Minnesota Now

The hit show True Detective is back with a new season - and a new Minnesotan. True Detective: Night Country is currently airing on HBO and stars Isabella Star LaBlanc as Leah, the step daughter of Chief Liz Danvers, played by Jodie Foster. Isabella plays a Native character and she herself is Dakota. She joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer to talk about the show, Indigenous representation in television, and growing up acting in the Twin Cities.

Minneapolis officials are clearing a homeless encampment that formed after Camp Nenookaasi was evicted earlier this month. People who were living there say this time, they received little warning. MPR visual journalist Ben Hovland was on the scene and joined the show with the latest.

Some pregnant people in greater Minnesota will now have to drive much further to give birth after two hospitals announced plans to close their delivery wards. We learned more.

Airport workers are one of the latest groups to organize for higher pay -- more on their negotiations for a new contract.

The popular new show True Detective: North Country is set in Alaska. But one of its stars is from this North Country -- Minnesota. We talked with her role in the hit show.

Second Harvest Heartland says food shelf visits reached a record high, going from 3.5 million in 2021 to 7.5 million in 2023. The “Make Hunger History” initiative aims to identify which communities are facing the greatest needs. 

Minnesota Now runs over the lunch hour, a time that here in the MPR News studio, we are thinking quite a lot about food.

So we figured, why not check in with the best chefs in Minnesota and ask what they’re eating for lunch Monday to get some inspiration? Jorge Guzmán is the chef at the three-star restaurant Petite León in Minneapolis and is opening a new Mex-Tex style restaurant, Chilango at the Beach Club Residences on the shore of lake Bde Maka Ska next month.

He has been nominated for the prestigious James Beard Best Chef award three times. He joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer to talk about his work.

Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation. 

Subscribe to the Minnesota Now podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.   

We attempt to make transcripts for Minnesota Now available the next business day after a broadcast. When ready they will appear here.

One of the largest food banks in the country aims to cut Minnesota’s hunger crisis in half. MPR News reports how they hope to do it.

MPR News has a new health series with Dr. Jon Hallberg. This month’s episode talks about the value of finding a medical home.

Children across Minnesota are taking to a story booth to talk about what it’s like to be a kid these days.

Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe’s chief executive is not seeking another term in office. MPR News has her insights on her last six terms.

Plus, hear what Minneapolis chef Jorge Guzman is eating for lunch — and the latest on his new restaurant.

Correction (Jan. 30, 2024) A previous version of this story had the incorrect number of terms for Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe’s chief executive. The above version is correct.

Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation. 

Subscribe to the Minnesota Now podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.   

It’s tough being a kid these days. But a Minnesota organization wants to make sure our youth feel empowered.

The Wildling has a mission to help youth share their lived experiences in a meaningful way. And one way they do that is through a program called Story Booth. It’s a collection of personal stories told by kids as young as pre-K to college-aged.

It has several collections; the newest is called Imagine Something Bigger. They are stories as light as wishing for a future with dinosaurs to fears about what’s next.

Joining MPR News host Cathy Wurzer is Donte Wilkins, the Story Booth director and Murwat Noor, an 11th grader at Menlo Park Academy in Minneapolis.

Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation. 

Subscribe to the Minnesota Now podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.   

We attempt to make transcripts for Minnesota Now available the next business day after a broadcast. When ready they will appear here.

MPR News is starting a new monthly segment on Minnesota Now called Vital Signs. Each month debuts topics important to your health.

And take a deep dive into medical news or what’s top of mind at the doctor’s office: Joining MPR News host Cathy Wurzer will be a familiar voice to longtime listeners, Dr. Jon Hallberg. Hallberg is a family medicine physician at Mill City Clinic and a professor at the University of Minnesota Medical School.

In January’s segment, Dr. Hallberg talks about the importance of having a medical home, how virus season is impacted by our warmer weather and rural hospitals ending labor and delivery services.

Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation. 

Subscribe to the Minnesota Now podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.   

We attempt to make transcripts for Minnesota Now available the next business day after a broadcast. When ready they will appear here.

Five Minnesota chefs and two businesses are in the running for the prestigious James Beard Awards this year. Among them is Oro by Nixta, a semifinalist for best new restaurant in the United States.

Gustavo and Kate Romero expanded their northeast Minneapolis tortilla operation into a restaurant this past summer. It’s since been celebrated in Eater Twin Cities and the Star Tribune as restaurant of the year but it’s also part of a mission to showcase heirloom Mexican corn.

The co-owners and chefs joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer to talk about celebrating heirloom corn and their recent nomination.

