Strong Women

So the story moves around between the different perspectives of these women, and it doesn't follow a straight chronological timeline. It's more arranged thematically. So but to go furthest back in time would be Marie Blackbird, who who was 14 years old at eighteen sixty two. And she and her mother are the ones who actually sow the seeds into the hands of their skirts. So they bring that story alive. So they represent that traditional relationship with seeds and the land and gardening. - Diane Wilson

Diane Wilson’s newest book The Seed Keeper weaves the stories of four native women living between 1862 and 2002.  It’s a story of awakening, re-connection to the land and and a sort of re-birth in terms of both personal identities and cultural histories.  Wilson joined the morning show to discuss the book, its inspiration and how she hopes the novel influences readers.

Today we talked with Lisa Joy Hesse.  As the COVID-19 pandemic began and wore on there was a lot of uncertainty, and a lot of emotional toll.  Now, with 55% of Minnesotans getting vaccinated, numbers are down and mask mandates have gone away and life is getting back to normal.  But it might not feel normal.  Lisa Joy Hesse is a mixed media and fiber artist, a dynamic presenter and certified infection preventionist.  She lives in the woods of northern Minnesota and she has come out with a workbook called

Annette Gordon-Reed is an American law professor and Pulitzer Prize winning historian. She is currently the Charles Warren Professor of American Legal History at Harvard University, where she is also the Carol K. Pforzheimer Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study and a professor of history in the university’s Faculty of Arts & Sciences.

Georgia Fort is a two-time Emmy nominated journalist. Her reporting has been published on CNN, ABC, NBC, Fox, and CBS affiliates. Her mission as a storyteller is to change the narrative by amplifying truth, citing diverse sources, and contextualizing social justice issues.

Mary Casanova's latest book of fiction published by the University of Minnesota Press is her third on Rainy Lake.  Set in the year 1922 this time we meet Trinity Baird - a 21 year old artist from a wealthy family who spend their summers on their island.  Trinity is strong but broken.  She's been put away in an asylum in St.

I can't step into every bedroom in America and say, ‘oh, wait a minute, let's put on a condom!’…What I could do, though… write a book that uses storytelling and humor to turn people's interest towards the subject as opposed to the narrative we have now, which is that these are terrible and scary things that I should want to run away from… I'm hoping to shift the feeling away from ‘I did something wrong’ to ‘this is just something that happens and I have the power to take care of it.’ – Dr. Ina Park

Senator Tina Smith joins Heidi Holtan and John Bauer on the Thursday Morning Show for Making Sausage.  Senator Smith talks about her new bill the 21st Century Workforce Partnerships Act.  It was put together to give grants to local school districts and community & technical colleges to build a partnership with businesses to help create and expand a better career pathway for students.

Of Women and Salt takes us from present day to Miami to a family detention center in Texas, to Mexico and then back to a 19th century cigar factory in Cuba. It's a haunting meditation on the choices that mothers make, the legacy of the memories they carry, and the tenacity of women who choose to tell their stories despite those who wish to silence them, this is more than a diaspora story; it is a story of America’s most tangled, honest, human roots. (~From the Publisher)

DNR Commissioner Sarah Strommen joins Heidi and John on the Thursday Morning Show to talk about the importance of fishing to the state of Minnesota.  She tells us fishing is a time-honored tradition in Minnesota and also a big business, providing economic activity and building communities.

...hundreds of 17 year old girls at the Minnesota State Capitol. And...OK, we need to go. We need to get out of here... Everyone knew that the protests were coming. They kind of just hurried us on the bus and drove us back to camp. We were in this big auditorium and we just sat there and prayed. And to me, that was the first time I was like...Why is the system so against us? Then I started studying Criminal Justice. - Zoe Carrasco