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Curious Minnesota

Curious Minnesota
Author: Star Tribune
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℗ & © 2020 Star Tribune 386829
Description
What do you wonder about the people, places and culture of Minnesota? Listen to our community-driven reporting project, which invites listeners to ask questions that our newsroom researches and answers.
106 Episodes
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Ski jumping originated in Norway, but its American story begins in Minnesota in the late 1800s. It has since become an enduring part of the winter Olympics. Erica Pearson joins host Eric Roper to discuss the long history of ski jumping in Minnesota.
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How did Minnesota become the birthplace of ski jumping in America?
On the coldest day recorded in Minnesota history, two towns hoped that their official thermometer would give the lowest reading. It was Feb 2, 1996, and news reporters from around the state gathered in Tower and Embarrass. When one town prevailed, a man hammered nails with a frozen banana to celebrate. Casey Darnell joins host Erica Pearson to talk about that record-breaking day.
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What’s the coldest Minnesota has ever been?
We are excited to give Curious Minnesota listeners a preview of the Minnesota Star Tribune's first narrative podcast, "Ghost of a Chance." The six-episode series is reported by Eric Roper and produced by Melissa Townsend, with new episodes appearing every Monday. At its core, the show is about following your curiosity into Minnesota history. You can find "Ghost of a Chance" wherever you access podcasts (here are links to Apple Podcasts and Spotify) or here on our website.
This is the show description:
When reporter Eric Roper buys a lovely 113-year-old house in Minneapolis, he wants to find out everything he can about its history. But he quickly becomes obsessed with one couple who owned the house 100 years ago. Harry and Clementine Robinson send him down a surprising rabbit hole into an incredible history he never heard before. As he artfully and meticulously pieces together the remarkable story of their lives, we find out what the Robinsons reveal about a history of race in Minneapolis -- the city that became ground zero for an unprecedented global racial reckoning.
Many Minnesotans are still nostalgic for the Mall of America's original theme park: Camp Snoopy. They remember details like the giant red dog bowl where groups met up, the Snoopy bounce house and the whimsical fountain. Greta Kaul joins host Erica Pearson to explain why Peanuts left the mall in 2006 and how the park eventually became Nickelodeon Universe.
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What happened to Camp Snoopy at the Mall of America?
Minnesota is home to a number of abandoned towns that flourished earlier in their history. These ghost towns began with grand visions and enjoyed growing prosperity – until something changed. Anna Boone joins host Erica Pearson to explore the stories behind some of the state's most intriguing ghost towns.
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Minnesota’s ghost towns are a relic of grand visions gone awry
Rest areas are a common site on roadways across Minnesota. While they are easy to overlook, rest areas also serve an important purpose for driver safety. And it turns out that Minnesota has some of the nation's most exceptional rest areas. Reporter Erica Pearson joined host Eric Roper to discuss the history, function and design of these facilities.
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Why are Minnesota’s roadside rest areas so nice?
After Gov. Tim Walz joked about the state's low spice tolerance in a campaign video, a reader asked Curious Minnesota about the origins of the idea that Minnesotans don't like spicy food. The cultural stereotype is so pervasive in the state that many restaurants include menu warnings or simply offer versions of dishes with extremely minimal seasoning. Reporter Susan Du joins host Erica Pearson to unpack the geography, cultural history and science behind it.
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What’s behind the stereotype that Minnesotans don’t like spicy food?
The Old Dutch potato chip company is a regional icon in the Midwest, known for its twin pack box. They have been frying potatoes for 90 years. And it all began in a kitchen in St. Paul.
Reporter Brooks Johnson joins host Erica Pearson to talk about the company's history and what it was like when he toured their Roseville plant.
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How did Old Dutch potato chips get started in St. Paul?
A surplus of military Quonset huts after World War II provided a unique solution to a housing shortage in Minnesota and across the country. Steph Quinn joins host Eric Roper to discuss these temporary neighborhoods.
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How Quonset huts helped solve the post-WWII housing crisis in the Twin Cities
This special episode of Curious Minnesota was recorded at the State Fair on August 28th. Erica Pearson and Eric Roper discussed the origins of the Minnesota Star Tribune, which dates back to Minneapolis' incorporation as a city in 1867. The Strib is a descendant of three very different papers. The conversation also delved into what life was like on Minneapolis' Newspaper Row.
