Detroit is Different

“‘We said pledges about remembering our ancestors… loving Black (at Aisha Shule)” In this episode, Dr. Tierra Bills—Assistant Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering & Public Policy at UCLA—returns home through memory, tracing her family’s East Side roots and the African-centered foundation of Aisha Shule, where “as the daughter of one of the Walimu… I had to set the tone.” She honors Mama Easter’s “big presence” and the rituals that taught students their history “did not start with slavery,” then shows how that cultural grounding carried her from FAMU to UC Berkeley and into transportation engineering. Bills breaks down “mobility as a system,” asking not just how we travel, but “how easy can I get to my desired destinations?” and what happens when data, scooters, robots, and roadwork reshape daily life. From 696 detours to the I-375/Black Bottom rebuild, she insists engineers must measure real community impacts: “80% of the businesses will be shut down,” “your travel time has ballooned,” and “those who are bearing the worst impacts are those who are also most vulnerable.” It’s a Detroit legacy lesson—culture as preparation, and policy as repair—and an invitation to show up at public meetings. 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 info@detroitisdifferent.com

“Wake up people, we stay asleep”—and from that call, this Detroit is Different conversation with Kevin Tolbert, 12th Congressional District Democratic Party Chair, moves like a family reunion and a strategy session. Four generations deep—Kentucky, Tennessee, Black Bottom, then East Side to West Side—Tolbert maps how Legacy Black Detroit culture gets made through migration, work, and neighborhood bonds. He shares a laugh and love of how his parents and older siblings discovered his intellect at an early age, then turns serious about Bates Academy and Dr. Gibson’s lesson: “Excuses are tools of the incompetent.” From there the talk widens to labor power and city politics—how unions built an American & Detroit' Black middle class, why government contracts “make millionaires,” and why Coleman A. Young mattered because he changed the power dynamics. Tolbert connects the past to today’s fights over media narratives, water, data, and corporate greed, warning that when people stop learning history, they repeat it. It’s a Detroit story about family, discipline, and organizing—why our legacy is a toolkit, and why the future depends on whether we wake up. He honors the skill, talent, and brilliance of Black Detroit and insists, “we’re made of something different”— and at our best when faith and collective action are at our center. 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 info@detroitisdifferent.com

“Worthiness. We all want to feel worthy… but just who we are being validates us.” That’s the energy Lanasia Angelina brings to the Detroit is Different studio—fresh out of the church service, East-side rooted (48205, Black Bottom lineage, Gratiot-Gunston memories), and ready to shake the room with her new book 'Stop Playing Small: How to Go From Stuck to Unstoppable.' From sleeping under pews at Perfecting CHurch as a child during choir rehearsal to blue-collar lessons (“my dad worked for Chrysler… my mom was a phlebotomist”), Lanasia breaks down how Detroit survival can harden us—and how healing can free us. She talks sisterhood, moving schools, and the kind of grit where you learn quick, then flips it into compassion and perspective about what we all carry as children carry. Her Pretty Girl Campaign years (serving 2,000+ girls) taught integrity: “I wanted to really hold that integrity so that I was really walking what I was talking.” In a city shaped by displacement, faith, and hustle, she names the trap of chasing titles and things—“they’re looking for something outside of themselves when it’s all within”—and offers a blueprint for Legacy: disrupt what shrinks you, rebuild your inner authority, and pass that power forward. 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 info@detroitisdifferent.com

“Government power is derived from the consent of the governed—and can you consent if you’re not informed?” BridgeDetroit’s Malachi Barrett joins Detroit is Different for a candid, funny, and urgent conversation about the broken information environment shaping American politics. A military kid who was “always the new kid,” Malachi maps his route from Battle Creek to Lansing’s “blue blood” Capitol pipelines to Detroit in 2022, choosing to cover City Council so residents don’t have to sit through (at times) “eight hours” of government jargon to understand what’s really being decided. He warns we’ve “slipped into this collective psychosis,” where outrage beats reporting, “news influencers” outrun qualifications, and AI threatens any shared set of facts. Yet he calls the work “patriotic,” pushing back on the idea that journalists are “enemies of the people,” because accountability is how a city protects itself—especially in a battleground state where local choices echo nationally. From canvassing neighborhoods Malachi and Khary land on a simple ethic: “with great power comes great responsibility.” Detroit is Different, he says: the stakes are personal—and that’s the point. In a city remaking itself, that clarity links Detroit’s past, present fights, and future votes. 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 info@detroitisdifferent.com

