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Talking ‘sauna diplomacy’ with the Finnish ambassador
This week I interviewed the Finnish ambassador to the United States, Leena-Kaisa Mikkola. She’s speaking at FinnFest in Duluth this weekend. The soft-focus nostalgia of the Finnish-American experience on the Iron Range tends to dominate a lot of my history conversations. So, in today’s column, I was glad to explore something less theoretical: Finland today. …
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Arts scene makes conflict-prone community edgy in a good way
Ely, Minn., is one of those far-flung communities that stoke the imagination of the big outside world while remaining the entire planet to the people living there. Like any small town, you take the bad with the good. I never lived in Ely, but have family connections there. My great-grandmother lived just outside town on…
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The soul, the psyche & the end of a series
Today brings the last entry in my series of columns about mental health in the Minnesota Star Tribune. Shortly after I started at the Strib, I floated an idea for a column about mental health in an editorial meeting. My editor said that sounds more like a series than a column. Ramrod that I am,…
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It’s getting late
Late night television once dominated our bedtime routines, occupying space now held by doomscrolling and mindless videos. Years ago, I wrote about my unique relationship with late night television when I was growing up. In particular, my teen years were anchored by daily viewing of the strange routines of comedy talk shows — Carson, Letterman,…
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Mental health crisis rages on, but recovery lifts hope
One of the hardest things about a mental health crisis is the overwhelming singularity of the current problem. You can’t “multitask.” The future is an entirely abstract concept. And while I share this from my own perspective, I’ve talked about this with many others. Today I continue my series on mental health issues in Minnesota…
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Power dynamics
How much should we trust power? Most would say we should be very careful about trusting power. Then, they would trust the power they like. Liberals tend to be trusting of government. Conservatives tend to trust markets and corporations. Or at least that’s how it used to be. The old order is falling apart. Government,…
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The Iron Range from above
The other morning I slept in. It was the weekend and a good time to rest. As I lazed in half-sleep, half-contemplation, I looked above me to see something I hadn’t seen before. My wife loves owls so we have owls all over the house. On the top shelf of the bookcase near my side…
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Latest strike shows the pressure facing rural health care
Health care is hard to understand. Let’s start with the fact that most of us have no idea how our human bodies actually work. Thousands of years of science and development taught much to the human race. But the average individual knows only a little. We don’t know anatomy. We don’t know how drugs are…
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A Range of Sound
We have at least five senses that we use to experience the world, but history tends mute them. We read about the Bubonic Plague, but can only imagine how it smelled. What did it really look like when buck naked berserkers charged Roman legions? Did you notice the dangly bits, or was that not as…
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Art and nature are worth more than ‘the socials’
Sometimes it feels like I need to put a note on my computer than says “Do not become Andy Rooney.” The fact that I can even identify the cantankerous late CBS “60 Minutes” correspondent is already a problem. Rooney’s prime occurred when I was just a child … a child who would make his parents…
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This bill kills
A full description of the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” remains a moving target. But if the version of the budget reconciliation deal being debated in the U.S. Senate on Monday afternoon is any indicator, it could be one of the most devastating bills for rural health care in a generation. The health care system is…
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When a broken system blocks rural patients from effective treatment
The fourth in my series of columns about mental health issues in Minnesota is out now. One of my biggest goals in this series was to convey that there is hope for those facing mental illness. There is widespread agreement that effective treatments exist for those suffering most forms of mental illness. The problem is…
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Talking mental health on business podcast
This Sunday, my series of columns on mental health issues in rural Minnesota continues. Before then, here’s something related. On Friday, I appeared on an episode of “Business Talk, Sister Gawk” with Rebekkah Anderson. Anderson shared some of her personal experience with mental illness as an adoptive and foster mom for my column. She also…
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Preorder ‘On an Inland Sea’ from Belt Publishing
We must never lose our amazement over the fact that Duluth, Minnesota, is an international port. Dead center of the continent, thousands of miles from any saltwater, and we see ships roll in from Europe, Africa and beyond. Northern Minnesota may not touch the ocean, but we have always lived along the inland seas of…
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Live from New York, it’s a new world of politics
What could a corn-fed Midwestern boy add to the glut of analysis about the New York City mayoral race? Only this, that Zohran Mamdani’s upset win in Tuesday’s Democratic primary seems relevant to trends in modern American politics, including some upcoming races here in Minnesota. What’s happening is much bigger than tit-for-tat partisanship. Whether you…