Wedge LIVE!

There's a special primary election coming up on January 14th, which will effectively decide which DFL candidate fills the open seat in Minnesota Senate District 60. I'll be speaking with several of the top candidates for the podcast. This episode features Monica Meyer (https://www.monicameyermn.com). Watch: https://youtube.com/wedgelive Join the conversation: https://bsky.app/profile/wedge.live Su...

Jake Ameca Luna recounts the harrowing experience of having his boss -- Brenda Short, candidate for mayor of Minneapolis -- announce his firing in the newspaper. Jake didn't find out about it until someone sent him a link to the interview with Brenda two weeks after it happened. In the meantime, Jake had continued performing his campaign duties, and Brenda said nothing about his firing. Listen: ht...

John is joined by Yasmin Hirsi and Alex Burns of Our Streets Minnesota for a conversation in reaction to the Minnesota Department of Transportation announcing they will not include interstate removal as one of five options for further study when it comes to the future of I-94. We talk about the "up is down, black is white" analysis MnDOT is using (Urban interstate removal causes more air and noise...

John is joined by Melody Hoffmann from southwestvoices.news for a rundown of 2024's top local stories. Part 2 of 2. Watch: https://youtube.com/wedgelive Join the conversation: https://bsky.app/profile/wedge.live Support the show: https://patreon.com/wedgelive Wedge LIVE theme song by Anthony Kasper x LaFontsee

John is joined by Melody Hoffmann from southwestvoices.news for a rundown of 2024's top local stories. Part 1 of 2. Watch: https://youtube.com/wedgelive Join the conversation: https://bsky.app/profile/wedge.live Support the show: https://patreon.com/wedgelive Wedge LIVE theme song by Anthony Kasper x LaFontsee

Because way too much local news is happening all at once, John is joined by Josh Martin for an Emergency Episode. We take up urgent issues like the Minneapolis City Council adopting a budget for 2025 - overriding Mayor Frey's veto in the process; Council Member Vetaw horsing around while accusing others of being "unserious"; Josh discloses a conflict of interest; John admits his embarrassment at h...

Sen. Omar Fateh is running for mayor of Minneapolis. We talk about his record in the state legislature, the state rideshare law he helped pass, public safety, homelessness, the case against Mayor Frey, and what it's like to be a super chill low-key guy. Watch: https://youtube.com/wedgelive Join the conversation: https://bsky.app/profile/wedge.live Support the show: https://patreon.com/wedgelive We...

We're covering some of 2024's biggest Minneapolis stories in a special crossover episode hosted by Jay Boller and Em Cassel of the Racket Cast podcast. John Edwards is usually your host, but today he's just a guest alongside Taylor Dahlin and Hot Dog Larry Jacobs himself, Jason Garcia -- who spends the whole episode in a hot dog costume. Thanks to Jay and Em of Racket for hosting, and Jay for edit...

John is joined by Taylor Dahlin and Ryan Brown for an uncomfortable Thanksgiving conversation about the state of the online world. John and Taylor have been doing double duty on both bluesky and twitter in recent weeks. Ryan wonders if he'll ever post again, as he tries to figure out what he wants from social media. We talk about the ups and downs of both platforms and try to convince Ryan to join...

Because our broadcast signal does occasionally bleed across the river, John is joined by Garrison McMurtrey, a candidate for a seat on the Ramsey County Board that controls an annual budget in excess of $800 million. We talk about the challenge local governments face under a second Trump administration, streets, health care, housing, homelessness, transit, and more. The special election for the di...

Council Member Linea Palmisano takes me on a bike tour of the future E Line bus rapid transit route through Ward 13 (about a quarter of the total route). We talk about the exciting prospect of a 17 minute bus ride from Linden Hills to downtown, the pain of street infrastructure upgrades for local business in her ward, her thoughts on the Davis Moturi shooting and MPD Chief Brian O'Hara's initial r...

My conversation with Cody Fischer - whose company Footprint Development builds small-scale, sustainable, multi-family housing - about imminent changes to the City of Minneapolis's 4d tax incentive program for affordable housing. We also talk about unique energy efficiency features he puts into his buildings and how the 4d program makes those possible. Plus an update on "single stair" building lega...

