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Saving money is hard. So, let’s reframe it. What if saving money wasn’t a chore— and could help us make room for more joy in our lives? Two financial experts talked with MPR News host Angela Davis to help us budget for fun and travel now, not just in our future.

A new documentary, “Hope in the Struggle,” tells the story of civil rights activist Josie Johnson, chief lobbyist for Minnesota’s fair housing law and the first Black member of the University of Minnesota Board of Regents. MPR News host Angela Davis talks with Johnson and Twin Cities PBS executive producer Daniel Bergin about her legacy.

Everyone has a rejection story — from presidents, CEOs and bestselling authors to our neighbors and friends.   Personal and professional rejection is part of life. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt.  MPR News host Angela Davis and her guests dug into the psychology behind rejection and how we can use it to our advantage.   They talked about why rejection is so uniquely painful and how we can use rejection to move on and move up in our lives. 

The rhetoric is inflammatory, but there’s no disputing the data. The number of migrants who crossed the southern U.S. border is hitting historic highs. In December, the Department of Homeland Security reported more than 300,000 people crossed the border, either by applying for asylum at entry points or by trying to cross the border illegally. According a Pew survey, Americans across party lines say the government is doing a bad job handling the current surge. Congress is locked in a standoff. Earlier this month, it failed to pass a bipartisan bill to increase border security, after Republicans in the House said it was “dead on arrival.” Meanwhile, thousands of migrants — coming from a wide variety of countries like Venezuela, Ecuador, Russia and India — are stuck in makeshift camps at the border, waiting to be processed. The reality of this broken system is not a surprise to Minnesota’s immigrant communities. Many have fought their way through it or are still waiting for action. And all are watching for what happens next. Beyond the Border: The immigration crisis, up close To get some answers, MPR News, together with Sahan Journal, convened a panel of immigration experts on Feb. 8, at El Colegio High School in Minneapolis. Hosts Angela Davis and Sahan Journal immigration reporter Hibah Ansari asked them to share stories about Minnesotans caught in the system and how immigrants and refugees to Minnesota are viewing this election year. Don’t miss this special Sahan Community and North Star Journey Live discussion. Experts: Emilia Gonzalez is the executive director for Unidos MN. John Bruning is the supervising litigation attorney at The Advocates for Human Rights. Jenny Stohl Powell is the legal director at the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota. Nasra Ismail is the the U.S. enterprise executive director of Alight. North Star Journey Live is a live event series and reoccurring topic on MPR News with Angela Davis centered around what Minnesota’s diverse communities need to thrive. Subscribe to the MPR News with Angela Davis podcast on: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or RSS.  

Updated: 6:15 p.m. After Easter and Christmas, Valentine’s Day is the biggest holiday for chocolate sales.   Maybe you’re a chocolate lover yourself. But do you know the difference between a bonbon and a truffle? Or where cacao beans are grown?    MPR News host Angela Davis talks with three Minnesota chocolatiers about what goes into making their luscious treats and how they fell in love with making chocolate that the rest of can enjoy—on Valentine’s Day or any day. Guests:   Mary Leonard is the founder and owner of Chocolat Celeste, which has been making chocolate for more than 20 years in St. Paul.   Monica Jimenez is the founder and CEO of Chocolate San José-Minneapolis, which imports chocolate from her family’s cacao farm in Ecuador. She also sells a line of chocolate products made in Minnesota.    Robyn Dochterman is the founder and co-owner of St. Croix Chocolate Company in Marine on St. Croix, which last fall won two awards at the International Chocolate Awards in Florence, Italy. The following is a transcription of several questions asked during the show. Use the audio player above to listen to the full episode. How do you become skilled in experimenting with different flavors? Mary Leonard: It’s just a testing kind of thing. It starts with a basic recipe that is actually the same in all the flavors and it’s just the addition of a variety of different flavor notes. There’s the ones that everybody loves and there’s the ones that are more unusual. I’m not as much of a fan myself of the ones that everybody loves — champagne and raspberry, I always think to myself, “oh, let’s get more creative than that.” How do you harvest the beans to get chocolate? Monica Jimenez: The harvesting process starts by cutting the mature pod from the plant. Then we break the pod and extract the seeds and select the seeds by hands. I like to explain that the seeds come covered with a white, little sweet bulb that we use to ferment the seed. This way we can get all the nutrition that is in the plant. The seed has a lot of antioxidants, anti-inflammatories, magnesium and all this nutrition. What trends have you noticed in making chocolate since you started? Robyn Dochterman: When I first started, we were still explaining the percent of chocolate. So if you have a 70 percent dark chocolate, that 70 percent refers to the chocolate mass or what comes from the cacao tree. So what that tells you is that other 30 percent is probably sugar, vanilla, milk powder if it's a milk chocolate which it’s not going to be if it’s 70 percent, that’s going to be a dark chocolate. People have learned quite a bit about chocolate ... so we’re a lot more educated but at the same time, we’re getting more advanced. People also want to do more snacking. Subscribe to the MPR News with Angela Davis podcast on: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or RSS.   Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.    

