Kristen Meinzer

It’s that time of year, when millions of students around the country sit in cap and gown, through speeches that are meant to inspire, but oftentimes, are simply forgotten. Knowing thi...

The giant tornado that struck Oklahoma City and its suburbs on Monday destroyed entire neighborhoods, leaving at least two dozen dead, and hundreds injured. Mick Cornett, the mayor of...

It's that time of year when new graduates must sit through commencement speeches, some of which will be boring, some of which will be inspiring, and most of which will be very earnest...

Academy Award-winning-actor Geena Davis founded the Geena Davis Institute on Gender and Media to improve gender portrayals in children's media. The institute's newest project, in part...

We’ve all found ourselves in bad situations, and chosen not to get out. On a personal level, those situations might be a bad jobs or unfulfilling relationships. On a bigger level, the...

There is a name for the human tendency to allow a questionable decision to overstay its usefulness and to stick with something when its harm is clear and the damage is evident to all....

Ten years ago, Medicare Part D was added to existing coverage for seniors and the disabled. It offered unprecedented access to prescription drugs. But a new investigation by ProPublic...

In this week's Movie Date podcast, Rafer explains to Kristen what red shirts signify in the Star Trek universe, Kristen confesses to having a crush on a certain Star Trek character, a...

They vowed to go where no one has gone before. But can the crew of the Enterprise really go new places without paying tribute to the old? And what are those old places that brought us...

Renee Landers, professor of law at Suffolk University in Massachusetts and faculty director for the health and biomedical concentration there, shares her knowledge about the implement...

Just a couple of years ago, the health care budget situation in Oregon was bleak. Oregon was facing a $2 billion deficit in its Medicaid program. The Obama administration cut a deal w...

Today, as The Takeaway broadcasts from Minnesota Public Radio, we look at the music scene in the Twin Cities, where some of the nation's biggest headliners got their start, from Bob D...

In the wake of a Minnesota case in which nine Somali immigrants left the U.S. to fight with Al-Shabab, an al-Qaeda-linked militant group fighting to create an Islamic state in Somalia...

One of the most traditionally lefty states in the U.S., Minnesota is home to some of America’s biggest liberal household names, including Hubert H. Humphrey, Walter Mondale, Paul Well...

Is "The Great Gatsby" great? It's been the question on movie enthusiasts' minds for the past several months. Rafer and Kristen weigh in on the Leonardo Di Caprio-led movie, share thei...

In this week's look at new movies, Rafer and Kristen discuss complicated family reunions, party crashing, and what happens when eccentric Australian directors take on American classic...

Some critics argue that the new Metropolitan Museum's exhibition on punk fashion is proof that punk is over. But if punk is everywhere, including a museum exhibit, is punk over; or ha...

In recent years, the bicycle has gone from a mode of transportation, to an object that comes with rights that cities acknowledge and cater to. For those who’ve been entrenched in the ...

Last week, while working on a story about your typical American community, New York Times writer Annie Lowrey asked via twitter, “What is the most perfectly average place in America?”...

In this week's Movie Date podcast, Rafer and Kristen discuss Gwyneth Paltrow's abs, Kate Hudson's divisive acting skills, action sequences that make Kristen clap, and the best terrori...