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The recent film “Sing Sing” is giving viewers a lot to think about, and not just within the bounds of fiction. Besides its engaging plot, “Sing Sing” marks the first time a film has simultaneously been released in theaters and in prisons. 

It tells the story of Divine G, a man incarcerated for a crime he didn’t commit. Played by Coleman Domingo, Divine G joins a prison acting class where he finds community and purpose.

The film is fictional, but the acting class is based on the actual Rehabilitation Through the Arts program at Sing Sing Prison in New York. The film also features formerly incarcerated graduates of the program who give powerful performances alongside Domingo. He’s nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor and the movie has been nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay.

When “Sing Sing” was released in theaters last summer, it also became available to stream on Edovo, a free online education platform serving over 900,000 incarcerated learners. 

Brian Hill is the CEO of the Edovo Foundation. He joined The Metro to talk about the significance of connecting incarcerated people to information and education.

Use the media player above to hear the conversation.

Hear more stories from The Metro on Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025.

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, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

The public library is more than a place that houses books and other reading materials. It’s a community hub, art gallery, summer barbecue spot and even a place to rent tools. 

Libraries are also helping people access information outside their buildings too, giving access to online services through a library card. 

In addition to hosting MI Local on WDET (on-air Tuesdays at 9 p.m.), Jeff Milo is an avid reader and an employee at the Ferndale Area District Library. He joined The Metro to talk about the many things that libraries offer residents year-round.

Hear more stories from The Metro on Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2025.

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, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

We’re celebrating a belated Valentine’s Day today and bringing you a conversation with some people we love, The Detroit Documenters. They train and pay residents to cover local government meetings in Southeast Michigan, improving our access to public information. 

They’ve been appearing on The Metro every Friday, but you’ll now be able to hear conversations with Producer Jack Filbrandt and the Detroit Documenters every Monday. 

Today on The Metro, we bring you a conversation with Detroit Documenter Madeline Beck and Coordinator Noah Kincade on a potential cigar lounge coming to Detroit Metro Airport. The cigar lounge won’t be hard to miss, located just past security at the McNamara Terminal between gates A43 and A45. To many, this is a drag — so we discuss why.

Hear more stories from The Metro on Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2025.

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, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

Reading is one of the most beneficial life skills one can have. It opens up so much: economic opportunity, quality of life, lifelong learning, personal expression.

But reading abilities for students in America aren’t where they should be. One third of eighth graders nationwide test below the National Assessment of Educational Progress’ basic reading level, often referred to as the nation’s report card. 

But a new pilot study by the Michigan Virtual Learning Research Institute and Shoelace Learning shows promise for “gamified learning” as an effective reading intervention.

Julia Dexter is the Founder of Shoelace Learning, an education platform that developed the games used in the pilot study. She spoke with The Metro‘s Senior Producer David Leins about how gamified learning can improve reading skills in students.

Hear more stories from The Metro on Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2025.

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, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

Now at the Detroit Public Theatre, the new stage play “Confederates” explores how history is in conversation with the present. 

The performance takes audiences back and forth from Sara, an enslaved woman preparing to fight in the Union army during the Civil War, and Sandra, a political science professor at a prestigious university fighting institutional racism. 

“Confederates” was written by DPT’s Executive Artistic Producer Dominique Morisseau, a Detroit-born Tony-nominated playwright. 

Professor of Hip Hop Theatre Goldie E. Patrick and Philadelphia-based theatre artist Will Street joined The Metro to discuss their roles in the production.

Hear more stories from The Metro on Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2025.

Join the conversation by calling 313-577-1019 or leaving us an Open Mic message on the WDET app.

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, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

The Downtown Detroit Partnership is developing a project to cap the I-75 freeway, connecting the downtown and midtown districts. The design would create more public space and it represents a vital shift in the city. Freeways have long divided neighborhoods here. 

The project has been in the planning stages for a while, but it recently received additional federal funding in January. DDP CEO Eric Larson joined The Metro to provide an update on the project.

Hear more stories from The Metro on Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2025.

Join the conversation by calling 313-577-1019 or leaving us an Open Mic message on the WDET app.

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, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

On Tuesday, President Trump’s order to place 10 percent tariffs on Chinese imports went into effect. And China was apparently ready, placing retaliatory tariffs of 15 percent on U.S. goods. 

