Minnesota Now

On April 19th, 1997 the Red River rolled over its dykes , inundating the town and sending nearly 61-thousand people fleeing from their homes. Then - a raging fire that afternoon burned down 11 buildings in downtown Grand Forks. This week, the mayor of East Grand Forks at that time, Lynn Stauss passed away. Current mayor of East Grand Forks Steve Gander speaks with Cathy Wurzer about former mayor Lynn Stauss and his legacy.

Today is day two of the largest nurses strike in U.S. history. We get some context on how this strike is different from others in the past.

Minnesota author Anika Fajardo talks about her new book out today and the Minnesota Children's Book Festival.

A new film about women skateboarders premiers at the Duluth Superior Film Festival this weekend and it profiles a woman from Stillwater.

Jack Jablonski is here to talk about how he handles the spotlight over his hockey injury and his recent announcement that he is gay.

And famous foodie Andrew Zimmern has a new show about how to cook wild game. It's part of his personal mission to eat sustainably.

Minnesota’s hunting seasons are just around the corner. Maybe you’re planning on having some venison on the table. Maybe that’s not your thing.

A new show from Andrew Zimmern makes the case for some pretty appetizing looking wild game. “Wild Game Kitchen” premieres Sept. 19 on the Outdoor Channel.

Zimmern is an Emmy-winning and four-time James Beard Award-winning TV personality, chef and writer, based here in Minnesota. Host Cathy Wurzer caught up with Zimmern about the show and his longtime love for the outdoors.

Sept. 22 through Sept. 25, Minnesota will play host to the Duluth Superior Film Festival. The fest will feature 90 films from the Midwest and around the globe. Jessica Edwards will be there and her documentary “Skate Dreams” will have its Minnesota premier.

It’s the first feature documentary to capture the story behind the rise of women’s skateboarding. She’ll be joined by one of the film’s five featured skateboarders Nicole Hause of Stillwater. Edwards joined Host Cathy Wurzer to talk about the film.

When we started making the film in 2018, I knew of one other project that was was created to sort of showcase how limited the media coverage was. And that that film started out as a thesis project and it was it was very limited in its availability. And we I couldn't find anything else amidst the dozens of other films, both narrative and documentary, that showcase really women at all.

Well, it's probably about as personal as you can get. My six year old daughter decided that she wanted to start skateboarding when we began to make the film and she was really the impetus to it, really looking for some positive narratives and some really incredible female role models that she could look up to as this young girl.

I couldn't find that in the mainstream media landscape but I was finding it all over social media. So social media really became this kind of catalyst for this community of women, non-binary people, people of color and all different kinds of humans who didn't look like the standard skateboarding stereotype to find each other.

And so that really became very interesting to me. My daughter would never really feel like she wasn't included, that was really interesting. She just kind of got her little pink skateboard and went out with the crew skating and that sort of disconnect between what it was like for me growing up and what it was like for her was something I wanted to explore a little bit deeper.

I mean, absolutely. You know, Nicole was so open and welcoming. And like many of the skaters, I think that they're so used to kind of being sidelined by sponsors, by media that they just went out and did it on their own. And so anybody who showed interest to, that was all that mattered.

And, you know, that was extremely new five years ago when we started. It's changed slightly over the past five years, for the good in my mind. I mean, more women have gone pro in the last five years than I think in like the 20 years previous previous to that, including Nicole Hause who just went pro for real skateboards last weekend, which is really, really exciting. So we're really, really proud of the hometown hero.

I think that the change that I've noticed in the last two years, it is easier now than it's ever been. But the caveat of that being, of course, that it was never easy. But you do have very big sponsors and companies paying attention to women in a way that they never have before. And we can only applaud that, right? Everybody just wants there to be more access. And that's frankly, what the kids are excited about.

One of the sort of silver linings of COVID for American kids was that they could use skateboarding and or be introduced to skateboarding. The industry really exploded during those couple of years. And you saw more kids get on a skateboard than you have in the recent past. The industry itself is paying attention to what the kids are excited about and what they're seeing is really from social media. So there's kind of a direct way that skateboarders can kind of connect with their with their audiences, with their crews, that then the big brands pay attention to.

She's still skateboarding. You know, she's got lots of other interests now too. But Nicole Hauser is her hero. When she found out that she went pro last week, she was super excited. We have a screening in Duluth and we also have one in Stillwater on Sept. 25. So come and hang out with us, see the movie and then go skate.

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A lot of Minnesotans have followed the story of Jack Jablonski. He was the high school hockey player from St. Louis Park who became an advocate for people with spinal cord injuries after suffering one himself during a high school hockey game in 2011. He became paralyzed from the chest down after that injury.

