March 7, 2008 - MPR’s Steven John talks with Twin Cities guitarist Billy McLaughlin in the studio. They discuss McLaughlin’s adjustment in playing as he battles a neurological disorder called focal dystonia. McLaughlin performs examples on what he does different as a musician since his diagnosis.
March 10, 2008 - MPR’s Tom Crann interviews Mary Hu, high school poetry champion of the Poetry Out Loud National Recitation Contest held at the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul. Segment also includes clip of Hu performing a Thomas Hardy poem. The students recited poetry of old -- by Longfellow, Poe, Kipling and Browning -- as well as new, like Maya Angelou, Billy Collins and Sharon Olds. After three rounds, Morris Area High School student Mary Hu emerged as this year's winner.
March 13, 2008 - MPR’s Tom Crann talks with guitarist Brian Miller, who is reviving some songs that were nearly lost to history. They're the melodies and lyrics of Minnesota's Irish lumberjacks, who logged the boreal forests in the two decades around the turn of the last century.
March 14, 2008 - MPR’s Steven John interviews renowned poet Maya Angelou, who shares thoughts on her life and politics.
March 21, 2008 - Painter and sculptor Richard Prince is famed in the art world for taking other people's work and presenting it as his own. Some people see it as theft, others see it as creating a new cultural understanding. An exhibition of Richard Prince's work called "Spiritual America" opens this weekend at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis .
March 25, 2008 - Midday remembers Jon Hassler in his own words, rebroadcasting an interview he did with MPR in 1999. Midday host Mike Edgerly then talks with two of Hassler's longtime friends - Bill Holm, a fellow Minnesota literary figure and author of Windows of Brimnes: An American In Iceland;” and Nick Hayes, friend and colleague of Hassler, and a professor at St. John's University. The two remark on the impact of his work, both as a writer and a teacher.
April 1, 2008 - Midday remembers Ralph Rapson, the prolific architect and dean of the Architecture School at the University of Minnesota, who died on March 29th, 2008. Rapson may be best known for designing the first Guthrie Theater in downtown Minneapolis.
April 3, 2008 - MPR’s Karl Gehrke profiles classical clarinetist Bruce Cho, who plays the Mozart Clarinet Concerto with the Minnesota Orchestra as part of the Young People's Concerts. Gehrke interviews Cho, his music teacher, and a music colleague.
April 10, 2008 - MPR’s Chris Roberts reports on release of “Walk it Off,” the sophmore album from Minneapolis band Tapes 'n Tapes. Roberts interviews band members Josh Grier and Eric Applewick about making the album.
April 17, 2008 - Pope Benedict XVI is visiting the United States for the first time as leader of the world's Roman Catholics. Midday explores the messages he plans to emphasize during his trip and the impact of his visit.