Readers here at MinnesotaBrown.com might be interested in one of my new projects. Starting this week, Northern Community Radio will release a new podcast and radio feature called “Dig Deep.” It’s a one hour program featuring Chuck Marohn of Strong Towns fame and yours truly, produced by Heidi Holtan.
“Dig Deep” is a monthly conversation about one social, political or economic issue. However, unlike other public affairs programs, we will not debate the typical talking points. Chuck, a conservative, and this liberal will bring an open mind and new perspectives that we’ve investigated beforehand. We may disagree at times, but we’ll probe potential new ways for policy makers to break the logjam.
Chuck and Heidi are both good friends of mine and I’m really excited for this. Heidi produced and edited most of my radio work for the past 12 years. I’m so glad to be working with her again after our old show “Between You and Me” ended.
The first show is about “the state of rural.” After the election of Donald Trump, many news outlets pounced (a few months too late) on the fact that rural Minnesotans see things differently than those in more populated metro centers. But what is the rural experience in Northern Minnesota? What does that even mean, and what are the policy needs and expectations for the coming years?
You can hear the show a variety of ways. We produced it in three segments, which will each run in a series this Monday, Jan. 16, Wednesday, Jan. 18, and Friday, Jan. 20 at 8:10 a.m. on 91.7 KAXE/90.5 KBXE Northern Community Radio. The entire show will also run in place of The Give and Take the following Saturday at 9 a.m. You can download the podcast on iTunes or through the NCR webpage at any time.
This means that at long last I officially have a podcast! I’ll also be starting up a channel for my Great Northern Radio Show now that the station is able to support podcasting.
Give it a listen and let me know what you think. We’re already planning the February show, which will focus on “Labor,” specifically the role of unions in the 21st Century.
(From the podcast,) I would totally agree about many of us “Gen X”ers getting out, staying out, or completely checking out of politics and trying to re-frame how we make a difference in our communities. It just feels too polarized to waste any time on, certainly on a national level and even a state level, but sometimes even on a local level, too. We’re plenty old enough to be political leaders, but to me it seems there is sort of a void of quality 35-50 year-olds wanting to be a part of it all anymore. Hopefully some of us can find ways to be involved in our communities and make positive changes, but not have to tie ourselves to one political way-of-thinking.