October 9, 1979 - Documentary that explores the attempts by South Dakota Native Americans to win more complete sovereignty from state and federal governments. A collection of various interviews. Topics include Sun Dance ritual, treaties, and courts.
November 29, 1980 - Calvin Bradford, Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs professor, speaks on the neighborhood movement, from its definition to the struggle between national and local control.
February 27, 1984 - On this Midday program, MPR’s Dan Olson interviews W. Harry Davis, chair of the Minneapolis School Board, discusses Black history in the Twin Cities and Minnesota. Davis also answers listener questions.
May 27, 1985 - WWII marks a watershed in the life of this nation and in the lives of all who lived through it. In the documentary “We Were the Lucky Ones,” MPR’s Mark Heistad examines the experience of the war and its legacy through the stories of residents of New Ulm, many of which were German-American.
May 31, 1986 - MPR’s Mark Steil presents "Chanarambie Township: Sections 17, 18, 19, and 20," a documentary that explores how farmers in a four-square mile area of Murray County view the farm crisis...where land prices dropped, interest rates went up, and farmers were caught in the middle.
June 26, 1986 - MPR’s Beth Friend looks at Dinkytown in the late 1950s-early 1960s. It was a musically and literary rich community, which included The Scholar coffee shop, McCosh bookstore…and a certain Hibbing musician.
August 25, 1986 - From people watching to making yard a parking lot, neighbors of the Minnesota State Fairgrounds adjust to the ordeal of hundreds of thousands of people descending on the Como area. MPR’s Kate Moos talks with a few of the local residents.
October 9, 1986 - Hennepin County Park Commissioner Patti Baker talks about the nostalgia, declining usage, and rehabilitation needs of Parade Stadium outside of downtown Minneapolis. The field was Minneapolis's first public football stadium (even hosting NFL games), though it was mostly meant for high school, amateur, and small-college games. It also was host to a number of high-profile concerts over the decades.
October 16, 1986 - William Raspberry, a former Pulitzer Prize-winning syndicated American public affairs columnist, speaking at Minnesota Meeting. Raspberry talks about issues facing the black family, including single parent homes and joblessness. After speech, Raspberry answered audience questions. Raspberry was also the Knight Professor of the Practice of Communications and Journalism at the Sanford Institute of Public Policy at Duke University. An African American, he frequently wrote on racial issues. Minnesota Meeting is a non-profit corporation which hosts a wide range of public speakers. It is managed by the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota. This was the first live broadcast of Minnesota Meeting presented by MPR.
October 22, 1986 - Charles Atkins, commissioner of welfare for the state of Massachusetts, speaking at Itasca Seminar held in northern Minnesota. The seminar’s topic was "Self Sufficiency: Is It Possible?", and Atkin’s addressed his state's efforts to place welfare recipients into jobs. After speech, Atkins answered audience questions. Mr. Atkins has developed a program in Massachusetts to move women off the welfare rolls and into jobs. 25,000 women have become employed through the Education and Training Choices program since 1983. Prior to becoming welfare commissioner, Mr. Atkins served as deputy commissioner of the addiction services agency in New York City during the early '70s. In that position, he created a program to find employment for ex-drug addicts. In 1973 and '74, he was manager of employment operations for Citibank in New York, where he found other employment within the organization for low-level employees whose jobs had been eliminated by automation. When he was in Boston's Employment and Economic Policy administration, he succeeded in obtaining a 23-million-dollar grant from the U.S. Department of Labor to reduce youth unemployment in Boston.