“Aneb and I met in 1974 when I was incarcerated in prison,” Matthew D. Jones Jr., LMSW, ACSW tells Detroit is Different—and from that first line, this episode becomes a masterclass in how Legacy Black Detroit culture survives, adapts, and teaches. Jones walks us from Black Bottom (“Chene & Gratiot”) to Forest & Van Dyke, where “seniors… looked out for the kids” and community love was “the normal process for black folks at the time.” He doesn’t dodge the hard truths: the “Big Four” police harassment, the anger it produced, and the 1966 case that changed his life—plus the haunting image of a military tank rolling through Detroit during the 1967 rebellion. But the heart of this interview is transformation: “the only way I was going to get out… was education,” reading thousands of books, earning degrees inside, and being guided by elders like Dr. Gloria "Mama Aneb” House. When a freedom fighter challenges him—“violence is not going to save us… use your mind”—Jones turns pain into purpose, and his memoir Fire in My Belly becomes a roadmap for our past and a strategy for our 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 info@detroitisdifferent.com

“Creating safe spaces has always been important to me,” says Kayana Sessoms—and that truth runs like a healing current through this Detroit is Different conversation with the founder of Hitha Healing House, a sacred space born from legacy, loss, and love. Kayana traces her roots through Mississippi, Arkansas, and Detroit’s west side, grounding her story in three generations of Black migration, creativity, and care. From being a “JoAnn Fabrics kid” turning her childhood home into a museum of imagination, to becoming a teenage peer mentor holding space for families in crisis, Kayana shares how affirmation, artistry, and community shaped her calling. She reflects on learning early that healing requires ritual—“ground yourself,” “protect your energy,” “listen in silence”—and how Eastern practices, mind management, and ancestral wisdom became tools for survival and service. Her journey stretches from Detroit to Sierra Leone, Atlanta to Osborne High School, always circling back to access, equity, and Black maternal wellness. The founding of Hitha Healing House after the loss of her father and the birth of her son becomes a powerful meditation on legacy Black culture—how we carry the past, heal in the present, and build futures rooted in care. This episode is a masterclass in why healing is culture, and why Detroit has always known how to do 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 info@detroitisdifferent.com

“Sometimes you don’t know what you had until it’s gone—and then you realize it was community.” In this powerful Detroit is Different conversation, Johnny Cannon of Joe Louis Southern Kitchen takes us on a journey that weaves food, family, faith, and legacy into one rich Detroit story. Born and raised on the east side, five generations deep, Johnny reflects on roots stretching from Tuscaloosa and Greensboro to Black Bottom and Paradise Valley, reminding us that “food and culture go hand in hand.” From stumbling into the restaurant business as a dishwasher to building beloved spaces like New Center Eatery, Sweet Magnolias, and now stewarding the global legacy of Joe Louis, Johnny shares how Detroit grit and divine order shaped his path. He speaks candidly about meeting Joe Louis Jr. “over Brussels sprouts and a beer,” and realizing that preserving Joe Louis’ story wasn’t just business—it was cultural responsibility. Through memories of elders banging pots in the streets, seniors gathered around radios, and customers learning history from photos on the restaurant walls, this episode connects the past joy of Black celebration to the future of Black ownership, storytelling, and pride. This is an episode about how legacy lives on the plate, in the neighborhood, and in the choices we make to honor our people. 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 info@detroitisdifferent.com

