"Poverty is a choice to allow that to go on in the city," says Denzell McCampbell, and that fire fuels this Detroit is Different conversation. In this episode, Khary Frazier sits down with McCampbell—four generations deep in Detroit, raised in a Persian neighborhood rooted in union jobs and Alabama migration stories—to unpack his run for City Council in District 7. From his mother’s firsthand memories of Selma’s Jim Crow violence to his father’s UAW legacy, McCampbell threads together personal history and public service. He breaks down what it means to organize against environmental racism where factories sit next to family homes, why “our solutions are in our neighborhoods,” and how expanding voting rights and fighting disinformation are extensions of Detroit’s long struggle for self-determination. This isn’t just campaign talk; it’s a vision of Detroit’s past and future colliding—one that calls back to Mayor Coleman Young’s political movement while looking ahead to what equitable development and true public safety could mean for Black Detroit today. Whether you lived through Eyes on the Prize on PBS or you’re just waking up to how policies shape your block, this is a powerful sit-down that roots politics in people and legacy.
Detroit is Different is a podcast hosted by Khary Frazier covering people adding to the culture of an American Classic city. Visit www.detroitisdifferent.com 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 [email protected]
“Nobody was the right person for the job … it just had to be me right now.” That’s how Jelani Stowers breaks down the whirlwind journey of taking ownership of Pages Bookshop in Rosedale Park, a cultural anchor in Detroit. In this conversation with Khary Frazier, Jelani traces his family’s roots—grandparents who migrated from Alabama and Virginia to Detroit for Wayne State, a father balancing electrician work with film, and a mother who shaped young lives as a preschool teacher. He talks about growing up in Rosedale Park, remembering the neighborhood-wide yard sales that felt like “Halloween with treasures,” and how early lessons at the African-centered Nsoma Institute taught him to respect Africa, compost waste, and even see Pac-Man through a philosophical lens. From coding internships to studying philosophy at Wayne State, Jelani connects gentrification, democracy, and Detroit’s cultural resilience into a philosophy of action. The heart of this episode? How saving a bookstore became about more than books—it’s about legacy, community continuity, and ensuring that Black Detroiters still have space to gather, learn, and dream in their own neighborhoods. If you care about Detroit’s past struggles and its future possibilities, this is a conversation you need to sit with.
Detroit is Different is a podcast hosted by Khary Frazier covering people adding to the culture of an American Classic city. Visit www.detroitisdifferent.com 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 [email protected]
"Gratitude is the space where we humble ourselves to the blessing of life itself." From the jump, Mindful B Anthony sets the tone for a Detroit story rooted in legacy, resilience, and transformation. In this Detroit is Different conversation, he takes us on a journey from his family’s four-generation hold on Van Dyke and Mack—where his grandmother insisted “this land will always have value”—to the bus routes that taught him the city block by block, and the classrooms that sparked his love for math, language, and purpose. He reflects on leaving Renaissance for Southeastern, catching the 6 Mile across town before dawn, and navigating Hampton University’s business of education while rediscovering his true calling in healing, creativity, and entrepreneurship. What begins with childhood alley basketball games and honor roll trophies unfolds into a life of activism with We the People of Detroit, a mentorship lineage through Charity Hicks and Tawana Petty, and the artistry of copper and crystals turned into “energy tools disguised as jewelry.” This episode is a blueprint of how Black Detroit’s past—our migrations, our neighborhood pride, our community organizing—feeds the future of culture creators who, like Anthony, are shaping new ways of living, healing, and building legacy. If you’ve ever wondered how Detroit blocks, schools, buses, and bands prepare us for the world stage, this is the conversation you need to hear.
