North Star Voices
This series takes us on real and imagined odysseys that venture through some of Minnesota’s hidden, forgotten, or otherwise off-pavement landscapes. Hear stories that make the North Star State a unique and complex place within our nation’s story.

North Star Voices: Breaking Trail with Emily Ford, Saturday, Oct. 29th, 2022

In March of 2021, Minnesotan Emily Ford became the first woman and person of color–and only second person–to complete a winter thru-hike of the Ice Age National Scenic Trail. Over 69 days, Ford and her sled-dog companion Diggins traversed the 1,200 mile trail through a brutal midwestern winter and a global pandemic. Ford engaged in at a screening of ‘Breaking Trail’, a Minneapolis-produced documentary about her journey directed by Jesse Roesler, followed by conversation around the movement to make the outdoors more accessible for everyone.

North Star Voices: Traversing the Pembina Trail by Oxcart, Saturday, November 19th, 2022

Before steam trains connected St. Paul and Winnipeg, long trains of ox-carts brought goods back and forth between the two cities via the Red River, or Pembina, Trail. Invented and often driven by the Métis, hundreds of Red River carts traveled between the two cities each year, forming a crucial trade route in the mid-1800s. In the summer of 2022, Terry Doerksen retraced the historic Red River Trail in two and a half months with his ox Zik. Terry engaged audiences about his everyday experiences on the trail, the challenges and joys of traveling with an ox, and what it means to retrace a historic trade route. Watch Program Here.

North Star Voices: The Twin Cities That Never Happened, Saturday, December 3rd, 2022

A system of canals that would have turned Minneapolis into the “Venice of the North.” An elevated monorail line and aerial gondola system across Saint Paul. A self-contained, utopian community at Southdale Mall. These ideas and more were seriously considered by urban planners in the Twin Cities, though they were ultimately dropped in favor of the city design we know today. Local historian Alex Weston explored the long and surprising history of urban planning projects that were rejected, passed by, or never finished, and ponder the fanciful alternate history of a very different Twin Cities that could have been. Watch Program Here.

North Star Voices: Hudson Bay Bound with Natalie Warren, Saturday, Jan. 21st, 2023

Natalie Warren paddled from Minneapolis to Hudson Bay, following the 2,000-mile route made famous by Eric Sevareid in his 1935 classic Canoeing with the Cree, and faced unexpected trials, some harrowing, some simply odd. She was one of the first women to make this challenging expedition. Natalie engaged in a talk that went beyond day-to-day life on trail – wildlife encounters, fierce weather, struggles in an enduring friendship, a furry addition to the expedition team, and a polar bear sighting – to ponder how we come to know and care for places threatened by rapidly changing physical, social, and cultural landscapes. Watch Program Here.