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.
January 3, 2005 - Voices of Minnesota talks business. Voices of Minnesota goes in-depth with two of the state's most prominent business leaders: Marilyn Carlson Nelson, the head of Carlson Companies, and Dr. Hugh Smith, the chair of the Mayo Clinic's board of governors in Rochester.
February 1, 2005 - Voices of Minnesota: Robert Pepin. University of Minnesota Physicist Robert Pepin, who served as science adviser for Apollo lunar missions 14 through 17, is confident that there is another earth-like planet somewhere that may be capable of supporting life. Voices of Minnesota pays a visit to Pepin as he recounts his remarkable career, exploring the cosmos without ever leaving the planet earth.
May 26, 2005 - The voices of three Minnesota Republicans. Voices of Minnesota takes a tour of the GOP's big tent with three prominent Minnesota Republicans from the party's left wing to its right: Sally Pillsbury, Wheelock Whitney and Bill Cooper.
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.