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PODCAST

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.Want to advertise on RacketCast? Email us at advertise@racketmn.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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All Episodes

1:10:16

Timberwolves Playoffs Explainer for Dummies Feat....

RacketCast ·

2025/05/01

A fresh RacketCast ep, out one day early due to Wolves Fever gripping the state.Is it unwise to keep calling our listeners "dummies"? Perhaps, but that's what we did with our Twins preview pod, and we're doing it again for this Timberwolves explainer featuring the great podcaster Dane Moore.Dane joined us Wednesday afternoon from L.A., where hours later your T-Wolves trounced the Los Angeles Lakers to advance to the Western Conference Semifinals round of the NBA playoffs. As fans hop aboard the

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23:01

Bonus: Should MN Ban Billboards? Feat. Sen. John Marty

RacketCast ·

2025/04/23

We're still figuring out what types of conversations y'all wanna hear onRacketCast, and our first experiment with a newsier, shorter installment wasa certified hit.So here's another bonus ep along those lines: our chat with veteran state Sen. John Marty (DFL-Roseville) about whether Minnesota should ban billboards. Marty'seye-catching new billwould establish a moratorium on new billboard construction, and eventually phase out existing ones as they age. If the bill becomes law, Minnesota would join

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1:57:34

Building the Perfect Cheeseburger feat. Angry Line...

RacketCast ·

2025/04/18

Twin Cities burger freaks: This is the episode for you.The proprietors of two elite food trucks—Angry Line Cook(Jesse Hedman and Mona Negasi) andBurger Daddies(Nikki and Brian Podgorski)—dropped by our studio for a long conversation about cheeseburgers, building your business from scratch, and life in the trenches of the food industry. (FYI: Whenever "the burger group" gets mentioned, we're referring tothe fantastic Facebook group MSP Burgers.) On April 26, Jay from Racket will actually be judging a

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1:02:35

HOW Many Things to Do In Duluth Before You Die? feat....

RacketCast ·

2025/04/04

What's going on up there in Duluth?Plenty of stuff worth trying out ahead of your demise, that's for sure. Duluth News Tribune reporter Jay Gabler chronicled the exact number in his new book,100 Things to Do In Duluth Before You Die. Jay, who you might remember from his time at 89.3 the Current, hopped on the pod to discuss the Zenith City's must-do activities, and he also gave us a nice rundown of the big talkers coming out of the Twin Ports; check out his book-release party dateshere.And here are

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23:47

Bonus: Unions Shout WTF Over Guv’s WFH Reversal feat....

RacketCast ·

2025/03/27

Late Tuesday, Gov. Tim Walz surprised around 40,000 state workers by announcing a mandatory 50% return-to-office policy for employees who live within 75 miles of their main work location.“This policy change supports the economic vitality of office districts like downtown St. Paul, bringing foot traffic back to businesses and public spaces,” the governor's office says of the directive, which is set to take effect June 1. The move set off waves of online anger, with the Minnesota Association of

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1:46:46

2025 MN Twins Preview for Dummies feat. Aaron Gleeman

RacketCast ·

2025/03/21

In the early '00s Aaron Gleeman's U of M journalism professors suspected he was chronically hungover. In reality, the young blogger was chronically exhausted from writing about baseball literally all night long. That set Gleeman on a path that includes Aaron's Baseball Blog (cute!), NBC Sports, Baseball Prospectus, and, since 2019, the Athletic, which is now the de facto sports desk of the New York Times. In our view? He's the state's ace hardball writer.Gleeman joined Racket in our brand-new

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1:12:09

Prosecutor Progress Report feat. Mary Moriarty

RacketCast ·

2025/03/07

Voters elected Mary Moriarty as Hennepin County's top prosecutor in 2022, which, given the sweeping sociopolitical changes since, feels like 1,000 years ago. Just over two full years into the job, how has Moriarty's progressive vision of restorative justice unfolded while Minneapolis remains under a national microscope? We asked the first openly LGBTQ+ Hennepin County attorney about her successes, challenges, and surprisingly elusive favorite restaurants. You can check out Moriarty's brand-new

