Episode 337- Fixing Michigan’s Broken Mental Health System. with Michael Webber

Episode 337- Fixing Michigan’s Broken Mental Health System. with Michael Webber

Author: Richard Helppie September 3, 2026 Duration: 12:46
A brand-new building can look like progress, but what happens when the real problem is leadership and accountability behind locked doors? From the Mackinac Policy Conference, we sit down with Michigan State Senator Michael Webber to talk candidly about state-run psychiatric hospitals, what he says he saw after taking a closer look, and why mental health care oversight can’t stay in the shadows. We get specific about patient safety and operational failures, including the fallout from a false ...

There's a palpable sense that our national conversations are stuck, trapped in familiar trenches of left versus right. Richard Helppie's Common Bridge starts from a different premise: that the most persistent issues facing the country do have solutions, but our current partisan frameworks actively prevent us from finding them. Helppie, drawing on his background as an entrepreneur and philanthropist, operates from the conviction that practical problem-solving requires moving beyond the noise. Each episode of this podcast is built around a simple, yet increasingly rare, idea-that a common sense discussion, grounded in facts and a willingness to listen, can actually span the divides that seem so permanent. You'll hear conversations that don't seek to score political points but to explore underlying truths and potential pathways forward. It’s a space for analysis that feels disconnected from the 24-hour news cycle, focusing instead on substantive commentary about government, policy, and civic life. The tone here is one of reasoned inquiry, a deliberate step away from the heated rhetoric that dominates the headlines. For anyone weary of predictable partisan shouting matches, this series offers a thoughtful alternative, proving that dialogue aimed at understanding, rather than winning, can be both engaging and genuinely informative. Tune in for a different kind of political discourse.
Author: Language: en-us Episodes: 50

Richard Helppie's Common Bridge
Podcast Episodes
Episode 338- Medicaid On The Line in Michigan. With Monique Stanton [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 9:37
A lot of health care headlines sound distant until you realize how quickly a policy tweak can turn into a long drive, a missed refill, or an ER visit that could have been prevented. From the Mackinac Policy Conference, w…
Episode 336- "The Power Of And" In Health Care.  With Matt Elliott [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 11:15
Health care gets blamed on villains, but the harder truth is that most people are reacting to the incentives right in front of them. From the 2026 Mackinac Policy Conference, we sit down with Matt Elliott, founder of Blu…
Episode 333- The Gift Of Life. With Dorrie Dils [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 10:15
One choice at the DMV can ripple into hundreds of surgeries, thousands of hospital hours, and a second chance at life for people you’ll never meet. From the 2026 Mackinac Policy Conference, we sit down with Dorrie Dils f…