Advertise on podcast: Minnesota Unraveled: Pulling on the Threads of Minnesota History

Silence was once a form of survival for many in the LGBTQIA+ community. But in Minnesota, a group called Telling Queer History set out to change that, by creating spaces where people across generations could share their stories openly, often for the first time. So how did Telling Queer History transform silence into language and action? What made those spaces feel safe, welcoming, and worth the risk of vulnerability? And why is intergenerational storytelling vital to LGBTQIA+ history? In this episode, host Chantel Rodríguez and her guests – TQH founder RJ Lawrence, and members Harry Waters, Jr., José Maria Herrera Tamayo, and Jayce Wepplo – dig into those questions, and explore how storytelling is an act of making history. We'd love to hear your thoughts about Minnesota Unraveled! Please fill out our survey ⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠: https://mnhs.info/podcastsurvey

Between 1880 and 1930, St. Anthony Falls helped establish Minneapolis as the flour milling capital of the world. But the story of the falls is about more than the economy and hydropower. People from many backgrounds have also been drawn to the falls for its cultural and spiritual power. To the Dakota people, it is known as Owámniyomni, a place of spirit, story, and connection. To Reiko Weston, founder of Fuji Ya Restaurant, it became a way to bridge cultural divides between Japan and Minnesota. In this episode of Minnesota Unraveled, Dr. Chantel Rodríguez and her guests–Deacon DeBoer, Carol Weston Hanson, and Shelley Buck–pull on the threads of two seemingly unrelated stories that are, in fact, deeply woven together in the rich tapestry of St. Anthony Falls’ history as a site of cultural, spiritual, and economic power. We'd love to hear your thoughts about Minnesota Unraveled! Please fill out our survey. https://mnhs.info/podcastsurvey

In the summer of 1860, Eliza Winston fought for her freedom in a Minneapolis courthouse. Eliza made history as the first enslaved person to do so in the state of Minnesota. But Eliza herself is noticeably absent from the story. She left behind almost no paper trail. In this episode of Minnesota Unraveled, host Dr. Chantel Rodríguez and her guests search for answers–who was Eliza Winston? Why was she in Minnesota, and what did her fight for freedom look like? Through the powerful words of poet Mary Moore Easter, the historical research of Dr. Christopher Lehman, and the curiosity of Jason Benjamin’s fourth grade class, Eliza is here now, finally taking center stage in her own story. We'd love to hear your thoughts about Minnesota Unraveled! Please fill out our survey ⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠.

Stargazing is a timeless, shared activity that connects us across cultures and generations. But have you ever considered that when you look up at the night sky, you’re actually looking at history? Because light takes time to travel across the vastness of space, the starlight reaching your eyes is coming from the past. Host Dr. Chantel Rodríguez speaks with three keepers of star knowledge to explore how communities have connected to the cosmos. Ron Schmit and Dr. Cindy Blaha talk about western astronomy and the role of observatories in stargazing and time-keeping. Jim Rock shares Dakota cosmology and the science of Indigenous sky observation. Join us as we look up, get curious, and ask big questions: Why do we look to the stars? What is our role in the cosmos? And how has star knowledge been passed down through generations?  For more information on Dakota star knowledge, please watch this video from Jim Rock and Dakota artist Marlena Myles.

The 3 P’s–pasties, porketta, and potica–are beloved dishes on Minnesota’s iron range. How did they become quintessential iron range cuisine and why are they so important to ranger identity?  To find out, Dr. Chantel Rodríguez speaks with guests deeply connected to the Range’s culinary history. Cookbook author BJ Carpenter explains how families prepared signature range dishes. Documentarian Mary Lou Nemanic traces the early immigrant waves that brought diverse ethnic foodways to the region. Chef Bryan Morcom shows how local ingredients like wild rice, walleye, and cabbage can be reimagined in Range food today. And restaurateur Tom Forti reflects on how his family’s century-old Sunrise Bakery continues to influence the flavors served at the Iron Ranger. Together, they reveal why preserving these traditions is becoming increasingly important as economic landscapes shift and tastes evolve. Minnesota Unraveled will return with more episodes starting February 19, 2026.