“Long before Black people mattered in America, they mattered in Detroit.” That line alone sets the tone for this powerful Detroit is Different conversation with Joe Louis Barrow II, founder of Joe Louis Southern Kitchen and son of the Brown Bomber himself. In this episode, Barrow reflects on Detroit as sacred ground for Black legacy—where the Great Migration, Black Bottom, industrial labor, women’s liberation, and quiet acts of resistance all converged to shape Black America’s past and future. He shares how Detroit didn’t just celebrate Joe Louis the fighter, but protected and preserved Joe Louis the man, keeping his legacy alive seventy years after he left the ring. Barrow speaks candidly about entrepreneurship as community responsibility, reminding us that his father “was never seeking attention—he wanted people to see themselves in him.” From boxing to business, from activism done quietly to food done with love, this conversation traces how legacy isn’t about nostalgia—it’s about modeling possibility. Joe Louis Southern Kitchen becomes more than a restaurant; it’s a living porch, a gathering place where generations sit together, taste memory, and pass down values. This episode connects Detroit’s history of dignity, labor, and Black excellence to a future rooted in community, patience, and hope—because as Barrow reminds us, “Change is not possible without hope.” 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 info@detroitisdifferent.com

“We hate poverty. We have to find a way to eliminate it.” That’s how Maureen Taylor— a historic Detroit frontline warrior for the poor—sets the tone for this electrifying Detroit is Different conversation recorded inside the historic General Baker Institute. From the moment she says she’s “a blue-collar African American from way back,” Maureen unfolds a legacy woven through Black Bottom, the Great Migration, and Detroit’s first Black-owned cab company founded by her grandfather who came north “my grandfather chased by the Klan but driven by purpose.” She recounts the wealth, ingenuity, and community care that shaped her childhood on McDougall—Halloween streets full of thousands of kids, Polish and Italian neighbors trading pierogis and cheesecake, and a Detroit where “we didn’t need anything else from anybody else.” Her stories move into activism: meeting General Baker after throwing rocks off a college roof, being “saved” by Maryann Mahaffey, organizing with Marian Kramer, and fighting water shutoffs all the way to the Vatican—literally. Maureen’s voice bridges Detroit’s past and future, reminding us why legacy Black culture isn’t nostalgia, but instruction. This episode is a masterclass in resistance, family, faith, and the unbreakable spirit of Black Detroit. 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 info@detroitisdifferent.com

“I enjoy bringing joy for us all.” That’s how Erika Monaé Lewis — founder of The EMG Network and creator of Networking on Purpose — explains the spark that’s been in her since childhood. In this Detroit is Different conversation, Erika unpacks how growing up on the East Side near the old city airport, running the block with friends, and soaking in the wisdom of the neighborhood shaped her gift for connection. “I want to see you win. I want to see you grow,” she says, tracing her journey from DSA drama major and pomerette to HR leader refusing to “sign off on injustice,” to a coach teaching professionals how to turn relationships into results. Erika breaks down why networking isn’t small talk — it’s self-leadership, imagination, and joy rooted in legacy Black Detroit culture. From migration stories out of Olive Branch, Mississippi to the discipline it takes to step fully into entrepreneurship, Erika reminds us that “failure is never final,” and that authentic relationships are a form of wealth our grandparents modeled long before LinkedIn. This episode is a bridge — from the past practices that kept Black Detroit alive to the future strategies that will keep us connected, empowered, and winning together. 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 info@detroitisdifferent.com

“‘I finally realized my purpose the moment my daughter was born’,” Ken Chandler says as he opens up in a rare, vulnerable, and powerful first-ever public interview on Detroit is Different. In one sweeping, emotional journey, Ken traces his family’s three-generation Detroit legacy—from his grandfather’s East Side business empire to the hard truths of what happens when legacy isn’t passed down. He speaks candidly about childhood trauma, gang culture, becoming a chameleon for survival, and the lifesaving mentorship that guided him out of the streets. But it’s fatherhood—“my legacy, my purpose, my healing”—that becomes the heartbeat of this conversation. Ken breaks down the generational curse of absent fathers, the moment a panic attack in the hospital revealed his calling, and how his nonprofit aims to rebuild the community accountability Black families once relied on. This episode is an emotional bridge between Detroit’s past and its future, showing how Black men reclaim legacy through love, presence, healing, and the reimagining of what fatherhood means. Overflowing with honesty and Detroit grit, Ken’s story reminds us why legacy Black culture evolves not through wealth, but through intentional fatherhood and community roots. 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 info@detroitisdifferent.com

