“We hate poverty. We have to find a way to eliminate it.” That’s how Maureen Taylor— a historic Detroit frontline warrior for the poor—sets the tone for this electrifying Detroit is Different conversation recorded inside the historic General Baker Institute. From the moment she says she’s “a blue-collar African American from way back,” Maureen unfolds a legacy woven through Black Bottom, the Great Migration, and Detroit’s first Black-owned cab company founded by her grandfather who came north “my grandfather chased by the Klan but driven by purpose.” She recounts the wealth, ingenuity, and community care that shaped her childhood on McDougall—Halloween streets full of thousands of kids, Polish and Italian neighbors trading pierogis and cheesecake, and a Detroit where “we didn’t need anything else from anybody else.” Her stories move into activism: meeting General Baker after throwing rocks off a college roof, being “saved” by Maryann Mahaffey, organizing with Marian Kramer, and fighting water shutoffs all the way to the Vatican—literally. Maureen’s voice bridges Detroit’s past and future, reminding us why legacy Black culture isn’t nostalgia, but instruction. This episode is a masterclass in resistance, family, faith, and the unbreakable spirit of Black Detroit. Detroit is Different is a podcast hosted by Khary Frazier covering people adding to the culture of an American Classic city. Visit <a href="http://www.detroitisdifferent.com" rel="nofollow">www.detroitisdifferent.com</a> to hear, see and experience more of what makes Detroit different. Follow, like, share, and subscribe to the Podcast on iTunes, Google Play, and Sticher. Comment, suggest and connect with the podcast by emailing info@detroitisdifferent.com

Detroit is Different episode 517 with Maureen Taylor

S7E71 -We Hate Poverty: Maureen Taylor on Legacy, Liberation & Detroit’s Future

“I enjoy bringing joy for us all.” That’s how Erika Monaé Lewis — founder of The EMG Network and creator of Networking on Purpose — explains the spark that’s been in her since childhood. In this Detroit is Different conversation, Erika unpacks how growing up on the East Side near the old city airport, running the block with friends, and soaking in the wisdom of the neighborhood shaped her gift for connection. “I want to see you win. I want to see you grow,” she says, tracing her journey from DSA drama major and pomerette to HR leader refusing to “sign off on injustice,” to a coach teaching professionals how to turn relationships into results. Erika breaks down why networking isn’t small talk — it’s self-leadership, imagination, and joy rooted in legacy Black Detroit culture. From migration stories out of Olive Branch, Mississippi to the discipline it takes to step fully into entrepreneurship, Erika reminds us that “failure is never final,” and that authentic relationships are a form of wealth our grandparents modeled long before LinkedIn. This episode is a bridge — from the past practices that kept Black Detroit alive to the future strategies that will keep us connected, empowered, and winning together. Detroit is Different is a podcast hosted by Khary Frazier covering people adding to the culture of an American Classic city. Visit <a href="http://www.detroitisdifferent.com" rel="nofollow">www.detroitisdifferent.com</a> to hear, see and experience more of what makes Detroit different. Follow, like, share, and subscribe to the Podcast on iTunes, Google Play, and Sticher. Comment, suggest and connect with the podcast by emailing info@detroitisdifferent.com

Detroit is Different episode 516 with Erika Monaé Lewis

S7E70 -I Enjoy Joy: Erika Monaé Lewis on Connection as a Superpower

“‘I finally realized my purpose the moment my daughter was born’,” Ken Chandler says as he opens up in a rare, vulnerable, and powerful first-ever public interview on Detroit is Different. In one sweeping, emotional journey, Ken traces his family’s three-generation Detroit legacy—from his grandfather’s East Side business empire to the hard truths of what happens when legacy isn’t passed down. He speaks candidly about childhood trauma, gang culture, becoming a chameleon for survival, and the lifesaving mentorship that guided him out of the streets. But it’s fatherhood—“my legacy, my purpose, my healing”—that becomes the heartbeat of this conversation. Ken breaks down the generational curse of absent fathers, the moment a panic attack in the hospital revealed his calling, and how his nonprofit aims to rebuild the community accountability Black families once relied on. This episode is an emotional bridge between Detroit’s past and its future, showing how Black men reclaim legacy through love, presence, healing, and the reimagining of what fatherhood means. Overflowing with honesty and Detroit grit, Ken’s story reminds us why legacy Black culture evolves not through wealth, but through intentional fatherhood and community roots. Detroit is Different is a podcast hosted by Khary Frazier covering people adding to the culture of an American Classic city. Visit <a href="http://www.detroitisdifferent.com" rel="nofollow">www.detroitisdifferent.com</a> to hear, see and experience more of what makes Detroit different. Follow, like, share, and subscribe to the Podcast on iTunes, Google Play, and Sticher. Comment, suggest and connect with the podcast by emailing info@detroitisdifferent.com

