragons.

My fidgets are one of my biggest things.

I went with the fidgets because, you know, having been diagnosed with ADHD 30 plus years ago, these are things I wish I had growing up.

So being able to be in a place without all the overhead of a physical location, and just having a constant stream of people during the thing is super helpful.

- I mainly do crochet and beaded accessories and home decor.

I kind of just started getting into making plushies.

I just love being out in the community, seeing people's faces, being able to talk to customers face to face and making connections with different people.

Not only people who are customers buying goods, but also other vendors.

- [Narrator] Representing one of the nonprofits that participate in the market is Mibrak Tewolde of the Jewish Family Services of Washtenaw County.

- One of the programs that I work for is MED program, Micro Enterprise Development.

And that's where we help refugee entrepreneurs start their own business, help them with financial access, financial literacy classes, and so many other marketing and other trainings.

- [Narrator] Jacqueline Imani is a refugee in the program.

- I made the aprons, the mittens, the baskets.

From my background, back in Africa, we used to have such programs by United Nations High Commission for Refugees.

They trained us, like me personally, in most of these products.

I do them, and when I came here, I got into this program.

Yeah, it has helped me to make some money.

- [Narrator] Diane Johnson's QuirkyCat Designs was born out of the pandemic just like the market.

- I make everything from diaper bags to backpacks, tote bags, laptop cases.

I am a vegan, cruelty-free designer.

I have gone from not knowing how to sew anything but face masks to selling to people all over the world.

When you finally get out here and meet people and get to show off what you spent the year making and people appreciate it, to me, that's what makes this market special.

- [Narrator] As the market progresses through its fourth year, Angela reflects on what her idea and labor of love has become.

- It has been, I think, something that we all look forward to, but it's also something that I think is supportive of all of us.

It's good to see everybody.

When people walk in here and they go, "What a great building, what a great event," that makes my day.

- [Narrator] Bestselling author, New York Times columnist, and PBS News Hour commentator, David Brooks, was in Detroit recently to talk about his new book.

It's titled "How to Know a Person, the Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen."

Brooks sat down for a wide-ranging conversation with one Detroit contributor, Zoe Clark of Michigan Public, about creating true human connections, elevating communities, and looking for happiness.

(mellow dance music) - David Brooks, welcome.

- Good to be here in Detroit.

- Yeah, it is just a delight to get to sit down to talk with you after reading the book.

- Oh, thank you.

- So as I was reading the book, "How to Know a Person, the Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen," I was thinking a lot about who the book was for, right?

Books are for a reader, for an individual, right?

But I was thinking at the same point, this book feels so much more like it's for society, for community right now.

How are you thinking about who this book was written for?

- Yeah, I was sitting on a plane recently and there was a guy next to me and he was reading a book on how to become a writer.

And one of the chapters was, "Pay Close Attention to your Audience."

And I was like, I feel like drawing an X through that.

Like, don't pay attention to that chapter.

So we writers are working out our stuff in public.

And so I'm not naturally good at seeing others.

I'm not the most socially adept human being on the face of the earth.

So I wrote this book to try to get better.

And one of my favorite sayings about writing is from Frederick Buechner, the novelist, "We're beggars who tell other beggars where we found bread."

So if I found something that's useful to make me become more socially adept, more good at seeing people, more good at making them feel understood, then I just take that and I try to pass it along.

And so I wrote it for myself.

But I would say I'm not the only person with this problem.

And so I wrote it in part because we have this loneliness epidemic in society.

We live in a society where 54% of Americans say that nobody knows me well.

Where the number of people who say they have no close personal friends has gone up by fourfold since 2000.

Where 45% of high school students say they're persistently hopeless and despondent.

So we're in the middle of some sort of relational crisis in society.

And to me, one of the reasons for that, not the only one, but the one of them is we just haven't learned how to be considerate toward each other in the concrete circumstances of life.

Like how do you listen well?

How do you become a really good conversationalist?

- So the book begins with the how, right?

Just sort of how to pay attention to a person, how to really engage.

It's really sort of a how to.

All of these really wonderful practical tips.

And then you get to chapter eight, and David Brooks, you just laid out all of these things and then you wrote, I wanna read it for you.

"So far I've been describing a process of getting to know someone as if we live in normal times.

I've been writing this as if we live in a healthy cultural environment in a society in which people are meshed in communities and webs of friendship, trust, and belonging.

We don't live in such a society."

End quote.

It was a gut punch.

- Oh, I'm bringing you down, sorry.

But it sets up what I think is, so the early stuff, like how to be a good listener, the tips for how to be a good conversationalist.

