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Live, down to earth, unscripted interviews that aim to connect, inform and entertain. Real people share real stories with MPR News host Nina Moini. It’s journalism that doesn’t take itself too seriously and puts people first.
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Light snow was falling in the Twin Cities Wednesday morning and there’s more on the way for most of the state. MPR chief meteorologist Paul Huttner joins us with the details you need to plan your commute — plus, the odds of having a white Christmas and Hannukah. A housing program for moms in St. Louis Park cut its funding a year ago. Now it could get state money to help about 60 families stay in their homes.Minnesota 2nd District Rep. Angie Craig just became a leader of the House Agriculture Committee. We hear her plans for the farm bill.MPR News staff share their favorite parenting books of the year.Plus, we talk about 2024’s most popular baby names in the state — with a baby name consultant.Our Minnesota Music Minute was a song from WE WIN drummers and Thomasina Petrus and our Song of the Day was “Yabba-Dabba Yuletide” by Brian Setzer Orchestra.
Many of our MPR News coworkers who are parents are also avid readers. Here are a few of their favorite family-oriented titles.
M Health Fairview announced its list of top baby names of 2024 after the system helped deliver 12,000 babies at nine locations around the state.Boy names Theodore, Oliver and Henry have had lasting appeal, taking turns in the top three spots on Fairview’s annual list since 2021.For girls’ names, Olivia, Emma and Evelyn dethroned the perennial frontrunner, Charlotte.Steph Coffield is a name consultant and a Minnesota mom. Her social media account, Names with Steph, has garnered hundreds of thousands of followers on TikTok and Instagram by posting name suggestions, inspiration and offering name consulting services. She’s also the author of two books, “Names Don’t Have an Age” and “Names Don’t Have a Gender.”Coffield joined Minnesota Now to talk about this year’s baby name list.
A more than 40-year-old housing program for mothers with low income is back up and running after it was saved from bankruptcy. A nonprofit developer called Trellis bought the property this fall.This week, the state plans to secure $8 million in funding to keep the property and its programs afloat. Now almost 60 mothers and their children — many of whom have said the development was a safe place to recover from abuse or addiction — will remain in place and start receiving supportive programming. Corinne Martin has been living at the development in St. Louis Park. She joins Minnesota Now to talk about her experience.Jennifer Ho is the commissioner of Minnesota Housing, she also joins the program to talk about the request to the state.
There’s a good chance of significant snow coming Wednesday night for much of the state. And it’s giving us a higher chance of a white Christmas and also a higher chance of holiday travel getting impacted by weather.To get the full scope of what’s coming, MPR’s chief meteorologist Paul Huttner joined Minnesota Now.
The year 2024 was defined by many things. Among them? A remarkable, unprecedented year for women's sports. You might be thinking of Caitlin Clark's spectacular effect on college basketball and her WNBA premiere. But there are so many others that had outstanding years, including Simone Biles, Suni Lee and the rest of her Olympic team in Paris this summer, or Minnesota's own Lynx almost clinching that WNBA championship. The WNBA also saw record viewership.For most women’s sports, a larger mainstream audience started to give women's sports the recognition they've long deserved. Jillian Hiscock has dedicated her career to shining the spotlight on women's sports. She made state history too this year when she opened Minnesota's first ever women's sports bar, called A Bar of Their Own, earlier this spring. She joined MPR News host Nina Moini in studio to talk about the remarkable year.
If you’re looking for job security, you might consider being a home health or personal care aid. It’s the highest demand job in Minnesota, according to the state government. That need is only expected to increase as the population ages. But the median wage for home health and personal care aides is just over $35,000 per year, which leaves little to save for retirement. Now the union that represents many of these workers is asking the state to chip in for retirement in their next contract. Viktor Solberg lives on the Iron Range, cares for his mother full-time and is active in his PCA union, SEIU Minnesota. Solberg joined MPR News host Nina Moini to talk about his work on better benefits for PCAs in Minnesota.
