On this week's program, host Phil Tower first welcomes CBS Newsradio Automotive expert/reporter, Jeff Gilbert. Jeff joined Phil for a conversation on the latest developments in the world of electric vehicles, including a new vehicle from Vietnam, a new all-electric Cadillac Escalade, an update on the Ford F150 lightning, and Jeff shares with us his experience of driving the all-electric new EV Hummer. In Michigan, and most other states, there has been an obvious push toward encouraging more drivers of electric vehicles, including installing more rapid charging stations across the state. But Jeff shares that we aren't quite there, yet in terms of making it an easy thing to own an electric vehicle.
Online: Jeff Gilbert on Twitter
In part two of this week's program, Phil welcomes Eliza Curtin, Senior Marketing and Communications Coordinator, with Bissell Pet Foundation, and Brittany Schlacter, Marketing, and Public Relations Specialist, with Bissell Pet Foundation. The 17th Annual BISSELL Blocktail Party was June 5 and 6, 2023, and it featured two nights of people, pets, food, and a lot of fun while raising funds for pets in rescues and shelters across the country. Blocktail is BISSELL Pet Foundation’s primary fundraising event, providing critical support to give homeless pets a second chance. Brittany and Eliza told us that since 2011, the foundation’s lifesaving programs have touched 614,513 pets.
Online: Bissell Pet Foundation
Online: Jeff Gilbert on Twitter
In part two of this week's program, Phil welcomes Eliza Curtin, Senior Marketing and Communications Coordinator, with Bissell Pet Foundation, and Brittany Schlacter, Marketing, and Public Relations Specialist, with Bissell Pet Foundation. The 17th Annual BISSELL Blocktail Party was June 5 and 6, 2023, and it featured two nights of people, pets, food, and a lot of fun while raising funds for pets in rescues and shelters across the country. Blocktail is BISSELL Pet Foundation’s primary fundraising event, providing critical support to give homeless pets a second chance. Brittany and Eliza told us that since 2011, the foundation’s lifesaving programs have touched 614,513 pets.
Online: Bissell Pet Foundation
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
iHeartMedia West Michigan Weekend a public affairsprogram, and this is West Michigan Weekend
from iHeartRadio. Thanks so much forlistening. I'm Phil Tower and I'm very
pleased to welcome to this segment.Guess we have not had on this program
in a while. He is abroadcasting friend and just one of the best
(00:23):
in the business in covering automobiles.He works for news radio nine fifty WWJ
and Detroit. He was also anational correspondent for CBS News Radio and he
is the Car Chronicles guy. He'sJeff Gilbert. He's also the president of
North American Car and Utility Truck ofthe Year Awards, and we wanted to
(00:45):
tip a hat to that because wealways love speaking with Jeff about that.
But we're gonna focus on evs inthis segment. Jeff Gilbert, welcome to
the program. Hey, thanks forhaving me. Thanks for that big build
up too. You'll get my checkin the mail. Yes, I figured
I would well our Facebook friends,so I live vicariously through your travels,
and you've been traveling a lot lately. I think people are curious as the
(01:07):
number of evs seem to be increasingin the state of Michigan, at least
here in the Greater Grand Rapids area. Although I think I saw the number
of evs in Michigan. I sawthe stat looking at our Auto Talk podcast
from a couple of episodes back wherewe focused on evs. They're about almost
eighteen thousand evs. This is datafrom the US Department of Energy from twenty
(01:33):
twenty one. Roughly eight point sevenmillion vehicles regishirts, so that accounts for
barely point two maybe by now,with a couple of years of growth point
three percent of all vehicles in Michigan. Are we ever going to see that
number really start to jump? JeffGilbert, I think we're getting to the
point where we're going to see moreand more evs. And the number of
(01:56):
sales in a given year certainly hasjumped. It was two to three percent
a few years ago. Now aboutseven percent of all sales or evs.
But you mentioned Michigan. When welook at evs, not all areas are
created equal. Michigan's kind of inthe middle. We're kind of like most
of the country. But you goto places like the West Coast and you
(02:17):
see much higher EV penetration. Youget to the San Francisco Bay Area.
I believe it's around forty percent interms of sales. So the sales of
evs are heavily concentrated in a fewareas, and then there are a few
EV deserts. I'm going off thetop of my mind, but I think
I read that Montana had the fewestevs in the country, and you would
(02:39):
kind of expect that with all ofthe wide open spaces there and the number
of pickup trucks things of that nature. Well, I want to focus in
four hard time with Jeff Gilbert aswe focus on some vehicles, some evs
you've driven, and let's kind offlashback to the big announcement from roughly a
(03:00):
year ago, was it, Jeff, the F one fifty Lightning. I
know it was at the auto showa year ago in Grand Rapids, and
I see a few of these vehiclesaround. But how is the F one
fifty Lightning doing about a year outsideof its release? Jeff Gilbert, Yeah,
the F one fifty Lightning was unveiledabout two years ago, and it
(03:21):
was about a year ago that thefirst ones were delivered to customers. For
Fortis had some trouble manufacturing these vehicles, if you recall there was a fire
in one and they had to shutdown the plant in Dearborn for about five
weeks this year. So you know, certainly demand as far outstripping supply,
but you know there's still is along waiting list for the vehicle. I
(03:44):
had a chance to drive it.It's a lot of fun to drive.
It's got the frounk in front becausethere's no engine, that's a front trunk
in. Everybody likes saying frunk becauseit just just a funny sounding word,
but it actually is a cool thingbecause you know, you don't normally have
a trunk in ap so your bagstend to lie in the back and tend
to be exposed to everybody. Soyou do have lockable storage, which is
(04:06):
a nice thing. And Ford alsosays you can tap into that power on
board, so you can use thatto power a campsite, a work site,
something like that. The negative isif you want a towe with this
vehicle, well that drastically reduces therange because the more you're pulling, the
more energy it needs. Indeed,I want to jump ahead a little bit
(04:29):
to a recent experience you had witha hummer EV kind of a mixed experience
because there are some real issues withthe Hummer. EV. Obviously it's an
eye catching vehicle and a Hummer that'sall electric. Talk about your experience with
a Hummer EV. Jeff Gilbert,Yeah, yeah, the Hummer. This
is actually if you're remembering the Hummersof a decade ago, this is different.
