This week’s installment of our Senate Series brings you a chat with Addie Miller, a horse trainer-turned-lawyer seeking to represent Chaska, Chanhassen, Carver, Victoria, and Watertown in the Minnesota State Senate. Addie shares how politics got personal for her, how she’s staying true to herself during the campaign, and some of the good work she’s looking forward to doing in the Senate. Then, your favorite feminist hosts take a deeper dive into the state of rural mental health care in Minnesota and bring you your weekly COVID corner. Plus, obviously, your usual dose of witchy fun.

Show Notes

Meet the Guest - Addie Miller

Addie Miller is a lifelong Carver County resident, a lawyer, a horse trainer, a Committee Administrator at the Minnesota House of Representatives and a first-time candidate running for an open seat in the Minnesota State Senate, District 47. Addie has always been a "do something about it" kind of woman, and plans to bring that attitude to the Capitol to get stuff done for the people of Minnesota. Addie was driven into public service after the 2016 election brought to light some very glaring injustices in our healthcare system that affected her mom. In addition to her passion for advocacy and justice, she really enjoys yoga, travel, paddleboarding with her dog, and all kinds of music in her little spare time.

Links

MN SafeTalk Program - MN Dept of Health

Get ready for a grab-bag episode full of local political bananas: the latest in candidate filings, plenty of white male mediocrity, and a plug to convince your favorite south metro feminist to run for a newly open seat. Then, to combat the onslaught of newly minted internet experts out there spouting plague nonsense, we chat with a badass medical doctor, who busts coronavirus myths in a way only a doctor can: with data. And the tarot card of the week is surprisingly relevant.

Show Notes

Meet Our Guest - Dr. Kaisa Schmitz

Dr. Kaisa Schmitz is a Minnesota-born and -raised Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine, originally hailing from Carver County. She got her undergraduate degree from Augustana College, and studied medicine at the University of Minnesota. She completed her residency at the Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine. Dr. Schmitz lives in Prior Lake with her husband and their four children.

Links

This week on Renegade Feminist, Grace & Bri are focused on the fundamental feminist issue that is the Equal Right Amendment, why we need it, and one women who helped delay it dramatically. President of ERA MN, Heather Allison, stops by to share what’s happening in Minnesota’s push to get an ERA on our books, and why flipping the MN Senate is critical for this to happen. Don’t worry, there’s another COVID Corner to give you some of the new highlights from plague. And, as always, your weekly witchy moment.

Show Notes

Meet Our Guest - Heather Allison

Heather Allison is President of ERA Minnesota – an organization dedicated to passing the Equal Rights Amendment into our state and national constitutions in order to ensure equal justice in our courts for all people regardless of their sex and gender. Heather comes to us a Jill of all trades whose career spans Animal Welfare, Business Management, Attorney Recruitment & Development, and Paralegal work in several markets from Washington to New York and across the pond in the United Kingdom. She has spent her life advocating for women, seniors, youth and animals. Ms. Allison is also the Campaign Manager for Bonnie Westlin for Minnesota Senate District 34, on the board of MNxMN, a social justice collaborative and Vice President of the Groveland Park Elementary PTO. She lives in St Paul with her husband Graham and son, Benjamin.

Links

ERA MN - Website

Julie Blaha Explains Social Distancing - Youtube

MN COVID-19 Testing Sites Map

14 - Leslie Knope Would Be Proud ft. Nelsie Yang

This week, we sit down with Saint Paul City Councilwoman Nelsie Yang. Nelsie talks about serving on the City Council, lessons learned during her candidacy, and what the Council is working on. Plus, learn a bit about how Leslie Knope’s Pawnee and Nelsie Yang’s St. Paul are different (other than the whole Pawnee-is-fictional thing), what was up with those protestors outside the Governor’s mansion last week, and how you team team up with your local fire station to help in our COVID Crisis. And in a surprise twist, this week’s tarot card basically just means “facemasks.”

Show Notes

Meet Our Guest - St. Paul City Councilwoman, Nelsie Yang

Councilmember Nelsie Yang is the youngest elected and first Hmong American woman to serve on the St. Paul City Council. She was a Minnesota NOW endorsed candidate in 2019. Prior to getting elected, she was a community organizer at TakeAction Minnesota shortly after receiving her bachelor's in social work at Minnesota State University, Mankato. Nelsie loves being around people and cares deeply about fighting for equity across race, class, gender and age.

State Partnerships Article - NPR

Hmong Women Disrupt - CityPages Article

MN Discrimination Hotline - (1-833-454-0148)

Abortion Provider Appreciation Day - CityPages

MinneSEWta Week: mask designs and program information

On this week’s episode, Grace & Bri chat with the human ray of sunshine and current Minneapolis Parks Board Vice President, LaTrisha Vetaw. LaTrisha explains why summer isn’t cancelled and what folks can do to maintain our access to parks during the pandemic. You’ll also hear about what the Park Board does and how you can start preparing for the Parks election in 2021. There’s also another COVID Corner this week, where your favorite feminist hosts break down the implications of Wisconsin’s recent election and what you can do to make sure that doesn’t happen here in MN. And, obviously, the tarot cards share their wisdom.

