Advertise on podcast: Detroit is Different

“If my cat or you were hanging over a cliff I’m sorry man.” Jeff Horste returns to Detroit is Different with the kind of conversation where comedy becomes cultural criticism before anybody notices the turn. From remembering the Lions’ 0–16 season to breaking down Detroiters, navigating Los Angeles auditions, voiceover work, streaming culture, and the cartoons that shaped generations, Jeff moves between ridiculous jokes and sharp observations about entertainment, representation, and creative life. His lesson from auditioning lands beyond Hollywood: “You just got to do what you can do not worry about it,” especially when chasing perfection can “drive you insane.” Detroit stays present through sports memory, comedy, media, and the inside references outsiders may enjoy without fully understanding. By the time Jeff argues for Speedy Gonzales and asks whether questionable representation can sometimes be more complicated than simply erasing a character, the jokes have opened a deeper question about who gets seen and who decides. Listen for the laughs and stay for how Jeff turns pop culture into an argument worth having. 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

“I didn’t know how poor we were until really much later in life.” Wafa Dinaro came to America from Lebanon at three years old and grew up near Wyoming and Warren in East Dearborn, where Detroit was always part of her world. She remembers going to Focus Hope and experiencing assistance with dignity—an early lesson in what it means for resources to actually reach people who need them. Years later, that understanding would take on new meaning as Dinaro made her way into economic development where she now resides as the Executive Director of New Economy Initiative. During COVID, when small businesses were fighting to stay alive, her work became about getting resources into the hands of entrepreneurs who could not afford to wait. Through Wayne County data, relationships, and direct engagement, she saw how trusted networks often determined who found support and who got left behind. Today, she sees neighborhood economic development happening “one storefront at a time,” connecting small-business survival to economic gardening and generational wealth. “Be curious about people,” Dinaro says—a lesson connecting where she came from to how she helps build what comes next. 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

“When I arrived in Detroit in 1984, I thought I had come to another country.” Desiree Cooper remembers discovering a Detroit the national story rarely showed: Black people owning, leading, creating, gathering, and finding joy. Detroit is Different recorded this special Father’s Day event on Sunday, June 21, 2026, at Source Booksellers, celebrating the release of Cooper’s Black Summers, published by Wayne State University Press. Through stories and poems, Black Summers explores generations of Black Detroit summer experiences, tracing Black joy alongside the racial boundaries that shaped who could move, play, and experience summer freely. Cooper, a journalist who wrote for the Metro Times and Detroit Free Press during the 1980s and 1990s, introduces Sarah Elizabeth Ray, a daughter of the Great Migration who challenged segregation on the Boblo Boat and “won at every single level of American court till the US Supreme Court ruled Boblo can no longer withhold admission of Black people,” yet she never boarded the Boblo Boat. Cooper also honors the late Luther Keith through his memories of alley baseball, getting his first glove from Kresge, and growing up in a community that nurtured possibility even when institutions did not. From swimmobiles and Belle Isle to block parties, journalism, Detroit’s Black middle class, and neighborhood self-determination, Cooper reminds us that Black Detroit history cannot be reduced to struggle: “That is not a story of lack. That is a story of victory and ingenuity.” Listen for a Detroit summer where Black joy becomes history worth preserving. 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

“I would come down here and tear out the walls and do the demo myself after I got off work from the Bank.” Richard Hosey didn’t enter Detroit development simply moving money—he grabbed a crowbar, sledgehammer and Sawzall and put his own hands on his first building. “I had to get hit in the head with something before I got a hard hat,” Hosey laughs while describing tearing down walls, hauling debris with day workers and transforming a courtyard into one massive makeshift dumpster to save money. That building became the only property he owns completely himself and, as Hosey says, “by far my baby.” In this Detroit is Different conversation, Hosey connects that sweat equity to a journey rooted in Black Detroit family migration, Bates Academy, Renaissance High School, FAMU, Wall Street ambitions, banking and eventually development. His story reveals how education, access to information and understanding finance can become tools for community ownership. Looking toward Detroit’s future, Hosey wants development knowledge shared wider so more Black and Brown developers can enter the game. His vision moves beyond being one of a few: Detroit’s next chapter should have Black ownership everywhere. 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