Kate: Well, we got the news yesterday morning and the restaurant is only open Wednesday through Saturday. So we were open yesterday, we were celebrating with all the faces that dine with us.

Gustavo: We did some a little bit. We have to talk to the team and thank them for their hard work and discuss what’s next and in and get back into it.

Kate: Yeah, absolutely. Our entire payroll, I think consists of about 20-22 employees. So everybody here is here all the time and we don’t have multiple different servers every day. If you come in here for dinner you’re likely seeing one of the four or five servers that we have taking your order. Then the kitchen staff is all here full time, they’re the same people doing the same thing every day.

Gustavo: Oh, man, I mean, combine 35 years of experience. You know, I think we are definitely different, but we want the same thing. That makes it interesting to work. We complement each other pretty well, we work really well together.

Kate: It’s pretty hard. I think having worked in restaurants, obviously it is easier working for someone else because you don’t have to worry about the day-to-day operations like paying of the bills, the managing of the staff — you get to just show up.

Being an owner has got its challenges, but it also has its rewards. Like we’re very grateful for the opportunity to be able to employ our staff, you know, pay them really fair wages. They’re all generally happy to be here and work with us too. There’s hard stuff but the rewards are pretty great to have the day-to-day work.

Gustavo: It is very rewarding. We have the luxury that we get to talk to people and we get to ask them how their meal was and other experiences and you know, I think that’s very important to know what they feel.

Kate: Yes, in Spanish. The reason we call it that is because corn is gold in Mexican cuisine, it’s such a big basis of the food that people all across Mexico and really all over the world also but in specifically in Mexico and then Latin American, Central American, South American countries eat. Every dish has some sort of corn, so the ingredient itself is gold.

Gustavo: For us it’s been the base and the beginning of everything that we’ve done so we want to we want to showcase it. We wanted to educate people to the importance they have for us as a culture. The idea of changing the way people eat and the way the people look at corn is very important for us so we are trying to do it the best we can.

Gustavo: I think every Mexican does. We all kind of grow up around corn and eating fresh tortillas, I think that is very close to home for us. For the ones that are far away from home, having something so important be down the street is just like being home.

Gustavo: Yes, we worked with a couple companies. We make sure we work with companies that care about the producers. We dream one day of being able to do the same thing here. But the Midwest has a completely different idea of what corn is.

People here are used to the sweetcorn and that’s about it. So it’s gonna take some time and it’s gonna take some some learning and some troubleshooting but that’s the dream, to be able to have some really good Minnesota corn and then we can be proud to make tortillas with.

Kate: We do utilize some Minnesota wild rice actually, for one of our most delicious non-alcoholic beverages on our menu, we make a wild rice Horchata. And then sometimes here and there it will pop in to the menu, but our menu changes quite frequently. It’s not on the menu all the time but that Horchata is not going anywhere, people love it.

Kate: I haven’t even gotten that far. I’m just trying to still wrap my head around what happened and get through a lot of emails and flood of reservations and things. Honestly, I just look forward to Sunday when we’re done with this week, so we can hang out with our little boy at home because he is in day care currently for the day and then he spends evenings with my mom, his Polish grandma.

So we’re not seeing him a lot because they’re so busy. So I look forward to that the most, celebrating with him.

Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation. 

Subscribe to the Minnesota Now podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.   

We attempt to make transcripts for Minnesota Now available the next business day after a broadcast. When ready they will appear here.

The family of a Black motorist shot and killed by a state trooper last summer says charges against the trooper are a step towards justice.

“We want equality. We want justice. We're not asking for the world. We're just asking for what's righteously ours,” Rashad Cobb, Ricky Cobb's twin brother, said at a press conference late Thursday morning.

Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty charged state trooper Ryan Londregan Wednesday with second-degree unintentional murder, first-degree assault and second-degree manslaughter. Londregan's attorney has called Moriarty "out of control”.

Joe Tamburino, a criminal law attorney with Caplan and Tamburino Law Firm in the Twin Cities, joined MPR News Host Cathy Wurzer to help break down the charges.

The family of a Black motorist killed by a state trooper say charges against the trooper are a step towards justice — an expert is here to break down those charges.

And a new podcast gives hints on how patients can advocate for themselves.

A pair of Minneapolis chefs focused on corn are grinning ear-to-ear since becoming semifinalists for best new restaurant in the United States.

Vintage clothing is all the rage — we talk to a woman who is mapping clothes across the metro.

And Thursday means sports! The Timberwolves won again last night. We get Wally and Eric’s hot takes.