Pressroom Podcast

Duluth News Tribune readers will now be able to hear the top stories of the day in a quick, easy-to-follow podcast. The "Duluth News Tribune Minute" will feature the most important news from around the Northland, including weather and sports, every weekday morning. Brought to you by the reporters at the Duluth News Tribune, Superior Telegram and Cloquet Pine Journal, the podcast will provide listeners the local news they need to start their day. The first episode will be available Monday, Feb. 1. Subscribe and listen at duluthnewstribune.com, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts and Spotify.

Hey Pressroom Podcast listeners. No, we aren't back with new episodes. Sorry. But we do want to let you know about a new podcast produced by the Duluth News Tribune that you might be interested in. One hundred years ago, on June 15, 1920, three black circus workers, Elias Clayton, Elmer Jackson and Isaac McGhie, were wrongfully accused of sexual assault and murdered by a mob. In this six-part series, the News Tribune will look back at one of Duluth, Minnesota’s dark moments in history, a time when an estimated 10,000 people participated in or were witness to a hate crime — then didn’t talk about it again publicly for more than 60 years.  The Duluth Lynchings is produced by the Duluth News Tribune's Christa Lawler and Samantha Erkkila, with reporting by newsroom staff. The first episode airs Thursday, May 14, but you can listen to the trailer here first.

The bad news: We're going on hiatus. The good news: We will be back later this year with even more things Duluth.   In the meantime, if you have suggestions for guests, topics or just want to say hello, you can reach us at podcast@duluthnews.com.   Thanks for listening and we will be back soon. 

She’s been coined the “landless farmer.” Heather-Marie Bloom never set out to be a farmer, but after taking a farming course and leasing some land in Esko in 2011 she was hooked. She now operates Rising Phoenix Community Farm, a CSA (community supported agriculture) south of Floodwood where she leases 2-acres of land. During the growing season, Bloom lives in a tiny house, which she built with the help of her father, on the farmland so she can tend to her crops more easily.

This week we are joined by a Texas native who has quickly become a go-to political authority for Northland media when it comes to analyzing national politics.   University of Minnesota Duluth political science professor, and former journalist, Cynthia Rugeley (rhymes with hugely) discusses Sen. Amy Klobuchar on the debate stage, the Democratic Debates as a whole, and her idea that President Trump’s worst sin is accusing critics of a crime. She also talks about local politics and shares why Minnesota, a purple state in her opinion, is an interesting state to follow on a local level.

This week we have with us a writer who caught a wide audience with his recent Saturday Essay “Why Some Men Kill Women” on Perfect Duluth Day.  After a Duluth man was charged with fatally stabbing his wife not too far away from his home, Chris Godesy felt compelled to share his experiences and thoughts on men’s violence against women.  Godsey, who now works with the nonprofit Men as Peacemakers, shares what we can do to break down patterns of male dominance and how we can become more self-aware of our own behavior.

This week a pair of radio broadcasters whose voices have become a regular part of Duluth summers stop by the newsroom. Duluth Huskies summer broadcast interns Eric Moon and Andrew Murphy, as heard on 92.1 The Fan, share how they got here, what they like best about Duluth and Wade Stadium, and what broadcasters they look up to, which leads us to an impeccable Harry Caray impersonation.

Summer is just ramping up in Duluth and with that comes a full lineup of outdoor concerts at Bayfront Festival Park.  This week, Jeff Stark, head of DECC venue operations, joins us to talk about what goes into booking big names and big community events at the waterfront park overlooking the Aerial Lift Bridge.   Stark’s first job was at the DECC at age 16 and he has been there ever since. He shares a few tales from behind-the-scenes, including a face-to-face interaction with Bob Dylan, and what secret assignment he had during the day of the Trump rally, which was around a year ago.

Being the only woman on the St. Louis County Board can be a “lonely” job. This week County Commissioner Beth Olson, representative for West Duluth, shares what made her decide to run for a position that is predominantly male across the state of Minnesota. She shares how she is supporting other women in leadership roles, what she is learning from her constituents and how she measure success. And make sure you listen all the way to the end to see what Olson is into this week. She is living her best life by fulfilling a longtime dream of hers.

In the summer of 1977, an 18-year-old girl from the Iron Range who just wanted to see if she could run a marathon became the first woman to cross the finish line of a now iconic race. On this week’s episode, Wendy (Hovland) Cregg, the first Grandma’s Marathon female champion, shares what it was like to run the inaugural race and what competitive sports were like for women in the 70s when Title IX was enacted by Congress.