Meanwhile, the proposed tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico are temporarily paused after both countries agreed to send troops to their respective borders with the U.S. It’s a deal that President Trump says will help stop migrants from entering the U.S. and slow the illegal flow of fentanyl. 

Bharat Ramamurti is the senior advisor for economic strategy at the American Economic Liberties Project and a former economic communications advisor for the Biden-Harris administration. He spoke with senior producer David Leins about Trump’s tariffs, both paused and in effect.

Hear more stories from The Metro on Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2025.

Join the conversation by calling 313-577-1019 or leaving us an Open Mic message on the WDET app.

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, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

President Donald Trump ran on promises to shrink the federal workforce, impose tariffs, harden America’s borders and eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in the federal government. They are promises Trump appears to be making good on now.

While the country is split on Trump’s actions and policies, we’re all taking in a lot of new information. There has been a lot of confusion and fast-changing court decisions on Trump’s executive orders. 

Today on The Metro, we explore how people are navigating the news and seeking valuable information.  

Guests: 

Michael Seltzer: Franklin Village Trustee who voted for Trump. 

Emily Sydnor: Senior researcher at the Institute for Democracy, Journalism, Citizenship and teaches communications at Syracuse University.

Jihii Jolly: Freelance journalist, writer and someone who thinks a lot about media literacy.

We also asked listeners:

“How has your media diet changed over time?”

Use the media player above to listen to the full conversation.

Monday’s question: Do you watch women’s sports? 

Join the conversation by calling 313-577-1019 or leaving us an Open Mic message on the WDET app. 

More headlines from The Metro on Feb. 6, 2025: 

• Now at the Detroit Public Theatre, the stage play “Confederates” explores how history is in conversation with the present. Professor of Hip Hop Theatre Goldie E. Patrick and Philadelphia-based theatre artist Will Street joined the show to discuss. 

• The Downtown Detroit Partnership is developing a project to cap the I-75 freeway, connecting the downtown and midtown districts. The project has been in the planning stages for a while, but it recently received additional federal funding in January. DDP CEO Eric Larson joined the show to provide an update on the project.

• Bharat Ramamurti is the senior advisor for economic strategy at the American Economic Liberties Project and a former economic communications advisor for the Biden-Harris administration. He spoke with senior producer David Leins about Trump’s tariffs, both paused and in effect.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on-demand.

When temperatures dipped dangerously low during the recent polar vortex, the Pope Francis Center opened a 24-hour emergency warming center at its Bridge Housing Campus. 

This is just one of many ways the center works to support people experiencing chronic homelessness in Detroit. 

The Pope Francis Day Center downtown is open daily at Saints Peter and Paul Jesuit Church. People are served two meals a day, have access to showers and laundry, and can find information on housing assistance. 

In September the center’s Bridge Housing Campus welcomed its first group of residents. The campus takes a holistic approach to supporting people in need. It provides folks with up to 120 days of housing and support services to help them carve paths out of homelessness and poverty.

WDET’s Jack Filbrandt spoke with President and CEO of the Pope Francis Center, Fr. Tim McCabe about how they’re working to end chronic homelessness in Detroit.

Hear more stories from The Metro on Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025.

Join the conversation by calling 313-577-1019 or leaving us an Open Mic message on the WDET app. 

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, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

Americans toss out an average of five pounds of trash each day, according the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. 

While some of that gets recycled, most of it ends up in landfills, leading many households to seek out solutions for reducing their waste output and making more eco-conscious choices. But there are several ways to accomplish that — from composting organic waste, to simply consuming less, to opting for a bike or public transportation instead of a car.

Today on The Metro, we discuss what the city of Detroit is doing to reduce waste, what we can do personally, and what it means to center sustainability in our food system.

Guests:

Tepfirah Rushdan: Director of Detroit’s Office of Sustainability.

Amanda Brezzell: Creative director and co-founder of Fennigan’s Farms in Detroit.

Dazmonique Carr: Director of operations for Deeply Rooted Produce and board president for Deeply Rooted Gardens in Detroit.

We also asked listeners:

“What are you doing to be less wasteful?”

Katie in Detroit said she’s “separating out my wants and my needs, you know. Like, I want to buy new clothes all the time. I don’t need to buy new clothes all the time. You don’t need, you know, to always have the trendiest thing or whatever.”

Use the media player above to listen to the full conversation.

Monday’s question: Would you homeschool your kids and why? 

Join the conversation by calling 313-577-1019 or leaving us an Open Mic message on the WDET app. 

