May 29, 2012 - President Obama speaks on awarding musician and Minnesota native Bob Dylan the Medal of Freedom.
June 26, 2012 - The author of award-winning architecture books and a series of mystery novels tells the audience about the craft of writing, and about the story-telling involved in both genres. The Club Book series is sponsored by Friends of the Hennepin County Library and the Metropolitan Library Service Agency.
August 6, 2012 - In this Pen Pals Lecture Series appearance, Brian Greene of Columbia University discusses his best-selling books, "The Elegant Universe" and "The Hidden Reality." He says science is about big ideas, not technical details. MPR's Stephen Smith interviews Brian Greene at the Hopkins, Minn., Center for the Arts.
August 22, 2012 - Science fiction writer Ray Bradbury, who died in June 2012, giving a Pen Pals lecture in the Minnesota back in 2000 about the influences on his life and work. He was born Aug. 22, 1920.
November 28, 2012 - Salman Rushdie delivers a Pen Pals Lecture in Hopkins about his memoir and his nine years living with death threats and a fatwa issued upon the publication of his novel, 'The Satanic Verses.' He lived under the pseudonym Joseph Anton.
January 4, 2013 - Journalist and humor writer Calvin Trillin speaks in Minneapolis at the Talk of the Stacks series about his new book "Dogfight: An Occasionally Interrupted Narrative Poem About the Presidential Campaign."
January 31, 2013 - Arthur Phillips speaks in Hopkins at the Pen Pals Lecture Series about his latest best-selling book, "The Tragedy of Arthur," a contemporary novel that contains an Elizabethan play.
March 8, 2013 - On this MPR News Presents program, Minnesota author Louise Erdrich speaks at Concordia University in St. Paul about her National Book Award-winning book, "The Round House," and her love of writing. Erdrich also reads from the book.
April 3, 2013 - MPR’s Julie Siple reports that a group of Hmong leaders in the Twin Cities say more needs to be done to prevent violence within their community. A meeting at the Hmong Village in St. Paul came after several recent deadly cases, including a domestic dispute that left three people dead.
May 9, 2013 - MPR’s Tim Pugmire reports that six months after Minnesotans rejected a constitutional amendment that would have banned gay marriage, the Minnesota House made an historic turn, voting to legalize same-sex marriage in Minnesota.