Detroit is Different episode 515 with Ken Chandler

S7E69 -My Legacy is My Daughters: The Purpose That Found Ken Chandler

“If it’s not there, you build it.” With that declaration, Jahra McKinney—Director and Director of Collections at the Detroit Sound Conservancy—steps into the Detroit Is Different studio and delivers a masterclass on legacy, love, and the power of preserving Black culture. In this rich conversation, Jahra traces her family’s Detroit story from her grandmother Essie’s legendary Oakland Avenue beauty shop—“she was meticulous… a matriarch”—to the vibrant West Side community that raised her during Detroit’s golden era of neighborhood life. She reflects on becoming an artist and organizer shaped by jazz greats like her late husband Harold McKinney and the intergenerational music ecosystem that “kept Detroit excellent by passing the torch.” Jahra shares how losing Harold revealed the urgent need for a Black-led archive—“I realized nobody was preserving us… so I had to learn to do it myself”—and how that mission fuels the Detroit Sound Conservancy’s restoration of the sacred Blue Bird Inn. This episode is a living bridge between the Detroit that was and the Detroit being rebuilt through cultural memory, community love, and creative discipline. It’s a celebration of the people who “stood on shoulders and became shoulders”—a blueprint for honoring the past while preparing space for the next generation of Black Detroit brilliance. Detroit is Different is a podcast hosted by Khary Frazier covering people adding to the culture of an American Classic city. Visit <a href="http://www.detroitisdifferent.com" rel="nofollow">www.detroitisdifferent.com</a> to hear, see and experience more of what makes Detroit different. Follow, like, share, and subscribe to the Podcast on iTunes, Google Play, and Sticher. Comment, suggest and connect with the podcast by emailing info@detroitisdifferent.com

Detroit is Different episode 514 with Jahra McKinney

S7E68 -If It’s Not There, Build It: Jahra McKinney's Story Behind Detroit Sound Conservancy

“We can use the same skills we learned organizing on the block to organize inside the halls of power.” That’s how Senator Stephanie Chang frames her journey—from a young volunteer knocking doors with Detroit activists to becoming one of the most grounded and community-rooted legislators in Michigan. In this Detroit Is Different conversation, Chang reflects on learning politics at the true street level, honoring water warriors like Mama Lila Cabbil (RIP) and Monica Lewis-Patrick, and carrying forward the multiracial advocacy traditions that shaped Detroit—from Vincent Chin to Black Bottom. “The issues I’m fighting now,” she says, “are the same ones I cared about before I ever thought about running.” With stories of living at the Boggs Center, lessons from Grace Lee Boggs’ organizing tree, and reflections on raising Black and Asian children in today’s Detroit, Chang unpacks how identity, justice, and policy collide. This episode is a bridge—connecting Detroit’s radical past to its rapidly shifting political future—and shines light on why grassroots leadership still matters in a city where water, land, affordability, and dignity remain at the center of the struggle. It’s an inspiring reminder that movements make leaders, and leaders must stay accountable to the movement. Detroit is Different is a podcast hosted by Khary Frazier covering people adding to the culture of an American Classic city. Visit <a href="http://www.detroitisdifferent.com" rel="nofollow">www.detroitisdifferent.com</a> to hear, see and experience more of what makes Detroit different. Follow, like, share, and subscribe to the Podcast on iTunes, Google Play, and Sticher. Comment, suggest and connect with the podcast by emailing info@detroitisdifferent.com

Detroit is Different episode 512 with Stephanie Chang

S7E66 -When Organizers Step Into Office: Stephanie Chang on Legacy, Justice & Detroit’s Future