More stories from The Metro on Jan. 30, 2024:

• Drew Fralick is the co-lead pastor of the Renaissance Vineyard Church in Ferndale. He joined the show to talk about how the church is helping people through addiction recovery and regular comedy events. 

• WDET’s Ryan Patrick Hooper ordered up a cold glass of history on the latest episode of CuriosiD when he visited the Two Way Inn, Detroit’s oldest bar. Hooper also spoke to bar historian Mickey Lyons on The Old Miami’s 45th anniversary. 
• James Wheeler curated exhibits and traveled around the world showing his rare collection of Black media. The collection features film, visual arts, albums, books, magazines, artifacts and so much more. Wheeler’s daughter and co-founder of The Black Canon and The Black Canon Collection Alima Trapp joined the show to talk about it. Motor City Cinema co-founder John Monaghan also joined the show to discuss an event showing pieces from the collection this weekend.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on-demand.

American politics has long had too many lobbyists and too much money fueling campaigns. But Donald Trump’s administration breaks records. The total net worth of billionaires involved with it amounts to over $382 billion, which is more than the GDP of 172 different countries.

Today on The Metro, we discussed how wealthy individuals are now influencing our politics, and how much of a change that is from past administrations.

Guests:

• Graeme Robertson – Professor of political science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and director of the Center for Slavic, Eurasian and East European Studies. His work focuses on political protest and regime support in authoritarian regimes.
• Bilal Baydoun – Director of Democratic Institutions at Roosevelt Forward, an advocacy affiliate of the Roosevelt Institute, a progressive think tank. 

Subscribe to The Metro on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

We also asked listeners:

“Should the government be run like a business?”

Christian in Grosse Pointe Park said: “I don’t think it’s black and white. I think we need to look at each individual situation and realize if we make it primarily like that we’re going to be opposing each other as opposed to working together to find tenable solutions to issues.”

Use the media player above to hear the full conversation.

Tomorrow’s question: Should the U.S. government get rid of diversity, equity and inclusion? 

Join the conversation by calling 313-577-1019 or leaving us an Open Mic message on the WDET app. 

More stories from The Metro on Jan. 28, 2024:

• Black Bottom Archives is a community archive that’s committed to preserving Black Detroit stories, and the organization is celebrating its 10th year. 

• Being from Detroit has created a strong foundation for Emmy-award winning journalist and Fresh Air co-host Tonya Mosley. She joined the show to talk about her hometown and career.

• Detroit’s Adopt-A-Park program is asking groups like block clubs, churches, and nonprofits to become stewards of a city park. Executive Director of the Detroit Parks Coalition Sigal Hemy joined the show to discuss the magic of Detroit’s parks and what it means to adopt one.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on-demand.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, K-12 students across the nation have been missing more school.

The percentage of chronically absent students — referring to those who miss more than 10% of school days — nearly doubled from 2018 to 2022, according to The Brookings Institution.

Subscribe to The Metro on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

Last school year, Michigan recorded one of the highest rates of chronically absent students compared to other states, according to data from the state Department of Education. The rate among Detroit students was more than double that.  

Now through March, Detroit Public Schools Community District is giving high school students $200 gift cards every time they have perfect attendance for 10 school days in a row. That’s just one approach of many that schools are experimenting with to get kids back into the classroom.

We’ve addressed this topic before on the show. Today on The Metro, we took a deeper dive into the different approaches for combating chronic absenteeism with Nat Malkus, senior fellow and deputy director of education policy at the American Enterprise Institute; and Sarah Lenhoff, associate professor of educational leadership and policy studies at Wayne State University.

Malkus noted how being chronically absent from school can cause a ripple effect in a student’s life that can affect them well into adulthood. 

“We know that kids who are chronically absent are less likely to read at the critical grade three, they’re more likely to struggle in middle school academically, they’re really less likely than their peers who attend regularly to graduate from high school, and the effects go into the future in the labor force as well,” he said.  

Lenhoff,  who also serves as the director of the Detroit Partnership for Education Equity & Research, led a study on chronic absenteeism and says solutions to the issue can’t only come from the schools. She suggested that one way to curb it could be creating a stronger school-to-neighborhood social connection in communities. 

“If a parent, you know, has something come up and they can’t get their child to school then they have people to rely on in their neighborhood, they have a neighbor, they have maybe a senior who lives across the street, maybe a friend who’s going to the same school,” Lenhoff said. 

482 Forward Communications Lead Imani Foster also joined the conversation. She is one of the community members who helped in the research project. Monitoring attendance and school engagement is mainly left up to teachers, but she says this wasn’t always the case.

“I think most of the schools fired their attendance agents because they cut a lot of different positions,” Foster said. “And so the teachers are now asked to be attendance agents. Attendance agents were normally the ones that kept up with families, right, that made the calls home, that maybe even made house visits to check on if everything was OK. Now that’s a gap that teachers are trying to fill.”

We also asked our listeners:

“Should we pay students to go to school?”

Nick in St. Clair Shores said: “Personally, I missed a lot of high school my final year, and I skipped a lot to go work at Red Robin. I would pick up a lunch shift instead of going to math class. And I feel like if I was paid to be in school, I wouldn’t have done that.”

Use the media player above to hear the full conversation, and other stories from “The Metro.”

More headlines from The Metro on Jan. 27, 2024: 

• Since 1958, the Jim Dandy Ski Club has been working to lower barriers for Black kids and adults to get involved in skiing, and to bring them deeper into connection with a broader community. This Friday, the club is hosting its annual “Black Out” ski event, which is open to anyone, not just members. Miles Maxey, former president, vice president, and board member of the Jim Dandy Ski Club, joined the show to discuss the event and how the club has made snow sports more accessible.
• “Techno: The Rise of Detroit’s Machine Music” is a new exhibit set to open at the MSU Museum on Feb. 4, that aims to explore Detroit’s role as the birthplace of Techno music and its connection to Afrofuturism.  The exhibition’s curator. Julian Chambliss, joined the show to discuss the project. We also spoke with John Collins, an important figure in Detroit’s techno culture, member of Underground Resistance and exhibition community curator.
• In President Donald Trump’s first term in office he made good on a campaign promise to cut taxes. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was passed by Congress and signed into law in 2017. The Biden administration did not roll back the tax cuts, so they are still intact. But a significant part of those tax cuts are set to expire at the end of this year unless Trump and Congress act to extend them. The Metro producer David Leins spoke with Bharat Ramamurti, senior advisor for economic strategy at the American Economic Liberties Project and former economic communications advisor for the Biden-Harris administration.

Do you have a community story we should tell? Let us know in an email at detroiteveningreport@wdet.org.

Money in politics has always been a crack in the foundation of our democracy. Citizens United, a Supreme Court ruling that overturned campaign finance laws by granting free speech rights to corporations, deepened that crack. 

But where does all that money come from? Good luck finding out. The campaign finance system we have in the U.S. is high on donations and low on accountability. In the most recent election, donations to presidential Super PAC’s surpassed $1 billion. 

Subscribe to The Metro on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

Fifteen years after the landmark Supreme Court decision, we’re taking a close look at how Citizens United has changed American politics and asking where do we go from here? Is campaign finance reform on the horizon, or is it just a pipe dream? 

Daniel Weiner, director of elections and government programs at the Brennan Center for Justice, joined The Metro on Wednesday to help explain how dark money came to be so ingrained in our politics. 

“Dark money actually comes because the Supreme Court and the lower courts seem to have sort of assumed that all this money that they were allowing to be spent would be transparent, that the sources would be disclosed,” Weiner said. “But it turns out that at the federal level and in many states — including Michigan — the laws and rules that require disclosure really just didn’t contemplate this. They didn’t expect to have corporations spending unlimited amounts of money on politics, and they didn’t apply disclosure rules to those sorts of entities.”

The Citizen United ruling opened the door for dark money and mega donor influence in Washington. But its impact hits much closer to home, said Bridge Michigan reporter Simon Schuster, who also joined the conversation.

Schuster says the Michigan Supreme Court race saw millions of dollars in dark money donations.  

“In the Supreme Court races, the candidates generally receive substantially less funding than we see in the house,” Schuster said. “And as a result, the outside funding that we see for these campaigns becomes that much more potent, especially in the Supreme Court race this year.”

We also asked our listeners:

“Is there too much money in politics?”

Elisa in Grosse Pointe Park said: “The one thing that just really struck me this morning was the idea of campaign donations, political donations, and how a donation is usually seen as like a gift, like freely given, and how it’s such a different, a different case in politics. And you know, it’s really more like payment for services expected or services rendered.”

Use the media player above to listen to the full conversation, plus other stories from “The Metro.”

More headlines from The Metro on Jan. 22, 2024: 

• On Sunday, a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel began, leading to Israel’s release of around 90 Palestinian prisoners and detainees and Hamas’ freeing of three Israeli hostages. Metro producer Sam Corey sat down with Senior Director for the Jewish Federation of Detroit David Kurzmann to discuss how Jews in metro Detroit are reacting to the news. 
• Community Behavioral Health Administrator for Wayne County Tara King and Research Assistant and Project Coordinator at Wayne State University’s Center for Behavioral Health and Justice Alexandria Hughes joined the show to talk more about their collaborative project to place vending machines containing life-saving naloxone across Wayne County.
• If you’re looking to find some interesting reads, Wayne State University Press might be a place to start. Since 1941 the University Press has published over 2,000 titles that explore a number of topics. Senior Director of the Wayne State University Press Stephanie Williams joined The Metro to give us a sample of its offerings.

You can join the conversation on “The Metro” by calling 313-577-1019 or leaving us an Open Mic message on the WDET app.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on-demand.

Since the 1970s, our energy bills have been going up. Year after year, utility companies like DTE have been asking for rate hikes. But it’s not just them — utilities nationwide have been raising rates. 

Subscribe to The Metro on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

The increasing energy cost comes at an interesting time in our country’s history. Many companies, states and organizations are trying to switch to clean energy sources. The state of Michigan is tasked with operating only on clean energy sources by 2040. That matters because utility companies supply most of the energy we use from natural gas. 

Today on The Metro, we discussed what it would look like for our utilities to run entirely on renewable energy and how to bring the cost down for consumers. 

Richard Hirsh, a history professor at Virginia Tech who’s written multiple books on American utilities, joined the discussion. He says the cost of electricity wasn’t always so high, and technological advances between the late 1800s and 1970 even decreased the cost. 

“As these generators and turbines got bigger, the unit cost, the cost per kilowatt hour of electricity, declined,” Hirsh said.“And regulatory commissions allowed utility companies to charge less or lower and lower rates for electricity.”

Solar projects are currently underway in several Detroit neighborhoods. The arrays owned by DTE will be used to power city buildings. Legislative and Political Director of the Michigan Sierra Club Christy McGillivray said one of the things we’re missing is community-owned solar. Attempts at making legislative changes were made, but it faced pushback from energy companies. 

“Utilities, specifically DTE and Consumers because they’re the biggest investor owned utilities, they roadblocked it the entire way,” McGillivray said. “And we were told multiple times that we were not going to see an expansion of distributed generation and community solar because of the amount of power and money that DTE has in Lansing.”

Managing Director of the Rocky Mountain Institute Mark Dyson added that public utility commissions play a crucial role in the transition to renewable energy and keeping costs low. 

“I think a lot of important action can take place at public utility commissions or public service commissions across the country to both empower consumers, like I was just saying, help let consumers save money by using their home energy devices and also protect consumers and shield them from volatile fossil fuel prices that — especially on cold days like today — can soar,” Dyson said. 

DTE did not respond to requests from The Metro’s producers to join the conversation. 

Use the media player above to hear the full conversation, plus other stories from “The Metro.”

More headlines from The Metro on Jan. 21, 2024:                   

• The city of Detroit has been working to build a friendly landscape for electric vehicles. This month, the city and the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments received $15 million in federal funding to build a network of EV charging stations. Deputy Chief of the Office of Mobility and Innovation Tony Geara joined the show to explain Detroit’s efforts.
• “One of Them Days” is currently one of the highest rated movies on Rotten Tomatoes and a top selling movie at the box office. It’s also directed by Detroiter Lawrence Lamont. He sat down with Host Tia Graham to discuss Michigan’s film incentives, being prepared for the moment and how Detroit influenced his love for writing.
• The Lions were dominant this year. Their offense was nearly unstoppable and their defense battled through broken bones and season ending injuries to do just enough. On Saturday, their dominant season came to a sad grinding halt. The Lions lost to the Washington commanders 45-31 at Ford Field. Detroit Free Press Sports Columnist Shawn Windsor returns to walk us through the final chapter of the Lions’ season and to look ahead to next year.

You can join the conversation on The Metro by calling 313-577-1019 or leaving us an Open Mic message on the WDET app.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on-demand.

The project “Unequal Scenes” is using drones to capture aerial shots of cities worldwide.

The images offer bird’s eye views of urban areas — a vantage point that makes the unequal distribution of wealth in some communities painfully clear.  

