upcoming podcasts: your feedback is requested

As you may recall, production of our podcasts was halted with the onset of COVID-19.

We just received the good news that we will be able to resume production of our podcasts at the MCN Channel 6 studios beginning the week of May 25 in conditions which are in conformance with the Governor and his Commissioners’ guidance on public health safety precautions against COVID-19.

As we plan the work ahead, we would love hear your feedback on some ideas for podcasts we are developing. We are interested in learning if you think that these topics will be compelling, and also if they will be helpful in encouraging an understanding of the role of policing in the development of our city and in the development of our city on the role of policing.

Our thought is to create a “Our Neighborhoods: Then and Now” podcast series. The idea would be to capture the memories of officers and community members who remember the neighborhoods as they were in the 1960s and 1970s and include officers and community members who are working and living in these neighborhoods today. This would be a way that we could approach the idea of neighborhood transitions and also bring different generations together in discussion. Amongst others, we would include in this series such neighborhoods as:

  • Northeast Minneapolis
  • Cedar Riverside
  • North Minneapolis
  • Whittier
  • Phillips
  • Loring Park
  • Downtown
  • Warehouse District/North Loop
  • Dinkytown
  • Lake Street
  • Nokomis
  • Powderhorn

Another idea is to do single topic podcasts. Some suggestions for this series are:

  • Northside Riots of July 19-21, 1967
  • Vietnam War Protests at the University of Minnesota
  • The Mayoral Administration of Charles Stenvig
  • The Tony Bouza Years
  • Women in the Minneapolis Police Department: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow
  • Racial Diversity in the Minneapolis Police Department: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow
  • Protecting National Political Candidates: From the 1960s to Today
  • Changes in Technology and the Impact to Communications on the Ground
  • Gun Proliferation and the Impact on Policing Our Neighborhoods
  • Changes in Crime Scene Investigations Since the 1960s
  • Are We Warriors or Are We Guardians? – Minneapolis Policing Mindsets through the Decades
  • My Time as a Rookie – What They Don’t Teach in the Academy
  • The Story of the Model Cities Precinct

Yet another idea is to focus on crimes and criminals that have figured prominently in the history of the City. These could include:

  • The Ozark Flats Murder
  • Arnold Axilrod and the 1955 Murder of Elizabeth Moonan
  • The Murder of Stanislaus Bilanski
  • The Murder of Walter Liggett
  • Augie’s Theater Lounge & Bar and Minneapolis Organized Crime
  • Kid Cann (1900-1981)
  • Deuce Casper (1936-2003)
  • Perry “The Scholar” Millik (1944 – 2003)
  • The Alexander Brothers

Are there additional topics that you would like us to pursue? Would you like to be a part of this effort either by participating in a particular podcast or by helping with research for a podcast?

We would love to hear from you and invite you to comment directly below or by writing us at: info@mplspolicemuseum.org