Pressroom Podcast

We blame him when we get dumped on with snow and call him a liar when it rains when he said it would be sunny. But that’s what comes with the job title says WDIO chief meteorologist Justin Liles. He’s been forecasting the Northland for 14 years and he’s learned a thing or two along the way, like how Lake Superior influences the weather in the strangest ways. In this episode, Liles recalls some of his favorite obscure weather events, shares how he works with the big lake to provide more accurate forecasts, and lets us know if winter is indeed over.

In 2018, the St. Louis County Rescue Squad responded to over 400 emergency calls, 73 of which were missing persons cases.   “It’s very easy to get lost,” said this week’s guest, Captain Rick Slatten, about St. Louis County.   Slatten leads the 66-person volunteer squad made up of engineers, OR docs, funeral directors and college students all responding to their “inner Saint Bernard.” He shares the origin story of the squad, which was started by his father in 1958, recalls a few of his more memorable missions, and gives us a few pointers so we don’t become a person that needs rescuing.  

"We are all just people," says our guest Duluth Mayor Emily Larson on this week's episode. It's a theme she keeps referring to when talking about people's opinions about the city's search for a new flag, or their opinions about women in leadership roles, or their opinions with her end of year column.  We explore those opinions, in which we get an apology out of Brady, and get to know Mayor Larson better with some more trivial conversation, like her idea to measure the temperature only in "feels like" units. 

When she first moved to the Twin Ports, Jessica McCarthy said it was really easy to find drugs. All she had to do was one loop around town and in about a half an hour she had access to opioids. Now the opioid technician with the Duluth Police Department, McCarthy is tasked with getting overdose victims immediate interventions. This week on the podcast, we learn more about McCarthy’s job,  the opioid crisis in the Northland, and her own struggles with addiction.  

This week we have with us two winter enthusiasts unafraid to take a dip in Lake Superior — even if it means cutting through the ice. Rich Narum and Troy Rogers take a leap into the big lake once a month no matter how cold the temperature. Partaking in this ritual since 1995, Narum is a veteran jumper. Rogers on the other hand is a little more relaxed on his meetings with the big lake. But on this they both agree, each dip is a memorable one.

Back in town after living in California for awhile, Actual Wolf, aka Eric Pollard, stops by the podcast this week to talk about his new music and a wide array of other topics. The new dad and regular sauna goer offers sound parenting advice (“just keep ‘em alive and be nice”), the theory of adulthood, his take on social media, and the best people to come out of Hibbing (sorry Kevin McHale, not you).

She’s been teaching us about the port for the better part of a decade. This week, Adele Yorde, recently retired marketing specialist with the Duluth Seaway Port Authority, gives us an inside look at the port and the people who work on the vessels and on the docks. Not knowing much about the shipping industry before she started the job, Yorde says it took her “about two days” to fall in love with the port and the “characters on the waterfront.”

This week’s guest calls her recent teaching experience “faith restoring” and a good reminder that “innocence still exists.” Back from a five month stint in Belarus, Fulbright Scholar and Lake Superior College English teacher Jocelyn Pihlaja shares her experience with us. From starting a lending library with books written in English to navigating the squat toilets in fancy shoes, Pihlaja opens our minds to what life is like in the Eastern European country.

It’s been almost a year since his team took home the gold in South Korea. This week we catch up with Olympic curler John Shuster to hear how his life has changed since his team embraced their underdog story, took out the competition and climbed to the top of the podium.   The Chisholm native tells us about his whirlwind year and how he tries not to get used to the pinch-me moments, which have included a White House state dinner and celebrity golf tournaments where he is the celebrity.   We also get answers to your top questions. Will there be a movie? Is another Olympic trial in his future?

