February 12, 2008 - Midday broadcasts live from the Capitol on the opening day of the Minnesota Legislature's 2008 session, featuring interviews with key lawmakers and legislative leaders.
February 12, 2008 - Midday broadcasts live from the Capitol on the opening day of the Minnesota Legislature's 2008 session, featuring interviews with key lawmakers and legislative leaders.
February 13, 2008 - Dee Long, former DFL Speaker of the Minnesota House, and Phil Krinkie, former Republican lawmaker and president of the Taxpayers League of Minnesota, join Midday to discuss Gov. Pawlenty's State of the State address.
February 25, 2008 - MPR’s Karl Gehrke talks with Minnesota jazz vocalist Connie Evingson about her CD of songs by Dave Frishberg, an American jazz pianist, vocalist, composer, and lyricist born in St. Paul. Gehrke interviews both artists and others about the music compositions.
February 28, 2008 - MPR’s Karl Gehrke meets with American composer Dominick Argento at his Minneapolis home to discuss his work “Evensong: Of Love and Angels," commissioned by Washington Cathedral Choral Society. Argento wrote the piece for his deceased wife, Carolyn, and considers it his most meaningful work.
March 4, 2008 - Members of the Minnesota 8, anti-war activists who were sentenced to prison for destroying draft files during the Vietnam War, join Midday to discuss their story, which is the subject of a play at the History Theater, titled Peace Crimes: The Minnesota 8. The two guests, Bill Tilton and Frank Kroncke, also answer listener questions.
March 6, 2008 - R.T. Rybak, mayor of Minneapolis, discusses crime and the economy with Midday host Gary Eichten. Other topics include bridge collapse and city initiatives. Rybak also answers listener questions.
March 7, 2008 - MPR’s Steven John talks with Twin Cities guitarist Billy McLaughlin in the studio. They discuss McLaughlin’s adjustment in playing as he battles a neurological disorder called focal dystonia. McLaughlin performs examples on what he does different as a musician since his diagnosis.
March 10, 2008 - MPR’s Tom Crann interviews Mary Hu, high school poetry champion of the Poetry Out Loud National Recitation Contest held at the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul. Segment also includes clip of Hu performing a Thomas Hardy poem. The students recited poetry of old -- by Longfellow, Poe, Kipling and Browning -- as well as new, like Maya Angelou, Billy Collins and Sharon Olds. After three rounds, Morris Area High School student Mary Hu emerged as this year's winner.
March 13, 2008 - MPR’s Tom Crann talks with guitarist Brian Miller, who is reviving some songs that were nearly lost to history. They're the melodies and lyrics of Minnesota's Irish lumberjacks, who logged the boreal forests in the two decades around the turn of the last century.