Diverse Radio for Minnesota’s Communities
17 Unique Stations from Border to Border
17 Unique Stations from Border to Border
May 1861, Henry David Thoreau, author of Walden, arrived in Minnesota in the company of Horace Mann, Jr. Both naturalists, they used their journey to document local flora and fauna. But Thoreau was hoping the frontier air would heal his tuberculosis. Here’s Britt Aamodt with the story.
Cicely Angleton was the offspring of two of the most prominent families in Duluth, the D’Autremonts and the Congdons. But she’s remembered today because of her unintended role in a JFK conspiracy theory. Britt Aamodt has the story of Cicely’s friendship with Mary Pinchot Meyer.
Stephen Ambrose’s book and the spinoff HBO series Band of Brothers told the story of Easy Company, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne. But neither could include the story of every man who served in the company. Britt Aamodt has the story of the two Minnesotans from Easy and the book that finally tells their story.
In 1978, Ranee Ramaswamy, her husband and their three-year-old daughter moved from southern India to Minneapolis. Within a year, Ramaswamy would give her first public Indian classical dance performance and, fourteen years after that, found her own company. Here’s Britt Aamodt with the history of Ragamala Dance Company.
In 2009, Todd Bol, who’d grown up in Stillwater, was renovating his garage when he decided to turn the old door into a memorial for his mother Esther, a teacher before she died. He created a tiny schoolhouse that he set on a pole at the foot of his driveway and stuffed with free books. Britt Aamodt has the story of the first Little Free Library.
In 1939, Gregg Jakobson was born in St. Paul, where he was adopted by a police chief and his wife. By 1968, Jakobson was a California session arranger and music scout when Beach Boys drummer Dennis Wilson introduced him to a potentially hot songwriting prospect. The songwriter was Charlie Manson. Here’s Britt Aamodt with the story.
September 17, 1909, President William Howard Taft arrived in Winona, one stop in hundreds during the new president’s 56-day whistle-stop tour of America. But what he’d say that day at the Winona Opera House, about a new tariff bill, would foreshadow a rift in the Republican Party and the rupturing of Taft’s closest friendship—with Teddy Roosevelt. Britt Aamodt has the story.