That brand went away for GM andnow this has come back as actually
(04:54):
a sub brand of GMC all Electric, and they're really meant to show what
an electric vehic what can do it. It's got a six figure plus sticker
price, so it's not something everybody'sgoing to afford. It's not something many
people are going to be able toafford. But it's got a thousand horsepower,
it can go anywhere, it cando anything. I had a great
demonstration experience with it where I gotto drive it up a mountain. It
(05:15):
did that, it crawled over rocks. It was wonderful. Now when you
had it personally, you have otherissues like it didn't fit in my garage,
So I knew that going in,so I knew I'd have to do
public charging. I got to apublic charging station and they had throttled back
the power. So what I expectedto be a half hour experience turned out
(05:35):
to be a two hour experience.That was fine, it was an evening.
I had nothing else really to doat that time. Literally, I
sat in the front seat and watchthe Tiger game on my cell phone.
If I was going on a tripand I was expecting a half hour charging
time and it took two hours,that could be a problem. So it
shows what we already knew about evs. There are a lot of fun,
(05:57):
but there's still a lot of issuesbefore they're practical. You've had a chance
here in Michigan to drive some evs. Just from a general user standpoint.
I know you're the guy who coversvehicles for CBS News Radio and WWJ and
Detroit, but just as a usabilityand charging stations, obviously, you just
clearly pointed out the issues with theHummer. I think a lot of people
(06:18):
wonder, am I going to beable to make it from Detroit true Gaylord,
or Traverse City or Potoski or eventhe Macnon Bridge on one charge.
They worry about that. We seemto be trying to play catch up with
charging stations, but it appears tome we're not there yet. Jeff,
Yeah, Yeah, we have morecharging stations, but you never can tell
(06:39):
ifone's going to be broken. Ihave had anecdotal stories about people thinking that
there's an EV charging station somewhere andfinding out that somebody has parked a non
EV in that parking space, soyou couldn't get to the EV charging stations.
So there's still issues like that.It's not as bad as it was,
as I'd like to say to people. If you're an early, if
(07:00):
you want something cool, if youwant something that the rest of your neighborhood
doesn't have, then you're probably somebodywho right now might be into having an
EV. But if you want comfort, if you want you know, things
to go, you know, supersmoothly, then gasoline powered vehicles have been
around for more than a century.We kind of got that down, so
evs haven't caught up yet in theconvenience area. Another interesting vehicle that you
(07:26):
just recently drove around the tenth oreleventh of May, you went out west
for a trip to see the y'allnew VF eight. This is a Vietnamese
made all electric vehicle, the nFast. They certainly like to roll out
the red carpet for you. Automotivereporters talk about the experience though driving the
car. You have a nice videoonline overall experiences with that. There are
(07:53):
a couple of different vehicles. There'sa city version and a long range version.
Will it ever catch hold here inthe US? And can you get
it here in the US at thispoint, Well, you can't get it
in Michigan. They're starting out inCalifornia, and then I'm saying yet when
they're coming to Michigan. I wentthere more to learn more about the brand,
kind of figure out who they areand what they're doing. If you
(08:13):
google it, you will see alot of really snarky reviews, and a
lot of reviews saying what an awfulvehicle this was. It wasn't awful,
but that might be my headline.It wasn't as good or as refined as
the evs we're seeing now from otherother companies. And again, somebody asked
me when I kind of got intoa debate online about the merits of the
(08:37):
vehicle, what would you buy one? Well, no, but there are
a lot of vehicles I tested Imight like that I wouldn't buy, but
I saw a lot of potential thereI see with this brand. Somebody who
was coming in, who's bringing somevehicles in a very small number of vehicles
from Vietnam. They probably shouldn't havetrouble selling them because they're not bringing in
a lot. But while they're doingthat, building this multi billion dollar plan
(09:01):
to North Carolina, and they're learningabout the US market, and I cannot
I don't have a crystal ball.There are a lot of ev startups out
there, and there's only one thatsucceeded so far in that's Tesla. But
I think they have a lot ofpotential after seeing this, if they can
refine this, and they're very fastlearners, and this shows me that maybe
(09:24):
by the time they're making vehicles inthe US, they may actually have something
that's competitive. Our guest is JeffGilbert, CBS News Radio car automotive reporter,
also with the creator of the longrunning WWJ and CBS News Radio feature
Car Chronicles, and you can followJeff online at car Chronicles on Instagram at
(09:48):
Jeffrey Gilbert on Twitter. Always hasinteresting things happening online. You mentioned a
Cadillac is planning to introduce at somepoint in the future and all electric escalade.
What do we know about that,Jeff, We know that Cadillac is
going to introduce an all electric Escalade. Pretty much took it all from it.
Yeah, they tease that. Theother thing that we know is the
(10:11):
name the Escalade IQ, and Cadillacrevealed that there's going to be IQ and
all of their electric vehicles. Theyhave two so far, the Lyric which
is spelt l y r i Qand the celestic c E l E s
t i Q. So Escalade IQthat fits in, and Cadillac is rolling
(10:33):
out the EV's very fast. Theysay they're going to tell us about three
this year. So that's one ofthree and obviously doesn't come as surprise because
Cadillac eventually wants to be an allelectric brand. The Escalator is their most
popular veicle, their highest profile vehicle, so you would expect that they would
have something, and I assume it'sgoing to be very nice and very expensive
(10:56):
because most of the gasoline powered escaladesulfur six figures. Yeah, that's that's
true, and I guess we shouldexpect that there are It seems like there
are vehicles that are selling fairly well. See a lot of Tesla's. They
are very prevalent here in West Michiganand throughout the state of Michigan. Just
was down for a Tigers game recentlyand spending some time in your neck of
(11:20):
the woods, saw a lot ofTesla's there, saw a lot of the
mock Ease, the Ford Mustang mocke Jeff, Is that a hit for
Ford that they're not talking about alot, but they are talking about it
a lot, and yes it is. It's a strong player. They recently
took the plant in Mexico that makesit, did some changes and they're going
(11:41):
to be able to increase the productionof that, So yes, it's a
hit. The F one fifty Lightningis a hit. Just about every EV
is a hit because they're all sellingin limited numbers because we can't get a
lot of batteries out, can't geta lot of material. So the big
question on whether these are going tocontinue to be hits is going to them
in the next couple of years whenthese battery plants get up, when there
(12:03):
are a lot of a lot ofofferings out there, a lot of lower
cost offerings. That's what we're goingto see if this is something that you
know, as they say in themovies, has legs and will be continue
be able to continue for a while. It's easy to have a hit when
you can't make that many vehicles andyou have a waiting list. What we
need to see is how well thesevehicles do over time. Yeah, and
(12:26):
I think the verdict is still yetto be delivered, very clearly. A
lot of questions marks still exist.And you know, this is the state
where the Big Three were born,and just a lot of diehards who won't
give up the combustion engine. There'sno question about that. People love their
classics, people love their noisy cars, and it's going to be a little
(12:48):
bit of time before that happens.Do you have any wisdom for people who
are thinking about buying an EV herein Michigan? It sounds like I'm hearing
now directly from you, But justbe cautious, Maybe wait a little bit
longer until there are more charging stations, more technology, perhaps more lower price
options. I think people are kindof feeling that way. Jeff, what
(13:11):
do you tell folks? Examine yourlifestyle? As I mentioned earlier, for
people who are an early adopters,who want the best of everything and are
willing to deal with some inconveniences,Eyah, evs work. The other people
that evs might work for is ifit's a second vehicle in your garage,
if you don't have to take iton a long trip, if you're just
(13:31):
commuting with it, then it certainlyworks for you because you never have to
go to any kind of public fuelingstation. You're always refueling at home.