“If it’s not there, you build it.” With that declaration, Jahra McKinney—Director and Director of Collections at the Detroit Sound Conservancy—steps into the Detroit Is Different studio and delivers a masterclass on legacy, love, and the power of preserving Black culture. In this rich conversation, Jahra traces her family’s Detroit story from her grandmother Essie’s legendary Oakland Avenue beauty shop—“she was meticulous… a matriarch”—to the vibrant West Side community that raised her during Detroit’s golden era of neighborhood life. She reflects on becoming an artist and organizer shaped by jazz greats like her late husband Harold McKinney and the intergenerational music ecosystem that “kept Detroit excellent by passing the torch.” Jahra shares how losing Harold revealed the urgent need for a Black-led archive—“I realized nobody was preserving us… so I had to learn to do it myself”—and how that mission fuels the Detroit Sound Conservancy’s restoration of the sacred Blue Bird Inn. This episode is a living bridge between the Detroit that was and the Detroit being rebuilt through cultural memory, community love, and creative discipline. It’s a celebration of the people who “stood on shoulders and became shoulders”—a blueprint for honoring the past while preparing space for the next generation of Black Detroit brilliance. 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 info@detroitisdifferent.com

“We can use the same skills we learned organizing on the block to organize inside the halls of power.” That’s how Senator Stephanie Chang frames her journey—from a young volunteer knocking doors with Detroit activists to becoming one of the most grounded and community-rooted legislators in Michigan. In this Detroit Is Different conversation, Chang reflects on learning politics at the true street level, honoring water warriors like Mama Lila Cabbil (RIP) and Monica Lewis-Patrick, and carrying forward the multiracial advocacy traditions that shaped Detroit—from Vincent Chin to Black Bottom. “The issues I’m fighting now,” she says, “are the same ones I cared about before I ever thought about running.” With stories of living at the Boggs Center, lessons from Grace Lee Boggs’ organizing tree, and reflections on raising Black and Asian children in today’s Detroit, Chang unpacks how identity, justice, and policy collide. This episode is a bridge—connecting Detroit’s radical past to its rapidly shifting political future—and shines light on why grassroots leadership still matters in a city where water, land, affordability, and dignity remain at the center of the struggle. It’s an inspiring reminder that movements make leaders, and leaders must stay accountable to the movement. 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 info@detroitisdifferent.com

“Detroit would be a sad place if we weren’t all different,” says Hot Sam’s co-owner Tony Stovall, opening a conversation that moves like a masterclass in Black Detroit legacy, style, and spiritual grounding. In this Detroit is Different episode, Tony traces his journey from East St. Louis to the Eastside, from a 15-year-old getting his first suit to becoming co-owner of Detroit’s oldest Black-owned clothing store, a century-strong institution that shaped generations of our city’s fashion identity. “You have one opportunity to make your first impression,” he reminds us, weaving lessons on manhood, mentorship, and the power of loving our people out loud. Tony shares how he and Mr. Green built Hot Sam’s through grit, customer devotion, and faith—“Nothing comes between me and my partner but me or him”—and how Detroit’s flair impacts the world. This episode speaks to past and future: migration, Motown elegance, Black entrepreneurship, and why keeping the Black dollar circulating is a cultural responsibility. If you love Detroit, if you believe in legacy, if you believe that style is spiritual—this is required listening. 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 info@detroitisdifferent.com

