Welcome to Common Groundwater, a podcast by the Michigan Environmental Council and hosted by pleasant peninsula diehard Beau Brockett Jr.

Like Michigan's mysterious yet necessary groundwater—our so-called sixth Great Lake—Common Groundwater tells tales of environmental issues by going to all corners of the state, by going deep into the nuance, and by bringing out a story arc that's grand in scale yet personal to all of us.

Common Groundwater will be split into four-episode miniseries. Each miniseries will have its own topic of focus with additional opportunities to learn more, get excited, and take part.

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Common Groundwater is hosted by the Michigan Environmental Council and Beau Brockett Jr.

Our music is "The Four Seasons" by Antonio Vivaldi, arranged by Derek Zhang and performed by Jackson resident Taj Wallace.

Michigan's in a bit of an odd place. It's considered a climate haven, a place that can protect people from the worst of climate change. But its literal havens—our homes—are causing problems. They're old, expensive, elusive and, in fact, causing climate change. In the first episode of our green housing miniseries, Crain's Detroit Business reporter (and Detroiter) Nick Manes joins us to talk about the state of housing and how it serves as both a problem and a solution to our state.

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To follow Nick's real estate reporting, go to crainsdetroit.com.

To get more episodes, stories and opportunities for action around green, affordable housing, click here.

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Common Groundwater is hosted by the Michigan Environmental Council and Beau Brockett Jr.

Our music is "The Four Seasons" by Antonio Vivaldi, arranged by Derek Zhang and performed by Jackson resident Taj Wallace.

Update: Better building codes for all homes and building have been adopted in Michigan! You can read about it here.

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Michigan homes have high pollution levels and high prices. How can we possibly change that for all 4.5 million of them and counting? For climate expert Carlee Knott, the answer is by cracking the code (literally) of home development and repair. In this second episode of our green housing miniseries, we talk about housing as a solution to our cost of living and climate change crises.

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To get other stories, information and opportunities around green housing, click here.

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Common Groundwater is hosted by the Michigan Environmental Council and Beau Brockett Jr.

Our music is "The Four Seasons" by Antonio Vivaldi, arranged by Derek Zhang and performed by Jackson resident Taj Wallace.

Eric Schertzing considers land banks like a Veg-O-Matic. These entities offer a plethora of innovative ways to hold and redevelop properties in our communities. Eric joins us in the third episode of our green housing miniseries to discuss how the Michigan Association of Land Banks and its members can help set the standard for our homes of the future.

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To learn more about the Michigan Association of Land Banks and get in contact with your local land bank, click here.

To get other stories, information and opportunities around green housing, click here.

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Common Groundwater is hosted by the Michigan Environmental Council and Beau Brockett Jr.

Our music is "The Four Seasons" by Antonio Vivaldi, arranged by Derek Zhang and performed by Jackson resident Taj Wallace.

"God. Guns. Gas Stoves." That's what a prominent legislator posted on social media early in 2023. Welcome to the Stove War, a cultural flashpoint that pitted gas stoves against their electric counterparts. As with most viral debates, misinformation spouted. Chef Chris Galarza joins us to break stoves down from environmental, health and cooking perspectives in our final episode of our green housing miniseries.

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To learn more about Chef Galarza's induction cooking advocacy group, click here.

To check out Chef Galarza's book on the green industrial revolution, click here.

To see if you're eligible for a induction cooking and other energy efficient appliances, click here.

To learn more about green housing in Michigan, click here.

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Common Groundwater is hosted by the Michigan Environmental Council and Beau Brockett Jr.

Our music is "The Four Seasons" by Antonio Vivaldi, arranged by Derek Zhang and performed by Jackson resident Taj Wallace.

UPDATE: The bills discussed in this episode did not pass the Michigan Legislature. For the latest update on our efforts, click here.

Michigan’s environmental duties are defined by an act that is hundreds of thousands of words long. Included is 22,000 words that give our state its rules to fight pollution in our lakes and streams.

These words stayed strong for years until, in the early 2000s, a single sentence was added. It changed everything.

As Megan Tinsley, the Environmental Council’s water policy director, notes, this sentence has kept Michigan back in time. In many ways, it can’t use new science and tech to better protect our waters (and us) from dangerous chemicals.

Megan joins us in our new water pollution miniseries to explain the myriad ways our state government is stymied on issues like PFAS and bacterial outbreaks.

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Learn about water protections and more through the Michigan Environmental Council. You can also subscribe to its email and follow it on Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn.

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Common Groundwater is hosted by the Michigan Environmental Council and Beau Brockett Jr.

Our music is "The Four Seasons" by Antonio Vivaldi, arranged by Derek Zhang and performed by Jackson resident Taj Wallace.

The environmental arm of our state was created to protect our land, water, wildlife and us residents from pollution—it's enshrined in Michigan's constitution. And yet, over the course of 30 years, the department and its thousands of employees have been stripped of its powers time and again, rendering it far more toothless than we might expect.

In our last episode of our water pollution miniseries, we learned how one sentence froze Michigan's pollution laws back in time. Now, Christy McGillivray of the Sierra Club Michigan Chapter puts that sentence into context. She tells us how one governor began a domino effect of gutted environmental protections that we're now building back with force.

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To learn more about the Sierra Club Michigan Chapter, click here.

To read Christy's breakdown of our state environmental department's stripped powers, click here.

Learn about water protections and more through the Michigan Environmental Council. You can also subscribe to its email and follow it on Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn.

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Common Groundwater is hosted by the Michigan Environmental Council and Beau Brockett Jr.

Our music is "The Four Seasons" by Antonio Vivaldi, arranged by Derek Zhang and performed by Jackson resident Taj Wallace.

Ink from recycled paper, of all things, was what polluted the Kalamazoo River Watershed so much, it was placed in two federal cleanup programs.

Paper mills, oil spills, dams, manure—the "Kazoo" has seen it all. And yet, this watershed and its inhabitants have persevered. With contamination comes a fierce pride, and with pride comes action.

The Kalamazoo River Watershed Council was created to bring its namesake river out of the red and into the black. It's been doing a just that, all while bringing folks of diverse geographies and histories together to protect the waters that connect them all.

In the third episode of our water pollution miniseries, Doug McLaughlin joins us to put our contamination conversation into a local context.

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To learn more about the Kazoo and its Kalamazoo River Watershed Council, go to kalamazooriver.org.

Learn about water protections and more through the Michigan Environmental Council. You can also subscribe to its email and follow it on Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn.

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Common Groundwater is hosted by the Michigan Environmental Council and Beau Brockett Jr.

Our music is "The Four Seasons" by Antonio Vivaldi, arranged by Derek Zhang and performed by Jackson resident Taj Wallace.