The Metro

Chef Greg is the founder and owner of Smokey G’s Smokehouse, located at Valade Park on Detroit’s Riverfront.

He was a featured vendor during the 2024 NFL Draft in Detroit, and Smokey G’s became the first smoker ever to appear at the Rocket Mortgage Classic Golf Tournament.

For the last 11 years, Greg has taken pride in welcoming people into his family through food, smoke, and plenty of laughs.

A pivotal election is on the horizon. In November, Detroit residents will vote for the next mayor and fill seats on the city council. It will be the first change in the city’s mayoral leadership since 2013, when Mike Duggan was elected as a write-in candidate. 

There has been positive momentum in Detroit since that time. City services have improved, new development continues to pop up in the downtown and midtown areas, homicides are down and the city's population is increasing. But despite that, a key issue in our politics lingers.

Only a fraction of Detroit residents show up to vote. 

According an analysis by the Detroit Free Press, voting in municipal elections has dropped over the last 20 years while turnout in presidential and gubernatorial elections remains steady.

Free Press editorial page editor, Nancy Kaffer, joined the show to discuss their findings and share why residents in low turnout areas aren't voting. 

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

Affordable housing seems like an impossibility to many people these days, but state organizations are pursuing solutions in Michigan.

Just two days ago, Governor Gretchen Whitmer applauded the state's housing agency for helping to build 75,000 new housing units over the last four years. And two weeks ago, a different organization proposed a plan to speed up home building and home repairs in the state. 

The Michigan Municipal League wants the state to spend $800 million over five years on affordable housing projects. 

Dan Gilmartin of the Michigan Municipal League spoke with Robyn Vincent about how the state should be expanding its investment in housing construction and rehabilitation.

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

Michigan doesn’t have enough teachers. Prep hours are disappearing. Class sizes are growing. Burnout is rising. And more teachers are walking away, some to retire, others to leave the profession altogether.

Teachers in Michigan make less on average than in many other states with an average starting salary of around $38,000.

Still, there are signs of resilience. According to a 2025 report from Education Policy Innovation Collaborative at Michigan State University (EPIC), Michigan’s teaching workforce is slowly climbing back from the losses of the COVID years.

Tara Kilbride is a co-author of that report and joined the show to help make sense of Michigan's teacher workforce.

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

For decades, fossil fuel companies championed the idea that climate change is solved through everyday personal habits — change your lightbulbs, recycle more, drive less — while they continued ramping up oil and gas production. BP even popularized the now‑ubiquitous carbon footprint calculator, nudging us into changing our behaviors rather than targeting the sources of the crisis.

A recent study found that people often misjudge which personal choices matter most. Many think recycling is the biggest fix, but it is actually cutting down on long flights, eating less meat, and even deciding whether to own a dog (pets have surprisingly large carbon footprints).

When people were shown the facts, they adjusted their intentions. 

But there is a catch: when climate action was framed only as a personal checklist, participants were less likely to support big collective steps, like voting for climate policy or joining a march.

This tension speaks to the myth of personal responsibility in climate change. 

Naomi Oreskes has written widely about how industries, from tobacco to oil, push this myth to delay real action. She is a professor of the history of science at Harvard University and co-author of the books "Merchants of Doubt" and "The Big Myth."

She joined Robyn Vincent on The Metro to discuss how we can shift the focus back to meaningful climate solutions.

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

Can science and religion co-exist? Might they be able to do even more than that — can the two belief systems play off one another?

Brother Guy Consolmagno believes so. The man known as the Pope’s Astronomer works at the Vatican as both a scientist and a practicing Catholic. He makes it his mission to talk with people around the world about the ways that science and religion compliment each other.

Brother Guy grew up in Birmingham and went to University of Detroit Jesuit High School in Detroit, and he's coming to Kensington Park in Milford on September 26th and 27th to give a talk on astronomy.

Producer Sam Corey spoke with Brother Guy about what he does for the church, and why his faith empowers his science.

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

Golden oyster mushrooms are hurting biodiversity in Michigan, a new study finds. Co-author of the report and botanist Aishwarya Veerabahu from the Pringle Lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison joins The Metro to talk about the mushroom's impact on Michigan forests.

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

Earlier this year, a University of Michigan student from China voted in November’s presidential election. He was part of a group of likely 16 noncitizens in Michigan who voted in that election.

That number accounts for a tiny fraction of the vote, less than .0003 percent. And those votes didn’t impact the 2024 November election results. 

But a number of people were upset by noncitizens voting. Last month, Republicans gathered to launch a ballot initiative to strengthen existing laws that ensure non-American citizens can’t vote in Michigan elections. To do that, their initiative would require voters to show photo identification to cast a ballot. 

Many liberals, including Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, are against this measure. The voting official says, if passed, the initiative could suppress the vote. 

So what’s in this new measure? And, what case is Americans for Citizen Voting making to Michiganders to gather the hundreds of thousands of signatures needed to get on the 2026 ballot?

Producer Sam Corey spoke with Paul Jacob, chair of Americans for Citizen Voting in Michigan.

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

Tribal members and environmental advocates delivered letters urging Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and EGLE Director Phil Roos to reject Enbridge’s Line 5 tunnel. EGLE’s comment window on wetlands and bottomlands permits closes Friday.

Enbridge Energy says a concrete-lined tunnel deep beneath the lakebed would minimize spill risks and ensure energy reliability. 

Sean McBrearty of Oil and Water Don't Mix joined Robyn Vincent on The Metro to discuss the coalition's specific request and the evidence behind its concerns.

EGLE’s public comment period for the permits tied to wetlands and bottomlands closes this Friday, August 29. Here's how to add your voice:

Editor’s Note: Enbridge is a financial supporter of WDET. Our newsroom observes a clear boundary between funders and editorial content, and we do not serve the agendas of those who support us.

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

Detroit is a manufacturing city and with this comes hazardous waste – toxic, reactive, flammable, and corrosive material that’s dangerous to people. 

So what happens to all this hazardous waste? Federal and State Laws require facilities to obtain a license to store, dispose or treat it. 

That includes EQ Detroit Inc., which operates a hazardous waste site in Midtown near the I-94 and I-75 interchange. The company’s license is up for renewal, and not all residents are in support. 

But public sentiment is not the law, said Tracy Kecskemeti at the public informational meeting on Aug. 13. She’s the acting materials management division director for the Department of Environment Great Lakes and Energy. EGLE is the state regulator that oversees these hazardous waste sites. 

Producer Jack Filbrandt spoke to Detroit Documenters Colleen Cirrocco and Lynelle Herndon to learn more about what community members had to say. The next meeting on this issue is Sept. 4 at Tech Town. 

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