Minnesota questions, reported with care.
Curious Minnesota is a reported local-history and culture show built from questions about Minnesota. Erica Pearson and Star Tribune reporters trace curiosities from Titanic passengers and frozen-lake roads to Basehenge, Fort Snelling, Cold War radar sites, and small-town media frenzies.
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Curious Minnesota turns civic curiosity into reported audio. The show starts with questions from listeners, then follows Star Tribune reporters as they search for answers across Minnesota’s history, geography, culture, and public life. Erica Pearson anchors the conversations with a plainspoken, interested tone. The pace is friendly, but the reporting does real work. One episode asks whether Minnesotans were aboard the Titanic, then follows the trail to passengers with regional ties, survivor stories, newspaper archives, and the old question of whether a wreck should remain undisturbed. Another explains why winter roads across frozen lakes can hold trucks, moving from everyday unease to hydrogen bonds, ice thickness formulas, and state safety practices. The show has room for wonder. Basehenge, a steel roadside sculpture near Baudette, becomes a story about music, land, artists, fabrication, and the strange power of an unsigned monument. It also has room for difficult history. Fort Snelling leads to federal land status, Dred Scott, Civil War enlistment, the U.S.-Dakota War, and the continuing oddity of an unorganized territory where people still live. Current affairs appear through the Essential Minnesota preview, where reporters examine sanctuary-state claims, county-level jail practices, ICE detainers, liability, and official denials. The series often connects Minnesota to national history. A Cold War station in Finland, Minnesota opens onto radar domes, fighter jets, nuclear missiles near Duluth, and the uneasy boredom of waiting for an attack that never came. Not every episode is heavy. Herman’s Bachelormania story captures a small town briefly turned into national television material before reality dating shows became familiar. Weather is another recurring character. The coldest recorded day in Minnesota history becomes a story about Tower, Embarrass, volunteer observers, thermometer rules, and a wild temperature rebound. Curious Minnesota is strongest when it lets local details widen into something larger. It favors clear explanation over spectacle. It suits listeners who like regional reporting with archives, expert context, and human texture. The show makes Minnesota feel specific, layered, and still full of unanswered questions.
Made for: For listeners who enjoy Minnesota history, regional culture, unusual landmarks, weather lore, and newsroom explanations of civic questions. It also suits newcomers trying to understand the state beyond stereotypes.
What sets it apart: The show’s edge is its listener-question engine paired with Star Tribune reporting. It turns small curiosities into concise stories backed by archives, interviews, science, and local context.
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.
A mayor who plows the snow and wins two votes: your local curiosity can get delightfully specific.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A clear, careful explanation of why lake ice gains strength and why safety is not a simple DNR green light.
Curious Minnesota turns frozen-lake roads into an unusually approachable physics lesson, starting with Roman Goldstein's question about ice thickness after his move from Washington, D.C., to Minnetonka.
A roadside mystery opens into steelwork, music, and the idea behind a northern Minnesota sculpture.
A roadside sculpture near Baudette turns Stonehenge into a very Minnesota puzzle: why are steel bass silhouettes rising from tall concrete pillars in the weeds off Highway 11?
Fort Snelling's unusual legal status gives a familiar Minnesota landmark a sharper historical frame.
Fort Snelling comes through as a Minnesota landmark shaped not only by military history, but by the unusual legal status it held apart from the land around it.
A charged Minnesota immigration label is tested against local policy, ICE detainers, and who pays to hold people.
Essential Minnesota takes a politically charged label - whether Minnesota counts as a sanctuary state - and follows it into the less performative world of proposals, local policy, ICE detainers, jails, prisons, and liability.
Pacific Northwest history, still in motion.
Washington, told by the people inside it.
Mississippi stories, told face to face.
Reporter Krista Lawler investigates whether any Minnesotans were aboard the Titanic when it sank.
This episode explores the science behind ice thickness and when it's safe to drive on a frozen lake, prompted by a listener's question about ice racing in Minnesota.
A reporter investigates the story behind Basshenge, a metal sculpture of bass guitars near Baudette, Minnesota, inspired by Stonehenge.
This episode of Curious Minnesota explores the history of Fort Snelling and the Whipple Building, prompted by listener questions.
Curious Minnesota introduces Essential Minnesota and then turns to a specific question: whether Minnesota is a sanctuary state and whether county jails can be open to ICE.
Hubert Humphrey became Minneapolis mayor in 1945 after merging Minnesota's Farmer Labor and Democratic parties into the DFL.
A 1905 Lake Superior storm damaged or destroyed 29 ships, while the Edmund Fitzgerald’s 50th anniversary renews questions about weather-related wrecks.
Curious Minnesota traces the rise and disappearance of Minneapolis's Zombie Pub Crawl, which began in 2005 with 150 participants.
This episode explores the smallest town in Minnesota with a mayor, delving into the quirks and characters of tiny rural communities.
This episode of Curious Minnesota explores the origins of the Minnesota Star Tribune, covering the histories of the Tribune, Minneapolis Journal, and Minneapolis Star.
This episode explains why Minneapolis closed Nicollet Avenue at Lake Street in the 1970s to build a Kmart, a decision now seen as a major urban planning mistake.
This episode explores the transition from state hospitals to community mental health care in Minnesota and the ongoing challenges in completing that shift.
This episode explores the roles of Minnesota's Native American chiefs and highlights notable figures, answering a reader's question.