"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 www.detroitisdifferent.com to hear, see and experience more of what makes Detroit different.

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“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 www.detroitisdifferent.com to hear, see and experience more of what makes Detroit different.

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“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 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 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 & 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 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]

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 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]

“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 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]