Curious Minnesota
By Star Tribune
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Category: Society & Culture
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Subscribers: 85
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Episodes: 120
Description
What do you wonder about the people, places and culture of Minnesota? Listen to our community-driven reporting project, which invites listeners to ask questions that our newsroom researches and answers.
| Episode | Date |
|---|---|
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What’s the story of Pipestone National Monument?
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Sep 30, 2025 |
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Why do anglers need a special stamp to fish for trout in Minnesota?
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Aug 18, 2025 |
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How a 13-ton piece of public art no one wanted found a Minnesota home
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Aug 04, 2025 |
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How did hundreds of ‘Old Order’ Amish wind up in Minnesota’s Driftless Area?
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Jul 21, 2025 |
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What happened after a Minnesota man found ancient bison bones?
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Jul 07, 2025 |
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How a small Minnesota town ‘seceded’ from the U.S.
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Jun 23, 2025 |
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What happened after Herman, Minnesota's bachelormania?
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Jun 09, 2025 |
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Why are there two seafood plants in the small Minnesota town of Motley?
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May 22, 2025 |
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Introducing: Worth It
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May 17, 2025 |
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How an unexpected gift launched Minnesota’s oldest zoo
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May 05, 2025 |
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What’s the smallest town in Minnesota with a mayor?
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Apr 18, 2025 |
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Who decides what’s allowed on a vanity plate in Minnesota?
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Mar 28, 2025 |
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Why is the loon Minnesota’s state bird? It almost didn’t happen.
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Mar 14, 2025 |
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Why did the Excelsior Amusement Park on Lake Minnetonka close?
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Feb 28, 2025 |
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How did Minnesota become the birthplace of ski jumping in America?
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Feb 13, 2025 |
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What’s the coldest Minnesota has ever been?
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Jan 24, 2025 |
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Introducing "Ghost of a Chance" - Episode 1
|
Jan 17, 2025 |
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What happened to Camp Snoopy at the Mall of America?
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Jan 10, 2025 |
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Minnesota’s ghost towns are a relic of grand visions gone awry
|
Dec 06, 2024 |
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Why are Minnesota’s roadside rest areas so nice?
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Nov 14, 2024 |
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What’s behind the stereotype that Minnesotans don’t like spicy food?
|
Oct 31, 2024 |
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How did Old Dutch potato chips get started in St. Paul?
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Oct 10, 2024 |
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How Quonset huts helped solve the post-WWII housing crisis in the Twin Cities
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Sep 26, 2024 |
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How did the Minnesota Star Tribune get its start?
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Aug 29, 2024 |
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Fairgoers tell us their questions about Minnesota
|
Aug 28, 2024 |
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Why Wisconsin claims — incorrectly — to have more lakes than the Land of 10,000 Lakes
|
Aug 22, 2024 |
|
Curious Minnesota at the State Fair! 8/24 (Saturday) and 8/28 (Wednesday)
|
Aug 19, 2024 |
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Why did Minneapolis close Nicollet Avenue for a Kmart?
|
Aug 09, 2024 |
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Why did Minnesota erase much of its German culture?
|
Jul 19, 2024 |
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What is the oldest tree in Minnesota?
|
Jul 02, 2024 |
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Emptying state institutions was supposed to help fix mental health care. What happened?
|
Jun 17, 2024 |
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How did gambling develop into a major industry in Minnesota?
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May 31, 2024 |
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Searching for Snoopy: What happened to all the 'Peanuts' statues in St. Paul?
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May 17, 2024 |
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What Minnesota inventions have shaped modern life?
|
May 02, 2024 |
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What roles did Minnesota's Native American chiefs play? And who were some notable ones?
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Apr 19, 2024 |
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Why does Maplewood have such an odd shape?
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Apr 04, 2024 |
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How did Northfield become home to St. Olaf and Carleton colleges?
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Mar 22, 2024 |
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Did union rules prevent Leonard Bernstein from joining the Minnesota Orchestra?
