March 22, 2006 - Dr. Jon Hallberg, a team physician for the Minnesota Twins, describes various off the field issues in the MLB, including steroid use. Hallberg also details squad’s health at spring training in Fort Myers.
March 9, 2006 - All Things Considered’s Tom Crann interviews Lee Pao Xiong, director of Concordia's Center for Hmong Studies, about the first ever International Conference on Hmong Studies. Academics from around the world are coming to Concordia University to talk about a culture undergoing dramatic transition.
March 7, 2006 - With the unexpected death of former Twins player Kirby Puckett just shy of his 46th birthday, MPR’s regular medical analyst Dr. Jon Hallberg talks about the suddenness and severity of Puckett’s fatal stroke and underscores how serious this health condition can be.
March 7, 2006 - Along with the fans, Kirby Puckett's many former teammates are mourning his unexpected death. One of them is Roy Smalley. He played three seasons with Puckett ending with 1987, when the Twins won their first World Series. Roy Smalley remembers that season well, and agrees with the accounts that credit Puckett with leading the Twins to its first championship.
January 31, 2006 - You may know Camille Paglia from her wide-ranging columns on culture and politics on Salon. Or from her breakthrough book: "Sexual Personae, a treatise on decadence in the history of art." It's fair to say her thoughts are often provocative, causing controversy with feminists and cultural conservatives alike. In her most recent book, she goes back to basics, and turns to her academic roots: poetry. And she rails against what she terms "post -modernist" theories of poetry. The title -- "Break, Blow, Burn" -- comes from a line of one of John Donne's Holy Sonnets. It's a collection of essays on 43 poems Paglia teaches in class: from lyrics to a song by Joni Mitchell, to classics like Shakespeare and Donne.
January 25, 2006 - That's Minneapolis author Robert Alexander, his new novel is "Rasputin's Daughter." He embarks on a national book tour tomorrow, but will be back in Minnesota later this spring. He'll appear with Minnesota Public Radio's Kerri Miller on March 10th at Saint Scholastica college in Duluth, for a Mid-morning book club event.
January 11, 2006 - One of Minnesota's largest medical groups has announced it will lay-off a quarter of its mental health workers. HealthPartners plans to stop providing mental health therapy at its University Avenue clinic in Minneapolis, eliminating the jobs of 13 therapists in the process. Other major healthcare providers have made similar cuts in mental health treatment in recent years. The HealthPartners announcement also comes on the heels of a disturbing case in which a mentally-ill man killed his step-mother. The family says they had sought care for the man at Fairview Southdale Hospital but were advised to go to another hospital because there were no beds available. Our regular medical analyst Dr. Jon Hallberg says great strides have been made in the field of mental health treatments, but providers still don't give it the attention it deserves.
December 13, 2005 - As congress moves into its last week in session, representatives in the senate and house have two things on their minds: taxes and immigration. MPR's Tom Crann examines the different sides of the debate.
December 12, 2005 - MPR’s Tom Crann interviews Emerson College literature professor Daniel Tobin about Eugene McCarthy’s poetry.
December 2, 2005 - MPR’s Tom Crann meets with the Steele family in the Maud Moon Weyerhaeuser Music Studio to discuss family and Christmas. The Steeles also perform various Christmas songs.