August 12, 2008 - As the media, politicans, protesters, and police all prepare for the upcoming Republican National Convention, in one man's mind it's already happened. And it's been chaotic. It's a pretty good bet that Bart Schneider has written the first book ever set during this year's RNC in Minnesota. His private eye protagonist Augie Boyer is right in the middle of it. Augie's adventures take him in and out of dozens of recognizable Twin Cities locations as he uncovers a murderous plot even as an absurd demonstration is being planned on the state Capitol grounds. I asked Bart Schneider about his book -- The Man in the Blizzard -- and it's crime noir hero.
August 14, 2008 - MPR’s Tom Scheck reports on Obama campaign focus on senior citizen votes. Report includes comments from Walter Mondale, former U.S. vice president; Josie Johnson, local civil rights leader; and Tom Steward, spokesperson for presidential candidate John McCain.
August 15, 2008 - MPR’s Euan Kerr reports on a musical of “Little House on the Prairie” premiering in Minneapolis. Kerr talks with creative team member of show and others in the theatre scene about musical’s potential success.
August 18, 2008 - New York Times reporter David Carr thought his life might make a good book. So he wrote about the time of his life that was filled with drug use, parenting mishaps and close encounters with oblivion. It's a junkie memoir, but one that Carr says was reported, not invented.
August 19, 2008 - Minnesota native L. Bruce Laingen was charge d'affaires of the American Embassy in Iran when radicals took over the building and held 52 Americans hostage from November 1979 to January 1981. Laingen is back in Minnesota to donate artifacts from that experience to the Minnesota Historical Society, and he joins Midday to talk about his experience during the hostage crisis.
August 21, 2008 - MPR’s Tom Crann talks with Lou Bellamy, artistic director at Penumbra Theatre, about the production of Fences by August Wilson.
August 22, 2008 - It turns you can go to the Minnesota State Fair and NOT eat anything on a stick.
August 25, 2008 - MPR’s Elizabeth Baier interviews Augsburg College Student, Juventino Meza, a first generation college student.
August 25, 2008 - All Things Considered’s Tom Crann interviews Congressman Tim Walz, of Minnesota's 1st Congressional District, about his views on bi-partisan approach to energy policy and offshore drilling strategies, including royalty payments that would then be used to alternative energy research and environmental protection.
August 25, 2008 - As a DNC spotlight interview, Midmorning host Kerri Miller speaks with former U.S. Vice President, U.S. Senator and Ambassador Walter Mondale about the civil rights struggle of Democratic national conventions past, and his experience as a Democratic presidential nominee.