In Manila, the capital of the Philippines, shiny gleaming buildings soar over crumbling shacks and huts. In the capital city of Nairobi in Kenya, pristine gated communities flank struggling slums. And here in Detroit, a brick barrier delineates the city limits from Grosse Pointe Park.

The Grosse Pointe side is lush and well-manicured, marked by stately homes. On the Detroit side, grass is overgrown, debris lines the street, and the buildings are dilapidated.

So what lessons can we learn by viewing these images? Photographer Johnny Miller joined The Metro to discuss his inspiration behind the project and why the images are so effective at visualizing inequality. 

Use the player below to listen to the full conversation, beginning at the 0:58 mark.

The North American International Auto Show — rebranded last summer as the Detroit Auto Show — has long been a harbinger of innovation within the auto industry, drawing as many as 800,000 visitors to the city in the past.

Subscribe to The Metro on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

But attendance at the Detroit show — as well as other large-scale auto shows around the world — have been in decline in recent years, highlighting the changing dynamics automakers are facing in a post-COVID, largely digital-centric world.

WDET reporter Alex McLenon and Automotive News Executive Editor Jamie Butters joined The Metro on Tuesday to discuss some of the reasons behind this decline in attendance and the changes they have seen over the years.

“I think when you think of the auto show, you think of the big different setups, the different flooring, different levels of cars, the turntables, the lights and stuff,” McLenon said. “That is noticeably less than it was like 15 years ago. But that shouldn’t really be news to anybody at this point. It’s kind of been like that for a while.”

Butters said a big part of the auto show has always been selling cars.

Related: Detroit Auto Show taking ‘hands-on’ approach to lure consumers in 2025

“At the auto show, they’re trying to give people experiences, right? If it’s not about the news, it’s about the consumers,” he said.

Use the media player above to hear the full conversation, and other stories from “The Metro.”

More stories from The Metro on Jan. 14, 2024: 

• At one point, there were outdoor hockey rinks all over Detroit. But eventually, budgetary constraints came knocking and the city’s outdoor rinks were closed down. By 1992, there was only one outdoor rink left in the city  — at Clark Park in Southwest Detroit. Director of Clark Park Coalition Anthony Benavides was integral to saving the rink. He joined the show to talk about how they’re supporting young hockey players in the city. 
• Michigan students with the greatest needs are more likely to be taught by inexperienced teachers or educators who aren’t certified to teach particular subjects, according to a new report from The Education Trust-Midwest. To discuss the organization’s findings and Michigan’s teacher shortage, Director of Policy and Research Jen DeNeal joined the show.
• Every two seconds, someone in the U.S. needs blood or platelets. And one blood donation can help save more than one life. But medical experts say the blood supply is not diverse enough, lacking donations from underrepresented groups. Dr. Arun Shet, acting branch chief of blood epidemiology and clinical therapeutics at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, joined The Metro to explain the barriers that exist for people of different racial and ethnic backgrounds to donate blood.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on-demand.

Owning a home has been a symbol of achievement in this country for generations. It’s the most common way to accumulate wealth, but home prices surged during the pandemic and haven’t come down.

The cost of buying a home has made younger generations look at homeownership differently. Sixty percent of Americans don’t believe homeownership is worth the return on investment it once was, according to a Harris Poll. 

Subscribe to The Metro on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

Today on The Metro, Thomas Sugrue, professor of social and cultural analysis and history at New York University, joined the show to discuss this trend and why the demand for homes is outpacing the supply.

“A lot of folks who have the good fortune of buying houses and getting mortgages on them when interest rates were low are hanging on,” Sugrue said. “They’re not letting go of their houses, because ultimately it would cost them to get new higher interest rates and move elsewhere.”

With all the additional costs that come with homeownership, there are a lot of homeowners in the city that may be better off renting, says Anika Goss, CEO of Detroit Future City — an organization working to create more opportunities for residents to become homeowners.

“There are a lot more costs than just the cost of the home itself that goes into ownership — the maintenance costs, taxes, all of that,” Goss said. “But at the same time trying to find and trying to create pathways for long-term renters — so that people who are renting, you know, for five years, 10 years, or a lot of people who rent like that, they should probably be owners at this point.”

Use the media player above to hear to hear the full conversation, and other stories from “The Metro.’