“If we don’t remember what 1926 taught us, we’ll miss what 2026 is calling us to do.”In this electric Detroit Is Different episode, Gary Anderson—Artistic Director of Plowshares Theatre Company—pulls us deep into the crossroads of past and future Black liberation through the lens of Black theater. Anderson reminds us that W.E.B. Du Bois’ 1926 call for theaters “by us, for us, about us, and near us” still hits with urgency today as America heads toward its 250-year anniversary. Through stories ranging from the rebirth of the KKK to Black women losing jobs in record numbers, he argues that the same pressures that shaped our ancestors’ creative resistance are re-emerging—and theater remains one of our sharpest tools for truth-telling, healing, and institution-building. Anderson shares why Plowshares’ 36-year legacy matters, how Black theater has always whispered the messages our people needed, and why 2026 will launch work like Roberto Clemente: A Diamond Within to unite Black Detroit across generations. From FUBU to Killmonger, from collard greens to cultural survival, this conversation is a masterclass in how Black Detroit remembers, creates, and fights forward. If you care about legacy Black culture—its roots and its next chapter—you need this episode. 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 info@detroitisdifferent.com

“Boycotting is good, but building is better.” In this Detroit is Different conversation, Black Leaders Detroit CEO & Founder Dwan Dandridge breaks down what it really means to build a Black future funded by Black people—one dollar a week at a time. We talk about why a simple commitment like, “We should be able to prioritize five minutes to donate a dollar,” is not just crowdfunding, it’s a direct continuation of the Million Man March energy where, as Dwan remembers, “They told us to pull out a dollar and said, ‘This is what they fear.’” Dwan walks us through how Black Leaders Detroit has moved over $5 million in no-interest loans and grants to Black-owned businesses, from barbershops to boutiques to natural hair pioneers like Textures by Nefertiti, proving that “$2,500 or $5,000 might not be a lot to some, but it can save a building, a legacy, and a block.” He also gets deeply personal—sharing how he flatlined in 2018, now lives with a pacemaker, and still chooses a leadership style rooted in sacrifice: “Everybody else gets to run to safety. If anybody goes under the bus, it ends up being the leader.” From telling funders “we don’t do any ass kissing here,” to refusing to water down the name Black Leaders Detroit even as attacks on DEI rise, Dwan’s ethic is simple: “I don’t allow myself to want anything bad enough to compromise what’s right.” This episode is about legacy Black culture as living practice—cooperative economics, spiritual courage, and the kind of reputation where, as Dwan says, “If I’m not who I say I am, I want to get exposed.” 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 info@detroitisdifferent.com

“We were really tired of the media narrative around Black men.” From that frustration, Darlene King-Turner – CEO & President of The Unity Collective – helped birth the National Black Men in Leadership Conference, now in its fifth year and returning to Huntington Place this December as a direct response to the murder of George Floyd and generations of distorted images of Black manhood. In this Detroit is Different episode, she traces her roots from Georgia and Alabama to the downriver 48217/Southwest Detroit corridor – a Black community of steelworkers, teachers, Black doctors, and midwives – and connects that history to today’s environmental injustice, noting that those zip codes carry some of the state’s highest cancer rates while being “forgotten when it’s time for capital and funding.” Darlene walks us through being sent as a 17-year-old to a mostly white Christian college in the U.P. so she could “learn how America really operates,” then coming back to Wayne State in the early ’90s as Africana Studies, Kente stoles, and Black graduation reshaped campus culture. From building Wayne RESA’s first professional development and events department to crafting its first diversity strategy, she breaks down how “diversity brought people in the door, inclusion tried to make them feel like they belonged, but equity is what really shook the table,” and why equity isn’t “taking something from you to give to someone else,” but giving people what they need to thrive. We unpack DEI’s current backlash and Project 2025, why Black men still hold only 3.2% of leadership roles nationally, and why some are now afraid to even attend a conference with “Black” in the title, even as Darlene insists that “until Black men are in the boardrooms and the C-suites, this country will not grow in the way it needs to.” She frames this year’s theme, The Power of Us, as both a call to action and an extension of the Civil Rights fight – from Detroit’s African-centered education battles to today’s reparations and racial equity work – making this episode a blueprint for how legacy Black Detroit is shaping the future of Black leadership and why loving on Black men in public is essential to the next chapter of our culture. 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 info@detroitisdifferent.com

