MinnCentral Currents

In January of 2020, for only the second time in the history of American labor statistics, women outnumbered men in the American workforce - a headline-making milestone. At the same time, however, another rare but significant story was developing - one that would ultimately lead to the worst job-losses among women in the history of our country. 

The pandemic hit female-dominated industries the hardest: Hospitality, education, health care, and retail. By April of 2020, the pandemic had caused 4.2 million women to exit the labor force.And even as there was a slight rebound in early summer of 2020, losses continued to chip away at any gains made as more women excited the labor force to be caregivers of young children. By early spring of 2021, there was still a 2 million job deficit among women in the labor force. In a speech in April of 2021, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said, "Our policymaking has not accounted for the fact that people’s work lives and their personal lives are inextricably linked, and if one suffers so does the other."What can we learn about the real cost of personal and family labor by reflecting on how this pandemic-fueled recession disproportionately affected women? 

Guests: Dr. Sucharita Sinha Mukherjee, Professor of Economics, CSB/SJUChef Madelyn Adamski, Community Member and Small Business Start-Up

Show Notes:

Report: Great Recession, great recovery? Trends from the Current Population Survey 

Article: As the overall job market stumbles back, women still struggle to recover lost employment

Article: Why Some Women Call This Recession a ‘Shecession’

Article: A year from the start of the women’s recession, 2 million women are still out of the workforce

Article: Women outnumber men in the American workforce for only the second time

Report: When Women Lose All the Jobs: Essential Actions for a Gender-Equitable Recovery

Article: St. Cloud business survey: Unemployment benefits hurting hiringArticle: Central Minnesota firms struggle with worker shortages, supply chain issues  

Survey Report: RESULTS OF MAY 2021 SURVEY OF GREATER ST. CLOUD/CENTRAL MINNESOTA ORGANIZATIONS 

Data: Minnesota Unemployment 

Data: Labor Force Participation Rates 

Report: Wage Inequality and the Stagnation of Earnings of Low-Wage Workers: ContributingFactors and Policy Options 

Report: A SLOW CLIMB BACK FROM THE “SHE-CESSION”: HIGH JOBS DEFICIT IN CHILD CARE AND SCHOOL SECTORS CONTINUES 

Report: YOUNG WOMEN WORKERS STILL STRUGGLING A DECADE AFTERTHE GREAT RECESSION: LESSONS FOR THE PANDEMIC RECOVERY 

Article: Women Left Their Jobs To Be Caregivers. A Business Coalition Wants Companies To Help 

Article: After mass closures and too little support, post-pandemic child care options will be scarce

Data: American Time Use Survey 

Press release: Warren, Jones and Colleagues Reintroduce Universal Child Care and Early Learning Act and Call for President Biden to Invest $700 Billion in Child CarePress release: Clark Introduces the Child Care is Infrastructure Act 

Report: Child care in rural Minnesota after 2020 

Data: Minimum-wage rates in Minnesota 

Data: Cost of Child Care in Minnesota 

 

Episode Manager: Malik Stewart

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Featured Songs:Mannerisms - Charles HolmeClockings - Marten MosesEveryday Hustle - Matt LargeI’m Free - DJ DENZ The RoosterJust In Time For Dessert - Trabant 33Labor Life - Giants’ Nest

The pandemic has shone a light on how much we rely on our ability to connect to one another online when we are unable to connect in-person. And, as with many other areas of our infrastructure, it exposed where our communities fall short at connecting the public to businesses, schools, and services across the digital divide. 

Where does Minnesota stand when it comes to providing accessible high speed internet service state-wide? Guests: Diane Wells, Office of Broadband Development 

Show Notes:

Minnesota Office of Broadband Development

A look at Minnesota's digital divide during a pandemic

Minnesota lawmakers agree to spend $70 million on improving broadband access across the state

Governor’s Task Force on Broadband Minnesota Population Trends

Infrastructure Bill Passed by Senate Includes Historic, Bipartisan Broadband Provisions

 

 

Episode Manager: Bruce AndersonBecome a Patron of our show! Produced by Riverside Productions LLC

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Featured Songs:Divine Wire - Martin Klem

