Detroit is Different

Detroit is Different
Detroit is Different

The Detroit is Different podcast is about exposing artistry, business, ideas, and dynamic people, places, and things that make Detroit a mecca. Tune in weekly and subscribe to get the true stories from the people shaping the culture of an American classic city.

  1. 2 days ago

    I Wanted to Come Back to the City That Raised Me, Dr. Madeline Walker Miller

    “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 info@detroitisdifferent.com Find out more at https://detroit-is-different.pinecast.co

    I Wanted to Come Back to the City That Raised Me, Dr. Madeline Walker Miller

  2. 2 days ago

    How Neighborhood Organizing Shaped Councilmember Latisha Johnson

    “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 info@detroitisdifferent.com Find out more at https://detroit-is-different.pinecast.co

    How Neighborhood Organizing Shaped Councilmember Latisha Johnson

  3. 2 days ago

    Norris Howard From Brightmoor to the Media Shaping Detroit's Story

    “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 info@detroitisdifferent.com Find out more at https://detroit-is-different.pinecast.co

    Norris Howard From Brightmoor to the Media Shaping Detroit's Story

  4. 4 days ago

    Taste of Black Spirits is Building Black Ownership From the Bottle to the Shelf

    “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 info@detroitisdifferent.com Find out more at https://detroit-is-different.pinecast.co

    Taste of Black Spirits is Building Black Ownership From the Bottle to the Shelf

  5. 10 Sept

    Black Stories on the Big Screen: Inside the Detroit Black Film Festival with Marshalle Favors

    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 info@detroitisdifferent.com Find out more at https://detroit-is-different.pinecast.co

    Black Stories on the Big Screen: Inside the Detroit Black Film Festival with Marshalle Favors

  6. 10 Sept

    Its About Who's Next to You and Who's Coming Behind You for Rufus Bartell

    “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 info@detroitisdifferent.com Find out more at https://detroit-is-different.pinecast.co

    Its About Who's Next to You and Who's Coming Behind You for Rufus Bartell

  7. 10 Sept

    We Have Been Locked Away From Our History, Olayami Dabls Journey

    “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 info@detroitisdifferent.com Find out more at https://detroit-is-different.pinecast.co

    We Have Been Locked Away From Our History, Olayami Dabls Journey

  8. 10 Sept

    Taste of Black Spirits is Building Black Ownership From the Bottle to the Shelf

    “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 info@detroitisdifferent.com Find out more at https://detroit-is-different.pinecast.co

    Taste of Black Spirits is Building Black Ownership From the Bottle to the Shelf
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The Detroit is Different podcast is about exposing artistry, business, ideas, and dynamic people, places, and things that make Detroit a mecca. Tune in weekly and subscribe to get the true stories from the people shaping the culture of an American classic city.

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