If you're thinking about buying an EValso have your house checked out because you
don't want to regularly charge it ona wall socket. That's like filling up
a glass of water with an eyedropper. You want to get a level
(13:52):
two charger and that's enough to giveyour vehicle a good charge overnight. So
those are the things to look at. But if you've only got one car,
if you do a lot of driving, you're probably not ready for an
EV yet. Or I should saythe evs aren't ready for you yet,
and that will be the final wordfrom the always informative, always appreciated Jeff
(14:13):
Gilbert, CBS News Radio automotive reporter, also the founder and creative Car Chronicles,
and also man about the Southeast partof Michigan, covering automotive news for
news radio nine fifty WWJA Radio inDetroit. Jeff Gilbert always a pleasure.
Thank you so much for your time. Hey, thanks for having me.
(14:37):
He's been our guest on this segmentof West Michigan Weekend from iHeart Radio.
We have more coming up in justa moment. Adopt Us Kids presents what
to expect when you're expecting a teenagerlearning the lingo jelly Jelly Jelly is a
shorter, better way to say jealous, as in Chloe, I am like
(14:58):
so jelly of your unicorn phone.Ca. You don't have to speak teen
to be a perfect parent. Thousandsof teens in foster care will love you
just the same. Visit adopt usKids dot org. Brought to you by
the US Department of Health and HumanServices, adopt Us Kids, and the
ad Council. This is West MichiganWeekend. Welcome back once again. I'm
your host, Phil Tower. Greatto have you along with us, and
(15:18):
I'm excited because I get to talkabout one of my favorite events that's been
happening for a long time, seventeenannual Bissell Blocktail Party, happening on June
sixth at East Grand Rapids High School. This is a this is a true
sign of summer. It's a greatevent. I'm pleased to be joined by
(15:39):
a couple of pros with the BissellPet Foundation. Eliza Curtain is Senior Marketing
and Communications coordinator with the Bissell PetFoundation. Also Brittany Schlachter. Brittany is
marketing and public relations specialists with BissellPet Foundation. They are hold away in
a secret location somewhere deep inside BissellPet Foundation's headquarters, and they're on the
(16:03):
other end of our liveline. Howare you guys doing Hi? We are
great. Thank you so much forhaving I thanks for having us. Excited
to be here. Well, I'mexcited to have you here, and we're
going to talk about the fact thatthis is ultimately a really significant, I
like to say impactful fundraiser because itdefinitely makes a direct impact on saving lives
(16:26):
of animals. In fact, sincetwenty eleven, the Bissell Pet Foundation's life
saving programs, the Empty the Shelterprograms, which we hear a lot about
here in West Michigan, they havetouched over six hundred thousand pets and still
counting. That's really remarkable. Sothere's a measurable impact by buying a ticket
(16:48):
and attending what ends up being probablyone of the most fun events you will
ever attend. And this one ison Tuesday, June six, build us
the best I got our party intown for a reason, and it happens
at the East Grand Rapids High Schooltrack. We do want to mention and
I'll focus this on you, Eliza. There is a sponsor party. If
(17:14):
people listening to us would like tobuy into the sponsor party for a donation
to the bissel pet Foundation for thisevent of fifteen hundred dollars and above.
You can attend a sponsor party onMonday night, June fifth, and that's
a separate event. What else shouldfolks know about that, Eliza. Our
sponsor party is, you know,thank you to all of our generous sponsors
of Blacktail this year. Like said, it's June fifth, and you have
(17:37):
to sponsor at the fifteen hundred orevolve level. A lot of our assets
have gone to print, but you'realways welcome to sponsor. It's never too
late and it still goes to agreat cause. And if you do sponsor,
you get a private concert by RandyHawser that night. So that's a
nice little park indeed, indeed,and there's a there's a country theme or
(17:59):
as we to say back in theold days country and Western theme. That's
something you want to be aware ofif you are going to take part in
that great sponsor party. Again,that's for someone your company making a donation
of fifteen hundred dollars and above,By the way, what's the best way
for people to get in touch withyou if they'd like to join the sponsor
party. So our website is bistlPat Foundation dot org slash blocktail and you
(18:23):
will see there's a whole page onsponsor party and linked to still out your
form emails. So pretty much everythingyou need to know lives on that page.
We're speaking, by the way,with Eliza Curtain and Brittany Schlachter,
both with Bissel Pat Foundation, aswe talk about the seventeenth annual bistle Blocktail
Party, which happens on June sixthat East Grand Rapids High School Track.
(18:45):
It used to be for years atPaddock Place, the old Gibson's near East
Grand Rapids and it just got nearEastown. I should say it just got
too big because it's just a greatevent. It is still a at friendly
party, right guys, sure isthe best dog on party in town.
Also a four years for a portof legged best friend. So we are
(19:11):
telling folks to byod bring your owndogs. Please bring at least a six
foot lead, no retract the leashesand yeah, there's fun for you and
your dog at this event. Thisis just it's a great time to meet
other people, meet other dog lovers, support a great event. What else
will happen at the event on Tuesdaynight at East Grand Rapids High School.