He’s on cup 75 out of 100 and still going strong, just like he takes his coffee. Last fall, Duluth City Council President Noah Hobbs started his effort to sit down and drink 100 cups of coffee with citizens of Duluth. On this week’s episode he shares his tales from the coffee shop, of which he’s been to every one in town. Hear how he got the idea, how it’s been going so far and what he’s learned the most from making himself more accessible to his constituents.  

Wedding season is upon us and this week we have a Duluth photographer who takes wedding portraits to the next level. Derek Montgomery has been known to summon the northern lights and conjure up lightning for priceless photos in his clients wedding albums, but he also has a keen photographic eye when it comes to freelancing for area media. Derek tells us about some of his more memorable moments as a wedding photographer, why he always keeps an extra pair of pants in his arsenal and what he likes to photograph most outside of weddings. We also get the origin story of “Hole Boy,” an iconic News Tribune photo of a toddler in a pothole to give it scale.

This week we have with us two movie-minded guys — both filmmakers, film consumers, film curators — Matthew Dressel, a screenplay writer who has taken the lead on this year’s Duluth Superior Film Fest, and Mike Scholtz, a documentary filmmaker whose “Riplist” will open this year’s festival. We talk about Mike’s film and how he came up with the idea to document a celebrity death pool draft. And we ask Matt how he selects movies for the festival and what makes a good movie. The festival, now in its 10th year, runs May 29-June 2. We also heavily debate whether or not spoilers are a good thing. Let us know if you are “Team Spoiler” or Team No Spoiler.” Email us at podcast@duluthnews.com. And while you are at it drop us a note of who you’d like to hear on an upcoming episode.

It's not the "hook and bullet" crowd it once was, says this week's guest News Tribune outdoors reporter John Myers about the outdoor scene in northern Minnesota. While he is still out there writing stories about fishing openers and deer camp, in the first 53 weeks in his new position at the paper he has found people enjoy the outdoors in many other ways too. Such as this Sunday's story about "glamping."  Fresh off a warbler walk, Myers shares some of his favorite stories so far along with a few hidden treasures that may come in handy as you explore the Northland this summer. 

“A little nonsense now and then is cherished by the wisest men,” recites this week’s guest Jim Ouray. The artist behind one of Duluth’s quirkiest events, the Smelt Parade, Ouray joins us on the podcast this week to tell us more about how the event got started, smelting and his background in puppet making. The parade, now in its 8th year, is Sunday, May 12 at 3:30 p.m. in Canal Park. The parade ends with a smelt fry at Zeitgeist Arts Cafe at 5 p.m. Attendees are encouraged to dress in silver.

This week Brittany Lind, creator of Ellipsis Duluth on Twitter and host of The Duluth Local Show on Minnesota Public Radio’s The Current, joins the podcast to share how she takes on Homegrown Music Festival, which is happening right now. Not a musician herself, unless you count playing the bass clarinet in high school, we learn how music became such a big part of her life, how Ellipsis came to be, and her goal of getting local music into the ears of more Minnesotans.  

This week we have with us one of Duluth’s top free agents and a trusted source in a rich history of well-regarded television news anchors who worked in Duluth. Edward Moody, former news anchor at CBS 3 Duluth, has been out of the business for a month now but he is still in the area and he’s still consuming the news. He tells us how he digests and reacts to news now that he’s not in a newsroom and tells us about his future plans. He also recounts his favorite moments and stories from working in television news for 17 years.

Opera, UMD, Sammy’s Pizza, “Brooklyn Nine-Nine”, eating lunch with Bill Paxton, there's not much we didn't talk about during this week’s episode with actor Joel McKinnon Miller.   McKinnon Miller, who stars as detective Norm Scully on the NBC sitcom and visits Duluth fairly regularly, shares snippets of life as an actor in Los Angeles and offers “deep Blu-Ray commentary” on movies and shows he has had a role in. He also shares an epic smelting story from his college days as a Bulldog.

It’s been about a year since he retired from a long career as the News Tribune’s outdoors reporter. This week, we catch up with Sam Cook to see if he set a new record of nights slept on the ground. Cook, who still writes a weekly column for the paper, fills us in on his retirement adventures, what (if anything) he misses about reporting, and the great mustard purge of 2018.

Hockey continues into April. For the third year in a row.   This week it’s a crossover episode between the News Tribune’s two podcasts. Sports reporter Matt Wellens, host of the Bulldogs Insider Podcast, joins fellow reporters Christa Lawler and Brady Slater along with KDAL radio guest Bruce Ciskie for a tournament primer as the UMD Bulldogs make a run in their third consecutive NCAA Frozen Four. We talk about the four teams in the tournament, the secret to UMD and the NCHC’s success in the postseason, and what the chances are the defending champs win it all in Buffalo, N.Y.