Food 'n' Drink Reporter Roundtable

RacketCast

#Daily News #Showbiz #News Talk #News #Racket #Minneapolis #Minnesota #St Pauls #Twin Cities #Duluth #Midwest

1:03:29

Finally, we find out who is unbeatable, unhateable, and unbreakable in the final five episodes of Battle Camp Season One. Host Chris Burns is joined by the multi-talented comedian Dana Moon to relive the cockroach mac & cheese, Trey’s drag debut, and the final wheel spin. The Season One Winner joins Chris to debrief on strategy and dish on game play. Leave us a voice message at www.speakpipe.com/WeHaveTheReceipts Text us at (929) 487-3621 DM Chris @FatCarrieBradshaw on Instagram Follow We Have The Receipts wherever you listen, so you never miss an episode. Listen to more from Netflix Podcasts.…

about a year ago 56:16

MP3•Episode home

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 the two articles Em and Jay mention up top:

Subscribe to RacketCast wherever you get your podcasts—Spotify, Apple Music, Pocket Casts, etc. Wanna advertise on RacketCast? Email us at advertise@racketmn.com. Special thanks to local band Van Stee for supplying our podcast music!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

23 episodes

Food 'n' Drink Reporter Roundtable

RacketCast

published about a year ago

MP3•Episode home

It's the first RacketCast episode of 2025!

Here are the two articles Em and Jay mention up top:

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

23 episodes

#Daily News #Showbiz #News Talk #News #Racket #Minneapolis #Minnesota #St Pauls #Twin Cities #Duluth #Midwest

All episodes

1
Bonus: Wait, IS MN Beer In Trouble? Feat. David Berg of Schell's 20:36

8 days ago20:36

20:36

Last fall Racket surveyed 44 Minnesota brewing pros and found that 63.6% believe the industry is in a positive place—not bad! Last month Racket highlighted Axios reporting that showed a 10.8% boost in Minnesota craft brewery production last year—nice! But David Berg, the longtime brewmaster at August Schell Brewing Co. , isn't convinced by those types of cheery reports, and he recently got all up in our Bluesky mentions to say as much. "The brewing industry is pretty much in dire straits right now," Berg says. "I think it's a disservice to the industry to present it in any other fashion. It's as bleak as it's been in the 20 years I've been part of it." Are Minnesota breweries in trouble? And, if so, how much? As the number of craft breweries throughout our state shoots past 237, is the long-murmured-about "craft beer bubble" finally ready to pop? We got Berg on the horn to pick his considerable beer brain about the darker forces that might brewing on his industry's horizon. Subscribe to RacketCast wherever you get your podcasts—Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Pocket Casts, etc. Wanna advertise on RacketCast ? Email us at advertise@racketmn.com . Special thanks to local band Van Stee for supplying our podcast music! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…

1
Timberwolves Playoffs Explainer for Dummies Feat. Podcaster Dane Moore 1:10:16

13 days ago1:10:16

1:10:16

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 hoops bandwagon, the host of The Dane Moore NBA Podcast equips us with the requisite knowledge to root deep into the postseason, including a long-view look at the franchise, a roster breakdown, and also details about his own self-made Wolves podcasting empire. Awoooooooo! Here are the stories we gabbed about during What I Learned In Racket... Life After HUGE: How the Twin Cities Improv Scene Is Evolving (and Even Expanding) Following HUGE Improv Theater’s Closure We Taste Tested the New Frozen Jucy Lucy Brand ‘The Park Is Vibrating’: How DJ Sound Systems Redefined Powderhorn’s MayDay Celebration And would you like to know the exact make/model of chest freezer Jay drones on and on about? Take a look . (Best Buy... please sponsor the pod !) Subscribe to RacketCast wherever you get your podcasts—Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Pocket Casts, etc. Wanna advertise on RacketCast ? Email us at advertise@racketmn.com . Special thanks to local band Van Stee for supplying our podcast music! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…