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59:21

A Lifetime in the Morning Zoo feat. KDWB's Dave Ryan

RacketCast ·

2025/02/21

A terrestrial radio DJ... on a podcast?! Believe it: We've got Dave Ryan, the 101.3 KDWB morning show host since 1993, on the pod to talk pranks, legacy, the evolving nature of Top 40 radio, and the ill-fated Booty Cruises. (Our conversation cold-opens with him dealing with a Colorado exterminator—how can you cut tape that good?) Be sure read Rachel Hutton's longform 2018 Star Tribune profile of Ryan right here.And here are the three stories we yakked about during What I Learned in Racket:How Red

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1:25:08

Poised to Pop Jukebox + Exploring Narrative Podcasting

RacketCast ·

2025/02/07

We've got a double-header for ya, folks.In the leadoff spot: Keith and Jay discuss Poised to Pop, Racket's annual predictions for the year's most exciting new local music acts. (It is very different from Picked to Click, thank you very much!) Hear Keith's scouting reports, then dive into some of the best rock, jazz, techno, rap, etc. sounds currently coming from the Twin Cities music scene.On deck: Em and Jay chat with Chris Steadman, who's launching a new podcast studio called Good Judy

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37:57

Bonus: Inside New Strib Podcast Series 'Ghost of a...

RacketCast ·

2025/01/27

Did you know the Star Tribune recently launched its very first episodic, narratively driven podcast series, Ghost of a Chance?Over six episodes, reporter Eric Roper and producer Melissa Townsend explore the lives Harry and Clementine Robinson, a Black Minneapolis family who owned Roper's south Minneapolis home in the early 20th century. "The Robinsons' lives are a window into the ambition, discrimination, and resistance that shaped the city that would become ground zero for an unprecedented global

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1:19:37

Mitch Hedberg Roundtable... Assemble!

RacketCast ·

2025/01/24

Mitch Hedberg conceived his jokes with a deliberate eye toward timelessness.The Minnesota-launched comedy great’s widow, Lynn Shawcroft, confirmed as much during a 2013 episode ofWTF with Marc Maron. And for about 15 years, the timeless comedy of Hedberg—surreal one-liners, musings, and wordplay delivered in his unmistakable stoner drawl—attracted a massive following. Jokes like, “I used to do drugs. I still do, but I used to, too” and, “I like rice. Rice is great when you're hungry and you want

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56:16

Food 'n' Drink Reporter Roundtable

RacketCast ·

2025/01/10

It's the first RacketCast episode of 2025!Before '24 ended, we reviewed the year in music, bozos, politics, and movies, though we didn't have time to bite off a biggie: food 'n' drink. So, for this ep, we recruited two great dining writer/reporters—James Norton (Heavy Table) and Justine Jones (formerly of Eater Twin Cities)—to hashbrown out the year that was, assess the state of the local restaurant scene, and make bold predictions for what you'll be ingesting during the next 11.5 months.Here are

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1:15:17

Year-End Movie Hot Takes feat. Taco Mike

RacketCast ·

2024/12/20

Did you that co-owner/editor Keith Harris is the only regularly published movie critic in all of Minnesota? Sounds wild, but we believe it to be true! As such, movies are a big part of the equation over here, though we've never addressed them via the podcast medium. To remedy that, we enlisted a silver-screen freak you know and love: Racket super-commenter Taco Mike!Enjoy over an hour of Keith, Em, and Taco Mike discussing, debating, and, when it comes to the contested value of Kevin Costner,

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37:06

Bonus: Reviewing 2024 feat. 'Daily Show' Co-Creator...

