January 24, 2014 - It's a Friday in Minnesota, and that means tonight's a good time for a meat raffle.It may be a part of Minnesota culture, but to newcomers and out-of-towners, the meat raffle baffles. As "Eat, Pray, Love" author Elizabeth Gilbert observed in the New York Times after visiting a Brainerd meat raffle in 2006, "You know you're an outsider when something that seems perfectly normal to everyone else is impenetrably bizarre to you."Meat raffles are considered a form of legal gambling, and they're regulated in this state by the Minnesota Gambling Control Board. They are common in Minnesota and Wisconsin, as well as in Canada and England.
December 26, 2013 - Richard Moe, Minnesota native and former chief of staff to Vice President Walter Mondale, brings readers into the world of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in his latest book, "Roosevelt's Second Act."Moe explores the year 1940, what he deems a pivotal year of American history, through Roosevelt's complex character of actions and motivations as he considered pursuing a third term. Moe argues that Roosevelt's third term greatly changed d America's foreign policy and changed the way people perceived the presidency.Moe joins The Daily Circuit to discuss his book. Moe will also speak Nov. 20, at 7:30 p.m. at the University of Minnesota's Humphrey School of Public Affairs.
November 4, 2013 - On this episode of The Daily Circuit, Kerri Miller talks with writer Garrison Keillor, who says that poets who think their art is an opportunity to communicate the bleakness of their lives should reconsider.