July 11, 1979 - Richard Buckminster Fuller, American architect, speaks to the Women's National Democratic Club. Topics include architecture, economy, and inflation. Following his speech, Fuller answers audience questions. Fuller was also a systems theorist, author, designer, inventor and futurist.
July 26, 1979 - Kenneth Young, Director of the Department of Court Services, Hennepin County; Cindy Turnure, Director of Research for the Crime Commission Planning Board; and Ray Cummings, Director of Planning and Evaluation for Court Services talks with MPR’s Dan Olson about crime in Minnesota. Topics include FBI study noting 17% increase in national crime statistics.
July 27, 1979 - Cesar Chavez, president of the United Farm Workers, speaking at College of Saint Teresa’s Institute on Justice. The theme was “Attaining Justice Through Compassionate Leadership."
July 28, 1979 - Dr. James Kern, psychologist and former professor of guidance and counseling at Winona State University, speaking at a conference of the Mental Health Association of Minnesota at Carleton College in Northfield. The theme of conference was "The Value of Children.” Kern shares stories and insights of the child.
July 30, 1979 - MPR reporter John Ydstie presents sound portrait of a powwow celebration. Ydstie went to the White Earth Indian Reservation in Northern Minnesota and recorded various interviews and performances from the Ojibwe cultural event.
August 4, 1979 - In this documentary, Craig Oliver, of public station WAMU in Washington, traveled to Minnesota as part of a national examination of the D.C. congressional representation question, with three-quarters of a million residents of the district having no voting representatives in the U.S. House or Senate. The Minnesota legislature is one of six state legislatures in the country which have voiced approval of an amendment to the U.S. Constitution, designed to give the District of Columbia full congressional representation. 38 states must agree to ratify, within seven years, if the proposed amendment is to take effect. Program presents various reports and interviews from opponents and supporters of amendment.
August 8, 1979 - Michael Fedo, author, talks with Claudia Hampsten, talks with author Michael Fedo about his book They Was Just Niggers about the the Duluth lynching of three Black men in 1920. Fedo describes how it affected the community and attitudes long after the murders of the young men. [Content Warning: some content, language, and statements used in this story may be triggering to listeners]
August 9, 1979 - Brian Jenkins, of the Rand Corporation and author of International Terrorism; a New Mode of Conflict, speaks on the book subject at an Iowa State University symposium on "Humankind in the 1980s."
August 11, 1979 - On this regional public affairs program, C. Donald Peterson, Minnesota State Supreme Court justice; John Finnegan, executive editor at St. Paul Pioneer Press-Dispatch; and Marshall Tannick, Minneapolis attorney and former journalist, discuss a number of 1979 court decisions affecting first amendment press rights including freedom of the press, the right to privacy, and the people's right to know.
August 13, 1979 - Midday presents “The Way to 8-A,” a documentary sound portrait on the involuntary commitment to Hennepin County General Hospital's Ward 8-A, a psychiatric ward. Program looks at the people being committed, those doing the committing, the staff, and the entire process of involuntary commitment.