Minnesota Now

Just after Jean-Nickolaus Tretter came out as openly gay in the early 1970s, he went to school at the University of Minnesota.

At the time, he wanted to specialize in gay and lesbian anthropology, but he couldn't find the faculty support he needed and dropped out. He spent his life as a vocal advocate for LGBTQ people and he collected items that told the living history of LGBTQ communities.

Jean Tretter passed away on Friday. But his legacy lives on at the university where he found so little support in the 1970s.

The University of Minnesota is now home to Tretter's collection. It is an archive of material that is a living history of LGBTQ life. A few months ago our producer Britt Aamodt spoke with the collection's curator, Aiden Bettine, about it.

While much of Northern and Western Minnesota face a winter storm watch, the metro area and points south will see rain and ice.

To fill us in on the details, Sven Sundgaard joined host Cathy Wurzer.

Twenty-six years ago, Titilayo Bediako first introduced her sixth-grade students to Kwanzaa. The experience led her to make the move from classroom teacher to leader celebrating Kwanzaa for an entire community.

What is it about this weeklong holiday celebrating African American heritage that made Bediako make such a dramatic life transformation? She talked with Minnesota Now producer Ellen Finn.

It feels like a lot of people are sick right now — between a surge in the number of COVID cases, and more than 700 flu outbreaks in schools so far this year.

The good news? Hospitalizations due to the flu are decreasing from previous weeks. Cases of RSV are also down — but there are still nearly 60 babies in the hospital with the respiratory illness.

We asked if you had questions about Covid, flu and RSV and you do! Angela Mattke is here to help.  She’s a pediatrician at Mayo Clinic.

It's time for sports! Let's turn to experts Wally Langfellow and Eric Nelson. Wally is the founder of Minnesota Score magazine and the cohost of "10,000 Takes" sports talk show. Eric is the other host of "10,000 Takes" and is also the Minnesota Vikings reporter for CBS Sports Radio "Eye on Football."

This week, Wally and Eric tackle the World Cup, Vikings and the Wild among other topics.

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.

Minnesota nurses have voted to strike — again. We'll find out what they want and what happens next.

Speaking of nurses: In hospitals, cases of flu are surging just as cases of RSV seem to finally be declining. We asked a doctor about flu and RSV.

It's been 41 years since the first case of AIDS was reported. On World AIDS Day we talked with an expert about how treatment — and our impressions of the disease — have changed over the years.

And we got the full round up of Minnesota sports news from our friends Wally Langfellow and Eric Nelson.

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 seems we may finally be seeing a decline in the number of people sick with RSV, a respiratory illness. Two weeks ago, there were nearly 200 people hospitalized. Last week that dipped to 150 — still high and most patients are babies under one year old. Flu on the other hand — is just ramping up. This week we saw more than a 300% increase in the number of flu cases.

We wanted to know if you had questions about flu and RSV — and you do! So, we’ve lined up a doctor to answer them.

Doctor Sameer Gupta is a pediatric critical care physician at M Health Fairview Masonic Children's Hospital. He's also the president of Medical Affairs at M Health Fairview Masonic Children's Hospital and the University of Minnesota Medical Center.

Today, on this World AIDS Day, there are more than 1.2 million people living with HIV in the United States. There are about 9,000 Minnesotans among that number.

When AIDS was first discovered in the 1980s as it ripped through the gay community, it was considered a death sentence. Since that time, medical advancements allow people with AIDS and HIV to live long and healthy lives.

But the picture isn't bright for all. Many struggle to get the care they need. For more about the status of HIV and AIDS today, Host Cathy Wurzer talked with Dylan Boyer. He’s the Director of Development at The Aliveness Project, a community resource center for people living with HIV.

Minnesota nurses have authorized another strike, set to take place on Dec. 11th at 16 hospitals in the Twin Cities and Twin Ports area if a deal can't be reached.

The nurses and hospitals have been in negotiations since March and are currently working without a contract.

Host Cathy Wurzer talks with MPR News reporter Michelle Wiley about what comes next.

Railroad workers are still trying to negotiate a contract but the U.S. house voted to block it. We'll find out why and what’s next. Meteorologist Sven Sundgaard is back with a look at what happened and the forecast. We’ll talk with the people behind a new map restoring Native place names to northern Minnesota being unveiled today. Plus, an interview with author and poet Linda LaGarde Grover about the power of family stories. And I'll talk with a former Lake Wobegon resident you may remember from a Prairie Home Companion about her OWN cabaret show and podcast - The Island of Discarded Women.