KFAI's MinneCulture Presents

With this show, we focused on teen angst. We started with Hillary Frank's In a Bubble. In this moving piece, she records thoughts that are rarely spoken by asking questions of the introverted. These quiet voices shine in Frank's story. Then we move to Legal Status by Veralyn Williams, a Radio Rookie from WYNC. She uncovers, with little help from her parents, what she can and can't do as an immigrant from Sierra Leone. The show ends with a harrowing piece from another Radio Rookie at WNYC: Derrick Hewitt (pictured). In Aggression , we quickly learn how difficult it is for 14-year-old Derrick to control his rage. We hear him interview his little brother about fights. However, the interview turns into a beating as Derrick bangs his brother with the microphone. It's painful to hear.

Jake Warga has a problem with Father's Day. The celebration, he writes, "will eventually become a 'holiday' to remind us of what's missing." After his father died, Jake found an old cassette tape. On the tape was an interview his Dad made with him while he was a toddler. Jake's story was one of several rifts on Dad we aired. Others include essays by Jay Allison , Nance Olesen and a piece called My Dad's Records , which aired on the CBC's Outfront show. We also aired a bit of Paul Westerberg singing about his old man ("My Dad" from the Folker album). Happy Dad's Day.

What happens when a high school doesn't offer students classes like Spanish and calculus? Zach Lotz (left) of La Harpe, Illinois says it leaves him unprepared for college. And that's one reason he's joining the Army. In LaHarpe, located about halfway between Chicago and St. Louis, high school students don't have access to classes suburban kids take for granted. That's because La Harpe's homes and farms generate less property tax revenue for the schools than they did about 20 years ago. It's also because Illinois does little to equalize spending among school districts. This documentary originally aired on Chicago Public Radio as part of the Chicago Matters: Valuing Education series . It was produced by Todd Melby and Diane Richard .

The first piece comes from Radio Diaries producer Joe Richman. The WASPS: Women Pilots of WW II is the story of the first female pilots in World War II. Our second piece is the story of Lavinia Gelineau and the loss of her husband Chris, a young soldier killed in Iraq. The Cost of War was produced by Blunt Youth Radio Project producer S. Spencer Scott.

The Vietnam War and related political upheavals caused devastation throughout Southeast Asia. Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Laotian families often had no choice but to seek a new life in America. Vietnamese left on crowded boats, braving pirates. In refugee camps, they met with Mien and Hmong from Laos who had helped the CIA during the war and feared for their lives. Cambodians either fled the Khmer Rouge regime or left after it ended. These immigrants had to negotiate a new country with little notice. US government systems were swamped with new languages and cultures, and in Minneapolis and other cities, Hmong from Laos are still arriving. Hosted by Margaret Cho.

After the excellent "Just Another Story About a Fish," we play Barrett Golding's show on whales, " The Whale Plan ".

This program featured stories produced by graduates from the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies. Students at this Maine-based school use the surrounding towns as radio laboratory, recording the people and their stories. We found the following pieces on the Public Radio Exchange : " Just Another Story About a Fish " and " 75 State Street Salon "