Once upon a time, Minneapolis tried to keep their citizens with a penchant for hard drinking—lumberjacks, farmhands, and railroad workers—into the oldest quarter of Minneapolis. It was an era of flophouses, preachers and nuns trying to save souls and a bar owner named John Bacich, aka Johnny Rex. The Star Tribune’s James Shiffer has written a new book about Minneapolis’s Skid Row and its king.
Does Size Matter? A Question of Small Town Vitality
We’ve all heard about the death of small towns both here in Minnesota and across the country. But are things so simple and dire? Will our children only read about rural towns in books? Are we all destined to live in towering skyscrapers in mega cities of 10 million people each? Probably not, but what is the economic and cultural future of small towns? Featuring Dr. Kathy Draeger, Statewide Director of the University of Minnesota Sustainable Development Partnerships.
Affordable Home Companion
The Affordable Housing debate in the Twin Cities region has been called one of the fiercest in the country. We sat down with three experts to find out why. Featuring Nelima Sitati-Munene, executive director of African Career, Education & resource, Owen Duckworth, Coalition organizer for the Alliance for Metropolitan Stability, and Ed Goetz, Director of the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs.
Mrs. Smith Goes to St. Paul
Minnesota’s second-in-command is our extra special guest for the season kick-off of T2P2. Join us and Lt. Governor Tina Smith as we ask her hard hitting questions like: What should we do with Minnesota’s budget surplus? What’s her working relationship with Governor Dayton like? And, wait... what exactly does a Lt. Governor do anyway?
Two Congressmen: One Show
What will happen when congressmen Tom Emmer (MN-6, GOP) and Tim Walz (MN-1, DFL) are The Theater of Public Policy’s on-stage guests? Will we end partisan bickering with improv comedy? Or, in true Minnesota fashion, will they just talk about the weather? Find out!
Money Money Money
Chris Farrell, Senior Economics Contributor to American Public Media’s Marketplace, and Cardiff Garcia, US editor of the Financial Times’s Alphaville, joined us to make sense of the Fed’s interest rate policies, “un-retirement,” globalization, and what the heck is going on in Cuba.
Infrastructure of Dreams
They say an improv comedy show about infrastructure investment policy can’t possibly be funny. We talked with Vinn White, U.S. DOT Senior Transportation Policy Advisor, and Casey Dinges, Senior Managing Director at the American Society of Civil Engineers about roads, bridges, transit, and dedicated lanes for hover-bikes.
Church and State
Some people think church and state should be the best of friends and others think of them as worst enemies that shouldn't even be in the same room together. How does this all play out in the real world? How did it get this way and what can be done about it? We talked with Rev. Barry Lynn, Executive Director of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State.
Norm Ornstein
Washington gridlock, elections, pundrity and more all in our chat with Norm Ornstein, Resident Scholar of the American Enterprise Institute. He offers up answers and more questions about all things politics.
Met Council Chair, Adam Duininck
Our first guest cancelled! Fortunately, Metropolitan Council Chair Adam Duininck was able to come on the show. We talked about major transit plans for the region, how the council operates and some recent controversy.
Education Roundtable!
We hosted our most controversial show yet! Really? Probably not, but it seemed that way due to the volume of emails, phone calls, and social media posts that we received. We sat down and talked with Ale Matos (Star Tribune), Christopher Magan (Pioneer Press) and Beth Hawkins (Education Post) about the state of education in Minnesota.
Meet Minneapolis
What does Minneapolis do to attract visitors and what goes into a proposal for hosting a major conference or event the Super Bowl? Meet Minneapolis has the answers and it's not to keep building more stadiums.
Elections!
We spoke with Doug Chapin, Director of the Program for Excellence in Election Administration at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs, about our electoral system, voting in Minnesota, and how he has several degrees, but none from the electoral college.
Andrew Johnson, City Councilman of MPLS
What's it like to be the first Millennial on the Minneapolis City Council? He certainly brings a younger perspective on the issues and sometimes has to help the other council members when their computer crashes.
Grassroots Change in Minneapolis
We talked with Anthony Newby, ED of Neighborhoods Organizing for Change and Dr. Nekima Levy-Pounds, the Minneapolis President of the NAACP, Professor of Law at St. Thomas University and organizer with #BlackLivesMatter Minneapolis.
Design, for Good!
Tom Fisher, former Dean of the School of Architecture at the University of Minnesota and the 5th most published author on architecture in America talks with us about how our world will change, the importance of design, and he looks into his crystal ball to talk about the future of driver less cars.
Education Commissioner, Brenda Cassellius
The Education Commissioner of Minnesota, Brenda Cassellius, talks with us about the state of schools in Minnesota and which kind of apple is a teachers favorite.
Unretirement
Economist and author, Chris Ferrell joins us to talk about Unretirement, the idea of the Greatest Generation reentering the workforce after retirement and he reveals this one stock tip which will all make us millionaires.
Jacob Frey, City Councilman
Jacob Frey, City Councilman for Ward 3 in Minneapolis, talks about issues that are important to him, the future of Minneapolis and how he may be the fastest city councilman we've had.
Jon McTaggart, CEO of MPR
The CEO of American Public Media and Minnesota Public Radio, Jon McTaggart, joins us to talk about what radio was like in the old days, why MPR listeners are curious, and what the future holds for radio.
