January 28, 2010 - As part of MPR's Youth Radio Series, Youth Radio reporter Roy Lee Spearman Jones tells the story of being out on his own as a gay and homeless young man.
January 28, 2010 - MPR’s Bob Kelleher reports that a deadly fish disease has been confirmed in Lake Superior. Researchers have identified the disease known as VHS in fish taken from four places in the lake, including the Duluth-Superior Harbor. It is not known yet if that means fish populations are at risk in the big lake.
January 29, 2010 - MPR’s Chris Roberts profiles Accordo, the renonwned Twin Cities chamber ensemble. Roberts interviews members of group about their intimate connection while performing together.
February 4, 2010 - 20 athletes from Minnesota participated in the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, seven of which were curlers. Two of them, Allison Pottinger and John Benton, talked with MPR’s Cathy Wurzer about the upcoming Olympics and how they felt about representing their state.
February 15, 2010 - MPR’s Rupa Shenoy reports on a group of local African Americans working to purchase the historic Amos Coe mansion in Minneapolis, in hopes of developing museum devoted to Black Minnesotans…a first. There are hopes the museum can be a place where African immigrants and African Americans learn about each other.
February 16, 2010 - Willa Cather's "My Antonia" captured the beauty of the prairie and the hardscrabble existence of European immigrants on the Nebraska plains. The author of a new stage adaptation of the novel, and a Cather scholar, talk about why the story still resonates.
February 17, 2010 - MPR’s Euan Kerr reports on the play "Black Pearl Sings." Kerr talks with director Lou Bellamy and actors from play.
February 19, 2010 - When it comes to defining Ellen Kuras, it's simplest just to call her a filmmaker. The bulk of her work is as director of photography for many of the great film directors of our time. She also makes commercials. Last year, her film "The Betrayal" received a nomination for best documentary Oscar. Kuras will speak about her work Saturday night at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. She says the different facets of what she does are very much intertwined. Ellen Kuras went to college to study Egyptology and anthropology. To hear her tell it, the path to becoming a cinematographer was a natural progression. "Basically I realized I was interested in people and history, and how people relate to each other and culture. And it was that that led me to an interest in documentary filmmaking," Kuras said. "I have a very strong sense of the political. And I thought, I want to make films that move people, I want people to be educated about the nature of the world, or about stories about people." Kuras started work on a film about a family of Laotian refugees living in New York. Like the Hmong, they fled Laos after helping the U.S. military in the so-called secret war in their country. Kuras directed the film about their struggles in America. She knew it was a great story. Yet as she reviewed the material her crew shot, she became uneasy. The footage was technically great, but she felt something was missing.
February 24, 2010 - Award-winning Minnesota history author Dave Kenney discusses the history of the Boy Scouts in central Minnesota and western Wisconsin. Kenney is out with a book on the subject, entitled Honor Bright: A Century of Scouting in Northern Star Council. Kenney also answers listener questions.
February 25, 2010 - Elizabeth Gilbert's first memoir, "Eat, Pray, Love," which chronicled her travels and personal renewal after a divorce, became a blockbuster bestseller. In her latest book, "Committed" she explains how she came to make peace with marriage as she gives it a second try with a new partner.