Detroit is Different is a podcast hosted by Khary Frazier covering people adding to the culture of an American Classic city. Visit www.detroitisdifferent.com 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 [email protected]
“Schools are the very center of communities—close a school and in three years you’ll see what happens to the neighborhood.” From the first laugh about “getting lost in my own neighborhood” to hard truths about policy, Arlyssa Heard of 482Forward sits with Khary Frazier and maps a Detroit story stretching from Delray pulpits to Dexter & Fenkell porches and into Lansing’s halls of power. She honors Southern roots (“Atlanta was becoming the Black mecca before our eyes”), a preacher father (“I’m a daddy’s girl”), and a childhood of full blocks where “every house was occupied,” then names the turn: vacancies, blight, and the weaponization of policy—Milliken v. Bradley, white flight, and emergency management that left her son with “an entire year without an English teacher.” Heard walks us through the rise of African-centered schooling—Paul Robeson, Malcolm X, Aisha Shule—and the organizing lineage of Helen Moore, Dr. Jawanza Kunjufu, and Queen Mother JoAnn Watson, reminding us that “Detroit families have always exercised choice,” but too often against rigged funding: “If you can’t shut something down, starve it—don’t fund it.” She distinguishes being anti–starvation from anti–charter, exposes post–Count Day push-outs, and puts receipts on how 482Forward helped “get DPSCD its board back” while blocking a New Orleans–style takeover.
Detroit is Different is a podcast hosted by Khary Frazier covering people adding to the culture of an American Classic city. Visit www.detroitisdifferent.com 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 [email protected]
“I went to grad school out of spite—to learn how to beat developers at their own game.” From that first thunderclap, author-organizer Ru Colvin takes us on a deeply Detroit journey that stretches from their grandmother’s migration from York, Alabama to the east side blocks of Jefferson Chalmers, where “we grew up around the water” and a school culture that was “very Black—we sang ‘Lift Every Voice’ every morning.” Colvin threads memory and movement: a violin at Cass, Black Planet-era fan fiction, Wayne State in Obama ‘08, then the dissonance of working downtown as foreclosure swept neighborhoods—“they called it a comeback while my family lost our home in 2014.” That rupture births purpose: corporate book clubs turn to street-level facilitation, AmeriCorps in the East Side Solutionaries, and the mantra “our communities are up to us.” They name names—Land Bank tours full of non-Detroiters, bedrock power reshaping blocks—and still insists on possibility, writing a house’s autobiography in Home and imagining “liberation zones” in gardens where a family home once stood. With Khary,they honor teachers like Ms. Green who kept their pen alive. Along the way, Colvin reframes planning as protection, storytelling as strategy, and memory as infrastructure: “Translating what people say into something we can use.”
Detroit is Different is a podcast hosted by Khary Frazier covering people adding to the culture of an American Classic city. Visit www.detroitisdifferent.com 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 [email protected]
“What about us?” Sherry Gay-Dagnogo asks, cutting straight to the bone as she joins Khary Frazier to chart how Detroit’s past battles shape tomorrow’s wins for Legacy Black Detroit. In a conversation braided with urgency and receipts, Sherry salutes community media—“Education is key and your platform provides that”—then lays out why she’s seeking Detroit’s Ombudsman post: a 10-year, people-first watchdog who can “scale excellent service” across city departments and build real partnership with DPSCD. She refuses business-as-usual politics: “African Americans have been the backbone of the Democratic Party,” yet too often policy priorities like CVI, juvenile lifer reform, police accountability, and fair auto insurance are stalled while candidates chase culture clout—“through rappers”—instead of respecting the 92% of Black women who show up. She revisits the redistricting fight she led—“we deserve African-American representation”—and the unanimous court ruling that followed, tying it to a longer arc of emergency management, EAA missteps, and school closures that hollowed neighborhoods. From bus routes to literacy, from Brightmoor to Birmingham lines drawn wrong, she calls for audacious leadership rooted in elders like Coleman Young and JoAnn Watson: “Justice will always ultimately prevail—but only if we demand it.” This is Detroit memory and muscle, a blueprint for accountability that insists our institutions serve the people who built them.
