Minnesota Public Radio News Presents

Nov. 1, 2009
First hour »
American RadioWorks documentary: Early Lessons
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The Perry Preschool Project is one of the most famous education experiments of the last 50 years. The study asked a question: Can preschool boost the IQ scores of poor African-American children and prevent them from failing in school? The surprising results are now challenging widely-held notions about what helps people succeed – in school, and in life.

Second hour »
Radiolab: New Normal?
How do you tell the difference between a sea change and a ripple in the water? Is a peacenik baboon, a man in a dress, or a cuddly fox a sign of things to come? Or just a flukey outlier from the norm? Is there ever really even a norm? In this hour Radiolab examines three stories that reframe our sense of normalcy.

Oct. 25, 2009
First hour »
Secret conversations with President Clinton
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Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Taylor Branch is the author of "The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling History with the President." His relationship with Clinton goes all the way back to 1972, when they both worked on George McGovern's presidential campaign in Texas. Branch's book is based on 79 secret conversations with Clinton during his presidency. The idea was to record, for history, the president's impressions of what was going on during those years.

Second hour »
Radiolab: Parasites
What's gotten into you? In this hour Radiolab explores nature's moochers - the good, the bad, and the hideous. Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich have stories of lethargic farmers, zombie cockroaches, and even mind-controlled humans (kinda, maybe). Could parasites be the shadowy hands that pull the strings of life?

Oct. 18, 2009
First hour »
Talking Volumes with James Ellroy
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Crime writer James Ellroy specializes in the dark side of Los Angeles. He joined Kerri Miller on the stage of the Fitzgerald Theater to talk about his latest work what why his writing delves into the mayhem of life.

Second hour »
Radiolab: After Life
What happens at the moment when we slip from life...to the other side? Is it a moment? If it is a moment, when is that moment? And what happens afterward? It's a show of questions that don't have easy answers. So, in a slight departure from our regular format, Radiolab brings you eleven meditations on how, when, and even if we die.

Oct. 11, 2009
First hour »
Midmorning: Local health provider launches innovative care program
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Fairview Health Services is rolling out an experimental new way of delivering health care to cut costs and improve the quality of patient care. If it succeeds, it will receive millions of dollars from health insurer Medica and implement a new system that puts more responsibility in the hands of patients and medical staff.

Second hour »
Radiolab: Stochasticity
Radiolab examines Stochasticity, which is just a wonderfully slippery and smarty-pants word for randomness. How big a role does randomness play in our lives? Do we live in a world of magic and meaning or … is it all just chance and happenstance? To tackle this question, Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich look at the role chance and randomness play in sports, lottery tickets, and even the cells in our own body.

Oct. 4, 2009
Twin Cities RISE!
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Minnesota Public Radio presents RISE!, a staged production celebrating African-American history, with music, dance, literature, and rhetoric. The show was produced in honor of the 100-year anniversary of the NAACP. Twin Cities actor T. Mychael Rambo hosted the program at the Fitzgerald Theater.

Sept. 27, 2009
Midmorning: An author in search of new audiences
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Jim Shepard is the author of a number of books including Project X, Kiss of the Wolf, and Paper Doll. His latest collection of short stories is titled Like You'd Understand, Anyway. His writing is often about the odd or bizarre, and he counts movies as a strong influence on his work. He says his stories unfold like scenes from films and he has even created book teasers for his novels that sound like movie trailers. Shepard talks about the new ways he's reaching his audience, and what he's reading.

Sept. 20, 2009
Midmorning: Roger McGuinn, a founding father of folk
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Roger McGuinn gained fame as the frontman for the legendary band the Byrds. As one of the most popular and influential music groups of the sixties and seventies, they adopted a unique style that blended folk and rock music. The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991. McGuinn continues to write and perform his own songs and is currently touring across the country. He'll perform some of his music and talk about his long and storied career.

Sept. 6, 2009
BBC World Drama: The Day That Lehman Died
On Sept. 15, 2008, Lehman Brothers filed for the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history. It sent the already unstable markets into an uncontrollable tailspin. How did the 'big beasts' of Wall Street make this critical decision? They held in their hands the future, not just of a bank, but the stability of the global financial system.

Aug. 30, 2009
Midday: Remembering Walter Cronkite
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CBS newsman Walter Cronkite died this past July. Friends, colleagues, and prominent leaders paid tribute to him at this memorial service at New York’s Lincoln Center. Highlighted speakers from the service include Tom Brokaw, Bill Clinton, and President Obama.

