With No Support From Government, Detroit Restaurants Step Up To Support Service Industry Workers
The owner of Batch Brewing Company didn’t set out to raise nearly $50,000 for service industry workers in Detroit, but...
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.
Detroit’s Hardcore Punk Scene Comes Alive in “Dope, Hookers and Pavement” Documentary
The Motor City has provided many soundtracks to the rest of the world from gospel to Motown and electronic genres...
“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...