The Minnesota Department of Human Rights and the city of Minneapolis last month reached an agreement on how to overhaul the Minneapolis Police Department. A lot of hope is riding on the new legally-binding settlement. It marks the first time in Minnesota that a court will enforce specific changes in police operations.  

The agreement aims to reset the culture of the department after the murder of George Floyd. It follows a state investigation into the Minneapolis police that found a pattern of illegal and racist behavior in officers’ behavior.  

It covers a wide range of procedures from traffic stops to how officers use force. For example, officers will no longer be allowed to pull over a driver only for a broken taillight, stop and frisk someone just because they smell of marijuana. And there are new restrictions on when officers can use tear gas or another chemical irritant to control a crowd.   

But will these new requirements be enough to improve the way Minneapolis police officers interact with the people they serve?  

MPR News host Angela Davis talks about what’s in the agreement and whether it will usher in real change.  

Guests: 

• Rebecca Lucero is the Commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Human Rights.  




• Yohuru Williams is a professor of history and founding director of the Racial Justice Initiative at the University of St. Thomas.  




• Giovanni Veliz retired in January 2023 as a commander with the Minneapolis Police Department after serving 30 years.  

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

Correction (April 20, 2023): An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that Minneapolis officers can no longer use chemical irritants to control a crowd. Officers can use tear gas and other chemical irritants, but under limited conditions, which include approval from the chief of police or the chief’s designee.

A recent report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that American life expectancy is the lowest it’s been in two decades at 76.4 years.

And Americans live shorter lives than people in other wealthy nations like Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom. That’s across all demographic groups, meaning even the richest Americans live shorter lives than their counterparts in other countries. 

There are a lot of reasons for this, including poor diets, lack of access to health care, gun violence, car crashes and deaths from COVID-19. But there are also many potential solutions, some the United States could borrow from other countries.

Guests:

• Jeremy Ney is the author of American Inequality, a newsletter that uses data visualization to cover inequality in the United States. He was previously a macro policy strategist at the Federal Reserve. 




• Colin Planalp is a senior research fellow at State Health Access Data Assistance Center, which is a state health policy research center in the University of Minnesota School of Public Health. 




• Paul Mellick is an associate professor and the chair of the Department of Health and Exercise Science at the University of St. Thomas.

Minnesota lawmakers could soon take a vote on whether to legalize adult-use recreational marijuana in the state. 

MPR News host Angela Davis talks about the future of legalized marijuana in Minnesota, how it would work and what we can learn from other states that have already legalized cannabis. 

MPR News politics reporter Brian Bakst gives us the latest updates on the bill in the state legislature to legalize recreational marijuana and we hear from concerned Minnesotans who oppose the bill.

Guests:

• Ricardo Baca is a journalist and the founder of Grasslands, a cannabis-centric marketing and public relations agency. He was previously the cannabis editor at The Denver Post.




• Jason Tarasek is an attorney and the founder of the Minnesota Cannabis Law firm.




• Brian Bakst is a politics reporter for MPR News. He’s covering bills in the state legislature to legalize recreational marijuana.

Students and teachers in Rochester Public Schools finished last week without Internet because suspicious activity on the district’s technology network forced them offline.

This incident comes after a hacker group called Medusa stole the personal information of students and employees from Minneapolis Public Schools.

In March, Medusa demanded $1 million from the district and then posted the personal information to the dark web, a part of the Internet where users are untraceable.

Minnesota schools aren’t the only ones vulnerable to cyberattacks.

There have been 1,619 cybersecurity-related incidents in K-12 public schools in the U.S. between 2016 and 2022, according to the K12 Security Information eXchange, a national nonprofit that helps schools protect themselves from cybersecurity threats.

MPR News host Angela Davis speaks with two cybersecurity experts about why schools are so vulnerable to cybersecurity attacks, why and how hackers steal personal information, and how people can keep their digital information safe.

Guests:

• Eric Brown is the founder and managing partner of IT Audit Labs, a Saint Paul company that helps organizations identify security threats and tells them how to fix their digital vulnerabilities.




• Doug Levin is the director of the K-12 Security Information Exchange, a Virginia-based nonprofit organization focused on protecting schools and state education agencies from emerging cybersecurity threats.

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

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

Many students are still struggling in school after the big disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic, especially students of color. Stubborn achievement gaps persist.  

It’s going to take a broad community effort to support both students and teachers going forward.  

MPR News host Angela Davis talks with leaders at the Minneapolis Foundation and Teach for America Twin Cities about the work they do to reimagine education, especially in the area of equity.

Teach for America - Twin Cities and the Minneapolis Foundation are hosting a talk by New York Times best-selling author, Isabel Wilkerson “Exposing America’s Invisible Scaffolding” at 7 p.m. on Friday, April 28 at the University of Minnesota’s Northrup Auditorium. Tickets are available here.

Guests: 

• Chanda Smith Baker is the senior vice president of impact at the Minneapolis Foundation.




• Mikisha Nation is the executive director for Teach for America - Twin Cities.   

