Vikings season begins Monday night in Chicago. And it’s a homecoming of sorts for quarterback J.J. McCarthy. As a kid growing up in the Chicago suburbs, he was a Bears fan. In fact, the first NFL game he saw in person was Bears vs. Vikings at Soldier Field.

The venue and the matchup will be the same Monday night, when McCarthy plays his first regular season NFL game — an injury kept him out of play last year during his rookie season.

Sports contributors Wally Langfellow and Eric Nelson joined Minnesota Now with a preview of the game.

A new report from the UCLA School of Law Williams Institute asked the question: how many adults and youth identify as transgender in the United States? And it found Minnesota has the highest percentage of adults who identify as transgender in the country at 1.2 percent of the population. The national average is 0.8 percent.

Jody Herman is a Williams Institute scholar of public policy and co-author of the report. And Kat Rohn is the executive director of the LGBTQ+ advocacy group Outfront Minnesota. Herman and Rohn joined MPR News host Nina Moini to talk about the report.

Monday, Sept. 8 (or 9/8) is National 988 Day. It’s a day meant to boost national awareness of the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. The Minnesota Department of Health has four call centers throughout the state to support the mental health of anyone who calls.

The biggest of those centers is in the Twin Cities, operated by United Way. Julie Ogunleye is the director of that call center. She joined MPR News host Nina Moini to talk about the program and its future.

If you or someone you know is struggling, you are not alone. Call or text 988 to get connected with trained counselors who can help. The 988 suicide and crisis lifeline is available 24/7. 

As students and teachers are settling into their school year routines, Minnesota Now is taking a look at how artificial intelligence is changing teaching, learning and wellbeing in the classroom.

This week on the program, you’ll hear from a teacher, a student and a mental health professional about how they are viewing AI’s impact on young people. But to set the tone, we’re turning to Jon Fila. He was a finalist for Minnesota Teacher of the Year back in 2022, but now runs Inclusive AI Strategies, which provides school districts with guidance and educational tools around artificial intelligence.

The parents of one child who was injured in the Annunciation mass shooting last week pleaded with visiting Vice President Vance to find solutions to mass shootings in the U.S. We dive deeper into potential solutions with an expert.

We explore how and why officials are looking into whether the mass shooting at Annunciation could be classified as a hate crime.

And a woman who has spent the week tending to the Annunciation memorial shares what it's been like to shepherd support pouring in from across the globe.

Plus, MPR News is welcoming two new reporters who are based in Moorhead and Rochester. Join us as we get to know them.

And the bar trivia empire Trivia Mafia is out with a new trivia podcast. We talk with one of the hosts, Sean McPherson.

Today’s Minnesota Music Minute was “Hand in the Air” by The Gated Community. The Song of the Day was “Almost Home” by Hannah Hammond.

MPR News has several bureaus across Minnesota to serve people from every corner of the state. Two new reporters are now settled in greater Minnesota.

Molly Castle Work is based in the Rochester bureau with a focus on health reporting. Tadeo Ruiz Sandoval is based in the Moorhead bureau and will have a focus on agriculture. They joined Minnesota Now to share more about their backgrounds.

Thousands of people around the world have sent messages and flowers to comfort the victims of the Annunciation Church and School shooting in Minneapolis last week.

One woman, Annique London, helped thousands of people pay their respects to the victims of the shooting at Annunciation. She shared her story about tending to the memorial in front of the church this past week with Minnesota Now producer Ellen Finn.

In our series Thank You, Stranger, we hear the stories of how strangers can make our lives a little brighter, or lift us up in a difficult moment. If you have a story to share about a stranger who made your life a little brighter, we want to hear it.

Contact us at [email protected] or ‪(612) 361-1252‬.

Sean McPherson was a host at The Current and hosted a show with during the pandemic called “The Warming House” with Nina Moini. Today, he’s a host at Jazz88 and the co-owner of the bar trivia empire Trivia Mafia.

Trivia Mafia is out with a new podcast co-hosted by McPherson called “No Brains, No Lightbulbs.” He joined Minnesota Now to share more about the project.

State and federal investigators are still reviewing the facts surrounding the Annunciation Catholic School and Church shooting last Wednesday. Some local and national leaders have used the terms “hate crime” and “domestic terrorism” to describe the shooter's attack on students and other churchgoers last week.

FBI Director Kash Patel said the shooting will be investigated as an anti-Catholic hate crime. Things may be more complicated than that, since the specifics around the shooter's motives are not yet clear.

Jessica Hodge, a professor of Justice and Society Studies at the University of St. Thomas, joined Minnesota Now to break down how officials might look at defining the crime.

The parents of Lydia Kaiser made a plea to Vice President JD Vance during his visit to Minneapolis. Lydia was injured while protecting a younger student during the mass shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church and School and is still hospitalized at Children’s Minnesota.

Her mother Leah Kaiser, and father Harry Kaiser, who is also a gym teacher at Annunciation, spoke to media at the hospital after meeting Vance on Wednesday. They asked Vance to study the causes of mass shootings in the United States and work to find bipartisan solutions. Vance did not immediately address any policy changes after his visit. Listen to their statement here.

Jillian Peterson, the executive director of the Violence Prevention Project Research Center at Hamline University in St. Paul, joined Minnesota Now to talk about what that study may look like.