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If you live in a big city, you may have noticed new buildings popping up — a high-rise here, a skyscraper there. The concrete jungles that we've built over the past century have allowed millions of us to live in close proximity, and modern economies to flourish. But what have we given up by moving away from the forest environments in which humans first evolved? This week, we revisit our 2018 conversation about the healing power of nature with psychologist Ming Kuo.

Second Harvest North Central Food Bank is hosting events around northern Minnesota as part of their "It Takes Us All" campaign. The organization's Executive Director, Sue Estee, recently stopped by the KAXE studio to inform Scott Hall and John Latimer about these events and explain why bringing together communities to end hunger today is so important now more than ever. Click the "Listen" player at the top of the page to hear the full conversation. Or click here to visit the "It Takes Us All" page on the Second Harvest North Central website.

NPR's John Burnett reports on how religion has fared under the Clinton Administration. The issue of religious liberty has received little attention during the presidential campaign. But it turns out that by signing the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, ordering guidelines for religious expression in public schools and easing certain rules limiting religious businesses, President Clinton has earned praise from conservative and liberal religious leaders alike. But on social issues such as abortion and homosexual rights, some conservative Christian groups still give the President a failing grade. For them, even Republican candidate Bob Dole has not spoken out strongly enough.

Minnesota Republican Rod Grams is considered one of the most vulnerable US Senators facing re-election this fall. He's a staunch conservative in a state with a long history of progressive politics, but he's also a maverick in a state known for its independence. Anemic poll numbers and a modest legislative record brought lots of challengers into this month's Democratic primary, but the big field may prove to be Grams best defense. Minnesota Public Radio's Michael Khoo reports.

NPR's David Welna reports from Managua on Sunday's presidential election in Nicaragua. The two leading candidates are Daniel Ortega, former Sandinista president, and Arnoldo Aleman, the conservative former mayor of Managua. Aleman denies Ortega's charge that he represents a return to the days of the late dictator Anastasio Somoza, despite his popularity among supporters of the former Contra rebels. Aleman has vowed to cancel, or force compensation for, the thousands of property confiscations carried out by the Sandinistas when they were in power.

NPR's Brooke Gladstone reports on a new, negative evaluation of the recent television ratings system. The conservative Media Research Center claims the system has failed to adequately alert parents to programming they might not want their children to see. In fact, the group's reviewers contend that prime time programming rated for general audiences routinely contained "vulgarities" and "obscenities". The study looked at 150-hours of prime time television on ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, UPN, and WB networks. NBC garnered some of the harshest criticism.

California legislators are still struggling to fashion a plan that could solve the state's power crisis. Proposals that would increase consumer rates face sharp opposition, especially after an independent audit showed that Pacific Gas and Electric, one of the financially troubled utilities, was slow to conserve cash even when signs of the crisis began to appear. In Washington today, the Republican head of the Senate Energy Committee said taxpayers may pay billions of dollars if California's two big utilities default on their debts.

NPR's David Welna reports on the first day of the 107th Congress. Republican Dennis Hastert has returned for a second term as Speaker of the House of Representatives. The vote, with 222 for Hastert and 206 for Democratic leader Richard Gephardt, was along party lines, except for two exceptions: Democrat James Traficant of Ohio, an outspoken and controversial maverick, fulfilled his promise and voted for Hastert. Gene Taylor, a conservative Democrat from Mississippi, voted not for Gephardt but for Representative John Murtha, a Pennsylvania Democrat. Two other House members voted "present." Other than that, it was a day of excitement, as many members brought their children onto the House floor.

Luke Gorski is a traveler with a big task this summer. Luke called in for his weekly check-in to tell KAXE/KBXE's Heidi Holtan and John Latimer about this leg of his journey exploring all 66 Minnesota state parks this summer. Click the player above to hear the entire conversation. For the other installments of this summer pilgrimage, click here to read more in the KAXE/KBXE archives.

Omar Sosa To kick off the new year, Tell Me More revisits memorable conversations with musicians heard on the program in 2009. Legendary jazz musician and composer Omar Sosa has earned his ranking within a unique class of world musicians. Since his childhood years spent in Cuba, Sosa has been able to call many other places home, such as Ecuador, Spain and San Francisco. Along the way, he's soaked up various sounds and rhythms of the cultures he encountered. Back In April, Sosa dropped by NPR's Studio 4a for a performance chat in which he described his efforts to connect the sounds of the African diaspora with that of the Americas.

