June 17, 1996 - Midday’s Gary Eichten discusses the results of the Russian presidential election with guest Nick Hayes, live from Moscow. Hayes is a history professor at Hamline University in St. Paul. He has lived and traveled in Russia and studied Russian politics and culture for many years.
June 7, 1996 - Midday studio guest is U.S. Senator Paul Wellstone on the opening day of the DFL State Convention. Listeners call in with questions.
June 6, 1996 - Midday discusses same-sex marriage and the Defense of Marriage Act. MPR’s Gary Eichten gets different perspectives on the ‘definition’ of same-sex marriage from guests Fritz Knaak, attorney and former State Senator; and Minneapolis family law attorney Suzanne Borne. Knaak and Borne also answer listener questions.
June 3, 1996 - Midday’s Gary Eichten talks with with veteran broadcast journalist Sylvia Poggioli, who has been National Public Radio's Central Europe correspondent for years. Poggioli covered the civil war in the former Yugoslavia. She is in the studio to talk about post Cold War Europe, life as a foreign correspondent, and answers listener questions.
May 31, 1996 - This Midday program features a live broadcast from the Republican State Convention with host Gary Eichten and MPR political commentators Bob Meek and Tom Horner. Program includes an interview with Republican State Convention Chair Chris Georgacas and listener questions.
May 30, 1996 - Midday presents a live broadcast of the Westminster Town Hall Forum, featuring Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David McCullough. He is the author of the prize-winning biography Truman and numerous other books and is well-known as the host of the PBS television series The American Experience. His Westminster Town Hall Forum lecture is titled, American Society: Civil and Uncivil. McCullough’s speech is the last in a Westminster series “Voices of Consensus.”
May 28, 1996 - Midday’s Gary Eichten talks with Ann McBride, president and CEO of Common Cause, a non-partisan citizens' lobby organization dealing with issues of money in politics, government ethics, and government responsibility. The organization's current focus is campaign finance reform and special interest influence. McBride also answers listeners questions.
May 20, 1996 - Midday speaks with Minnesota 8th District Congressman Jim Oberstar, whose in the studio to talk about aviation safety, the BWCA, the congressional debate over the budget, and more. Oberstar, the senior member of Minnesota's congressional delegation, also answers listener questions.
May 16, 1996 - Midday presents Nobel Prize-winning writer Toni Morrison speaking as the distinguished Carlson lecturer at the University of Minnesota. Morrison’s speech was entitled “Mutual Hesitancies,” looking at the relationship between fiction and history.
May 13, 1996 - Midday puts the focus on education as MPR’s Gary Eichten interviews David Berliner, professor at Arizona State University and author of the book The Manufactured Crisis: Myths, Fraud, and the Attack on America's Public Schools. Berliner also answers listener questions.