(19:36):
This is more than just an eventto hang out and you know, having
an adult beverage, eat some greatfood. We also have a celebrity chef
that's going to be a part ofthis as well. Let's talk a little
bit about that we do while weonce again have live grilling by celebrity chefs.
Paul Walbert of Wallburgers. We hadhim last year. He loved it
(19:56):
so much, especially the cause he'sbad to analyze. I believe he has
two three burger options. Three burgersthis here, so there will be a
vegan option for all of our veganfriends out there. All right, fantastic,
I'm in the vegan crowds. Thatsounds great. And beyond that,
you guys always have by far oneof the best silent auctions I think I've
(20:18):
ever ever seen. Is that stillback this year as well? Yeah,
it's back and it's better than everif you can believe that. The auction
is online so you will have sometime for the party and a few hours
after to get your bids in arow. But it is incredible. There's
wonderful concert tickets, amazing trip packages, so you do not want to miss
(20:40):
that, you guys. I wantto pause for a moment. We're speaking
with Britney Schlacter, marketing and PRspecialists with Bissell Pet Foundation. Also,
Eliza Curtain is with us. Sheis their senior Marketing and Communications coordinator with
Bissell Pet Foundation. Let's talk aboutthe foundation itself. Kathy Bissell had a
passion for making sure animals were noteuthanized and just took it from there and
(21:03):
it really has become a national focus. But it makes such an impact.
Why is Bissle Pet Foundation? Whyis this such an important event for the
foundation. Obviously it's a it's afundraiser, but it's also an awareness builder
as well. Right, that's right. You know, Cassie adopted her first
dog, you know, not tooalong before she started the foundation, and
(21:26):
really our goal is to end pethomelessness. We do that through a variety
of life saving programs just like yousaid, are empty. The Shelters program
is the nation's largest funded adoption event, so we are able to provide grants
to shelters across this country and reduceadoption fees to make adoption more affordable and
(21:47):
get pets waiting for homes in sheltersright into the arms of their families.
And aside from that, we areworking to stay a neuter pet across the
country. We provide vaccination grants andmicrochip grants and now we're hard at work.
We have a new disaster and crisisfocused program called Animal of Incident Management.
We are working with you organizations acrossthe country to get them prepared before
(22:10):
natural disasters happen. So that's alot to say that. This is our
primary fundraising event to help touch thelives of pets and we do that.
We're helping you know, thousands ofpets every year thanks to the generous support
of our donors and Bissell Inc.Yeah, you can learn more about it
at Bissel Pet Foundation dot org.Pretty compelling story with the Greater Birmingham Humane
(22:34):
Society, they had a major issueone hundred and forty plus sick dogs,
two tornadoes, a distemper outbreak,a puppy mill bust, and the folks
from Bissel Pet Foundation came down,helped out and literally we're life savers for
that event. And that's just agreat example of that emergency or response,
(22:57):
crisis and disaster respond for pets,because let's not forget it the fact that
during a natural disaster, you know, tornado, a flood, a hurricane,
hats are displaced, people flee theirhomes. Sometimes they can't bring a
pet. It's a tragic situation.And that's when you guys mobilize to make
sure these pets are rescued, theyfind their way to a shelter so they
(23:19):
can have a new forhever home,or they're re homed with their original owner.
And it's a really important, veryimpactful thing. What else you guys
should folks know about the Bissile blocktailparty. We're talking here in the final
weekend. It's Memorial weekend, finalweekend of May. Tickets are still available,
(23:41):
but this thing can get very closeto being a sold out event.
I think having it at East GrandRapids High School helps a lot. How
can people best reserve their spot forthe Bissile blocktail party. Yeah, so
definitely get your tickets earlier because pricesdo go up at the door. So
if you go to that website we'vebeen mentioning Dick Diso pat boundation dot org,
(24:04):
splash blocktail, you can buy ticketsdirectly on that site. So yeah,
do it now. It's filling upfast and tickets are flying out the
door. Yeah, and I'm gladyou said that because you can save money
by buying them in advance. That'salways smart to do. And the event
happens rain or shine, right,is that typically the case? That is
(24:25):
the case, and it is notgoing to rain. Yes, we have
pausing, pausing fingers trucks. Wehave no rain in the forecast. Okay,
I did not mention that word,and we will exercise that word from
this conversation for all. And I'veattended a lot of them over the years.
I don't ever recall being rained on. And that is the honest to
(24:47):
goodness truth. Again, this isTuesday, June six, East Grand Rapids
High School, great place for this. What else will be happening at the
blocktail party? We talked about thesilent auction and the celebrity chef with the
great burgers that will be cooked thanksto Wallburgers, and what else is going
to happen? So much while youknow, for those who are twenty one
(25:11):
years of age or older, youdo get a drink ticket with your entry,
but you can also get more drinks. We've got poptails by Tito's hand
made Vodkast, huge supporter of thisPet Foundation efforts. We adore them.
We're so glad they're going to bewith us. There's a wine pole.
(25:32):
What a wonderful way to give backto pet and also enjoy some wine after
the events. We have got caricaturesof you and your pet by Art Prize
winner Chris Lapport Cash. We've gotsome of the best Grand APIs restaurants and
we have you know, I'll aliveto tell you even more. Yeah,
(25:53):
I mean the best part, inmy opinion, is that we have about
nine shelters. There was a opticaldogs so you can come to the party
with your dog and least it's acount for your dog as well. Yeah,
I was going to mention that Ido remember having other shelters there where
you can potentially make another dog veryhappy by inviting it into your home,
(26:17):
and that is another benefit. You'vegot Tito's Vodka, making some custom cocktails
as you said, yeappetizers as they'recalled, all kinds of great things.
And most importantly, you're going tobe saving money if you get tickets in
advance at Bistle Pet Foundation dot org. That's biss elll Pet Foundation dot org.
(26:41):
I really want to encourage those listeningto us right now they've never been
to this event, especially even ifyou don't currently have a dog at home.