1
Bonus: Should MN Ban Billboards? Feat. Sen. John Marty 23:01

21 days ago23:01

23:01

We're still figuring out what types of conversations y'all wanna hear on RacketCast , and our first experiment with a newsier, shorter installment was a 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's eye-catching new bill would establish a moratorium on new billboard construction, and eventually phase out existing ones as they age. If the bill becomes law, Minnesota would join Maine, Alaska, Vermont, and Hawaii as the only states who've declared war on the visual pollution that lines our roadways. Of modest consequence? Sure, but the legislation aims to improve the state in a tangible way, which is more than we can say about two recent bad-faith trolling bills authored by Republicans in the House. (We asked Marty about both of those.) Oh, yeah! If you don't have plans Saturday head to Insight Brewing for Smash Fest , where Racket's Jay Boller will be judging a smashburger competition featuring two recent RacketCast guests . Subscribe to RacketCast wherever you get your podcasts—Spotify, Apple Music, Pocket Casts, etc. Wanna advertise on RacketCast ? Email us at advertise@racketmn.com . Special thanks to local band Van Stee for supplying our podcast music! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…

1
Building the Perfect Cheeseburger feat. Angry Line Cook and Burger Daddies 1:57:34

26 days ago1:57:34

1:57:34

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) and Burger 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 to the fantastic Facebook group MSP Burgers .) On April 26, Jay from Racket will actually be judging a blind taste test at Insight Brewing's Smash Fest ( details here ), which'll feature battling burger joints Angry Line Cook, Burger Daddies, Private Sector Provisions, and Garillers. This episode of RacketCast is brought to you by... TPT's award-winning music series Stage , which returns on April 7 with an electrifying new season, featuring never-before-seen collaborations filmed at the legendary 7th St Entry. This season brings fresh energy with standout pairings like Kiss the Tiger with Diane, Your Smith with Raffaella, and Cory Wong with Misty Boyce. Experience intimate performances and powerful storytelling from Minnesota’s top talent. Watch on TPT 2 and the PBS App, or catch exclusive previews on The Current’s The Local Show . Learn more here . And also by... Lodestone Coffee and Games is a friendly local game store and cafe, specializing in Magic the Gathering , Dungeons and Dragons and board games of all kinds. You can find tournaments, meetups or open play events every single day of the week. Lodestone also carries a massive selection of over 500,000 Magic the Gathering singles at lodestonegames.com , with same day pickup available, and free domestic shipping for orders over thirty dollars. If you are looking for an inclusive space with delightful milkshakes, check out Lodestone on Cedar Lake Road in Minnetonka, or at lodestonegames.com . Subscribe to RacketCast wherever you get your podcasts—Spotify, Apple Music, Pocket Casts, etc. Wanna advertise on RacketCast ? Email us at advertise@racketmn.com . Special thanks to local band Van Stee for supplying our podcast music! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…

1
HOW Many Things to Do In Duluth Before You Die? feat. Reporter Jay Gabler 1:02:35

6 weeks ago1:02:35

1:02:35

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 dates here . And here are the stories we gabbed about during What I Learned In Racket… An Educated Guesser’s Guide to the 2025 Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival Grading the 2025 Additions to Target Field’s New Food Lineup I Came to Minnesota From Venezuela 2 Years Ago. Now I Have to Go Back. ••• This episode of RacketCast is brought to you by TPT's award-winning music series Stage , which returns on April 7 with an electrifying new season, featuring never-before-seen collaborations filmed at the legendary 7th St Entry. This season brings fresh energy with standout pairings like Kiss the Tiger with Diane, Your Smith with Raffaella, and Cory Wong with Misty Boyce. Experience intimate performances and powerful storytelling from Minnesota’s top talent. Watch on TPT 2 and the PBS App, or catch exclusive previews on The Current’s The Local Show . Learn more here . Subscribe to RacketCast wherever you get your podcasts—Spotify, Apple Music, Pocket Casts, etc. Wanna advertise on RacketCast ? Email us at advertise@racketmn.com . Special thanks to local band Van Stee for supplying our podcast music! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…

