June 26, 2007 - Stampeding bison, drunken ox cart drivers and a teen romance are all part of a new book by a St. Paul author. The book "Red River Girl" is fiction but the story is rich with historical fact from the mid 1840's. The story's heroine is a 13 year old girl forced to take on adult responsibility while coping with the trials and tribulations of being a teenager.
June 26, 2007 - St. Paul author Norma Sommerdorf has written a story about an teenage girl from an immigrant family who lives near the Red River and is forced to grow up too quickly.
June 19, 2007 - Two Minnesotans who boarded buses for civil rights in the 1960's tell their stories. Forty-six years ago, seven white Minnesotans became part of civil rights history. The Freedom Riders rode buses through the deep South and pressured states to comply with a Supreme Court desegregation ruling. Voices of Minnesota profiles two of them: Marv Davidov and Claire O'Connor.
May 21, 2007 - A man who feared for his life in his native Afghanistan fled that country and made his home in Minnesota for 17 years. But just over a month ago the Department of Homeland Security deported him because of an old drug conviction. The man claims he's innocent. And he says once the Taliban find out he's back in Afghanistan they may try to harm him. Minnesota Public Radio's Dan Olson reports.
May 18, 2007 - Two Minnesotans touched by World War II; two strikingly different stories. For Frank Ario, World War II was a scene of death and destruction. He fought through and survived the Battle of the Bulge, one of the war's major campaigns. For Rita Stallman, who joined the Signal Corps in Washington, it was an opportunity to broaden her horizons and experience life.
January 22, 2007 - Hour 1 of Midday: Voices of Minnesota with Aviva Breen and Robert Treuer. Aviva Breen chairs the board of Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights. Robert Treuer grew up in a Jewish family in Austria and survived the human rights abuses of World War II. He is now a tree farmer near Bemidji. They both spoke to MPR's Dan Olson as part of his Voices of Minnesota interview series.
December 25, 2006 - "A Christmas Memory" and other stories. To keep you company this Christmas, Midday presents stories of the season from a host of top-flight story tellers, including Truman Capote, Garrison Keillor and David Sedaris. Hour 1: "A Christmas Memory," by Truman Capote. Read by the author at the University of North Dakota's 1976 Writer's Conference. "Mr. Bergy's Christmas," by Garrison Keillor. Performed in 1991 on Keillor's radio show "A Prairie Home Companion." "Is There a Santa Claus?" This letter first appeared on the editorial page of the New York Sun newspaper in 1897. Minnesota Public Radio's Dan Olson reads the letter in only slightly altered form.
December 25, 2006 - "A Christmas Memory" and other stories. To keep you company this Christmas, Midday presents stories of the season from a host of top-flight story tellers, including Truman Capote, Garrison Keillor and David Sedaris.Hour 2: "Six to Eight Black Men," by David Sedaris. Read by the author in 2002 at Carnegie Hall in New York City. This story is included in Sedaris' latest book "Dress your Family in Corduroy and Denim." "How the Grinch Stole Christmas," by Dr. Seuss. Read by former Minnesota Public Radio host Bob Potter. "A View From the Card Table," by Kevin Kling. Read by the author on his CD, "Stories off the Shallow End." "The Polar Express," by Chris Van Allsburg. Read by Minnesota Public Radio's Dan Olson at the Fitzgerald Theater in 2004. Sound effects provided by Tom Keith.
October 9, 2006 - MPR’s Dan Olson reports on the Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary on the edge of downtown St. Paul. The land occupies an area that used to be the home of Native Americans, and Dakota want to reclaim Wakan Tipi, a cave they consider a sacred site.
June 6, 2006 - There's a piece of paradise in northeastern Minnesota. It's called the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCA). Admirers credit the book "The Singing Wilderness," published in 1956, as part of the inspiration for creating the wilderness area; and they credit author Sigurd Olson for putting into words the reasons humans need wilderness. However, his views inflamed critics who feared Olson and other wilderness advocates worried more about habitat than humans.