More stories from The Metro on Jan. 13, 2024: 

• The Detroit to Traverse City passenger rail study has entered its second phase. Transportation Specialist with Groundwork Center Michael Goldman Brown joined the show to discuss the project and what’s been done so far.
• This March marks five years since the COVID-19 pandemic caused officials to shut the country down. While COVID-19 is still here, there are other viruses getting the attention of physicians this season as well, including Norovirus and the H5N1 Bird Flu. To discuss this, Wayne State University infectious diseases professor Dr. Teena Chopra joined the show.
• The Department of Housing and Urban Development has awarded the city of Detroit $346 million to prevent basement flooding. Mayor Mike Duggan says some of the grant money will be used to repair outdated sewer infrastructure that led to severe flooding for many residents. Professor of Environmental Law and Interim Dean of the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law Nick Schroeck joined the show to discuss.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on-demand.

There are challenges young people and their families are facing daily — often invisible ones. And no matter how you look at it, the same conditions don’t apply across the board. 

L.I.V.E. Outreach is a community organization working to empower Detroit youth to be the best versions of themselves. Right now, the group is on the hunt for funding to support its efforts to launch a mobile unit that will bring much needed support to young people and their families in the city. 

The organization’s founder, Malika Williams, joined The Metro last week to discuss the project.

She says they have already begun the process of retrofitting a 14-person bus into a mobile unit with the help of University of Detroit Mercy, which will provide everything from fresh fruit and toiletries to books, clothing and other household items residents may need.

“The transportation barrier has been another [problem] for our kids and our families,” she said. “So we want to kind of be able to pull up, you know, even if it’s at the park or, you know, at a school, at a library, where we know the families are. That way it wouldn’t limit us and also that will put us where our overhead is low.”

For more information about L.I.V.E Outreach, visit theliveoutreach.org.

Click here to listen to the full conversation from “The Metro” on Jan. 6, 2024, beginning at the 39:10 mark.

We’re a little over a week into the new year and there’s at least one thing that’s notable about it so far: It is COLD. 

The freezing weather we’re experiencing now is part of a broader cold front hitting the midwest and east coast. Winters have been getting warmer on average, due to climate change, but the nature of our changing climate means the weather shifts to the extremes. 

Today on The Metro, we heard from experts and listeners on how to best navigate the coldest months. 

Holli-Anne Passmore, an associate professor and department chair of psychology at Concordia University of Edmonton, joined the show to talk about the psychological benefits of connecting with the natural world, even in the winter.

“There’s also something called nature connectedness, and that’s about the quality of your relationship with the natural world,” Passmore said. 

Ian Solomon, founder of Amplify Outside and communications and engagement manager for the Detroit Parks Coalition, also joined the discussion. Amplify Outside works to remove barriers that prevent people from enjoying the outdoors. 

“The land moves with the seasons, the city does not. So you really have to give first, give yourself grace that you are expected to move at a pace that is unnatural,” Solomon said. “All of us are moving in an unnatural way right now, and we do it every year for four months straight. And so we have to first accept and say, I’m not the problem.”

We also asked our listeners:

“What do you enjoy doing in the winter months?”

George from Southgate said: “I am a winter person to begin with, I love the winter time. But I’m a retired soldier, and when I was in the army our uniforms improved tremendously because of the new technology out there that keeps you warm. Gore-Tex shoes for example, they’re waterproof, but they’re breathable so your feet don’t sweat.”

Use the media player above to hear the full conversation and other stories from “The Metro.”

More stories from The Metro on Jan. 10, 2024: 

• Beginning this week, Detroit high school students can earn $200 gift cards every time they have perfect attendance for 10 consecutive school days. The program runs through March and students can earn up to $1,000. Jeremy Singer, a professor of teaching at Wayne State University and associate director of the Detroit Partnership for Education Equity and Research, joins the show to talk about DPSCD’s new approach to combat chronic absenteeism.
• The Detroit Film Theatre is launching its winter season this week. Elliot Wilhelm has been the director of the DFT since 1974. He spoke with WDET’s Ryan Patrick Hooper about films to see at the theater this month.
• Last summer, the Michigan State Supreme Court ruled that former property owners are retroactively entitled to profits from tax foreclosure sales. This means if your home was foreclosed on from 2015 to 2020, you could be owed some cash. Detroit Documenters, Outlier Media and five community organizations are working to get this money back in Detroiters hands. Senior reporter Koby Levin and Detroit Documenters Coordinator Noah Kincade joined The Metro to talk about the new project.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on-demand.