In the span of a few days, two houses of worship in Minneapolis are facing threats and vandalism.Minneapolis Police are currently investigating the defacing of Temple Israel, a synagogue in Minneapolis. On Monday, a suspect spray-painted swastikas on the doors and pillar of the building. On Friday, Abubakar As-saddique Islamic Center, or AAIC in Minneapolis received an online threat, threatening violence to members of worship at the mosque. Minneapolis police determined the threat to be unfounded, but it still contributed to fear and concern in the Islamic community. Rabbi Marcia Zimmerman, the senior rabbi at Temple Israel and Osman Ahmed, Director of Advocacy with Minnesota's Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations joined Minnesota Now host Nina Moini to talk about their response to the threats.
Two Minneapolis houses of worship have been targeted in a short amount of time. A synagogue found a swastika spray painted on it Monday morning and a mosque received violent threats online. Members of both of those communities joined the show to talk about how they’re responding. Listen to a therapy session between a father and son who have sharp political differences in the latest of MPR’s Talking Sense series.A personal care attendant joined Minnesota Now to talk about advocating for state pension funds in his line of work.We headed to Fergus Falls for the latest in MPR’s Wander and Wonder series, where a man is turning back the dial to a vintage sound.The owner of Minnesota’s first bar for women’s sports joined MPR News host Nina Moini to talk about a phenomenal year of women’s sports.Our Minnesota Music Minute was Catalyst by Zacc Harris and our Song of the Day was One Day by Rachel Nunemacher.
Among the 1,500 sentences that were recently commuted by President Joe Biden, is a former Duluth store owner who was convicted of multiple felonies for selling synthetic drugs. Now the St. Louis County Sheriff is raising concerns about it. We'll talk to him. President-elect Donald Trump cut the number of refugees allowed to enter the United States during his first term. We'll talk to the leader of an organization that serves refugees about how she's preparing for his second. And we'll meet a Minnesota neuroscientist who was just named to Forbes list of 30 talented people under 30. We'll have our final sports recap of the year. Plus, a tumbleweed Christmas tree and other holiday memories from prairie life in the 1880s.
All the way back in 1975 former MPR News reporter Bill Siemering interviewed 98-year-old Ole Olson near Fargo. He shared happy Christmas memories from the Minnesota and Dakota prairies in the 1880s. The Olson family didn’t have much for little Ole at that time — they decorated for the holiday with tumbleweeds and one of the big gifts was an apple.But Ole says he had absolutely nothing to complain about.For Minnesota Now and Then, listen to Siemering and Olson.
About five weeks remain until President-elect Donald Trump takes the oath of office to begin his second term. Trump vowed in his campaign to limit immigration to the U.S. and carry out mass deportations. Those promises appealed to many voters. We’re going to focus on one way that people leave their home countries and arrive in Minnesota — refugee resettlement.During his first term, Trump cut the number of people who were allowed to enter under the country’s refugee program. And these numbers have since rebounded due to efforts by the Biden administration and private organizations that work on resettlement.Joining Minnesota Now host Nina Moini to talk about preparing for the next administration is Jocelyn Wyatt, the CEO of Alight, which works with refugees resettling in Minnesota.
Every year Forbes comes out with its prestigious 30 under 30 list. It highlights people making a change across various industries who are under the age of 30. In total, 30 people are selected across 20 industries. This year’s list includes Caitlin Clark and singer Noah Kahan. And it also includes a Minnesotan.Angeline Dukes, an assistant professor in neuroscience at the University of Minnesota was named in the category of Social Impact. Dukes founded the organization Black In Neuro, which empowers Black scholars in neuroscience-related fields. She joined Minnesota Now host Nina Moini to talk about the honor and her work.
The Packers did Vikings fans a favor this weekend. Green Bay beat the Seattle Seahawks, which secured the Vikings a spot in the playoffs. This will be the 32nd time the Vikings have gone to the playoffs, but they've only made four Super Bowls, which all took place in the 1970s. And there are reports that the owners of the NBA team the Phoenix Suns is interested in buying the Twins. Wally Langfellow is the founder of Minnesota Score Sports Magazine and co-host of the sports talk show 10,000 Takes. Eric Nelson is the other host of that show and Minnesota Vikings NFL reporter for CBS' Eye on Football and Sirius XM. They both joined Minnesota Now host Nina Moini to break down the latest in sports.
