August 23, 2017 - MPR News host Tom Weber talks with Art Blakey, Minnesota State Fair police chief, as he prepares to retire. For 37 years, Blakey has overseen it all as chief of police on the fairgrounds.
August 29, 2017 - MPR’s Marianne Combs profiles J. Otis Powell‽, a well-respected local poet, playwright, and performer, who died on August 28th, 2017. Those who knew him say he was an uncompromising artist, a provocateur and — perhaps most importantly — a mentor to generations of other writers and performers.
October 20, 2017 - MPR’s Euan Kerr profiles Ojibwe writer Linda LeGarde Grover. The two talk about her collection of essays titled "Onigamiising," the Ojibwe name for the place she has always considered home: Duluth. There are themes running through the writing, like the Ojibwe concept of living a good life.
October 27, 2017 - MPR’s Tim Nelson takes a look at Dai Thao, a St. Paul city council member and a former Hmong refugee, who is running for mayor. Thao shares his personal history and political platform.
April 23, 2018 - Morning Edition takes a look at Minneapolis musician James "Cornbread" Harris who turned 91 on this day. In 2017, Harris stopped by MPR studios and spoke with Tom Weber and Andrea Swensson. While he was here he played a song called "Cool Rider." Harris says he wrote it about the aspirations he had for his son, who would become the highly successful record producer Jimmy Jam Harris.
October 16, 2018 - MPR’s Brian Bakst takes a look at the congressional career of U.S. Representative Tim Walz, who is seen as playing a bi-partisan role by some fellow legislators. Bakst highlights items such as Walz’s efforts on the Stock Act and Suicide Prevention Act.
April 3, 2019 - MPR’s Marianne Combs presents a profile of Josie Johnson, renowned local civil rights activist. Feature includes interview with Johnson about her life and book, and comments from Vernon Jordan and Walter Mondale, amongst others. Johnson’s memoir is titled "Hope in the Struggle."
October 21, 2019 - MPR’s Riham Feshir profiles Andrea Duarte-Alonso, who has been documenting the stories of immigrants and their children in southwest Minnesota.
October 25, 2019 - MPR’s Tiffany Bui profiles Yang See, who worked as principal assistant to the liaison between the CIA and the Lao Royal Army under the radio code name “Glass Man” at the height of the Secret War in Laos. As communists seized power in Laos in 1975, he helped Hmong refugees flee the war and find safe harbor.
April 15, 2020 - As part of MPR’s “Portraits of Valor” series, MPR’s Evan Frost profiles Minnesota native Dan Cylkowski. After a draft notice from the Army arrived, Cylkowski took his notice to Fort Snelling, and was bound for Europe.