1
Bonus: Unions Shout WTF Over Guv’s WFH Reversal feat. MAPE 23:47

7 weeks ago23:47

23:47

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 Professional Employees union threatening legal action and even a strike . RacketCast has never waded into breaking news territory, but considering the scope of this order and its abrupt timeliness, we asked MAPE President Megan Dayton to hop on the pod to discuss how her union's 18,000ish workers are processing the news. Spoiler: They've not been this pissed off in recent memory. Let us know if you enjoy this type of bonus episode, and we'll keep 'em coming. Subscribe to RacketCast wherever you get your podcasts—Spotify, Apple Music, Pocket Casts, etc. Wanna advertise on RacketCast ? Email us at advertise@racketmn.com . Special thanks to local band Van Stee for supplying our podcast music! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…

1
2025 MN Twins Preview for Dummies feat. Aaron Gleeman 1:46:46

8 weeks ago1:46:46

1:46:46

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 office/podcast studio to breakdown the state of the in-flux Twins franchise, the team's roster heading into 2025, and his own journey through the blogger-to-professional-sportswriter pipeline. (Apologies for any echoey sound—our audio paneling efforts are also in-flux.) You can—and should!—subscribe to and support his Gleeman & the Geek Twins podcast, featuring co-host John Bonnes, here ; you can read all of his writing via the Athletic here . But first: We debut a hit new segment known as Birthday Break Down. And here are the stories Em and Jay gabbed about during our regular segment, This Week in Racket: Let's Taco 'Bout Politics mayoral candidate Q&A series How Alive or Dead is Dinkytown in 2025? Depends on Who You Ask. Subscribe to RacketCast wherever you get your podcasts—Spotify, Apple Music, Pocket Casts, etc. Wanna advertise on RacketCast ? Email us at advertise@racketmn.com . Special thanks to local band Van Stee for supplying our podcast music! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…

1
Prosecutor Progress Report feat. Mary Moriarty 1:12:09

10 weeks ago1:12:09

1:12:09

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 podcast, We Don't Have to Choose , right here . And here are the stories we gabbed about during This Week In Racket. (P.S. Jay misidentified Todd Haug's post-Surly gig as War Pigs outta Iowa; in reality, he's at Indiana's 3 Floyds Brewing Co.) Shoegaze is Having a Moment and Twin Cities Bands Are Here For It. How Did Minneapolis Metal Band Powermad End up in David Lynch’s ‘Wild at Heart’? Meet the One-Woman Team Overseeing MN’s Online Encyclopedia Subscribe to RacketCast wherever you get your podcasts—Spotify, Apple Music, Pocket Casts, etc. Wanna advertise on RacketCast ? Email us at advertise@racketmn.com . Special thanks to local band Van Stee for supplying our podcast music! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…

1
A Lifetime in the Morning Zoo feat. KDWB's Dave Ryan 59:21

12 weeks ago59:21

59:21

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 Wing—Yes, Red Wing—Became a Minnesota Music Hotbed Why Do So Many of Minneapolis’s Best Sandwiches Come From Liquor Stores? ‘I Can’t Let It Go’: Inside the 74-Year Search for the Klein Brothers, MN’s Oldest Missing Persons Cold Case Subscribe to RacketCast wherever you get your podcasts—Spotify, Apple Music, Pocket Casts, etc. Wanna advertise on RacketCast ? Email us at advertise@racketmn.com . Special thanks to local band Van Stee for supplying our podcast music Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…

