Latest Northern Michigan News

Daniel Bergner is the author of five books, including "In the Land of Magic Soldiers" and his latest, "Sing For Your Life," about African-American opera singer Ryan Speedo Green. He's also a journalist who writes for the New York Times Magazine and other publications. Bergner talks this hour with Interlochen Public Radio music host and producer Kate Botello. She asked Bergner how he first heard about Ryan Speedo Green.

Murray Howe is the youngest son of Gordie Howe, who spent 25 seasons playing for the Detroit Red Wings. Unlike his father and two older brothers, Murray Howe never worked as a professional athlete. Instead he became a doctor, practicing sports medicine. Murray Howe’s memoir is called “Nine Lessons I Learned from My Father.” He talks this hour with Ron Jolly, author and radio host for WTCM NewsTalk 580. Jolly asked Howe what it was like growing up in an athletic family.

Nurses have filed charges against one of northern Michigan’s largest hospitals. The Michigan Nurses Association says Munson Medical Center in Traverse City is not operating in “good faith” during contract negotiations.

Last year, around a thousand nurses at Munson Medical Center unionized and have been working toward a new contract. James Walker is a Munson nurse and he says they unionized for a number of reasons.

Lake whitefish are the most important commercial fish species in Michigan. But in the last decade, state biologists say fishers are harvesting about a third of what they used to get. 

On this edition of Michigan Writers on the Air: Aaron Stander will talk with Mardi Link about the new edition of her true crime book, When Evil Came to Good Hart. Then Cari Noga will read from and give some background on her new novel, The Orphan Daughter. Finally, poet Fleda Brown will provide an audio essay about the life and work of the late Donald Hall. 

The planet Venus moves close to the star Spica this week, where the star is held in the arms of Virgo, the maiden. What can it mean?

On Sunday the planet Mercury completed its retrograde and resumed its direct, or eastward motion. This coming weekend, the planet Mars will do the same thing when it completes its apparent retrograde.

On a sunny summer morning, Jim Munoz is on his charter boat, the Carol Dee. It's a 31-foot Tiara that Jim calls "the pride of the Great Lakes." Jim is wearing a fishing hat – one of those bucket hats that he’s got clipped up on each side. 

He's in his late 70s and has been fishing lake trout and salmon out of Leland for over 40 years. In the summer, he fishes every single day.

“I can’t view this as work,” Jim says. “It is hard physically because of the pace that we keep through the summer.

After last Saturday’s New Moon, we entered the sacred sequence of days leading up to the 7th Night of the 7th Moon in the Chinese tradition, which brings us to the portal between the worlds. 

The Qixi Festival is celebrated during the most romantic time of the year, when the Crescent Moon sweeps across the western horizon toward the thickest part of the Milky Way.

Every morning I collect the newspaper from the front porch, feed the cat, and plug in a pot of coffee.  Then I go down in the basement to clean out my cat’s litter box.

Traverse City musician Jonathan Timm moved back to the area from Nashville recently. The 34-year-old northern Michigan native says he was missing out on too much at home. 

The Perseid Meteor Shower reaches its peak just after New Moon this weekend, which means that if the weather cooperates, the conditions are ideal for a terrific show of falling stars.

You can see the meteors whizzing through the sky after 11 pm, once the constellation Perseus has mounted into the sky. This hero rises in the north east, carrying the severed head of the Medusa in his left hand as his trophy. 

Robin Lee Berry is a singer-songwriter and a mainstay in northern Michigan’s folk music scene. She came Up North in the 80s as a single mom.

We’re halfway through the Summer, and now the meteor showers begin!

David Grann is a New Yorker magazine staff writer and author of The Lost City of Z. His new book is called Killers of the Flower Moon, about the murders of Osage Indians in the 1920s. David talks this hour with editor and publisher Lucas Wittmann. Lucas asked David to tell him more about his new book.