The Metro

In 1973, the Gay Radio Collective began producing Gayly Speaking through WDET. The Lesbian Radio Collective collaborated with them to shape episodes that resonated with the queer Detroit audience for a decade. 

Dr. Tim Retzloff teaches history and queer studies at Michigan State University. He returned to WDET today after celebrating the 40th anniversary of Gayly Speaking on the Craig Fahle Show in 2013. 

Isabel Clare Paul is a freelance illustrator who graduated from the College for Creative Studies. She made a comic book called “Come Out! In Detroit” with Dr. Retloff in 2022 during the 50th anniversary of Michigan Pride. 

Retzloff joins The Metro to discuss the leadership behind Gayly Speaking and what impact that had on the queer population of Detroit. He and Clare Paul also touch upon how they published “Come Out! In Detroit” as a love letter to the first Pride of Michigan. 

Consumer confidence just hit a record low — yet Michiganders filed more than 40,000 new business applications in the first months of 2026.

Small business consultant Mark Lee joins Robyn Vincent to explain the paradox: Are these new owners chasing a dream or getting pushed? How many will survive? And who's really behind the boom?

Have thoughts on this story or something else happening in your neighborhood? Email the show at [email protected]

Michigan is facing a serious housing shortage, with experts estimating the state needs to build nearly 100,000 homes. Outdated zoning laws hinder the creation of diverse, mixed-use neighborhoods, and lengthy permitting processes slow new developments.

Joe Agostinelli, founder of Miller Johnson Growth Advisors, believes better financing and strong partnerships between local leaders and developers are key to expanding Michigan’s housing supply. The Metro’s Sam Corey spoke with Agostinelli at the annual Mackinac Policy Conference to discuss how his group is trying to build homes quickly in an environment that often moves slow. 

 Michigan’s leaders agree that we need to attract more people to our state. Yet one central question remains: how do we make it happen, and who is responsible for leading the way?

Jeff Donofrio is the president and chief executive officer of Business Leaders For Michigan. He’s written about this topic in several reports, and he’s worked for the City of Detroit and the State of Michigan to resolve the problem. He joined host Robyn Vincent on The Metro to explore why government culture needs to change to build more housing, better regional transit, and to attract more people to the state.

The Concert of Colors Neighborhood Series is hosting an event called "All Humans Are Created Equal” at Mercado Plaza in Mexicantown on June 27. It kicks off the Concert of Colors Neighborhood Series “We Tell These Truths," which is also a part of a Smithsonian cultural initiative celebrating 250 years of the U.S.

La Santa Cecilia, a Grammy-winning band, will bring the cosmic barrio to Detroit after releasing their newest album, "Los Años," in May. 

Betto Arcos will serve as a moderator after their performance. Arcos is a radio journalist, writer, curator, and music promoter from Los Angeles. Raymond Lozano is the Executive Director of the Mexicantown Community Development Corporation.

They joined The Metro to preview the event with songs and discuss the tenacity of Latin Americans from Detroit who faced displacements and diasporas in Mexicantown.

Longtime chef Tyrrell Hutchins curates meals with a shared purpose: connect ancestral traditions with contemporary technique. His Happy Sunday pop-up event is an immersive multi-course dining experience that takes place every other month. On June 14, the menu will feature Black American cuisine in anticipation of the Juneteenth holiday. 

Hutchins joined The Metro to explain what inspired this month's menu and the Happy Sunday format. 

For a century, Detroit and Windsor have felt like one community split by a river. Now the Gordie Howe International Bridge — the first publicly owned bridge to connect them — is close to opening, amid a standoff between Washington and Ottawa over who controls it.

Robyn Vincent talks with border-culture scholar Lee Rodney about what a new bridge can and can't reconnect — and who it's really for. 

Thoughts? Email us at [email protected]

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 [email protected]

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. 

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.