Community Conversations

Series produced by WDSE

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Community Conversations on 103.3FM KUMD

KUMD hosts 3-4 guests from Northern Minnesota into our studios for a conversation on issues critical to our community, to move the conversation forward. The program works to connect academic research and personal experience to community action. Topics range from gun control to sustainability, from elder care to accessibility. This program airs monthly on the first Monday of each month.


50 Pieces

Order by: Newest First | Oldest First
Caption: Jafra Said, Credit: Lisa Johnson
Jafra Said is a human rights activist who came to the US from Syria several years ago when she married an American. Jafra spoke recently at a Loav...

  • Added: Oct 16, 2017
  • Length: 25:05
Caption: Nathson Fields spent almost 20 years in prison (12 on death row) for a crime he didn't commit, Credit: Lisa Johnson
This time on Community Conversations, we'll hear the story of a man who spent almost 20 years in prison - over half of them on death row - wrongly ...

Bought by KVSC


  • Added: Jun 27, 2017
  • Length: 30:15
  • Purchases: 1
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Last December, local television reporter and news anchor Michelle Lee retired after almost 40 years as a broadcaster. Within a few weeks, she boar...

  • Added: Oct 16, 2017
  • Length: 30:30
Caption: Abe and Beth Al-Qudah share a meal with the mayor of Superior and his wife, Credit: Abe Al-Qudah
We’re taking a look back on what our community was talking about over the past year.

  • Added: Oct 16, 2017
  • Length: 29:12
Caption: Gaelyn Lea
As KUMD prepares to blow out 2017 with our 60th anniversary, we don't want to lose sight of all the things we did this year to get people talking. ...

  • Added: Oct 16, 2017
  • Length: 01:01:14
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Veteran's Day honors the veterans among us ... but many veterans aren't comfortable with the stereotypes they face when they get home. What if the...

  • Added: Nov 22, 2016
  • Length: 32:01
Caption:  September 3, shortly before protestors clashed with private security. Reyna Crow writes " I took it as I was approaching the end of the wooden bridge there where the women linked arms a few minutes later.", Credit: Reyna Crow
Many environmentalists and tribes have been united in recent years and months over proposed mining or pipeline projects they’re concerned post a ha...

  • Added: Nov 21, 2016
  • Length: 30:00
Caption: Photo 1: Mathers Museum of World Cultures/Flickr Cheyenne woman Jennie Red Robe with her child.  Location: Crow Reservation, Montana Date: 1909 Photo 2: John Tewell A black family at the Hermitage Plantation, Savannah, Georgia, USA, about 1907 Photo 3: Ma
Last time on Community Conversations, we introduced the theory of historical trauma. It was developed in the 1980s by Native American social worker...

  • Added: Nov 21, 2016
  • Length: 31:04
Caption: Photo 1: Mathers Museum of World Cultures/Flickr Crow Woman and Child, Location: Crow Reservation, Montana Photo 2: elycefeliz/Flickr Photo 3: Raymund Flandez/Flickr A Jewish woman walks towards the gas chambers with three young children after going throu
The theory of historical trauma was developed in the 1980s by Native American social worker and mental health expert Maria Yellow Horse Braveheart ...

  • Added: Nov 21, 2016
  • Length: 30:27
Caption: "Proud" June 19, 2016 , Credit: Sheila Sund/Flickr
This month's Community Conversation, talking about local reactions to the mass shooting in Orlando, is as notable for who's NOT on the air as for w...

  • Added: Jul 15, 2016
  • Length: 31:29
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Is art a frill? If you can’t make a living at it, is it worth bothering with? On the other hand, the first Creative Minnesota report, issued las...

  • Added: May 06, 2016
  • Length: 30:31
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It started as a way to grieve … and honor a respected journalist in our community. It’s grown to be a project involving more disparate people and ...

  • Added: May 06, 2016
  • Length: 30:15
Caption: Photo taken for illustrative purposes only. The Salmela family never has awkward conversations about money., Credit: ©lisa johnson/Thorsburg Photography
Money. Whether we have it or we don’t, it’s a constant in our everyday lives. Its presence – or absence is felt as we go about our business every...

  • Added: Apr 08, 2016
  • Length: 29:41
Caption: Children of the Zaatari refugee camp, Jordan, Credit: Caroline Gluck/Oxfam
Fear of Muslims. Fear of refugees. Fear of immigrants – we’ve heard it all and then some on the news in recent months, with wildly differing idea...

Bought by KVSC and KMUD


  • Added: Jan 05, 2016
  • Length: 29:41
  • Purchases: 2
Caption: (Clockwise from top) CAD volunteers involved in Circles of Support listening to a participant share about living in poverty; AmeriCorps member Angie Yoeckel prepares taxes for a customer; Getting Ahead participant Dortrice Bradley and her son (Artez) take, Credit: Community Action Duluth
Jobs in the Northland don't come just from mining, industry or tourism; it turns out there’s good money generated – AND jobs – in the arts and i...

Bought by KMUD


  • Added: Dec 14, 2015
  • Length: 29:15
  • Purchases: 1
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Even after an entire semester in Jacki Buffington-Vollum's class on mental illness and crime, many students refuse to believe that anyone could com...

  • Added: Nov 03, 2015
  • Length: 31:09
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Brittany Maynard gained the sympathies of a nation when the 29 year old woman with terminal brain cancer ended her life last fall with drugs pres...

  • Added: Oct 08, 2015
  • Length: 29:21
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A recent article in The Atlantic titled “The Coddling of the American Mind” says “in the name of emotional well-being, college students are increas...

  • Added: Oct 08, 2015
  • Length: 29:39
Caption: (l to right) Janelle Dixon, Betsy Bode, Joey Johnson (Animal Allies alumnus), Chris Maddox, Shane Courtland, Mike Fry and Johnny Johnson, Credit: Credit Pupparazzi Companion Animal Photography
You hear a lot of conversations about "kill" and "no-kill" animal shelters these days. No one likes the idea of a "kill" shelter, but is it really...

Bought by 'The Sea'


  • Added: Sep 01, 2015
  • Length: 31:09
  • Purchases: 1
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What does Accessibility mean? What efforts and progress are happening in the Northland, in Duluth and at UMD. Guests include Bridget Reversmith of ...

  • Added: Jul 01, 2015
  • Length: 29:28