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

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

We all need other people to help us through tough times and there’s power in feeling like someone understands you and your experience. Supporters of peer-to-peer groups for mental health say that’s exactly their power.

MPR News host Angela Davis speaks with two Minnesotans who have been to support groups themselves about how the groups helped them and what new members can expect.

Guests:

• Chelsey Shoup is a NAMI Connection Recovery Support Group state trainer and co-leads facilitator training for NAMI Minnesota. She started attending NAMI Minnesota Connections peer-to-peer groups in 2012 while she was a college student. In May 2016, she was trained to facilitate Connections groups and has been facilitating in some capacity ever since.




• Bill Dobbs facilitates the Addiction Busters peer-to-peer support group at the Twin Cities Men’s Center. He started attending a men’s support group in about 1984 and became a facilitator in 2014. He’s a former TCMC board member and he’s the current editor of the Men Talk newsletter.

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

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

For many people, pets are a part of the family. Sometimes they drive us wild, but overall, they can fill a house with joy. They give comfort and a cuddle when we’re feeling down and don't judge us for anything.  

Dr. Jody Lulich knows about the deep bonds people form with animals. He’s a professor of veterinary medicine at the University of Minnesota and he’s just out with a new book called, “In the Company of Grace: A Veterinarian's Memoir of Trauma and Healing.”  

Lulich lost his mother when he was nine years old to suicide, sending him on a path to care for voiceless and helpless animals. His memoir relates how he makes his way from the South Side of Chicago to the Tuskegee School of Veterinary Medicine in Alabama, where he forms a deep friendship with an older black woman named Grace.  

MPR News host Angela Davis talks with Dr. Lulich about his life and work and about our relationships with animals.   

Dr. Lulich will read and sign his memoir at 7 p.m. on Monday, April 24 at Subtext Books, 6 West 5th Street, St. Paul.

Guests: 

• Jody Lulich is a veterinarian and professor of internal medicine at the University of Minnesota’s College of Veterinary Medicine where’s he’s also director of the Minnesota Urolith Center. He’s the author of, “In the Company of Grace: A Veterinarian's Memoir of Trauma and Healing,” published in April 2023, by the University of Minnesota Press. He lives in the Twin Cities with his husband, two dogs and a cat.  

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

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

Minnesota has thousands of secondhand stores, from for-profit businesses to those tied to charities — all possible treasure troves for the determined thrifter. 

Thrifting can be a bonding experience across generations or part of self care, but the history of this popular pastime is more complicated than you might think.

Listen back to a conversation MPR News host Angela Davis had with a historian who wrote a book about thrifting and a thrift store marketing manager about thrifting’s past, present and future. 

Guests: 

• Jennifer Le Zotte is an assistant professor of history at the University of North Carolina Wilmington and the author of the book, “From Goodwill to Grunge: A History of Secondhand Styles and Alternative Economies.” 




• Molly King is the marketing manager for Arc’s Value Village thrift stores in the Twin Cities.

When the Minnesota Twins walk onto Target Field for their home opener this Friday, the starting lineup will be all men. But a lot of women working in top positions off the field make a Twins season possible.  

It wasn’t long ago that women were a rare sight among the male-dominated front office staff of professional sports teams. That’s been slowly changing.

The number of women working on the business side of sports in Minnesota and nationally is steadily increasing. Women are moving into top positions, heading up everything from human resources and legal departments to marketing and accounting.

In 2020, the Miami Marlins announced they were hiring Kim Ng as the general manager, the first woman to work as a general manager in Major League Baseball. Last year, more than 40 percent of the NFL league office were women, according to the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport.

MPR News host Angela Davis talks with three women who work in high-level positions for Minnesota sports teams about their experiences and how the front office is changing.  

Guests: 

• Nancy O'Brien is vice president of community engagement for the Minnesota Twins and is heading into her 22nd season with the team.  




• Andrea Yoch is president and co-founder of Minnesota Aurora FC, the community-owned women’s soccer team based in Eagan.  




• Lara Juras is executive vice president and chief people and culture officer with the Minnesota Vikings. She joined the NFL team in November 2018 after spending 12 years with the Atlanta Braves.  

School districts across the country have sued social media companies claiming they contribute to the decline of youth’s mental health.

The legal action started in January with Seattle Public Schools arguing that social media companies make their platforms addictive and that youth have uncontrollable anxiety, feelings of hopelessness and thoughts of suicide.

Then school districts in Washington, California, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Florida also took legal action.

But it’s not all bad — social media does have some upsides, such as connecting people to specific communities and taking down geographic barriers.

So, how much social media is too much? When does it become a problem?

Join MPR News host Angela Davis for a conversation about digital well-being and what the research says about the good and bad of our screens.

Guests:

• Jude Mikal is a research scientist at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health in the division of health policy and management. He has spent the past 15 years studying people’s use of social media and their health.




• Stevie Chancellor is an assistant professor in computer science and engineering at the University of Minnesota. She builds and evaluates artificial intelligence for mental health in social media to make it more accurate and meet peoples' needs.




• Danyelle Robinson is a student at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul. She’s also a youth council advisor for LiveMore ScreenLess and sits on the organization’s board.