“Detroiters are our assignment editors.” That line from Orlando Bailey sets the tone for a conversation that is both legacy-rooted and forward-looking, as he sits back in the Detroit is Different studio and walks us through his evolution from a kid in Youth on the Edge of Greatness to Executive Director of Outlier Media—one of Detroit’s most trusted sources for civic truth. In this episode, Orlando reflects on growing up East Side under the watchful love of giants like Maggie DeSantis and Donna Givens Davidson, describing ECN as an organization that “walked right beside me my entire life.” He breaks down the weight of Black leadership today, especially in a media landscape where “the truth is incendiary to the chambers of power,” and shares how becoming an ED forced him to be “as open, as honest, and with as many eyes on my stuff as possible.” We talk collard green juice on the gym floor, judges who need robes, and why Detroit storytelling—done authentically—remains the strongest defense against erasure. With wisdom, humor, and Detroit cultural fluency, Orlando unpacks everything from the future of local journalism to the politics of public transit to the spiritual power of Black people telling the truth about themselves. This episode is Detroit past, Detroit present, and Detroit future talking to each other in real 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. Follow, like, share, and subscribe to the Podcast on iTunes, Google Play, and Sticher. Comment, suggest and connect with the podcast by emailing info@detroitisdifferent.com

“Write it down, make it plain.” That’s how Cornetta Lane Smith steps into the Detroit is Different studio—rooted, ready, and carrying her grandmother’s legacy with her. Across this powerful conversation, Cornetta drops stories that pull you straight into the heart of Black Detroit lineage: her grandmother migrating from “two blocks of Grand Junction, Tennessee” to Greenlawn; discovering their sharecropper past through census records; and standing on the road where the plantation her ancestors survived once sat—“We realized the street changed from Plantation Road to Elliot Road. I said, this has to be it.” She shares how grief, curiosity, and faith led her to create Recipes of Resistance, a docu-series blending food, memory, and truth-telling, because “the role of the storyteller is to humanize people—especially now, when trust is disappearing.” Cornetta opens up about love, loss, religion, politics, Arab–Black Detroit relationships, and why understanding where we come from is essential to shaping where we go as Black Detroiters. This is an episode that stitches together the past and future of Legacy Black Detroit with the tenderness of a family recipe and the urgency of a people reclaiming their story. 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 info@detroitisdifferent.com

“He was one of the first Black independent record producer of the postwar era — and nobody knew.” That’s the spark Marsha Music brings into this powerful Detroit Is Different conversation as she unravels the epic, unsung story of her father, Joe Von Battle — the man who recorded Reverend C.L. Franklin, who cut Aretha’s first records, and who captured the raw blues heartbeat of Black Detroit before Motown ever learned to walk. Through laughter, testimony, and hard truth, Marsha paints a living portrait of migration from Macon to Black Bottom, of a father who “refused to ever work for another man,” and of a city built by people who “carried their music wherever they went.” She shares how tuberculosis quarantines, foundry labor, postwar factory shifts, and the destruction of Hastings Street shaped — and scarred — her family’s journey. But she also gives us the beauty: John Lee Hooker sleeping on their couch, Kenny Burrell’s first recording happening behind the record-shop glass, and the way the Franklin sermons were rushed to the Guardian Building to be broadcast across the country on CKLW. Marsha doesn’t just talk history — she makes it breathe. She shows how the past explains the present: why the rebellion still echoes, why Detroit sound can’t be separated from Detroit struggle, and why honoring “the people who built this place with their hands and their voices” is the key to our 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. Follow, like, share, and subscribe to the Podcast on iTunes, Google Play, and Sticher. Comment, suggest and connect with the podcast by emailing info@detroitisdifferent.com