Ellie 2.0 - Am950 The Progressive Voice Of Minnesota

I begin with talking about sociologist/Princeton University professor Matthew Desmond and his book, Poverty, By America. His thesis is that paying low-income wages subsidizes the lifestyles of well-off Americans. The Big Interview is with Jennifer Pizer, the Chief Legal Officer of Lambda Legal, who talks about that organization’s great work in representing LGBTQ+ people for…

Ellie interviews Thom Hartmann.

We start out with featuring the idealistic MSNBC host Chris Hayes and his meteoric rise in broadcast journalism (he is the youngest person to ever host a news show) and my belief in his honesty. The Big Interview is with Emily Strasser, author of Half-Life of a Secret: Reckoning with a Hidden History, a fascinating…

This week’s featured idealist is LeBron James, who just broke the NBA scoring record. In August 2018, I shared about the “I Promise” school his family foundation helped to create in LeBron’s hometown of Akron, Ohio. Today we revisit how that initiative is impacting hundreds of students who might otherwise get lost in the educational…

To commemorate World Holocaust Remembrance Day, we begin with a story about CANDLES (Children of Auschwitz Nazi Deadly Lab Experiments), a nonprofit in Terre Haute IN and the stories of three Holocaust survivors who lived in Terre Haute. It’s quite a collective story about survival and idealism, with the survivors believing that if their personal…

It’s a live show! We begin with an interview of Lehman Riley, the author of the Papa Lemon children’s books series—stories that seek to teach children the basics about respect, equality, allyship and how not to bully. Lehman is a magnetic personality who goes into the classrooms to help children get excited about learning and…

We start off the brand new year with our featured idealist, Hakeem Jeffries, the newly elected House Minority Leader, who’s proven to be determined and persistent in his professional and political careers. The Big Interview is with Greg Anderson, the curator of the podcast, Living in Carver County, who talks about the need to get…

Ellie talks about the political scene in Iowa.

It’s a live show beginning with James Curry of Building Remembrance 4 Reconciliation, a nonprofit that’s working to help Hastings MN and other communities heal from histories of racial intolerance. From there, I talk about how the Respect for Marriage Act, contrary to popular opinion, is not a federal law guaranteeing marriage equality or biracial…

A live show where I talk about CNN journalist Jake Tapper’s article in The Atlantic highlighting the injustice of our legal system that appoints incompetent attorneys to represent the indigent. I also share about idealist Chris Stout, a wounded service member who has devoted his life to creating the Veterans Community Project in Kansas City,…

(10/22/22)—For this live show, I begin with a Time Magazine piece, “The U.S. is Heading Toward a Second Civil War. Here is How We Avoid It,” by Peter T. Coleman. The solution—surprise—is that we need to talk to each other. I also highlight California Congresswoman Katie Porter’s most recent whiteboard re: how corporate profits are…

We begin this week’s show by highlighting Rex Chapman, a former NBA superstar turned addict turned Twitter king with 1.5 million followers—he talks about his life’s challenges to help others and in my book that makes him an idealist! The Big Interview is with Dr. Dan Kessler, who’s running for MN’s District 48 senate seat.…

Our featured idealist is Alfred Nobel, the genesis for the Nobel Peace Prize and other esteemed honors in physics, chemistry, medicine, economics and literature. Nobel’s motivation to be remembered for something good, rather than for inventing dynamite, was grounded in reading his obituary that mistook him (still alive) for his brother who had passed. The…