At the Bell Museum of Natural History in Saint Paul, the lives of beavers across 2 million years are captured in two scenes. One is set in the Ice Age and showcases a giant beaver, an animal the size of a small black bear. The other is set in the early 1900s at Lake Itasca and captures the more familiar modern beaver chomping on wood and building a dam. Together, these scenes spark big questions: Why have beavers been important to Minnesota’s history since the Ice Age? How have they shaped the landscape and human activity? And how did we get from the giant beaver to the beaver we know today? To explore these questions, Dr. Chantel Rodríguez draws on multiple ways of knowing. Fossils, archival records, ecological science, and Indigenous storytelling reveal a complex narrative of megafauna, community relationships, environmental change, and global trade. Through conversations with paleontologist Nicole Dzenowski, environmental historian Hayden Nelson, and traditional ecological knowledge expert Michael Waasegiizhig Price, this episode examines not just what happened, but how we come to understand it.

According to the history books, boxing faded from the spotlight decades ago. But in Minnesota, the gloves never came off.  Host Dr. Chantel Rodríguez talks with longtime friends Sankara Frazier and Harry Davis Jr., who carry forward the legacy of their fathers – legendary coach Harry Davis Sr. and boxer Stanley Frazier – through their work at Circle of Discipline. And she speaks with Lisa Bauch, a trainer and entrepreneur whose Uppercut Gym helped open the sport to women and newcomers alike. Historian Gerald Gems helps trace the roots of the sport and its arrival in Minnesota. Together, they reflect on how boxing endures in Minnesota, not just as a sport, but as a way to build confidence, discipline, and community.

Walk into almost any bookstore in October and you’ll see displays stacked with books on witchcraft, ghostly encounters and the paranormal. Look a little closer, and you’ll notice a familiar name on many of their spines: Llewellyn Worldwide. But did you know the world’s largest New Age publisher calls Minnesota home? In this episode, host Dr. Chantel Rodríguez and her guests Sandra Weschcke and Dr. Murphy Pizza explore how a Minnesota visionary turned a fascination with New Age spirituality into a global publishing powerhouse, and how that journey sparked the growth of New Age Religous Movements in the Twin Cities.

Chicago and New York usually get the spotlight when it comes to Puerto Rican communities. But Minnesota? That might surprise you. Puerto Ricans are actually the state’s second-largest Latinx community, with more than 20,000 people calling it home. And for these Puerto Rican Minnesotans, music is a powerful way to stay connected to their heritage.  In our opening episode of season two, historian and host Dr. Chantel Rodríguez explores this link with her guests. José Antonio Zayas Cabán is a multiple Grammy®-nominated saxophonist, whose latest work interweaves the voices of Puerto Rican storytellers and music. She also speaks with Tearra Oso, a bomba artist and culture protector who teaches and enhances one of Puerto Rico’s oldest musical traditions. Together, they reflect on how Puerto Rican Minnesotans have told their history through music, cultivating ties to both Minnesota and Puerto Rico, and finding harmony in that complexity.

We are continuing our journey across the North Star state to follow the threads that pull us into the past and reveal our interconnected stories. This season, we’ll shine a light on the histories of boxing and the foodways of the Iron Range.  We’ll take you along to a Minneapolis jazz club and discover how members of the Puerto Rican community use music to tell their stories. And we’ll explore the important role beavers have played in shaping the Minnesota landscape, from the ice age to today.  These topics, and many more, will start hitting your feed on October 9.

