show episodes
 
Television producer Matt Olien doubles as Prairie Public's resident movie critic, and uses his background in film studies and extensive knowledge of movie history to review a current film. Stay tuned until the end, where he's quizzed with obscure Oscar trivia.
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Artwork
 
Plains Folk is a commentary devoted to life on the great plains of North Dakota. Written by Tom Isern of West Fargo, North Dakota, and read in newspapers across the region for years, Plains Folk venerates fall suppers and barn dances and reminds us that "more important to our thoughts than lines on a map are the essential characteristics of the region — the things that tell what the plains are, not just where they are."
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Hosted by Chuck Lura, a biology professor at Dakota College in Bottineau. Chuck has a broad knowledge of “Natural North Dakota” and loves sharing that knowledge with others. Since 2005, he has written a weekly column, “Naturalist at Large,” for the Lake Metigoshe Mirror. His columns also appear under “The Naturalist” in several other weekly newspapers across North Dakota. Natural North Dakota is supported by NDSU Central Grasslands Research Extension Center and Dakota College at Bottineau, a ...
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Sitting Bull to Phil Jackson, cattle to prairie dogs, knoefla to lefse. North Dakota's legacy includes many strange stories of eccentric towns, war heroes, and various colorful characters. Hear all about them on Dakota Datebook, your daily dose of North Dakota history. Dakota Datebook is made in partnership with the State Historical Society of North Dakota, and funded by Humanities North Dakota, a nonprofit, independent state partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, f ...
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show series
 
Dakota Territory began the work of organizing counties in 1861. Pembina was the first official county, established in 1867. Some North Dakota counties remain in their original form. Others were carved up. The southern portion of Hettinger County, for example, became Adams County. And the Bowman County story is interesting. Created in 1883, it was e…
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Jack visits with Mark Robert Rank, the author of the forthcoming book, The Random Factor: How Chance and Luck Profoundly Shape Our Lives and the World Around Us."What shapes our economic fortunes? Perhaps what immediately comes to mind are attributes such as education, skills or labour-market experience. Demographics such as age and your parents’ s…
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A few years ago a popular author came out with a popular book titled, The Children’s Blizzard. Credit where due: he effectively captures the catastrophe and trauma that overwhelmed the people of the plains on 12 January 1888. They called it “the children’s blizzard” for the same reason that it seared a deep scar into historical memory — because of …
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Veterans, even those who were wounded, have not always been readily supported. It’s an issue the United States has struggled with since its founding. The Continental Congress pledged money for anyone wounded in the Revolutionary War, but the new government was strapped for cash and didn’t follow through. Veterans of the Mexican American War only re…
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The Gas Light Company of Baltimore was the first American commercial gas lighting company, making Baltimore, in 1817, the first American city illuminated by gas flames. Gas lighting soon spread across the country, although some areas were slow to catch on. It wasn’t until the 1880s that the Dakotas began to light up the night with gas lamps. By the…
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On this date in 1912, the University of North Dakota's student newspaper, The Student, reported on a lecture given the previous Saturday by Dr. Robert Charles Wallace, a geology professor at the University of Manitoba. Although Dr. Wallace was a renowned expert on mineralogy, his topic was not about geology. The title was “Ideals of University Co-o…
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In 1883, Bismarck won out over Yankton as capital of Dakota Territory. When two states emerged from the territory in 1889, Bismarck was named the capital of North Dakota. Not everyone was happy with the decision. Residents of other cities thought their locations would be an improvement. When the capitol building burned in 1930, “removalists” as the…
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In March of 1916 the Valley City Record reported a battle having taken place in Hobart Township — but the paper called it a “sham battle.” A battle against whitetail jackrabbits, which had come to be regarded as an agricultural pest, particularly for their consumption of alfalfa. And the Great War was on, providing rhetorical inspiration for the ev…
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One of Prairie Public’s more popular television shows is Nature. Some of you may have seen the episode a few weeks ago on shorebird migrations. The show addressed how shorebirds navigate the trip, the risks of migration, and how human activity is creating problems for the birds. One of the shorebirds featured was the marbled godwit on its migration…
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On this date in 1918 The Fargo Forum was full of articles about the progress of World War I. Germany was advancing through Russia, another draft was possible, and folks in North Dakota and elsewhere were busy raising funds for the war effort. Tucked away on page eight of the paper was the news that 1,500 former residents of North Dakota held a picn…
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On June 25 and 26, 1876, the Battle of Little Big Horn took place along the Little Big Horn River in Montana Territory. Known to the Plains Indians as the Battle of the Greasy Grass, it is widely remembered as Custer’s Last Stand. The 7th Cavalry Regiment under Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer faced the combined forces of several tribes i…
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