The Metro

Women have been playing baseball for over a century. Some of the earliest teams can be traced back to the 1890s. Those teams expanded and created their own league called the All American Girls Professional Baseball League during World War II. It lasted eleven years, and since then, all other attempts to start one have fallen short.

Will the new women's league expected to start this summer change that?

Leslie Heaphy, president of the International Women’s Baseball Center and associate professor of history at Kent State University, joined the show to discuss the past, present, and future of women's baseball.  

One of the most popular programs in the City of Detroit is community violence intervention. It’s a policy that tasks neighborhood residents with intervening in disputes to reduce gun violence and mitigate harm.  It’s attributed with helping to significantly reduce homicides — which continue to fall in Detroit.

Now, the city is trying to institutionalize community violence intervention work and programs like it with the creation of the Office of Neighborhood and Community Safety. What is the scope of the office’s responsibilities? And, how does it believe it can target and alleviate the roots of violence?

Teferi Brent is the office’s first director. He spoke with The Metro's Robyn Vincent.

In recent weeks, the cities of Dearborn, MI and Warren, MI have launched Drone-as-First-Responder programs. In Dearborn, a drone can now reach a 911 call in under 3 minutes. In Warren, the police and fire departments are using drones to scout house fires, crime scenes, and in missing-person searches.

Police chiefs call it a game-changer. But more surveillance and more data come with increased risks and erode privacy and anonymity in public spaces. Are the tradeoffs worth it?

 Drone researcher and author Arthur Holland Michel joined The Metro to discuss. He founded the Center for the Study of the Drone at Bard College and wrote the book "Eyes In the Sky: The Secret Rise of Gorgon Stare and How it Will Watch Us All."

Outdoor exhibitions have long had the power to democratize art, bringing it out of galleries and into public space, inviting everyone to engage in shared cultural experiences and meaningful community connection.

A new installation called "ICEBREAKER" hopes to do exactly that. 

The outdoor exhibit honors the lives lost to ICE and in detention centers. It opens Thursday, March 19, at the corner of Harbrooke Avenue and Arbana Drive in Ann Arbor and will remain on view through April 19.

Rogerio Pinto, a professor in the School of Social Work and a professor of Theatre and Drama at the University of Michigan joins the show to talk more about the exhibit.

These days, when it rains, it much more often pours. That’s due in large part to climate change. In 2021, the Jefferson Chalmers neighborhood on Detroit's east side was declared a “high-risk flood zone” by FEMA after heavy rains flooded many basements and roads. The City of Detroit recently announced a $1 million pilot program to repair or replace sea walls for low-income residents to protect them from flooding. What do people in the neighborhood make of this plan? What do they need to protect their neighborhood? Blake Grannum is a longtime Jefferson Chalmers resident. She spoke with The Metro's Robyn Vincent about that and more. The Metro reached out to Detroit Council member Latisha Johnson, who oversees Jefferson Chalmers. Her office did not respond to our request for comment.

What happens when a $242 million rate hike meets a 70-mile-per-hour wind gust? For nearly 95,000 Metro Detroiters, the answer was a weekend of darkness and rising water. As Governor Whitmer kicks off Severe Weather Awareness Week, we’re asking if a personal "plan" is enough to combat a failing regional grid. Nicholas Schroeck, Dean of University of Detroit Mercy School of Law, joins host Robyn Vincent to dissect the collision between volatile climate shifts and the fragile systems we pay for but can't always rely on.

Detroit’s musical contributions can not be denied. Musicians from across the globe have planted roots here in Detroit that have influenced the sound of Detroit for generations. 

Now, another genre of Detroit’s musical legacy is ready to take center stage nationally and internationally at South By Southwest (SXSW), a yearly film and music festival that acts as a talent pipeline.

Adrian Tonon is a former night mayor of the city of Detroit and co-producer of Detroit 313 Selects—a local organization that puts Detroit's artists in front of global audiences while growing the city's creative economy. Neisha Nashae is a recording artist and a featured artist in this year’s SXSW showcase. 

Both Adrian and Neisha stopped by the studio to talk more about Detroit’s hip hop community, being an independent artist and the excitement surrounding this year’s SXSW showcase. 

The federal government is producing viral content out of immigration raids while subpoenaing ordinary people who criticize ICE online. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa — host of Latino USA and founder of Futuro Media — joins Robyn Vincent to break down the information war, what it took to get inside an ICE detention facility to interview activist Jeanette Vizguerra, and what it means when silence becomes the rational choice. 

They called her the girl behind the camera, but make no mistake, Leni Sinclair wasn’t standing in anyone’s shadow—she was shaping history from the other side of the lens.

After emigrating to the United States in 1959 and studying at Wayne State University, Sinclair immersed herself in the cultural pulse of Detroit.  In the 1960s, she documented revolution, both musical and political, capturing icons like Aretha Franklin and the raw passion of the MC-5.

And Leni wasn’t only observing movements, she was leading them. A political activist, cultural catalyst, and champion for generations of artists, she transformed Detroit’s creative landscape while chronicling it.

The Detroit Historical Society is honoring Sinclair’s extraordinary legacy with a year-long exhibition, “Leni: Looking Through the Lens”.

The celebration kicks off March 12 at the Detroit Historical Museum. The evening will be moderated by WDET’s Ann Delisi with an ensemble performance led by Kasan Belgrave, son of legendary trumpeter Marcus Belgrave.

Leni Sinclair joined The Metro’s Tia Graham to chat briefly about her career and upcoming event.

The war in Iran — and the regional fallout — is continuing. Without Congressional authorization, President Donald Trump and Israel launched strikes that killed Iran's supreme leader and other military leaders of the current regime. And now over a thousand people have died in this war. 

There is no clear path to peace. Neither Israel nor America have signaled that either have much interest in creating stability or democracy in Iran.

Yesterday, we spoke with a Middle East scholar about what’s happening in Iran, and some of the different perspectives of the 92 million people living there. But there are a lot more voices to consider. What do folks from the diaspora who live in our region make of the situation?

Layla Saatchi is an assistant Professor of Teaching at Wayne State University. She spoke with The Metro's Robyn Vincent.