Major road construction has slowed and rerouted traffic on a number of Twin Cities thoroughfares. Minnesota’s Commissioner of Transportation, Charlie Zelle, promises it will get better soon, with newer roads, more accessible bus options, and the groundwork for a self-driving future. We asked him how he made it through all the traffic to join us.

We’re ending our season with a show about endings. All of us (hopefully after a long and laugh-filled life) will pass on. Planning for our own or our loved one’s end of life can be intimidating, scary, and ultimately one of the most important ways to ensure a peaceful last chapter.

We talked with two women, Brenda Hartman and Dr. Ann MacIntosh, working to change the culture of fear around end-of-life care and planning. A truly important conversation for us all–except maybe vampires.

From the massive tax policy changes passed late last year, to new tariffs on steel and aluminum imposed, and wild stock market swings, there hasn’t been any shortage of economic news in 2018. We talked with two brilliant (yet easily understandable) economists what to make of it all.

Timothy Taylor is both a professor at Macalester College and the professor you hear if you take The Great Course’s lecture series on economics. Chris Farrell is a regular contributor to public radio’s Marketplace, the Bloomberg Business, and the most frequent guest of The Theater of Public Policy.

Most Minnesotans know Paul Douglas from his years presenting the weather on KARE 11, WCCO, and TPT as well as writing the weather column for the Star Tribune. As an evangelical Christian who recognizes the threats of climate change, Douglas often finds himself serving as a bridge between communities that don’t often talk to one another.

How do members of the GLBT community pass knowledge and perspective between generations? Unlike most minority groups, being born gay, bi, or trans does not necessarily mean you have gay, bi, or trans parents.

We talked to Charlie Rounds, who organizes intergenerational GLBT roundtables, as well as Minneapolis council member Phillipe Cunningham, who at a relatively young age has already become a leader in the GLBT community and beyond.

Star Tribune journalist Maya Rao spent a year traveling across the North Dakota oil fields and boom towns. In her new book, she takes us to those towns that doubled or tripled in population in a matter of months, introduces us to migrant workers (mostly men) who came from near and far to work the oil fields, and what life was really like in the closest thing to a gold rush (and bust) in 21st Century America.

The 2018 Minnesota Legislative session was predicted to be a carousel of egos. With no budget to pass, divided government, and a lame duck governor, many thought it the session would accomplish little but providing elected officials a chance to position themselves for elections this fall. Yet a few hot topics, including guns and school safety, as well as disabled Minnesota robot named LARS, has garnered some attention at the capitol and beyond. We asked two of Minnesota’s best capitol reporters for an update and what watch for in the rest of the session.

After a grueling mayoral race, Minneapolis voters put Jacob Frey at the city’s helm. The campaign focused on housing affordability and access, community police relations, and wage and workplace reforms throughout the city. How is the new mayor tackling those issues and deciding priorities? Are weekly 10K runs now mandatory at City Hall?

The routine civic exercise of casting a ballot roused new questions in voters following the 2016 election. Talk of Russian trolls, targeted social media marketing, and even hacking of voter rolls have many wondering if the very practice of our democracy is under threat.

Sounds like great material for a comedy show.

And we asked Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon about. Simon is responsible for overseeing elections throughout Minnesota. He's currently running for re-election to the office.

Former George W. Bush White House ethics and University of Minnesota Law Professor Richard Painter announced in March that he is considering a run for the U.S. Senate.

Will he? If so, would he as a republican, a democrat, or an independent? Why would anyone want to leave Minnesota to go to Washington D.C. anyway? We asked him.