Robin Wonsley, who represents Ward 2 on the Minneapolis City Council, is here to help me recover from the devastating results of the presidential election. We also talk about her work on regulating off-duty jobs for police officers, local efforts to turn socialists into a punching bag, and a look ahead to the 2025 city election. Watch: https://youtube.com/wedgelive Join the conversation: https://t...

With the 2024 election and the fate of the nation still hanging precariously in the balance, the 2025 city election season has already begun. This is my conversation with Rev. Dr. DeWayne Davis as he embarks on his mayoral campaign (recorded Oct 23, 2024). Davis is the lead minister at Plymouth Congregational Church in the Steven’s Square neighborhood; served as co-chair of Mayor Frey's Community...

Kim Ellison is running for re-election to an at-large seat on the Minneapolis School Board, which means every voter in the city will have her on their ballot There are two competitive school board races this year. One is for a citywide at-large seat and the other is in district 6. This is one of four episodes with candidates for those two seats. In addition to listening to this podcast, I recommen...

Shayla Owodunni is running for an at-large seat on the Minneapolis School Board, which means every voter in the city will have her on their ballot There are two competitive school board races this year. One is for a citywide at-large seat and the other is in district 6. This is one of four episodes with candidates for those two seats. In addition to listening to this podcast, I recommend reading t...

Greta Callahan is running for Minneapolis School Board in district 6, located in southwest Minneapolis. There are two competitive school board races this year. One is for a citywide at-large seat and the other is in district 6. This is one of four episodes with candidates for those two seats. In addition to listening to this podcast, I recommend reading the candidate interviews in Minneapolis Scho...

Lara Bergman is running for Minneapolis School Board in district 6, located in southwest Minneapolis. There are two competitive school board races this year. One is for a citywide at-large seat and the other is in district 6. This is one of four episodes with candidates for those two seats. In addition to listening to this podcast, I recommend reading the candidate interviews in Minneapolis School...

The race to fill Frank Hornstein's shoes in MN House District 61A comes down to the final two. This episode features my conversation with Toya López, the Green Party candidate. I spoke with Katie Jones, winner of the three-way DFL primary, prior to the DFL convention in March. You can listen to that episode here: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/wedgelive/episodes/Katie-Jones--candidate-for...

We kick things off with results and analysis of Don Samuels vs Ilhan Omar in the 5th congressional district primary. Josh breaks out his google docs. We list all the factors working against Samuels in 2024, compared to his previous campaign in 2022. We cover Katie Jones's victory in Minneapolis's only competitive state legislative race (house district 61A) - and what the results can tell u...

Jason Garcia, aka Hot Dog Larry Jacobs, joins us to do podcast punditry while attempting to eat 12 hot dogs for charity. Josh Martin makes sure the score-keeping stays honest. In this groundbreaking 90 minute episode, we talk about the race for Minnesota House of Representatives in 61A. Frank Hornstein is retiring, creating a vacancy for the first time in decades. We're trying to answer the qu...

On this episode of Wedge Save America: After their department earned an unprecedented double consent decree, the Minneapolis police union earns a historically large 21.7% pay increase as part of their new contract; the plan to add an additional elected member/crackpot to the Minneapolis Board of Estimate and Taxation dies at the Charter Commission; Taylor Dahlin joins us to talk about becoming a v...

For this episode, Mike Norton and host John Edwards welcome your angry replies to their bike ride through Uptown, around the lakes, and back again. We discuss the life and death of Uptown; the perverse incentives of the commercial real estate market; how Minneapolis has earned its designation as the happiest city in the USA; why Mike Norton's resignation as Minneapolis DFL vice chair was reall...

We're biking from downtown Minneapolis to Powderhorn Park to talk about People's Pride — the local, laid back, non-corporate alternative to Twin Cities Pride. No police either — they've taken sequeerity into their own hands. It's happening Saturday, June 29 at Powderhorn Park from noon to 4 pm. My guest is one of the event's organizers, Luna Zeidner, who talks about the recent...

What have we learned from the big push for ambitious statewide zoning reforms during the 2024 Minnesota legislative session? From parking reform to fourplex legalization, most of these proposals failed to pass. But advocates got the conversation started and built an impressively broad coalition of housing, environmental, labor, faith groups, and others in support of these proposals. And they saved...