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.
December 12, 2002 - All Things Considered’s Lorna Benson interviews Knut Jørgen Moe, who wrote the libretto for "Olav Tryggvason," and is looking for support in bringing a full-scale touring production to Minnesota. Moe says many Americans are familiar with the Viking hero because he was such an influential and charismatic man.
December 20, 2002 - MPR’s Annie Feidt reports on a group of Hmong teenage girls from St. Paul leaving for Thailand and Laos to retrace the journey their parents took to this country. They're calling their trip "the Homeland Project."
January 1, 2003 - MPR's Euan Kerr reports on Argentinian composer Osvaldo Golijov and his composition "La Pasión según San Marcos" (St. Mark Passion) draws from many influences. There is the classical music and klezmer he learned through his Russian Jewish immigrant parents; passionate tango of Astor Piazzola which resonates through Argentina; as well as the deep, and at times militant, Christianity of South America.
January 3, 2003 - MPR's Michael Khoo reports on what is likely to be Governor Jesse Ventura’s last news conference as Minnesota's chief executive. Ventura has had a sometimes difficult relationship with the reporters who cover him, and although event was cordial, it was in many ways characteristic of previous appearances before the men and women he knew as "jackals."
January 17, 2003 - Five Hmong high school girls from St. Paul are back from a two-week trip to Thailand and Laos. They called the trip the Homeland Project. The girls hoped seeing their parents' homeland and meeting relatives they had only heard about would help them understand the deep cultural gap that separates them from their parents. MPR’s Greta Cuningham interviews three members of the group, Soua Yang, Cindy Xiong, and adult chaperone Gunnar Liden.
January 20, 2003 - MPR’s Annie Feidt reports on new technology that is helping resorts produce even better snow…and removing humans from the equation. Trollhaugen ski area is testing out an automated snow gun for the first time this year in efforts in working towards full automation.
January 29, 2003 - MPR’s Lorna Benson interviews John Munger about the first annual City of Lakes Loppet ski race. The lack of significant snow cover in the Twin Cities isn't going to derail event. Organizers are working to install a shortened course on the ice of Lake Calhoun and Lake of the Isles. The race was conceived by R.T. Rybak, Mayor of Minneapolis, as a way to help designate the city "the urban sports capitol of America." Munger, the race’s director, says experts from Mora's popular Vasaloppet ski marathon are tackling the difficult job of grooming the icy course.
February 13, 2003 - Mainstreet Radio’s Bob Reha attends final rehearsals of "Memorial," which debuts at the Nobel Peace Prize Forum in Moorhead. For Rene' Clausen, conductor of the Concordia College Choir, it was a daunting task. Clausen was commissioned by the American Choral Directors Association to write a piece that captured the emotional and spiritual elements of the September 11th tragedy.
February 17, 2003 - Mainstreet Radio’s Dan Gunderson reports on pesticide misuse in Minnesota, and investigates how violations of the law are often not punished, and sometimes ignored.
March 6, 2003 - MPR’s Laura McCallum reports on more than a thousand gay and lesbian Minnesotans appearing at the Minnesota State Capitol to protest a proposal to remove sexual orientation from the state's human rights law. They called the bill mean-spirited. The bill's author says he wants to prevent homosexuality from being taught in the schools.