MPR News Presents

Speeches, documentaries and debates.

At this year’s Aspen Ideas Festival, Kitty Boone, vice president of public programs at the Aspen Institute, asked three national media leaders why trust in the news has eroded — and what media organizations can do to win it back. On the panel were Jeffrey Goldberg, editor in chief of The Atlantic; Noah Oppenheim, president of NBC News and Samantha Barry, editor in chief of Glamour.

The Aspen Institute

Aspen Ideas Festival: Rebuilding trust in media

September 30, 2021 3:52 p.m.

At this year’s Aspen Ideas Festival, Kitty Boone, vice president of public programs at the Aspen Institute, asked three national media leaders why trust in the news has eroded — and what media organizations can do to win it back.

What's on the radio: Monday, Oct. 25

February 9, 2021 7:35 a.m.

Here’s the MPR News lineup on the radio and on the stream.

S. Mitra Kalita, CEO and co-founder of URL Media, and Stewart Vanderwilt, president and CEO of Colorado Public Radio, joined Vivian Schiller, the executive director of Aspen Digital and former CEO of NPR, for a conversation about the future of local news at the Aspen Ideas Festival in June.

The Aspen Institute

Aspen Ideas Festival: Journalism’s fight for survival, locally and nationally

September 30, 2021 3:11 p.m.

Local journalism is dying, and national media organizations are making radical changes to fight public mistrust and stay afloat. Local and national media leaders came together at the 2021 Aspen Ideas Festival to discuss the problems plaguing journalism and how to solve them.

NBC's Joshua Johnson, the former host of NPR's 1A, spoke with Sherry Turkle, a professor of the social studies of science and technology at MIT, at the 2021 Aspen Ideas Festival.

The Aspen Institute

Aspen Ideas Festival: Is empathy the fuel of democracy? And, politics without politicians?

September 29, 2021 3:11 p.m.

Hyper-partisanship and gridlock, massive populist protest movements, low public satisfaction with government performance — something seems to be broken in American democracy. Here are two ideas for fixing our political system from the 2021 Aspen Ideas Festival.

Charles Adams, coach of the Minneapolis North Community High School football team, spoke at the 2021 Aspen Ideas Festival with North graduate Zach Yeager. Journalist Jon Frankel moderated the conversation.

Aspen Ideas Festival: Mpls. North's football coach reflects a year after George Floyd's murder

September 28, 2021 3:52 p.m.

This year’s Aspen Ideas Festival featured a conversation with the Minneapolis North Community High School’s football coach and one of his former players.

Virologist Nathan Wolfe, founder of Metabiota, spoke with Sarah Zhang, a staff writer for The Atlantic, at the Aspen Ideas Festival on June 30, 2021.

The Aspen Institute

Aspen Ideas Festival: Pandemic lessons include early detection, telehealth

September 27, 2021 1:01 p.m.

This year’s Aspen Ideas Festival featured several discussions related to the pandemic.

MinneCulture: 'The Godfather of Black Space in Minneapolis'

September 6, 2021 2:00 p.m.

For Labor Day, we broadcast an episode of the MinneCulture podcast about restaurateur, labor organizer, and civil rights pioneer Anthony Brutus Cassius. The program is hosted by Minnesota chef and food writer Mecca Bos.

Houses are surrounded by flood waters after Hurricane Delta

Water Main documentary, "In Deep: One City's Year of Climate Chaos"

September 2, 2021 5:00 p.m.

During a year already vexed by a global pandemic, residents of Lake Charles, Louisiana, suffered two hurricanes, an ice storm, and a devastating flood — a level of catastrophe that portends our nation’s disastrous climate future and reveals the insufficient safety nets available to the most vulnerable. This documentary chronicles the effects of these disasters over the course of a year, starting with Hurricane Laura in August, 2020.

Under Pressure

APM Reports documentary, 'Under Pressure: Inside the college mental health crisis'

September 1, 2021 5:00 p.m.

Even before the pandemic, campus counselling services were reporting a marked uptick in the number of students with anxiety, clinical depression and other serious psychiatric problems. College administrators are feeling pressure to do more to retain students whose mental health issues might otherwise lead them to drop out – and to ensure that students don’t harm themselves or others.

Who Wants to Be a Teacher?

APM Reports documentary, 'Who wants to be a teacher?'

August 31, 2021 5:00 p.m.

Schools around the country are struggling to find enough teachers. Many quit after a short time on the job, creating a constant struggle to replace them. Each year, there are close to 300,000 first-year teachers in the nation’s classrooms. At the same time, enrollment in teacher training programs at colleges and universities is plummeting, and schools are looking to other sources to fill teaching positions.