All Things Considered is a comprehensive source for afternoon news and information provided by various MPR hosts in St. Paul and NPR hosts in Washington over the decades. The program contains interviews, reports, speeches and breaking coverage.
August 25, 2016 - All Things Considered’s Tom Crann talks with MPR reporter Nancy Yang about the history of Minnesota State Fair’s mascot, ‘Fairchild.’ The gopher character has been at the fair for 50 years. He even has a sidekick, Fairborne.
September 2, 2016 - MPR’s Tracy Mumford takes a look at the history of one of Minnesota State Fair’s staples…the corn dog, which has been the unofficial food-on-a-stick of the Minnesota State Fair since 1947. That's the year the Pronto Pup came on the scene. And, yes: A Pronto Pup is a corn dog, despite what you might have been told.
September 9, 2016 - MPR’s Tom Crann interviews 20-year-old Augsburg College student Donte Collins, who was given the Academy of American Poets' Aliki Perroti and Seth Frank Most Promising Young Poet Award for his poem "What the Dead Know by Heart." Segment includes Collins reading poem.
October 13, 2016 - Bob Dylan's literary roots may be as tangled as the Nobel Prize winner's famously enigmatic lyrics, but at some point they invariably end up in the Hibbing High School classroom of B.J. Rolfzen. MPR’s Dan Kraker profiles the teacher and his future music icon student.
November 2, 2016 - MPR’s Laura Yuen and Rahim Feshir report on disproportionately high traffic stop numbers of minority drivers. They present data and narratives on one of the most common interactions between police and the public.
December 22, 2016 - MPR’s Laura Yuen profiles Guled Omar, a young man convicted of conspiring to kill people abroad for the Islamic State in Syria. As former leader of nine young Twin Cities men, Omar received 35 years in prison. Yuen talks with Omar in his first interview since arrest.
December 23, 2016 - MPR’s Brandt Williams reports on Lyndale Community School’s Kwanzaa celebration. Twenty years ago, Titilayo Bediako, a Minneapolis public school teacher started telling her students about Kwanzaa - the week-long African centered celebration of black heritage and values which begins the day after Christmas. She discovered that the underlying principles of the non-religious holiday resonated with students from diverse backgrounds. Now that early classroom lesson has grown into an institution which hosts an annual musical Kwanzaa recognition.
February 3, 2017 - MPR’s Riham Feshir and Laura Yuen present reports on Iraqi and Somali immigrant families separated due to implementation of a U.S. travel ban from seven Muslim-majority countries. Segment includes interviews with family members.
February 21, 2017 - MPR’s Euan Kerr shares this profile of a Minnesota classical icon. Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, Minnesota Orchestra Conductor Laureate, died at the age of 93 in St. Louis Park.
February 22, 2017 - MPR’s Dan Gunderson and Laura Yuen report on refugees who are attempting to cross Minnesota border into Canada over fears of deportation. Segment includes interviews with refugees, attorneys, and a U.S. border official.