We'd love to hear your thoughts about Minnesota Unraveled! Please fill out our survey ⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠. Think of your favorite meal. It’s so much more than just what you see on the plate. It’s the history of the ingredients, the recipes passed down from family members, the memories you have with the tastes and smells of it all. For the Hmong community in Minnesota, food sits at the intersection of community tradition, culture, and history.  In this episode, historian and host Dr. Chantel Rodriguez speaks with three Hmong community members: Chef Yia Vang, of the restaurant Vinai, Pakou Hang, co-founder and executive director of the Hmong American Farmers Association (HAFA), and Zongxee Lee, a Hmong herbalist. In each conversation, guests share the role food and foodways have played in their families, and the ways they’re looking to carry that forward for future generations.

We'd love to hear your thoughts about Minnesota Unraveled! Please fill out our survey ⁠⁠here⁠⁠. Many histories of the LGBTQIA+ community are focused on metropolitan areas, but a recent mapping project has elevated the stories of a group of Lesbian feminist cooperative farms in rural Minnesota in the 1970s.  In this episode, historian and host Dr. Chantel Rodriguez explores how living off of the land gave Lesbian Feminists a sense of freedom, safety and community. Chantel spoke with two guests: Leila Stallone, a researcher who works on the  The Greater Minnesota Two-Spirit LGBTQIA+ History Map Project, and Meadow Muska, a photographer who documented life on the farm. Together, they share stories about how the decision to move into rural areas and build cooperative farms was an act of self-determination, community building and defiance.

We'd love to hear your thoughts about Minnesota Unraveled! Please fill out our survey ⁠here⁠. The Minnesota State Capitol is a gleaming marble building sitting on a hill — an ode to the Italian Renaissance, topped with an impeccably crafted dome. You’ve probably heard of the mind behind the design, Cass Gilbert, plenty of times. But how did Gilbert’s design influence how the building was made, and just who was it that built the capitol itself? In this episode, historian and host Dr. Chantel Rodríguez uncovers the unsung builders of this Minnesota monument — African American stone masons. Who were they, and how did they come to the Twin Cities? To answer those questions and more, Chantel spoke with three experts, each of whom pulls from a different well of historical knowledge: Brian Pease, the Site Manager at the State Capitol, John Sielaff, a labor historian, and Marvin Anderson, the grandson of a stone mason who worked on the site.

We'd love to hear your thoughts about Minnesota Unraveled! Please fill out our survey ⁠here⁠. Rivers loom large in our past and present – as places for community connection, routes for trading and spaces for recreation.  They carry an untold number of stories about the people, the water, and animals that call Minnesota home.  But how do we go about learning these stories?  In this episode, historian and host Dr. Chantel Rodríguez dives into the rivers of history to explore how people’s relationships to rivers changed over time and how the river itself has been altered by human activities. To answer these questions, Chantel spoke with historian John Anfinson, environmental archaeologist David Mather, as well as Bad River Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe member and indigenous archaeologist Selena Bernier.  Each guest shares a unique perspective on river history – from making the Mississippi more navigable in the 19th century, to Native peoples’ use of mollusks, to Native copper carrying communities.

We'd love to hear your thoughts about Minnesota Unraveled! Please fill out our survey ⁠here⁠. Many places around the world are famous for their love of cycling—think Amsterdam in the Netherlands, or Portland, Oregon. But head to Como Lake in St. Paul, or the Mill Towns Trail in Northfield on a sunny spring day, and you’ll find flocks of cyclists taking advantage of the weather and the well-loved bike paths. How did biking find a place in the hearts of Minnesotans? And how did the robust biking infrastructure in the state come to be? In this episode, host and historian Dr. Chantel Rodríguez explores the evolution of the bicycle in the late 19th century, as well as the cycling craze that followed. Chantel also examines how biking transformed mobility for both women and people in rural areas of the state, as well as the safety and structure of streets themselves. To gain insight into these questions, Chantel spoke with historian and bicycle planner Peter Bird, founder of Tamales y Bicicletas José Luis Villaseñor, and former city councilwoman and longtime Northfield resident Peggy Prowe.