You name ‘em, we’ve got them: Michigan photographers, amateur actresses, adventure authors…the works.

What unites them? They’re all seeking a change.

First up, two moms who found each other in the neonatal intensive care unit.

Sara Joy was about to lose her infant son.

Monni Must was volunteering her talents as a family photographer, coming in to take a final family portrait for Sara and her son.

What they didn’t know is how those photos would help them both heal.

Then, we head off to a different kind of Shakespearean drama.

Inmates at a Michigan’s women’s correctional facility are putting on “The Tempest.”

Michigan Radio’s Kyle Norris hangs out during their rehearsals, watching the production come together and the actresses build their characters out of their own experiences.

Finally, one adventurous author takes off her hiking boots long enough to chat about her new book, “A One-Thousand-Mile Great Lakes Walk: One Woman's Trek Along the Shorelines of All Five Great Lakes.” 

This week, we’re hashing out the best of the Arab American film festival in Dearborn. Every festival has its inside-baseball politics about which films get in and which don’t.

But Sundance just might be a cakewalk compared with trying to tackle the Arab spring and the Syrian conflict in just one week of screenings.

We hear from the guy who’s got that job, and we get the rundown on his favorite picks of the year.  

We’re also heading to a Detroit shelter for LGBT teens. Michigan Radio’s Kyle Norris tells us how these young men (and a handful of women) are making their own kind of families, with a little help from Madonna: it’s called vogue dancing, and for gay youth in Detroit, it’s brave stuff. You’ve gotta hear this story, and then you need to check out the video here:

Then, we cut the baby boomers some slack for a change: sure, they’re notoriously self-obsessed and nostalgic for those groovy gone-by years of their youth. But guess what? So are Millenials! (Hint: young adults born after 1981.)

For proof, look no further than Frontier Ruckus, a folk-rock country band whose new album is an ode to growing up in 90’s suburbia. Ah yes, the good old days when all girls were named Caitlin and “Doug” cartoons were appointment television.

So it’s only right that the generation that brought you bromance now gives you four guys with one banjo, the requisite amount of hipstery facial hair, and some yearning tunes about the days when they were too young to see “Reality Bites.”   

And as always, we want to hear from you. ArtPod can’t be everywhere (although we sure do try, but sometimes ArtPod needs a nap and some snacks, just like any podcast) so step up and let us know what we’re missing in Michigan’s art world.

Leave a comment below or go to www.michiganradio.org and click on “Share Your Story.” We may not be able to get back to each one of you, but we really do read everything you send us. And thanks!  

It's also a great cash infusion for the city: organizers claim it has an $80 million state impact. And admit it, you kinda love the summery, festive, look-at-those-handmade-digeridoos fun of good ol' Art Fair. We take a look at who makes the bucks, who came to town, and what, exactly, is a gourd muppet. 

Then we check in with a Kalamazoo freelance reporter with a dream for positive, people-focused elections coverage. All he needs is a couple thousand bucks for gas, a video camera, and about $250 in PB&J. It didn't take him long to raise the cash on Kickstarter.com, thanks to some national blogosphere attention...and, we like to think, that golden Michigan Radio touch! We are SO the next Oprah. 

This week's featured Michigan artist: Sample the Martian, with Detroit's Galactic Dust Records. 

The experimental and sometimes controversial Ann Arbor Film Festival kicks off its 50th season this week. It's one of the oldest independent film festivals in North America.

On today's Artpod, we hear from two longtime fans of the festival – one: an audience member, the other: a filmmaker – to hear some of their favorite film fest memories. We also have a chat with the festival's director.

Libraries in Detroit, Flint, Dearborn and other cities have recently had to close some of their branches in order to save money.

As urban neighborhood libraries continue close…access to free computers – and computer training – becomes more and more limited.

On today's podcast, we'll meet a group in Detroit that is working to close the digital divide.

Last year they were invited to join the project “Run Across Ethiopia," of the Michigan-based non-profit On the Ground. A group of eight eventually ran 240 miles across southern Ethiopia and raised over $200,000 to build schools in the coffee growing region of that country.

The album New Flower is based on that experience.