From the Land of 10,000 Lakes, Duck Duck Gray Duck, and perpetual road construction, welcome to Minnesota Unknown — a regional history podcast.
Join local historians and tour guides Alex Weston, Josie Bergmann, and Hannah Norton for deep dives into Minnesota's storied past, with a special emphasis on the surprising, the unusual, and little-known history hidden in plain sight.
www.minnesotaunknown.com
The Minnesota State Fair draws around 2 million fairgoers each year, more per day than any other fair in the nation. But how did it get started in the first place?
In this episode, we'll explore the origins of the Great Minnesota Get-Together and track the fair's growth and evolution over its first fifty years.
We'll see how a small territorial agricultural show grew into one of the state's most hallowed annual traditions in spite of repeated bankruptcies, a Civil War, a tornado, scandal and controversy, and how it was almost destroyed by the bitter rivalry between Minneapolis and Saint Paul. Along the way we'll meet giant produce, "female equestriennes," hucksters and hustlers, dueling state fairs, illicit gambling, problematic carnival games, and find out why the "Temperance Tent" at the 1904 fair was actually a covert den of iniquity.
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(Content Warning: Brief discussion of incredibly racist carnival attractions that may be disturbing to some. This occurs from about 01:00:00 until 01:02:30)
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For detailed shownotes, related images, and a list of sources cited, head here. (https://www.minnesotaunknown.com/post/ep-18-minnesota-state-fair-the-first-50-years)
27 Aug 2026
Purple Reign (Prince part 3 of 3)
At long last we come to the epic conclusion of our Prince mini-series! (We recommend listening to the previous two episodes if you haven't already.)
Picking up where we left off in the last episode, we follow Prince's quixotic quest to become a movie star, see how Prince was almost replaced in his own movie, track the unlikely success of the film and album Purple Rain, learn how Prince gave us that 'Parental Advisory' sticker on explicit albums, witness the building of a 65,000 square foot compound with microphones in every room, find out how Prince became a symbol (literally), and so much more.
(Content Warning: strong language, sexual content and innuendo.)
For detailed shownotes, links to related content, and a list of sources cited, head here. (https://www.minnesotaunknown.com/post/ep-17-purple-reign-prince-3-of-3)
16 Aug 2026
Baby, I'm a Star (Prince Part 2 of 3)
In 1977, an 18-year-old Prince arrived in New York city with a demo tape and dreams of becoming a star, determined to leave Minnesota behind forever. As fate would have it, Prince would indeed become a star, but only once he returned to his hometown, and the road to fame and fortune would include many bumps and hurdles to overcome.
In this second part of our three-part series on the life and career of Prince, we follow his trajectory from his first attempts to break into the music business up until he emerges as one of the biggest stars of the 1980s.
Along the way, we'll visit the quietest room in the world, follow Prince through some disastrous early performances, find out how the coat room of a former bus depot fostered a thriving punk scene, and learn why the 1980 disco hit "Funkytown" filled Prince with a white hot rage that ended up fueling his rise to stardom.
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(Content Warning: brief strong language, sexual content and innuendo, discussions of racism and homophobia.)
You can detailed shownotes, related images and links, and a list of sources cited here. (https://www.minnesotaunknown.com/post/ep-16-baby-i-m-a-star-prince-part-2-of-3)
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