Ryan Patrick Hooper is the award-winning host of "In the Groove" on 101.9 WDET-FM Detroit’s NPR station. Hooper has covered stories for the New York Times, NPR, Detroit Free Press, Hour Detroit, SPIN and Paste magazine.

Hooper grew up reading the Sunday paper with his dad. That’s where he learned the basics of writing while dreaming of one day writing the stories himself. At 16, he knocked on the door of his hometown paper and asked for a job as a reporter. Since then, he's written extensively for the Detroit Free Press -- the same paper he grew up reading.

Since joining WDET in 2017, Hooper has expanded the station’s arts and culture coverage and received numerous awards from the Michigan Association of Broadcasting along the way. Nationally, Hooper was awarded a 2020 RTDNA Regional Edward R. Murrow award for feature reporting for his story “Would You Rent a Stray Dog From the City of Detroit?“ In 2018, Hooper was named the Associated Press Michigan Editors Broadcast Rising Star in broadcast journalism. He received the prestigious Crain’s Detroit Business “20 In Their 20s” award in 2014. His commitment to volunteerism was recognized by the State of Michigan in 2007.

His juggalo-inspired I.C.Pizza costume was selected by the Huffington Post as one of the best Halloween costumes of 2014.

“Waging Change” Doc Shines Light on Tipped Workers, Who Make $3.67 An Hour In Michigan

The minimum wage for tipped workers in Michigan is $3.67. Starting in January 2021, that will go up to $3.75....

New Documentary Is Love Letter To Flint’s Hometown Hero MC Breed

Detroit musicians have a long history of influencing musicians and musical genres around the globe. But when you go an...

Auto Workers and Designers Take the Wheel In Two New Exhibits at the DIA

The new exhibit at the Detroit Institute of Arts is a celebration of car culture that’s heavy on futurism, concept...

The Election Is Over, But There Are Still Tough Conversations Ahead. How Do We Talk About It?

Is there a better way to have difficult conversations about big topics like politics, elections and who voted which way?...

Musicians With Mental Illness Strike a Chord in New Documentary

A new documentary called “Orchestrating Change” chronicles two years in the life of a first-of-its-kind orchestra made for musicians with...

London Artist Creates ‘Human Atlas’ of Detroit

London photographer Marcus Lyon has built an artistic practice around creating multi-sensory human atlases that map out the DNA lineage...

Juggalos Take WDET’s Faygo Taste Test Challenge

Josh Justice Juggalos and Faygo go together like peanut butter and jelly. Fans of the Detroit rap group Insane Clown...

In The Motor City, A Drive-In Opera Parks Itself Downtown

This year, the arts world-at-large has had to reinvent its approach to live performance. The Michigan Opera Theatre (MOT) in...

DFT’s Elliot Wilhelm’s Must-Watch Horror Movies For Halloween

Stretching all the way back to the silent era of film, horror movies have always held a special spooky place...

COVID-19 Tests Before Sex. This Is Dating During a Pandemic

"Is anything casual anymore?" That's the question writer and stand-up comedian Ginny Hogan poses in an article published earlier this year in...

Publisher Lawsuit Against Internet Archive Puts Future of Book Ownership In Question

This past March, the Internet Archive created the National Emergency Library in response to the global COVID-19 pandemic.  The lockdown...

Exploring America’s Historic Thirst for Crap

In Wendy A. Woloson’s new book “Crap: A History of Cheap Stuff In America,” she connects our present day consumption...