Voices of Minnesota, a long-running MPR series, highlights the many interesting voices that make up the people and history of Minnesota. It has appeared on Mid-Morning, MPR, Midday, and News Feature broadcasts in short form, and part of Midday hour programming in long form. Over the years, MPR’s Dan Olson, Gary Eichten, and numerous others, produced hundreds of fascinating interviews from the land of 10,000 Lakes.
July 14, 2005 - One of the highest and most beautiful voices of Minnesota. World famous genre-jumping soprano Maria Jette speaks with Minnesota Public Radio's Dan Olson as part of his Voices of Minnesota interview series.
September 16, 2005 - Voices of Minnesota pays a visit to two of the state's foremost architects. Ralph Rapson, who designed the original Guthrie Theater, shaped two generations of architects as the dean of the University of Minnesota's school of architecture. Rapson also did a stint at MIT, where he mentored his future colleague Leonard Parker, who created the Minneapolis Convention Center, the Humphrey Institute and Minnesota Public Radio's St. Paul studios.
December 7, 2005 - The Twin Cities are home to two of the nation's preeminent ethnic theaters. Voices of Minnesota profiles Lou Bellamy, director of the African American Penumbra Theatre in St. Paul; and Rick Shiomi, director of Minneapolis' Mu Performing Arts, which presents Asian-American theater and traditional Japanese Daiko drumming.
January 4, 2006 - A special Voices of Minnesota program, with Minnesota's highest-ranking elder statesman , Walter Mondale in the studio talking with MPR’s Gary Eichten.
February 8, 2006 - Midday presents a program highlighting two masters: one of the concerto, the other the cookbook. Voices of Minnesota visits two women who have risen to the top of two rather different fields: Minnesota Orchestra Concertmaster Jorja Fleezanis, and prolific cookbook author Beatrice Ojakangas.
August 16, 2006 - Voices of Minnesota visits two activists: Dr. Steve Miles and Laura Waterman Wittstock. Miles is author of a new book about the role American physicians played in torture in Iraq and Afghanistan. Wittstock is the first American Indian to win the coveted Louis W. Hill Jr. fellowship in philanthropy at the University of Minnesota.
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.
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.
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.
December 7, 2007 - Two lives changed by Pearl Harbor. Ken Deans was in the Army on the Island of Oahu on Dec. 7th, l941. His base was hit during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Carl Nomura was 19 at the time and living in Los Angeles. Not long after the attack, he and 120,000 other Japanese Americans were placed in internment camps.