1
Poised to Pop Jukebox + Exploring Narrative Podcasting 1:25:08

14 weeks ago1:25:08

1:25:08

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 Productions , and Celisia Stanton , whose Truer Crime podcast is about to enter its second season. Among the topics addressed: the challenges and rewards of pursuing ambitious, narrative-driven podcasts; the state of the local podcasting scene; and the philosophical approach of "podcasting from below." Play... ball? Play... podcast? Whatever, you get the idea. And here's our P2P playlist if you're scorekeeping at home. “Love Bomb” by Crush Scene “Bugz Bunny” by EssJay TheAfrocentricRatchet “Attaboy” by In Leiu “Smoke of the Midnight Lamp” by Kavyesh Kaviraj “Power Cord” by Lonefront “Pink Puma” by Products Band “I Feel Perfect” by Rosie “Oil Light” by Yonder Subscribe to RacketCast wherever you get your podcasts—Spotify, Apple Music, Pocket Casts, etc. Wanna advertise on RacketCast ? Email us at advertise@racketmn.com . Special thanks to local band Van Stee for supplying our podcast music! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…

1
Bonus: Inside New Strib Podcast Series 'Ghost of a Chance' feat. Eric Roper 37:57

15 weeks ago37:57

37:57

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 racial reckoning," the pod creators promise. It's a big ol' ambitious project that took almost five years to assemble, so we figured we'd get Roper on our less ambitious podcast to talk about it. You can listen to Ghost of a Chance here . And you can listen to what, it turns out, is Roper's favorite podcast, Wood Talk , here . Subscribe to RacketCast wherever you get your podcasts—Spotify, Apple Music, Pocket Casts, etc. Wanna advertise on RacketCast ? Email us at advertise@racketmn.com . Special thanks to local band Van Stee for supplying our podcast music! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…

1
Mitch Hedberg Roundtable... Assemble! 1:19:37

16 weeks ago1:19:37

1:19:37

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 of WTF 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 2,000 of something,” keep finding new fans through his albums and specials. But now, 20 years after Hedberg’s death, one artifact remains frustratingly elusive: Los Enchiladas! , the 1999 movie that he wrote, directed, starred in, and bankrolled. Shot in St. Paul, the super-goofy indie comedy set at a Mexican restaurant debuted at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival; an official release has never been secured, despite Shawcroft hinting at one for over a dozen years. All fans have is a rickety, leaked workprint version that’s available on YouTube. To celebrate the 25th anniversary* of Los Enchiladas! and to better understand its mastermind, Racket assembled a roundtable of core sources: Brian Malow, a comedian and Hedberg’s friend who co-starred and co-produced it; Jim Jorgensen, a veteran local actor who plays the over-the-top chef; Matt Ehling, a locally based filmmaker who served as co-director of photography; and Jeff Siegel, an Emmy-winning filmmaker who's currently years deep into making the definitive Hedberg documentary. (*OK, 26th anniversary by a couple of weeks—the famously chill Hedberg would forgive us.) “I discovered Mitch's comedy in the early 2000s, and I saw that he made this movie that played at Sundance. I was fascinated,” says Siegel, who hopes his doc will introduce a whole new generation to Hedberg. “I got to meet him a few times, and I was always asking him questions about the film. I wanted to see it! Mitch signed my copy of his first album, Strategic Grill Locations , with, ‘Jeff, Los Ench is coming, 2002.’ So, I have a longstanding fascination with the film.” Us too! Let’s dig into the world of Los Enchiladas! , and maybe, just maybe, help drum up some excitement that’ll lead to the long-lost movie’s proper release. Subscribe to RacketCast wherever you get your podcasts—Spotify, Apple Music, Pocket Casts, etc. Wanna advertise on RacketCast ? Email us at advertise@racketmn.com . Special thanks to local band Van Stee for supplying our podcast music! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…

