Heroin, Police Brutality, and Election Regret: 'Crimetown' Finds the Humanity in Detroit's Seedy History

Click the audio player above to hear the full conversation. CultureShift airs weekdays 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. on 101.9 WDET-FM Detroit Public Radio.

Gimlet Media’s popular podcast Crimetown is nearing the end of its second season—one that completely focused on Detroit.

The podcast begins with the rise of the heroin trade and follows the history of the deadly police unit known as STRESS in the 1970s, then explores Coleman Young’s historic and controversial two-decade run as mayor, and ends with the rise and fall of Kwame Kilpatrick

CultureShift’s Amanda LeClaire spoke with Crimetown producers Drew Nelles and John White about why they chose to focus on Detroit for the podcast’s latest season.

You can listen to Crimetown on Spotify.

Click on the audio player above to hear the producers of Crimetown discuss why they chose to feature Detroit on the second season of their popular podcast.

Author

Amanda LeClaire
Amanda LeClaire is an award-winning journalist and managing editor and lead reporter of WDET's new environmental series, the Detroit Tree Canopy Project, as well as WDET's CuriosiD podcast. She was the host of WDET’s CultureShift and a founding producer of the station’s flagship news talk show *Detroit Today*. Amanda also served as a Morning Edition host at WDET and previously worked as a host, audio and video producer, and reporter for Arizona Public Media.
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