Keep Your Voice Down Archives

Keep Your Voice Down: Let’s Talk About Cake

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March 19, 2026

Canadian journalist and baker Chantal Hortop, who serves as managing editor of The Gleaner in Quebec, stops by Keep Your Voice Down to talk cake and shop with hosts Doug Sears, Jr. and Alek Haak-Frost. The wide ranging conversation includes how Chantal and Alek met, the impact of the LION Independent News Sustainability Summit on both their organizations, what local journalism looks like in Canada, and Chantal's penchant for creating dazzlingly delicious baked goods.

Keep Your Voice Down: The days after

By Alek Haak-Frost

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Keep Your Voice Down

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March 10, 2026

Keep Your Voice Down hosts Alek Haak-Frost and Doug Sears Jr. discuss Alek's experience during the tornado that touched down in Three Rivers last week and the days that followed. Alek describes how the community has come together, what he did and felt as the tornado went through his neighborhood, the humanity, empathy, and care on display as Three Rivers picks up the pieces, and how disheartening it was to witness the vulturous intent of some contractors in the immediate aftermath of the storm.

Keep Your Voice Down: To begin with, everything

By Alek Haak-Frost

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Keep Your Voice Down

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February 19, 2026

WMUK's Gordon Evans stopped by Keep Your Voice Down this week to discuss his career in public radio, the state of journalism, how it's changed, where it's headed, and what gives him hope about the industry he's dedicated his life to. Other topics include the quotability of Almost Famous, news anchors of yesteryear and the glaring absence of such figures in 2026, U.S. women's hockey, and whether Doug Sears Jr.'s dad actually skipped class to watch the Miracle on Ice in 1980.

Keep Your Voice Down: Will you buy me new tires?

By Alek Haak-Frost

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Keep Your Voice Down

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February 12, 2026

Keep Your Voice Down hosts Alek Haak-Frost and Doug Sears. Jr. are joined by Screen Tea Podcast hosts and friends Lisha and Jules McCurry to talk about love. The quartet discuss how they met their future spouses, when they decided to get married, what makes their respective marriages work, and the films about love they love.

Keep Your Voice Down: Beautiful distractions

By Alek Haak-Frost

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Podcasts

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January 28, 2026

Keep Your Voice Down hosts Alek Haak-Frost and Doug Sears Jr. are joined by frequent collaborator and friend Layne Deuel to talk about distractions that helped them endure the past year. The trio discuss the benefits of going to the movies alone, why Sinners was easily the best film they saw all year, books that made them laugh (shout out to Princess Donut and Dungeon Crawler Carl), and the video games Layne plays in the wee hours of the morning because parenting is a full-time job.

Watershed Voice: Year in Review

By Maxwell Knauer

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News

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December 30, 2025

Before our three-week publishing pause, Watershed Voice invites our readers to take a look back at the past year in local news. For Watershed Voice, it was a year marked by change, as we transitioned from one staff writer — Najifa Farhat for the first half of the year — to another, Maxwell Knauer, for the second half of the year. No matter the author of our stories, we aimed to bring prompt, fact-based, independent reporting to Southwest Michigan. Here’s a look at some of our favorite, most impactful, and most-read stories of 2025.

Keep Your Voice Down: By the grace of Betty White

By Alek Haak-Frost

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Keep Your Voice Down

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December 23, 2025

By the grace of Betty White, Doug and Alek return to their respective mics to look back at the year that was on Keep Your Voice Down. The duo also touch on Watershed Voice's year-end fundraising efforts, emphasizing the importance of community support and monthly recurring donations in sustaining local, independent news. The conversation concludes with discussion about supporting others, the value of listening more, and reconnecting with the outside world post pandemic.

Keep Your Voice Down: Maxwell Knauer

By Alek Haak-Frost

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Keep Your Voice Down

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August 7, 2025

Watershed Voice Staff Writer Maxwell Knauer joins Keep Your Voice Down hosts Doug Sears Jr. and Alek Haak-Frost for what might just be the most chaotic conversation in KYVD history.

Keep Your Voice Down: Abdul El-Sayed

By Alek Haak-Frost

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Keep Your Voice Down

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July 30, 2025

The former Rhodes Scholar and Michigan gubernatorial candidate fields questions about civil liberties, affordable housing, Medicare for All, and automation's impact on the economy. Abdul El-Sayed is running for Michigan's soon-to-be open U.S. Senate seat currently occupied by Sen. Gary Peters, who is not seeking reelection in 2026.

Keep Your Voice Down: Artist Showcase lineup drop

By Alek Haak-Frost

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Keep Your Voice Down

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July 1, 2025

Keep Your Voice Down hosts Alek Haak-Frost and Doug Sears Jr. reveal the lineup for the fifth annual Watershed Voice Artist Showcase, which will take place later this month at The Huss Project in Three Rivers. The duo also explores the role of AI in content creation and journalism, what is lost in the over reliance of such technology, and what society stands to gain by re-embracing human creativity and connection.

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