September 8, 2005 - All Things Considered’s Tom Crann interviews Mary Harbeck, a nurse serving with the Minnesota Disaster Medical Assistance Team in Biloxi, Mississippi. The team is providing medical care in the hurricane-affected region amidst aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
September 5, 2005 - MPR’s Tom Crann and Nikki Tundel conclude their ‘battle’ over which state has the best fair - Minnesota or Iowa. The two present competing fair stories…pet surgery and Iowa animals.
August 25, 2005 - All Things Considered’s Tom Crann talks with MPR’s Nikki Tundel and debate over what is the better State Fair…Minnesota or Iowa. Their conversation ends with a challenge.
August 19, 2005 - All Things Considered’s Tom Crann talks with Tom Holden, of the Army Corps of Engineers at the Lake Superior Maritime Visitor Center, about the first 100 years of the iconic Duluth Lift Bridge.
July 20, 2005 - Dr. Jon Hallberg is a physician in family practice at the University of Minnesota. His article "11 books that might make a difference," appears in the July edition of Minnesota Medicine. Y
July 19, 2005 - Kasit Piromya, Thailand's ambassador to the United States, visited with St. Paul mayor Randy Kelly and Twin Cities area business groups to talk about health care and the medical device industry. Ambassador Piromya says Minnesota medical products can help Thailand achieve some long-term goals.
July 13, 2005 - Seventy five year ago, Sinclair Lewis became the first American to win the Nobel Prize in literature. He traveled the world and was welcomed in the most distinguished of literary circles. Yet he referred to himself as "Sauk Center in a Saville Row suit." Lewis grew up in the central Minnesota town of Sauk Center. His fictional town of Gopher Prairie is said to be based on it. Lewis said "to understand America, it is merely necessary to understand Minnesota." A new collection of his stories is out, and they may help readers better understand Minnesota. Sally Parry, executive director of the Sinclair Lewis society, edited the book, "The Minnesota Stories of Sinclair Lewis"". She's in Minnesota for Sinclair Lewis Days in Sauk Center, including a conference on his works. She says Lewis had a love/hate relationship with his home state.
June 14, 2005 - Michael Cunningham's new novel has just been released. It's called "Specimen Days." Tonight Cunningham shares a stage with a woman he calls "an ideal reader", his friend, the poet Marie Howe, as part of the Literary Friendships series at Saint Paul's Fitzgerald Theater. His frist novel -- "The Hours" was a surprising success and it put Cunningham's work in the spotlight like never before. "The Hours" won the Pulitzer Prize, and inspired the 2002 film of the same name. The movie garnered 9 Academy Award nominations. Michael Cunningham says he truly enjoyed the big-screen version of his book "The Hours" despite the fact that the movie couldn't possibly contain all the details of the novel.
June 1, 2005 - All Things Considered’s Tom Cran talks with Mo Chang, the charter school liaison and special project coordinator for St. Paul Public Schools, about the closure of Wat Tham Krabok and what life was like in the camp. As a child, Chang lived in Thai refugee camps. In 2004, she was part of a group that traveled with St. Paul Mayor Randy Kelly to learn more about life at Wat Tham Krabok.
May 31, 2005 - MPR’s Tom Crann interviews North Dakota poet Larry Woiwode on his dismay over Minneosta Governor Pawlenty’s decision to veto bill that would have established a poet laureate for Minnesota. At least 34 states have poet laureates. Like the majority of those writers, a Minnesota poet laureate would have received no tax dollars. But it wasn't the money that concerned Governor Pawlenty. Instead, he feared that naming a state poet would lead to requests for a Minnesota mime or state interpretive dancer.