This is just when you're thinking aboutit. This is a great opportunity
to meet a lot of people.You've got to pet ketch your picture taken
with your pet. You mentioned ChrisPort and getting your dog sketched. That's
(27:03):
great. I always love that.Always a popular attraction, and just really
I want to salute you guys forcontinually reinventing this event and making it fantastic
year after years. So congratulations.I'm really excited. Eliza Curtains, Senior
Marketing at Communications coordinator with Bissel PetFoundation. Also Brittany Schlacker, marketing and
(27:25):
public relations specialists. You guys,any final words for our listeners in terms
of the event, No, justget your tickets now. We're excited to
see everyone there. And don't forgetyour boots in your cowboy hat. Yeah,
yes, you know. Western Teamis going to be so much fun.
We cannot wait to hang out witheveryone at the Eastern APIs High School
(27:45):
track on Tuesday, Nay June pixand by the way, pets are allowed
to dress with their best Western garbas well too, don't forget that as
well. Thank you both, Brittanyand Eliza. They've been our guest on
this segment of West Michigan Weekend onceagain. You can learn more. You
can get your tickets at Bisselpet Foundationdot org. Bissell Pet Foundation dot org.
(28:07):
That's our program for this week.I'm your host, Phil Tower.
Thanks so much for listening. We'llbe back with you again very soon.
iHeartMedia. West Michigan Weekend a publicaffairs program
iHeartMedia West Michigan Weekend a public affairsprogram, and this is West Michigan Weekend
from iHeartRadio. Thanks so much forlistening. I'm Phil Tower and I'm very
pleased to welcome to this segment.Guess we have not had on this program
in a while. He is abroadcasting friend and just one of the best
(00:23):
in the business in covering automobiles.He works for news radio nine fifty WWJ
and Detroit. He was also anational correspondent for CBS News Radio and he
is the Car Chronicles guy. He'sJeff Gilbert. He's also the president of
North American Car and Utility Truck ofthe Year Awards, and we wanted to
(00:45):
tip a hat to that because wealways love speaking with Jeff about that.
But we're gonna focus on evs inthis segment. Jeff Gilbert, welcome to
the program. Hey, thanks forhaving me. Thanks for that big build
up too. You'll get my checkin the mail. Yes, I figured
I would well our Facebook friends,so I live vicariously through your travels,
and you've been traveling a lot lately. I think people are curious as the
(01:07):
number of evs seem to be increasingin the state of Michigan, at least
here in the Greater Grand Rapids area. Although I think I saw the number
of evs in Michigan. I sawthe stat looking at our Auto Talk podcast
from a couple of episodes back wherewe focused on evs. They're about almost
eighteen thousand evs. This is datafrom the US Department of Energy from twenty
(01:33):
twenty one. Roughly eight point sevenmillion vehicles regishirts, so that accounts for
barely point two maybe by now,with a couple of years of growth point
three percent of all vehicles in Michigan. Are we ever going to see that
number really start to jump? JeffGilbert, I think we're getting to the
point where we're going to see moreand more evs. And the number of
(01:56):
sales in a given year certainly hasjumped. It was two to three percent
a few years ago. Now aboutseven percent of all sales or evs.
But you mentioned Michigan. When welook at evs, not all areas are
created equal. Michigan's kind of inthe middle. We're kind of like most
of the country. But you goto places like the West Coast and you
(02:17):
see much higher EV penetration. Youget to the San Francisco Bay Area.
I believe it's around forty percent interms of sales. So the sales of
evs are heavily concentrated in a fewareas, and then there are a few
EV deserts. I'm going off thetop of my mind, but I think
I read that Montana had the fewestevs in the country, and you would
(02:39):
kind of expect that with all ofthe wide open spaces there and the number
of pickup trucks things of that nature. Well, I want to focus in
four hard time with Jeff Gilbert aswe focus on some vehicles, some evs
you've driven, and let's kind offlashback to the big announcement from roughly a
(03:00):
year ago, was it, Jeff, the F one fifty Lightning. I
know it was at the auto showa year ago in Grand Rapids, and
I see a few of these vehiclesaround. But how is the F one
fifty Lightning doing about a year outsideof its release? Jeff Gilbert, Yeah,
the F one fifty Lightning was unveiledabout two years ago, and it
(03:21):
was about a year ago that thefirst ones were delivered to customers. For
Fortis had some trouble manufacturing these vehicles, if you recall there was a fire
in one and they had to shutdown the plant in Dearborn for about five
weeks this year. So you know, certainly demand as far outstripping supply,
but you know there's still is along waiting list for the vehicle. I
(03:44):
had a chance to drive it.It's a lot of fun to drive.
It's got the frounk in front becausethere's no engine, that's a front trunk
in. Everybody likes saying frunk becauseit just just a funny sounding word,
but it actually is a cool thingbecause you know, you don't normally have
a trunk in ap so your bagstend to lie in the back and tend
to be exposed to everybody. Soyou do have lockable storage, which is
(04:06):
a nice thing. And Ford alsosays you can tap into that power on
board, so you can use thatto power a campsite, a work site,
something like that. The negative isif you want a towe with this
vehicle, well that drastically reduces therange because the more you're pulling, the
more energy it needs. Indeed,I want to jump ahead a little bit
(04:29):
to a recent experience you had witha hummer EV kind of a mixed experience
because there are some real issues withthe Hummer. EV. Obviously it's an
eye catching vehicle and a Hummer that'sall electric. Talk about your experience with
a Hummer EV. Jeff Gilbert,Yeah, yeah, the Hummer. This
is actually if you're remembering the Hummersof a decade ago, this is different.
That brand went away for GM andnow this has come back as actually
(04:54):
a sub brand of GMC all Electric, and they're really meant to show what
an electric vehic what can do it. It's got a six figure plus sticker
price, so it's not something everybody'sgoing to afford. It's not something many
people are going to be able toafford. But it's got a thousand horsepower,
it can go anywhere, it cando anything. I had a great
demonstration experience with it where I gotto drive it up a mountain. It
(05:15):
did that, it crawled over rocks. It was wonderful. Now when you
had it personally, you have otherissues like it didn't fit in my garage,
So I knew that going in,so I knew I'd have to do
public charging. I got to apublic charging station and they had throttled back
the power. So what I expectedto be a half hour experience turned out
(05:35):
to be a two hour experience.That was fine, it was an evening.
I had nothing else really to doat that time. Literally, I
sat in the front seat and watchthe Tiger game on my cell phone.
If I was going on a tripand I was expecting a half hour charging
time and it took two hours,that could be a problem. So it
shows what we already knew about evs. There are a lot of fun,
(05:57):
but there's still a lot of issuesbefore they're practical. You've had a chance
here in Michigan to drive some evs. Just from a general user standpoint.
