Curious Minnesota

By Star Tribune

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Category: Society & Culture

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Episodes: 87

Description

What do you wonder about the people, places and culture of Minnesota? Listen to our community-driven reporting project, which invites listeners to ask questions that our newsroom researches and answers.

Episode Date
What Minnesota inventions have shaped modern life?
May 02, 2024
What roles did Minnesota's Native American chiefs play? And who were some notable ones?
Apr 19, 2024
Why does Maplewood have such an odd shape?
Apr 04, 2024
How did Northfield become home to St. Olaf and Carleton colleges?
Mar 22, 2024
Did union rules prevent Leonard Bernstein from joining the Minnesota Orchestra?
Mar 08, 2024
What does it mean when Minnesota courts sentence offenders to 'the workhouse'?
Feb 23, 2024
What is Minnesota's deepest lake?
Feb 01, 2024
How did Minnesota become the nation's top turkey state?
Jan 18, 2024
How much flour would it take to turn Lake Superior into bread?
Jan 05, 2024
Did teenagers 'riot' when the Beatles stayed in downtown Minneapolis in 1965?
Dec 15, 2023
Did a Nazi sympathizer once represent Minnesota in the U.S. Senate?
Dec 01, 2023
How did Kid Cann become Minneapolis' most infamous gangster?
Nov 17, 2023
Was Moorhead once a drinking destination?
Nov 02, 2023
Why did Spam become an international sensation?
Oct 19, 2023
Why did Prince decide to live in Chanhassen?
Oct 06, 2023
State Fair attendees tell us their Minnesota questions
Sep 22, 2023
Why is Minnesota such a hotbed of professional wrestling?
Sep 08, 2023
Curious Minnesota at the State Fair this Saturday
Aug 29, 2023
Why did Minnesota once require margarine to be dyed pink?
Aug 24, 2023
How did Tonka trucks get their start in Minnesota?
Jun 29, 2023
Inside the mines and megamachines of the Iron Range
Jun 19, 2023
Why didn't Minneapolis and St. Paul ever merge?
Jun 02, 2023
Why does Minnesota have municipal liquor stores?
May 19, 2023
Why didn't Minneapolis gobble up its suburbs?
May 05, 2023
Did a famed parks leader import gray squirrels to Minneapolis — and have the red ones killed?
Apr 21, 2023
Why was the utopian plan for Minneapolis' Cedar-Riverside area never built?
Apr 07, 2023
What happened to Minneapolis' famous Weatherball?
Mar 24, 2023
How a Twin Cities ammunition factory dominated by women helped U.S. win WWII
Mar 10, 2023
Why was the Mall of America built in Minnesota?
Feb 23, 2023
Why does Minnesota sometimes get colder than the North Pole?
Feb 09, 2023
How did Minnesota become a window manufacturing hub?
Jan 26, 2023
Why are there so many stucco homes in the Twin Cities?
Jan 13, 2023
Minnesota companies once dominated the supercomputer industry. What happened?
Dec 29, 2022
Why did Finnish immigrants come to Minnesota? (And no, they're not Scandinavian)
Dec 15, 2022
Did a TV debate decide one of Minnesota's most scandalous elections?
Dec 02, 2022
Who was Hennepin and why did Minnesota name so many things after him?
Nov 11, 2022
Does Minnesota really have the 'World's Oldest Rock'?
Oct 27, 2022
How lumberjacks harnessed an 'ocean of pine' to build Minnesota
Aug 29, 2022
Why has the Park Board allowed the 'birthplace of Minneapolis' to deteriorate?
Aug 12, 2022
Why did Scandinavian immigrants choose Minnesota?
Jul 28, 2022
Was Charles Lindbergh a Nazi sympathizer?
Jul 14, 2022
Why isn't Minnesota's sacrifice at Gettysburg better remembered?
Jun 30, 2022
What was the first movie filmed in Minnesota?
Jun 16, 2022
How did Nicollet Island transform from an industrial hub to a public park?
Jun 03, 2022
How an inside joke led to St. Cloud getting its name
May 19, 2022
The hidden electrical system that keeps our lights on
May 05, 2022
Why do Minnesotans have accents?
Apr 21, 2022
Did St. Paul really protect gangsters during the Prohibition era?
Apr 07, 2022
Why did Minneapolis' flour boom go bust?
Mar 24, 2022
The stories behind Minnesota's oldest building and the Northwest Angle
Mar 10, 2022
The Jolly Green Giant has left Minnesota. So who is maintaining his iconic billboard?
Feb 24, 2022
Historic wildfires once destroyed part of Minnesota. Could it happen again?
Feb 10, 2022
Which Indigenous tribes first called Minnesota home?
Jan 27, 2022
Meet the Curious Minnesota superfan behind some of our best questions
Jan 13, 2022
Was organized crime behind the demise of streetcars in the Twin Cities?
Dec 03, 2021
Why a slice of I-94 is a 'candyland for researchers'
Oct 29, 2021
The mysterious wall that holds St. Anthony Falls in place
Oct 13, 2021
Why are there so many 5G cellular antennas in some Twin Cities neighborhoods?
Sep 17, 2021
What do State Fair attendees want to know about Minnesota?
Sep 03, 2021
What is the future of COVID-19 and the delta variant?
Aug 25, 2021
How did MSP Airport evolve from a bankrupt racetrack to an aviation hub?
Jul 08, 2021
Why does Minnesota test tornado sirens on the first Wednesday of the month?
Jun 02, 2021
Was Minnesota home to nuclear missiles during the Cold War?
May 06, 2021
Does the Mississippi River really start at Lake Itasca?
Apr 02, 2021
Why did Minneapolis tear down its biggest train station?
Mar 05, 2021
How Ford made millions of windows from the sand beneath St. Paul
Feb 12, 2021
How do cities make Mississippi River water safe to drink?
Jan 13, 2021
Will Minnesota join push toward a national popular vote?
Dec 03, 2020
Why do so many Twin Cities malls end in ‘dale’?
Nov 09, 2020
Why hasn't Minnesota passed the Equal Rights Amendment?
Sep 23, 2020
What's the latest we know about COVID-19's treatment, transmission?
Sep 02, 2020
When you flush a toilet in the Twin Cities, where does everything go?
Aug 08, 2020
Do the things we recycle all actually get recycled in Minnesota?
Jul 16, 2020
How did Minnesota become one of the most racially inequitable states?
Jun 30, 2020
In wake of George Floyd's death, what does 'reforming' Minneapolis Police mean?
Jun 12, 2020
Why do so many Fortune 500 companies call Minnesota home?
May 20, 2020
How did Minnesota become the Gopher State?
May 06, 2020
Listener lightning round: 3 answers on history, geography, traditions of Minnesota
Apr 24, 2020
Why is Uptown south of downtown in Minneapolis?
Apr 08, 2020
What you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic
Mar 19, 2020
How to see the northern lights
Mar 10, 2020
How did Minnesota settlers make it through the cold, dark winters?
Feb 25, 2020
Where did the idea for Minneapolis' skyways come from?
Feb 11, 2020
Why are Honeycrisp apples still so expensive?
Jan 28, 2020
Why does the Stone Arch Bridge cross the river at such an odd angle?
Jan 16, 2020
How did the Twin Cities become a hub for Somali immigrants?
Jan 16, 2020
Where does 'Minnesota Nice' come from, and what does it even mean?
Jan 16, 2020