Ellie 2.0 - Am950 The Progressive Voice Of Minnesota

We start the show highlighting Melissa Statz, a fourth-grade teacher at Cooper School in Burlington, WI, who ignited controversy by teaching her students about Black Lives Matter and structural racism. The Big Interview is an encore of my interview of another Wisconsinite, Jessica Greb, from earlier this year—she had organized other women to support restaurant…

Our featured idealist is soon-to-be First Lady Dr. Jill Biden; despite the cache of being married to Joe Biden for 30+ years, she’s taught in public schools and community colleges because she wanted to make a difference. The Big Interview is with Rachel Pilgrim, whose work in investigating the identities of five black women who…

Ellie Krug fills in for Brett and takes listener calls on what’s going on with the election.

It’s a pre-election live show! For a break from politics, our featured idealist is Woody Faircloth, who has created a nonprofit to supply refurbished RVs to survivors of the Nov. 2018 Camp Fire that swept Paradise, Calif., destroying 14,000 homes and leaving 50,000 people homeless. The Big Interview is with Dr. Kurt Nelson, a behavioral…

We start with our featured idealist, Pham Doan Trang, a Vietnamese journalist, blogger and author, who was imprisoned by the Vietnamese government on October 6th for advocating for democracy and freedom. The Big Interview is an encore of my January 6th interview of Hippy Feet founders Michael Mader and Sam Harper. In my C-Block, I…

This week’s featured idealist is Delores Huerta, who helped galvanize migrant farm workers and who later championed women in politics; there’s so much she’s done to make the world a better place! The Big Interview is with Laura Belin, curator of the blog, Bleeding Heartland, which covers Iowa politics. In my C-Block, I talk about…

It’s a rare live show! The first half includes me sharing about the origins of Indigenous Peoples’ Day, and because we are live, we could take calls; one caller shared about being American Indian and how she saw firsthand young Native children being taken from their families and put in “Indian Schools.” It was a…

Our featured idealist this week is Alexander Vindman, who spoke truth to power during last year’s proceedings to impeach President Trump; the Big Interview is an encore interview of Emily Hunt Turner from All Square, a chic grilled cheese restaurant that provides formerly confined humans an opportunity for a second chance. In my C-Block, I…

For those interested in attending the RBG Tribute event on Oct. 3, here is the link: https://www.facebook.com/events/810170443144838 Our featured idealist for today’s show is Franz Jaegerstaetter, the inspiration behind the movie, A Hidden Life—he lost his life because he refused to swear allegiance to Hitler in 1943. The Big Interview is with Leslie Wright, an…

This week I highlight a huge idealist just lost—Ruth Bader Ginsburg; she did so much to change the world for so many people! The Big Interview is with John Anderson, who is walking 8.46 miles everyday for 8 days to inspire others to stand-up to racism. In my C-Block, I talk about the President’s attempts…

Today’s theme is lawyers as idealists. Our featured idealist is Benjamin Crump, the attorney for the family of George Floyd and many other black and brown people who have been harmed through police misconduct. The Big Interview is with St. Paul attorney Rachael Schromen regarding her pro bono and volunteer work. In my C-Block, I…

This week I highlight the Milwaukee Bucks as idealists for their strike on August 26th, refusing to play and providing a statement about the need for the Wisconsin Legislature to address police violence directed at Black men. The Big Interview is an encore of my August 18, 2019 interview of Dan Blake, a man whose…

Our featured idealist is Linda Sarsour, a Palestinian-American who has worked to curb police violence in NYC and on a larger scale, helped to organize the 2017 Women’s March on Washington. The Big Interview is with Michael Fosberg, author of Incognito: An American Odyssey of Race and Self Discovery, who shares about ways to get…

This week’s featured idealist is Cori Bush, the progressive Democrat who unseated Lacy Clay in Missouri’s 1st congressional district. The Big Interview is with Jillian Chmiel, a champion of domestic violence survivors and presently a therapist with the Sojourner Project in the west metro. (Jillian is also a mentee and “Third Daughter” to me!) In…

For our first show in a new time slot (2-3 p.m. Mondays), I give first-time listeners an introduction to me and the show’s mission. I then pivot to talking about the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights organization and its selection of Dr. Anthony Fauci and Colin Kaepernick as recipients of the 2020 Ripple of Hope…

Our featured idealist is the late civil rights activist, Congressman John Lewis, where I focus on his early life, which included being arrested more than 20 times as he battled Jim Crow. The Big Interview is an encore of my August 2019 interview of Julieanna Richardson, founder of History Makers, a project that documents African…

We begin by examining the “Third Wave,” a Palo Alto high school teacher’s experiment in 1967 to teach his students about how easy it is for fascism to take hold. The Big Interview is an encore of my interview with Bill Doherty of Better Angels, which is working to prevent fascism in America by encouraging…

Our featured idealist is WNBA and MN Lynx star Maya Moore, who paused her red-hot career in part to work on criminal justice reform, which included working to free Jonathan Irons, who was wrongly-convicted of a crime at age 16. He’s now 40 and just released from prison thanks to Maya’s help. The Big Interview…

I start out the show talking about reparations to make up for the wealth gap between white-color Americans and African Americans—the gap is due in part to white-color people accumulating wealth on the backs of enslaved humans. The Big Interview is with Abdi Sabrie, a Mankato MN school board member who experienced visible marginalization as…

Our featured idealists are the Black Lives Matter movement and one of its founders, Patrisse Cullors. The Big Interview is with Mick (Monique) Dargis, who identifies as nonbinary and who has written a letter to the president of the University of St. Thomas (a conservative Catholic university) asking for it to increase recognition of transgender/nonbinary…