If you want to know canine psychologist Alexandra Horowitz' best advice for training a puppy, it can be summed up in one sentence: 'Expect that your puppy will not be who you think, nor act as you hope.'That truth — which can both delight and confound new puppy caretakers — is at the center of her new book, 'The Year of the Puppy.' A longtime researcher of canine behavior, Horowitz realized she had never examined those critical first months of a dog's life. So in 2020, she started to observe litters from birth on.

https://www.mprnews.org/episode/2022/12/16/canine-psychologist-alexandra-horowitz-on-the-year-of-the-puppy

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Thirty years ago, David Treuer was a young writer, taking classes at Princeton University, far from his home on the Leech Lake Reservation in northern Minnesota. He was eager to polish his craft — and maybe a little brash. In 1995, a few months before he turned 25, Graywolf Press published his first novel. Now, decades later, Graywolf is rereleasing that book, 'Little.' In the introduction, Treuer — now a widely respected, award-winning author — reflects on his writing roots and how both he and his work have changed over the years.

https://www.mprnews.org/episode/2022/12/02/david-treuer-on-the-republishing-of-his-first-novel-little

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'Between you and me, being a woman is a dangerous business.' So says Madam Parks to young Eliza Ripple, who is now working as a prostitute in Gold Rush-era California after her brutish husband was killed in a bar fight. Eliza knows this truth all too well. But instead of letting that truth paralyze her, she leans into the danger that freedom brings. When some of her fellow working girls go missing, Eliza and friend Jean take it upon themselves to investigate the murders — a mystery the male authorities in Monterey are content to ignore.

https://www.mprnews.org/episode/2022/12/23/jane-smiley-on-her-new-novel-a-dangerous-business

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In his new novel, ' Symphony of Secrets ,' Brendan Slocumb once again tucks a mystery inside a musical thriller. But underscoring the plot are some big questions about our culture. Whose music gets heard and honored? Who gets to claim the ownership and rewards of a song? And who gets to tell the story of how that music came to be? Slocumb's protagonist is Bern Hendricks, a musicologist thrilled to be given the chance to authenticate a just discovered opera, attributed to his musical hero, Frederick Delaney.

https://www.mprnews.org/episode/2023/05/12/symphony-of-secrets-is-an-ode-to-music-stolen-and-composers-erased

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When news happens along the U.S.-Mexico border, stories about the region are often filled with statistics about crime or the consequences of policies that fail to address migration from the south to the north. But fiction often tells a more nuanced truth than straightforward reporting, and that's what writer Mesha Maren does in her new novel, 'Perpetual West.' It examines the misinformation and misperceptions that endure about the borderlands, even as it pulls readers in with a mysterious disappearance.

https://www.mprnews.org/episode/2022/03/25/mesha-maren-on-the-complexity-of-the-southern-border

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The latest book from journalist and bestselling author David Grann details the true story of a 1741 shipwreck that he believes has 'surprising resonance … with our own contemporary, turbulent times.' When a squadron of ships left England in the fall of 1740, with secret hopes of capturing a Spanish galleon filled with gold, they had little idea what might befall them. They were overloaded with men, many who were old and infirmed. They were equipped with rudimentary navigation tools. And none of them had ever sailed around Cape Horn, the southernmost tip of South America, which we now know is one of the most treacherous seas on the planet.

https://www.mprnews.org/episode/2023/06/30/a-historical-swashbuckler-from-author-david-grann

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Diana Abu-Jaber's family has deep roots in Jordan. Her father came to America after a failed marriage proposal — an act of 'revenge immigration,' she laughs. And while he lived in the U.S., married here and raised a family here, his never truly left his homeland behind. The artwork for the hardcover edition of 'Fencing with the King' is among author Diana Abu-Jaber's all-time favorites. Courtesy photo Growing up in a thoroughly Jordanian household within an American context shaped Abu-Jaber's life.

https://www.mprnews.org/episode/2023/03/31/diana-abujaber-on-family-myths-and-inheritance