Digital Dreams - Nylonia

Digital Jungle - Lucention

On hot days, it’s not unusual to find folks in the Eastern half of Central Minnesota taking refuge beneath the cooling canopy of our largely maple and oak deciduous forests. We hike the winding trails, enjoy the shaded swimming holes, and camp within the shelter of these forests. The state parks and trails have been crowded this summer, in spite of the unusually hot June, because the people of Minnesota love the outdoors.  And while the state Legislature finally agreed on a deal that will not force the closure of State Parks this July, as we step into the middle of our Minnesota summer, we find ourselves along with roughly half the nation in a worsening state of drought. Prairie grasses and lawns have been bleached pale. Fallen forest debris stands dry like a bed of kindling among struggling trees. The State has already lost 35,000 acres to a higher than average number of fires this year, and is bracing for more.  What do these prolonged periods of severe drought mean for the future of our forests, and what can we do to take an active part in their preservation?Guest: Dr. Lee Frelich, Director of The University of Minnesota Center for Forest EcologyShow Notes:US Drought Monitor 

In fast-warming Minnesota, scientists are trying to plant the forests of the future

Carbon cycle of forests

Nature Conservancy in Minnesota 

Using plants to control buckthorn

Episode Manager: Bruce AndersonBecome a Patron of our show!

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Featured Songs:Fever Trees - Martin ClemOak Trees - Likeminds

Season 1 is done! This is the first rebroadcast of our holiday season break. Thought this episode in particular would be useful right now...-----

As the 2021 holiday season approaches, many of us are looking forward to seeing our beloved family and friends gather around the table together once again after a long time apart. Many  of us are also dreading the possibility of having hard conversations at these gatherings.How can we prepare to have hard conversations with people we genuinely care about?Guests: Communication and Theater Association of Minnesota Conference panelists:

Wendy Bjorklund, St. Cloud State University

 

Pam Secklin, St. Cloud State University

 

Jennifer Senchea, St. Cloud State University

 

Suzanne Stangl-Erkens, St. Cloud State University

 

Scott Wells, St. Cloud State University

Show Notes:Book: Talking across the divide: How to Communicate with People You Disagree with and Maybe Even Change the World  

Bridge Alliance

More in Common

Common Ground Committee

Episode Manager: Scott WellsBecome a Patron of our show! Produced by Riverside Productions LLC

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Featured Songs:I'm Still Listening - Justnormal

Meet You There - Eric Feinberg

There has been a lot of news lately about the presence of microplastics in everything from our food and water to our bodies. How did this even happen?Guests: Mary Kosuth, Research Assistant and PhD student at the U of M School of Public HealthEpisode sponsor: Susie Osaki Holm - thank you for your generous support!Show Notes: 

Mary Kosuth’s paper: Anthropogenic contamination of tap water, beer, and sea saltMicroplastics: What are they and why should we care?  

The World’s Plastic Pollution Crisis, Explained

Waste Land - an episode of Planet Money

​​Plastic Pollution is Killing Sea Turtles

Your Laundry Sheds Harmful Microfibers. Here’s What You Can Do About It

What Companies Are Behind the Global Surge in Single-Use Plastic

Loop’s Revolutionary Reusable Packaging System - Coming to Some Big Stores

Bottle Bill States and How They Work

Oregon Bottle Deposit ($ .10) and Bottle Drop Redemption Centers

Oregon Governor Signs Country’s Second EPR Law For Packaging 

The Race to Develop Plastic-Eating Bacteria

 

Episode Managers: Susie Osaki Holm and Bruce AndersonBecome a Patron of our show! Produced by Riverside Productions LLC

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Featured Songs:Hollow Inside - Daxten

Ocean Flow - West & Zander

This year’s United Nations Climate Conference, COP 26, will - for the first time - center the impact of climate change on human health. From the very urgent severe weather crisis that has seen an uptick in storms and wildfires to the more long-term effects of climate impacts on our food systems, there is a lot to discuss.

Today, however, we want to know: How is climate change affecting the health of our youth here in Central Minnesota?Guest: Cathy Kulus, MD, FAAP, Pediatrician and Medical Director of Pediatric Hospital Medicine Program at the St. Cloud HospitalShow Notes:

TedxStCloud Presentation by Kathy Kulus, MD and John Mahowald, MD., Oct. 30, 2020

How climate change impacts health

Young People Are Anxious About Climate Change And Say Governments Are Failing Them 

Climate Changes Children’s Health

Climate change and child health: a scoping review and an expanded conceptual framework

Episode Managers: Eve and Gary WallingaBecome a Patron of our show! Produced by Riverside Productions LLC

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Featured Songs:I Need Nature - Alex OraPlayground Fun - Alex Ora

Over the past several months we’ve covered a variety of environmental and agriculture topics, from water quality to soil health to forest sustainability.

