June 9, 2003 - MPR’s Mark Zdechlik interviews Rick Kahn, who reflects on his controversial eulogy at Paul Wellstone memorial service and the political fallout.
June 12, 2003 - MPR’s Gary Eichten talks with former Minnesota U.S. Senator Eugene McCarthy on past and current presidential campaigns, candidates, and the Presidency of George W. Bush. McCarthy also answers listener questions.
July 18, 2003 - Acclaimed writer and Minnesota native, Patricia Hampl, is perhaps best known for her memoirs. She focused on reading and writing memoirs and the importance of auto-biographies to help us understand the past in a recent speech at the Minnesota Historical Society. Her books include "The Summer House", "2 for 5", and "Virgin Time." Hampl has a new book coming out next year called "The Silken Chamber." She's also working on two new books--a collection of short stories and a new memoir, about her mother and father. It's called "My Mother's Daughter."
August 1, 2003 - Writer and humorist Calvin Trillin is widely regarded as one of America's finest writers. Since the early 1960s, his work has appeared in the New Yorker, The Nation, and Time magazine. He's written three memoirs, two of them best sellers. He's written about topics from cuisine and culture to school desegregation. In all, he's written 22 books, including his latest: "Feeding A Yen: Savoring Local Specialties from Kansas City to Cuzco." We hear a speech by Calvin Trillin about a humorist's view of writing and reporting.
September 19, 2003 - Attorney General John Ashcroft brushed aside critics of the USA Patriot Act on Friday, saying the United States was freer and safer than it was two years ago. "American is more secure today than two years ago, and it's safer and freer than at any time in the history of human freedom," he said.
September 29, 2003 - All Things Considered’s David Molpus talks with MPR’s Laura McCallum, who is traveling with Governor Tim Pawlenty delegation on a trade mission in Canada. Pawlenty is trying to push Minnesota to pursue research partnerships and business opportunities with Quebec. The governor met with Montreal Premier Jean Charest.
October 9, 2003 - David Halberstam is one of America's finest journalists and one of America's most widely read authors. He has written 19 books, 14 of which have been New York Times' best sellers. In the 1960s, when he was just 30 years old, he won a Pulitizer Prize for his coverage of the Vietnam War, and his subsequent book about the men who took us into that war, "The Best and Brightest," has been widely hailed as one of the best books of its kind. His most recent book is "The Teammates." We hear him during both hours of Midday today in discussion at a recent Pen Pals Lecture Series, sponsored by the Library Foundation of Hennepin County.
October 20, 2003 - A Twin Cities speech by Al Franken, author of "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right". He spoke at an event sponsored by Ruminator Books in St. Paul.
December 4, 2003 - Harold Kushner, Rabbi Laureate of Temple Israel in the Boston suburb of Natick, Massachusetts, is probably best known for his 1981 international best seller, "When Bad Things Happen to Good People." But he's also written a number of other popular books, including "Living a Life that Matters," "Who Needs God," and "After the Darkest Hour the Sun will Shine Again: A Parent's Guide to Coping With the Loss of a Child." His latest book takes a somewhat different approach. It explains why the well known 23rd Psalm, "The Lord is My Shepherd," has proved so helpful to so many in times of distress. Rabbi Harold Kushner spoke last month at Wayzata Community Church at an event sponsered by Bookcase of Wayzata. He explained that he took a different approach to writing his latest book.
January 23, 2004 - A Twin Cities speech by Abigail Thernstrom, author of "No Excuses: Closing the Racial Gap in Learning". Thernstrom says this is the central civil rights issue of our time. She spoke Thursday at the Center of the American Experiment.