I know you're the guy who coversvehicles for CBS News Radio and WWJ and
Detroit, but just as a usabilityand charging stations, obviously, you just
clearly pointed out the issues with theHummer. I think a lot of people
(06:18):
wonder, am I going to beable to make it from Detroit true Gaylord,
or Traverse City or Potoski or eventhe Macnon Bridge on one charge.
They worry about that. We seemto be trying to play catch up with
charging stations, but it appears tome we're not there yet. Jeff,
Yeah, Yeah, we have morecharging stations, but you never can tell
(06:39):
ifone's going to be broken. Ihave had anecdotal stories about people thinking that
there's an EV charging station somewhere andfinding out that somebody has parked a non
EV in that parking space, soyou couldn't get to the EV charging stations.
So there's still issues like that.It's not as bad as it was,
as I'd like to say to people. If you're an early, if
(07:00):
you want something cool, if youwant something that the rest of your neighborhood
doesn't have, then you're probably somebodywho right now might be into having an
EV. But if you want comfort, if you want you know, things
to go, you know, supersmoothly, then gasoline powered vehicles have been
around for more than a century.We kind of got that down, so
evs haven't caught up yet in theconvenience area. Another interesting vehicle that you
(07:26):
just recently drove around the tenth oreleventh of May, you went out west
for a trip to see the y'allnew VF eight. This is a Vietnamese
made all electric vehicle, the nFast. They certainly like to roll out
the red carpet for you. Automotivereporters talk about the experience though driving the
car. You have a nice videoonline overall experiences with that. There are
(07:53):
a couple of different vehicles. There'sa city version and a long range version.
Will it ever catch hold here inthe US? And can you get
it here in the US at thispoint, Well, you can't get it
in Michigan. They're starting out inCalifornia, and then I'm saying yet when
they're coming to Michigan. I wentthere more to learn more about the brand,
kind of figure out who they areand what they're doing. If you
(08:13):
google it, you will see alot of really snarky reviews, and a
lot of reviews saying what an awfulvehicle this was. It wasn't awful,
but that might be my headline.It wasn't as good or as refined as
the evs we're seeing now from otherother companies. And again, somebody asked
me when I kind of got intoa debate online about the merits of the
(08:37):
vehicle, what would you buy one? Well, no, but there are
a lot of vehicles I tested Imight like that I wouldn't buy, but
I saw a lot of potential thereI see with this brand. Somebody who
was coming in, who's bringing somevehicles in a very small number of vehicles
from Vietnam. They probably shouldn't havetrouble selling them because they're not bringing in
a lot. But while they're doingthat, building this multi billion dollar plan
(09:01):
to North Carolina, and they're learningabout the US market, and I cannot
I don't have a crystal ball.There are a lot of ev startups out
there, and there's only one thatsucceeded so far in that's Tesla. But
I think they have a lot ofpotential after seeing this, if they can
refine this, and they're very fastlearners, and this shows me that maybe
(09:24):
by the time they're making vehicles inthe US, they may actually have something
that's competitive. Our guest is JeffGilbert, CBS News Radio car automotive reporter,
also with the creator of the longrunning WWJ and CBS News Radio feature
Car Chronicles, and you can followJeff online at car Chronicles on Instagram at
(09:48):
Jeffrey Gilbert on Twitter. Always hasinteresting things happening online. You mentioned a
Cadillac is planning to introduce at somepoint in the future and all electric escalade.
What do we know about that,Jeff, We know that Cadillac is
going to introduce an all electric Escalade. Pretty much took it all from it.
Yeah, they tease that. Theother thing that we know is the
(10:11):
name the Escalade IQ, and Cadillacrevealed that there's going to be IQ and
all of their electric vehicles. Theyhave two so far, the Lyric which
is spelt l y r i Qand the celestic c E l E s
t i Q. So Escalade IQthat fits in, and Cadillac is rolling
(10:33):
out the EV's very fast. Theysay they're going to tell us about three
this year. So that's one ofthree and obviously doesn't come as surprise because
Cadillac eventually wants to be an allelectric brand. The Escalator is their most
popular veicle, their highest profile vehicle, so you would expect that they would
have something, and I assume it'sgoing to be very nice and very expensive
(10:56):
because most of the gasoline powered escaladesulfur six figures. Yeah, that's that's
true, and I guess we shouldexpect that there are It seems like there
are vehicles that are selling fairly well. See a lot of Tesla's. They
are very prevalent here in West Michiganand throughout the state of Michigan. Just
was down for a Tigers game recentlyand spending some time in your neck of
(11:20):
the woods, saw a lot ofTesla's there, saw a lot of the
mock Ease, the Ford Mustang mocke Jeff, Is that a hit for
Ford that they're not talking about alot, but they are talking about it
a lot, and yes it is. It's a strong player. They recently
took the plant in Mexico that makesit, did some changes and they're going
(11:41):
to be able to increase the productionof that, So yes, it's a
hit. The F one fifty Lightningis a hit. Just about every EV
is a hit because they're all sellingin limited numbers because we can't get a
lot of batteries out, can't geta lot of material. So the big
question on whether these are going tocontinue to be hits is going to them
in the next couple of years whenthese battery plants get up, when there
(12:03):
are a lot of a lot ofofferings out there, a lot of lower
cost offerings. That's what we're goingto see if this is something that you
know, as they say in themovies, has legs and will be continue
be able to continue for a while. It's easy to have a hit when
you can't make that many vehicles andyou have a waiting list. What we
need to see is how well thesevehicles do over time. Yeah, and
(12:26):
I think the verdict is still yetto be delivered, very clearly. A
lot of questions marks still exist.And you know, this is the state
where the Big Three were born,and just a lot of diehards who won't
give up the combustion engine. There'sno question about that. People love their
classics, people love their noisy cars, and it's going to be a little
(12:48):
bit of time before that happens.Do you have any wisdom for people who
are thinking about buying an EV herein Michigan? It sounds like I'm hearing
now directly from you, But justbe cautious, Maybe wait a little bit
longer until there are more charging stations, more technology, perhaps more lower price
options. I think people are kindof feeling that way. Jeff, what
(13:11):
do you tell folks? Examine yourlifestyle? As I mentioned earlier, for
people who are an early adopters,who want the best of everything and are
willing to deal with some inconveniences,Eyah, evs work. The other people
that evs might work for is ifit's a second vehicle in your garage,
if you don't have to take iton a long trip, if you're just
(13:31):
commuting with it, then it certainlyworks for you because you never have to
go to any kind of public fuelingstation. You're always refueling at home.
