North Star Journey

Last March, President Donald Trump issued an executive order titled “ Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History .” It mandated a shift in how American history is portrayed in federal institutions, with a goal of eliminating “improper, divisive or anti-American ideology.” Instead, according to the executive order, the focus should be on a more “patriotic” narrative. And to ensure that happens,...

When federal agents surged into Minnesota in January, communities didn’t just face a legal issue. They faced a moral one. Faith leaders showed up. Churches became distribution hubs for food and diapers. Nonprofits organized ride shares and distributed rent money. Clergy mobilized to protest, sing, champion and, in some cases, face arrest. “Our faith compels us,” was the common refrain. “Operation...

Earlier this year, South Korea’s government admitted that widespread corruption had tainted hundreds of thousands of adoptions from its country. Babies who were thought to be orphaned had living parents. Some children were trafficked. Paperwork was falsified. Records were destroyed. Korean adoptees worldwide were left reeling, including here in Minnesota, home to the largest population of Korean a...

While holding a can of Budweiser and tending to chicken thighs on a backyard grill, Natalia Mendez talks about their grandfather. “This is like a smell of my childhood,” Mendez says. Mendez occasionally pours some beer on the chicken, making it sizzle and smoke, tempering the flames caused by fat dripping on coals.  “My grandpa, when he taught my dad this recipe, said it has to be Budweiser,” Mend...

Traditionally, a college degree has been seen as a ticket to a secure future. But not today. Thanks to soaring tuition costs and weighty student loans, many people are questioning the value of college. A 2025 Pew Research poll found that only one in four U.S. adults says it’s “extremely or very important to have a four-year college degree” to get a well-paying job. And many young Americans — inclu...

MPR News host Angela Davis talks about the power of poetry with Junauda Petrus, the poet laureate for the city of Minneapolis. Junauda says poetry is “soul medicine” that can unite us in our shared humanity. Angela also hears from poet and performer, Tish Jones, about what poetry means to her. Guests: Junauda Petrus is the poet laureate for the city of Minneapolis. She is an author, playwright, fi...

MPR News host Angela Davis talks with a Twin Cities rapper and mindfulness instructor who says yoga saved his life.

Artist Rocky Casillas Aguirre has created a mental health universe populated by a ragtag cast of characters. Twitch is the protagonist. He’s bright orange, with big cartoon eyes and very cute. “He’s a little campfire flame, and he represents the kid in all of us who sees the world with curious eyes and has lots of questions,” Casillas Aguirre says. Then there’s his best friend and mentor, Mystic W...

Across Minnesota, there are people working every day to strengthen their communities.  Sometimes it starts with a small business. Sometimes, with a personal passion — and sometimes, with a gym.  MPR News host Angela Davis talks with Dalton Outlaw — someone who combined all three. He’s an entrepreneur, a boxer and a community leader based in the Rondo neighborhood of St. Paul.  Guest: Dalton Outlaw...

82-year-old Ruby Leith Minkel and her daughter Carrie Minkel-Johnson live in the Lower Sioux Indian Community in southwest Minnesota. Together, they make star quilts as gifts for people both within and outside of the community. “I love making the quilts, and it's just something that I appreciate,” Leith Minkel said. When they are not at home in their personal sewing rooms, the two utilize the Lowe...

MPR News host Angela Davis talks with a brother and sister who are both award-winning storytellers. They talk about their work and how they support each other as part of our MPR News  Power Pairs  series. Guests: Daniel Bergin is a filmmaker, executive producer and director of history at Twin Cities PBS, where he was hired more than 30 years ago as a production assistant. He has won more than 20 r...

Like most school districts in Minnesota, St. Paul Public Schools is facing a complicated set of challenges. Enrollment is up a bit this year, but the small increase follows years of decline . The district faces a budget shortfall, has already made deep cuts and plans to ask voters this fall to approve a tax increase to support schools.   At the same time, student performance is stuck where it was...

