The Metro
"The Metro" covers local and regional news and current affairs, arts and cultural events and topics, with a commitment to airing perspectives and uncovering stories underreported by mainstream media in Detroit.
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Windsor mayor says Gordie Howe Bridge ‘will transcend Donald Trump’s presidency’ when it opens
A new international span was set to open soon, but it has now been delayed. In an email statement Thursday morning, Mayor Dilkens said, “Although we would all like the Gordie Howe International Bridge to open, Canada need not fall on bent knee to make it happen.” Producer Sam Corey spoke with Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens yesterday before the ribbon cutting had been canceled. He says the bridge is "the ultimate symbol of connection" and friendship.
Thoughts? Email us at Metro@wdet.org
'Dragged to Death' emerges as the prime murder mystery to read during Pride Month
Frank Anthony Polito is an award-winning self-published author and playwright from Hazel Park, Michigan. Recently, he's been focuing on murder mystery series starring "Domestic Partners in Crime," Peter ‘PJ’ Penwell and JP Broadway. "Dragged to Death" serves as the fourth installment of that series, where a young drag queen from the Detroit drag scene is smothered to death by her own wig.
Polito joined The Metro to discuss his book, his lived experiences in Detroit and New York, and the perseverance necessary for the role of a self-publisher.
'When the economy catches a cold, Detroit gets pneumonia.' Cass Tretyak on hunger and the cost of living
Affordability is the word of the moment — and behind it is something stark. Nearly half of Americans can't cover their essential expenses, gas is up about a dollar a gallon since February, and more people are going hungry now than at the height of the pandemic. In Detroit, where food insecurity was already widespread, that squeeze lands even harder.
"When the economy catches a cold, Detroit gets pneumonia," said Cass Tretyak, an outreach navigator at Community & Home Supports. She joined Robyn Vincent on The Metro to unpack how a punishing economy keeps failing people living in poverty — the rising demand for food and housing help, the toll of new federal rules tightening access to benefits like SNAP, and what it actually takes to keep her clients fed and housed.
A Place Called Heaven honors Detroit's Black queer history
When people don’t feel welcomed in a space, they create their own. In 1984, a third space came to life on 7 Mile and Woodward, that was Club Heaven. Decades later, the legacy of the community continues to thrive.
This month, in celebration of Pride, The Love Building is hosting a LOVE@Nite session called "A Place Called Heaven.”
The gathering will center Black queer life through storytelling, music, and community connections, and a look back at more than 30 years of history.
The Metro spoke with Chris “Inpaq” Sutton, director of the film "Heaven In Detroit" and broadcast studio manager for LGBT Detroit, alongside Kwaku Osei-Bonsu, project manager at the Love Building.
They talked about the impact of Detroit’s Black queer community, explored the need for safe physical spaces, and how their partnerships honors those who live their truths.
Detroit could be home to a Michelin star soon. What does that mean for the city?
Restaurants in Detroit are now eligible to receive a Michelin star rating. That’s 20 years after the Michelin Group awarded its first star to restaurants in the United States.
The designation was born from the French tire company’s efforts over a century ago to recommend places for drivers to stop. It has since become an authority on where to eat worldwide.
Detroit Free Press dining and restaurant critic Lyndsay Green joined The Metro to explain what the Michelin star designation means, why Detroit is being considered, and if a metro Detroit food spot has a real shot at receiving a star rating.
Why almost nobody follows Detroit rental law
Windows nailed shut. No heat on the second floor. Sewage backing up into the basement — in a home the city never cleared to be a rental in the first place.
For 40 years, Detroit has had a law meant to prevent exactly that: landlords must register a rental and prove it's safe before anyone moves in. Almost nobody follows it. Only about 1 in 7 Detroit rentals meets the bar, and rewrites of the law in 2017 and 2024 have barely moved the needle.