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Mar 08, 2024 |
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What does it mean when Minnesota courts sentence offenders to 'the workhouse'?
|
Feb 23, 2024 |
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What is Minnesota's deepest lake?
|
Feb 01, 2024 |
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How did Minnesota become the nation's top turkey state?
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Jan 18, 2024 |
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How much flour would it take to turn Lake Superior into bread?
|
Jan 05, 2024 |
|
Did teenagers 'riot' when the Beatles stayed in downtown Minneapolis in 1965?
|
Dec 15, 2023 |
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Did a Nazi sympathizer once represent Minnesota in the U.S. Senate?
|
Dec 01, 2023 |
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How did Kid Cann become Minneapolis' most infamous gangster?
|
Nov 17, 2023 |
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Was Moorhead once a drinking destination?
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Nov 02, 2023 |
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Why did Spam become an international sensation?
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Oct 19, 2023 |
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Why did Prince decide to live in Chanhassen?
|
Oct 06, 2023 |
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State Fair attendees tell us their Minnesota questions
|
Sep 22, 2023 |
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Why is Minnesota such a hotbed of professional wrestling?
|
Sep 08, 2023 |
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Curious Minnesota at the State Fair this Saturday
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Aug 29, 2023 |
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Why did Minnesota once require margarine to be dyed pink?
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Aug 24, 2023 |
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How did Tonka trucks get their start in Minnesota?
|
Jun 29, 2023 |
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Inside the mines and megamachines of the Iron Range
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Jun 19, 2023 |
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Why didn't Minneapolis and St. Paul ever merge?
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Jun 02, 2023 |
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Why does Minnesota have municipal liquor stores?
|
May 19, 2023 |
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Why didn't Minneapolis gobble up its suburbs?
|
May 05, 2023 |
|
Did a famed parks leader import gray squirrels to Minneapolis — and have the red ones killed?
|
Apr 21, 2023 |
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Why was the utopian plan for Minneapolis' Cedar-Riverside area never built?
|
Apr 07, 2023 |
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What happened to Minneapolis' famous Weatherball?
|
Mar 24, 2023 |
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How a Twin Cities ammunition factory dominated by women helped U.S. win WWII
|
Mar 10, 2023 |
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Why was the Mall of America built in Minnesota?
|
Feb 23, 2023 |
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Why does Minnesota sometimes get colder than the North Pole?
|
Feb 09, 2023 |
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How did Minnesota become a window manufacturing hub?
|
Jan 26, 2023 |
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Why are there so many stucco homes in the Twin Cities?
|
Jan 13, 2023 |
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Minnesota companies once dominated the supercomputer industry. What happened?
|
Dec 29, 2022 |
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Why did Finnish immigrants come to Minnesota? (And no, they're not Scandinavian)
|
Dec 15, 2022 |
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Did a TV debate decide one of Minnesota's most scandalous elections?
|
Dec 02, 2022 |
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Who was Hennepin and why did Minnesota name so many things after him?
|
Nov 11, 2022 |
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Does Minnesota really have the 'World's Oldest Rock'?
|
Oct 27, 2022 |
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How lumberjacks harnessed an 'ocean of pine' to build Minnesota
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Aug 29, 2022 |
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Why has the Park Board allowed the 'birthplace of Minneapolis' to deteriorate?
|
Aug 12, 2022 |
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Why did Scandinavian immigrants choose Minnesota?
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Jul 28, 2022 |
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Was Charles Lindbergh a Nazi sympathizer?
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Jul 14, 2022 |
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Why isn't Minnesota's sacrifice at Gettysburg better remembered?
