“You are a Black Panther. You’re a Malcolm X. Do something.” That charge from Edythe Ford, Executive Director of MACC Development, sets the tone for a powerful Detroit is Different conversation rooted in memory, movement, and the living responsibility of Black legacy. In this rich interview, Ford traces her family’s journey from Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, and Tennessee—“the place that the Ku Klux Klan started”—to Detroit, sharing how her ancestors carried courage, skill, and strategy north during the Great Migration. She reflects on family Bibles as legal records, barber surgeons as early Black professionals, and the importance of protecting stories before they are lost: “History will have you think your family wasn’t great.” From surviving racist violence and childhood civil rights protests to building community on Detroit’s east side today, Ford makes clear that Black history is not distant—it is personal, present, and unfinished. This episode is a masterclass on preserving family truth, affirming dignity, and understanding why Black history matters to both the past and future of Detroit. It’s a conversation about inheritance, responsibility, and why legacy must be documented, defended, and lived.
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.
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“I’m your publicist, not your therapist.” Publicist and brand strategist Pam Perry pulls up to the Detroit is Different studio and drops gems that hit like a drumline—because, as she reminds us, before “content creation,” our people were already “getting the word out” through bells, drums, and community signal. From Coney Gardens roots and Hamtramck church connections to Cass Tech, the RenCen, Wayne State, and the Detroit Free Press, Pam maps Detroit as a training ground for messaging, hustle, and legacy. She breaks down the marketing suite—“public relations, publicity, advertising, promotions”—and why every creator, church, business, author, and speaker needs strategy, not vibes. Pam talks Great Migration family history, the power of Black press—“we have to create our own narrative, our own media”—and the discipline of charging for skilled work: “You got to invest time or money, it ain’t for free.” She explains spotting the “it factor,” preparing clients for national stages, and leveraging PR as “a traffic builder” with systems like email lists and owned platforms. In an era where “you don’t know what’s real,” Pam’s blueprint connects Detroit’s past signal-makers to the future of Legacy Black culture. And her advice: “Get a mentor…have longevity.”
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.
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Find out more at https://detroit-is-different.pinecast.co
“Everything is political—fashion is political,” says Rachel Lutz, owner of the Peacock Room, and this conversation makes you feel that truth in your bones. Rachel takes us from working retail at Nordstrom alongside women who “retired after decades at Jacobson’s and Hudson’s,” to realizing modern shopping got too same-same—“you walk into a department store and things just all look the same.” She shares why the Peacock Room exists as an antidote: “I wanted to give other people something better than what I had experienced,” especially after growing up with messages that her body was “wrong.” We dig into Detroit business legacy—Rachel is a “fourth generation Detroit business owner”—and how history lives in the spaces we build today, from the Fisher Building’s grandeur to the hard stories of exclusion. She breaks down why she resists tech-for-tech’s-sake—“technology is not always the answer”—and why the Peacock Room centers human connection, pricing across the spectrum, and a luxury feeling for everybody. It’s a masterclass in women-led entrepreneurship, Detroit retail “bleed out,” and how the past can guide a more inclusive business future.
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.
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Find out more at https://detroit-is-different.pinecast.co
“When I'm ask Detroit? Why? My question is—why not?” Diallo Smith, President & CEO of Life Remodeled, pulls up to Detroit is Different with a love letter to the city that raised him and a blueprint for what comes next. He traces three generations of Detroit roots—from Louisville to “Conant Gardens” to Arkansas sharecroppers who “escaped” Jim Crow to find a future. But Diallo refuses the escape narrative: “I didn’t escape from anything… I was nurtured through good, bad, and indifferent,” held by barbershops, beauty salons, neighbors, and accountability—the everyday infrastructure of Legacy Black Culture. From Wilberforce dreams (with Tech CEOs on his dorm room wall) to corporate Houston, he breaks down how “your habits define your future,” why ownership must include “distribution channels,” and why Detroit neighborhoods are the region’s smartest investment. He explains Life Remodeled’s “with—not to, not for” approach to engage communities, the power of warm welcomes (“how you get treated when you walk in the door”), and why Detroit can be first — this time in showing the world how a majority-Black city revitalizes with dignity.
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.
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Find out more at https://detroit-is-different.pinecast.co
“Before I leave this earth, I want to tell you about all the greater things I’ve done with others. That is the legacy I want to leave.” That’s Dr. Yusef “Bunchy” Shakur laying it plain—legacy isn’t a title, it’s a collective practice. In this in-studio conversation, Bunchy and Khary move through the full arc: from “a self-proclaimed predator” and “street aholic” in Zone 8 to a transformed leader who says, “I’ve broken that myth” that you can’t return home and build. He talks trailblazing—Urban Network to Mama Akua House—while naming the discipline of humility (“I literally do the work”) and the politics of authenticity in spaces that want you to “play the game.” As the first Black and first formerly incarcerated Executive Director in the Michigan Roundtable’s history, he lays out a vision to “build community power, dismantle stigmas” and shift from “like-minded” to “value people.” This episode connects Detroit’s past—elders, Panthers, block wisdom—to our future: a model of Legacy Black Culture that survives by organizing, not performing, and by building together what we couldn’t get alone.
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.