Today, I’m interviewing a guest who takes these threads and weaves them together in the story of the practice of silvopasture.Guest: Tyler Carlson, Owner and operator of Early Boots Farm, and Silvopasture and Agro-Forestry lead for the Sustainable Farming Association of Minnesota.Show Notes:Early Boots Farm  

Silvopasture Learning Network 

Sustainable Farming Association’sAgroforestry page 

The Savanna Institute - Non-profit working on silvopasture in the Upper Midwest based in  Madison, Wisconsin.  

Soil Health Case Studies - Silvopasture  

Grassland 2.0Scholarly articles recommended by Tyler:A reconceptualization of open oak and pine ecosystems of eastern North America using a forest structure spectrum

Recognizing loss of open forest ecosystems by tree densification and land use intensification in the Midwestern USA

Episode Manager: Bruce AndersonBecome a Patron of our show! Produced by Riverside Productions LLC

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Featured Songs:In the Grass - Jon Algar

Birds and Trees - Eric Feinberg

Stewardship is defined as the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one's care.

 

We are in the midst of a series on environmental topics. As the United Nations Global Climate Conference is nearing, we thought it was important to emphasize the issues that will be discussed there, and relate them back to our own lakes, streams, forests, and pastures.

 

How do we, in our small corner of the world, ensure that we are being good stewards of the landGuests: Laura Schreiber, Land Stewardship Project Policy Organizer, soil healthShow Notes:Land Stewardship Project

2021 Legislative Session Wrap-Up: Good News for Soil Health, Local Foods, Emerging  Farmers — Bad News for Healthcare

Land Stewardship Project - Five Year Plan (2019- 2024…A Vision for the Future)

The Board of Water and Soil Resources survey - 

Implementing BWSR Climate Change Initiatives: Healthy Soils, Cover Crops and Water Storage and Treatment >>>Accepting responses through November 12th, 2021

The effects of our changing climate are visible all around us. Over the past six months we have discussed how climate change is impacting our weather, our forests, our waters, and our food supply. I was a child in the 1980s. I have spent my whole life listening to arguments about the reality of events that are measurable, verifiable, and happening around us. Forty years. We have had forty years to address this issue from a basic standpoint of good stewardship of the earth. All arguments aside, shouldn’t we be conducting our industry and our lives in such a way that we minimally impact the home we will be passing on to our children? 

Guests: Kristen Poppleton, Senior Direct of Programs for Climate Generation - A Will Steger LegacyZaria Romero, Youth Climate Activist

Show Notes:Climate Generation - A Will Steger Legacy

Climate Generation -  A Window Into COP26

United Nations COP 26 

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change - Current State of Climate CrisisActivists ‘born into the climate crisis’ face another challenge: Fear of the futurePast Episodes That Deal With Climate:Episode 3: Out For AdventureEpisode 4: Our Changing WatersEpisode 5: On The FarmEpisode 9: I’m In Love With My CarEpisode 10: What’s the Buzz?Episode 14: Migrating ForestsEpisode 18: The Climate of FishingEpisode 21: A Bipartisan Solution to Climate ChangeEpisode 26: The Dirt on Soil HealthFor conversations:Episode 28: How to have hard conversationsState of Minnesota - Climate Conversations 

 

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Featured Songs:Something's Coming - Dye OShadows Fade Away (Instrumental Version) - Kit MaizyI Let Your Smile Fade Away (Instrumental Version) - Loving Caliber

This podcast started with a vision of elevating voices and stories of folks who live in, work in, and influence the region of Central Minnesota. Some of our topics stretch across the world, tying us to faraway people and places. Others are very much a matter of local interest, but are stories that just about anyone in a rural community could relate to.We have delivered twenty eight episodes so far, and have plenty more in the works. Our core group of volunteers is small but mighty, and I want to thank them for making all of this possible.I also want to thank you, listeners, for making this worth our time. Every single time you tell another person to listen, you’re elevating our educational messaging and broadening the reach of local, independent media. We’re off this week - after ten months straight of weekly meetings, interviews, and production, we’re going to take a breather. But we’ll be back next week with more great content!If you’re still new here, go ahead and dig through that back catalog. Our interviews touch on urgent yet timeless matters, so they are as relevant today as they were four months ago. And we’d love to hear feedback from you! We see the numbers and know you’re listening, but we want to know more about YOU! Send us feedback at [email protected] again for making all this work worthwhile, and for being curious about how you can positively impact the world around us!