Outlier Media senior reporter Aaron Mondry joins host Robyn Vincent to explain why — and who pays for it. Part of the answer is enforcement; part is math: a Center for Community Progress study found that fixing an old house can cost more than the rent will ever bring back, so landlords ignore the law. It's a bind in any city built on old, cheap housing. Mondry lays out what it costs tenants, why a landlord without a certificate of compliance isn't even allowed to collect rent, and what it would take to change.
Iron Chef Detroit fundraiser returns for a third year
Iron Chef Detroit is an annual fundraiser that supports Cass Community Social Services. It returns for a third year at Eastern Market in Shed 5 on June 5.
There will be a contest where two Detroit chefs, Chef John Vermiglio and Chef Andy Hollyday, race against time for their dish to win the favor of the follow judges:
- Mamba Hamissi (Baobab Fare Chef)
- Anthony Lombardo (SheWolf and Medusa Chef)
- Jessica Care Moore (Detroit Poet Laureate, Author, Director, and Activist)
Carlos Parisi is the owner of Aunt Nee’s, an editorial contributor to Hour Detroit, as well as a TV and podcast host. He will be hosting the event beside Jon Kung, a Chinese American chef, podcast host, content creator, and author of "Kung Food: Chinese American Recipes from a Third Culture Kitchen." They joined The Metro to talk about their love of food and the importance of connecting through food with people from all walks of life.
Sounds like Detroit celebrates local artists. You curate the lineup
Over 150 Michigan performers entered NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert this year. Only 10 of them will be eligible to appear in Sounds Like Detroit. It's a local musical showcase that’ll take place at Batch Brewing Company on August 13.
Before the concert starts, Detroiters have the chance to select the top five musicians who go on to headline the show based on their entry videos.
This year's top 10 includes:
- IIAJIDE
- Michelle Held
- Aisha Ellis
- KTCHN
- Jubilee Jackson
- Checker
- Vaughn Black
- Rose St. Germaine
- Mild Pulp
- Laurie Love
Jeff Milo is the host of MI Local on WDET. He also is the coordinator and main host of Sounds Like Detroit. He joined The Metro to talk more about the chosen finalists and how they are shaping the local sound.
For more information, go to WDET.org/TinyDesk and cast a ballot before June 19.
Naomi Oreskes on the coal bailout and the myth of the free market
Coal is dying. Gas, wind, and solar got cheaper, and the market moved on. So why is the federal government spending about $700 million, and reaching for a 1950 wartime law, to keep coal plants open and even build new ones?
Harvard historian Naomi Oreskes — author of "The Big Myth" — joins host Robyn Vincent to unpack the contradiction at the heart of America's coal revival: the same movement that insists government should stay out of the way is now using government power to overrule the market. Then they turn to a very different plan — the World Inequality Lab's new Global Justice Report, which maps how to lift the world's poorest and hold warming under two degrees by taxing the very richest. Why does one get called "pragmatic" and the other "impossible"?
It's a conversation about coal, capitalism, and who gets to decide what's realistic.
Mentioned in this episode
- The Global Justice Report (World Inequality Lab): Global Justice Project - World Inequality Lab
Detroit’s cultural exports go beyond cars and techno; it's the blueprint for free public museums.
Most people don’t realize the first free national public art museum has its roots in Detroit.
During the turn of the 20th century, Detroit experienced a cultural boom. The Detroit Institute of Arts opened in 1885. Pewabic Pottery opened in 1903. The Scarab Club began in 1907. The College for Creative Studies traces its roots to 1906 as the Detroit Society of Arts and Crafts.
All of this was happening as Charles Lang Freer crafted his home to reflect the cultures of the world.
Freer wasn’t born in the city, but moved here for opportunity and economic growth. Following the success of his railroad car business, he retired at the age of 47. He became a student of art, collecting, traveling and amassing an impressive collection. He turned his Ferry street home into a living gallery, collecting thousands of American, Asian and Middle Eastern art works.
The collection went on to form the country’s first national art museum and the first Asian art museum.
So, why isn’t the Freer House and its history more known in Detroit? Why isn’t it considered a major cultural export like cars or Motown?