“I knew instantly that Detroit needed this flavor.” After experiencing a Hearth Summit at Omega Institute in partnership with the Harlem Wellness Center, Dr. Demarra West knew this gathering needed to come to Detroit. Now Hearth Summit Detroit arrives October 8–10, bringing together 200 social entrepreneurs, artists, educators, funders, mental health and holistic practitioners around individual, communal, and ecological wellbeing. West reminds us that “the world has a lot that it can learn from Detroit,” and this summit makes room for that exchange through sound healing, yoga, meditation, art, conversations about Black land and food sovereignty, philanthropy, organizational wellbeing, gentrification, and healing practices. Detroit voices including Dr. Yusef Shakur, Chef Tunde Wey, Brittni Ward, Detroit Black Food Sovereignty Network, Detroit Black Farmers Fund, Keep Growing Detroit, and others join a gathering built not simply to talk about healing but to practice it. Come hear why West believes movements need healthy people—and experience what can happen when Detroit gathers to heal, build, imagine, and connect. 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

“I think my non-traditional journey through academia through life is all a result of God’s bigger purpose for my life.” Dr. Madeline Walker Miller’s story moves through family, faith, environmental justice, entrepreneurship, and a Detroit legacy she now feels responsible for carrying forward. Raised in Palmer Woods near Seven Mile and Woodward, with roots stretching through her father’s Detroit family to West Point Georgia and her mother’s North Nashville upbringing, Walker Miller grew up watching her parents build businesses while Oak Grove AME grounded her in community. At Spelman College, environmental science became real while working alongside Black elders who knew “their water tasted funny and that their air was thick.” That people-centered lens followed her through research on textile waste, the launch of NextTiles during COVID, and doctoral study at the University of Michigan examining energy justice and public housing, including the Villages at Parkside. Her journey also comes full circle through Walker Miller Energy Services, where she now works alongside her mother and sees legacy differently: “It would really trouble me if after watching both of my parents work so hard to build what they have I didn’t get involved in some kind of way.” This conversation asks what happens when education comes home to serve people—and what one generation owes the work built by the generation before it. 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

“I just knew I wanted something different from what I had seen growing up.” Councilmember Latisha Johnson’s story is about discovering Detroit, serving Detroit, and eventually helping shape Detroit’s future. From Kettering High School’s Benjamin Banneker Honors program and summers studying at U of M to working with Detroit’s visitors bureau, Johnson gained a wider view of the city while building relationships and learning how Detroit presents itself to the world. But her path to elected office was grounded even deeper in neighborhood life. She became a block captain, knocked doors around property-tax foreclosure, organized through the East English Village neighborhood association, and helped build MECCA across Morningside, East English Village, and Cornerstone Village. “This is all of our community,” she says, capturing a philosophy that grew from organizing neighbors before representing them. Johnson’s journey offers a look at how neighborhood associations, civic participation, relationship building, and simply showing up can become preparation for public leadership—and why understanding the people on the block matters when you become responsible for decisions on behalf of others as a legislator. 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

“Detroit the city is not a monolith” Norris Howard’s story moves from Great Migration roots in Birmingham Alabama and Dalton Georgia to a family stretched across Detroit’s east and west sides and his own coming of age in Brightmoor. A Michigan Bell union mother taught him that “Black women are superheroes unto themselves” while his father a Navy veteran and psychiatric nurse at Receiving Hospital offered another window into the city and the world. Howard traces his path from Henry Ford Community College to broadcast journalism at Wayne State where a generation of artists thinkers and creators helped shape Detroit’s cultural energy after the 2008 crash. His memories move from Better Made reds and dollar shows to Belle Isle senior skip day St Andrews ghetto tech and serious questions about media politics development and who Detroit’s future is being built for. “Use downtown It belongs to you” captures his larger challenge to Detroiters listen closely question systems and claim the city as ours. 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

