Main Street

Sunday, November 21, 2021 - North Dakota farmer and rancher Gabe Brown has won the Heinz Award for the Environment, complete with $250,000 in prize money. The award acknowledges his work in regenerative agriculture. We re-air a conversation with Brown from November 2019. ~~~ It’s estimated that nearly 1 in 5 Americans have left or skipped school because they did not have access to menstrual products. Aunt Flow is an organization striving to address that problem, and it works with many organizations, including Minnesota State Community and Technical College, which is now making free period products available in their campus bathrooms. Guest interviewer Brandi Malarkey visits with Madison Jansky, associate director of Equity and Inclusion at MState. ~~~ In this week’s Prairie Pulse television show, host John Harris visits with Cortnee Jensen of the North Dakota Department of Commerce. Today we share an excerpt, picking it up where Jensen explains her interesting role as director of strategy and transformation.

Friday, November 19, 2021 - Ashley stops by at the Christkindlmarkt in Fargo and visits with hobby blacksmith Ralf Mehnert-Meland and paper artist Christina Lang who practices quilling. The event runs through the weekend. ~~~ An oak tree tells us about the past in this week’s Plains Folk essay from Tom Isern. ~~~ News director Dave Thompson is here for his weekly news chat. ~~~ Mattt Olien reviews “Spencer,” a drama about Princess Diana’s decision to end her marriage to Prince Charles.

Thursday, November 18, 2021 - North Dakota farmer and rancher Gabe Brown has won the Heinz Award for the Environment, complete with $250,000 in prize money. The award acknowledges his work in regenerative agriculture. We re-air a conversation with Brown from November 2019. ~~~ Chuck Lura discusses the interesting phenomena of mima mounds in an episode of Natural North Dakota. ~~~ It’s estimated that nearly 1 in 5 Americans have left or skipped school because they did not have access to menstrual products. Aunt Flow is an organization striving to address that problem, and it works with many organizations, including Minnesota State Community and Technical College, which is now making free period products available in their campus bathrooms. Guest interviewer Brandi Malarkey visits with Madison Jansky, associate director of Equity and Inclusion at MState. ~~~ Sue Balcom is here for a discussion of spices in another installment of Main Street Eats.

Wednesday, November 17, 2021 - The North Dakota Leopold Conservation award has been announced. It goes to the Sand Ranch in Dickey County. Today we share an encore conversation with Brad Sand that first aired in July when the ranch was nominated. The award presentation will be part of the North Dakota Association of Soil Conservation Districts annual convention, which will take place virtually on the 21st. ~~~ In part three of its series on the trend of corporations getting involved with universities, Harvest Public Media explains how those relationships are helping schools fill funding gaps when it comes to improving facilities. ~~~ Speaking of farming, here's and idea that's out of the world — space farming! We visit Dr. Sherry Fieber-Beyer, director of the UND Observatory about her work growing food on asteroids.

Tuesday, November 16, 2021 - In an excerpt from the Conversations on Health Care podcast, we hear from Dr. Nicholas Christakis, director of Yale’s Human Nature Lab and an expert on the influence of social networks on health and behavior. In his recent book, Apollo’s Arrow: The Profound and Enduring Impact of Coronavirus on the Way We Live, he examines the patterns of pandemics throughout human history, putting the current pandemic in perspective. ~~~ Harvest Public media has prepared a series of reports on the trend of corporations getting involved with universities, especially within agriculture departments. Today’s story reports on one example of how that can become controversial. Dana Cronin reports. ~~~ Prairie Public’s Education Services manager, Dr. Tim Wollenzien, joins us for a discussion on Youth Media. What is it and why is it important? He’ll explain how regional teachers join an effort to teach media literacy.

Monday, November 15, 2021 - It’s Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week. Here to discuss the situation in North Dakota and how the pandemic complicated matters is Sue Shirek, executive director of Northlands Rescue Mission and chair of the North Dakota Coalition for Homeless People. The coalition will be hosting a statewide online forum about the state of housing in North Dakota on Tuesday. ~~~ In this week’s Prairie Pulse television show, host John Harris visits with Cortnee Jensen of the North Dakota Department of Commerce. Today we share an excerpt, picking it up where Jensen explains her interesting role as director of strategy and transformation.

Sunday, November 14, 2021 - Our Sunday highlight show will replay our conversation with Sarah Vogel about her book “The Farmer’s Lawyer.” ~~~ We’ll also have Matt Olien’s review of “The French Dispatch.”

Friday, November 12, 2021 - This Sunday, Prairie Public will hold a Facebook Watch Party presenting “Women Behind the Plow,” the original documentary that tells the stories of women who settled the North Dakota prairie and of the new generations who continue to work on the farm. The documentary was inspired by the book and exhibits produced by Sue Balcom. We visited with Sue about this project back in 2019. As a warmup for the watch party, we share an excerpt from that conversation. ~~~ It’s common these days for corporations to get involved with universities, especially within agriculture departments. Reporting by Harvest Public Media and Investigate Midwest reveals just how much money has gone to Midwestern universities, and how that money can put schools in sticky situations. ~~~ It’s been a busy week in the news for Dave Thompson. He joins us to recap the special session of the legislature. ~~~ Matt Olien reviews “The French Dispatch,” from director Wes Anderson.

Thursday, November 11, 2021 - Route 2 Elsewhere is a documentary highlighting the Highway 2 corridor from Michigan to Montana and features interviews from a variety of North Dakota residents. We visit with filmmaker Dirk Wierenga. ~~~ NDSU history professor Tom Isern shares a Plains Folk essay, “Song From Wayne.” ~~~ On this Veterans’ Day, we share an episode from the recent series of TellTale: Dakota Folklife and Stories, all of which feature veterans. ~~~ Sue Balcom is here with a discussion of seeds, one of nature’s most amazing things.

Wednesday, November 10, 2021 - Attorney Sarah Vogel is a North Dakota farm advocate who served as North Dakota Commissioner of Agriculture from 1989 to 1997. She joins us to discuss her new book, “The Farmer’s Lawyer: The North Dakota Nine and the Fight to Save the Family Farm.”