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From drought to cyclones and sea level rise, the cost of damage caused by climate change in Africa will only get higher as the world warms, sparking concerns from activists and officials about how to pay for it.Africa's islands and coastal states — and the 116 million people that inhabit them — will be heavily exposed to rising seas and will spend about $50 billion in damages by 2050, a report released Thursday by the United Nations' World Meteorological Organization said.It added that drought over the last 50 years in the Horn and southern Africa, exacerbated by climate change, has claimed the lives of over half a million people, with losses estimated at $70 billion.

https://www.mprnews.org/story/2022/09/11/african-nations-seek-funds-as-cost-of-climate-change-rises

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Oklahoma City forward Chet Holmgren, the No. 2 pick in the NBA draft, will miss the 2022-23 season because of a right foot injury.Holmgren was hurt while playing in a pro-am game last weekend in Seattle, near where he starred last season for Gonzaga, and the Thunder announced Thursday that he sustained a Lisfranc injury. Video appeared to show Holmgren was hurt on a play while defending LeBron James.'We know Chet has a long career ahead of him within our organization and the Oklahoma City community,' Thunder executive vice president and general manager Sam Presti said in a statement.

https://www.mprnews.org/story/2022/08/31/thunder-no-2-pick-holmgren-to-miss-season-with-foot-injury

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What does it mean to stand on the soil where enslaved people lived, worked and died — and to see, surrounding it, monuments to the people who did the enslaving? That's the question at the heart of Clint Smith's book, 'How the Word Is Passed.' After a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee came down in his hometown of New Orleans, Smith began a quest to understand America's historic and contemporary relationship to slavery. He did that by visiting sites like Monticello Plantation, where Thomas Jefferson wrote about freedom while enslaving hundreds, and Blandford Cemetery, where 30,000 Confederate soldiers are buried, and shared his powerful reflections in his book.

https://www.mprnews.org/episode/2023/01/27/clint-smith-on-how-to-reckon-with-slavery-as-americas-original-sin

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Do you recognize a meme when you see one? Online disinformation expert Joan Donovan defines memes as pithy words or images — like 'Black Lives Matter' or 'Build That Wall' — that contain a coded meaning. They often work as badges of identity, and they can be powerful shortcuts to provoking an emotional response in the viewer. And thanks to the internet, they're more influential than ever. Her new book, 'Meme Wars,' details how memes and the online communities that produce them intensify the culture wars, erode trust in institutions, and even drive acts of violence, like the Jan.

https://www.mprnews.org/episode/2023/01/06/online-disinformation-researcher-joan-donovan-on-the-power-of-memes

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Jeannette Wells' 2009 memoir ' The Glass Castle ' has been a New York Times bestseller for more than eight years. The movie adaptation starring Brie Larson, Woody Harrelson and Naomi Watts also won awards. Her much-anticipated new book, ' Hang the Moon ,' is worth the wait. Set in 1920s rural Virginia, it centers on young Sallie Kincaid whose daddy runs the county where they live. Sallie wants to go into the family business, which includes running moonshine. But is she ready to fight through the conflict that awaits her? This week, on Big Books and Bold Ideas, Wells joins MPR News host Kerri Miller to talk about the relative morality of Prohibition in America.

https://www.mprnews.org/episode/2023/06/16/prohibition-a-family-of-moonshiners-and-how-power-corrupts

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When Ruby Ishimaru and her family are sent away from Hawaii to a mainland internment camp in 1942, Ruby packs her treasures — photographs, seashells and the books of Laura Ingalls Wilder. She finds comfort in Laura's adventures even as she and her family are thrust into the frightening unknown. On the other side of the world, the unknown is also baring down on Japan, where young Koji Matsuo watches the country rally for war from his home in Hiroshima. When Ruby and Koji eventually meet in California, their love story begins.

https://www.mprnews.org/episode/2023/07/14/of-white-ashes-brings-the-wwii-japaneseamerican-experience-to-life

