RacketCast

A special bonus episode of our biweekly RacketCast ? Believe it! When Minnesota Public Radio's Cathy Wurzer reached out about the new TPT documentary she's co-executive producing, Broadcast Wars , we figured: hey, nice opportunity to run a Q&A about the doc, which explores the pioneering and often cutthroat world of Twin Cities TV news from the 1950s through the '80s. Hell, we could even plug...

In this edition of RacketCast , get to know Racket’s first-ever Picked to Click winner : Papa Mbye! A terrific new album,  Parcelles 16 , helped vault the Senegal-born, Minneapolis-based musician to the top of the poll, and deservedly so. The music he makes—drawing from rap, electronic music, and indie rock—would have been unthinkable when the original P2C launched in 1991, and he’s only gett...

There's no disputing it: This is the spookiest episode in  RacketCast  history. First up, we've got Dan Suitor,  winner of last year's skyway-themed flash-fiction horror contest , doing a bone-chilling reading of his spooktacular winning story,  Skyway Hungers . Then Em and Jay chitchat about their  gun bingo  and  bigfoot conference  stories (what a website...

Depending on who ask, St. Paul educator/social media star Mandi Jung is either " the fun teacher" who cares deeply for her middle school students (that's according to HBO's John Oliver). Or she's the "anti-capitalist teacher [who] promotes anarchy" (that's according to Fox News). We absolutely loved chatting with Jung, who regularly shares her funny and heartfelt insights into education, politics,...

Exactly 20 years ago, Twin Cities hip-hop greats Heiruspecs got their shot at the big time with A Tiger Dancer . On this episode of RacketCast , MC Chris "Felix" Wilbourn and bassist Sean "Twinkie Jiggles" McPherson reflect with us about the highs (giant shows, Harold & Kumar soundtrack) and lows (label expectations, snubbed Euro tour) that coincided with the release of their breakout 2004 LP....

It's the first-ever episode of RacketCast , the new podcast experiment from Twin Cities news/arts/culture website Racket. In this installment, we recap the week that was at our reader-funded publication, debate whether failing restaurants should seek crowdfunding life support, tease what we're working on next, and ask you, the gracious reader-turned-listener, for pointers about... what RacketCast...