“If we don’t care about us who will” Lazar Favors asks, placing the mission behind Taste of Black Spirits Detroit Amplify 2026 in plain language: Black ownership means more when Black communities intentionally build the relationships, distribution, knowledge, and buying power to sustain it. In this special edition of Detroit is Different, Lazar joins Khary Frazier to reflect on a journey that grew from five or six bottles on a podcast table into 500 products, 17 Taste of Black Spirits editions across five cities, and a movement connecting Black-owned brands, retailers, restaurants, and consumers. “If you own something Black you should sell something Black,” Lazar says, explaining why access matters as much as ownership. The conversation explores his growing palate, the complicated regulations governing spirits, Detroit brands, Black distribution, and why quality must drive the movement alongside cultural commitment. That work comes alive September 25 at Belle Isle Casino with the Liquid Forum from 11AM–3PM and Grand Tasting Exhibition from 4PM–8PM, featuring industry leaders, mixologists, entrepreneurs, and 200-plus spirit brands. This conversation connects yesterday’s exclusion to today’s ownership opportunities while asking what intentional Black economic ecosystems can build for tomorrow. 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

In this special edition of Detroit is Different, Khary Frazier sits down with Marshalle Favors to celebrate the 7th Annual Detroit Black Film Festival and explore the power of Black filmmakers telling our stories through our own cultural lens. Taking place September 23–27, 2026, the festival returns with the theme “Sincerely Detroit,” showcasing 89 films from around the world, including 16 films from Detroit. Marshalle shares how the festival is more than screenings—it is a space for filmmakers, actors, producers, writers, and audiences to build relationships, study the craft, and create new opportunities. Khary and Marshalle discuss what it means to truly watch film, from understanding music and performance to recognizing how directors establish a world and intentionally shape a story. They also explore why authentic Detroit filmmaking matters, especially when neighborhoods, language, people, and experiences are represented by storytellers who understand the culture firsthand. Marshalle highlights growing opportunities for women in filmmaking and encourages aspiring creatives to enter the industry through volunteering, production work, networking, and learning on set. With screenings, panels, the Filmmaker’s Lounge, Taste of Black Spirits, awards, and afterglows across Detroit, the Detroit Black Film Festival offers five days of Black storytelling, creativity, community, connection, collaboration, discovery, and cultural celebration. 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

“Detroit probably had the highest concentration of Black owned retailers anywhere in America.” Rufus Bartell’s story moves from a South Carolina family lineage shaped by the Great Migration to Greater Bethlehem Temple, Drew Middle School, Mackenzie High School, real estate, and more than three decades in Detroit’s garment industry. Fashion started at home, where his father “kind of set the trends,” and every Sunday church meant watching him “bring his Sunday best” alongside a congregation where showing up fly was part of the culture. By Mackenzie, “every day Mackenzie was a fashion show,” and that eye for style eventually became strategy through Fashion Party Weekend—four events connecting Detroiters with independent Black retailers while bringing designers and industry relationships directly into the city. The concept helped models and designers reach national and international opportunities and helped seed the Independent Retail Association. Bartell’s larger lesson reaches beyond clothes: “You have to put cookies back in the cookie jar.” Listen for a Detroit business history about style becoming enterprise, enterprise becoming community infrastructure, and legacy meaning creating opportunity for whoever comes next. 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

