Ellie 2.0 - Am950 The Progressive Voice Of Minnesota

It’s show number 100 of Ellie 2.0 Radio! Ellie takes your calls and also speaks with Dr. Kurt Nelson of Behavioral Grooves.

The featured idealist this week is Irene Morgan, who was arrested in 1944 for refusing to give up her bus seat in favor of white-color persons in Virginia. She kicked the sheriff who tried to take her off the bus and tore up the citation he gave her. Eventually, she was arrested but she took…

This week’s featured idealists are the Gulabi Gang (which isn’t a gang at all but an organization) which mobilizes women and some men in India to press for reforms around domestic violence and unprosecuted rapes of women. The Big Interview is with Michael Rexford, a Los Angeles attorney and idealist who’s founded LightHopeLife.org, a suicide…

Our highlighted idealist is Bayard Rustin, who began trying to change the world while in college and went on to be one of the most important civil rights organizers of the 20th century. The Big Interview is with me, moi, Ellie Krug; my producer Brett Johnson asks me about idealism and keeping hope in 2019…

An Ellie’s Talking Head Show, we start out recognizing Brittany Spencer, a Fond du Lac, WI restaurant server who refused to wait on the table of two older customers who were making disparaging comments about a transgender customer in the restaurant—it was “morals vs. money.” We shift to the life and legacy of Elijah Cummings,…

We start out featuring Fannie Lou Hamer, a Mississippi civil rights activist who suffered a horrific beating as she worked to register African Americans to vote in the early 1960’s. The Big Interview is with Benjamin Saulsberry of the Emmett Till Interpretive Center, who shares about how the death of Emmett Till has been called…

An Ellie’s Talking Head Show; we start with Aimee Stephens, who was fired by her Michigan funeral home employer because she’s transgender and whose case will be argued before the U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 8. In Block B, I talk (emotionally, I’m sorry) about Sandeep Dhaliwal, the first Sikh hired as a Harris County…

The theme this week is females making a difference. I highlight Greta Thunberg, the sixteen-year-old Swedish climate protection activist who speaks truth to power. The Big Interview is with Stephanie Glaros of Humans of Minneapolis talking about her work around empathy building. In the C-Block, I share the story of a dad who regretted for…

This week’s show starts with remembering the 9/11/71 death of Margaret Ann Knott in Choctaw County, Alabama and how it’s taken local leaders 48 years to acknowledge her sacrifice. The Big Interview is with Richard Johnson of Auto Technical Inc., a nonprofit that repairs automobiles and donates them to people in need; the catch is…

It’s another hodgepodge show; we start off featuring Dorothea Lange, a 20th century photographer who used her camera as a tool for social change. The Big Interview is with Dan O’Neil, the executive director of PeaceMaker Minnesota, which is working to eliminate bullying and violence in schools. In my C-Block, I talk about upcoming talks…

We cover enslaved people, historical and modern day. I feature Cudjoe Lewis, the second-to-last formerly enslaved African to die in the U.S. (in 1935); he had been abducted from his West African village and smuggled into Alabama in 1860. The Big Interview is with Marshall Tanick re: how enslaved people were brought to Minnesota with…

This week’s theme is idealists in or about education. Our featured idealist is Erin Gruwell, who is the heroine of the movie, The Freedom Writers. The Big Interview is with Michael Ciresi, a prominent Minnesota attorney whose foundation, the Ciresi Walburn Foundation for Children, is working to highlight the horrific educational achievement disparities between white-color…

Our idealist is Judge Damon Keith, the grandson of slaves, who was appointed to the federal bench in 1967 and ten years later elevated to the Court of Appeals. Judge Keith wasn’t afraid to speak truth to power and told both Richard Nixon and George Bush II that they had violated the Constitution. The Big…

I’m back from my writing sabbatical with a great show! I highlight Ed Dwight, who should have been the first black-color astronaut but for discrimination in the 1960’s. The Big Interview is with Julieanna Richardson, founder and executive director of The HistoryMakers (https://www.thehistorymakers.org/ ), which has recorded 3000+ interviews of black-color humans trying to survive…

Our historical idealist is Vera Connolly, a cutting edge investigative journalist of the 1920-50’s who wrote about Native children, immigrants and girls working in sweatshops. The Big Interview is with Scott Herold, who works to empower youth and humans through music and video. My C-Block covers something I witnessed at this year’s Pride event at…

The show in part deals with religious pushback at religious intolerance; I start out by talking about how the Jesuits running Brefeuf Jesuit Preparatory School in Indiana refused an archdiocese order to fire a long-time teacher who happens to be gay. The Big Interview is with Minneapolis pastor Dan Collison, who has been defrocked by…

It’s a hodgepodge show. I first speak about being on a panel of lawyers to discuss diversity and inclusion in the legal profession and how it’s important for straight, white-color cisgender men to step up and be allies to persons from marginalized communities. The Big Interview is with Michelle Seets of Minnetonka High School re:…

Our theme is “speaking up for the outcasts” and we start with a Pride Month remembrance of Sylvia Rivera, a transgender activist who fought for societal acceptance of gender variant people; she also had to fight for acceptance by the gay and lesbian community. The Big Interview is with Dr. Thomas Adams of Better Futures…

Today’s a mixture of idealists; we begin with Scott Warren of the organization, No More Deaths—he’s on federal trial in Tucson for smuggling undocumented humans simply because he provided food and shelter to two men who crossed the border; the Big Interview is with Elizabeth Brenner of Protect Students Abroad, whose idealism was borne out…

This week’s theme is “Yearning for Change” and we highlight the anti-gun violence movement, #NeverAgainMSD, which arose out of the Valentine’s Day 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stone Douglas High School in Parkland, FL. The Big Interview is with local idealist Robin Wolpert, an attorney who seeks to “close the gap between what democracy promises…