#SistersInLaw podcast featuring McQuade to talk democracy Thursday in Royal Oak
When Politicon’s marquee podcast #SistersInLaw comes to the Royal Oak Music Theatre Thursday, expect to hear lively banter about democracy and a debate of Michigan allegiances.
Hosts Barbara McQuade and Kimberly Atkins Stohr both hail from Metro Detroit.
“I was born and raised in southeastern Michigan,” McQuade said. “But, Kimberly is also from Detroit. She’s now a columnist for the Boston Globe and she’s a proud graduate of Wayne State University.
“We’re both looking forward to going home, but we’re going to debate which one of us is the most hometown girl of the podcast. We are arm wrestling to see who gets to host it there.”
#SistersInLaw’s roundtable-style podcast features conversations between former U.S. attorneys McQuade and Joyce Vance, as well as Jill Wine-Banks, the only woman on the Watergate prosecution team. They volley thoughts about current matters of law, politics and culture.
Their formula works. Launched in 2021, the podcast was named the Webby People’s Voice Award Winner for the world’s Best Podcast — News & Politics. The women will be honored at the 28th annual Webby Awards in New York City on Monday, May 13.
With a presidential election in the offing, the tour is timely. The podcast tackles issues like Donald Trump’s legal battles, abortion access, immigration and Supreme Court rulings.
“We will do the same show that we do on our podcast every week,” McQuade said. “We’ll look at legal issues in the news and keep everyone up to speed. We’re all legal analysts. We will help people process what can seem a little bit complicated and a little crazy.
“We do it with a little bit of humor. You can’t help but laugh or cry at some of these bizarre times. The audience will have a chance to ask some live questions. It’s fun to interact with audience members.”
A Macomb County native, McQuade is a professor from practice at Michigan Law. Her book, “Attack from Within: How Disinformation is Sabotaging America,” was a New York Times' bestseller. She is a previous U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan.
Atkins Stohr is regular contributor to MSNBC. A former lawyer, she served as the first Washington, D.C.-based news correspondent for WBUR and as the Boston Herald’s Washington bureau chief.
Wine-Banks is the author of “The Watergate Girl” and the first female general counsel of the U.S. Army. She is an MSNBC legal analyst.
The author of the newsletter Civil Discourse, Vance was the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Alabama during the Obama Administration. Like McQuade, she is a professor of the practice of law for the University of Alabama. She serves as a legal analyst for NBC News and MSNBC.
“We’ve done some other live shows and we’ve been impressed with the quality of the questions,” McQuade said. “They were informed and engaged questions. They’re very good questions about what’s happening in law, the legal cases that are going on right now.
“People are really curious about that and yearn for accurate information We try to explain why (cases) take so long, the stakes, the likely outcomes and why this is happening.”
Democracy is clearly the most pressing issue facing the United States right now, McQuade said.
“There are so many things assaulting democracy,” added. “There’s false information online that deceives people. That’s a big concern I have.
“We have an election coming up in the fall. We want to make sure people have access to information, get to the polls and have confidence in the outcome. I consider that the biggest issue right now. There are other issues we have to deal with in the country, but that strikes me as the most fundamental one.”
She acknowledged that people are entitled to have their own political views. However, she hopes the public takes the time to be enlightened and learn how the law works. That way, perhaps, she and her co-hosts can “nudge them to make good decisions.”
Donald Trump’s comments about being a dictator for a day, she said she believes, are in gest. But it’s an effort to normalize the concept.
Some of the rhetoric is not exactly uniting the otherwise polarized country.
“I don’t think that’s the way for us to solve the problem,” she explained. Education is the key.
That’s something she’s tried to stress throughout her career.
“I’ve had a lot of great opportunities, good fortune and partners in life, kids who support me and enable me to do a lot of the things I enjoy.
“Teaching students is a blessing, a chance to contribute to my community where one hopes just to make an impact. I’ve always been a big booster of Detroit and the chance to work there in the U.S. Attorney General’s Office was a great privilege. Now I’ve reached a point in my career where it’s fundamental to nurture the next generation and hope they will make the world a better place.”
'Politicon Presents #SistersInLaw Live'
7 p.m. Thursday, May 9
Royal Oak Music Theatre
318 W. Fourth St., Royal Oak
Tickets start at $39.50
royaloakmusichteatre.com
politicon.com