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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

1:18:17

Avoiding Death, Getting Weirder, Releasing Memoirs...

RacketCast ·

2025/11/28

Wishing you and yours a joyous and spiritually fulfilling Black Friday. Make sure your frenzied consumerism arrives atWhat Doesn't Kill Me Makes Me Weirder and Harder to Relate To, the brand-new memoir from Mary Lucia.The longtime Twin Cities DJ stopped by Racket HQ to talk about her book, and my goodness did we enjoy a long, fascinating conversation about Lucia helping launch REV105, becoming the drive-time star at 89.3 the Current, and enduring a stalker who turned three years of her life into a

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49:41

Biggest MN Turkeys of 2025

RacketCast ·

2025/11/14

A sincere and gratitude-stuffed "gobble, gobble" to all ourRacketCastlisteners ahead of this, one of the final episodes before Thanksgiving.As such, we're talkin' turkey—local folks deserving of our unenviable "Biggest MN Turkeys of 2025" designation, that is. (How did we possibly come up withthis idea?) Em, Keith, and Jay go around the horn, picking the biggest fools, phonies, and/or foes of '25 and then riffing on 'em accordingly. If you're sensitive to overuse of gobbling sound effects, you may

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34:32

Bonus: Twin Cities Election Guide Spectacular Feat....

RacketCast ·

2025/11/03

Naomi Kritzer,author of the best Twin Cities election guide for 20+ years, drops by the pod to assess mayoral races, City Council races, Park Board races, and even the surprisingly exciting Board of Estimate & Taxation races. Study up—Tuesday is Election Day! Kritzer's latest book,Obstetrix, will arrive next summer.SubscribetoRacketCastwherever you get your podcasts—Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Pocket Casts, etc.•WannaadvertiseonRacketCast? Email us atadvertise@racketmn.com.•Have a food/drink,

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39:29

The Parkway Pervert Feat. John Waters

RacketCast ·

2025/10/31

Eternally cool director/author/personality John Waters—aka the “Pope of Trash” aka the “People'sPervert” aka the “Prince of Puke”—makes his triumphant return thisSaturday to the Parkway Theater. That's where Waters, 79, will perform his new "Going to Extremes" show on a Minneapolis stage he has visited eight times in recent years—more like the "Parkway Pervert." Ahead of the gig we chatted about Walker Art Center glory holes, Coen bros friendship/fandom, fearing the Mall of America, and how, in

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56:29

BookCast, Vol. 1

RacketCast ·

2025/10/03

Sometimes, when you're a tiny media outlet with a biweekly podcast, several interview requests fall through and you're left with... three microphones and an hour to fill. And nobody can accuse us of not filling it!Inspired by a dictionary's tweet, Jay, Em, and Keith gathered for the first installment of BookCast, where we go 'round the horn to talk about—you guessed it—those papery, flippable lil devices we love.But first! Here are the stories we gabbed about during What I Learned In Racket...‘Call

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1:10:26

The Surprising Afterlife of Alt-Weeklies Feat....

RacketCast ·

2025/09/19

Alt-weeklies: The four Racket founders/editors used to work at one, City Pages, before Star Tribune Media Co. flushed it and its 40-plus-year legacy down the tubes five years ago. And that fate more or less mirrors what's happening nationally with those spirited, smart, and sharp-elbowed publications that once covered news, arts, and culture all across this increasingly stupid land.So last year when Tricia Romero, former editor-in-chief of The Stranger, released The Freaks Came Out to Write: The

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1:07:55

2025 MN Vikings Preview for Dummies Feat. Arif Hasan

RacketCast ·

2025/09/05

In the grand tradition of this still-kinda-new podcast, we're bringing you conversations with smart and cool local sportswriters to preview upcoming seasons. The "for dummies" framing? The guests have nothing to do with that, and perhaps one day we'll stop the condescending approach. But today is not that day, dummies.This week we've gotArif Hasan(The Athletic, Bleacher Report, Zone Coverage) on the pod, a veteran Minnesota Vikings cataloger and founder of the awesome reader-funded football

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1:16:00

Emergency MN State Fair New Food Roundtable!

RacketCast ·

2025/08/22

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 foodswe gobbled Thursday. Gov. Tim Walz even makes an exclusive cameo. SubscribetoRacketCastwherever you get your podcasts—Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Pocket Casts, etc.•WannaadvertiseonRacketCast? Email us atadvertise@racketmn.com.•Have a food/drink, event, or show recommendation? How about a civic hot take? General or specific

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53:25

The Wheels on the Bus Feat. Metro Transit

RacketCast ·

2025/08/08

How does public transit work in the Twin Cities? To find out, we invited Metro Transit GM Lesley Kandaras and bus driver Al Chang to our St. Louis Park studio. (Kandaras, a true company woman who has ridden all 60 MT routes, even took the bus there.) Transit enthusiasts should enjoy this convo about the successes, challenges, new developments, and total disinterest in building a subway system surrounding our town's bus and light rail operator.But first! We engage in the second-ever (and possibly

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28:27

Bonus: How’d Lutsen Lodge Really Burn Down? Feat....