Find firewood, carry firewood back to camp, split said firewood, place firewood in stove. Repeat. Sounds like a lot of work, but for those who enjoy winter camping it’s all part of the experience. This week we are joined by Molly and Shannon Solberg of Duluth who started winter camping years ago by digging a hole in a snowbank and crawling inside for warmth. They’ve since graduated to a tent with Thai curry simmering on a wood stove. The Solbergs share their tips and tricks to camping in the cold. Tip: Cotton is rotten. And what’s the main draw. Think no bugs, no people, lots of fish and lots of stars. And maybe a wolf or two.  

If you want to hang out with Jessica Rossing you better be up for something active. The seven-time amateur Team USA triathlete turned boutique fitness studio owner did something she doesn’t normally do. She sat. She sat down with us this week to help us focus in on our fitness goals for 2019. Rossing, owner of Movo Studio, which she described as a “high intensity complimented with yoga,” space in Duluth, shares some tips and tricks to hold yourself accountable in the new year.

No matter how you pronounce it, northern Minnesotans love their saunas. But if you don’t have one in your basement or at your cabin then you might be missing out on the Finnish steam bath. Until now.   This week on the podcast we meet Whitney and Kelby Sundquist, who own Duluth’s new portable sauna Hiki Hut. Hear about how their new business works, how they renovated an old ice house, and where you can find them around town.

We are taking a quick break, but we will be back next week with some hot new content. 

A presidential visit, a giant refinery fire, bringing home Olympic gold, winning national titles, an historic theater reopening. The list goes on and on. 2018 was a very newsy year. This week we discuss those top stories, how they were covered, and how they affected our readers with News Tribune executive editor Rick Lubbers and managing editor Peter Baumann.

This week we are catching up with a Pressroom Podcast veteran. Duluth musician Rachael Kilgour’s new song, “Holy Are We,” recently attracted the attention of Rolling Stone magazine. They may have spelled her name incorrectly and used the same word twice in one sentence, but Kilgour says she is pleased with the recognition. We talk about the song, her upcoming EP and what life has been like since we last visited with her in March of 2017.

This week we talk with an adventurer who recently drove more than 6,000 miles in 28 days visiting 14 states and flying in 11 of them. Whitney Horky is a paramotorer — she tours the sky from something she has described as a “glorified lawn mower and a bedsheet.” When she found herself “less employed than usual” this fall she packed up her paramotor and traveled state to state on a solo “recommended trail” flying with other pilots/hobbyists she met along the way. Whitney tells us about her trip, what it’s like up there and what she thinks about when she is flying on this week’s episode.

Whether you paddle, pole, pedal or plod (that's hiking), Jake Boyce and his team of adventurers has you covered. Boyce, co-owner of Day Tripper of Duluth, has turned the North Shore into his playground and takes the public along for the ride. But it’s his love of surfing on Lake Superior that he keeps all to himself. On this week’s episode, the native Duluthian shares what it’s like to surf on the big lake and what new thrill seeking ideas he has up his sleeves.

Whether you know him as Bob King or Astro Bob, everyone’s favorite photographer is retiring in December after a 39 year career at the Duluth News Tribune. Bob tells us how a guy from Illinois with a German major got into photography. He shares some of his favorite assignments and the great lengths he has gone to in order to get the perfect shot, including the famous grave digger photo.

Zipper merge, window tint, dogs in laps, feet on the dashboard, quotas and much more. Sgt. Neil Dickenson stops by the podcast and answers your traffic questions. The face of the Minnesota State Patrol and one of our most read columnists, Dickenson answers your pressing questions and shares stories of what he has seen while on duty. “I’ve seen a lot of bad crashes. I've seen the devastation out there on the roads,” he said. “Ninety-four percent of the crashes that we deal with are preventable.” Also, Christa stumps him with a question.

The Duluth Folk School is now your one-stop shop for learning how to sharpen your chainsaw, making your own foraged tea, decorating an egg Ukrainian style, and grabbing a cup of coffee and a bite to eat at the new Dovetail Cafe and Marketplace. Director and co-founder Bryan French tells us how his vision for the handcrafting and community building school in Lincoln Park came to fruition and what big plans he has for the future.