Wolftrax

This is our fourth annual compilation of student research. Please listen, share, and follow Wolftrax. Students contributors include (in order): Prancine Mendoza, Heidi Waldner, Reagan Bierschenk, Laney Widener, Emily Kuntz, Stella Meier, Josh Mutschler, Jericho Jones, Linnea Nesheim, Copper Walder, Drake Jellema, Nolan David, Maddox Plack, Nang Niang, Carla Garcia, Kylie Herman, Tom Duarte, Kendal...

Consisting of student research stories, this compilation emerged from Northern State University's ENGL 213 course, Indigenous Literatures: Bringing the Past Forward.  Student contributors include Prancine Mendoza, Clara Cueller, Emily Kuntz, Logan Hinman, Laney Widener, and Josey Kelly.  Access Prancine Mendoza's annotated Indigenous cookbook here Royalty Free Music from Tunetank.com (Pi...

Welcome to the Third Annual Earth Day Compilation titled Many Voices, One Planet. This episode showcases semester-long student research from Dr. Kristen Brown's ENGL 201 Environmental Stewardship and Social Advocacy course.  Join us in celebrating both academic excellence and environmental stewardship as we hear from the next generation of sustainability leaders on this Earth Day. “Wild Geese...

In this episode I talk with Assistant Professor of Sociology Pamela G. Monaghan-Geernaert and Associate Professor of Communications Liz Sills about Native American political humor.  Professors Monaghan-Geernaert and Sills have an article published in the volume Political Humor Worldwide: The Cultural Context of Political Comedy, Satire, and Parody, (ed. Ofer Feldman, Springer 2024).  The title of...

In this episode I interview newly minted PhD Lucas Wiscons and Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice at NSU.  In this episode find out what real encounters between the police and civilians are like.  I also learn that there are such things as "ethnomethodology (the sociology of everyday life/commonsense knowledge) and conversation analysis (talk in interaction as the locus of social organiz...

Intrepid professor of government Jon Schaff and I discuss President Trump's amazing week.  Topics include DOGE, whether the Chief Executive will regain control over the executive branch, the state of the southern border, and the President's recent (not) State of the Union speech.   The creator of more recent Wolftrax episodes is Dr. Kristen Brown, assistant professor of English at Northe...

In this episode, Professor Jon Schaff, Steven Usitalo, and myself discuss politics beyond our national borders.  President Trump is attempting to end wars in Southern Europe and the Middle East.  Will he be successful and if so, what will the peace look like?  Will aggression have turned a profit for Putin and Hamas?  How serious and how effective will President Trump's tariff strategy be?  A...

The gang of three (Professors Schaff, Usitalo, and myself) reconvene to discuss the accuracy of our predictions.  Hint: I got it right!  We consider how big a victory it was for Donald Trump, what the polls got right and wrong, and the what the campaigns did right and wrong.   The creator of more recent Wolftrax episodes is Dr. Kristen Brown, assistant professor of English at Northern State Univer...

My guest today is Associate Professor of Math Ricardo Rojas.  We discuss our mutual love of mathematics and the role of new technologies in teaching math at the college level.   The creator of more recent Wolftrax episodes is Dr. Kristen Brown, assistant professor of English at Northern State University in Aberdeen, South Dakota. Older (and forthcoming) content consisting of faculty interviews com...

This episode presents a conversation between Professor of Government Jon Schaff, Professor of History Steven Usitalo, and myself.  The three of us discuss the upcoming Presidential Election, including predictions.   You can also watch a video version of the conversation on Spotlight@Northern , which airs on Midco channel 588.  This episode premieres tonight (Oct 31st) at 7 pm and will air again at...

Season 5 of Wolftrax got off to a late start this year.  For Halloween, I have recorded my own reading of a short story by H. H. Munro, who wrote under the pen name Saki.  His stories mostly poke light hearted fun at the English upper middle class in the decades before World War I.  This story, however, is very spooky.  It is, in my humble opinion, one of the most perfect horror stories I have eve...

To commemorate Earth Day, some undergraduate students at Northern State University in Aberdeen, South Dakota highlight their semester-long research on various environmental issues. This interdisciplinary project emerges from a thematic variation of the second course in the college composition sequence, titled ENGL 201: Environmental Stewardship and Social Advocacy, designed by Dr. Kristen Brown. T...