Detroit is Different is a podcast hosted by Khary Frazier covering people adding to the culture of an American Classic city. Visit www.detroitisdifferent.com 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 [email protected]
“The biggest word that inspired us to be here is grit.” From that charge, Brittany Vanderbeek of Aqua Action and host Khary Frazier dive into Detroit’s bluest truth: “the greatest asset in the world…water,” and how our city’s relationship to it will shape what comes next for Detroit. Brittany lays out Aqua Action’s mission to “build a water-secure future through entrepreneurship,” explaining how everyday residents—not just agencies—can be “the people with a voice in water innovation.” Why Detroit is the hub (“so many opportunities…for water entrepreneurs to pilot their technologies”), how municipalities and startups can partner, and why design thinking means “start with the people.” The episode also gets real about tech: AI’s thirst—“one simple prompt takes energy and water”—and the need for alternatives to water-cooled data centers. Brittany connects the global and the local—from a binational AquaHacking program (“anybody with an idea”) to Detroit River kayaking. If you care about Belle Isle, clean taps, and Detroit’s right to define and benefit from the Blue Economy, this one’s a listen.
Detroit is Different is a podcast hosted by Khary Frazier covering people adding to the culture of an American Classic city. Visit www.detroitisdifferent.com 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 [email protected]
It's not about showing your teeth—it's a reminder to be kind, Phillip Simpson, founder of The Smile Brand, takes it from Sojourner Truth Homes and seven & Hoover to DSA hallways, a U-M critique that birthed his iconic smile, and the ATL streetwear era that sharpened his business grind. He breaks down jitting, mentors like Joyce Ivory and Tyree Guyton, closing the Baltimore Gallery, and why Black men’s joy is resistance—not performance. This one is Detroit to the bone: family, faith, murals, and a mission to make kindness contagious. Tap in and catch the full journey behind the face you’ve seen all over the city.
Detroit is Different is a podcast hosted by Khary Frazier covering people adding to the culture of an American Classic city. Visit www.detroitisdifferent.com 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 [email protected]
“We can do our own planning… I want to see Black people living well and thriving.’ —Lauren Hood, Institute for Afro-Urbanism” Lauren Hood pulls back the curtain on Afro-Urbanism and flips the script on who gets called an “expert.” In this Detroit is Different conversation, she breaks down the pivot from disruptor to builder, why abundance beats scarcity, and how Detroiters’ lived experience is technical knowledge. From a fellowship spanning ages 18–70 to global interviews shaping a Detroit-centered practice, Hood shows how culture, metaphysics, and social capital move policy and place. Tap in to hear what it really takes to plan a future where Black Detroit thrives and feels like home.
Detroit is Different is a podcast hosted by Khary Frazier covering people adding to the culture of an American Classic city. Visit www.detroitisdifferent.com 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 [email protected]
“All of the opposition that opposed me has no comparison to the opportunity that upholds me.” From that declaration, Mama Tree—Latrina Conaway of Treetop Grows Farm—takes us on a Detroit journey that’s as raw as it is restorative. Mama Tree frames her half-acre East Davison sanctuary as “a space of reconciliation.” The land, she says, “taught me that I am a creator,” pulling her out of a “neo-colonized mindset” into an Indigenous-and-African-centered practice of food sovereignty: a 2,156-sq-ft hoop house, cherries, peaches, apples, and the sweetest collards at Detroit is Different’s Collard Green Cookoff (yes, “60 pounds of collard greens” moved with love). As a wife and “mom of seven,” she’s building policy-minded youth and cross-block coalitions from E. Davison to Hamtramck, because “we are in 48212… in a space of critical climate change,” and legacy means leaving soil, skills, and standards, not just stories. This episode is Detroit past-present-future in one voice: Black Bottom roots, 1990s survival, and today’s climate-just, organic farming that heals body, spirit, and block. Tap in to hear how Mama Tree braids memory with movement so Legacy Black Detroit keeps growing—on our terms, in our voice, for our next generations.
Detroit is Different is a podcast hosted by Khary Frazier covering people adding to the culture of an American Classic city. Visit www.detroitisdifferent.com 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 [email protected]