MPR News host Angela Davis checked in with the team from Carbon Sound at our sister station, The Current.   Carbon Sound is a music stream, website and app “dedicated to celebrating the depth, breadth and influence of Black musical expression.”  The stream has been broadcasting for just a year and a half, but the small but mighty Carbon Sound team has been doing big things. Carbon Sound won an Anthem Award for its work last spring – that's an international award celebrating “purpose and mission-driven work.”  Content Director Julian Green and Host Sanni Brown joined MPR News with Angela Davis to talk about their newest work spotlighting DJ mixes and local musicians.  Tuesday, Feb. 13, Carbon Sound will host a dance night at the Seventh Street Entry in Minneapolis called "HEART BEATS.”  Guests:  Julian Green is the content director for Carbon Sound. He built and manages the music library and oversees content creation. He previously served as program director at Radio K at the University of Minnesota and founded their online hip-hop stream The Vanguard. Sanni Brown is the host and voice of Carbon Sound. Her show, “The Message,” focusing on classic Hip Hop and R&B, also airs on The Current on Wednesday nights. She has more than 10 years of broadcast experience at stations including KMOJ-FM, KFAI-FM and 107.1 MyTalk.   Subscribe to the MPR News with Angela Davis podcast on: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or RSS.  

The state legislative session opens on Monday and it’s not just law makers who are jumping into action. The politics team at MPR News is gearing up to keep Minnesotans informed about what’s happening at the state Capitol.   MPR News host Angela Davis talks with three journalists on the MPR News politics team about what drew them to the politics beat, how covering politics has changed and what to expect from this year’s state legislative session and also the upcoming presidential election.    Guests: Brian Bakst was named political editor at MPR News in Oct. 2023 after almost eight years as a political correspondent for MPR News. Before that he worked 17 years for the Associated Press in the Twin Cities.   Dana Ferguson is a senior politics reporter at MPR News. She previously covered Minnesota state government and politics for Forum News Service and worked for newspapers in South Dakota and Wisconsin.  Clay Masters joined MPR News as a senior politics reporter in January. He worked for more than a decade in the Iowa Public Radio newsroom as a statehouse and political correspondent and as host of IPR’s Morning Edition.  Subscribe to the MPR News with Angela Davis podcast on: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or RSS.   Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.    

There’s a good chance you know someone who is a prostate cancer survivor. One in eight men — and one in six Black men — will get prostate cancer during their lifetime. It’s not something we are all good at talking about. But we need to. Prostate cancer outcomes are much better when the cancer is caught early. And family history is also a major risk factor for the cancer. A urologist and a survivor joined MPR News host Angela Davis in-studio, talking about prostate cancer and how we can better save lives. What are the signs and symptoms of prostate cancer, and what do Black men, in particular, need to know?  Guests:  Dr. Christopher Warlick is the Department Head for the Department of Urology at the University of Minnesota Medical School and is an Associate Professor who treats several urologic cancers, with an emphasis on prostate cancer. Willie Bridges is a prostate cancer survivor from Minneapolis. He was first diagnosed over a decade ago. Subscribe to the MPR News with Angela Davis podcast on: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or RSS.    Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.      

