The Metro

The room that left Detroit 100 years ago lives on today.

When looking for a name for her boutique, owner Rachel Lutz drew from Detroit history, giving a nod to art collector Charles Lang Freer. Now the shop has evolved, making a name for itself with careful curation, styling expertise and intimate knowledge of the stories behind the pieces sold. The New York Times recently included The Peacock Room in a list of 25 favorite stores.

Rachel Lutz joins the show to talk about what's behind the success of her store and what lays ahead. 

Shamayim “Mama Shu” Harris rebuilt a block of Highland Park when the city couldn’t: a park, a garden, a homework house, solar streetlights. Now she’s on the November ballot for mayor, after finishing second in the Aug. 4 primary to incumbent Glenda McDonald. She joined Robyn Vincent on The Metro to talk about what she’d inherit, and what she’s learned from working outside the system to make change. Have thoughts? Email the show at [email protected]

More than $60 million was spent trying to stop him, but Abdul El-Sayed won Michigan's Democratic Senate primary anyway — by fewer than 15,000 votes. He joins Robyn Vincent in the same WDET studio where he announced his run last April. 

El-Sayed on why he blames the ads for losing Detroit, why he won't stop calling the war in Gaza a genocide, what he says to Jewish voters and to Black Democrats still angry about the 2024 "uncommitted" vote, and what he'd write into federal law on data centers. He faces Republican Mike Rogers in November.

The Metro has invited Rogers on the program several times and has not heard back.

Have thoughts? Email the show at [email protected]

Fantastico: Wild and Winsome Posters from Mexico’s Golden Age, 1936-1960 will open to the public for free on the evening of Thursday, Aug. 6 at Galerie Camille in the Cass Corridor. 
There will be posters and lobby cards that feature genres such as Mexican film noir and rumberas movies, or cabaret melodramas made famous from their dance numbers.

Dalia Reyes, an interdisciplinary artist and arts administrator from Southwest Detroit, co-curated the exhibition. Reyes joined The Metro to discuss the art, culture, and innovation behind the timeless items of Mexican cinema. 

Wayne County residents overwhelmingly approved a millage that ensures everyone pays into the suburban public transit system, known as SMART. One of the people who led the effort to pass the millage is Megan Owens. She’s the director of Transportation Riders United, an organization that has been advocating for public transit expansion in Metro Detroit for 25 years.

Owens joined The Metro's Robyn Vincent to discuss Wayne County’s transit millage, and what it would take to create more expansive, interconnected public transit in the region. 

Ever since President Donald Trump won a second term, Democrats have been arguing with each other about the same two questions: What is this party for, and who gets to lead it?

Economic populism—the idea that average people should be prioritized in crafting policy, and not rich, well-connected corporations—is gaining traction.

Branden Snyder is the state director of the Working Families Party. His group endorsed economic populist candidates up and down the ballot. He spoke with The Metro's Robyn Vincent.

Michigan primaries usually come and go with most people not voting. They’re low-profile, they’re in August, and turnout tends to land somewhere around a quarter of registered voters. Last night was different, with over 1.5 million votes casted in the Democratic primary alone.

Zach Gorchow is president of Gongwer News Service of Michigan and has covered this state's politics for a long time. He spoke with The Metro's Robyn Vincent. 

If you voted this morning, or dropped a ballot in a box last week — have you done your part?

Eric Liu has spent more than a decade cultivating the answer to that question. He wrote speeches for Bill Clinton. Now he runs Citizen University, which holds Civic Saturdays: gatherings built like a church service, with singing, readings and a sermon.

He joins host Robyn Vincent on election day to talk about why he thinks the crisis in American democracy is cultural, what he found in Flint and Detroit, and why he says good citizenship means fighting more, not less. His new book is "Live Like a Citizen."

Have thoughts? Email the show at [email protected]

Named one of the best pizzas in the U.S., Amar Pizza in Hamtramck puts Bengali flavors into Detroit-style pizza. PBS' Spice Road took a trip to Hamtramck. The host of the show, Rupak Ginn, and episode's director, Razi Jafri, stopped by The Metro to talk Bengali food and culture in Hamtramck.

BasBlue, an organization of women and non-binary individuals, celebrated a five year anniversary by focusing on their Future Founders and Future Leaders program.

Ellen Gilchrist is the CEO of BasBlue. Fatoumata Sacko is an entrepreneur of Katii Café, a Malian inspired tea cart and a BasBlue Future Leaders member. They join The Metro to discuss how the business ideas and professional networks of people should be nourished early on to better their chances of success.