The Metro

On April 8, hundreds of people showed up to protest surveillance technology at an Oakland County meeting. Because of the way that meeting was conducted, a number of people decided to organize to recall Oakland County Chair Dave Woodward. 

What would it mean to recall the legislative leader of Oakland County? What might come of all this local political organizing? Justine Galbraith is a leader of the I Am Oakland County campaign. Justine joined Robyn Vincent to discuss her attempt to recall Chair Woodward. 

The Metro called and emailed Oakland County Commissioner Dave Woodward. He never responded to our requests to have him on the show.

Gas in Michigan is approaching $5 a gallon. Restaurants are closing. Delivery surcharges are climbing into the thousands. Mark Lee, who consults with small businesses across Southeast Michigan, joins Robyn Vincent to talk about what's happening behind the counter — and what business owners want from Lansing.

Progressives won big at the recent Democratic nominating convention. Eli Savit for attorney general, and Amir Mackled for University of Michigan Board of Regents. 

There were cheers for progressive Senate candidate Abdul El Sayed, and there were boos for more moderate speakers like Congresswoman Haley Stevens, who is also running for Senate.

Progressives organized well, and now there’s a lot of energy at their backs. But some are concerned that they will struggle to win general elections. 

Adrian J. Hemond is one of those people. He’s a longtime Democrat and the CEO of Grassroots Midwest, a bipartisan grassroots advocacy firm. 

Producer Sam Corey spoke with him about the promises of progressive organizing, and the challenges that could await them come November

Michigan Stage is reimagining what access to the arts can look like across a spectrum of age. 

They're bringing theater directly into classrooms helping students strengthen literacy skills and build confidence. Currently, more than 150 students are on a waiting list for their Michigan Stage programs across Oakland County schools. 

Through the Senior Playlab Program at All Seasons, participants are writing and performing an original play set in 1956, but told through their lived experiences today, blending memory, humor, and reflection in a way that proves storytelling doesn’t have an age limit.

Tim Paré is the Founding Artistic Director of Michigan Stage. He spoke with The Metro’s Tia Graham about expanding who has access to theater, no matter age or experience level.

There has been a lot of discussion in the recent years about the direction romance is heading. The marriage rate is lower than it was at the turn of the century, technology has shaped the way dating is measured, and people are embracing new forms of the practice.

Jessica Moorman, an associate professor of communication at Wayne State University, joined the show to discuss the state of today’s dating scene, how complicated it can be, and whether coupling should even be the goal.

In November, voters will choose a new governor. On the Republican side, the race is shaping up around Congressman John James and businessman Perry Johnson, who’s spending heavily out of his own pocket.

Last week, one of their competitors became the first to drop out: former House Speaker Tom Leonard. He was running what most observers considered the most substantive policy campaign in the field. As Speaker of the House, he ended Michigan’s driver responsibility fees, he worked with former Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan on auto insurance reform, and he pushed to expand Michigan’s open records law to the governor’s office.

He says he left the governor’s race because it had gotten too negative — that he wasn’t willing to compromise who he was to win. It’s a striking claim. It’s also one worth examining. Leonard spoke about all that and more with The Metro's Robyn Vincent.

BasBlue is a community driven nonprofit rooted in Detroit. Its goal is to reimagine what opportunity can look like for women and nonbinary individuals.  

It brings together mentorship, professional development and community in one space, designed to spark growth and connection. In 2026, BasBlue celebrated five years in Detroit with more than 600 active members and counting.

Chief Operating Officer for BasBlue Ellen Gilchrist stopped by The Metro to explain how spaces like BasBlue are helping close long-standing gaps in opportunity.

Detroit pays three private ambulance companies up to $600,000 a year each to keep rigs on standby — and they can still bill patients for the ride. A council member calls it double-dipping. Detroit Documenters — the civic journalism corps that attends and documents public meetings across the region — pulled the contract and found it allows exactly that. The next deal goes to a council vote today.

Noah Kincade, coordinator for the Detroit Documenters, joins host Robyn Vincent to break it all down.

When political tensions are high, artists and creatives use their work to weigh in. In 1960’s Detroit, a poet and a painter built a place for that work to live and be shared across the country and the world. In 1969, Ann and Ken Mikolowski launched The Alternative Press in the Cass Corridor. For 30 years, the periodical published writings and poetry from their contemporaries that spoke to the political and cultural moment.  

Rebecca Kosick, an associate professor of comparative poetry and poetics at the University of Bristol, is recognizing those efforts in her new book "Dispatches from the Avant-Garage.” In it she details the Mikolowski's story and their efforts launching "The Alternate Press." Kosick joined the show to discuss the publication's lasting impact.

A few years ago, Hamas attacked Israeli civilians, and Israel responded against Palestinians with what many experts call genocide. Although the violence — which is still going on — occurred in the Middle East, the actions have had reverberations for Americans. Anti-semitism and Islamophobia have grown worse. After October of 2023, the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations and CAIR national recorded some of the highest levels of Islamophobic activity seen since September 11, 2001.

The Metro’s Sam Corey spoke to people practicing Islam in the area and scholars of Islamophobia to better understand why this particular form of hatred is rising.