Dr. Chase F. Robinson is the director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art. He and his team worked closely with the Freer House in Detroit to curate a new exhibition in honor of the nation's 250th anniversary. He tells The Metro more about the history behind the Freer House.
A Museum in the Making will be on display June 27 through August 8 at the National Museum of Asian Art in the Freer Gallery of Art.
Detroit’s 911 dispatchers are calling on Congress for help
Reporter Byard Duncan spent a year finding out how often emergency calls go unanswered. His reporting was the source of recent episode of the investigative podcast Reveal called "911, Please Hold." His search took him from California to Capitol Hill, and one common theme emerged: emergency call centers dispatchers are not classified as first responders.
In the federal government’s eyes, they sit alongside receptionists and bill collectors. There’s a move in Congress to change that, and this past winter, a team from Detroit’s 911 center went to Washington to fight for it.
Why aren't emergency call dispatchers considered first responders? Duncan joined The Metro to share his findings.
"911, Please Hold" was produced by Byard Duncan for Type Investigations in partnership with Reveal.
Lyme disease cases surge as ticks expand into Southeast Michigan
Lyme disease cases have spiked in Michigan during recent years. Dr. Jean Tsao, professor and tick researcher in Fisheries and Wildlife department at Michigan State University and Dr. Peter Gulick, professor of Medicine at Michigan State University join the show to discuss increasing tick populations in Michigan and how to identify and mitigate the risks of Lyme disease.
A children's art museum in Rosedale Park nurtures Detroit's next generation of artists
The Red: Children’s Art Museum and Gallery nurtures and displays the work of kids who want to exercise their creative skills. Yvette Rock is the founder and executive director of the gallery. She has been working with young artists for decades, encouraging them to develop their skills and exposing them to career artists right here in Detroit.
The museum re-opened in March in time for the summer season, so Rock joined the show to talk about the museum’s work and how she develops young artists.
Local stage play highlights the legacy of baseball icon Roberto Clemente
Roberto Clemente is a baseball icon. Over his 18-year career he won two world series, acquired 12 golden gloves, four batting titles, and is one of only 33 players in baseball history to collect three thousand hits in his career. Clemente’s resume jumps off the page.
But what Clemente was able to accomplish on the field may not even be his greatest contribution. Clemente’s record as an advocate for civil rights and helping others in communities is as synonymous with his reputation as his athletic achievements.
"Roberto Clemente: A Diamond Within" is an original play written by Candido Tirado. The play is being produced by Plowshares Theatre Company and it runs from June 12 through June 28 in the Marlene Boll Theatre at The Boll Family YMCA.
Gary Anderson, Producing Artistic Director of Plowshares Theatre Company, joined the show to explain why he's bringing this take on Clemente's life to a Detroit stage.
Smartphone ban coming to Michigan K-12 classrooms
Michigan will be enacting a statewide school phone ban for students from kindergarten through 12th grade this fall.
Many schools already have some form of phone restriction in place during the school day. Three researchers from the University of Michigan wanted to know what could be learned from different phone ban policies prior to the statewide mandate going into effect.
Justin Heinze, Brian Jacob and Elyse Thulin compared nearly 800 schools in Michigan with phone use limits in place and shared their findings in an article published by The Conversation Detroit. In their article, they examine what different bans districts use and key points to consider when picking a policy.
Eleanore Catolico, editor of The Conversation - Detroit joined The Metro to discuss what Heinze, Jacob and Thulin found.
Read the full article here.
Saving sacred ground: The Detroit Association of Women's Clubs makes the national endangered list
Women-led organizations marched on Washington during their historic efforts to achieve social, political and economic equality. Yet, not all women were included in the conversation. Many of the early women's suffrage groups excluded Black women and women of color.
Discrimination in the movement led to the formation of Black-led organizations like the Detroit Association of Women's Clubs (DAWC).
Founded in 1921 at Ferry and Brush at the height of the women's suffrage movement, the DAWC made it their mission to fight for their own version of equality—one that centered both gender and racial parity.
So what happened to the DAWC, its founders, and its mission?