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How did the Minnesota Star Tribune get its start?
We had a blast chatting with fairgoers on Curious Minnesota Day at the Minnesota Star Tribune's State Fair building. Today's episode is a roundup of the questions we recorded.
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Why Wisconsin claims — incorrectly — to have more lakes than the Land of 10,000 Lakes
Why is Minnesota's Democratic Party called the DFL?
How Mayo Clinic became one of the world's most famous medical centers
Minnesota takes great pride in its lakes. "10,000 Lakes" is even emblazoned on the state's license plates. But at least some people in Wisconsin think their state has more lakes than Minnesota. It's because there's not one standard for what defines a lake.
A reader wanted to know more about why the states are measuring their lakes differently. Erica Pearson, who wrote a story on this topic for Curious Minnesota, digs into the details with host Eric Roper.
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Why Wisconsin claims — incorrectly — to have more lakes than the Land of 10,000 Lakes
Why does Minnesota have so many lakes?
Curious Minnesota will be hosting events at the Minnesota Star Tribune's State Fair building on Saturday, August 24th and Wednesday, August 28th.
Anyone who has spent time in south Minneapolis over the last 50 years has likely run across the unusual intersection at Lake Street and Nicollet Avenue. These are two of the city's most important thoroughfares. But the city decided in the 1970s to close Nicollet at Lake Street so a Kmart store could extend over a portion of two blocks. Adelie Bergström joins host Eric Roper to discuss what led to this controversial decision.
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Why did Minneapolis close Nicollet Avenue for a Kmart?
Minnesota is known for its Scandinavian roots, which are apparent in everything from the Vikings football team to the Norwegian bachelor farmers of Lake Wobegon. But more residents report having German ancestry than Scandinavian. So why isn't that German heritage more reflected more in the state's culture?
Reporter Greta Kaul joins host Eric Roper to discuss the effort to erase German culture in the state around World War I.
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Why did Minnesota erase much of its German culture?
Is Minnesota actually more German than Scandinavian?
We've talked about some old things on the podcast, including the state's oldest building and one of the world's oldest rocks. Today's episode is about a journey to visit another Minnesota artifact: the state's oldest known tree. Star Tribune cartographer Jake Steinberg and photographer Anthony Soufflé join host Eric Roper to discuss their winter trip to the Boundary Waters to report on this topic.
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This ancient tree is one of the oldest in Minnesota. The warming climate might kill it.
Like many states, Minnesota shuttered the controversial institutions that once housed mentally ill people. But the plan to replace these facilities with new types of treatment options remains incomplete. Reporter Chris Snowbeck joins host Eric Roper to discuss the important and complex history of mental health care in Minnesota.
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Emptying state institutions was supposed to help fix mental health care. What happened?
Chris Snowbeck's 2023 series on mental health care: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.
Minnesotans wanting to gamble have many options these days. They can visit a Native American casino, buy scratch-off games at a gas station, yank open pull-tabs at a bar or even play bingo at a church fish fry. But this is a fairly recent phenomenon. Reporter Alex Chhith joins host Eric Roper to discuss the history of gambling in Minnesota.
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How did gambling develop into a major industry in Minnesota?
It was difficult to walk around downtown St. Paul in the early 2000s without running into Snoopy, Linus, Lucy and Charlie Brown. Over five summers, the "Peanuts on Parade" public art campaign peppered the beloved comic strip characters throughout creator Charles Schulz's hometown. Reporter Katie Galioto joins host Eric Roper to discuss the background of this project, and where some of these statues can be found today.
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Searching for Snoopy: What happened to all the 'Peanuts' statues in St. Paul?
Pacemakers, Post-it notes and Spam rank among the state's best-known inventions. But creative Minnesotans devised hundreds of other products we take for granted. Reporter Brooks Johnson dug into this issue for Curious Minnesota and found so many interesting Minnesota inventions that he wrote two stories.
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What Minnesota inventions have shaped modern life?
Skid-steers, Softsoap and Nerf: 8 more Minnesota inventions that changed the world
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Matt Walsh says, "What is a woman?" And I ask him, "What is a lake?"