Minnesota Unraveled
Minnesota Unraveled: Pulling on the threads of Minnesota History
All Episodes
Beaver Tales: From Minnesota’s Ice Age to Today
At the Bell Museum of Natural History in Saint Paul, the lives of beavers across 2 million years are captured in two scenes. One is set in the Ice Age and showcases a giant beaver, an animal the size of a small black bear. The other is set in the early 1900s at Lake Itasca and captures the more familiar modern beaver chomping on wood and building a dam. Together, these scenes spark big questions: Why have beavers been important to Minnesota’s history since the Ice Age? How have they shaped the landscape and human activity? And how did we get from the giant beaver to the beaver we know today? To explore these questions, Dr. Chantel Rodríguez draws on multiple ways of knowing. Fossils, archival records, ecological science, and Indigenous storytelling reveal a complex narrative of megafauna, community relationships, environmental change, and global trade. Through conversations with paleontologist Nicole Dzenowski, environmental historian Hayden Nelson, and traditional ecological knowledge expert Michael Waasegiizhig Price, this episode examines not just what happened, but how we come to understand it.
Eating the Iron Range: A Cultural Culinary History
The 3 P’s–pasties, porketta, and potica–are beloved dishes on Minnesota’s iron range. How did they become quintessential iron range cuisine and why are they so important to ranger identity? To find out, Dr. Chantel Rodríguez speaks with guests deeply connected to the Range’s culinary history. Cookbook author BJ Carpenter explains how families prepared signature range dishes. Documentarian Mary Lou Nemanic traces the early immigrant waves that brought diverse ethnic foodways to the region. Chef Bryan Morcom shows how local ingredients like wild rice, walleye, and cabbage can be reimagined in Range food today. And restaurateur Tom Forti reflects on how his family’s century-old Sunrise Bakery continues to influence the flavors served at the Iron Ranger. Together, they reveal why preserving these traditions is becoming increasingly important as economic landscapes shift and tastes evolve.
Ringside: Histories of Boxing in the Twin Cities
According to the history books, boxing faded from the spotlight decades ago. But in Minnesota, the gloves never came off. Host Dr. Chantel Rodríguez talks with longtime friends Sankara Frazier and Harry Davis Jr., who carry forward the legacy of their fathers — legendary coach Harry Davis Sr. and boxer Stanley Frazier — through their work at Circle of Discipline. And she speaks with Lisa Bauch, a trainer and entrepreneur whose Uppercut Gym helped open the sport to women and newcomers alike. Historian Gerald Gems helps trace the roots of the sport and its arrival in Minnesota. Together, they reflect on how boxing endures in Minnesota, not just as a sport, but as a way to build confidence, discipline, and community.
Llewellyn Worldwide and New Age Religious Movements in the Twin Cities
Walk into almost any bookstore in October and you’ll see displays stacked with books on witchcraft, ghostly encounters and the paranormal. Look a little closer, and you’ll notice a familiar name on many of their spines: Llewellyn Worldwide. But did you know the world’s largest New Age publisher calls Minnesota home? In this episode, host Dr. Chantel Rodríguez and her guests Sandra Weschcke and Dr. Murphy Pizza explore how a Minnesota visionary turned a fascination with New Age spirituality into a global publishing powerhouse, and how that journey sparked the growth of New Age Religious Movements in the Twin Cities.