1
Food 'n' Drink Reporter Roundtable 56:16

18 weeks ago56:16

56:16

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 the two articles Em and Jay mention up top: How to Win Votes and Influence Neighbors: City Politics as a Way Forward in Dire Times Read an Excerpt From ‘The Many Facets of Eyedea,’ a New Oral History on the Celebrated MN Rapper Subscribe to RacketCast wherever you get your podcasts—Spotify, Apple Music, Pocket Casts, etc. Wanna advertise on RacketCast ? Email us at advertise@racketmn.com . Special thanks to local band Van Stee for supplying our podcast music! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…

1
Year-End Movie Hot Takes feat. Taco Mike 1:15:17

21 weeks ago1:15:17

1:15:17

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, dueling throughout this year-end ep. There's agreement ( Argylle stinks), there's disagreement ( Joker: Folie à Deux ... doesn't stink?), there's plenty of chatter devoted to whether movies are sexy enough these days. Be sure to check out Taco Mike's movie podcast, I Can't Believe You Made Me Watch That . And here are links to the stories riffed on at the top of the episode: Park Point Break: Cargill vs. Duluth ; Keith & the Train ; Gun Bingo! Subscribe to RacketCast wherever you get your podcasts—Spotify, Apple Music, Pocket Casts, etc. Wanna advertise on RacketCast ? Email us at advertise@racketmn.com . Special thanks to local band Van Stee for supplying our podcast music! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…

1
Bonus: Reviewing 2024 feat. 'Daily Show' Co-Creator Lizz Winstead 37:06

21 weeks ago37:06

37:06

A special bonus episode of our biweekly RacketCast ? 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 and Dec. 31—and before that Winstead was kind enough to drop by RacketCast to riff on Trump 2.0, the so-called manosphere, and her career in showbiz. Learn more about Winstead's group, Abortion Access Front, here ; buy tickets to her year-end Parkway shows right here . Subscribe to RacketCast wherever you get your podcasts—Spotify, Apple Music, Pocket Casts, etc. Wanna advertise on RacketCast ? Email us at advertise@racketmn.com . Special thanks to local band Van Stee for supplying our podcast music! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…

RacketCast

1
Reviewing the Year in Minneapolis Politics feat. Wedge Live! 1:00:46

23 weeks ago1:00:46

1:00:46

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 Wedge Live! podcast , which drops weekly via your preferred pod app. Oh, and here are the two Racket articles referenced by Jay: "Bob Kroll Is a Professional Burger Boy Now" and "‘I Don’t Get Off On It’: Meet Will Stancil, the MN Man Caught In a Perpetual Twitter Fight." Subscribe to RacketCast wherever you get your podcasts—Spotify, Apple Music, Pocket Casts, etc. Wanna advertise on RacketCast ? Email us at advertise@racketmn.com . Special thanks to local band Van Stee for supplying our podcast music! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…

RacketCast

1
The Biggest MN Turkeys of 2024 46:52

25 weeks ago46:52

46:52

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 to skip this ep! Then, to honor our final turkey, we hear a dramatic reading from friend of the pod Scotty Gunderson , a Minneapolis-based artist and creative director making the world weirder and more mesmerizing through his storytelling studio Matter Level . Honorable Mention Biggest MN Turkeys of 2024... The Pohlad family AI The death of winter Pete Hegseth Hyperloop grifting Epoch Times billboards The traffic-clogged revamp of northbound I-35W Kitty Cop Klub Subscribe to RacketCast wherever you get your podcasts—Spotify, Apple Music, Pocket Casts, etc. Wanna advertise on RacketCast ? Email us at advertise@racketmn.com . Special thanks to local band Van Stee for supplying our podcast music! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…

RacketCast

1
Bonus: Inside the 'Broadcast Wars' feat. Cathy Wurzer 23:26

25 weeks ago23:26

23:26

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 here ). But then we got to thinking: The podcast gear is right over there, waiting and ready, would it be nuts to... put a celebrated local radio professional on our humble pod? And that's exactly what we did. Enjoy our chat with Cathy! Subscribe to RacketCast wherever you get your podcasts—Spotify, Apple Music, Pocket Casts, etc. Wanna advertise on RacketCast ? Email us at advertise@racketmn.com . Special thanks to local band Van Stee for supplying our podcast music! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…

