MPR News with Angela Davis

Tattoos can mark a memory, honor someone we love, express something about who we are — or simply be a piece of art we like enough to put on our bodies. But choosing something permanent can bring up questions about meaning, regret and how others might see us.

MPR News host Angela Davis talks with a sociologist who studies tattoo culture and a St. Paul tattoo artist about why people get tattoos, what they mean to us and how attitudes towards tattoos are changing.

Guests:

• Jordanne Le Fae is a tattoo artist and co-owner of Weird Ink Society, a tattoo shop in St. Paul that focuses on creating a welcoming environment for clients.
• David Lane is a criminal justice professor and sociologist at Illinois State University. Part of his research focuses on tattooing, tattoo culture and the social world of tattoo artists. He is also the author of “The Other End of the Needle: Continuity and Change among Tattoo Workers.”

Most Americans believe college is too expensive. In a Gallup poll released this summer, only 12 percent of U.S. adults say four-year colleges and universities provide an affordable education. But at the same time, a majority of parents surveyed say they still want their children to get a degree.

What’s a student to do?

Here in Minnesota, relatively new programs like North Star Promise aim to close the gap for low-income students. But is it enough to make a real difference when it comes to overall affordability?

MPR News host Angela Davis took that question to St. Cloud on Thursday. She hosted a North Star Journey Live discussion at St. Cloud State University with financial aid experts on the front lines of helping students figure out how to pay for college — and current students — to see if the hopes about changing affordability are being felt.

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Minnesotans made more than 9 million visits to food shelves last year — setting a record for the fourth year in a row, according to The Food Group’s 2025 Minnesota Food Shelf Visits Report.

MPR News host Angela Davis talks with the CEO of Feeding America, the largest hunger-relief organization in the U.S., and a regional food bank leader about the growing need for food assistance — and what can be done to help make sure people have enough to eat.

Guests:

• Denis McDonough is the chief executive officer of Feeding America. Until January 2025, he was Secretary of the Department of Veteran Affairs. He served in various roles in the White House during both of President Barack Obama’s terms — and was the White House Chief of Staff for President Obama’s second term.
• Sarah Moberg is the chief executive officer at Second Harvest Heartland, which is one of the largest food banks in the country. It provides services in central and southwest Minnesota and western Wisconsin.

When a parent can’t care for a child, family members often step in. Grandparents, aunts, uncles, older siblings and close family friends become caregivers — sometimes with little preparation or support. They often face unexpected challenges navigating schools, healthcare, finances and the legal system.

MPR News host Angela Davis and her guests talk about what these families need, how policies can better support them and what each of us can do to help.

Guests:

• Donna Butts is the former executive director of Generations United, a national nonprofit that advocates for intergenerational strategies, policies and programs. She is also the author of the new book, “Grandfamilies: Stories of Children and the Loving Relatives Who Raise Them.”
• Janet Salo is a kinship navigator for Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota. She helps relatives and close family friends who are raising another person's child find and use financial, legal, medical, mental health and educational support.

For help, call Kinship Family Support Services at 651-917-4640 or 877-917-4640 or email [email protected].

A caller during the show recommended Keeping Families Connected Minnesota, an organization that provides free legal support to relatives caring for children.

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Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.    

Minnesota’s top judge is retiring at the end of this month.

Minnesota Supreme Court Chief Justice Natalie Hudson has been on the Supreme Court since 2015 and was elevated into her role as chief justice in 2023.

She is one of only a few Black justices in state history and is the first person of color and the third woman to lead the state’s highest court.

MPR News host Angela Davis talks with her about her long career and why she thinks it’s important for the public to understand and trust the role of the courts, especially in politically divisive times.

Guest:

• Natalie Hudson is chief justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court. She was appointed to the position by Gov. Tim Walz in 2023 after serving since 2015 as an associate justice on the court. She previously served 13 years on the Minnesota Court of Appeals. Earlier in her career, she practiced housing and employment law, served as the St. Paul city attorney and worked in the criminal appellate division of the Minnesota attorney general’s office.

Subscribe to the MPR News with Angela Davis podcast on: Apple Podcasts, Spotify or RSS.

Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.    

Most people have days when they want to quit their jobs. But when that feeling doesn’t go away — when you feel stuck, unhappy or unable to grow — it may be time to seriously consider leaving.

Deciding to quit can be complicated. Before giving notice, there are questions to weigh about your finances, your family, the job market and whether changes at your current workplace could make staying worthwhile.

MPR News host Angela Davis talks with her guests about how to recognize when it’s time to leave a job — and how to prepare for what comes next.

Guests:

• Chris Farrell is the senior economics contributor for MPR News and Marketplace.
• LaRae Jome is a psychologist and career counselor with Work-Life Directions in the Twin Cities. She has more than 25 years of experience helping people navigate career decisions, job changes, workplaces challenges and burnout.
  