RacketCast ·

2024/12/18

A special bonus episode of our biweeklyRacketCast? Believe it.Happy Lizz Winstead Day!Minnesota comedy great Lizz Winstead is a legend of lefty media, having co-created Comedy Central's Daily Show as well as Air America Radio. Every holiday season, Winstead returns home for a show that recaps the year that was. And folks? Good god... what a year we've had in 2024. "Lizz Winstead’s Project 2024: This Super Weird Year In Review" will hit the Parkway Theater in south Minneapolis for two nights—Dec. 28

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1:00:46

Reviewing the Year in Minneapolis Politics feat....

RacketCast ·

2024/12/06

What were the biggest, strangest, buzziest, most important, least important, and/or riffiest Minneapolis politics stories of 2024?Glad you asked! Because that's more or less what we posed to John Edwards, Taylor Dahlin, and Jason Garcia of Wedge Live!, a collection of folks who pay as close attention to such matters as anyone in town. They teed up eight topics, and we knocked 'em all down together as a roundtable of townie pundits. If you like what you hear, be sure to check out the guest-packed

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46:52

The Biggest MN Turkeys of 2024

RacketCast ·

2024/11/22

A sincere and gratitude-stuffed "gobble, gobble" to all our RacketCast listeners ahead of this, the final episode before Thanksgiving.As such, we're talkin' turkey—local folks deserving of our unenviable "Biggest MN Turkeys of 2024" designation, that is. (How did we possibly come up with this idea?) Em, Keith, and Jay go around the horn, picking the biggest fools, phonies, and/or foes of '24 and then riffing on 'em accordingly. If you're sensitive to overuse of gobbling sound effects, you may want

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23:26

Bonus: Inside the 'Broadcast Wars' feat. Cathy Wurzer

RacketCast ·

2024/11/21

A special bonus episode of our biweekly RacketCast? Believe it!When Minnesota Public Radio's Cathy Wurzer reached out about the new TPT documentary she's co-executive producing, Broadcast Wars, we figured: hey, nice opportunity to run a Q&A about the doc, which explores the pioneering and often cutthroat world of Twin Cities TV news from the 1950s through the '80s. Hell, we could even plug the premiere event, which is set for 6 p.m. Thursday at the Riverview Theater in Minneapolis (details

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48:18

Meet MN's Best New Music Act

RacketCast ·

2024/11/08

In this edition of RacketCast, get to know Racket’s first-ever Picked to Click winner: Papa Mbye!A terrific new album,Parcelles 16, helped vault the Senegal-born, Minneapolis-based musician to the top of the poll, and deservedly so. The music he makes—drawing from rap, electronic music, and indie rock—would have been unthinkable when the original P2C launched in 1991, and he’s only getting started. But now, as a Picked to Click winner, 25-year-old Mbye is already an indelible part of Minnesota music

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44:54

Ghost Hunting feat. the Twin Cities Paranormal Society

RacketCast ·

2024/10/25

There's no disputing it: This is the spookiest episode inRacketCasthistory.First up, we've got Dan Suitor,winner of last year's skyway-themed flash-fiction horror contest, doing a bone-chilling reading of his spooktacular winning story,Skyway Hungers.Then Em and Jay chitchat about theirgun bingoandbigfoot conferencestories (what a website!) before our seasonally appropriate guest arrives:Dawn McClain, leader of and investigator with theTwin Cities Paranormal Society.Happy Halloween!Wannaadvertiseon

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55:58

Meet St. Paul's TikTok-Famous Teacher feat. Mandi...

RacketCast ·

2024/10/11

Depending on who ask, St. Paul educator/social media star Mandi Jung is either "the fun teacher" who cares deeply for her middle school students (that's according to HBO's John Oliver). Or she's the "anti-capitalist teacher [who] promotes anarchy" (that's according to Fox News).We absolutely loved chatting with Jung, who regularly shares her funny and heartfelt insights into education, politics, and culture with her 158K TikTok followers."I'm like the queen of freak teacher TikTok," Jung says with

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42 results

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