Bob Collins
Roger Hanson won’t be making his ice tower in Big Lake this year. Superior, Wisconsin has hired him away to make the world’s largest ice tower in the city. Read more →
MPR News Reflections and observations on the news
Arts & Culture
Lake Superior State University in Michigan couldn’t have been more perfect with its selection of words that should — but won’t be — banned in 2015. Read more →
Jay Wilds, the somewhat mysterious man who blew the whistle on Adnan Syed in the murder case that spawned the podcast “Serial,” has never heard the show. Read more →
The podcast exploring the death of a Baltimore area high school student is over without reporter Sarah Koenig finding how whether the man serving a life sentence was wrongfully convicted. But the man who was the prosecution’s main witness was certainly portrayed as one who’d be most likely to be involved in the death of Hae Min Lee.
He wouldn’t talk on the record for the podcast, but he’s talking now. Read more →
The kids are all grown at Casa NewsCut and they’re not around today, so I’m sitting here reminiscing about Christmas mornings past and, for the record, not feeling guilty at all about the big lie.
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And now this message from a spot where borders aren’t obvious. Read more →
If there’s once concept that needs to be copied in the news business, it’s StoryCorps, the project which provides a microphone for people to tell their personal stories. It’s based on a truism that gets scant attention in newsrooms: Everybody has a great story to tell. Everyone’s journey is fascinating. Read more →
We submit to you that nobody understands the Christmas spirit the way Keith Richards does.
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Joe Cocker died today. He was 70 years old. As if Boomers needed another reason to feel old as dirt. Read more →
The Serial podcast’s first season is over, but its status of cultural icon is complete now that it’s become a skit on Saturday Night Live. Read more →
Thanks to Slate, there’s now an annotated video of all the stars who sang at the end of Stephen Colbert’s final show on Thursday night.
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We have many obvious needs in life — food, water, a housebroken puppy, for example. But if there’s one thing that drives Americans, it’s outrage. Without it, our lives lack a certain meaning. Read more →
It’s not as if Stephen Colbert is going anywhere. He takes over for David Letterman, of course. But his character — Stephen Colbert — is being retired and last night was the last Colbert Report.
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Serial, the Public Radio version of ‘Who shot JR?’ (ask your parents), has concluded its first season without us knowing who killed a young high school woman. Read more →
Thanks, Sony. Now we’ve got to talk to each other again. Read more →