Those are happy tips and easy.

But there are so many times we have painful conversations these days.

And the two main sources of painful conversations, which I try to describe in the book, the first is the political conversation.

And because we just went through an election season, I always do a lot of travel, but I did especially a lot of travel this fall.

- Yeah.

- And I was in blue places, you know, like Boston or Philadelphia, and red places in rural Nebraska, rural Kansas, west Texas, rural Ohio.

And the chasm between the two seems to me just bigger than ever.

And then the conversations across suffering.

- Yeah.

- So sitting with someone who's just lost a child, or in one of my chapters in the book is about how to sit with someone who's depressed.

And so it just seems the graduate level of knowing somebody well is how to know them well in hard circumstances.

Which we're in the middle of an age with a lot of bitterness and polarization and depression and so it's tough seas.

- What are the things in society right now that you see that are helping to bridge?

- Yeah, that's not hard either.

There are so many.

So in 2017, I created something called Weave, the Social Fabric Project.

And it was based on the idea that social trust is really, social distrust is a real problem.

Two generations ago, if you ask people, "Do you trust your neighbors?"

60% said yes.

Now 30% say yes.

And 19% of the millennials.

So we have a lot of distrust in this society.

But there are people in every neighborhood who are building trust at the local level.

- Yeah.

- And so I'm thinking of, there's a guy in in Houston named Pancho Arguelles, and he used to run something called the Living Hope Wheelchair Society.

He would take guys who'd been injured in construction accidents and were paralyzed and he'd give them wheelchairs and diapers and catheters so they could lead dignified lives.

He'd offer them training on how to be social workers.

So you're in Houston and 25 guys in the wheelchairs are wheeling in your neighborhood to help solve your neighborhood's problems.

And the guy who did this, his name is Pancho Arguelles, And he just is spreading trust by being selflessly serving a community.

And I once said to Pancho, you know, "You just radiate holiness."

- And he said, "No, I just reflect holiness."

Which is the right answer.

And so those people are everywhere.

We go into any town in Detroit or McCook, Nebraska or Wilkes, North Carolina, and we just say, "Who's trusted here?"

And people give us names.

And sometimes, like Pancho, they run an organization.

Sometimes they're just neighbors.

- You talk and you've talked in this conversation and in the book a lot about loneliness and sort of the impact that we're seeing in society.

I'm curious about if we, right, the royal we don't choose this path of kindness and caring for each other, what happens?

Like where do we go from here?

I think a lot of folks are wondering in society today.

- Well societies fall apart when distrust is high and people can't work together 'cause they don't trust each other.

- Yeah.

- Societies fall apart when there's no moral order that's cohesive holding them together.

They fall apart when we don't have a common story.

So a diverse, pluralistic society like ours needs to be united by a common story.

We're all moving together towards some end.

But then the very act of being considerate to one another, it sounds like, minute and not that important, but societies break apart when that doesn't happen, because people feel existentially lonely.

'Cause when we are isolated, we not only feel sad, but we feel mean.

Because when you you feel unseen, you feel under threat.

That's how we evolved.

And you feel your dignity is being insulted, which it is.

People are not recognizing me for the human being that I am.

And so you wanna lash out.

And there's a guy named Ryan Streeter at the University of Texas who did a study finding that people who self-identify as lonely are seven times more likely to be active in politics than other people.

So what happens is people go to politics as an attempt to cure their social loneliness, because politics seems to offer belonging.

I'm Team Red or I'm Team Blue.

But it's not belonging like being a part of community.

It's just hating the other people.

And it seems to offer a path of righteousness.

I'm doing something for the country.

But you're not sitting with a widow or serving the poor, you're just hating people on Twitter.

- Well, the book that we've been talking about is "How to Know a Person, the Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen."

David Brooks, it's been a pleasure.

- Thank you, it's really been fun.

- [Narrator] If you're looking for something to do in Metro Detroit this weekend, head to the One Detroit website for a list of events in "One Detroit Weekend" with Cecelia Sharpe of 90.9 WRCJ.

That'll do it for this week's "One Detroit."

Thanks for watching.

Remember to follow us on social media and sign up for our weekly newsletter.

(mellow dance music) - [Narrator] 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.

- [Narrator] Support also provided by the Cynthia and Edsel Ford Fund for Journalism at Detroit PBS.

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

Among the state's largest foundations committed to Michigan focused giving, we support organizations that are doing exceptional work in our state.

Learn more at dtefoundation.com.

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

(mellow dance music) (uplifting music)