If you're thinking about buying an EValso have your house checked out because you
don't want to regularly charge it ona wall socket. That's like filling up
a glass of water with an eyedropper. You want to get a level
(13:52):
two charger and that's enough to giveyour vehicle a good charge overnight. So
those are the things to look at. But if you've only got one car,
if you do a lot of driving, you're probably not ready for an
EV yet. Or I should saythe evs aren't ready for you yet,
and that will be the final wordfrom the always informative, always appreciated Jeff
(14:13):
Gilbert, CBS News Radio automotive reporter, also the founder and creative Car Chronicles,
and also man about the Southeast partof Michigan, covering automotive news for
news radio nine fifty WWJA Radio inDetroit. Jeff Gilbert always a pleasure.
Thank you so much for your time. Hey, thanks for having me.
(14:37):
He's been our guest on this segmentof West Michigan Weekend from iHeart Radio.
We have more coming up in justa moment. Adopt Us Kids presents what
to expect when you're expecting a teenagerlearning the lingo jelly Jelly Jelly is a
shorter, better way to say jealous, as in Chloe, I am like
(14:58):
so jelly of your unicorn phone.Ca. You don't have to speak teen
to be a perfect parent. Thousandsof teens in foster care will love you
just the same. Visit adopt usKids dot org. Brought to you by
the US Department of Health and HumanServices, adopt Us Kids, and the
ad Council. This is West MichiganWeekend. Welcome back once again. I'm
your host, Phil Tower. Greatto have you along with us, and
(15:18):
I'm excited because I get to talkabout one of my favorite events that's been
happening for a long time, seventeenannual Bissell Blocktail Party, happening on June
sixth at East Grand Rapids High School. This is a this is a true
sign of summer. It's a greatevent. I'm pleased to be joined by
(15:39):
a couple of pros with the BissellPet Foundation. Eliza Curtain is Senior Marketing
and Communications coordinator with the Bissell PetFoundation. Also Brittany Schlachter. Brittany is
marketing and public relations specialists with BissellPet Foundation. They are hold away in
a secret location somewhere deep inside BissellPet Foundation's headquarters, and they're on the
(16:03):
other end of our liveline. Howare you guys doing Hi? We are
great. Thank you so much forhaving I thanks for having us. Excited
to be here. Well, I'mexcited to have you here, and we're
going to talk about the fact thatthis is ultimately a really significant, I
like to say impactful fundraiser because itdefinitely makes a direct impact on saving lives
(16:26):
of animals. In fact, sincetwenty eleven, the Bissell Pet Foundation's life
saving programs, the Empty the Shelterprograms, which we hear a lot about
here in West Michigan, they havetouched over six hundred thousand pets and still
counting. That's really remarkable. Sothere's a measurable impact by buying a ticket
(16:48):
and attending what ends up being probablyone of the most fun events you will
ever attend. And this one ison Tuesday, June six, build us
the best I got our party intown for a reason, and it happens
at the East Grand Rapids High Schooltrack. We do want to mention and
I'll focus this on you, Eliza. There is a sponsor party. If
(17:14):
people listening to us would like tobuy into the sponsor party for a donation
to the bissel pet Foundation for thisevent of fifteen hundred dollars and above.
You can attend a sponsor party onMonday night, June fifth, and that's
a separate event. What else shouldfolks know about that, Eliza. Our
sponsor party is, you know,thank you to all of our generous sponsors
of Blacktail this year. Like said, it's June fifth, and you have
(17:37):
to sponsor at the fifteen hundred orevolve level. A lot of our assets
have gone to print, but you'realways welcome to sponsor. It's never too
late and it still goes to agreat cause. And if you do sponsor,
you get a private concert by RandyHawser that night. So that's a
nice little park indeed, indeed,and there's a there's a country theme or
(17:59):
as we to say back in theold days country and Western theme. That's
something you want to be aware ofif you are going to take part in
that great sponsor party. Again,that's for someone your company making a donation
of fifteen hundred dollars and above,By the way, what's the best way
for people to get in touch withyou if they'd like to join the sponsor
party. So our website is bistlPat Foundation dot org slash blocktail and you
(18:23):
will see there's a whole page onsponsor party and linked to still out your
form emails. So pretty much everythingyou need to know lives on that page.
We're speaking, by the way,with Eliza Curtain and Brittany Schlachter,
both with Bissel Pat Foundation, aswe talk about the seventeenth annual bistle Blocktail
Party, which happens on June sixthat East Grand Rapids High School Track.
(18:45):
It used to be for years atPaddock Place, the old Gibson's near East
Grand Rapids and it just got nearEastown. I should say it just got
too big because it's just a greatevent. It is still a at friendly
party, right guys, sure isthe best dog on party in town.
Also a four years for a portof legged best friend. So we are
(19:11):
telling folks to byod bring your owndogs. Please bring at least a six
foot lead, no retract the leashesand yeah, there's fun for you and
your dog at this event. Thisis just it's a great time to meet
other people, meet other dog lovers, support a great event. What else
will happen at the event on Tuesdaynight at East Grand Rapids High School.
(19:36):
This is more than just an eventto hang out and you know, having
an adult beverage, eat some greatfood. We also have a celebrity chef
that's going to be a part ofthis as well. Let's talk a little
bit about that we do while weonce again have live grilling by celebrity chefs.
Paul Walbert of Wallburgers. We hadhim last year. He loved it
(19:56):
so much, especially the cause he'sbad to analyze. I believe he has
two three burger options. Three burgersthis here, so there will be a
vegan option for all of our veganfriends out there. All right, fantastic,
I'm in the vegan crowds. Thatsounds great. And beyond that,
you guys always have by far oneof the best silent auctions I think I've
(20:18):
ever ever seen. Is that stillback this year as well? Yeah,
it's back and it's better than everif you can believe that. The auction
is online so you will have sometime for the party and a few hours
after to get your bids in arow. But it is incredible. There's
wonderful concert tickets, amazing trip packages, so you do not want to miss
(20:40):
that, you guys. I wantto pause for a moment. We're speaking
with Britney Schlacter, marketing and PRspecialists with Bissell Pet Foundation. Also,
Eliza Curtain is with us. Sheis their senior Marketing and Communications coordinator with
Bissell Pet Foundation. Let's talk aboutthe foundation itself. Kathy Bissell had a
passion for making sure animals were noteuthanized and just took it from there and
(21:03):
it really has become a national focus. But it makes such an impact.
