Main Street

Friday, April 14, 2023 - SCRAP, the documentary, tells stories of salvage enthusiasts. It will be screened on Saturday the 22nd at the Palace Theatre in Lemmon, SD, in conjunction with Earth Day. One of the people featured in the film is Lemmon resident John Lopez. Also attending the event will be producer/director Stacey Tenenbaum. She joins us for a preview. ~~~ Harvest Public Media reports on the concerns over CO2 pipelines, with North Dakota one of the destinations. ~~~ Bill Thomas shares a poem by Denise Lajimodiere performed to music by Russ Peterson. ~~~ News director Dave Thompson joins us for a discussion of the week’s news. ~~~ Matt Olien reviews “Paint,” a drama about an artist with a show on a local public TV network.

Thursday, April 13, 2023 - The Professional Bull Riders Pendleton Whisky Velocity Tour has a stop in Grand Forks this Saturday. We visit with bull rider Keith Hall. ~~~ Jessie Veeder shares another essay from the ranch: “Handyman’s Wife.” ~~~ In an excerpt from the Prairie Pulse television show, host John Harris visits with Dr. Venkatkiran Kanchustambham, a leading expert in Covid and is on the front lines of trying to find out what causes Long Haul Covid and how it can be treated.

Wednesday, April 12, 2023 - Bill Thomas visits with North Dakota’s new poet Laureate, Denise Lajimodiere. We also hear from Kim Konikow, executive director of the North Dakota Council on the Arts. ~~~ Continuing on a poetry theme, we learn about Geoffrey Caucer and hear the beginning of his Canterbury Tales, which is set in springtime. It’s in Middle English, an example of how dramatically language can change. ~~~ Mortician Caitlin Doughty is coming to North Dakota as part of Humanities North Dakota’s Brave Conversations series. She runs The Order of the Good Death and challenges current practices surrounding death.

Tuesday, April 11, 2023 - Sue Backer of Spiritwood visits with Craig Blumenshine about her experience being diagnosed with ALS. ~~~ Arcadia Publishing is out with a new book: “Images of Aviation, North Dakota Air National Guard.” Joining us are the authors, David Lipp, retired public affairs officer for the North Dakota Air National Guard; and Max Sabin, collections manager at the Fargo Air Museum.

Monday, April 10, 2023 - More than 55 million people live with some form of dementia, with North and South Dakota having the highest death rates related to the illness. Caring for those patients is a difficult task. We hear from Deb Kaul, the executive director of the Memory Café of the Red River Valley; and also from four caregivers. ~~~ In an excerpt from the Great American Folk Show, Tom Brouseau shares a piece about the Northwood Performing Arts Center. ~~~ Master gardener Audrey Gilbraith isn’t letting the late spring dampen her enthusiasm. She joins us with some more gardening insights. ~~~ What does it mean to be “of the prairie”? Dr. Molly Rozum contemplates that in her book, Grasslands Grown: Creating Place on the U.S. Northern Plains and Canadian Prairies.

In the Company of Grace: A Veterinarian's Memoir of Trauma and Healing is a new book from Minnesota author Jody Lulich. In it, he explores his mother’s suicide and how helping voiceless animals allowed him to heal. ~~~ April is National Poetry Month. Bill Thomas was a judge at the recent North Dakota Poetry Out Loud competition. He shares highlights.

Thursday, April 6, 2023 - UND philosophy professor Jack Russell Weinstein joins us to discuss “The Philosophy of Depression,” a preview of his Sunday conversation on “Why? Philosophical Discussions About Everyday Life.” His guest will be Andrew Solomon, a writer on politics, culture and psychology. Solomon wrote “The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression,” which won the 2001 National Book Award, was a finalist for the 2002 Pulitzer Prize, and was included in The Times list of one hundred best books of the decade. ~~~ Roger Gussiaas started farming in 1979 and throughout those years raised 24 different crops, including growing hemp seed for grain and CBD. He has a range of knowledge as a grower, business owner, producer, and exporter and likes to share his expertise with those wanting to learn more. He recently spoke at the Northern Plains Sustainable Agriculture Society conference in Fargo. ~~~ Matt Olien reviews “To Leslie.”

Wednesday, April 5, 2023 - Patrick McCloskey is the editor of the Dakota Digital Review and has just published the publication’s fourth issue. The magazine covers the cyber sciences and pressed forward when the Dakota Digital Academy was formed two years ago. ~~~ Rural areas are losing grocery stores at a faster rate than in urban areas. In some counties there are no grocery stores at all. Aaron Bonderson reports for Harvest Public Media on how some communities are grappling with food access. ~~~ Another need in rural areas is childcare. In an excerpt from the Prairie Pulse television show, we hear how a North Dakota bank is trying to help. ~~~ Jessie Veeder shares another essay from the ranch titled “”Is This Middle Age?”

Tuesday, April 4, 2023 - Alan Schlag is a hydrologist with the National Weather Service. He joins us to discuss the outlook for flooding this spring, and the science that goes into making such evaluations. ~~~ Speaking of flooding, Chuck Lura discusses some of the beneficial effects in another episode of Natural North Dakota. ~~~ We visit with Christopher Vondracek, author of “Dancing with Welk: Music, Memory and Prairie Troubadours.” It’s a cheeky retelling of Lawrence Welk’s story, blending memoir, travelogue, and cultural history.

Monday, April 3, 2023 - Pulitzer and National Book Award-winning author Timothy Egan and his book “A Fever in the Heartland.” It’s the true story that chronicles the gripping story of the Ku Klux Klan’s rise to power not in the old Confederacy, but the West and the Heartland of America and a the tragic story of one woman who confronted the Ku Klux Klan to counter the group’s effort to take over America. ~~~ Audrey Bader recruits for the Peace Corps in North Dakota and enlightens prospective volunteers about the invaluable experience of being a Peace Corps volunteer. She provides insight into the recruitment process and sheds light on the benefits that await volunteers. ~~~ Tom Isern shares a Plains Folk essay, “The Vanishing Homesteader.”