Minnesota Now

Steve Solkela is a master multitasker. He started playing accordion in high school and then kept adding instruments to his repertoire, including a bass drum and a trumpet. He’s now touring nationally and sometimes internationally as Steve’s Overpopulated One Man Band. He plays covers and writes original music with a sense of humor. Steve was born on the Iron Range in Palo and is now based in Virginia, Minnesota. He joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer to talk about his life and music.

‘Tips from Dead People’ shares lessons learned from the deceased. Mary McGreevy is the creator behind the account on TikTok. And she talked with host Cathy Wurzer about what makes a good obit.

Opioid overdose deaths in Minnesota have spiked in recent years. What is the state trying to do about it?

Overdose rates are especially high among Native Americans in the state. We’ll also take a deeper dive into help that’s available.

There's been an unequal rise in health problems among pregnant people. A mayo doctor joins us.

A pastry chef in Minneapolis has her first James Beard nomination. She’ll tell us what’s for lunch.

We know Minnesota has a rich local music scene. Diane Miller, host of The Local Show on the Current, has five artists to watch. 

Four chefs and one pastry chef from the Twin Cities have been nominated by the prestigious James Beard Award. Finalists will be announced tomorrow! [March 29]. It’s a huge honor so we wanted to catch up with the nominated chefs. And since our show airs over the lunch hour, we’d thought we’d ask them - what’s for lunch. MPR News host Cathy Wurzer spoke with Shawn McKenzie, who is nominated for best pastry chef or baker.

Minnesota Now aims to highlight Minnesota musicians. And who better to talk about Minnesota musicians than Diane Miller? She is host of The Local Show on The Current. She spoke with MPR producer Melissa Townsend about what’s new on the Minnesota music scene, including news about Ber, Sounds of Blackness, Hippo Campus, Lamar, and Kiss the Tiger.

Minnesota's opioid problem continues to worsen. Opioid-involved overdose deaths in the state increased 43% from 2020 to 2021. Several bills in the legislature focus on opioids -- they propose giving schools opioid-overdose antidotes and having bigger penalties for selling fentanyl. A proposal presented to legislators in March from the Minnesota Department of Human Services takes aim at the racial disparities in opioid deaths. Eric Grumdahl from the Minnesota Department of Human Services joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer. Grumdahl is Assistant Commissioner of the Behavioral Health, Housing and Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services Administration and helped put together the equity proposal.

The opioid epidemic isn't affecting all groups of Minnesotans equally. Data shows Native people in Minnesota were ten times as likely to die from a drug overdose than white Minnesotans. This is not news to Native leaders. And many are mobilized around solutions both in the state legislature and in their own communities. Sharon Day is an elder and leader in the Minneapolis urban Native community. She is a member of the Bois Forte Band of Ojibwe and the Executive Director of Indigenous People’s Task Force that offers harm reduction in south Minneapolis. She joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer to talk about her efforts.

New data from the CDC shows that the rate of people dying in pregnancy or childbirth has risen considerably in recent years. There was a 40% increase in maternal deaths between 2020 and 2021. That rate was more than twice as high for Black women, whose maternal mortality rate was 70 deaths for every 100,000 live births. Family medicine physician Dr. Jay Sheree-Allen from the Mayo Clinic joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer to talk about why pregnancy and birth is still so unsafe for some women in the U.S.

Jury selection began Monday in the state of Minnesota’s lawsuit against e-cigarette company Juul and tobacco giant Altria. Testimony resumed in the sex trafficking trial of Tony Lazzaro. Residents of the small township of Homer near Winona are rallying to save their old town hall building. An environmental health professor explains how to clean up PFAS in drinking water. And as Women’s History Month comes to an end, a group of women are gathering in Minneapolis to tell their stories.

March is Women's history month and for the second year in a row - Mill City Museum in Minneapolis is honoring the month with stories by and about women. Jen Scott is hosting a storytelling event called Hear Her Stories. It's happening at the Minneapolis Musuem Friday March 31. Jen Scott sat down and talked with MPR producer Britt Aamodt.

Testimony resumed Monday morning in the sex trafficking trial of Tony Lazzaro, a former political operative and top donor to the Minnesota Republican Party. Lazzaro is charged with sex trafficking five minors, girls who were 15 and 16 years old. MPR News reporter Matt Sepic has been following the case and he joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer.