August 27, 2008 - Young voters: Will they turn out? Broadcast: Midmorning, 08/27/2008, 9:06 a.m. The presidential campaign of Democrat Barack Obama is counting on a better turnout among young voters. Voters age 18-24 traditionally don't show up at the polls in as great numbers as their elders. Midmorning asks if the enthusiasm of today's youth will translate to their actual votes, live from the Democratic National Convention in Denver. Guests: Molly Andolina: Associate professor of political science at DePaul University. Robert Biko Baker: Executive director of the League of Young Voters. Justin Rockefeller: Political activist, and co-founder and National Program Director of Generation Engage. Bob Collins: Bob Collins writes the NewsCut blog for Minnesota Public Radio News. Susan Turnbull: Susan Turnbull is Vice Chair of the Democratic National Committee.
August 26, 2008 - Women's political participation. Broadcast: Midmorning, 08/26/2008, 7:06 p.m. Just 88 years ago, women in the United States could not vote. Midmorning celebrates the anniversary of the women's suffrage movement at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, ahead of Sen. Hillary Clinton's much anticipated speech. Women voters today can thank suffragists of the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848. It was the first women's rights convention held in the United States. Guests: Dee Dee Myers: former press secretary for President Bill Clinton. She's the author of "Why Women Should Rule the World." Ellen DuBois: Professor of History at UCLA. She is co-author of "Through Women's Eyes: An American History with Documents." Ellen Moran: Executive Director of EMILY's List.
August 26, 2008 - Unity and the role of women. Broadcast: Midmorning, 08/26/2008, 9:06 a.m. St. Paul, Minn. ? House speaker Nancy Pelosi says the Democratic Party still has to work to unite voters divided by the primary battle between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Clinton, meanwhile, is expected to release her delegates to Barack Obama. Two political observers talk about the remaining divisions in the party, including Democratic voters who still want to cast their votes for Clinton. Midmorning broadcasts live from the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colo. Guests: Kathy Kiely: Washington correspondent for USA Today. Jennifer Duffy: Reporter with The Cook Political Report. Susan Rice: Barack Obama's foreign policy advisor. DNC spotlight segment: Nancy Pelosi Broadcast: Midmorning, 08/26/2008, 9:22 a.m. Today's spotlight segment from the Democratic National Convention is with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. MPR's Kerri Miller attended a gathering of women delegates in Denver yesterday, where Pelosi shared a story about what it was like when she first got to Capitol Hill decades ago.
August 25, 2008 - The big voices at tonight's DNC. Broadcast: Midmorning, 08/25/2008, 7:06 p.m. The Democratic National Convention gets underway tonight in Denver. Our convention coverage this evening features a preview of the major speeches, to be delivered by Michelle Obama, Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, and perhaps Ted Kennedy, who may make a surprise appearance. Guests: David Sirota: Nationally syndicated political columnist and political strategist. He is the author of "The Uprising: An Unauthorized Tour of the Populist Revolt Scaring Wall Street and Washington." Chris Cillizza: covers politics and writes "the Fix" column for the Washington Post. Tom Scheck: political reporter for Minnesota Public Radio.
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.
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.
July 30, 2008 - Political ambition and class identity drive the plot of a new novel by Ethan Canin. The Iowa Writer's Workshop instructor takes his inspiration from the Kennedy family, in particular Ted Kennedy.
May 2, 2008 - Minnesota writer Leif Enger's new novel, "So Brave, Young and Handsome," is a tribute to the Western. An old cowboy seeks forgiveness from his estranged wife as he tries to shake a pursuing Pinkerton detective. And the book's narrator is a writer attempting to match the success of his first book. Enger's first novel, "Peace Like a River," was a best-seller.
April 28, 2008 - One of Minnesota's best-known novelists, Louise Erdrich, discusses her book “A Plague of Doves,” a story that weaves together the murder of a family, a lynching of men innocent of the crime, and the tangled relationships of Ojibwe and whites living around the dying town of Pluto, North Dakota.
March 20, 2008 - MPR’s Kerri Miller interviews multiple education experts on the rise of tuition and how that is also affecting endowments. While college tuition continues to rise, a record 76 colleges and universities have achieved endowments of $1 billion or more. Some members of Congress are putting more scrutiny on those endowments, and asking whether schools should use their endowment money to moderate tuition increases.