Earlier this year, South Korea’s government admitted that widespread corruption had tainted hundreds of thousands of adoptions from its country. Babies who were thought to be orphaned had living parents. Some children were trafficked. Paperwork was falsified. Records were destroyed.

Korean adoptees worldwide were left reeling, including here in Minnesota, home to the largest population of Korean adoptees in the U.S. Many had already wrestled with questions of identity and racial and cultural belonging. Now even the small bits of information they had about their past could no longer be trusted.

How are Korean adoptees who call Minnesota home responding to this foundational earthquake? Earlier this month, MPR News’ North Star Journey Live project hosted a gathering of adoptees who are deeply invested in the search for truth about their origin stories at Arbeiter Brewing in Minneapolis.

Moderated by Twin Cities PBS reporter Kaomi Lee, who is herself an adoptee, the panel shared their personal histories and how the work they do today is moving the narrative forward.

Guests:

• Kaomi Lee is a reporter at Twin Cities PBS. She is also the host of Adapted, one of the longest running Korean adoptee podcasts.
• Ami Nafzger has been working on behalf of Korean adoptees for decades as the founder of the Korean-based GOAL (Global Overseas Adoptees’ Link) and the newer Minnesota-based Adoptee Hub.
• Matt McNiff is the board president and director at Camp Choson, one of many Korean culture camps started in the Upper Midwest in response to the wave of adoptions from Korea.
• Cam Lee Small is a licensed clinical therapist who specializes in adoption literacy, working both here in the Twin Cities and online. He’s also the author of “The Adoptee’s Journey.”
• Mary Niedermeyer is the CEO of Communities Advocating Prosperity for Immigrants, also known as CAPI, a Minnesota-based nonprofit.

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Earlier this year, Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde delivered a sermon that drew national attention as President Donald Trump returned to the White House. She spoke about unity, how people of faith respond in uncertain times, and she directly asked Trump to have mercy on immigrants, transgender children and people fleeing war zones. 

Her sermon — at that moment and in that setting — sparked conversations about how people decide what to stand for and how they respond when those choices are difficult. Those questions are at the heart of her latest book, “We Can Be Brave,” an adaptation for young readers of her bestseller, ”How We Learn to Be Brave.”

MPR News guest host Catharine Richert talks with Budde — and the theologian who helped adapt her book — about being brave in life’s hardest moments and how they define courage in personal and public life.  

Guests:

• Mariann Edgar Budde is the first woman elected spiritual leader for the Episcopal Diocese of Washington which includes the Washington National Cathedral, other congregations and Episcopal schools in the District of Columbia and four Maryland counties. Previously, Bishop Budde was a parish priest at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Minneapolis for 18 years. She is the author of “How We Learn to Be Brave” and the adaption for young readers, “We Can Be Brave: How We Learn to be Brave in Life’s Decisive Moments.”
• Bryan Bliss is a writer, priest and theologian. He is chaplain and chair of the religion department at Breck School, a private school in Golden Valley, Minn. He helped adapt Bishop Budde’s book for young readers and he is the author of “We’ll Fly Away,” a novel based on his experience witnessing an execution as a member of the press.

At some point in our lives, many of us will struggle to afford groceries. A job loss, a medical crisis, a divorce, an unexpected expense — life happens. Yet shame often keeps us from seeking help at food shelves and through food assistance programs like SNAP.

MPR News guest host Catharine Richert talks about food insecurity and the stigma that often surrounds it.

Guests:

• Karen Tolkkinen is a columnist for the Minnesota Star Tribune who writes about issues and people of greater Minnesota. She recently wrote a column about her experience turning to food assistance at two different points in her life.
• Susie West is a University of Minnesota Extension educator who manages and leads a program that helps make food shelves more dignified and inviting — places where families can choose food the way they would in a grocery store.

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Many of us listen to music off of our phones through streaming apps with algorithms built to feed us songs it thinks we would like. 

It’s convenient, but those playlists, now starting to incorporate AI, rarely surprise us.

Maybe that’s why some college radio stations are making a comeback. They offer something more personal — real human voices and a space where music discovery feels spontaneous and driven by curiosity not calculations.

MPR News guest host Catharine Richert talks with two students who are passionate about college radio and help run their college stations. They’ll talk about what makes college radio special and what it offers to listeners.

“FAFO parenting” is getting attention — the idea that sometimes the best way for kids to learn is by experiencing natural consequences. FAFO doesn’t exactly stand for “fool around and find out,” but you get the idea.

