October 6, 2005 - Playwright Edward Albee, best known for writing "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf," says art should be dangerous. Albee speaks live from the Westminster Town Hall Forum in downtown Minneapolis.
November 10, 2005 - Salman Rushdie, the Indian-born British novelist who was forced into hiding after the Iranian government put out a death warrant on him in 1989, speaks Thursday at the Westminster Town Hall Forum in downtown Minneapolis.
December 27, 2005 - The theater world lost one of its great voices this year, and Minnesotans remembered the twelve years he made St. Paul his home. Two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner August Wilson died in October of liver cancer at the age of 60. Wilson left the state in 1990, but he made a short homecoming in 1991 to address the University of Minnesota Alumni Association.
January 3, 2006 - MPR’s Marisa Helms reports on Chris Coleman being sworn in as the 45th mayor of St. Paul. In his first speech as mayor, Coleman emphasized the city's growing diversity and the need for citizen involvement and cooperation.
March 16, 2006 - Physicists like to theorize about all kinds of far out concepts: parallel universes, dark matter, alien civilizations and even time travel. Michio Kaku: Professor of theoretical physics at the City University of New York. Kaku spoke about his book "Parallel Worlds: A Journey Through Creation, Higher Dimensions and the Future of the Cosmos," at the University of Minnesota Bookstore.
March 23, 2006 - What values and ideas have shaped the world's lone superpower?Jacob Needleman: Professor of philosophy at San Francisco State University, in a speech from the Westminster Town Hall Forum in downtown Minneapolis. Needleman has written more than a dozen books, including "The American Soul: Rediscovering the Wisdom of the Founders," "Two Dreams of America" and "The Wisdom of Love." He was also a contributor to the PBS program "A World of Ideas." Westminster Town Hall Forum
April 4, 2006 - MPR’s Tom Scheck reports that a committee in the Minnesota Senate has rejected a proposed constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage and its legal equivalents in Minnesota.
May 8, 2006 - The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments Monday in a case that will decide whether public school districts can assign students to schools based on race. Hundreds of districts across the nation try to enforce diversity because they worry schools will become segregated if they don't. Education reformer Jonathan Kozol talked about the increasing segregation of America's schools in May at Carleton College. Jonathan Kozol, the former teacher who has written about race, poverty and education for nearly four decades, spoke about what he calls the "restoration of apartheid schooling in America"
May 17, 2006 - In the weeks following Hurricane Katrina, President Bush acknowledged that the disaster laid bare the persistent racial inequalities in America, but Bush strongly rejected the idea that the federal government's response to Katrina was somehow racist. Social critic Michael Eric Dyson was not convinced. Michael Eric Dyson: Professor of humanities at the University of Pennsylvania, in the keynote address of The Blake School's annual Diversity Symposium on May 3 in Minneapolis. Dyson's latest book is "Come Hell or High Water: Hurricane Katrina and the Color of Disaster."
June 10, 2006 - Amy Klobuchar's acceptance speech at the DFL state convention on run for MInnesota U.S. Senate seat.