Early 1942, mechanics at Mid-Continent Airlines in the Twin Cities were asked to retrofit twenty-four B-25 bombers. They only found out what the planes were used for when their mission hit the headlines: The Doolittle Raid over Tokyo. Here’s Britt Aamodt.

Mother and daughter were both award-winning crop artists. Lillian Colton’s creations earned her the nickname the Seed Queen. But daughter Linda Peterson’s art got Retweeted by Hamilton. Here’s Britt Aamodt.

Pearl S. Buck was devastated. The Mayo Clinic doctor said she should put her daughter, who had severe cognitive disabilities caused by a then unknown condition (phenylketonuria/PKU), in long-term care. In order to pay for it, Buck pinned her hopes on novel writing. Here’s Britt Aamodt.

It didn’t get any bigger than this. Tippi Hedren, Minnesotan, model, single mother, had been cast in Alfred Hitchcock’s new film. But she soon discovered working with the Master of Suspense was for the birds. Here’s Britt Aamodt.

People remembered Melissa Gilbert as the freckle-faced Laura Ingalls on TV’s Little House on the Prairie. But in 2008, the Guthrie Theater announced the grown-up Gilbert would be in their Little House too, as Ma Ingalls. Yet was anyone still interested in this tale of a 19th-century farm family struggling on the land? Here’s Britt Aamodt.

In 1969, Mark Forgy left his home in Golden Valley, Minnesota, to travel Europe. He had no idea that would lead him to a job with the 20th century’s most notorious art forger and a cameo in a new Orson Welles documentary.

Bee Vang didn’t think anyone would be interested in his story—that of a Hmong refugee working in a Minnesota factory. But his daughter proved him wrong. Britt Aamodt looks at Kao Kalia Yang’s 2017 memoir The Song Poet.

When Gretchen Carlson settled her lawsuit with Fox in 2016—she also signed a non-disclosure agreement, which prevented her from talking about CEO Roger Ailes’ sexual harassment. But in 2019, two films told the story for her. Here’s Britt Aamodt.

Bernard Herrmann was famous—as a film composer. But by 1948, he only wanted to work on his opera, which he did in Minneapolis, the home of his soon-to-be second wife. Here’s Britt Aamodt with Bernard Herrmann’s Wuthering Heights.

Leeann Chin wanted to open a restaurant in 1980. But where was she going to get that kind of money? Carl Pohlad, future owner of the Twins, said he’d pitch in. And so would his friend, Sean Connery. Here’s Britt Aamodt with the story of the first Leeann Chin restaurant.