Diverse radio for Minnesota’s communities
18 Unique Stations from Border to Border
18 Unique Stations from Border to Border
Roy Wilkins earned his professional chops as a Twin Cities journalist. But it was as an activist and director of the NAACP, says producer Britt Aamodt, that Wilkins helped change history with the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
At the University of Minnesota, Dr. Ronald Glasser had trained to be a pediatrician. But in 1968, at the height of the Tet Offensive, the kid doctor found himself at an overseas base, operating on the casualties of the Vietnam War. Britt Aamodt has the history behind Glasser’s 1971 book 365 Days.
Jeannette Piccard may have been one of the first women to get her balloon license and to pilot a research mission to the stratosphere but she had even higher ambitions. Britt Aamodt finds out how Piccard, at age 79, broke the glass ceiling to become one of the first female Episcopal priests in America.
Ted Williams wanted to the best hitter in baseball. Instead in 1938, the California youth found himself demoted to the minor leagues. Britt Aamodt looks at Ted Williams’ season with the Minneapolis Millers.
In 1888, Samuel Green became the University of Minnesota’s newest horticulturist. But his interests ranged beyond agriculture to the state of Minnesota’s trees, which were being mown down by the lumber trade. Britt Aamodt has the history behind one of the oldest schools of forestry in the nation.
In 1941, the U.S. Military had an assignment for Ancel Keys, University of Minnesota physiologist: Create a combat ration that packs a caloric punch yet fits in a pocket. Britt Aamodt has the story behind World War II’s K-ration.
James Douglas Falconer might have chosen to become a vet like his dad Thomas. Instead, the young man from Alexandria, Minnesota, trained as a druggist. September 1918, Falconer started his new job at Rexall Drug Store in Marshall—in the very month Spanish flu appeared in Minnesota. Suddenly, the 29-year-old found himself on the frontlines of an epidemic that had no cure. Yet that didn’t stop customers from lining up. Britt Aamodt has the story.
In 1872, the Minnesota State Board of Health was created to coordinate sanitation and disease control statewide. And by 1918, the average lifespan for Minnesotans was inching up—until September when Spanish flu arrived. No one had anticipated an outbreak like this so there was no plan in place. Britt Aamodt has the story.
University of Minnesota professor Brenda Child heard a story growing up on the Red Lake reservation about a sick girl and the vision her father received of a dress and a dance that would—and did—heal her. Professor Child wanted to know if that story gave a clue to the origins of the Ojibwe jingle dress and dance of healing during the Spanish flu epidemic. Here’s Britt Aamodt.
September 16, 1918, Nora Emilie Anderson was embarking on the biggest adventure in her 37 years. The native of Rock Dell, Minnesota, was one of hundreds of nurses boarding a ship en route to the Great War in Europe. Unfortunately, a stowaway—Spanish flu—boarded with them. Here’s Britt Aamodt with Nora’s story.
September 1918, Marie Anderson Paulson of Wells, Minnesota, greeted the return of her 17-year-old son Raymond Paulson from training at Camp Oglethorpe, Georgia. He wasn’t feeling well. Headaches, body aches, fever. Britt Aamodt has the story of Raymond Paulson, the first known case of Spanish flu in Minnesota.