Some of the states’ elected officials are raising concerns after President Biden released a list of almost 1,500 people convicted of crimes he is granting clemency to. Jim Carlson made the list.He’s a Duluth former business owner who has served more than ten of his seventeen-year-sentence in prison and in a halfway house. Carlson was found guilty in 2013 for dozens of felony charges after selling synthetic drugs from his shop called The Last Place on Earth. Carlson has said in the past he didn’t know he was selling synthetic drugs that were illegal. Now with clemency, he’ll finish his sentence next week.St. Louis County Sheriff Gordon Ramsey wrote on Facebook that the decision is concerning and frustrating. He joined Minnesota Now host Nina Moini to explain his thoughts about this clemency process.
Transitions are a part of life. Throughout our lives we go through at least several major changes. Yet in many cases transitions take longer than expected or hoped for. Vanessa Tennyson has developed over the years a deep understanding of work and life transitions. At age 65, she is in her encore career as an executive and leadership coach. And as a transgender woman, she offers what she wrote on her website is “a rare perspective from experiencing both male and female gender roles as an employee, manager, executive and business owner.” In our series “Connect the Dots” we meet with people who have deep experiences in our community and ask them to share lessons learned about what really matters in life. MPR’s senior economics contributor Chris Farrell recently met with Tennyson at her office in Minneapolis and joined host Nina Moini to talk about it.
Nobel prize laureates are pushing back against President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. In a letter from earlier this week, the group asked Senators to oppose Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s confirmation to the job. They say he would “put the public’s health in jeopardy and undermine America’s global leadership in the health sciences.”Kennedy has promoted conspiracy theories including one that pushes that COVID-19 was created to target certain racial groups and give other groups immunity. He has also denied the link between HIV and AIDS, a scientific discovery that has helped to treat and prevent AIDS around the world. Kennedy has also embraced the debunked theory that childhood vaccines cause autism. Dr. Brian Kobilka, a 2012 Nobel Laureate in chemistry is one of the scientists trying to prevent Kennedy from being confirmed as leader of the Department of Health and Human Services. Kobilka is originally from Little Falls and attended the University of Minnesota Duluth. He’s now a professor at Stanford University and joined Minnesota Now to talk about his concerns.
The holidays are often an excuse to eat more cookies than any other time of year. Many people have family traditions where they gather to make sweet treats. Zoë François may have your next cookie recipe.Minnesota baker Zoë François is known to many online as Zoe Bakes. She has more than 400,000 followers on Instagram and also a Max (former HBO) show with Minnesota chef Andrew Zimmern. She is the author of three cookbooks, including her most recent book, “Zoe Bakes Cookies.” And you can meet her on Monday for a holiday cookie event at Graze Food Hall in Minneapolis.Zoe joined MPR News host Nina to talk about her cookbook full of 75 cookie, bar and brownie recipes.
Maybe you’ve had this experience. You’re standing in the store aisle doing some last minute gift shopping and you are getting further and further from making a decision. You’re questioning everything. And everything, the sweaters on the rack, the kitchen gadgets on the shelf all start to look…like a lot of stuff your loved ones don’t really need.MPR News producer Alanna Elder noticed that feeling recently. And she started really thinking about it. A lot of the gifts we buy this holiday season will probably end up in a landfill eventually, polluting the earth long after we’re gone. And making all of those items releases greenhouse gas emissions that are fueling climate change. At the same time, many small business owners rely on holiday spending. It’s a major part of the economy. For help thinking of a solution to buy more stuff and contributing to climate change, Alanna talked to Emily Barker. She is the Executive Director of ReUse Minnesota, an organization that works to protect the environment by promoting reuse, repair and borrowing rather than buying new. For the last three years they’ve put out a holiday gift guide.
On Thursday morning FBI agents searched the offices of two autism treatment centers — one in downtown Minneapolis and one in St. Cloud — as part of a major investigation into Medicaid fraud. A judge just unsealed a search warrant in the case and it links some of the defendants in the Feeding our Future child nutrition fraud case to these autism centers.MPR News correspondent Matt Sepic joined MPR News host Nina Moini to talk about what we know at this time.
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