“Detroit would be a sad place if we weren’t all different,” says Hot Sam’s co-owner Tony Stovall, opening a conversation that moves like a masterclass in Black Detroit legacy, style, and spiritual grounding. In this Detroit is Different episode, Tony traces his journey from East St. Louis to the Eastside, from a 15-year-old getting his first suit to becoming co-owner of Detroit’s oldest Black-owned clothing store, a century-strong institution that shaped generations of our city’s fashion identity. “You have one opportunity to make your first impression,” he reminds us, weaving lessons on manhood, mentorship, and the power of loving our people out loud. Tony shares how he and Mr. Green built Hot Sam’s through grit, customer devotion, and faith—“Nothing comes between me and my partner but me or him”—and how Detroit’s flair impacts the world. This episode speaks to past and future: migration, Motown elegance, Black entrepreneurship, and why keeping the Black dollar circulating is a cultural responsibility. If you love Detroit, if you believe in legacy, if you believe that style is spiritual—this is required listening. Detroit is Different is a podcast hosted by Khary Frazier covering people adding to the culture of an American Classic city. Visit <a href="http://www.detroitisdifferent.com" rel="nofollow">www.detroitisdifferent.com</a> to hear, see and experience more of what makes Detroit different. Follow, like, share, and subscribe to the Podcast on iTunes, Google Play, and Sticher. Comment, suggest and connect with the podcast by emailing info@detroitisdifferent.com

Detroit is Different episoe 511 Tony Stovall

S7E65 -One Opportunity to Make That First Impression: The Gospel of Hot Sam’s with Tony Stovall

“If we don’t remember what 1926 taught us, we’ll miss what 2026 is calling us to do.”In this electric Detroit Is Different episode, Gary Anderson—Artistic Director of Plowshares Theatre Company—pulls us deep into the crossroads of past and future Black liberation through the lens of Black theater. Anderson reminds us that W.E.B. Du Bois’ 1926 call for theaters “by us, for us, about us, and near us” still hits with urgency today as America heads toward its 250-year anniversary. Through stories ranging from the rebirth of the KKK to Black women losing jobs in record numbers, he argues that the same pressures that shaped our ancestors’ creative resistance are re-emerging—and theater remains one of our sharpest tools for truth-telling, healing, and institution-building. Anderson shares why Plowshares’ 36-year legacy matters, how Black theater has always whispered the messages our people needed, and why 2026 will launch work like Roberto Clemente: A Diamond Within to unite Black Detroit across generations. From FUBU to Killmonger, from collard greens to cultural survival, this conversation is a masterclass in how Black Detroit remembers, creates, and fights forward. If you care about legacy Black culture—its roots and its next chapter—you need this episode. Detroit is Different is a podcast hosted by Khary Frazier covering people adding to the culture of an American Classic city. Visit <a href="http://www.detroitisdifferent.com" rel="nofollow">www.detroitisdifferent.com</a> to hear, see and experience more of what makes Detroit different. Follow, like, share, and subscribe to the Podcast on iTunes, Google Play, and Sticher. Comment, suggest and connect with the podcast by emailing info@detroitisdifferent.com

Detroit is Different episode 513 with Gary Anderson

S7E67 -By Us, For Us, About Us, Near Us: Gary Anderson on Black Theater in 2026

“Boycotting is good, but building is better.” In this Detroit is Different conversation, Black Leaders Detroit CEO &amp; Founder Dwan Dandridge breaks down what it really means to build a Black future funded by Black people—one dollar a week at a time. We talk about why a simple commitment like, “We should be able to prioritize five minutes to donate a dollar,” is not just crowdfunding, it’s a direct continuation of the Million Man March energy where, as Dwan remembers, “They told us to pull out a dollar and said, ‘This is what they fear.’” Dwan walks us through how Black Leaders Detroit has moved over $5 million in no-interest loans and grants to Black-owned businesses, from barbershops to boutiques to natural hair pioneers like Textures by Nefertiti, proving that “$2,500 or $5,000 might not be a lot to some, but it can save a building, a legacy, and a block.” He also gets deeply personal—sharing how he flatlined in 2018, now lives with a pacemaker, and still chooses a leadership style rooted in sacrifice: “Everybody else gets to run to safety. If anybody goes under the bus, it ends up being the leader.” From telling funders “we don’t do any ass kissing here,” to refusing to water down the name Black Leaders Detroit even as attacks on DEI rise, Dwan’s ethic is simple: “I don’t allow myself to want anything bad enough to compromise what’s right.” This episode is about legacy Black culture as living practice—cooperative economics, spiritual courage, and the kind of reputation where, as Dwan says, “If I’m not who I say I am, I want to get exposed.” Detroit is Different is a podcast hosted by Khary Frazier covering people adding to the culture of an American Classic city. Visit <a href="http://www.detroitisdifferent.com" rel="nofollow">www.detroitisdifferent.com</a> to hear, see and experience more of what makes Detroit different. Follow, like, share, and subscribe to the Podcast on iTunes, Google Play, and Sticher. Comment, suggest and connect with the podcast by emailing info@detroitisdifferent.com