Policing in America is a polarizing topic. High-profile killings of Black men by police officers over the last few years have eroded trust in policing as an institution — especially for many Black Americans.  According to a 2022 Pew Research Center survey, most Black Americans think policing needs major changes to treat Black people fairly. But a group of police officers and community members in Minneapolis has been working — mostly behind the scenes — for the past seven years to build trust. That includes learning about and acknowledging policing’s origins in slavery. It’s called the Police and Black Men project. On Tuesday at 9 a.m., MPR News host Angela Davis talks with a longtime police officer and a community organizer involved in the effort. The conversation is part of the new Talking Sense series at MPR News, which aims to help us better understand why political conversations are so polarized in the first place and to give us tools for managing those conversations. Talking Sense includes an app with an entire section to help Minnesotans talk with each other about policing.  Guests:    Charles Adams is an inspector for Minneapolis Police Department’s Fourth Precinct. He’s been with MPD since 1987 and is a member of the Police and Black Men Project. Guy Bowling is a nationally-recognized fatherhood leader and speaker, the former director of the FATHER Project, a federally-funded responsible fatherhood program, and a 2020 Bush Fellow. He is also a member of the Police and Black Men Project. Subscribe to the MPR News with Angela Davis podcast on: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or RSS.    Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.     

It’s been a warm and weird winter.   Most of Minnesota right now doesn’t have any snow. And, the ice is melting fast.   Outdoor hockey rinks have turned into puddles. Ice houses are getting pulled off some lakes across the state. Snow mobiles languish under tarps in the garage.   Over time, Minnesota’s average winter temperatures are slowly rising as carbon emissions warm the globe. But super El Niño weather patterns have made this winter especially warm.  MPR News host Angela Davis talks with people around the state about how the wimpy winter is messing with winter recreation, businesses that depend on it and our moods. Guests:   Dan Kraker is the MPR News correspondent based in Duluth. He’s a cross country skier and reported a story earlier this year on how this year’s wimpy winter is disappointing winter outdoor enthusiasts.   Chris Farrell is MPR News senior economics correspondent.  Subscribe to the MPR News with Angela Davis podcast on: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or RSS.   Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.    

What would happen if you asked Americans to share their experience of race — but in only six words.   Fourteen years ago, that’s how journalist Michele Norris started what’s called The Race Card Project.   More than a half a million people responded with their personal, honest and sometimes shocking six-word answers: “You’re pretty for a Black girl.” “White privilege, enjoy it, earned it.” “Lady, I don’t want your purse.” “My ancestors massacred Indians near here.” “Urban living has made me racist.” “I’m only Asian when it’s convenient.” Now, Norris has compiled many of the responses, along photographs, back stories and essays, into her new book, “Our Hidden Conversations: What Americans Really Think About Race and Identity.”   Listen to MPR News host Angela Davis talking with Norris about her Minnesota roots, journalism career and helping Americans talk about race.   Norris also will speak and sign her book Thursday evening at an event open to the public at the Westminster Town Hall Forum in Minneapolis.   Guests:   Michele Norris is a columnist for the Washington Post and host of the podcast “Your Mama’s Kitchen.” From 2002 to 2012, she was cohost of NPR’s All Things Considered. She also spent almost ten years as a reporter for ABC News covering politics, policy and the dynamics of social change. Over her long career she’s earned multiple awards, including the Peabody, Emmy, Dupont and Goldsmith awards. She’s the author of two books, “The Grace of Silence” and “Our Hidden Conversations.”   Subscribe to the MPR News with Angela Davis podcast on: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or RSS.   Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.    

This Wellness Wednesday, MPR News host Angela Davis talked about narcissism with two therapists, giving practical advice for co-existing with the narcissists in your lives.