Pressroom Podcast

He's on cup 75 out of 100 and still going strong, just like he takes his coffee.

Last fall, Duluth City Council President Noah Hobbs started his effort to sit down and drink 100 cups of coffee with citizens of Duluth. On this week's episode he shares his tales from the coffee shop, of which he's been to every one in town.

Hear how he got the idea, how it's been going so far and what he's learned the most from making himself more accessible to his constituents.

Wedding season is upon us and this week we have a Duluth photographer who takes wedding portraits to the next level.

Derek Montgomery has been known to summon the northern lights and conjure up lightning for priceless photos in his clients wedding albums, but he also has a keen photographic eye when it comes to freelancing for area media.

Derek tells us about some of his more memorable moments as a wedding photographer, why he always keeps an extra pair of pants in his arsenal and what he likes to photograph most outside of weddings.

We also get the origin story of "Hole Boy," an iconic News Tribune photo of a toddler in a pothole to give it scale.

This week we have with us two movie-minded guys — both filmmakers, film consumers, film curators — Matthew Dressel, a screenplay writer who has taken the lead on this year's Duluth Superior Film Fest, and Mike Scholtz, a documentary filmmaker whose "Riplist" will open this year's festival.

We talk about Mike's film and how he came up with the idea to document a celebrity death pool draft. And we ask Matt how he selects movies for the festival and what makes a good movie.

The festival, now in its 10th year, runs May 29-June 2.

We also heavily debate whether or not spoilers are a good thing. Let us know if you are "Team Spoiler" or Team No Spoiler." Email us at [email protected]. And while you are at it drop us a note of who you'd like to hear on an upcoming episode.

It's not the "hook and bullet" crowd it once was, says this week's guest News Tribune outdoors reporter John Myers about the outdoor scene in northern Minnesota.

While he is still out there writing stories about fishing openers and deer camp, in the first 53 weeks in his new position at the paper he has found people enjoy the outdoors in many other ways too. Such as this Sunday's story about "glamping."

Fresh off a warbler walk, Myers shares some of his favorite stories so far along with a few hidden treasures that may come in handy as you explore the Northland this summer.

"A little nonsense now and then is cherished by the wisest men," recites this week's guest Jim Ouray.

The artist behind one of Duluth's quirkiest events, the Smelt Parade, Ouray joins us on the podcast this week to tell us more about how the event got started, smelting and his background in puppet making.

The parade, now in its 8th year, is Sunday, May 12 at 3:30 p.m. in Canal Park. The parade ends with a smelt fry at Zeitgeist Arts Cafe at 5 p.m. Attendees are encouraged to dress in silver.

This week Brittany Lind, creator of Ellipsis Duluth on Twitter and host of The Duluth Local Show on Minnesota Public Radio's The Current, joins the podcast to share how she takes on Homegrown Music Festival, which is happening right now.

Not a musician herself, unless you count playing the bass clarinet in high school, we learn how music became such a big part of her life, how Ellipsis came to be, and her goal of getting local music into the ears of more Minnesotans.

This week we have with us one of Duluth's top free agents and a trusted source in a rich history of well-regarded television news anchors who worked in Duluth.

Edward Moody, former news anchor at CBS 3 Duluth, has been out of the business for a month now but he is still in the area and he's still consuming the news. He tells us how he digests and reacts to news now that he's not in a newsroom and tells us about his future plans. He also recounts his favorite moments and stories from working in television news for 17 years.

Opera, UMD, Sammy's Pizza, "Brooklyn Nine-Nine", eating lunch with Bill Paxton, there's not much we didn't talk about during this week's episode with actor Joel McKinnon Miller.

McKinnon Miller, who stars as detective Norm Scully on the NBC sitcom and visits Duluth fairly regularly, shares snippets of life as an actor in Los Angeles and offers "deep Blu-Ray commentary" on movies and shows he has had a role in.

He also shares an epic smelting story from his college days as a Bulldog.

It's been about a year since he retired from a long career as the News Tribune's outdoors reporter. This week, we catch up with Sam Cook to see if he set a new record of nights slept on the ground.

Cook, who still writes a weekly column for the paper, fills us in on his retirement adventures, what (if anything) he misses about reporting, and the great mustard purge of 2018.

Hockey continues into April. For the third year in a row.

This week it's a crossover episode between the News Tribune's two podcasts. Sports reporter Matt Wellens, host of the Bulldogs Insider Podcast, joins fellow reporters Christa Lawler and Brady Slater along with KDAL radio guest Bruce Ciskie for a tournament primer as the UMD Bulldogs make a run in their third consecutive NCAA Frozen Four.

We talk about the four teams in the tournament, the secret to UMD and the NCHC's success in the postseason, and what the chances are the defending champs win it all in Buffalo, N.Y.