Ellie 2.0 - Am950 The Progressive Voice Of Minnesota

I’m back from my writing sabbatical with a great show! I highlight Ed Dwight, who should have been the first black-color astronaut but for discrimination in the 1960’s. The Big Interview is with Julieanna Richardson, founder and executive director of The HistoryMakers (https://www.thehistorymakers.org/ ), which has recorded 3000+ interviews of black-color humans trying to survive…

Our historical idealist is Vera Connolly, a cutting edge investigative journalist of the 1920-50’s who wrote about Native children, immigrants and girls working in sweatshops. The Big Interview is with Scott Herold, who works to empower youth and humans through music and video. My C-Block covers something I witnessed at this year’s Pride event at…

The show in part deals with religious pushback at religious intolerance; I start out by talking about how the Jesuits running Brefeuf Jesuit Preparatory School in Indiana refused an archdiocese order to fire a long-time teacher who happens to be gay. The Big Interview is with Minneapolis pastor Dan Collison, who has been defrocked by…

It’s a hodgepodge show. I first speak about being on a panel of lawyers to discuss diversity and inclusion in the legal profession and how it’s important for straight, white-color cisgender men to step up and be allies to persons from marginalized communities. The Big Interview is with Michelle Seets of Minnetonka High School re:…

Our theme is “speaking up for the outcasts” and we start with a Pride Month remembrance of Sylvia Rivera, a transgender activist who fought for societal acceptance of gender variant people; she also had to fight for acceptance by the gay and lesbian community. The Big Interview is with Dr. Thomas Adams of Better Futures…

Today’s a mixture of idealists; we begin with Scott Warren of the organization, No More Deaths—he’s on federal trial in Tucson for smuggling undocumented humans simply because he provided food and shelter to two men who crossed the border; the Big Interview is with Elizabeth Brenner of Protect Students Abroad, whose idealism was borne out…

This week’s theme is “Yearning for Change” and we highlight the anti-gun violence movement, #NeverAgainMSD, which arose out of the Valentine’s Day 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stone Douglas High School in Parkland, FL. The Big Interview is with local idealist Robin Wolpert, an attorney who seeks to “close the gap between what democracy promises…

It’s an Ellie’s Talking Head Show; I highlight Lewis Hine, an early-20th century photographer whose photographs of child laborers in America helped usher in modern child labor laws; quite the idealist if you ask me! In lieu of an interview, I provide an update on black-color women participating in the Miss America and other pageants;…

This show’s a real mixture; in the A-Block, I talk about the White Rose, a group of idealistic German university students (and a professor) who resist the Nazi regime in 1942-43 by spreading pamphlets calling for Germans to resist the war and Nazism. Some of those idealists paid the ultimate price as a result. The…

We start talking about systemic racism and historical trauma in the context of constructing I-94 between Minneapolis and St. Paul and how it destroyed much of the Rondo neighborhood, which was predominately populated by black-color persons. The Big Interview is with two idealistic students (Angelo Bush and Jasmine McBride) and their idealistic instructor (Scott Herold)…

An Ellie’s Talking Head show, the theme is about engineering change—societal and personal. In the A-Block, I talk about protests over the 1968 Miss America Pageant for its lack of color diversity and unfair representation of women, spawning the first-ever Ms. Black America Pageant. The B-Block has stories about LeBron James’ I Promise School in…

In our A-Block, I talk about 80-year-old John Johnson of Wytheville, VA, who has a mission to identify the dozen long-dead white-color men involved in the last lynching of a black-color person in Virginia (in 1926; the victim’s name was Raymond Byrd); the Big Interview is with Donna Minter of the Minnesota Peacebuilding Leadership Institute;…

The theme for this show is forgiveness and redemption. I highlight Marina Cantacuzino, founder of The Forgiveness Project, who curated an exhibit, “The F Word,” with personal stories about forgiveness and healing. The Big Interview is with John Anderson, an idealist who helped bring “The F Word” to Grace Lutheran Church in Andover MN. In…

An Ellie’s Talking Head show, we learn about Peter Buttigieg, the 37-year-old gay mayor of South Bend, Indiana who is considering a presidential run; he’s an idealistic out-of-the-box thinker who is making people notice. I also share about how crowdfunding mechanisms are ways for us to exercise our empathetic hearts. Finally, in the C-Block, I…

Our idealist this week is Carrie Ann Lucas, a disability rights activist who blazed an idealistic trail in Colorado before dying earlier this year at age 47; the Big Interview is with Susan Robertson, who is working to make the Presbyterian Church more LGBTQ-friendly. The C-Block has me talking about a keynote, “Bridging Divides,” that…

We start off talking about South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission and its idealistic goal of healing the country after the horrors of apartheid; the Big Interview is with Dr. Kurt Nelson of the Lantern Group where we talk about what makes for someone to be idealistic; and in my C Block, I talk about…

I talk about last week’s (Feb. 19) Day of Remembrance for Japanese Americans re: internment during WW2, including the only elected official to speak up against internment, Ralph Lawrence Carr, the Republican governor of Colorado; the Big Interview is with Jacki Trelawny of Family Tree Clinic in St. Paul; in my C Block, I talk…

We start this week’s show with a report about two artist-idealists, photographer Sally Mann and Cameron Rowland, a conceptual artist. Both artists tackle issues around race-based cruelty and systemic racism. The Big Interview is with Tom Nelson, a Minneapolis attorney who’s used his leadership roles in local bar associations to push for greater diversity and…

We’re talking about idealists who do remarkable things for their times. First off is Maurice Willows, who convinced the American Red Cross to provide relief to the Black community in Tulsa OK following the horrendous race riot of 1921 (it was the only relief organization to provide assistance); the Big Interview is with William Doherty,…