January 7, 2008 - Walter Mondale, former vice president, U.S. senator, ambassador to Japan, and presidential nominee in 1984, celebrates 80 years and looks to the future. Mondale chats with Midday host Gary Eichten on various topics.
January 16, 2008 - MPR’s Marriane Combs interviews poet Robery Bly and actor Mark Rylance about Guthrie Theater’s “Peer Gynt” production.
January 17, 2008 - Midmorning’s Kerri Miller speaks with Minnesota lawmakers Tim Walz and Michele Bachmann, who both spent time in Afghanistan and Iraq this winter, surveying Minnesota's role in war. Walz and Bachmann share their different experiences and takeaways.
January 17, 2008 - Governor Pawlenty wants to make low-interest loans available to small businesses and homeowners, to install renewable energy systems. The governor announced the initiative at a news conference today (THURS). He also set up a collaborative group to oversee research and development on clean energy. Minnesota Public Radio's Stephanie Hemphill reports. {
January 18, 2008 - Theater Mu open's its musical "The Walleye Kid" tomorrow night at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts in St. Paul. After fifteen years of performing in smaller theaters around the Twin Cities, the asian-american company is getting some welcome exposure in high-profile venues like the Ordway and the Guthrie.
January 23, 2008 - Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate Al Franken takes listener questions for Midday's "Meet the Candidates" series. Franken, 55, was born in New York City, but grew up in St. Louis Park, Minnesota.
January 23, 2008 - Midday broadcasts a panel discussion with some of Minnesota's prominent Republicans and others at The Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota's Humphrey Institute. The topic the is state of the Republican party and how the current political landscape is shaping the character of conservativism.
January 24, 2008 - MPR's Gary Eichten interviews Louis Johnston, an economics professor at St. John's University and the College of St. Benedict, to discuss the tumultuous economy. Eichten also talks to MPR’s chief economics correspondent Chris Farrell to analyze the situation.
January 30, 2008 - Members of St. Paul’s House of Mercy Band think there's nothing hypocritical about parking on a bar stool on a Saturday night and then sliding into a church pew the following Sunday morning. MPR’s Chris Roberts talks with founder C.P. Larson, who says they're comfortable in both worlds.
January 31, 2008 - MPR’s Marianne Combs looks at the growing representation of transgender storytelling in local theater community. Combs highlights the play “Looking for Normal.” It's just one of several stories reaching Twin Cities stages about being transgender.