April Van Buren
Stateside ProducerApril Van Buren is a producer for Stateside. She produces interviews for air as well as web and social media content for the show.
Before landing at Michigan Public, April worked as a producer for Current State at WKAR and a reporting intern and producer at WBEZ in Chicago.
April graduated from Harvard University in 2012 with a degree in American History and Literature (aka the most liberal artsy of liberal arts degrees). She is a die-hard 30 Rock fan and once saw Tina Fey do the chicken dance at a party.
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West Michigan author and preacher Jeff Chu took the long way to the seminary. And once he got there, faith led him farther than he expected back out into the world. It all started with a compost pile on the seminary farm. We talked to Chu about his new memoir—titled Good Soil: The Education of an Accidental Farmhand. -
Ecorse, about 15 minutes south of Detroit, is facing major financial challenges. The city could run out of cash by the end of this month. On this episode, we hear how Ecorse ended up here — and its options for digging itself back out. -
A record number of children in Michigan were hospitalized for ingesting cannabis in 2024. Two Michigan Public reporters break down what's behind the rising numbers and what families should be aware of to keep kids safe. -
A conversation with a teen reporter from Toledo about how he found his calling and what the future of news looks like from his perspective. -
At 18, Michigan writer Lauren Roberts self-published her debut YA novel Powerless. Now, a few years later, Roberts is one of the romantasy genre's biggest stars. We talked to Roberts about how she turned her passion for reading romantasy into a full-fledged literary career writing it. -
A conversation on the effects Trump’s wide-reaching tariffs could have on the Michigan auto industry. -
The University of Michigan recently announced it would be rolling back its DEI programs on campus. The move has been met with pushback from staff and students, but it's not the first time the university's policies on race and equity have been met with ire. We talked with one historian about U of M’s confrontation with issues of race and equity on campus over the decades, including as the poster child of affirmative action policies. -
A program that provided millions of dollars worth of donated foods to Michigan food banks has been cut by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. We talked to the head of one West Michigan food bank about what this means for their operations. -
We delve into the uncertainty that fueled the formulation of conspiracy theories during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the consequences of misinformation. -
COVID changed so many aspects of how we live—including our social lives. On this episode of Revival, we explore how disease has pushed people away and toward each other, from medieval Japan to modern day Michigan.
