RacketCast

Racket
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Bi-weekly podcast from Racket, the Twin Cities news/arts/culture publication. Featuring hyper-local recaps, reviews, interviews, debates, hot takes, and more from the crew behind your favorite reader-funded, worker-owned media org. Want to advertise on RacketCast? Email us at advertise@racketmn.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  1. 20 MAR

    Celebrate Fancy Ray Day Feat. Local Comedy Legend Fancy Ray

    Happy Fancy Ray Day! Well, actually, that honorary calendar date—as previously decreed by the mayors of Minneapolis and St. Paul—isn't until March 28. But we wanted to get "The Best Looking Man in Comedy" on our podcast well in advance of the "Fancy Ray Day Comedy Show" he'll be headlining next Saturday at Spring Street Tavern in northeast Minneapolis. (Click here for tickets.) "Fancy" Ray McCloney is, of course, a Minnesota comedy institution, having worked the clubs since the '80s. He ran for governor in 1998. He has pitched your favorite places and products for decades, including a Taco Bell spot during the 2016 Super Bowl. He has officiated hundreds of weddings, "mostly for tattooed white people," he says with a grin. His TV appearances span from local cable access to Maury Povich to America's Got Talent. Fancy Ray was an elusive guest to book (naturally, he wanted a coinciding gig to pitch), but we got him in the studio for a wide-ranging talk that touches on philosophy, riffing with Tim and Eric, poetry, his longtime friendship with Little Richard, and so much more. Before any of that we get into 20ish minutes of What I Learned in Racket, in which we discuss... WE WENT FOR THE WINGS: A Visit to the Mall of America Hooters During Its Final Days‘Wuthering Heights’ Is a Horny Bore; ‘The Bride!’ Is a Dizzying Clutter‘It’s David vs. Goliath’: Inside the Fight to Kill Google’s Secrecy-Shrouded Hermantown Data Center Subscribe to RacketCast wherever you get your podcasts—Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Pocket Casts, etc. • Wanna advertise on RacketCast? Email us at advertise@racketmn.com. • Have a food/drink, event, or show recommendation? How about a civic hot take? General or specific question? Call 619-RACKTIP (619-722-5847) with your first name + city + 3-min.-maximum voicemail, and we might play it on a future episode. • Special thanks to local band Van Stee for supplying our podcast music! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    1hr 6min

  2. 6 MAR

    Mapping MN's Hidden City Feat. YouTuber Chris Parr

    What the hell is going on in North Oaks, Minnesota? That's the question Minneapolis-based videographer/YouTuber Chris Parr set out to answer. In a video from last month titled "I Mapped Google’s ONLY SECRET CITY," Parr explains why North Oaks—an extremely wealthy north metro city of 5,200—doesn't appear on Google Street View, gets into the history of mapping in general, chats with multiple historians and a drone expert, and then gets hovering above the hidden city in question. Enjoy our chat with Parr, and here's a link to his viral video. But before all that, Em, Keith, and Jay went 'round the horn for our regular segment, What I Learned in Racket. Here's what we learned... Radish Farm Stop: A New SW Minneapolis Grocer That’s Like a Year-Round Farmers MarketYes, That Mancini’s: How a Legendary St. Paul Steakhouse Raised $35K for the ResistanceSack’s Back: MN’s Greatest Political Cartoonist Un-Retired Because He’s ‘So Fucking Pissed’ at Trump, ICE Subscribe to RacketCast wherever you get your podcasts—Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Pocket Casts, etc. • Wanna advertise on RacketCast? Email us at advertise@racketmn.com. • Have a food/drink, event, or show recommendation? How about a civic hot take? General or specific question? Call 619-RACKTIP (619-722-5847) with your first name + city + 3-min.-maximum voicemail, and we might play it on a future episode. • Special thanks to local band Van Stee for supplying our podcast music! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    47 min

  3. 20 FEB

    Livestreaming a Crisis Feat. Unicorn Riot

    Ever read this week's Racket feature story and think to yourself: "Boy, I'd sure love to hear an entire hour-long conversation about how Niko Georgiades helped launch Unicorn Riot, provided incredible on-the-ground coverage of the George Floyd uprising, and kept producing livestream video coverage into the present, including during Operation Metro Surge?" Boy, have we got a treat for you! But, before all that, we've got our regular What I Learned in Racket segment, which this week includes an original poetry reading by Keith Harris—*snap, snap, snap.* Catch up below: ICE Cost Lake Street Businesses at Least $46M. These Weekly Cash Mobs Help Them Claw Back Profit.Corporate Communications in ‘Uncertain, Stressful, and Volatile Times’: How MN Employers Failed to Address the ICE OccupationStreaming the Siege: At Every Turn, ICE’s MN Invasion Has Been Captured on Video Subscribe to RacketCast wherever you get your podcasts—Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Pocket Casts, etc. • Wanna advertise on RacketCast? Email us at advertise@racketmn.com. • Have a food/drink, event, or show recommendation? How about a civic hot take? General or specific question? Call 619-RACKTIP (619-722-5847) with your first name + city + 3-min.-maximum voicemail, and we might play it on a future episode. • Special thanks to local band Van Stee for supplying our podcast music! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    1hr 27min

