Amina (aka “Dee”) and Annie are friends and Minnesotans who are always looking for that story—the one about you living through something that shaped how you see the world and yourself in it. This story has to be told in-person, so the laughs and the pain are coexisting right there.
Amina moved from East Africa (Somali and Kenya) to the United States when she was middle-school age. Annie is a longtime Minnesotan has never even been outside North America. That said, having mental health challenges while living on the East Coast definitely threw her for a loop.
Together, Amina and Annie get away from the bite-size, reductive stories we see on social media and clickbait news and have full conversations with friends new and old. We discuss the culture shocks we’ve felt—the ones that made us who we are, and the ones we can’t WAIT to forget! On the way, we dig into interracial friendships, what it is to feel “like home,” family (chosen and born). We also get into mental health across cultures, the social issues that affect us all, and the pop culture pieces we’re excited about.
On this first episode, Annie and Amina interview each other and introduce the show before we welcome guests in future episodes.
Culture Shock MN
Culture Shock MN. Episode 1 - Meet Your (North) Stars!
Liz and Marilyn Peterson Haus start the episode discussing Haus’s latest, Half of a Whole, and its depictions of mental illness, twins, and zealotry.
After the break, James Beard Award-winner Beth Dooley joins Annie to discuss the intersections of food education, climate justice, local farming, and great recipes in the context of Dooley’s latest cookbook, The Perennial Kitchen.
Write On! Radio
Write On! Radio - Marilyn Peterson Haus + Beth Dooley
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Back in March 2021, the Coalition of Asian American Leaders (CAAL) and Hmong Public Health Association (HPHA) released a report that takes a deep dive into COVID-19 mortality rates among specific Asian American communities in Minnesota.
The report reveals disproportionate COVID-19 mortality rates among Hmong, Karen, and Karenni community members when compared to other Asian Minnesotans, which was not initially apparent in the broader data aggregation completed by other public health institutions. CAAL and HPHA hope this report urges policy-makers to use and publish more disaggregated health data and further break-down community infection and mortality rate to more specific communities rather than employing the broad demographic umbrella term of “Asian American.”
KFAI’s Ryan Dawes spoke with Tiffany Yang from the Hmong Public Health Association and ThaoMee Xiong from the Mayor’s Office with the City of St. Paul about how disaggregated data could have helped mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on Hmong communities and how these communities were uniquely affected by the pandemic.
Tamsi no thoob lub xeev no, nej tsis tas yuav looj ntaub vov ntsej muag thaum nej mus ub mus no lawm. Tabsi tseem muaj cov cai ntawm nomtswv, lub xeev, thiab zej zog uas tseem kom nej siv cov ntaub vov qhov ncauj qhov ntswg rau tej qho chaw thiab. Lagluam kuj muaj lawd li kevcai thiab. Ntxiv no yog Minnesota’s Safe Learning Plan nrog cov tsev kawm ntawv thiab tsev zov menyuam kom vov qhov ncauj qhov ntswg raws li cov ntaub ntawv qhia tseg kom tag xyoo 2020 txog 2021 kawm ntawv no.
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Having a safe and effective vaccine is the top priority. According to the Minnesota Department of Healther, the manufacturers must present the study data that shows the vaccine is safe and that it works before it is approved for general populations. This data is closely reviewed by several scientific groups at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) and other groups look at available information about a vaccine and make informed decisions about the risks and benefits of using it. MDH is committed to making vaccines available that we are confident are safe and effective.
The requirements for COVID-19 vaccine are the same as all other vaccines. The companies making the vaccines have to share information with specific agencies like the FDA and CDC that shows how the vaccine studies were designed, what their process was, how they got their data, and what the results were.
Health officials, FDA, vaccine manufacturers, and others have committed to only put out vaccines that are shown to be safe. The FDA has given guidance to vaccine manufacturers about what information is needed to prove that a vaccine is safe and that the vaccine works.
Why We Need a Vaccine:
Getting vaccinated against COVID-19 is one of the most important steps you can take to protect yourself and your community. The more people who get vaccinated against COVID-19, the better it is for everyone. More people vaccinated means that there will be less disease in our communities. Vaccination will also help prevent the spread of new COVID-19 variants. We will start to get back to the activities we love, open up business and schools, and scale back our public health prevention measures, such as masking and social distancing. Vaccination is how we will end the pandemic.
This message brought to you by the Minnesota Department of Health.
WOR’s poetry powerhouse, Dave, opens the show by bringing Patrick Cabello Hansel to discuss his newest collection, Quitting Time, which delivers a meaningful family story spanning from the Great Depression through the World Wars and beyond in powerful verse.
After the break, Liz re-connects with local music-writing legend Jim Walsh to discuss his newest work of nonfiction, Fear and Loving in South Minneapolis, reflecting on life in the wake of loss, Minnesota music and culture, and the infinite simple joy of a warm afternoon at the Harriet Rose Garden.
Write On! Radio
Write On! Radio - Patrick Cabello Hansel + Jim Walsh
In the first half of the hour, Ian Graham Leask brings Minnesota’s own Lin Enger on air to discuss his new novel, American Gospel, a 1970s-set novel about waiting for the rapture to end the world in rural Minnesota.
After the break, Marissa King, writer and professor at the Yale School of Management, joins to chat about her new book Social Chemistry, which comes full of insights about building more meaningful and productive relationships, all based on neuroscience and psychology.