NSU Professors of Government Jon Schaff and yours truly discuss the current state of the 2024 Presidential race.  How is this year like 1888?  What's happening with the Black and Hispanic vote?  Why did the Democrats stick with Biden?  Why is Trump as strong as he is? The creator of more recent Wolftrax episodes is Dr. Kristen Brown, assistant professor of English at Northern State University...

Professors Art Marmorstein, Steven Usitalo, and your host Ken Blanchard, discuss the Gaza war.  We cover everything from the birth of Abraham to anti-Semitism at Harvard.   The creator of more recent Wolftrax episodes is Dr. Kristen Brown, assistant professor of English at Northern State University in Aberdeen, South Dakota. Older (and forthcoming) content consisting of faculty interviews comes fr...

NSU Professor Jon Schaff and I discuss U.S. politics one year ahead of the next presidential election.   The creator of more recent Wolftrax episodes is Dr. Kristen Brown, assistant professor of English at Northern State University in Aberdeen, South Dakota. Older (and forthcoming) content consisting of faculty interviews comes from Professor Emeritus Ken Blanchard, the original creator of Wolftra...

Historian and professor Dave Grettler and I discuss all things furry and fanged in this second annual Halloween episode.  We cover some scholarly angles on these ancient monsters and roll the bones on the best vampire and werewolf movies for the holiday.   The creator of more recent Wolftrax episodes is Dr. Kristen Brown, assistant professor of English at Northern State University in Aberdeen, Sou...

Professor Dias tells me about someone who knew how to get things done: Henry J. Kaiser, captain of industry. The creator of more recent Wolftrax episodes is Dr. Kristen Brown, assistant professor of English at Northern State University in Aberdeen, South Dakota. Older (and forthcoming) content consisting of faculty interviews comes from Professor Emeritus Ken Blanchard, the original creator of Wol...

In this episode I interview Professor of English Elizabeth Haller and Professor of Biochemistry John Mitchell about this course in science and literature.  We consider the removal of a birthmark at a terrible price, suffer through an alien invasion, and smuggle a primitive microscope into Medieval Britain.  If you like good stories with a cup of real science stirred into the broth, you will like t...

In this episode Dr. Blanchard sits in the hot chair and Dr. Grettler in the power chair.  He interviews me on my field of research, biopolitical science.  We talks about Chimpanzees and Bonobos, the difference between men and women, and why Charles Darwin confirms the natural law theory in the Declaration of Independence.   The creator of more recent Wolftrax episodes is Dr. Kristen Brown, assista...

Professor of English Lysbeth Benkert-Rasmussen has a volume of poetry on the cusp of publication.  We try to decide what poetry does, how it does it, and what it is.  Along the way, we both recite some of our favorite verse and best of all, Lysbeth reads some delicious pieces from her upcoming book.   The creator of more recent Wolftrax episodes is Dr. Kristen Brown, assistant professor of English...

Your host describes the amazing moment, just after he came to South Dakota, when he didn't see flying saucers.   The creator of more recent Wolftrax episodes is Dr. Kristen Brown, assistant professor of English at Northern State University in Aberdeen, South Dakota. Older (and forthcoming) content consisting of faculty interviews comes from Professor Emeritus Ken Blanchard, the original creat...

Responding to Professor Marmorstein' s challenge in a previous conversation, we discuss the last book of the Bible.  At the beginning of the conversation, he insists that it is a beautiful book and a worthy contribution to the New Testament.  I insisted that it was five kinds of crackers.  Was I persuaded?  You'll have to listen to the podcast to find out.   The creator of more recent Wo...

Professor Elizabeth Haller joins me to talk about the beat writers, especially Jack Kerouac (her favorite) and William S. Burroughs (my favorite).   The creator of more recent Wolftrax episodes is Dr. Kristen Brown, assistant professor of English at Northern State University in Aberdeen, South Dakota. Older (and forthcoming) content consisting of faculty interviews comes from Professor Emeritus Ke...

On this episode, I talk with Professor of History Dave Grettler about his once upon a time career in archeology and his favorite course: environmental history.  Dave explains why he's not walking around in the backwoods of Pennsylvania in a Warden's jacket nor spending his time looking for witch bottles and the jawbones of bears.  We discuss the environmental view in Genesis, the exchang...

Reporter for the campus newspaper The Exponent interviews Wolftrax host Ken Blanchard about this podcast.  We discuss how it came to be and what it is all about. The creator of more recent Wolftrax episodes is Dr. Kristen Brown, assistant professor of English at Northern State University in Aberdeen, South Dakota. Older (and forthcoming) content consisting of faculty interviews comes from Professo...