Season 3, Episode 3: Differential privacy and the Census
Starting with the 2020 Decennial Census, the U.S. Census Bureau is implementing a new framework to ensure privacy of the census takers – essentially, making sure that a nefarious actor can’t identify an individual from published census tables. Although the U.S. Census Bureau has been employing various strategies for decades, this new framework is very...
Season 3, Episode 2: The Big Build in Otter Tail County
In this episode, Marnie Werner, VP of Research and Operations, interviews Amy Baldwin who works as the Community Development Director for Otter Tail County. Probably one of the top three issues facing most rural community and economic developers is solving the housing shortage. In this conversation, Marnie and Amy talk about Otter Tail’s new initiative...
Season 3, Episode 1: Childcare Solutions with Initiative Foundation
In September, the Center for Rural Policy and Development released the results of an environmental scan of child care initiatives taking place across rural Minnesota. In this episode, Vice President of Research, Marnie Werner, interviews Don Hickman, the Vice President for Community and Workforce Development at the Initiative Foundation in Little Falls, MN. As an...
Season 2, Episode 12: Childcare access for first-generation Latinos in Worthington
This week on the Center of Everywhere hear research associate Whitney Oachs interview Zoe Martins and Ulises Linares about their Capstone thesis for the Humphrey School of Public Affairs regarding childcare access for first-generation Latino migrants in Worthington, MN.
Season 2 Episode 11: Home ownership and housing churn in rural Minnesota
This week on the Center of Everywhere hear researchers Phil Jensen and Kelly Asche discuss the topic of Phil’s newest report, “Why Grandma May Stay at Home: Property taxes and home ownership in rural Minnesota.” Attracting workers to more rural parts of the state is a complex problem, but housing plays a major role. Encouraging...
Season 2 Ep 10: The importance of community newspapers
On this episode, Julie Tesch is joined by Reed Anfinson – owner and publisher of three rural newspapers in Minnesota – the Swift County Monitor News in Benson, the Stevens County Times in Morris, and the Grant County Herald in Elbow Lake. Also joining the conversation is Lisa Hills, the Executive Director of the MN...
Season 2 Ep 9: Discussing the data trends from the pandemic
Now that we are beginning to exit the pandemic (hopefully), the data from the previous year and a half are being released. In this episode, Marnie Werner and Kelly Asche discuss what they’ve been seeing in the data. And although the illness and deaths associated with COVID-19 hit hard in our rural areas, some of...
Season 2 Ep 8: State Demographer Susan Brower
On this episode, Marnie Werner and Kelly Asche speak with the Minnesota State Demographer Susan Brower. The conversation covers how the process of drawing new district and approval differ on paper vs. the reality, how much of rural Minnesota isn’t growing in population, but isn’t really declining either, and ideas on how rural areas might...
Season 2 Ep 7: Telecommuting in Rural Minnesota
This week hear Kelly Asche discuss the rise in working from home, and what telecommuting can mean for rural Minnesota. Features special guests Xinyi Qian and Neil Linscheid of the University of Minnesota – Extension.
Season 2 Ep 6: The rising value of ag lands and property taxes
On this episode, Marnie Werner discusses her newest research report coming out in February on the rising values of agriculture lands and the rising property taxes associated with these values. We discuss the disconnect between the value of ag land and farm profitability, the increasing role investors and non-farmers are having on the issue, and whether we should be worried about rural counties who have a disproportionate amount of their revenue coming from these lands.