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by Racket
Bi-weekly podcast from Racket, the Twin Cities news/arts/culture publication. Featuring hyper-local recaps, reviews, interviews, debates, hot takes, and more from the crew behind your favorite reader-funded, worker-owned media org.
Latest Episodes
The most recent episodes — sign up to get AI-powered summaries of each one.
- 5 days ago1h 4m
Ballot Banter Feat. Election Guru Naomi Kritzer
You know her, you love her, she's Naomi Kritzer, the accomplished St. Paul sci-fi author who moonlights as the compiler of every Twin Citian's favorite election guide. We talk big races, small races, and this year's weirdo fringe U.S. Senate candidate, with whom you're already familiar 🕷️Study up—Tuesday is Election Day!Kritzer's latest book, Obstetrix, dropped this past June. If you value her free election guide, throw some bucks at the fundraiser she's organizing on behalf of TIGGERS.Subscribe to RacketCast wherever you get your podcasts—Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Pocket Casts, etc. • Wanna advertise on RacketCast? Email us at advertise@racketmn.com. • Have a food/drink, event, or show recommendation? How about a civic hot take? General or specific question? Call 619-RACKTIP (619-722-5847) with your first name + city + 3-min.-maximum voicemail, and we might play it on a future episode. • Special thanks to local band Van Stee for supplying our podcast music! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
- 2 weeks ago1h 1m
Let's Take a 'Midwestern Death Trip' Feat. Author Meaghan Garvey
Rare non-Minnesotan guest alert!But don't fear: Journalist Meaghan Garvey is a denizen of the Upper Midwest, one who happens to be the author of a fantastic new book all about our cherished lil region, Midwestern Death Trip. In it..."Garvey sets out on an amphetamine-fueled road-trip through her native Midwest in the hopes of resolving the mysteries of her itinerant personal life through encounters with the places and characters that define her imagination: water demons; lake camps; haunted houses; ship-wrecks; truckers on speed; roadside waitresses; wise-cracking barflies; and Jeffrey Epstein's personal exterminator."Garvey, whose razor-sharp music criticism might already be familiar to you, dropped by the pod to discuss Midwestern identity, alcohol, Bob Dylan, how our peculiarities are unknowable to coastal elites, why Duluth is superior to all of Europe, and much more. Buy her book here; subscribe to her Substack, Scary Cool Sad Goodbye, here.Before any death-trippin', however, we've gotta enjoy a round of What I Learned in Racket. Here's what we learned:Do Twin Cities Food Content Creators Have a ‘Disclosure Issue’?Was Love Waiting for Me at Dave & Buster’s Singles Night?15 Things I Learned at the Brand-New World’s Longest Car Wash in Brooklyn ParkSubscribe to RacketCast wherever you get your podcasts—Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Pocket Casts, etc. • Wanna advertise on RacketCast? Email us at advertise@racketmn.com. • Have a food/drink, event, or show recommendation? How about a civic hot take? General or specific question? Call 619-RACKTIP (619-722-5847) with your first name + city + 3-min.-maximum voicemail, and we might play it on a future episode. • Special thanks to local band Van Stee for supplying our podcast music! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
- Oct 3, 202646 min
What the Hell’s Going on in Forest Lake? Feat. Educator/Rocker Claire Luger
For months Claire Luger has been sounding the alarm about a MAGA takeover of the Forest Lake Area School District. Luger's a special education teacher at a nearby district, a three-term member of the Wyoming City Council, a singer in the Minneapolis band the Silent Treatment and, relevant to that first sentence, a current candidate for the Forest Lake school board. She joined us to discuss what the hell's going on up in the hometown of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and also what it's like when the dolts at Alpha News attack your band for being—gasp!—anti-fascist.But before all that Em and Jay enter the What I Learned in Racket arena to talk about...An Interview With the Person Who Put Hundreds of ‘Wedding Crashers’ DVDs in South Mpls Little Free Libraries‘It Was Special, Then Bam!’: An Oral History of the Fighting Pike, MN’s Extremely Short-Lived Pro Football TeamSubscribe to RacketCast wherever you get your podcasts—Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Pocket Casts, etc. • Wanna advertise on RacketCast? Email us at advertise@racketmn.com. • Have a food/drink, event, or show recommendation? How about a civic hot take? General or specific question? Call 619-RACKTIP (619-722-5847) with your first name + city + 3-min.-maximum voicemail, and we might play it on a future episode. • Special thanks to local band Van Stee for supplying our podcast music! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
- Sep 18, 202654 min
Talkin' Long on 'Perseverance' Feat. Sen./Gov. Mark Dayton
Born into remarkable wealth, Mark Dayton could've loafed poolside, Billy Madison-style, amid the opulence that comes from being part of a dynastic Minnesota business family. Instead, he charted a remarkable life that includes stints as a U.S. senator, governor, and, most recently, rookie author of the compelling new memoir, Perseverance (read our review here). Dayton, 79, joined us for a 40-minute conversation to discuss all of that and more.But first we engage in an abridged edition of What I Learned in Racket, followed by the debut of a controversial new segment: Rank Past RacketCast Guests by Famousness. We don't anticipate its return. Here's what Em learned in Racket:Mud, Rocks, and Mental Anguish: A Novice Mountain Biker Attempts the Race Across DuluthSubscribe to RacketCast wherever you get your podcasts—Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Pocket Casts, etc. • Wanna advertise on RacketCast? Email us at advertise@racketmn.com. • Have a food/drink, event, or show recommendation? How about a civic hot take? General or specific question? Call 619-RACKTIP (619-722-5847) with your first name + city + 3-min.-maximum voicemail, and we might play it on a future episode. • Special thanks to local band Van Stee for supplying our podcast music! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
