Studies show women live longer than men. According to the CDC, women are expected to live about five years longer. While there isn’t a single explanation for this gap, several contributing factors shed light on the disparity.

Biology and hormones may play a role, along with external factors like job-related risks. Men are also more likely to smoke, drink heavily, and skip annual checkups.

To raise awareness and promote healthier habits, June was established as Men’s Health Month. On The Metro today, we spoke with Harold Neighbors, professor emeritus at the University of Michigan School of Public Health.

As Professor Neighbors explained, men often face societal pressures that discourage them from seeking mental and physical health care. A national organization is working to change that.

Demetrius Scott is leading those efforts in Detroit as the local coordinator for the African-American Male Wellness Agency, a nonprofit focused on reducing health disparities among Black men through free programs and services.

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

More stories from The Metro

A cancer treatment center in Grand Rapids is bringing the future of medicine into the present. 

BAMF Health, founded and led by Anthony Chang, PhD, is one of the world’s largest Theranostics centers — considered a groundbreaking and less traditional approach to cancer treatment.

It uses full-body scans and smart AI tools to spot disease earlier and choose the right treatment for each patient. The AI algorithms analyze images in seconds, which helps doctors identify tumors, plan therapies, and adjust care on the fly. Researchers at the National Cancer Institute have called it “the next big shift in precision medicine.” 

So, is this kind of technology the future of health care? And where does it fall short?

Chang joined The Metro on Tuesday to discuss how AI and advanced imaging are changing health care, and his plans to open a BAMF Health facility in Detroit this fall.

–WDET’s Jenny Sherman contributed to this report.

Use the media player above to hear the full conversation.

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

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Experts say Medicaid cuts passed by the U.S. House could result in millions of people losing health care — including more than 700,000 people in Michigan. 

Michigan resident Janae Wouldfolk says the cuts would change her life. A union liaison for AFSCME Local 140 who has worked at the Detroit Medical Center for 27 years, Wouldfolk cares for her 74-year-old mother and 19-year-old disabled son, Shemar.

On today’s episode of the Detroit Evening Report, she spoke with WDET’s Sascha Raiyn about her concerns. 

Wouldfolk says she’s used the knowledge she’s gained as an advocate and caregiver to help coworkers who needed help with health care coverage for themselves or loved ones. She says she knows many families who will be deeply impacted by the Medicaid cuts.

“You know, it’s a lot. It’s a struggle and if they do cut it, it’ll be a disaster,” she said.

The House passed the Trump administration budget last month. The bill will move to the Senate for a vote this week.

Other headlines for Tuesday, June 3, 2025:

• The Department of Homeland Security has agreed to restore the visas of four international college students — two at Wayne State and two at the University of Michigan. The American Civil Liberties Union sued the government, which has stripped visas from thousands of students across the country this spring and threatened to deport them. A federal judge dismissed the case after the Trump administration agreed not to terminate their status based solely on cursory background checks.
• Tiff Massey’s “Baby Bling” will be added to the Detroit Institute of Arts’ permanent collection. DIA Director Salvador Salort-Pons broke the news on WDET’s The Metro on Monday. Baby Bling is one of the pieces featured in Massey’s year-long “7 Mile + Livernois” exhibit that closed at the museum in May. After the success of the exhibit, the museum says it plans to re-install its contemporary African American galleries in a more prominent location near Diego Rivera Court in October. 

Do you have a community story we should tell? Let us know in an email at detroiteveningreport@wdet.org.

On this episode of Detroit Evening Report Weekends, we listen to the last story in WDET reporter Nargis Rahman’s series Shustho. 

The four-part series explores the barriers Bangladeshi women face in accessing high-quality health care, and efforts to bridge those gaps. 

Michigan is home to the third largest population of Bangladeshis in the U.S., most living in the metro Detroit area. 

In this story, we discuss how Bangladeshi mental health care workers are working toward breaking the stigma and filling the gap for more counselors in the Bangladeshi community. 

Listen to the episode using the media player above. 

Subscribe to the Detroit Evening Report on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts. 

Michigan U.S. Senator Elissa Slotkin spent three terms in the U.S. House before running to replace outgoing Democratic U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow. She bucked the pro-GOP trend to beat Mike Rogers last November for the seat.

WDET’s Russ McNamara caught up with the junior senator at the 2025 Mackinac Policy Conference ahead of All Things Considered – Detroit on Wednesday to talk about proposed cuts to Medicaid, supporting EV manufacturing and more.

On planned cuts to Medicaid

Michigan U.S. Senator Elissa Slotkin says she is against planned cuts to Medicaid passed by House Republicans.

The legislation — part of a massive spending bill deemed the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” — is on its way to the Senate next week.

Slotkin says 300,000 Michiganders are at risk of losing their primary insurance if the bill passed as is, adding that work requirements are just another way to keep people off Medicaid.

“They’re making them sign up every six months so that people forget, people get busy and they lapse, and they get off of Medicaid,” she said. “For Michigan, it would have a dramatic impact.”

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s administration issued a report earlier this month warning of the potential impact of Medicaid cuts by the federal government.

During the 2024 campaign, now-President Donald Trump promised many times to never make cuts to Medicaid and Medicare.

On giving consumers a choice about EVs

The U.S. Senate recently voted to remove California’s ability to set EV and emission standards, thwarting the state’s goal of phasing out gas-powered vehicles by 2035.

Slotkin was the only Democrat who voted with Republicans on pushing back against California’s EV mandate, saying she believes in giving consumers a choice.

“I made a very important pledge to voters here that I don’t support a mandate,” she said. “I want to build the next generation of EVs, but I don’t want to mandate. I don’t believe in that.”

