The Roadhouse

Despite the common wisdom that people are fleeing rural areas for cities, most rural Minnesota counties are actually gaining mid-career residents and becoming more vibrant. Ben Winchester, an extension educator and community economics expert at the U of MN, joined Ann on The Roadhouse to help us understand this phenomenon. 

It’s Oktoberfest time, and that means beer. A beautiful new book about beer from our neighbor Wisconsin is just out from the University of Minnesota Press, called “The Drink That Made Wisconsin Famous.”  The author is Doug Hoverson, and he joined Julie on The Roadhouse to talk about the book, and how he went about the research for it.

If YOU had to eat huge amounts of food a day to survive, you might think you’d eat anything in sight. But it turns out that moose are pickier than it appears.  Professor Sarah Hoy, along with other researchers, has developed a method to analyze why moose choose to eat what they do.  Sarah joined Dave on The Roadhouse to tell us more about the new research.

Roadhouse favorite Jim McGowan stopped by the studios to join Julie and Dave and chat about what he's been up to, and of course play a few tunes for us.

The 29th Ig Nobel Prize ceremony took place on September 12 at  Harvard University. The Ig Nobel Prizes honor scientific achievements that make people laugh, and then think. You can find out more about the Ig Nobel Prizes and a list of this year's winners here.

Marc Abrahams, the editor of the Annals of Improbable Research, joined Julie to talk about this year's winners.

Mark Seeley is a longtime climatologist and commentator on MPR. He was recently in Grand Marais and stopped by the studios to talk with Dave about all things climate over the last year in Minnesota.

A Roadhouse record seven musicians join Brian and Dave in the studio.  Both Space Monkey Mafia and Bozeman, Montana based duo Dash rocked out in the studio together.

Space Monkey Mafia is Joe Barron, Riley Jacobson, Blake Foster, Tim Kingstrom, and Dante Leyva.  You can learn more about them on their Facebook page.

Dash is a duo of Kayti Korte and Ben Morris; you can also learn more about them of their Facebook page.

Last week was Celebrate the Night Sky Week organized by Starry Skies Lake Superior.  There were events around the lake including here in Grand Marais.  Brian spoke with Cynthia Lapp and Pippi Andrenni with Starry Skies Lake Superior to learn more about dark skies and the events that happened during the week.  Pippi is a jazz musician and artist-in-residence and she performed a couple of songs for us as well.

You can learn more about Starry Skies Lake Superior here.

Bob King, perhaps better known as the Astro Bob blogger, joins us regularly to talk all things space.  Bob chats with Dave about the autumnal equinox as well as his new book, "Urban Legends from Space: The Biggest Myths About Space Demystified."

You can learn more about Bob here.

Rootz Within is an "Island jam reggae fusion" band from Detroit Lakes.  Two of the group's members, Jonah Bowe and Ryan Engberg joined Brian and Dave on The Roadhouse to play a few songs, and talk about the group origins.

The full group is:
Jonah Bowe- vocals, guitar
Tyler Renney- vocals, guitar
Ryan Engberg- bass
Scott Thompson- drums

You can learn more about Rootz Within on their Facebook page.