November 24, 1979 - MPR's Rich Dietman talks with four young foreign journalists about their impressions of the United States, current affairs in their countries, and journalism around the world. The four journalists are Paiter Rotz of the Hungarian News Agency in Budapest; Bruno Lopez of the newspaper Ovaciones in Mexico City; Mohamed Mustafa of the El-Sahafa Arabic Daily newspaper based in Khartoum in Sudan; and Vaiju Mahindroo of the magazine Bombay Today in India. The group are participants in this year's World Press Institute at Macalester College in St. Paul.
November 24, 1979 - MPR Rich Dietman interviews David Hozza, St. Paul City Council president, who has announced he would not seek re-election to the council next spring. Hozza reflects on accomplishments during his tenure and reasons for leaving.
December 17, 1979 - A Midday broadcast of author and journalist David Halberstam speaking as part of the Minneapolis Public Library's "Portrait of a Lifestyle" program. David Halberstam talked about the media and its effect on us. Halberstam’s books include The Powers That Be, a critique on the media; and The Best and the Brightest, which examines the motivations behind U.S. policy in Vietnam.
December 18, 1979 - MPR’s Brigid Shea interviews Robert Spaeth, vice-president for sales and marketing for the Corn Products Council (CPC International), who discusses the bright future for corn and sugar products.
December 29, 1979 - Midday presents the documentary “Trampled Grass.” MPR’s Greg Barron accompanied a team of medical doctors and nurses from Minnesota as they worked in Cambodian refugee camps along Thailand's border with Kampuchea, the Khmer Rouge-controlled state that controlled Cambodia from 1975 until 1979.
January 7, 1980 - MPR’s Tom Meersman reports on Laotian refugees arriving in Minnesota. Meersman highlights struggles and adjustments the refugees face.
January 19, 1980 - Sonia Johnson, feminist and equal rights amendment (ERA) supporter, speaking at the University of Minnesota. Johnson was excommunicated from the Mormon church after she spoke out for ERA and against church political activities against ERA. Her address is part of a country tour in trying to rally renewed support for the Equal Rights Amendment. In her speech, she says she took on the political arm of the church and lost - a political arm that she says is actively campaigning against passage of the ERA and using deception as a key tool.
February 25, 1980 - MPR’s Nancy Fushan interviews poet and activist Marge Piercy. Segment also includes Piercy reading two of her poems.
February 26, 1980 - National Urban League director Vernon Jordan, Jr., National Urban League director, speaking at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. Jordon’s address was titled “The State of Black America,” and on the status of American blacks in the 1980's.
March 1, 1980 - On this Weekend program, Albrecht Thiemann, representing a German-based group called the Action Reconciliation Service for Peace, talks of the Holocaust and about insuring that such a thing does not again come to pass.