“I really love black people.” That simple declaration tells you plenty about Teron Haynes., but his journey to advocating for Detroiters is anything but simple. Raised in the St. Louis Metro East area, Teron enlisted in the Army at 17, earned his degree from Methodist University, and eventually made Detroit home. His father instilled a love for Black people, while his mother’s advocacy for his two younger brothers with autism demonstrated what lifelong commitment looks like. Now serving on the Renaissance Center and East Riverfront Projects Neighborhood Advisory Council, Teron is questioning who benefits when billions in development reshape Detroit’s riverfront. “Oh, I got elected,” he explains about entering a process where community voices too often struggle to influence decisions. From Southern Baptist family roots to organizing for economic fairness, Teron connects generations of Black advocacy to Detroit’s future. His conviction is clear: “Detroiters don't deserve it,” when development creates harm instead of opportunity. Hear why representation means more than having a seat at the table.

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

“Voting in your local elections actually matters the most." Sheila Cockrel has spent a lifetime understanding how power works in Detroit and why everyday people must have a voice in shaping it. From growing up in Detroit’s Catholic Worker movement to organizing against the notorious STRESS police unit, her story connects the city’s radical organizing traditions to the responsibilities of citizenship today. After 16 years on Detroit City Council, Cockrel joined Dr. Irvin Reed to establish Citizen Detroit, bringing neighbors together through dinner, dialogue, and civic education. Her belief is simple: “Detroiters want reliable, trustworthy, factual information to make informed decisions.” The conversation explores the organizing legacy of her late husband Ken Cockrel Sr, the influence of Coleman Young, neighborhood inequality, public education, and the political choices facing future generations. When democracy feels distant, Cockrel reminds us that “people are going to make the right choice” when trusted with facts. This is Detroit political history with lessons for the next generation.

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

“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 info@detroitisdifferent.com

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 info@detroitisdifferent.com

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 info@detroitisdifferent.com

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 info@detroitisdifferent.com

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 info@detroitisdifferent.com

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 info@detroitisdifferent.com

Find out more at https://detroit-is-different.pinecast.co