June 8, 2009 - Jeff Hanson, local singer-songwriter known for a delicate falsetto voice, was found dead this weekend, after an apparent fall in his concrete floored St Paul apartment. MPR’s Tom Crann presents an interview and music clip in remembering the artist.
June 11, 2009 - The Orange Mighty Trio plays their own special brand of “hybrid” chamber music. MPR’s Dale Connelly interviews members of the group about their music style and writing process.
July 1, 2009 - MPR’s Euan Kerr talks with Garrison Keillor, who reflects on the early days of A Prairie Home Companion as the show reaches it’s 35-year anniversary.
July 9, 2009 -
July 21, 2009 - A story of hope amid despair. A new novel by Mayo Clinic doctor and obesity researcher James Levine tells the story of a young Indian girl forced into a life of prostitution. Dr. Levine says the novel sprang from a visit to the slums of Mumbai and encounter there that haunts him to this day.
August 3, 2009 - MPR’s Euan Kerr speaks with Penumbra Artistic Director Lou Bellamy about Claude Purdy, a founding member of the Penumbra Theater in St. Paul. Bellamy says Purdy offered many strengths to the stage.
August 11, 2009 - MPR’s Chris Roberts profiles the Minneapolis band The Pines. Roberts interviews co-founders Benson Ramsey and David Huckfelt about Midwestern music sensibilities and their album "Tremolo."
August 20, 2009 -
September 10, 2009 - Jim Perlman, founder of Holy Cow Press, discusses collection of poems "Beloved on the Earth" from Duluth based publisher. The book focuses poems about grief, mourning - and celebration.
September 21, 2009 - The inaugural formal meeting of The Kerri Miller Book Club presents an interview with Louise Erdrich, twenty-five years after Erdrich's novel "Love Medicine" was published and became a bestseller. Program recorded before an audience in Minneapolis.