Detroit is Different episode 510 with Dwan Dandridge

S7E64 -No Compromise: Dwan Dandridge on Building Wealth for Black Detroit

“We were really tired of the media narrative around Black men.” From that frustration, Darlene King-Turner – CEO &amp; President of The Unity Collective – helped birth the National Black Men in Leadership Conference, now in its fifth year and returning to Huntington Place this December as a direct response to the murder of George Floyd and generations of distorted images of Black manhood. In this Detroit is Different episode, she traces her roots from Georgia and Alabama to the downriver 48217/Southwest Detroit corridor – a Black community of steelworkers, teachers, Black doctors, and midwives – and connects that history to today’s environmental injustice, noting that those zip codes carry some of the state’s highest cancer rates while being “forgotten when it’s time for capital and funding.” Darlene walks us through being sent as a 17-year-old to a mostly white Christian college in the U.P. so she could “learn how America really operates,” then coming back to Wayne State in the early ’90s as Africana Studies, Kente stoles, and Black graduation reshaped campus culture. From building Wayne RESA’s first professional development and events department to crafting its first diversity strategy, she breaks down how “diversity brought people in the door, inclusion tried to make them feel like they belonged, but equity is what really shook the table,” and why equity isn’t “taking something from you to give to someone else,” but giving people what they need to thrive. We unpack DEI’s current backlash and Project 2025, why Black men still hold only 3.2% of leadership roles nationally, and why some are now afraid to even attend a conference with “Black” in the title, even as Darlene insists that “until Black men are in the boardrooms and the C-suites, this country will not grow in the way it needs to.” She frames this year’s theme, The Power of Us, as both a call to action and an extension of the Civil Rights fight – from Detroit’s African-centered education battles to today’s reparations and racial equity work – making this episode a blueprint for how legacy Black Detroit is shaping the future of Black leadership and why loving on Black men in public is essential to the next chapter of our culture. Detroit is Different is a podcast hosted by Khary Frazier covering people adding to the culture of an American Classic city. Visit <a href="http://www.detroitisdifferent.com" rel="nofollow">www.detroitisdifferent.com</a> to hear, see and experience more of what m

Detroit is Different episode 509 with Darlene King-Turner

S7E63 -Not Just Diversity: Darlene King-Turner on Equity, Detroit, and Black Men in Leadership

“Detroiters are our assignment editors.” That line from Orlando Bailey sets the tone for a conversation that is both legacy-rooted and forward-looking, as he sits back in the Detroit is Different studio and walks us through his evolution from a kid in Youth on the Edge of Greatness to Executive Director of Outlier Media—one of Detroit’s most trusted sources for civic truth. In this episode, Orlando reflects on growing up East Side under the watchful love of giants like Maggie DeSantis and Donna Givens Davidson, describing ECN as an organization that “walked right beside me my entire life.” He breaks down the weight of Black leadership today, especially in a media landscape where “the truth is incendiary to the chambers of power,” and shares how becoming an ED forced him to be “as open, as honest, and with as many eyes on my stuff as possible.” We talk collard green juice on the gym floor, judges who need robes, and why Detroit storytelling—done authentically—remains the strongest defense against erasure. With wisdom, humor, and Detroit cultural fluency, Orlando unpacks everything from the future of local journalism to the politics of public transit to the spiritual power of Black people telling the truth about themselves. This episode is Detroit past, Detroit present, and Detroit future talking to each other in real time. Detroit is Different is a podcast hosted by Khary Frazier covering people adding to the culture of an American Classic city. Visit <a href="http://www.detroitisdifferent.com" rel="nofollow">www.detroitisdifferent.com</a> to hear, see and experience more of what makes Detroit different. Follow, like, share, and subscribe to the Podcast on iTunes, Google Play, and Sticher. Comment, suggest and connect with the podcast by emailing info@detroitisdifferent.com

Detroit is Different episode 508 with Orlando Bailey

S7E62 -“Detroiters Are Our Assignment Editors: Orlando Bailey on Truth, Power & Black Leadership”

