June 23, 2010 - Jason Zabokrtsky, a guide and outfitter, comments on his concerns over potential pollution from copper-nickel mining close to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.
July 6, 2010 - Summer is with us, and so to, all the little gas powered machines and gardening tools--devices that can be just a bit erratic when it comes to getting them started and keeping them going. You may not know what to do, but this week, essayist, Peter Smith honors a noble, quintessentially Minnesotan profession whose practitioners almost certainly do.
August 3, 2010 - Remember the old days on radio when folks who couldn't sleep sat up listened to music and talk stations all all night? Well essayist Peter Smith has discovered a new breed of insomniac out there... Guess where.
August 10, 2010 - It's going to be another hot early August day for today's primary election. In the farm fields, sweet corn coming in. Back yard tomato plants going full tilt across the region. But don't look now, Minnesota. Essayist Peter Smith says a change is on the way.
August 17, 2010 - It's mid-August, and with a new school year looming on the horizon. Minnesota Public Radio essayist Peter Smith has a few words of encouragement for the state's school teachers.
September 6, 2010 - The Fair is older than Minnesota itself and it's always been a place to celebrate our agricultural roots...but it's also been a place to revel in the unusual. Author Peg Guilfoyle dug up some memories from nearly a century ago.
September 18, 2010 - Today is F. Scott Fitzgerald's birthday, and the theater that bears his namesake is turning 100 years old. To mark the occasion, author Patricia Hampl presents an original production, "The Big Time: F. Scott Fitzgerald." It's a staged storytelling of F. Scott Fitzgerald's vision of making it big. The performance was created by Hampl and music director Dan Chouinard, and it features singer Blake Hazard, who is Fitzgerald's great-grandaughter.
September 21, 2010 - Read any good books lately? Essayist Peter Smith has -- and not just a good book -- a good old book about Minnesota that just might be perfect for this time of year.
September 24, 2010 - As part of celebration of F. Scott Fitzgerald's birthday, Midday airs "The Big Time: F. Scott Fitzgerald." With the theater that bears his namesake turning 100 years old, author Patricia Hampl marks the occasion by presenting this original production. It's a staged storytelling of F. Scott Fitzgerald's vision of making it big.
October 5, 2010 - Essayist Peter Smith reflects on a BWCA memory along the shore of Lake Agnes, and of an old robin he wish he had saved.