Supporters say the parenting approach builds resilience and responsibility. Critics worry it can cross into neglect or leave kids without the guidance they need.

MPR News guest host Catharine Richert talks with a parenting researcher about when stepping back helps children grow, when intervention matters and how families can find the balance between independence and safety.

Guest:

• Christopher Mehus is a research associate professor in the Department of Family Social Science at the University of Minnesota.

Trust in government is low. Politicians are trading personal insults on social media. And, Americans see the country as more divided than at any other time since the Civil War. 

What would it take to bring more dialogue, respect and effectiveness to politics?

A first-of-its-kind program from the Citizen’s League is starting small and personal, with an “exchange” program for pairs of state Republican and DFL legislators. The goal is to build genuine relationships across the aisle and help legislators gain firsthand insight into a region of Minnesota different from their own.

MPR News guest host Catharine Richert reported on one of the first legislator pairs to participate. On Tuesday, she sat down to talk more with them and with the program’s founder about what it takes to build bipartisan trust.

On Wednesday, President Donald Trump signed a government funding bill ending a record 43-day shutdown. The legislation came after weeks of political gridlock that ended when a small group of Senate Democrats reached a compromise with Republicans.

MPR News guest host Catharine Richert talks with two political scientists about what the deal to end the shutdown tells us about power, priorities and politics in Washington.

Guests:

• Larry Jacobs is a political scientist and founder and director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota. He is also the author of “Democracy Under Fire: Donald Trump and the Breaking of American History.”
• Cindy Rugeley is an associate professor of political science and head of the Political Science Program at the University of Minnesota Duluth.

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This Saturday marks ten years since the fatal shooting of Jamar Clark.  

On Nov. 15, 2015, the unarmed 24-year-old was shot during a confrontation with two Minneapolis police officers. He died the next day. 

In the weeks that followed, hundreds of people protested outside the Minneapolis 4th Precinct in Minneapolis — demanding the names of the officers and the release of any video. Protesters marched to the government center and shut down Interstate 94.  

It was a level of activism that Minnesota hadn’t seen before, building on the long despair and anger in Black communities following shootings of other unarmed Black men, here and elsewhere. And it set the stage for protests that followed the police killings of Philando Castile in 2016 and of George Floyd in 2020.  

MPR News guest host Brandt Williams talks about how protests following Jamar Clark’s death took shape and how they changed the public response to police shootings and policing.

Guests:

• Nekima Levy Armstrong is a civil rights lawyer and past president of the Minneapolis NAACP. She was among the leaders who helped organize protests following Jamar Clark’s fatal shooting and was an advisor to Black Lives Matter Minneapolis.  
• Raeisha Williams was an activist and communications director for the Minneapolis NAACP in the months following Jamar Clark’s death. She now runs a nonprofit organization called Guns Down Love Up.  

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Cannabis is going mainstream in Minnesota in ways that would have been hard to imagine just a few years ago. 

THC drinks are on store shelves. People talk about edibles and dispensaries as casually as they talk about coffee or craft breweries. 

For many young adults, cannabis has become part of everyday life — a way to unwind, manage stress or hang out with friends. Using it carries far less stigma than it once did and many people see it as safer than alcohol or tobacco. 

But even with growing acceptance, questions remain about how cannabis affects young adults, including their mental health, motivation, sleep, and focus.

MPR News guest host Catharine Richert explores what research shows — and what we still don’t know — about marijuana, health and young people.

Guests:

• Heidi Glesmann is the substance use prevention, education, and recovery unit supervisor at the Minnesota Department of Health. She oversees the Be Cannabis Aware campaign, which is focused on educating youth under age 25, and the adults who support them, about cannabis use. 
• Sylia Wilson is a researcher and associate professor at the Institute of Child Development in the College of Education and Development at the University of Minnesota. Her work looks at how substance use affects young people’s health, behavior and development. 

Layoffs are climbing across industries — from tech to retail to manufacturing. And Democrats won key races last week, campaigning on promises to make life more affordable.

Are companies cutting costs because consumers are stretched thin? Or are different economic forces all hitting at the same time? 

MPR News guest host Catharine Richert takes a closer look at what’s happening in the economy. Richert and her guests will dig into what’s driving job cuts, why affordability continues to strike a chord with voters and what these trends could mean for the months ahead. 

Guests:

• Chris Farrell is the senior economics contributor for MPR News and Marketplace.
• Louis Johnston is a professor of economics at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University.