  4. 6 FEB

    Covering the MN ICE Invasion Feat. Reporters Madison McVan & Max Nesterak

    Small but mighty, the Minnesota Reformer continues to deliver some of the best Operation Metro Surge coverage in the state. We're fans, we suspect you're fans, so we figured: Let's get reporters Madison McVan and Max Nesterak on the pod to discuss their ongoing coverage of the federal invasion. Here's a link to Max's big feature story; here's a link to Madison's piece about ICE resistance going mainstream. But before any of that, our own small/mighty crew engaged in a spirited round of What I Learned in Racket. Here's what we learned... They Asked for Donations to Buy $10 Burritos. They Raised More Than $10K.Bruce Springsteen and Tom Morello Rouse Anti-Fascist Fervor at First AveGas Masks, Signal Chats, and a Honda Fit: Chasing ICE With Will Stancil Subscribe to RacketCast wherever you get your podcasts—Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Pocket Casts, etc. • Wanna advertise on RacketCast? Email us at advertise@racketmn.com. • Have a food/drink, event, or show recommendation? How about a civic hot take? General or specific question? Call 619-RACKTIP (619-722-5847) with your first name + city + 3-min.-maximum voicemail, and we might play it on a future episode. • Special thanks to local band Van Stee for supplying our podcast music! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    1hr 1min

  5. 27 JAN

    Bonus: Life In Occupied MN Feat. Pod Damn America

    You've heard Racket's Jay Boller co-hosting RacketCast, certainly. But have you ever heard him guesting on another podcast entirely? That's the not-so-rare opportunity presented to you here, where you'll find a recent episode of Pod Damn America that features Jay, Unite Here Local 17's Sheigh Freeberg, and host/occasional Racket contributor Anders J. Lee outlining the federal government's current occupation of Minnesota for PDA's national audience. We talk resistance. We talk media coverage. We talk labor solidarity. Jay incorrectly states that Michele Tafoya is competing against Mike Lindell for the U.S. Senate, when in fact Lindell is running for governor.  Be sure to follow Pod Damn America—the preeminent "gothic socialist podcast" featuring comedic news commentary from Lee and co-host Jake Flores—right here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    56 min

  6. 22 JAN

    No Work, School, or Spending This Fri. Feat. Local Labor Leaders

    Summoning our best Jocko Conlan voice: Steeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-rike! You won't hear our guests—Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation President Chelsie Glaubitz Gabiou and Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1005 President David Stiggers—use that word, specifically, to describe Friday's "ICE Out of Minnesota: Day of Truth & Freedom," which they helped organize with fellow labor leaders and clergy members. They can't say "strike" or "work stoppage" for legal reasons, but c'mon, you get the idea: Hundreds of local businesses, including Racket, are shutting down tomorrow and urging neighbors to observe a general-strike-ish day of no working, no attending school, and no shopping to protest the Trump's administration's authoritarian immigration assault on Minnesota. Glaubitz Gabiou and Stiggers dropped by the pod to discuss this historic day of solidarity, how their members are enduring Operation Metro Surge, and why workers flexing their power matters more than ever. Before all that, we discuss the Trump administration's siege on Minnesota in a loosey-goosey installment of What I Learned in Racket. Subscribe to RacketCast wherever you get your podcasts—Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Pocket Casts, etc. • Wanna advertise on RacketCast? Email us at advertise@racketmn.com. • Have a food/drink, event, or show recommendation? How about a civic hot take? General or specific question? Call 619-RACKTIP (619-722-5847) with your first name + city + 3-min.-maximum voicemail, and we might play it on a future episode. • Special thanks to local band Van Stee for supplying our podcast music! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    35 min

  7. 12 JAN

    Bonus: What’s Going on in MN? Feat. Never Post

    You've heard Racket's Em Cassel co-hosting RacketCast, certainly. But have you ever heard her guesting on another podcast entirely? That's the not-so-rare opportunity presented to you here, where you'll find a recent episode of Never Post that features Em and NP's Hans Buetow outlining the multitudinal crises (fraud, ICE, killing, general chaos incited by the fascist MAGA movement) gripping our great state. Be sure to follow Never Post—a worker-owned, listener-funded, locally connected podcast "about what's happening with, to, and on the internet"—right here. Subscribe to RacketCast wherever you get your podcasts—Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Pocket Casts, etc. • Wanna advertise on RacketCast? Email us at advertise@racketmn.com. • Have a food/drink, event, or show recommendation? How about a civic hot take? General or specific question? Call 619-RACKTIP (619-722-5847) with your first name + city + 3-min.-maximum voicemail, and we might play it on a future episode. • Special thanks to local band Van Stee for supplying our podcast music! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    54 min

  8. 12/12/2025

    2025 MN Food/Drink Trends, Triumphs, Catastrophes, and Curiosities Feat. Critic Kirstie Kimball

    It's our last podcast ep of 2025! As such, we invited new Racket dining correspondent Kirstie Kimball of beyond beurre blanc to join fellow critic Em Cassel of Racket to hashbrown out the year that (almost) was in Minnesota food and drink. Recs are offered. Shit is talked. And the seemingly ballooning craft beer bubble? You better believe it's speculated over. See ya in 2026. Subscribe to RacketCast wherever you get your podcasts—Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Pocket Casts, etc. • Wanna advertise on RacketCast? Email us at advertise@racketmn.com. • Have a food/drink, event, or show recommendation? How about a civic hot take? General or specific question? Call 619-RACKTIP (619-722-5847) with your first name + city + 3-min.-maximum voicemail, and we might play it on a future episode. • Special thanks to local band Van Stee for supplying our podcast music! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    1hr 9min
See All (48)

About

Bi-weekly podcast from Racket, the Twin Cities news/arts/culture publication. Featuring hyper-local recaps, reviews, interviews, debates, hot takes, and more from the crew behind your favorite reader-funded, worker-owned media org. Want to advertise on RacketCast? Email us at advertise@racketmn.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Information

  • Creator
    Racket
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    48
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Racket
  • Show Website
    RacketCast

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