RacketCast

1
Meet MN's Best New Music Act 48:18

27 weeks ago48:18

48:18

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 history. Speaking of that history, Keith and Jay begin the episode with a "Remember Some Guys?" speed round of past Picked to Click winners, spanning back to when the best-new-band poll first appeared in City Pages. And, at the very end of the pod, enjoy the Parcelles track "SENEGAMBIA." Wanna advertise on RacketCast ? Email us at advertise@racketmn.com . Special thanks to local band Van Stee for supplying our podcast music! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…

RacketCast

1
Ghost Hunting feat. the Twin Cities Paranormal Society 44:54

29 weeks ago44:54

44:54

There's no disputing it: This is the spookiest episode in RacketCast history. 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 their gun bingo and bigfoot conference stories (what a website!) before our seasonally appropriate guest arrives: Dawn McClain , leader of and investigator with the Twin Cities Paranormal Society . Happy Halloween! Wanna advertise on RacketCast ? Email us at advertise@racketmn.com. Special thanks to local band Van Stee for supplying our podcast music! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…

RacketCast

1
Meet St. Paul's TikTok-Famous Teacher feat. Mandi Jung (@sabocat) 55:58

31 weeks ago55:58

55:58

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 her infectious laugh. Wanna advertise on RacketCast ? Email us at advertise@racketmn.com. Special thanks to local band Van Stee for supplying our podcast music! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…

RacketCast

1
A MN Hip-Hop Classic Turns 20 feat. Heiruspecs 52:54

33 weeks ago52:54

52:54

Exactly 20 years ago, Twin Cities hip-hop greats Heiruspecs got their shot at the big time with A Tiger Dancer . On this episode of RacketCast , MC Chris "Felix" Wilbourn and bassist Sean "Twinkie Jiggles" McPherson reflect with us about the highs (giant shows, Harold & Kumar soundtrack) and lows (label expectations, snubbed Euro tour) that coincided with the release of their breakout 2004 LP. This isn't the group's first reflection on that pivotal era—McPherson wrote with great candor about it in 2016 for City Pages—but it is the first via the audio format, the favored medium of such luminaries as Abbott & Costello, Terry Gross, and Bubba the Love Sponge. Our conversation is part Behind the Music , a whole lotta remember-some-guys, and a fitting anniversary victory lap for one of the best hip-hop acts to ever come outta Minnesota. (Cheap Trick emerges as a surprising/amusing enemy.) "This record is a really proud document for me and that moment. Only one of us was even 25 when we started meeting folks from [record label] Razor & Tie in their office in New York, and it was an amazing feeling," McPherson wrote in '16. "Probably the hardest part was that, on the level of folks we considered our competitors, we were doing pretty good. I don't have SoundScan access, but I believe Tiger [sold] about 13,000 by 2007 and over 10,000 in 2005. In the indie-rap world you were desperate to hit 10K, that was a big sign." Ultimately, Heiruspecs never broke into the mainstream. Instead, they've settled into the enviable role of local music institution, rallying together each year for an annual concert that expanded in 2023 to the outdoor Heiruspecs Summer Classic mini-fest. The St. Paul crew is still doing pretty good, as you'll hear on this episode. "It did feel like we had lightning in a bottle," Felix told us last week. "Maybe not the giant lightning strike that makes you as big as, fucking Journey or something, I don't know… But it really did feel like we had something that needed to get out, and we got it out there." Wanna advertise on RacketCast ? Email us at advertise@racketmn.com. Special thanks to local band Van Stee for supplying our podcast music! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…

RacketCast

1
Should Failing Twin Cities Restaurants Seek Crowdfunding? 29:09

35 weeks ago29:09