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Find out more at https://detroit-is-different.pinecast.co
“Lord, please don’t let ’em take my smile.” Actor Lou Beatty Jr. steps into Detroit is Different with a life that reads like a Detroit map and a history syllabus—North End porches, Oakland Avenue storefronts, and the labor that rebuilt churches and neighborhoods after white flight. He traces his family’s Great Migration from Union, South Carolina—“the automobile industry… afforded these people… a way to make the dollar”—to a Detroit where Black artisans raised steel, laid brick, and even helped build C.L. Franklin’s church: “We hung the steel girders, created altars.” Lou remembers a city alive with sound—“I used to see Smokey walking down the street”—and a worldview sharpened at St. Emma Military Academy and in radio ad sales where he learned, “In business, you want all the money coming at you.” Then Hollywood: “He signed me on Thursday… I was on national TV two weeks later,” but Lou keeps it grounded: “All jobs are honorable… I got to take care of my family.” This episode ties past to future—craft, community, and cultural memory—showing how Legacy Black Detroit survives by turning skill into sovereignty and story into a blueprint. And he reminds us: “Learn it from the bottom up—don’t skip steps.”
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]
Find out more at https://detroit-is-different.pinecast.co
“The one thing I would tell the younger generation is to never stop learning.” In this special Detroit is Different x I Am a Genius collaboration, host Candace Cox-Wimberly (She’s a Genius / I Am a Genius) sits with Brandon Young, CEO and co-founder of Safety Ops Specialists, for a conversation that feels like Detroit porch wisdom with a business plan attached. From “Linwood… the stumping grounds” to “east side, also downtown,” Brandon maps how Legacy Black Detroit raises builders—wearing “suits since I was two years old,” shaped by the Nation of Islam, Aisha Shule, and the discipline of being “unapologetically me.” He breaks down entrepreneurship as “getting your time back,” but keeps it real: “It doesn’t start off the gate… you need to… build… a well-oiled machine.” The interview hits deep when Brandon shares how grief became fuel after losing his brother to COVID: “That pain pushed you forward,” leading him to create “between 50 and 60 jobs” and watch people go from “sleeping in their car” to “now I got a house.” He ties mentorship to survival—“closed mouth don’t get fed”—and ends with Detroit prophecy: “our work ethic is second to none.” This episode connects our past discipline to a future of entrepreneurship, wellness, and community-owned opportunity.
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.
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Comment, suggest and connect with the podcast by emailing [email protected]
Find out more at https://detroit-is-different.pinecast.co
“Trump is not the disease of our politics—he’s just the worst symptom,” Abdul El-Sayed tells Detroit is Different, and from that line he builds a whole Michigan-rooted case for why progressives can’t just run against villains—they’ve got to run for people. In this deep, story-rich conversation, Abdul traces his Detroit foundation from an Egyptian father who “literally studied into existence the life I got to live” to a multiracial Michigan family that forced him to “explain myself to people my whole life,” and he connects that lived truth to organizing: the courage to face the bully, because “once you let them take your lunch money once you’re never going to eat lunch.” He breaks down public health as moral politics—“15 hours or 15 minutes” can mean a ten-year life expectancy gap—and calls out a system where CEOs get rich “while denying healthcare to people who they know need it.” From rebuilding Detroit’s health department (glasses vans outside schools) to refusing corporate money, Abdul lays out a liberal, progressive, activist spirit that echoes Michigan’s long tradition of labor, civil rights, and community-led power: “It’s not enough to say what you’re against—you got to say what you’re for.”
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.
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Comment, suggest and connect with the podcast by emailing [email protected]
“You don’t get a blueprint in Detroit—you just have to be good and consistent.” Spoken word artist, poet, experience creator, and filmmaker Natasha T. Miller joins Detroit is Different for a deeply grounded conversation on what artistry means when it’s rooted in family, responsibility, and legacy Black culture. With humor and honesty, she reflects on being “300 cousins deep,” tracing her lineage back to Highland Park and a 14-bedroom family home that survived without lights or water—proof that Detroit creativity has always been born from endurance. T. Miller opens up about grief, raising her nephew after the loss of her brother, and how those life shifts reshaped her art: “It wasn’t a burden—it was what I was supposed to be doing.” She challenges the myth of the starving artist, insisting that sustainability is part of integrity: “If you’re making a decision to be a professional poet, you need to make money in that decision.” From the explosive era of Detroit’s spoken-word movement to her current work archiving grief, parenting, and memory through film and performance, this episode connects past and future. It’s a testament to Detroit’s experimental spirit—where art feeds community, accountability fuels creativity, and legacy is something you actively build.
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 wanted a red brick house in Detroit. That’s all I wanted.” In this Detroit is Different studio sit-down, Misha Stallworth West—Senior Program Officer at the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation—traces a five-generation arc from Selma to Detroit and family full of community organizers. She remembers a “stoic” grandfather, and a grandmother Alma Stallworth nicknamed “the Rep,” whose fierce love for children helped shape the Northwest Activity Center, Beaubien Junior High, and the Black Caucus Foundation of Michigan’s drug, tobacco, and violence prevention work. Misha explains how growing up in meetings made her “a well-trained introvert,” and why she’s “never asked herself if I’m allowed to speak in any space—ever.” From Grant Park Chicago IL on election night of Barack Obama, to part of Detroit’s first school board after emergency management, she connects Legacy Black Detroit’s political education to today’s care economy. Her current focus is caregivers of older adults: “every time you go get a box for my auntie house, I’m talking about you,” and “you can’t pour from an empty cup.” This episode is a blueprint for how Detroit’s past-built institutions can power our next future. and how we honor elders.
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]