Cronkite was the anchor for the CBS Evening News from 1962 to 1981. He became known as "the most trusted man in America" and was that familiar voice delivering the news on television during the nation's most tumultuous events, including Watergate, the Vietnam War, and the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

April 19, 2009
A Tribute to Bill Holm
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Lovers of literature and music gathered together Tuesday night at the Fitzgerald Theater to toast to the memory of the bard of Minneota Minnesota, the late Bill Holm. Listen to the evening of stories, songs and poems with poet Robert Bly, author Jim Harrison, singer Maria Jette and many more.

April 12, 2009
Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
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President Sirleaf was in Minnesota on Friday, and she spoke before a sold-out crowd at Northrop Auditorium, with many Minnesota Liberians in attendance. Sirleaf gave the University's Distinguished Carlson Lecture, and was presented with an honorary Doctor of Laws. Johnson-Sirleaf is the first woman democratically elected to lead an African nation. During Liberia's military dictatorship, she was charged with treason and imprisoned. She has since been awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States' highest civil award, for personal courage and her commitment to expand freedom.

April 5, 2009
Broadcast Journalist Series with Frank Deford
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Author and sports commentator Frank Deford joins Morning Edition host Cathy Wurzer for a conversation about the sports world today. Deford spoke at Macalester College this week as part of MPR's Broadcast Journalist Series and brought tales of his nearly fifty-year career as America's premiere sportswriter.

March 29, 2009
Reading every word of the Bible
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David Plotz, editor of the online magazine Slate, read every word of the Old Testament. He chronicles the experience in "Good Book: The Bizarre, Hilarious, Disturbing, Marvelous, and Inspiring Things I Learned When I Read Every Single Word of the Bible."

March 22, 2009
How to prepare for the end of life
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Last on most of our to-do lists: anything having to do with the end of our lives. Columnist Jane Brody hopes to correct that oversight with a new guide to how to plan financially and medically for the time most of us prefer not to think about, our deaths.

March 15, 2009
Great Conversations: America's Constitutional Crisis
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Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh, former U.S. Vice President Walter Mondale, and University of Minnesota political science professor Larry Jacobs discuss what the constitution says about the American model of governance.

March 8, 2009
Barbara Brown Taylor live at the Westminster Town Hall Forum
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Ordained an Episcopal priest in 1984, she holds the Harry R. Butman Chair in Religion and Philosophy at Piedmont College in Georgia and is adjunct professor of Christian spirituality at Columbia Theological Seminary. She spoke before an audience at Westminster Presbyterian Church. Her speech was titled, "Downtime: The Sacred Art of Stopping"

February 22, 2009
Family Secrets Kept Close
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The best-selling author of "Reading Lolita in Tehran" gives us a new memoir and a glimpse of her prominent Iranian family; a complex mother and fascinating father, a mayor of Tehran who was jailed under the Shah.

February 15, 2009
Dead Ideas
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Matt Miller from the Center for American Progress, says many of our current notions of economic and social well-being made sense 50 years ago, but they don't hold much water today. Miller talked about his new book - "The Tyranny of Dead Ideas: Letting Go of the Old Ways of Thinking to Unleash a New Prosperity" at the Commonwealth Club of California

February 8, 2009
Say it Plain: A Century of Great African American Speeches
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Martin Luther King, Jr. was the most famous black orator in history, but he was hardly alone. For generations, African Americans have been demanding justice and equality, reminding America to make good on its founding principles of democracy. These orators — and the very act of speaking out — played a crucial role in the long struggle for equal rights.

February 1, 2009
Dying a Good Death
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Medical advances and new medications have the power to save and prolong lives, but also can make death a slow and painful process. Two local doctors say the medical community, and society at large, need to have a renewed discussion about the way we die.

January 25, 2009
Mitch McConnell at the National Press Club
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Mitch McConnell, Senate Republican leader and most senior Republican in Washington, lays out the GOP's agenda for the new Congress.

January 18, 2009
The Promised Land
The influence of Dr. Martin Luther King has taken many turns — expected and unexpected. Join Majora Carter, host of The Promised Land, for a special program exploring King's legacy.

January 11, 2009
History on Stage
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The two starring actors in the road version of Frost/Nixon talk about how they bring their own interpretations to characters who are well known in real life and in a new movie.