From Michel Martin To Jay Leno: Soul Singer's Career Takes Off — Before In a special New Year's encore of performances heard on the program, Tell Me More revisits its conversation with soul singer Eric Hutchinson. Since his chat with host Michel Martin, Hutchinson has continued on his rise to stardom, having appeared on the former Tonight Show with Jay Leno and having toured with pop star Kelly Clarkson. Hear Hutchinson talk candidly about his early struggle to gain recognition in the music industry and about how his career, remarkably, took a turn for the better.

Linda Wertheimer speaks with Philip Delves-Broughton, N.Y. bureau chief of the Daily Telegraph, who is covering the trial of rap singer Puffy Combs. Combs is on trial for weapons possession and bribery charges. He testified in his own defense today. Delves-Broughton says that Combs denied the charges, and was very composed under cross-examination, making for an impressive witness. He also says Combs has been dressing conservatively, more like a banker than a rap star.

Robert talks with Hugo Young, a political columnist for the Guardian newspaper, about John Major and the speech Major made today in Brussels. He denounced the European Union's social chapter on workplace standards. The speech is widely being viewed as a part of Major's re-election campaign, which is currently in trouble. Major is hoping to rally conservative voters in Britain, who may have doubts about the European Union and the changes that would come to the United Kingdom if various social standards for employment are changed.

Linda Wertheimer travelled to northeastern Ohio last week, driving along the shores of Lake Erie, talking to voters about the Presidential campaign. She met with the types of voters candidate Dole is courting and needs to win over -- fiscal conservatives, people concerned with familiy values and the moral center of this country, people who have voted for Republicans in the past. But Linda Wertheimer found that many people who one might expect to vote for Dole AREN'T, and they tell us why.

The signing of the agreement on Hebron between Israel and the Palestinians has proven to have far-reaching implications. Most of the Arab world was watching to see what conservative Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would do in those negotiations. The fact that the peace process has continued has raised hopes that a peace agreement might be reached between Syria and Israel as well...which would go a long way toward achieving a comprehensive peace in the Middle East. The United States is expected to push for such an agreement between the two nations soon. NPR's Eric Weiner reports.

Stephen Moore, who's president of the Club for Growth, a conservative political action committee says he favored returning dollars to taxpayers when the economy was strong. Now he thinks a tax cut's even more essential to managing a soft landing instead of a recession with economic growth slowed, the stock market down, and the tax burden above 21%. He urges the full Bush tax cut plus capital gains cut to help high tech. http://www.clubforgrowth.org

NPR's Sylvia Poggioli reports from Rome that Pope John Paul the Second plans to beatify two of his predecessors next month. The two popes who will be elevated on the ladder toward sainthood influenced the Roman Catholic Church in very different ways. Pope Pius the Ninth is regarded by many as an arch-conservative, known for promulgating the doctrine of papal infallibility. He's also known as the pope who insisted a Jewish boy in Rome be raised a Catholic, against the wishes of the boy's parents. Pope John the Twenty-third, by contrast, is renowned for liberalizing the Church with the reforms of the Second Vatican Council.

In its first three months, the administration of President Bush has kept its distance from the power problems of California -- making clear it wanted the state to work out its own problems. But today the president issued a directive to federal agencies in that state instructing them to turn off escalators and keep air conditioning at a low level this summer. President Bush also used the occasion to restate the government's commitment to conservation as a key element of its policy for controlling energy costs and avoiding shortfalls. NPR's Don Gonyea reports from the White House.

Behind the fight over possible legislation to overhaul Social Security is a battle for the allegiance of older voters -- and it's turning nasty. A conservative group called USA Next surprised a lot of people by running an online ad attacking the senior citizens' group AARP. The ad charged that AARP's "real agenda" wasn't Social Security or any other seniors' issue, but rather an alleged opposition to the troops in Iraq and alleged support for gay marriage. NPR's Peter Overby reports.

Jacki reports on the turmoil in the Canadian province of Ontario over budget cutbacks. The Conservative government of Premier Mike Harris has cut about 8-million dollars in spending so far in an effort to curb a 100-million dollar debt. On Friday and Saturday, tens of thousands of union workers rallied in Hamilton, Ontario to protest government policies. The province faces a strike by members of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) at 12:01 Monday morning. Union offices warned the walk-outs would escalate, with as many as 55-thousand of the province's 81-thousand union workers off the job by mid-week.The chief issue in contract talks between the union and the government is job security. On Friday, the government announced an 18-percent cut in provincial hospitals and as many as 20-thousand layoffs of hospital workers during the next year.