I hope you survived the Great TikTok Shutdown of 2025. For a few hours last Sunday, the popular social media app went dark in the United States. The company wasn’t required to shut down this way, but acted in response to an impending ban that had been upheld in a rare unanimous Supreme Court decision…. Read More →
Bringing it owl bog home
January 24, 2025 by Leave a Comment
My latest column for the Minnesota Star Tribune, “I grew up in a Minnesota bog the size of New York City; I didn’t know it was special,” is out now. I know longtime readers already heard my stories about growing up on a junkyard in the Sax-Zim Bog. What can I say? In more ways than… Read More →
How the Iron Range became an outpost of the oligarchy
January 21, 2025 by 1 Comment
Today, I’ve got a new essay in the Minnesota Reformer: “Just like Big Tech, American steel lines up with Trump oligarchy.” We’re living in a period of accelerated change. But certain trends have been brewing for a while, and one of them is the rise of an oligarchy in the United States. You may have… Read More →
Global instability will hit home
January 18, 2025 by 1 Comment
The zany comedy, “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World,” came out in 1963. The band R.E.M. released “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (and I Feel Fine)” in 1987. A couple years later, Billy Joel gave his famously frantic history lesson, “We Didn’t Start the Fire.” Despite these facts, those… Read More →
The U.S. Steel deal is dead; long live uncertainty
January 11, 2025 by 1 Comment
When it comes to the U.S. Steel/Nippon merger, it’s all over but the crying. And there will be quite a lot of expensive crying in federal courtrooms over coming months and years. But that doesn’t mean the story is over. We’re going to learn a lot. This is the start of something, not the end…. Read More →
After Carter, decency is up to us
January 4, 2025 by 2 Comments
Jimmy Carter was president when I was born. As a squishy infant with limited cognition, I knew nothing about inflation, gas shortages or the Iran hostage crisis. My memories of American politics begin with Ronald Reagan’s steely eyes glinting at me through our color TV. But I heard Carter’s name time to time, sometimes confusing… Read More →
Another plot twist in U.S. Steel saga
January 3, 2025 by 1 Comment
My latest column for the Minnesota Star Tribune, “Blocked Nippon deal leaves fate of U.S. Steel in question,” is out now. In a widely expected move, President Biden officially blocked Nippon Steel’s proposed acquisition of U.S. Steel Friday morning. Though expected, this move could prove a seminal moment in the timeline of the American steel… Read More →
MinnesotaBrown Top Posts of 2024
January 1, 2025 by Leave a Comment
Like a cookie from the jar, another year has disappeared with startling speed. As such, it’s time to compile some of my favorite and most popular writing from 2024. We’re now well past the era when I blogged daily in hot pursuit of the elusive viral clickstorm. Like I mentioned last year, I’m no longer… Read More →
Which came first? Polarization or brain rot?
December 28, 2024 by 1 Comment
A quiet afternoon spreads before me like a workaholic smorgasbord. These are the mother lodes. Without classes, meetings or interviews to occupy my time, I can accomplish anything. Grade papers. Edit the book. Write. I might even finish this column. And I will, just after I watch another video. A tanker truck turned in front… Read More →
A very special Bob Dylan Christmas
December 24, 2024 by Leave a Comment
Today, you can read my latest column for the Minnesota Star Tribune, “In Hibbing, Dylan biopic taps the unknowable.” The Bob Dylan biopic “A Complete Unknown” opens Christmas night. Last Friday, Searchlight Pictures authorized a special advance showing of the film at Mann’s Cinema 8 in Bob Dylan’s hometown of Hibbing. In a rare twist,… Read More →
