January 12, 2010 - The battle is on for the smartest smartphone. Apple's iPhone and Google's new "Nexus One" are competing for the hearts and dollars of this year's phone buyers. But with so many phones out there, commentator Peter Smith is starting to notice some side effects.
June 8, 2010 - Watch it on TV or follow it on the Internet, and the Gulf oil spill seems both surreal and far away. But essayist Peter Smith says the lessons of the spill apply right here in Minnesota.
June 16, 2010 - Minnesota poet Philip Bryant has some words of comfort for the residents of the Gulf Coast in the face of the undersea oil gusher. Bryant, who teaches English at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, has seen hope return after a disaster.
June 18, 2010 - MPR’s Tom Crann talks with meteorologist Paul Huttner about dozens of tornadoes that swept across the state on June 17th. Huttner details what transpired to create the conditions for such an extreme weather scenario.
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.