MPR News editor-at-large and retired host Gary Eichten has worn many hats during his 40-plus-year career at Minnesota Public Radio, including news director, special events producer and station manager. He has served as host for Minnesota Public Radio's live, special events news coverage, and has hosted all of the major news programs on Minnesota Public Radio, including Midday, which he hosted for more than 20 years.
A graduate of St. John's University in Collegeville, Minnesota, Eichten began his career at Minnesota Public Radio as a student announcer at KSJR (Minnesota Public Radio's first station). Among the honors Eichten has received during his career is the Corporation for Public Broadcasting award for best local news program. He also assisted in the development of two Peabody award-winning documentaries. In 2007, he was inducted into the Pavek Museum of Broadcasting's Hall of Fame. Eichten has also been awarded the prestigious 2011 Graven Award by the Premack Public Affairs Journalism Awards Board for his contribution to excellence in the journalism profession.
June 29, 2006 - Speaking in St. Cloud Wednesday, David Broder, the Washington Post's national political correspondent, said that the baby boomers have proved to be bad at governing the United States. Broder says boomer politicians are too focused at re-fighting the battles of the past. Given at League of Minnesota Cities conference.
June 20, 2006 - Historian Robert Dallek says it's not so much a president's actions that make him memorable, it's his words. Dallek discussed the power of John F. Kennedy's words in a recent appearance at the Kennedy Library in Boston.
June 14, 2006 - As Minnesotans prepare to say farewell to spring, Minnesota Public Radio's favorite weatherman stops by to discuss Minnesota's weather, past and present. Part 2 of 2Mark Seeley: Meteorologist and climatologist at the University of Minnesota. Seeley is the author of the "Minnesota Weather Almanac."
June 14, 2006 - As Minnesotans prepare to say farewell to spring, Minnesota Public Radio's favorite weatherman stops by to discuss Minnesota's weather, past and present. Part 1 of 2Mark Seeley: Meteorologist and climatologist at the University of Minnesota. Seeley is the author of the "Minnesota Weather Almanac."
May 17, 2006 - In the weeks following Hurricane Katrina, President Bush acknowledged that the disaster laid bare the persistent racial inequalities in America, but Bush strongly rejected the idea that the federal government's response to Katrina was somehow racist. Social critic Michael Eric Dyson was not convinced. Michael Eric Dyson: Professor of humanities at the University of Pennsylvania, in the keynote address of The Blake School's annual Diversity Symposium on May 3 in Minneapolis. Dyson's latest book is "Come Hell or High Water: Hurricane Katrina and the Color of Disaster."
May 8, 2006 - The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments Monday in a case that will decide whether public school districts can assign students to schools based on race. Hundreds of districts across the nation try to enforce diversity because they worry schools will become segregated if they don't. Education reformer Jonathan Kozol talked about the increasing segregation of America's schools in May at Carleton College. Jonathan Kozol, the former teacher who has written about race, poverty and education for nearly four decades, spoke about what he calls the "restoration of apartheid schooling in America"
May 5, 2006 - On Sunday May 7, 43 years after its first opening night, the Guthrie Theater will close its old building next to the Walker Art Center, and move to new digs on the Mississippi River. Hume Cronyn, a member of the Guthrie's first acting company, looked back on the theater's early days in a 2003 conversation with Guthrie artistic director Joe Dowling.
April 25, 2006 - In honor of Holocaust Remembrance Day, Midday presents Voices of Minnesota interviews with two women who survived the Holocaust and ended up in Minnesota: Sabina Zimering and Lucy Smith.
March 23, 2006 - What values and ideas have shaped the world's lone superpower?Jacob Needleman: Professor of philosophy at San Francisco State University, in a speech from the Westminster Town Hall Forum in downtown Minneapolis. Needleman has written more than a dozen books, including "The American Soul: Rediscovering the Wisdom of the Founders," "Two Dreams of America" and "The Wisdom of Love." He was also a contributor to the PBS program "A World of Ideas." Westminster Town Hall Forum
March 16, 2006 - Physicists like to theorize about all kinds of far out concepts: parallel universes, dark matter, alien civilizations and even time travel. Michio Kaku: Professor of theoretical physics at the City University of New York. Kaku spoke about his book "Parallel Worlds: A Journey Through Creation, Higher Dimensions and the Future of the Cosmos," at the University of Minnesota Bookstore.