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On the last day of 2025, the Minnesota Now team looked back on some of our favorite conversations of the year. 

50 Years of Hmong history and culture in Minnesota

2025 marked 50 years of Hmong refugee resettlement and immigration to the state. Today, 95,000 people identify as Hmong in the state. MPR News highlighted the Hmong community with stories about its history and how Hmong Minnesotans are making an impact.

 series, producer Aleesa Kuznetsov talked with Fox 9 Morning News anchor 

, who made history in 2021 by becoming the first Hmong male news anchor in the country.

“I always say that storytelling is in my blood and in my DNA as a Hmong person,” he said. Storytelling is a rich tradition in the Hmong culture. Much of it is oral, like Hmong Song Poetry. Hmong elder and culture expert 

 sang Hmong song poetry on Minnesota Now for the Hmong New Year. 

There is also a growing effort to revitalize the Hmong language by writing it down. 

 spoke to Minnesota Now about an author’s collective that is self-publishing books in Hmong. 

Minnesota basketball coaches watch players on the national stage

2025 was not a championship year in Minnesota basketball, but it had its moments. The Minnesota Lynx were top seed for most of the WNBA season before losing to the Phoenix Mercury in the semifinals. And the Timberwolves made it to the Western Conference finals with some upset wins before they lost to the Oklahoma City Thunder.  

There were also players with Minnesota roots reaching the heights of basketball glory. At the start of the year, Paige Bueckers was still playing college ball. She opted to play one more year with the University of Connecticut before going pro. That meant one more shot at a national championship, which, in April, she and her teammates won. Minnesota Now talked with Buecker’s mentor, friend and former coach, 

Minnesotan Chet Holmgren took home an NBA championship this year with the Oklahoma City Thunder. Holmgren is from Minneapolis, where Larry Suggs coached him on a club team alongside his own son, Jalen Suggs, who is now a point guard for the Orlando Magic. The two players were also on the same high school team at Minnehaha Academy. 

 joined Minnesota Now to talk about his first impressions of Holmgren and why he thinks Minnesota is a strong basketball state. 

Anton Treuer on learning to love all the parts of oneself

Minnesota Now started a new series in 2025 where we meet interesting Minnesotans for a meal at one of their favorite restaurants or a place that’s meaningful to them. It’s called “

.” The goal is to get into the guests’ communities and find authentic connection, something many people are seeking right now. 

One of our favorite conversations this year was with Ojibwe language and culture professor 

 from Bemidji State University. He and MPR News host Nina Moini met up last spring but the themes they discussed still resonate.

Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.

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In 2025, Minnesota Now spoke to more than 700 people from across the state as we covered top news and got to know our neighbors. The team picked a few of those conversations to revisit at the year's end.

Minnesota Now's favorite interviews of 2025

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