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After 42 years of capturing the sounds and voices of Minnesota, reporter Dan Olson is retiring. 

He joined MPR News' Tom Weber in the studio to talk about the luck that led him into radio, and the stories he's never stopped thinking about.

MPR News legend Dan Olson retires

When Olson first began in radio, reporters working in greater Minnesota had to send their tape back to the St. Paul bureau via Greyhound bus. Olson reflects on how much has changed.

As you can imagine, the archive of his work is filled with hours of storytelling, including an interview with a then-unknown former governor of Georgia, Jimmy Carter. Here are just a few highlights from recent years.

Five moments from master storyteller Dan Olson


The war in Somalia does not produce a lot of good news. But Dan Olson captured a moment of reconnection, as Abdiaziz Warsame spoke with his wife Ayan Mohamed in Mogadishu, seven years after they were first separated when gunmen entered their home.

 Minnesota voices from the front lines of World War II


Listen in on two accounts from Minnesotans who cared for the wounded during World War II. Dr. John Linner was a Navy doctor and served in battles at both Normandy and Okinawa. Bloomington resident Avis Schorer served as an Army nurse during the invasion of Anzio in Italy.

For 91-year-old U prof, one last lecture but lots left to do


Olson sits in on John Fraser Hart's last lecture at the University of Minnesota. It begins with Fraser flipping on a vintage slider projector — one the university for years kept in operating order just for him.

In northern Minnesota, a primeval land of the Lost 40


Olson visits a virgin forest in northern Minnesota that, legend has it, was spared the ax because surveyors mapped it mistakenly as a wetland. 


Calling bingo numbers can be a high-stress job, something Olson taught us all in this piece.

"People get mad at you. They call you names and want to throw daubers at you if you don't call their numbers. I get mad at my daughter when she doesn't call my numbers," Jeannette Fortier jokes.

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After 42 years of capturing the sounds and voices of Minnesota, reporter Dan Olson is retiring.

Five great stories from the archive, on the occasion of Dan Olson's retirement

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