- Sep 5, 202658 min
How Labor Wins Feat. Workday Magazine Journalists Sarah Lazare & Amie Stager
Happy Labor Day!To celebrate the only legit holiday, we invite labor journalists Sarah Lazare and Amie Stager of Workday Magazine on the pod to discuss their brand-new book, This Is How We Win: A Guide to Building Working-Class Uprisings. How, exactly, do we win? You'll have to listen to their expert diagnosis of the current state of organized labor to find out.And before any of that, Em, Keith, and Jay engage in a perfectly fine round of What I Learned in Racket. Here's what they learned...A Paean to Ye Old Mill, the Minnesota State Fair’s Worst (and Best) RideI Took the E Line From Southdale to St. Anthony Main and Watched 4 Movies in Less Than 12 HoursAnd... well, Jay kinda goes on a rant.Subscribe to RacketCast wherever you get your podcasts—Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Pocket Casts, etc. • Wanna advertise on RacketCast? Email us at advertise@racketmn.com. • Have a food/drink, event, or show recommendation? How about a civic hot take? General or specific question? Call 619-RACKTIP (619-722-5847) with your first name + city + 3-min.-maximum voicemail, and we might play it on a future episode. • Special thanks to local band Van Stee for supplying our podcast music! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
- Aug 28, 20261h 12m
Emergency 2026 MN State Fair New Food/Drink Roundtable!
No time for extensive show notes—this is an emergency! Listen to all four Racket owner/editors gab for an hour-plus about all the Minnesota State Fair official new foods we gobbled Thursday.Subscribe to RacketCast wherever you get your podcasts—Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Pocket Casts, etc. • Wanna advertise on RacketCast? Email us at advertise@racketmn.com. • Have a food/drink, event, or show recommendation? How about a civic hot take? General or specific question? Call 619-RACKTIP (619-722-5847) with your first name + city + 3-min.-maximum voicemail, and we might play it on a future episode. • Special thanks to local band Van Stee for supplying our podcast music! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
- Aug 7, 202652 min
IRL CSI Feat. Forensic Scientist Melissa Loren
Since 2000, American TV viewers have gobbled up 838 episodes spanning the broader CSI universe—folks love seeing crime scenes investigated. Since 2010, Melissa Loren has worked as a real-life crime scene investigator with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, a field she entered because of her fascination with another pop culture depiction of her work, true crime.We got Loren on the pod because, well, her work is incredibly interesting. (She refutes this, though admits people run up to her at parties with eager questions.) Blood-splatter analysis. Bagging evidence. DNA matching. It's enough to make most jobs (podcasting comes to mind) seem like inconsequential wastes of everyone's time! But we're happy Loren gave us some of her time to better understand the science behind sleuthing through crime scenes.Before that! We tweak our regular feature, What I Learned in Racket, with everyone discussing just one story: our publication's big annual overshare report.Oh, and another thing! We very cutely (too cutely?) tease a big surprise we can't talk about yet, but now we can talk about: In addition to celebrating our 5th birthday on August 28 at Arbeiter Brewing Co. in Minneapolis, Racket will also be releasing its first-ever physical book; details and RSVP here.Subscribe to RacketCast wherever you get your podcasts—Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Pocket Casts, etc. • Wanna advertise on RacketCast? Email us at advertise@racketmn.com. • Have a food/drink, event, or show recommendation? How about a civic hot take? General or specific question? Call 619-RACKTIP (619-722-5847) with your first name + city + 3-min.-maximum voicemail, and we might play it on a future episode. • Special thanks to local band Van Stee for supplying our podcast music! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
- Jul 24, 202641 min
Understanding MN Wildfires Feat. Fire Behavior Analyst Art Gonzales
All month long wildfires have wreaked havoc in northern Minnesota. The Boundary Waters are shut down until October, tourist-starved Ely businesses are trying to stay afloat, and the smoldering could last well into winter.To better understand the fiery situation we booked Art Gonzales, a fire behavior analyst with the Southern Area Complex Incident Management Team. A former fire fighter himself, he now studies and tracks wildfires around the country to help teams extinguish them. Gonzales has been doing just that up in Ely, and we stole some of his valuable time to get a crash-course on how Minnesota's wildfires are, well, behaving.Before any of that, Em and Jay get into a red-hot round of What I Learned in Racket. Here's what they learned...The City Slicker’s Guide to Twin Cities Auto RacingMinnesota’s on the World’s Largest Lake—Why Don’t We Eat More Lake Superior Fish?Subscribe to RacketCast wherever you get your podcasts—Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Pocket Casts, etc. • Wanna advertise on RacketCast? Email us at advertise@racketmn.com. • Have a food/drink, event, or show recommendation? How about a civic hot take? General or specific question? Call 619-RACKTIP (619-722-5847) with your first name + city + 3-min.-maximum voicemail, and we might play it on a future episode. • Special thanks to local band Van Stee for supplying our podcast music! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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About RacketCast
Bi-weekly podcast from Racket, the Twin Cities news/arts/culture publication. Featuring hyper-local recaps, reviews, interviews, debates, hot takes, and more from the crew behind your favorite reader-funded, worker-owned media org.
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