Why is Bissle Pet Foundation? Whyis this such an important event for the
foundation. Obviously it's a it's afundraiser, but it's also an awareness builder
as well. Right, that's right. You know, Cassie adopted her first
dog, you know, not tooalong before she started the foundation, and
(21:26):
really our goal is to end pethomelessness. We do that through a variety
of life saving programs just like yousaid, are empty. The Shelters program
is the nation's largest funded adoption event, so we are able to provide grants
to shelters across this country and reduceadoption fees to make adoption more affordable and
(21:47):
get pets waiting for homes in sheltersright into the arms of their families.
And aside from that, we areworking to stay a neuter pet across the
country. We provide vaccination grants andmicrochip grants and now we're hard at work.
We have a new disaster and crisisfocused program called Animal of Incident Management.
We are working with you organizations acrossthe country to get them prepared before
(22:10):
natural disasters happen. So that's alot to say that. This is our
primary fundraising event to help touch thelives of pets and we do that.
We're helping you know, thousands ofpets every year thanks to the generous support
of our donors and Bissell Inc.Yeah, you can learn more about it
at Bissel Pet Foundation dot org.Pretty compelling story with the Greater Birmingham Humane
(22:34):
Society, they had a major issueone hundred and forty plus sick dogs,
two tornadoes, a distemper outbreak,a puppy mill bust, and the folks
from Bissel Pet Foundation came down,helped out and literally we're life savers for
that event. And that's just agreat example of that emergency or response,
(22:57):
crisis and disaster respond for pets,because let's not forget it the fact that
during a natural disaster, you know, tornado, a flood, a hurricane,
hats are displaced, people flee theirhomes. Sometimes they can't bring a
pet. It's a tragic situation.And that's when you guys mobilize to make
sure these pets are rescued, theyfind their way to a shelter so they
(23:19):
can have a new forhever home,or they're re homed with their original owner.
And it's a really important, veryimpactful thing. What else you guys
should folks know about the Bissile blocktailparty. We're talking here in the final
weekend. It's Memorial weekend, finalweekend of May. Tickets are still available,
(23:41):
but this thing can get very closeto being a sold out event.
I think having it at East GrandRapids High School helps a lot. How
can people best reserve their spot forthe Bissile blocktail party. Yeah, so
definitely get your tickets earlier because pricesdo go up at the door. So
if you go to that website we'vebeen mentioning Dick Diso pat boundation dot org,
(24:04):
splash blocktail, you can buy ticketsdirectly on that site. So yeah,
do it now. It's filling upfast and tickets are flying out the
door. Yeah, and I'm gladyou said that because you can save money
by buying them in advance. That'salways smart to do. And the event
happens rain or shine, right,is that typically the case? That is
(24:25):
the case, and it is notgoing to rain. Yes, we have
pausing, pausing fingers trucks. Wehave no rain in the forecast. Okay,
I did not mention that word,and we will exercise that word from
this conversation for all. And I'veattended a lot of them over the years.
I don't ever recall being rained on. And that is the honest to
(24:47):
goodness truth. Again, this isTuesday, June six, East Grand Rapids
High School, great place for this. What else will be happening at the
blocktail party? We talked about thesilent auction and the celebrity chef with the
great burgers that will be cooked thanksto Wallburgers, and what else is going
to happen? So much while youknow, for those who are twenty one
(25:11):
years of age or older, youdo get a drink ticket with your entry,
but you can also get more drinks. We've got poptails by Tito's hand
made Vodkast, huge supporter of thisPet Foundation efforts. We adore them.
We're so glad they're going to bewith us. There's a wine pole.
(25:32):
What a wonderful way to give backto pet and also enjoy some wine after
the events. We have got caricaturesof you and your pet by Art Prize
winner Chris Lapport Cash. We've gotsome of the best Grand APIs restaurants and
we have you know, I'll aliveto tell you even more. Yeah,
(25:53):
I mean the best part, inmy opinion, is that we have about
nine shelters. There was a opticaldogs so you can come to the party
with your dog and least it's acount for your dog as well. Yeah,
I was going to mention that Ido remember having other shelters there where
you can potentially make another dog veryhappy by inviting it into your home,
(26:17):
and that is another benefit. You'vegot Tito's Vodka, making some custom cocktails
as you said, yeappetizers as they'recalled, all kinds of great things.
And most importantly, you're going tobe saving money if you get tickets in
advance at Bistle Pet Foundation dot org. That's biss elll Pet Foundation dot org.
(26:41):
I really want to encourage those listeningto us right now they've never been
to this event, especially even ifyou don't currently have a dog at home.
This is just when you're thinking aboutit. This is a great opportunity
to meet a lot of people.You've got to pet ketch your picture taken
with your pet. You mentioned ChrisPort and getting your dog sketched. That's
(27:03):
great. I always love that.Always a popular attraction, and just really
I want to salute you guys forcontinually reinventing this event and making it fantastic
year after years. So congratulations.I'm really excited. Eliza Curtains, Senior
Marketing at Communications coordinator with Bissel PetFoundation. Also Brittany Schlacker, marketing and
(27:25):
public relations specialists. You guys,any final words for our listeners in terms
of the event, No, justget your tickets now. We're excited to
see everyone there. And don't forgetyour boots in your cowboy hat. Yeah,
yes, you know. Western Teamis going to be so much fun.
We cannot wait to hang out witheveryone at the Eastern APIs High School
(27:45):
track on Tuesday, Nay June pixand by the way, pets are allowed
to dress with their best Western garbas well too, don't forget that as
well. Thank you both, Brittanyand Eliza. They've been our guest on
this segment of West Michigan Weekend onceagain. You can learn more. You
can get your tickets at Bisselpet Foundationdot org. Bissell Pet Foundation dot org.
(28:07):
That's our program for this week.I'm your host, Phil Tower.
Thanks so much for listening. We'llbe back with you again very soon.
iHeartMedia. West Michigan Weekend a publicaffairs program
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.