Michigan’s other U.S. Senator, Gary Peters, voted against the measure.

Slotkin says she is upset Congressional Republicans are rolling back incentives for people to purchase EVs, but that doesn’t mean we should be creating a mandate that is “above and beyond anything like consumer demand” without the infrastructure to support it.

WDET’s Jenny Sherman contributed to this report.

Use the media player above to hear the full conversation.

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

More stories from The Metro

On this episode of Detroit Evening Report Weekends, we listen to the third story in WDET reporter Nargis Rahman’s series Shustho.

The four-part series explores the barriers Bangladeshi women face in accessing high quality health care, and efforts to bridge those gaps.

In this story, we visit the Health Unit on Davison Avenue (HUDA) — the largest free health clinic in Wayne County — to learn about the services it provides to members of the community without health insurance.

Stay tuned to DER Weekends throughout the month of May to hear the entire four-part series.

Listen to the episode using the media player above.

Subscribe to the Detroit Evening Report on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

Health care advocates are pushing back against a new congressional Republican plan that would make cuts to Medicaid. In Michigan, that includes services for people enrolled in the Healthy Michigan Medicaid expansion plan that was adopted in 2013.

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services says 2.6 million Michiganders are enrolled in Medicaid. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s administration issued a report earlier this month — before the Sunday-night rollout of the GOP budget proposal — warning of the potential impact of Medicaid cuts by the federal government.

“It’s foundational to our health care system, whether you rely on Medicaid or access healthcare through another payer,” said Monique Stanton of the Michigan League for Public Policy, a human services advocacy organization.

Stanton said one in four Michiganders get health coverage through Medicaid. She said that means hospitals and other providers rely on Medicaid funding to keep their doors open for people who come in with Medicaid, private coverage or no insurance at all.

Stanton said the 2014 Healthy Michigan Medicaid expansion cut in half the amount of money that care providers were losing by treating people who could not afford to pay. She said that helped many rural hospitals and clinics keep operating.

“We did not necessarily have the rate of health care and hospital closures in other states – specifically states that did not have expanded Medicaid,” she said during a media call reacting to the GOP plan. “So, this could really have a specific impact in rural Michigan.”

Anthony Wright with the health care advocacy organization Families USA said the GOP plan would essentially push people off the Medicaid rolls “by putting paperwork and bureaucratic barriers in the way of people getting on and staying on health coverage.”

“This means asking many to re-enroll not just once but twice a year,” he said. “This means having more convoluted and complex requirements for determining eligibility and income that could otherwise be done easily and electronically. And this means work-reporting requirements even though the overwhelming majority of non-elderly, non-disabled adults on Medicaid are working, but simply at low-income jobs that don’t provide health coverage.”

Republicans behind the proposal have said it’s necessary to cut waste and reach the Trump administration’s budget-cutting goals, and to sustain a tax cut from President Donald Trump’s first administration. 

On this episode of Detroit Evening Report Weekends, we listen to the second story in WDET reporter Nargis Rahman’s series Shustho.

The four-part series explores the barriers Bangladeshi women face in accessing high quality health care, and efforts to bridge those gaps.

In the second story, we meet several Bangladeshi American health care professionals working to provide culturally competent care to women in their community. Rahman explores how culture, relationships and education affect how Bangladeshi women experience treatment.

Stay tuned to DER Weekends throughout the month of May to hear the entire four-part series.

Listen to the episode using the media player above.

Subscribe to the Detroit Evening Report on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

A recent report from the state health department says big federal spending cuts threaten Medicaid benefits for 700,000 people in Michigan.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed an executive order in April asking the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) to conduct a study into how Medicaid cuts would affect Michiganders.

The report found that Michigan could lose $1.1 billion dollars a year in funding. Michigan hospitals could also lose billions of dollars, resulting in  hundreds of millions less for nursing homes.

“Medicaid provides a lifeline to 2.6 million Michiganders, and the huge, proposed cuts will terminate coverage for our neighbors, family, and friends who need it most,” said Whitmer in a statement.

Republican leaders say Medicaid is off the table, but many budget experts say GOP spending targets can’t be met without touching health care. 

Other headlines for Wednesday, May 7, 2025:

• The United Auto Workers union held rallies in Trenton and Warren this week to demand Stellantis move production work to the U.S., and Michigan in particular.
• Detroit City Councilmember Gabriela Santiago-Romero says she is certified to appear on the August primary ballot. The city elections department disqualified her over a late fee it said she failed to pay.
  Santiago-Romero contested the penalty, saying she did pay it, and that her disqualification was due to a clerical error.
• Construction crews have begun building the Detroit Grand Prix racetrack around the Renaissance Center. Race organizers say it’ll take about a week less to set up for the race this year thanks to a new wall and fence design. The races runs May 30 through June 15.

Do you have a community story we should tell? Let us know in an email at detroiteveningreport@wdet.org.

On this episode of Detroit Evening Report Weekends, we listen to the first story in WDET reporter Nargis Rahman’s series Shustho.

The four-part series explores the barriers Bangladeshi women face in accessing high quality health care, and efforts to bridge those gaps.

Michigan is home to the third largest population of Bangladeshis in the U.S., most living in the metro Detroit area.

Throughout the Shustho series, Nargis explores a number of challenges that make it hard for Bangladeshi immigrants to access health care, including cultural competency within the medical profession and access to adequate insurance.

The first story is focused on language barriers. Nargis speaks with organizations advocating for Bangla-speaking patients, community members who serve as advocates, translators and educators and medical professionals working to increase awareness.

Stay tuned to DER Weekends to hear the entire four-part series in May.

Listen to the episode using the media player above.

Subscribe to the Detroit Evening Report on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.