“Write it down, make it plain.” That’s how Cornetta Lane Smith steps into the Detroit is Different studio—rooted, ready, and carrying her grandmother’s legacy with her. Across this powerful conversation, Cornetta drops stories that pull you straight into the heart of Black Detroit lineage: her grandmother migrating from “two blocks of Grand Junction, Tennessee” to Greenlawn; discovering their sharecropper past through census records; and standing on the road where the plantation her ancestors survived once sat—“We realized the street changed from Plantation Road to Elliot Road. I said, this has to be it.” She shares how grief, curiosity, and faith led her to create Recipes of Resistance, a docu-series blending food, memory, and truth-telling, because “the role of the storyteller is to humanize people—especially now, when trust is disappearing.” Cornetta opens up about love, loss, religion, politics, Arab–Black Detroit relationships, and why understanding where we come from is essential to shaping where we go as Black Detroiters. This is an episode that stitches together the past and future of Legacy Black Detroit with the tenderness of a family recipe and the urgency of a people reclaiming their story. Detroit is Different is a podcast hosted by Khary Frazier covering people adding to the culture of an American Classic city. Visit <a href="http://www.detroitisdifferent.com" rel="nofollow">www.detroitisdifferent.com</a> to hear, see and experience more of what makes Detroit different. Follow, like, share, and subscribe to the Podcast on iTunes, Google Play, and Sticher. Comment, suggest and connect with the podcast by emailing info@detroitisdifferent.com

Detroit is Different episode 507 with Cornetta Lane Smith

S7E61 -Write It Down, Make It Plain: Cornetta Lane Smith on Legacy, Lineage & Detroit Love

“He was one of the first Black independent record producer of the postwar era — and nobody knew.” That’s the spark Marsha Music brings into this powerful Detroit Is Different conversation as she unravels the epic, unsung story of her father, Joe Von Battle — the man who recorded Reverend C.L. Franklin, who cut Aretha’s first records, and who captured the raw blues heartbeat of Black Detroit before Motown ever learned to walk. Through laughter, testimony, and hard truth, Marsha paints a living portrait of migration from Macon to Black Bottom, of a father who “refused to ever work for another man,” and of a city built by people who “carried their music wherever they went.” She shares how tuberculosis quarantines, foundry labor, postwar factory shifts, and the destruction of Hastings Street shaped — and scarred — her family’s journey. But she also gives us the beauty: John Lee Hooker sleeping on their couch, Kenny Burrell’s first recording happening behind the record-shop glass, and the way the Franklin sermons were rushed to the Guardian Building to be broadcast across the country on CKLW. Marsha doesn’t just talk history — she makes it breathe. She shows how the past explains the present: why the rebellion still echoes, why Detroit sound can’t be separated from Detroit struggle, and why honoring “the people who built this place with their hands and their voices” is the key to our cultural future. Detroit is Different is a podcast hosted by Khary Frazier covering people adding to the culture of an American Classic city. Visit <a href="http://www.detroitisdifferent.com" rel="nofollow">www.detroitisdifferent.com</a> to hear, see and experience more of what makes Detroit different. Follow, like, share, and subscribe to the Podcast on iTunes, Google Play, and Sticher. Comment, suggest and connect with the podcast by emailing info@detroitisdifferent.com

Detroit is Different episode 506 with Marsha Music

S7E60 -The Man Who Recorded a Movement: Marsha Music on Her Father, Hastings Street, and the Birth of Detroit Sound

From her living room in Romulus, 94-year-old Ardena Vaughn takes us from Black Bottom to the “tracks” in Romulus, weaving a lifetime of memories that tell the story of Legacy Black Detroit’s past and its unfinished future. Born at Herman Kiefer and raised on Cameron Street, Ardena remembers marching in the alley when “Joe Louis would win” with tin tubs and cans, feeling the whole block erupt when the Brown Bomber put Detroit on the map. She recalls walking past the Chesterfield Lounge, hearing Dinah Washington and the hum of Black nightlife she was “too young to understand, but old enough to feel.” In this conversation she breaks down what it meant to move from the heart of the city to Romulus in the 1940s, where “the tracks” literally divided Black and white neighborhoods. Ardena shares how she became the first Black supervisor at a micro-measurements plant supplying airplanes and automobiles—“I don’t even know how I got that job.” She talks about Saturdays riding back into the city for piano lessons, eating hot waffles with ice cream Kresge, and then coming home to build a life rooted in AME church, choir, and family. Still, her wisdom for future generations is simple: “Love everybody… try to be a good example… stay busy.” She still drives her 20-year-old Grand Am, still hosts the holidays, and still plays weekly Scrabble. Detroit is Different is a podcast hosted by Khary Frazier covering people adding to the culture of an American Classic city. Visit <a href="http://www.detroitisdifferent.com" rel="nofollow">www.detroitisdifferent.com</a> to hear, see and experience more of what makes Detroit different. Follow, like, share, and subscribe to the Podcast on iTunes, Google Play, and Sticher. Comment, suggest and connect with the podcast by emailing info@detroitisdifferent.com