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Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation. 

For those who lived through it, the morning of Sept. 11, 2001 remains a defining moment. But an entire generation has now grown up since the attacks.

That morning, terrorists hijacked four passenger planes. Two crashed into the World Trade Center in New York, one hit the Pentagon, and passengers on the fourth plane fought back before it crashed in rural Pennsylvania.

Nearly 3,000 people were killed in the attacks, with thousands more later dying from illnesses linked to the toxic debris.

9/11 changed the United States in lasting ways. It altered the country’s sense of safety, brought many Americans together, but also led to increased harassment and hate crimes against Muslim Americans and immigrants. It prompted the war in Afghanistan and major changes to airport security, including the creation of the TSA.

MPR News host Angela Davis talks with her guests and listeners about what people remember about 9/11 and the lasting impact of that day.

Guests:  

• Tim Stout Tim Stout is the chief of staff for the civilian staff in the Hennepin County Sheriff's Office. He was on staff in the White House on September 11, 2001 and subsequently worked in the newly established White House Office of Homeland Security and then for the first Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
• Anne Gearity is an assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Minnesota Medical School. She has a doctorate in clinical social work with expertise in trauma and has been a therapist for children, teenagers and adults for nearly four decades.

A growing number of people are finding stress relief in sound baths.

It involves lying down, closing your eyes and letting waves of sound wash over you — usually the sounds of gongs, crystal bowls, rattles and other instruments.

Many people who have experienced a sound bath say it calms their mind and puts them in a state of deep relaxation that can also help with anxiety, sleep problems and even pain.

MPR News host Angela Davis talks with her guests about some of the benefits and the science behind the good vibrations.

Guests:

• Diana Parra Perez provides sound healing, mindfulness practices and retreats through her business Resonancia Sagrada, with a focus on Latino and Spanish-speaking communities. She is a senior scientist in the Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis. A native of Bogotá, Colombia, she lives in St. Louis, Mo.
• Donette Ambrosy is a sound therapist with a home studio in Minneapolis called Fine Tuning Sound Therapy. She also leads sound bath experiences at local yoga studios, community centers and other venues.

Subscribe to the MPR News with Angela Davis podcast on: Apple Podcasts, Spotify or RSS.

Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.  

Minnesota voters will find a question about public school funding on their ballots this fall. A proposed constitutional amendment would increase the amount distributed each year from the state’s Permanent School Fund — a $2.4 billion investment fund built with revenue generated by state-owned school trust lands.

Supporters say it would provide additional money without raising taxes, but critics say that the increase would only cover a fraction of the broader financial pressures facing school districts.

MPR News host Angela Davis and her guests talk about how Minnesota schools are funded, where that money goes and what voters should understand about the proposed amendment before November.

Here’s a link to a resource to see what will be on your ballot this coming November:

• Minnesota Secretary Of State - What's On My Ballot?

Guests:

• Christine Tucci Osorio is the superintendent for School District 622, which includes North St. Paul, Maplewood and Oakdale.
• Mary Kunesh is a DFL state senator representing District 39 in the northern Twin Cities suburbs. She chairs the Senate Education Finance Committee.
• Marguerite Roza is a research professor at Georgetown University and director of its Edunomics Lab, a research center that studies education finance and how school systems use public dollars.

Subscribe to the MPR News with Angela Davis podcast on: Apple Podcasts, Spotify or RSS.

Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.    

Community land trusts make it possible for land to be owned collectively while individuals own the homes and businesses on it.

The model grew out of the civil rights movement, when Black farmers in the rural South used collective ownership to build economic independence despite barriers to credit and land access.

Today, community land trusts help preserve affordable housing and commercial spaces while giving communities more control over their future.

The Rondo Community Land Trust in St. Paul is one example. It is working to rebuild community wealth and preserve the legacy of the historic Black neighborhood displaced by Interstate 94.

MPR News host Angela Davis and her guests talk about how community land trusts work, why collective ownership matters and what the model could offer communities across Minnesota.

Guests:

• Mikeya Griffin is the president and CEO of Rondo Community Land Trust, a nonprofit that creates permanently affordable homes and commercial spaces that keep land, opportunity, and legacy rooted in community. She grew up in St. Paul’s historic Rondo neighborhood and is the first African American woman to lead the 30-year-old organization.
• Debbie Montgomery is a community leader who grew up in the Rondo neighborhood of St. Paul. She was the first Black woman police sergeant in St. Paul and the first Black woman elected to the St. Paul City Council. She also served as assistant commissioner for the Minnesota Department of Public Safety. At age 17, she became the youngest person to serve on the national board of the NAACP, an organization that works towards equity, political rights and social inclusion of Black people and people of color.