Today he leads the Jack Jablonski Foundation, a charitable organization he created a year after his accident to advance paralysis recovery treatments through research. He’s also busy with his career as the digital media content specialist for the Los Angeles Kings NHL team. And last week, he announced on social media that he is gay. He joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer to reflect on his experience.

It's been overwhelming in the best way possible. I've been so thankful for all the positive responses on social media and personal messages. It's been bottled up for quite a while, but at the same time, it's all been worth it since I've had the opportunity to come out and be who I am publicly.

Well, for me, I didn't realize who I was until a little bit later in life. But during my high school experience, it was just conflicting because you look back and you have hindsight 20/20. And for me, you can kind of put the pieces together of when things started. They were two separate worlds for me and I didn't understand how they could go together. I'm thankful that now it's getting to become a little bit more acceptable. But at the same time, they need to find their way together.

I think for many people when you're by yourself, or you don't have much going on, your mind can kind of do its own thing, or the truth or your the realization of a lot of things can kind of happen. And for me, with my injury, I've always been focused on staying busy to avoid kind of being alone or having my mind race, because it can often go in a dark hole with paralysis and the realization of what life holds at times.

I didn't fully realize my sexuality until COVID hit because that was when I was alone. I'd moved to a new city after graduating from college in LA and that's when it all kind of just clicked and for me, you know, in many ways, I'm glad it clicked, because I was finally able to get to the point where I am now and that's being out and proud.

But at the same time, that was also the start of kind of the dark days because of the realization of who I really was, and what it was going to take for me to become happy with who I was. And COVID definitely was the beginning of that. And it went down a dark road for a little while. But I'm here to tell the story and I'm happy with who I am and where I am.

Yes, so much lighter. It was such a relief being able to have the opportunity to tell my story and not hide in the shadows because for me, it was something that ate me up inside at the end of the day. Now being able to have everyone know and to go out and be myself is what's so important and so healthy for me mentally and anyone else who's been through this process can relate.

I know my family has been in touch with with his family and obviously I will be as well as that process continues. Most importantly, you want to give space when it's needed. And everyone handles it differently in terms of the process of grievance and reality and then understanding the future. But life isn't over after you have a spinal cord injury. There's so much to live for, there's so much that you can accomplish in terms of a career but, most importantly, happiness.

Right now is such a vital time to focus on yourself and focus on recovery, because with spinal cord injuries that immediate rehab and some of the goals that you need to start setting is extremely important at this stage.

I wish Ethan and his family nothing but the best. And I hope to be able to be a part of his life in terms of just helping be an asset and a resource towards hopefully living a great life.

Correct. Yes, we have the annual gala for the Jablonski Foundation. We raise money for spinal cord injury research. We've made significant progress raising well over $3 million in the nine years of existence and we look forward to continuing that. For anyone interested in the gala or the information of what we do, you can go to jablonskifoundation.org.

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

Mattie Gomez feels directionless after being uprooted from her beloved Minnesota and forced to move in with her new stepfamily in California. So when she meets a girl at her new middle school who looks exactly like her, she’s not sure what to make of it. That’s how award-winning author Anika Fajardo’s new book begins.

Based in Minnesota, she writes books for adults and young adults and her most recent book comes out Tuesday. It’s called “Meet Me Halfway” and she joined Cathy Wurzer to talk about it.

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

Fifteen-thousand nurses are picketing this week at 16 hospitals in the Twin Cities and the Twin Ports. It's the largest private-sector nurse’s strike in U.S history.

Peter Rachleff is co-executive director of the east side freedom library in St. Paul, and a retired history professor at Macalester College specializing in labor history. He joined Cathy to contextualize the strike.

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

Fifteen-thousand nurses are striking in the Twin Cities and Twin Ports. We hear an update. Plus, a Woodbury mom provides resources and community for Black mothers, a tiny beetle endangers Minnesota's forests and jazz musician Pete Whitman shares what's inspiring him.

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Pete Whitman is a saxophonist, flutist, clarinetist, composer, arranger and educator based in the Twin Cities.

As a freelance musician, Whitman performs in a wide range of musical styles including jazz, classical and pop. He has performed with nationally known jazz musicians like Jack McDuff, The Glenn Miller Orchestra and The Temptations.

Whitman joined host Cathy Wurzer to talk about his music and what inspires him as a musician.

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Breakups can be volcanic, personally and geologically. Professor Jim Cotter teaches geology at the University of Minnesota–Morris and he is returning to Minnesota Now with a story about the near-breakup of the North American continent that gave rise to Lake Superior.

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