Detroit is Different episode 505 with Ardena Vaughn

S7E59 -From Black Bottom to the Tracks: The 94-Year Journey of Ardena Vaughn

“We knew from the beginning we wanted to be that third space” — that’s how April Anderson, owner of Good Cakes and Bakes, breaks down why her organic bakery on Livernois is more than a storefront, it’s a whole ecosystem. In this on-location Detroit is Different conversation, April and Khary sit in the middle of fall rush and neighborhood kids’ events to unpack what it really takes to build and keep a Black business alive for 12 years on the Avenue of Fashion, the largest African American–owned business corridor in the country. She talks about the community that “showed up for us from day one and stayed with us through COVID,” and what it meant to fight through busted zoning rules, missing inspectors (“FBI came and shut down BSEED”), and a streetscape project that almost killed half the block. April gets honest about the tightrope of Black entrepreneurship in Detroit — trying to “work on the business and not just in the business,” learning that “money isn’t the motivator, people want to feel valued,” and figuring out how to keep staff paid when ingredients, labor, and everything else keep going up. She breaks down the joy and tension of working with family (“my mom had to listen to the manager too”), what she’s learning from fearless Gen Z employees who question everything, and why she refuses to chase Instagram trends that don’t fit her Southern-rooted story: “It has to connect with me and our story, or I’m not doing it.” Tied to the long line of Black Detroit shops that held neighborhoods together and looking ahead to who comes after her, April issues a challenge to any business thinking about moving onto Livernois: talk to the people first, bring what the community actually needs, be consistent, and know that “this neighborhood will support you—but they will hold you accountable.” Detroit is Different is a podcast hosted by Khary Frazier covering people adding to the culture of an American Classic city. Visit <a href="http://www.detroitisdifferent.com" rel="nofollow">www.detroitisdifferent.com</a> to hear, see and experience more of what makes Detroit different. Follow, like, share, and subscribe to the Podcast on iTunes, Google Play, and Sticher. Comment, suggest and connect with the podcast by emailing info@detroitisdifferent.com

Detroit is Different episode 504 with April Anderson

S7E58 -Sweet, Not Soft: April Anderson on Growing a Business on the Avenue of Fashions

“Man, I used to sell Skittles at school — got in trouble for it too — but that’s when I knew I wanted to be my own boss.” From that moment of hustle to becoming a collegiate athlete and rising rap artist, Chase Money embodies the new generation of Detroit legacy. In this powerful episode of Detroit is Different, Chase sits down with Khary Frazier to trace his roots from Louisiana and Eastside family ties to the quiet drive of West Bloomfield, all the way to Youngstown State, where football dreams collided with pandemic realities — and a new passion for music was born. “I never wanted to just do it for fame,” Chase says. “I wanted to do it right, respect the craft, make it mean something.” The conversation flows like a Detroit cipher, blending lessons on independence, family, artistry, and discipline, while honoring the matriarchal roots of Detroit hustle — a nod to his grandmother, media trailblazer Charlene Mitchell-Rogers. From backyard ball to studio sessions, Chase Money represents how Legacy Black Detroit keeps evolving: grounded in faith, shaped by family, and still hungry to build something that lasts. As Khary puts it, “That’s what this city does — we make creativity a survival skill.” This episode bridges generations — showing how hip hop, athletics, and entrepreneurship continue to define Detroit’s rhythm and reimagine its future. Detroit is Different is a podcast hosted by Khary Frazier covering people adding to the culture of an American Classic city. Visit <a href="http://www.detroitisdifferent.com" rel="nofollow">www.detroitisdifferent.com</a> to hear, see and experience more of what makes Detroit different. Follow, like, share, and subscribe to the Podcast on iTunes, Google Play, and Sticher. Comment, suggest and connect with the podcast by emailing info@detroitisdifferent.com

Detroit is Different 503 episode with Chase Money

S7E57 -Gridiron to Grind Mode: How Chase Money Found His Flow

From a small town in southern India Chikodi, where “we slept on the floor,” Shri Thanedar’s story moves from caste system expectations he rejected to a life built on duty — “I worked as a janitor at 14 and gave my pay to my mother.” He traces the thread of Indian culture that raised him: reverence for education (“public school and university were free — that investment lifted me”), family obligation (sending $75 of his $300 stipend home each month during grad school), and the ethic of care that shaped his first career as a health chemical physicist—“my job was protecting workers who can’t see from a danger you can’t see.” Eventually building a business in America and rebuilding it after the Great recession. He speaks tenderly of grief — losing his first wife to mental illness — and the policy it birthed: “put counselors in every school; fund mental health like lives depend on it, because they do.” Detroit, he says, recognized the familiar grind: “Detroit chose me because I’ve struggled too.” This episode threads his India-to-America-to-Detroit journey through immigration, caste, class, and kinship, and lands on a future where policy matches the love that raised him — safe work, and strong accessible education for everyone. Detroit is Different is a podcast hosted by Khary Frazier covering people adding to the culture of an American Classic city. Visit <a href="http://www.detroitisdifferent.com" rel="nofollow">www.detroitisdifferent.com</a> to hear, see and experience more of what makes Detroit different. Follow, like, share, and subscribe to the Podcast on iTunes, Google Play, and Sticher. Comment, suggest and connect with the podcast by emailing info@detroitisdifferent.com

Detroit is Different 502 episode US Congress Representative Shri Thanedar

S7E56 -How his Past Guides his Future, Shri Thanedar's Political Journey

“You can’t call it a comeback when we never left,” says Keir Worthy, reflecting on Detroit’s cultural rebirth with a mix of reverence and reality. In this in-depth conversation, Keir—designer, cultural connector, and proud Detroiter turned New Yorker—dives into what it means to carry Detroit’s creative DNA across coasts while staying rooted in the spirit of home. From helping shape Crain’s Detroit Homecoming to mentoring the next generation of Black designers at the Pensole Lewis College of Business &amp; Design, Worthy unpacks how legacy Detroiters are reclaiming visibility in a city long defined by reinvention. He calls out the “cost of cool”—the price of gentrification that displaces the very artists who make a city vibrant—while celebrating the optimism of Detroit’s young creators who are building new lanes through collaboration and entrepreneurship. Through stories that span from Russell Simmons’ Def Jam days to the rise of Detroit’s design renaissance, Keir and Khary trace how creativity, music, and faith in community remain Detroit’s truest exports. This episode is a reflection on what’s been lost, what’s being rebuilt, and why “legacy Detroit” still has the blueprint for America’s cultural future. Detroit is Different is a podcast hosted by Khary Frazier covering people adding to the culture of an American Classic city. Visit <a href="http://www.detroitisdifferent.com" rel="nofollow">www.detroitisdifferent.com</a> to hear, see and experience more of what makes Detroit different. Follow, like, share, and subscribe to the Podcast on iTunes, Google Play, and Sticher. Comment, suggest and connect with the podcast by emailing info@detroitisdifferent.com

Detroit is Different 501 episode with Keir Worthy

S7E55 -The Cost of Cool: Keir Worthy on Culture, Design, and Legacy Detroit

“Back in Detroit is Different studios—my grandma’s house—where the organ once sat and the stories still breathe.” Episode 500 turns the mic on founder Khary Frazier, with Kahn Santori guiding a deep dive into why this platform became the safe space for stories of contemporary Legacy Black Detroit. Khary maps his roots—“Rosa Parks, Linwood, Davison, Dexter”—and how a choir-director grandmother and entrepreneurial parents, shaped a curiosity that became a catalog. In 2014 at Le Petit Zinc: “I wanted to introduce people to the Detroit I know,” from Malik Yakini and D-Town Farms to The New Dance Show’s Henry Tyler, Rev. Ortheia Barnes, Sharon McPhail, and even Slow's BBQ Owner Phil Cooley. “Detroit is clickish, but I had connections across the cliques”—into subcultures (car clubs, Hamtramck’s Eastern European community, the North End’s legendary Aknartoons) and the fractures of the 96 freeway. Khary rejects clickbait—“this ain’t the place for that”—and builds community instead: pandemic roundtables, a garden, and the Collard Green Cook-off born from a CashApp Crowdfunding campaign. He’s candid about platform attacks—“with success comes attention you don’t want”—and future films on the Detroit Phoenix Black firefighters and the New Bethel incident, linking elders’ truth to tomorrow’s archive. The heart lands where it began: “Opening this space with my Mom was my proudest moment,” a living memorial that keeps the past pulsing into Detroit’s future. Detroit is Different is a podcast hosted by Khary Frazier covering people adding to the culture of an American Classic city. Visit <a href="http://www.detroitisdifferent.com" rel="nofollow">www.detroitisdifferent.com</a> to hear, see and experience more of what makes Detroit different. Follow, like, share, and subscribe to the Podcast on iTunes, Google Play, and Sticher. Comment, suggest and connect with the podcast by emailing info@detroitisdifferent.com

