“Between you and me.”
It's a sentence-starting phrase that signals a shift in conversation toward intimacy. It recognizes a mutual understanding or experience, and whatever is to follow is likely worth listening to.
KAXE’s Heidi Holtan said radio captures the feeling of a vulnerable or forthright discussion in a way no other medium quite can. In her 22 years as an on-air host with the Grand Rapids-based community radio station, Holtan said this concept remains at the heart of what the organization seeks to provide to its listeners and community.
“Though the shows have changed, we haven't ever gotten away from that idea of how personal radio is and how personal voice is,” said Holtan, director of content and public affairs. “And we just felt like this was a great way to kind of bring this title back, because it still exemplifies, I think, what we do best.”
The new KAXE Morning Show podcast Between You & Me harkens back to a live Saturday morning call-in show hosted by Holtan years ago, which sought to foster a sense of familiarity and connection between listener and host.
The podcast will present some of the best conversations from the Morning Show, featuring the voices, stories and people of Northern Minnesota. Between You & Me also includes original music by local jazz guitarist Sam Miltich, whose gypsy jazz has been heard by people across the world and in the Grand Rapids VFW.
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Whether guests are regional writers, naturalists, bird experts, artists, performers, leaders of community organizations or public officials, their collective stories exemplify the experiences of those who call the Northland home: the Iron Range, Grand Rapids, Bemidji, Brainerd and every point in between.
Holtan, who said she was a shy and quiet person, even through college, found herself at home behind the microphone.
“I still find that this medium, this microphone — talking to somebody, imagining who this person is, or really getting to ideas in a way that's different than television. … I just still am so intrigued by it,” Holtan said during the first episode of Between You & Me.
“Though the shows have changed, we haven't ever gotten away from that idea of how personal radio is and how personal voice is."Heidi Holtan
“ … I'm not nervous about how I look. I'm not nervous about what the person, the eye contact, or anything. I'm actually listening to what they say. And so I can ask, you know, I can say, ‘Why? Why is that?’”
KAXE News Director Chelsey Perkins, new to the station but not to rural Northern Minnesota, said the podcast brings a lot of different people covering many different subjects to one place, reflecting the way of life in the region.
“All of the different people, the traditions, the things that we share as rural Northern Minnesotans — like predicting the ice out in local lakes or talking about, you know, everyone's favorite topic, the severity of winter weather, the ways that we get around with transportation. Solving problems like rural homelessness. I mean, these are all things that impact all of us who live in this part of the state, in one fashion or another,” Perkins said.
“Sometimes it's in like a playful way, like talking about ‘What's for Breakfast,’ one of our most popular segments. Or sometimes it's a serious thing, like talking to a death doula in the context of, you know, loss and and preparing for death. And those are topics that all of us think about as human beings.”
Subscribe to Between You & Me on Apple Podcasts or listen on the NPR One app. Or stream the episodes on our website.
“Between You & Me” is made possible by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.