RacketCast ·

2025/07/29

For many Minnesotans, it wasn’t just another building on the North Shore—it was the beating heart of the North Shore. Over its 144-year history, Lutsen Resort had hosted countless weddings, family reunions, and friendly ski trips along the the intersection of Lake Superior and the Poplar River. So when the historic lodge burned down in early 2024, many folks were understandably heartbroken.Then, almost immediately, suspicion around the owner, Bryce Campbell, began brewing. Dire finances. Unresolved

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31:54

Can Epstein's Ghost Sink Trump? Feat. Sen. Tina Smith

RacketCast ·

2025/07/24

The ghost of Jeffery Epstein, sex-trafficking buddy to the elites, continues to haunt Trump World.Just this week the Wall Street Journalreportedthat the Justice Department warned Trump in May that his name is included in the Epstein files. (The White House called this"fake news.") Meanwhile, the drip, drip, drip of previously unknown Trump-Epstein entanglements keeps accelerating—videos,photos,sketches.To discuss all of this, U.S. Sen. Tina Smith (DFL-Minnesota) joins us on this episode

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1:34:56

Having Cancer Feat. Wedge LIVE!'s Taylor Dahlin and...

RacketCast ·

2025/07/11

After Racket's Keith Harris was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2022, he noticed how much the actual experience of having cancer differed from how we typically talk about it. He's joined on the pod today by independent journalist Taylor Dahlin (Wedge LIVE!, Twitter), who was diagnosed with breast cancer last year. Now that both are cancer-free, the two "survivors" (who feel weird about calling themselves that) have a long, breezy chat about disease, death, inconvenience, and other fun stuff.Before

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19:40

Bonus: No War With Iran Feat. Rep. Ilhan Omar

RacketCast ·

2025/06/28

War: There's nothing worse. Yet the U.S. can't seem to stop waging it, with our latest target, Iran, being subjected to around dozen 30,000-pound GBU-57 "bunker buster" bombs on June 21. The illegal preemptive attack may have set Iran's nuclear program back by only a few months, according to one preliminary classified report.One day later, President Trump floated the following via Truth Social: "It's not politically correct to use the term, 'Regime Change,' but if the current Iranian Regime is

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46:27

Politickin’ and Puntin’ Feat. Ex-MN Viking Chris Kluwe

RacketCast ·

2025/06/27

Punter. Activist. Rocker. Writer. Gamer. And, now, politician.Ex-Viking Chris Kluwe endeared himself to (most) Minnesotans for eight seasons as he booted the ball while fighting for LGBTQ+ rights. From July 3-6, Kluwe will make his triumphant return to this state as a guest at sci-fi conventionCONVergencein downtown Minneapolis. Before that, we caught up with him to talk about getting arrested, running for office, life after football, Minnesota memories, and whether or not Elon Musk is a video game

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43:06

Our Big Forever Chemical Problem Feat. Reporters...

RacketCast ·

2025/06/13

Two veteran reporters from The Hill—Sharon Udasin and Rachel Frazin—drop by the pod to discuss their new book,Poisoning the Well: How Forever Chemicals Contaminated America, which dropped this past April via Island Press. You'll learn about the accidental origins of PFAS chemicals, their consumer-facing ubiquity, and the massive health risk they pose to all Americans, including the ones3M knowingly poisonedin the eastern Twin Cities metro. Fun! (Frazin wanted listeners to know aboutthis forever

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1:05:55

How to Launch a Writer-Owned News/Arts/Culture...

RacketCast ·

2025/05/30

It's a Very Special Episode ofRacketCast!No guests this week. Instead, three of Racket's four co-owner/editors—Jay Boller, Em Cassel, and Keith Harris—will share the origin story of our local news, arts, and culture publication, which'll turn four this summer.All it takes? Four laid-off schmucks with a combined $4,000, plenty of Covid-era unemployment insurance, a dash of good luck, thousands of supportive readers, and the dream of keeping an alt-weekly-style news org alive in the Twin Cities. We

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1:20:42

Terrorized In Your Own Home Feat. Davis Moturi

RacketCast ·

2025/05/16

The horror Davis Moturi and his wife, Caroline, experienced after moving into a cute white house on Grand Avenue in south Minneapolis has been well-documented. Moturi, a 34-year-old Black man, quickly realized his neighbor, 54-year-old white man John Sawchak, was determined to make his life hell.Beginning in 2023, Sawchak's seemingly endless assault of racist remarks, violent threats, and disgusting vandalism barraged the Moturi household, according to Davis. He documented all of it, yet he says

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20:36

Bonus: Wait, IS MN Beer In Trouble? Feat. David Berg...

RacketCast ·

2025/05/06

Last fallRacket surveyed 44 Minnesota brewing prosand found that 63.6% believe the industry is in a positive place—not bad!Last monthRacket highlighted Axios reportingthat showed a 10.8% boost in Minnesota craft brewery production last year—nice!But David Berg, the longtime brewmaster atAugust Schell Brewing Co., isn't convinced by those types of cheery reports, and he recentlygot all up in our Bluesky mentionsto say as much."The brewing industry is pretty much in dire straits right now," Berg says

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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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40 results

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