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A five-year local food plan will bring together resources in Clay, Becker, Otter Tail and Wilkin counties to focus on local food systems. Primary goals include increasing local food production, expanding access to healthy food and improving communication about about local food. 'We believe our role is to be connectors and educators because everybody's working in their own silos and they don't know what is out there,' said PartnerSHIP 4 Health manager Jason Bergstrand. 'They don't realize that 40 miles down the road, there's somebody that has some expertise or a resource that they could tap that would make a big difference.

https://www.mprnews.org/story/2023/09/17/west-minnesota-counties-create-local-food-plan

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Casting a ballot can be a complicated and difficult process for anyone. For someone with a disability, this is compounded with layers of accessibility issues throughout the voting process.Voter suppression still happens today. In some states, people with intellectual disabilities and people under guardianship are not allowed to vote. In Minnesota, all people with disabilities over the age of 18 have the right to vote, unless a judge has said otherwise.The state offers a number of voting accommodations that are geared toward people with disabilities but ultimately are a service to all voters.

https://www.mprnews.org/story/2022/11/08/everything-you-need-to-know-to-vote-with-a-disability-in-minnesota

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Arts and culture enthusiast Tommy Sar of St. Paul recommends checking out the screening of a new documentary centering women and nonbinary people in Taiko drumming. Filmed in Minnesota and Japan, 'Finding Her Beat' makes its state premiere this weekend during the Sound Unseen film festival. For centuries, only men were allowed to take part in the traditional Japanese art form of Taiko drumming. That has changed in recent years. Sar remembers when performers gathered at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts in St.

https://www.mprnews.org/story/2022/11/09/art-hounds-recommend-irresistible-rhythms-of-taiko-drumming-and-jazz-guitar

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Dani Shaprio knows a thing or two about family secrets. Her early novels center around identity and family history. Her 2019 memoir, 'Inheritance,' beautifully chronicles what happened after she discovered, at age 54, that the man she considers her dad was not her biological father. That discovery spawned a popular podcast that just kicked off its eighth season, 'Family Secrets,' which features guests who've also stumbled across a family secret. So it naturally flows that her new novel, 'Signal Fires,' returns the to same theme.

https://www.mprnews.org/episode/2022/11/04/talking-volumes-dani-shapiro-on-signal-fires

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Cats … in space? It's not a crazy notion for fans of Drew Brockington's 'CatStronauts,' who've devoured his graphic novels the way pilot Waffles eats a tuna fish sandwich. After six books detailing the adventures of Waffles, Blanket, Pom-Pom and Major Meowser, Brockington recently launched a prequel series detailing the kittenhood adventures of siblings Waffles and Pancakes. How did they end up wanting to be catstronauts? At a special Talking Volumes in Rochester, Minn., earlier this month, Brockington told MPR News host Kerri Miller about the 'Waffles and Pancakes' books and why he first decided to send cats to outer space in the first place.

https://www.mprnews.org/episode/2023/05/19/drew-brockington-takes-fans-into-meowter-space-at-talking-volumes

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Minnesota author William Kent Krueger has written 19 books that star his primary protagonist, private investigator Cork O'Connor. But just as central to his writing is the landscape of Northern Minnesota. It's more than just a setting. It's a character. 'I write profoundly out of a sense of place,' Krueger told MPR News host Kerri Miller at a special spring Talking Volumes earlier this month. 'When I used to teach writing, I taught place as character. Place is one of the most important and versatile characters in any story.

https://www.mprnews.org/episode/2023/06/02/minnesota-writer-william-kent-krueger-on-the-importance-of-place

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It helps for a veterinarian to be an animal lover. It doesn't help for her to be allergic to cats. But Karen Fine didn't let that stop her. Nor was she cowered by the fact that, in the 1980s, when she went to vet school, almost all the students were male. She followed in her physician grandfather's path and became a veterinarian who made house calls, 'laid hands' on her patients and always took time to listen — both the the pets and the caretakers. Fine's new book, ' The Other Family Doctor ' is a collection of stories she amassed while practicing veterinary medicine.

https://www.mprnews.org/episode/2023/04/14/veterinarian-karen-fine-on-the-special-role-pets-play-in-our-lives

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