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Jun 30, 2022 |
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What was the first movie filmed in Minnesota?
|
Jun 16, 2022 |
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How did Nicollet Island transform from an industrial hub to a public park?
|
Jun 03, 2022 |
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How an inside joke led to St. Cloud getting its name
|
May 19, 2022 |
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The hidden electrical system that keeps our lights on
|
May 05, 2022 |
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Why do Minnesotans have accents?
|
Apr 21, 2022 |
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Did St. Paul really protect gangsters during the Prohibition era?
|
Apr 07, 2022 |
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Why did Minneapolis' flour boom go bust?
|
Mar 24, 2022 |
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The stories behind Minnesota's oldest building and the Northwest Angle
|
Mar 10, 2022 |
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The Jolly Green Giant has left Minnesota. So who is maintaining his iconic billboard?
|
Feb 24, 2022 |
|
Historic wildfires once destroyed part of Minnesota. Could it happen again?
|
Feb 10, 2022 |
|
Which Indigenous tribes first called Minnesota home?
|
Jan 27, 2022 |
|
Meet the Curious Minnesota superfan behind some of our best questions
|
Jan 13, 2022 |
|
Was organized crime behind the demise of streetcars in the Twin Cities?
|
Dec 03, 2021 |
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Why a slice of I-94 is a 'candyland for researchers'
|
Oct 29, 2021 |
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The mysterious wall that holds St. Anthony Falls in place
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Oct 13, 2021 |
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Why are there so many 5G cellular antennas in some Twin Cities neighborhoods?
|
Sep 17, 2021 |
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What do State Fair attendees want to know about Minnesota?
|
Sep 03, 2021 |
|
What is the future of COVID-19 and the delta variant?
|
Aug 25, 2021 |
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How did MSP Airport evolve from a bankrupt racetrack to an aviation hub?
|
Jul 08, 2021 |
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Why does Minnesota test tornado sirens on the first Wednesday of the month?
|
Jun 02, 2021 |
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Was Minnesota home to nuclear missiles during the Cold War?
|
May 06, 2021 |
|
Does the Mississippi River really start at Lake Itasca?
|
Apr 02, 2021 |
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Why did Minneapolis tear down its biggest train station?
|
Mar 05, 2021 |
|
How Ford made millions of windows from the sand beneath St. Paul
|
Feb 12, 2021 |
|
How do cities make Mississippi River water safe to drink?
|
Jan 13, 2021 |
|
Will Minnesota join push toward a national popular vote?
|
Dec 03, 2020 |
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Why do so many Twin Cities malls end in ‘dale’?
|
Nov 09, 2020 |
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Why hasn't Minnesota passed the Equal Rights Amendment?
|
Sep 23, 2020 |
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What's the latest we know about COVID-19's treatment, transmission?
|
Sep 02, 2020 |
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When you flush a toilet in the Twin Cities, where does everything go?
|
Aug 08, 2020 |
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Do the things we recycle all actually get recycled in Minnesota?
|
Jul 16, 2020 |
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How did Minnesota become one of the most racially inequitable states?
|
Jun 30, 2020 |
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In wake of George Floyd's death, what does 'reforming' Minneapolis Police mean?
|
Jun 12, 2020 |
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Why do so many Fortune 500 companies call Minnesota home?
|
May 20, 2020 |
|
How did Minnesota become the Gopher State?
|
May 06, 2020 |
|
Listener lightning round: 3 answers on history, geography, traditions of Minnesota
|
Apr 24, 2020 |
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Why is Uptown south of downtown in Minneapolis?
|
Apr 08, 2020 |
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What you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic
|
Mar 19, 2020 |
|
How to see the northern lights
|
Mar 10, 2020 |
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How did Minnesota settlers make it through the cold, dark winters?
|
Feb 25, 2020 |
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Where did the idea for Minneapolis' skyways come from?
|
Feb 11, 2020 |
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Why are Honeycrisp apples still so expensive?
|
Jan 28, 2020 |
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Why does the Stone Arch Bridge cross the river at such an odd angle?
|
Jan 16, 2020 |
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How did the Twin Cities become a hub for Somali immigrants?
|
Jan 16, 2020 |
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Where does 'Minnesota Nice' come from, and what does it even mean?
|
Jan 16, 2020 |