“We have been locked away from our history all these years.” Olayami Dabls’ journey into Detroit history begins long before the African Bead Museum became a landmark at Grand River and West Grand Boulevard. Arriving in Detroit in the 1960s, Dabls settled on 12th Street, worked at Grace Hospital, witnessed the 1967 Rebellion, and was arrested while simply trying to understand what was happening around him. Then came Vietnam, where a young Vietnamese boy challenged him: “This is not your war. You got a war back home.” That encounter helped turn Dabls toward books, African history, education at Northern High School and Highland Park Community College, and eventually 15 years of work with Detroit’s African American Museum. His search for knowledge became a search for cultural memory. In 1994, two strands of African beads opened another door, teaching him that beads carried histories, identities, protection, energy, and meanings far beyond decoration. That understanding grew into Dabls African Bead Museum and the monumental Iron Teaching Rocks How to Rust installation. “The best way you can control a person is to keep them ignorant,” Dabls says, making this conversation more than one man’s biography. It is a lesson about who defines knowledge, what Black Detroit chooses to preserve, and why Dabls believes “value is determined by what do you have that your ancestors used.” Listen to hear how one Detroiter turned displacement, war, study, art, and African consciousness into a living institution asking future generations to remember who they were before somebody else told 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] Find out more at https://detroit-is-different.pinecast.co

“If we don’t care about us who will” Lazar Favors asks, placing the mission behind Taste of Black Spirits Detroit Amplify 2026 in plain language: Black ownership means more when Black communities intentionally build the relationships, distribution, knowledge, and buying power to sustain it. In this special edition of Detroit is Different, Lazar joins Khary Frazier to reflect on a journey that grew from five or six bottles on a podcast table into 500 products, 17 Taste of Black Spirits editions across five cities, and a movement connecting Black-owned brands, retailers, restaurants, and consumers. “If you own something Black you should sell something Black,” Lazar says, explaining why access matters as much as ownership. The conversation explores his growing palate, the complicated regulations governing spirits, Detroit brands, Black distribution, and why quality must drive the movement alongside cultural commitment. That work comes alive September 25 at Belle Isle Casino with the Liquid Forum from 11AM–3PM and Grand Tasting Exhibition from 4PM–8PM, featuring industry leaders, mixologists, entrepreneurs, and 200-plus spirit brands. This conversation connects yesterday’s exclusion to today’s ownership opportunities while asking what intentional Black economic ecosystems can build for tomorrow. 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

“I was taught how to organize at church.” Imani Foster’s story is about what happens when faith, family, education, and Black Detroit community organizing become parts of the same practice. At 26, Foster carries lessons from parents who taught her that “good is not enough better is possible” and that meaningful work rarely happens overnight. Those lessons show up in her education justice organizing with 482 Forward, where work she began at 15 grew from witnessing Detroit’s school crisis firsthand at Renaissance High School, including teacher sickouts during emergency management. They also live in Hey Black Girl, the healing, empowerment, and yoga program she leads with Black girls at the Matrix Center near Six Mile and Gratiot. Foster challenges adults to stop deciding what young people need before listening to them, explaining that trust comes through consistency and creating spaces where youth can simply be. “I see people and I love people,” she says, connecting the leadership development she learned in church to the organizing she practices today. From Detroit public schools and educational inequity to children’s ministry, critical thinking, charter schools, and the lasting educational consequences of COVID, Foster asks what it truly means for every child to be served. Listen for a conversation about building institutions where Black children are not managed as numbers but seen as people with leadership, possibility, and futures worth investing in. 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

“I wanted to come back to the city that raised me.” Jasmine Brooks’ commitment to Detroit students is rooted in a life shaped by family, faith, education, dance, and service. Raised near Aretha Franklin’s childhood home, nurtured at Hartford Memorial Baptist Church, educated at Renaissance High School, the University of Michigan, and Wayne State, Jasmine traces how Detroit institutions and Black community traditions prepared her to pour into another generation. As a child, Jasmine was introduced to dance and taught by legends like Penny Godboldo (RIP) and Gina Ellis. That foundation in creativity—and in learning how to find her place and space on stage, in rhythm—helped prepare her to navigate the many paths toward success. Today, her connection with the students of Graduate313 brings that journey full circle. “It’s an opportunity to learn even more about myself and what my future self is looking to get into,” she says of what young people should experience through Graduate313. Her vision reaches beyond college admission toward “their upward mobility for life.” Listen for a Detroit story about what happens when the people who were poured into decide to become somebody else’s bridge. 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