“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.

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“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.

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“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.

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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.

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“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.

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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.

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“Serving your soul one plate at a time,” Ms. Kisha declares—and from there her story cooks: taught collards by “my grandma, my mom,” rooted in Tuscaloosa-to-Detroit migration “for the motor industry,” raised on the East Side and Kettering ’95, where a senior-year leap into swimming turned into being “seventh in the state,” all because of “somebody just believing in my ability when I didn’t even see it.” That belief now seasons her kitchen—family-run with “kitchen kin folk,” a husband she calls the engine of the business, and a commitment to community-first numbers: “I’m not going to take you down half the size and still charge you $2 more.” She breaks down sourcing like a Detroiter who knows the land and the people—Eastern Market relationships and an instant bond with Mama Tree (“we went directly to the farm”) to marry agriculture and culinary at the Collard Green Cookoff, where 60 pounds of greens won her the championship (“I cook them 10 pounds at a time… my hands are still hurting”). Khary and Ms. Kisha connect it all to Legacy Black Detroit—the grandma’s party store on Helen & Lambert she’d rename “Verna May Harris Boulevard,” the porch-to-pop-up continuum, the Big Three jobs and backyard grills—showing how our past nourishes our future, one plate, one farm partner, one family recipe at a time.

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]

“Leaders have to be a little delusional and have a lot of audacity.” From the first minutes, Jerjuan Howard plants that flag and then shows the receipts—why “youth development, community development must go hand in hand,” how a Gen Z squad of 30-and-under staff is running a league of 300 students across 20+ schools, and why “Detroiters…have everything that we need already—it’s just about coming together to make it happen.” In this Detroit is Different conversation, Jerjuan and Khary trace a straight line from porch talk to policy: debates on whether to demolish the RenCen, backyard chickens and food grading ordinances, and the big one—“African cultural sovereignty… vs. political representation.” Jerjuan calls himself a middleman between elders and the youth—“my grandma used to say, ‘eat the meat and throw away the bones’”—so Umoja turns what kids already love (“kids already like to argue”) into a vehicle for critical thinking, city pride, and leadership. We dig into the audacity behind taking Detroit kids to Africa, the team-captain model that makes students league ambassadors, and why “indirect action is… just as responsible” as bad policy when communities are ignored. He lays out the build on Puritan: the open-air Umoja Village, a once–25-year-vacant building becoming a Black-authored bookstore and third space one block away (“for us and by us”), and a community-driven health clinic on deck—proof that Legacy Black Detroit isn’t nostalgia, it’s blueprint.

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]

“To whom much is given, much is required,” Renata Miller shares her love of Detroit from four generations of Detroit love and responsibility. Miller roots her run for City Council District 5 in a lived archive of Legacy Black Detroit: East side summers “by the river,” Conant Gardens pride where her grandfather “laid bricks you can still read in Hamtramck,” and Black Eden pilgrimages to Idlewild. She honors a Mother who’s “still a nurse at church at 76” and a Father, a Navy veteran and Detroit Fire captain, who raised her on union halls, service calls, and straight-arrow integrity. Miller is adamant that development must mean jobs and single-family dwellings for kids to have homes with a backyard. It’s a conversation that braids Coleman Young era fights to Erma Henderson, JoAnn Watson, and Barbara-Rose lineage, then points forward: block clubs, church basements, and porch-to-porch organizing—“I’m a grassroots advocate; I’ll be on the streets.”

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 ain’t fly without us.” From that truth, Lazar Favors gives an hour of game on how Taste of Black Spirits is rewriting the rules of an industry that too often locks Detroit out. Lazar salutes Detroit is Different as “day one, step one,” then breaks down why he and Marshalle are a true "power couple" — we weaved it together,” fusing Taste of Black Spirits with the Detroit Black Film Festival to build culture and commerce at the same time. He explains their strategy to do 'unusual business' skip the middlemen, bring the decision-makers to the community, and redirect the dollars,” while schooling listeners on distribution gatekeeping, data, and survival in a shifting market. We get stories that sing Legacy Black Detroit: John Lee Hooker’s “Boogie Chillen’” whiskey line carried by his grandson. Also an E-40 cameo (Mr. Earl Stevens) with a portfolio from Tycoon to tequila. He pushes collective moves—“call it collective behavior”—linking Black-owned brands with Black-owned distilleries to scale faster.

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]