MN90: Minnesota History in 90 Seconds

Charles Biederman was one of the great abstract artists in the 20th century. Britt Aamodt tries to discover why this Cleveland-born artist has more art in Minnesota museums than anywhere else.

Charles Perkins Strite was tired of burnt toast. So the Minnesota inventor set out to do something about it. Britt Aamodt offers up a tale of a new kind of toaster.

To prepare lectures for his course on Death and Dying at Hamline University in St. Paul, Mark Berkson visited religious centers around the Twin Cities. But on a lunchtime walk near school, he nearly met his own death. Britt Aamodt has the anecdote of the professor and the hearse.

The Beatles' press conference in Minneapolis, August 1965, played a part in—or rather, added guitar to—the group's 1966 album Rubber Soul. Britt Aamodt opens up the case on the 12-string Rickenbacker guitar with the Minnesota provenance.

The Carlton Celebrity Room was featured in the film Fargo. But Britt Aamodt tells us this dinner club was more than a piece of Coen Brothers fiction.

They were southern Minnesotans who signed up for the National Guard during the Great Depression. Many did it for a job when jobs were scarce. But when America entered World War II, they found themselves on an island. Britt Aamodt tells the story of the Minnesotans stationed on Kodiak Island.

Everybody would like to have the kind of accident botanist Alexander Anderson had at the turn of the 20th century. He went looking for starch granules and discovered breakfast cereal with a bang. Britt Aamodt gets the scoop.

What makes Minnesota unique? The lakes, the weather...and the Minnesota Citizen's League. For over 60 years, the Minnesota Citizens League has helped tackle some of the toughest problems in the state. MN90 producer Allison Herrera tells us more about this influential organization.

Dan Jurgens had a Clark Kent childhood in Ortonville, Minnesota. But Britt Aamodt reveals that Jurgens's relationship with the Man of Steel didn’t end there.

The variety of toys available today seems endless. But in the 1940s, a now-classic toy designed near Lake Minnetonka practically ruled the industry. MN90 Producer Andi McDaniel takes us back the early days of Tonka trucks.

He was born John Wilfart in New Ulm, Minnesota. But legions of fans knew him as Whoopee John. Britt Aamodt resurrects the king of Midwest polka.

Before Oscar Wilde became a dead author studied in literature courses, he was a dandy with a love of beauty, the arts and the written word. Britt Aamodt gets the dirt on his drab overnight in Minneapolis

Will Weaver needed to get away from his father’s dairy farm to have more time to write. And did he write. Britt Aamodt examines how one of Weaver’s story went from New York Times notable book to film and stage.

William Albert Allard spent boyhood summers at Lake Gladstone outside Nisswa, Minnesota. Decades later, the National Geographic photographer returned, says Britt Aamodt, to tell the Minnesota Lake Country story in pictures.

The musician Yanni is famous for his New Age style and prolific solo career. But before he went out on his own, he was part of a “bombastic pop band” in the Twin Cities called Chameleon. MN90 Producer Andi McDaniel gives Chameleon a closer listen.

Babe Ruth was born in Baltimore, traded by Boston and beloved by the world. But Britt Aamodt looks at a day in 1922 when Babe Ruth came to Sleepy Eye, Minnesota.

Franz Halberg, a scientist and physician at the University of Minnesota, was fascinated by the human body’s daily rhythms. Not only did people wake and sleep in concert with the sun, but internal processes, like heart rate and blood pressure, also seemed to vary in a regular pattern. Britt Aamodt investigates the man who coined the term Circadian Rhythm

With a population of around 300 people, the town of Darwin, Minnesota, is fairly small. But it’s home to one gigantic ball of twine. Weighing in at nearly 9 tons, the supersized twine ball is 40 feet around, and stands over 12 feet high. The ball’s creator, Francis Johnson, was a child of the Great Depression and an obsessive collector of mundane objects including pencils, buckets, and of course,...

He was called Paramahansa Yogananda but many knew him better at Swami Yoganada, the Indian guru whose spiritual mission brought him to America in 1920. Britt Aamodt fast forwards seven years to 1927 when, for three months, Swami Yogananda taught Minnesotans how to reach self-realization and meditate.

America in the 1950s was preparing for the Soviets to drop the bomb any minutes. But less than two decades later, says Britt Aamodt, Minnesota was building the first rural nuclear plant in America.

In 1995, hundreds of Minnesotans lined up at the Minneapolis Dayton’s with cookbooks under their arms. There were here to see cookbook author and television personality Julia Child. Britt Aamodt has the story of that rare personal appearance and the Minneapolis food writer, Lee Svitak Dean, who got to share an afternoon glass of wine with the author of Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

Leonard Nimoy created an iconic character for Star Trek in Spock. Britt Aamodt tells us about another of Nimoy’s iconic roles produced with the help of a Minnesota theater.

3M is famous for inventing the Post-It note. But Britt Aamodt has uncovered a 3M that gave you a scratch you just had to sniff.

In 1886, Alpheus Beede Stickney built a stockyard along the Mississippi. Britt Aamodt traces the history of South Saint Paul as Minnesota’s cow town.

Tom Nelson was an electrical engineer living in Minnesota who got involved in a birding controversy. Britt Aamodt reports how the engineer weighed on the resurrection of the ivory-billed woodpecker, believed extinct for over 70 years.