“You don’t know that you live in a Black city until you leave.” Aaron Foley pulls up to Detroit Is Different with that truth and four generations of Detroit in his pocket—from Conant Gardens to the North End—unpacking how Legacy Black culture was built through homes, institutions, and the Black press. He paints his great-aunt Joyce's house as “JoAnn Fabrics full of patterns and clothes,” a creative HQ where couture fashion shows happened in the living room, and laughs at family lore: “I kicked that man out of my dressing room,” his grandmother’s story after mistaking Lou Rawls for an intruder. From Pershing to Northern, Four Tops doo-wop to Smokey “out in these streets,” Foley shows how Detroit genius was neighborhood-deep. Then he brings it to the Michigan Chronicle, where he grew up watching the paper “come to life,” learning why “papers like The Chronicle…were very important in documenting our stories.” Now back at the Chronicle himself, he’s focused on “what kind of stories…you can only read this in The Chronicle,” writing pieces meant to “stand the test of time” and seed the next wave of Black journalists. This episode is a love letter to our past—and a blueprint 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.

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“It’s for the community. It’s about the community. It is community centered”—and Bryce Huffman brings that energy from the first minute, taking us from deep family roots (“Granddad… from Alabama by way of The Bahamas”) to the neighborhoods that raised him—Conant Gardens, Anderson Memorial, Bagley/University District—where “thank God because this is my city” isn’t just a line, it’s a life stance. In a conversation packed with Detroit geography, humor, and hard truth, Bryce breaks down how growing up across the city (and seeing the suburbs up close) shaped his lens on journalism, power, and Legacy Black culture—our churches, our hustles, our street-corner wisdom, and the stories outsiders miss. He opens up about the moment Ferguson flipped his purpose—“I can use these skills… to force people to talk about things that matter”—and how that throughline led him home to Bridge Detroit. Looking ahead, Bryce lays out a 2026 vision rooted in “civic accountability,” including Bridge’s Porchside series in District 5, where residents invite journalists into the neighborhood to talk solutions—because the future of Detroit depends on people knowing “what can you do about 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

"We really have exactly 100 years in Detroit,” Arthur Chapman says, and that one line sets the whole episode on fire—because this isn’t just jewelry, it’s Legacy Black Detroit economics. Arthur walks us from Yazoo City, Mississippi to Black Bottom, where family relationships became the real infrastructure, and where his grandfather “Daddy E” (Eli Chapman) stayed in motion as a serial entrepreneur—record store, bowling alley, whatever it took—before a bus driver’s tool of the trade opened the door: pocket watches. When the DSR/DDOT watch vendor retired, Eli didn’t hesitate: “I’ll give you X amount of dollars for your inventory and for your contract with DDoT,” and a work relationship turned into a supply chain, then into rings, diamonds, and Detroit success. Arthur also names the barriers—“There were no jewelers willing to sell to him”—and the breakthrough moment when a supplier finally said, “As long as your money is green, I’ll do business with you.” We hear how safety, community, and partnership mattered—“you are your security”—and why returning home for Arthur was the future: Detroit is the culture that raises the next generation, because the goal isn’t just survival, it’s to “go a thousand years.

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