Every year, the National Trust for Historic Preservation compiles its list of the 11 Most Endangered Historic Places in America.
This year, in honor of our nation's 250th anniversary, the organization is centering its selections around the theme of equality—protecting and preserving spaces that have advanced the idea that all people are created equal.
The DAWC earned a place on this year's list. Executive Director Candace Calloway joins the show to share what the designation means, and why its essential to preserve this historic space.
Jocelyn Benson on the cost of living, data centers and the race for governor
Michigan picks its next governor in November, and the Democratic frontrunner is Jocelyn Benson.
Benson made her name as Secretary of State when she refused to overturn Michigan’s 2020 election — even when armed protesters showed up at her Detroit home while she decorated a Christmas tree with her four-year-old son. The John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award followed. So did the Presidential Citizens Medal.
Now she wants to replace Gretchen Whitmer in a state that voted for Donald Trump just 18 months ago.
Her path got easier last week when independent Mike Duggan dropped out, citing low poll numbers and fundraising struggles. It got harder when her own Democratic attorney general ruled she’d broken state campaign-finance law launching her bid — and when the Trump Justice Department sued her for Michigan’s voter rolls.
The Metro’s Robyn Vincent had 15 minutes to find out what this all means.
Detroit lands a professional women’s hockey team in the league’s fourth season
A Professional Women's Hockey League team is coming to Detroit – a milestone that was inevitable. The hockey fans here are passionate, the championships are plentiful and the hockey history here is long. Considering the city’s deep connection to hockey, it’s fitting for Detroit to be one of four cities joining the PWHL in its fourth season.
Maya Smith, a journalist with the women's athletics platform The IX sports, joined the program to discuss how it happened.
Senator Elissa Slotkin says ‘economic basket of issues’ unites Democrats against Trump
Democratic Senator Elissa Slotkin is one of the most closely watched politicians in her party right now.
A former CIA analyst, she took three tours in Iraq alongside the military, and spent years in national security under both Republican and Democratic administrations before she ran for office. Then she won a House seat in a Trump-led district, followed by a Senate seat in a state President Trump carried. When her party needed someone to deliver the Democratic response to President Trump’s address to Congress, they picked her.
She’s been called a centrist. A pragmatist. A rising star. She's also been called too cautious — not progressive enough, not tough enough — at a moment when many Democrats argue the party must get louder. The Metro's Robyn Vincent spoke with her at the Mackinac Policy Conference.
Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on-demand.
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New book captures Detroit’s summer spirit and asks who its outdoor spaces were really built for
"Black Summers" - a book about growing up in the urban outdoors - is a compilation of writings from Detroiters. In it they detail what it’s like to experience a summer here. But it’s not just about playing tag at the park or barbeques on Belle Isle. The book balances the joys and freedoms that come with the season while remaining very aware of how our racial history at one point restricted it.
The 33 entries in the book range in their style and depth. Together they paint a picture of what it's like to be outside in Detroit. Desiree Cooper is the editor of the book. She joined the program to explain how she weaved these pieces together.
For the LGBTQ + community, affirming one's identity, Is a source of real psychological strength
"What doesn't kill you makes you stronger."
Why does that framing always skip over what we survived? Or how we're still holding it all together?
New research published in American Psychologist is asking exactly that.
The study out of Michigan State University, Affirming Racial and Gender Identity Supports Mental Health, found that for sexual and gender diverse people of color, affirming your identity, is a source of real psychological strength.
But the research also finds something more complicated. Growing through oppression, developing yourself through the experience of discrimination, builds resilience.
And it also costs something. The researchers named that honestly. And that honesty is part of what makes this work different.
Dr. Aldo Barrita is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Michigan State University.
Dr. Joshua Parmenter is an assistant professor at Arizona State University and licensed psychologist specializing in the mental health of LGBTQ+ and marginalized BIPOC communities.
Both joined The Metro to talk more about the study and its results.
Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming On-demand. Subscribe to The Metro on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or NPR or wherever you get your podcasts