It was Memorial Day weekend, five years ago, when George Floyd was killed by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. Bystanders recorded the nine-plus minutes that Chauvin calmly kneeled on Floyd’s neck, as the Black man pleaded for help and air. That video rocketed from phone to phone, from media to media and sparked worldwide protests against police brutality. But for the Black community in Mi...

About 4,500 people are released from Minnesota prisons each year. Many of them have spent years, if not decades, behind bars, separated from friends, family and community. What happens when they finally return? How do they rebuild their lives during this complex and often precarious transition? That was the topic at a collaborative Sahan Community Live and North Star Journey Live event recorded on...

George Floyd's murder in 2020 led to calls to end police violence and racism. Five years later, advocates say not enough has changed. MPR News host Angela Davis talks with Medaria Arradondo, the retired Minneapolis police chief, about his book, “ Chief Rondo: Securing Justice for the Murder of George Floyd. ” Guest: Medaria Arradondo is the former police chief for the city of Minneapolis. He is pr...

When the norms and expectations of the workplace aren’t working for you, what do you do?   If you’re Alex West Steinman, you create your own workplace.   In 2017, West Steinman left a career in advertising and communications and joined three colleagues to found The Coven. Eight years later, The Coven has two coworking sites in the Twin Cities and another five franchise locations in Minnesota and W...

Sitting on a frontage road perched above the interstate, hemmed by roads and nondescript government buildings near the Capitol, 12th and Robert streets in St. Paul isn’t much to look at. But in 1903, this was the place to be if you loved baseball.  There, the St. Paul Saints and the St. Paul Colored Gophers — two of the city’s historic baseball teams — played at the Pillbox, sometimes called the “...

The Trump administration has proposed new executive orders and policies that are changing the lives of millions of immigrants.  Dozens of international students have had their visas cancelled, birthright citizenship is being challenged and non-citizens — including those with authorization to work in the U.S. — have been removed quickly from the country without a court hearing.  MPR News host Angel...

The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated disparities within Minnesota's health care system that have existed for decades. Black, brown and Native Minnesotans died at a higher rate from the virus than their white neighbors, and it took them longer to get vaccinated.   As a result, health care and community leaders promised to renew their efforts to help all Minnesotans get access to quality, affordable ca...

In a Minneapolis rehearsal room, a group of Somali musicians gathers in a circle, playing music rooted in the cafés of Mogadishu. The sound is emotional, rhythmic and steeped in memory. It’s called “Somali blues.” “The lyrics are just showing you what it means,” says Ahmed Ismail Yusuf, the group’s leader. The style is similar to what you might have heard in Somalia before the civil war. “It is th...

Patrick Kruse is a member of the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and a descendant of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe. He lives and works along the shore of Mille Lacs Lake and has been creating birchbark art since the late ‘80s.   As a young adult, he says his mother had a dream where he worked with birchbark.   “My mom, kind of, not scolded, but warned me of the cultural significance of bi...

On a corner in the center of St. Cloud, next to a former Wells Fargo bank, Abdikadir Bashir can view bustling cultural malls in three directions. There’s a restaurant, a cafe, retail shops, a halal market, a health clinic — all started by East African immigrants who now call St. Cloud home. This busy hub is the heart of the recently arrived immigrant community in St. Cloud. Bashir, executive direc...

In south Minneapolis, the sound of cars driving by is like white noise. Blue bags hang from maple trees that line the sides of city streets.   The Native American Community Development Institute, or NACDI, has been busy collecting sap from neighborhood trees in recent weeks for the purpose of sugar bushing. Sugar bushing is the process of collecting and boiling down sap into syrup or even pure sug...

MPR News host Angela Davis talks with the president and CEO of the Women’s Foundation of Minnesota about investing in women and girls to ensure their safety, health and economic success.

Through the hard work of Minnesota genealogists, Minneapolis’ oldest cemetery has a new designation by the National Park Service. Pioneers & Soldiers Cemetery, located just southeast of downtown, is now considered part of the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom . The new designation comes after the discovery of three African American Freedom Seekers and one African American abolit...