Show Notes

Learn about TelAbortion - website link

Contact Sen. Mary Kiffmeyer

95 University Avenue W.

Minnesota Senate Bldg, Room 3103

St. Paul, MN 55155

651-296-5655

Contact Sen. Paul Gazelka

95 University Avenue W.

Minnesota Senate Bldg, Room 3113

St. Paul, MN 55155

651-296-4875

Contact your senator! - Find Your Senator Tool

Meet Our Guest - LaTrisha Vetaw

LaTrisha is currently the Vice President of the Minneapolis Parks Board and has been involved in policy and advocacy work for many years. Read her amazing City Pages profile here!

Good Trouble ft. Lindsey Port

In this week’s episode, Grace & Bri continue the Senate Series with the one and only Lindsey Port, who is running to flip the MN State Senate seat in District 56! She tells us all about why she got involved in politics (spoiler, she was angry), what she’s going to do when elected, and all the deets on her non-profit, Blueprint Campaigns. After the interview, Bri & Grace talk a bit about the good and bad influences of outside money on campaigns. And as a special treat, Lindsey pulls the tarot card of the week.

Show Notes

Meet our Guest - Lindsey Port

Lindsey is a volunteer turned activist turned candidate, and has worked to bring progressive politics to suburban Minnesota. She is currently running to represent the good people of Senate District 56. She entered politics with Minnesotans United for All Families in 2012, and went on to work on the campaigns to legalize same-sex marriage in 2013, and to re-elect her state representative in 2014. When her state representative's seat opened up in 2016, Lindsey decided to run. Even in the face of over a million dollars in outside spending, she still came within 5 points of her opponent by knocking on more doors than any other candidate in the state. Since co-founding Blueprint, Lindsey has served as the Field Director for Congressman Dean Phillips’s 2018 campaign, and as Deputy Field Director for Erin Murphy’s 2018 gubernatorial race.

Links!

Lindsey Port for State Senate

Blueprint Campaigns

Mindy Kimmel for State House

Davin Sokup for Senate

This week’s episode is all about the Census, our once-a-decade count of every person living in the United States. From funding to political power, the Census has massive implications — so to learn more about what that means for Minnesotans, Grace interviews Dr. Susan Brower, our State Demographer. Plus, we dive into the proposed “are you a citizen?” question and why it’s so damn shady. And, as always, we’ll get a little witchy.

Show Notes

We Count MN - all your MN Census information

Meet our Guest - Dr. Susan Brower

Susan Brower is the Minnesota State Demographer and directs the MN State Demographic Center. Susan became the State Demographer in February 2012. In that capacity, she travels the state talking with Minnesotans about the new social and economic realities that are brought about by recent demographic shifts. Susan's work applies an understanding of demographic trends to changes in a range of areas including the state's economy and workforce, education, health, immigration and rural population changes.

Susan earned her Ph.D. in sociology at the University of Michigan, specializing in demography and family sociology. She also holds a master's degree in public policy from Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota.

In this week’s episode, Grace & Bri chat (at an appropriate social distance) about the global pandemic we are all facing right now and some of the thoughtful steps taken by Minnesota leadership to help us all out a bit. They also chat about the feminist implications of the pandemic, because spoiler, there are implications. Finally, they remind you that it’s still an election year and chat about how some candidates are pivoting during these strange times. And, obviously, they consult the tarot cards for any semblance of guidance. Take a listen!

Show Notes

This week, we kick off our “Fix the Dang Minnesota Senate” series with a conversation with the powerful and delightful Erin Murphy, who is running to be the next State Senator for District 64 in St. Paul. Erin shares her experiences running for office here in Minnesota (including her amazing 2018 Gubernatorial run), who she hopes gets elected to the State Senate with her this fall, and why the politics of joy is so integral to campaign work. In a week that’s felt strange and wild, this episode is your little life raft of joy amidst the chaos. Also, Erin pulls a tarot card that’s so good she wants to take it home with her.

Meet our Guest - Erin Murphy

Erin Murphy is running for Minnesota Senate in District 64, and this is not her first foray into politics. She served in the Minnesota House of Representatives from 2007 to 2018 and was the House Majority Leader from 2013-2014 and ran a historic gubernatorial campaign in 2018, leading the first all-female executive ticket in Minnesota history. She is the founder and Executive Director of Our Stories. Our Health. Erin is a nurse and was formerly the Executive Director of the Minnesota Nurses Association.

Show Notes

In today’s episode, Grace & Bri talk about the results of Super Tuesday as it pertains to Minnesota, looking at the MN voter turnout and breakdowns and what it could mean for some of our most flippable districts. They also do a deep dive on the different Minnesota primary voter privacy bills moving through the House & Senate and what you can do to protect voter privacy. Finally, Grace & Bri share their personal thoughts/questions/rants about the overall results of Super Tuesday and what that could mean as we get closer to November. And, as always, the tarot card provides some witchy insights for the week.