July 16, 1996 - Midday examines workplace changes into the next century with guest Jeremy Rifkin, noted social critic and author of The End of Work: The Decline of the Global Labor Force and the Dawn of the Post-Market Era. Rifkin discusses politics, manufacturing, farming, corporations, and also answers listener questions.
August 6, 1996 - Mainstreet Radio's Catherine Winter visits the last remaining tugboat company in the Duluth Superior harbor. For more than 150 years, big ships have sailed the Great Lakes, from state to state and out to the sea. For nearly as long, little tugboats have helped the great freighters in and out of harbors, broken ice for them in winter, and rescued boats in emergencies.
August 7, 1996 - Mainstreet Radio’s Rachel Reabe visits the Great Lakes School of Log Building, where students learn the basics of log construction by doing it. The only full time, year round log building school in the country operates out of the woods near Ely in northeastern Minnesota.
August 19, 1996 - This hour of Midmorning features Voices of Minnesota segments with David Lanegran, an urban geographer; a Minnesota Twins update, including interviews with players Frank Rodriguez, Scott Stahoviak, and Paul Molitor; and an Odd Jobs piece on mussel transport.
September 2, 1996 - Hour 2 of Midmorning featuring a Voices of Minnesota interview with Mary Foster Rosenthal, AFL-CIO. Also featured is: Odd Jobs - fish feeder, Odd Jobs - bug wrangler, Odd Jobs - makeup effects artist, Odd Jobs - mascot maker, Odd Jobs - governor's chef.
November 4, 1996 - Hour 2 of Midmorning featuring Voices of Minnesota with Lee Lynch, Minneapolis ad man of Carmichael Lynch. Also, Ambassador Franklin Sonn and Elizabeth Mische on voting.
November 8, 1996 - MPR’s Mark Zdechlik reports on the Minnesota Twins and its allies looking to push lawmakers at the Minnesota State Capitol for a news stadium, the team going so far as to give a year’s notice as a warning on future of team in the state.
November 21, 1996 - R. J. Brown, Minnesota state commissioner of Department of Economic Security, discusses a research study that shows 70% of women in state are a part of workforce.
November 27, 1996 - MPR’s Leif Enger interviews Mary McGowan, owner of Trocano’s restaurant, about opening the doors to local community for Thanksgiving.
December 2, 1996 - Economist Dean Ramos comments on the business health of Dayton’s department store and the possibility of being sold.