Detroit is Different 500th episode

S7E54 -From Grandma’s Bedroom to 500: The Pulse of Legacy Black Detroit

“Council is empowered — they’re not using their power.” Brenda Faye Butler from Birmingham to Detroit—walks us through a life that links the Civil Rights South to the Eastside today: a coal miner’s daughter who landed here after the 1967 uprising, trained at 14 by Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth to knock doors and teach neighbors the civics needed to pass voter tests, and later inside the Wayne County’s first executive administration of Bill Lucas “setting up how government would run.” Brenda unpacks why council-by-district matters, how ARPA and CDBG dollars should “follow the people,” and why CRIO must truly monitor deals “If a developer says they met with the community—who?”. Brenda Butler is a community voice that represents the Eastside residents where politics and business connect. She's real about development math, tax abatements, and the difference between promises and delivery: “Stop saying jobs; people want careers.” We trace her organizing arc—from Chandler Park meetings during the housing crisis to tracking Stellantis benefits and flood relief gaps—tying it all to Legacy Black Detroit’s past (migration, unions, church-led civics) and future (youth seats on CACs, manufacturing training, climate resilience). And as a write-in for District 4’s Community Advisory Council, she makes it plain: “Bring everyone to the table. That’s equity.” By the time she spells the ballot line—“Write in B-R-E-N-D-A F-A-Y-E B-U-T-L-E-R—coal miner’s daughter working for us”—you’ll hear why her voice maps where Detroit has been and where we’re going. Detroit is Different is a podcast hosted by Khary Frazier covering people adding to the culture of an American Classic city. Visit <a href="http://www.detroitisdifferent.com" rel="nofollow">www.detroitisdifferent.com</a> to hear, see and experience more of what makes Detroit different. Follow, like, share, and subscribe to the Podcast on iTunes, Google Play, and Sticher. Comment, suggest and connect with the podcast by emailing info@detroitisdifferent.com

Detroit is Different episode 499 with Brenda Butler

S7E53 -From Voting Tests to Community Benefits Agreements: Brenda Butler’s Detroit Playbook

&quot;My father used to say, ‘If you’re gonna deliver mail, own the block you walk on.’ That stuck with me.” Joe Drew-Hundley, Deputy Director of the Michigan Roundtable for Just Communities, sat down with Detroit is Different to trace his family’s Detroit roots from Waynesboro, Mississippi to the east side post routes that built Black stability and ownership. In this powerful and personal conversation, Joe shares how his family’s migration story mirrors Detroit’s — the grind, the grief, and the genius of making something out of what others overlook. He breaks down the journey from Ford Motor Company to the military to the post office, the lessons of growing up in Detroit then navigating suburban schools, and how those experiences shaped his work building just and beloved communities today. “My mom worked to finance small Black businesses, my dad bought homes on his mail route — community work was our inheritance.” From the Great Migration to today’s movement for racial and economic justice, Joe’s story bridges the past and future of Legacy Black Detroit: how we moved, how we built, and how we keep giving back. Detroit is Different is a podcast hosted by Khary Frazier covering people adding to the culture of an American Classic city. Visit <a href="http://www.detroitisdifferent.com" rel="nofollow">www.detroitisdifferent.com</a> to hear, see and experience more of what makes Detroit different. Follow, like, share, and subscribe to the Podcast on iTunes, Google Play, and Sticher. Comment, suggest and connect with the podcast by emailing info@detroitisdifferent.com

Detroit is Different episode 498 Joe Drew-Hundley

S7E52 -Delivering Justice: How a Detroit Son Reconnects, Joe Drew-Hundley

Detroit is Different

The Detroit is Different podcast is about exposing artistry, business, ideas, and dynamic people, places, and things that make Detroit a mecca. Tune in weekly and subscribe to get the true stories from the people shaping the culture of an American classic city.

detroit is different

Detroit is Different is a home for the culture of Detroit by offering unique stories on the people, places, and things that capture the essence of a Motor City attitude.

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