Tag: Culture

Washington Just Passed a Bill to Become The First US State to Legalise Human Composting

by: Josh Wolsky  |  

Last week you may have caught a quick Minot Voice story about the future of funerals. They’re changing because what we want at that last ritual is changing. If that article didn’t convince you, here’s another: Washington has become the first state to legalize human composting. In other words, if you really want to push

Read & Share   sourced from: The Washington Post

Another small, daily paper cuts print schedule

by: Josh Wolsky  |  

Have you noticed changes in the way you get local news? In Minot, we’re not immune to these shifts — not long ago we felt the impact of a corporate acquisition of a local news company and the resulting consolidation. Now, much of KX News shows are produced out of Bismarck. And if we expand

Read & Share   sourced from: MPR

The funeral as we know it is becoming a relic – just in time for death boom

by: Josh Wolsky  |  

Have you noticed our rituals around death changing? You’re not just imagining it, and as the largest generation in U.S. history begins contemplating end-of-life issues, we’re likely to experience as many changes to the conventional funeral as we’ve seen in other stages of the baby-boomers life experience. The Washington Post has the story.

Read & Share   sourced from: The Washington Post

LGBT presence in rural America significant

by: Josh Wolsky  |  

The idea that LGBT populations are only on the coasts and in the bigger cities false. A recently released study found that between 2.9 and 3.8 million LGBT individuals call rural America home, and they’ve chosen to live here for the same reasons as everywhere else — values associated with close-knit communities.

Read & Share   sourced from: NPR

A breath of hope for America on North Dakota’s Enchanted Highway

by: Josh Wolsky  |  

Extending South of Interstate 94 in Western North Dakota, you’ll find an oddity that is uniquely and inspiringly American. It is the Enchanted Highway, and with all the negativity that surrounds us these days, one journalist from Chicago sees it as a sign that our path out of the morass is in front of us.

Read & Share   sourced from: Chicago Tribune

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Let’s Reconnect With Our Streets

by: Josh Wolsky  |  

Have we reached a point where we’re more likely to have a relationship with our car than our neighbors? Perhaps that’s because we’ve lost touch with our connection point — our streets. It used to be that these keystones of our community were places to come together, now they’re conveyances out of our neighborhoods to

Read & Share   sourced from: New York Times

How America Will Turn Itself Around?

by: Josh Wolsky  |  

While a growing minority of us pick which side of the line (on any given issue) to stand on, there’s another group of people losing trust in all of it. Perhaps instead of choosing sides and, thus, who to distrust, we start listening to those who are watching our larger trends? What they’re seeing is

Read & Share   sourced from: MPR

A Quiet, Country Life in the Middle of the City?

by: Josh Wolsky  |  

A home in the country — it’s a long-standing commonly held goal among many of us. We want the peace, tranquility, privacy. But it’s a desire in conflict with another common goal — vibrant, engaged, communities. It’s hard to have both. But in Savannah, Georgia, a set of colliding circumstances created a place that captures

Read & Share   sourced from: Strong Towns

In Sauk Centre, moving ‘Main Street’ to Main Street

by: Josh Wolsky  |  

Sinclair Lewis wrote ‘Main Street’ almost a hundred years ago, and the themes it captured are still echoing through small-town America. But so is a new spirit which seeks to capture the value of choosing ‘Main Street’, and in Sauk Centre, that starts with putting a tribute to the author back in its rightful place.

Read & Share   sourced from: MPR

The Rise and Fall of the Family-Vacation Road Trip

by: Josh Wolsky  |  

Things change. Sometimes they change so slowly we don’t see them happening. Such is the fate with a former staple of the American experience — the family road trip. Ashley Fetters with the Atlantic has the story on a new book and the author’s thoughts on what happened.

Read & Share   sourced from: The Atlantic

An Illustrated Celebration of Jane Jacobs and Her Legacy of Livable Cities

by: Josh Wolsky  |  

What makes a place remarkable? Maria Popova explores the question through an exploration of Jane Jacobs life. Her conclusion: “Out of this arises the awareness that a city, like a niche in nature, is an ecosystem. The synergy of its various human and nonhuman components — neighborhoods, parks, stores, streets, sidewalks — is what makes

Read & Share   sourced from: Brain Pickings

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Lyft is buying legitimacy through its deal with bike-share company

by: Josh Wolsky  |  

Lyft is expanding it’s transportation network horizontally — at least in the economic sense. Horizontal integration means they’re attempting to capture another transportation avenue, and in this case, it’s through the nation’s most successful bike-share company. It’s a noteworthy development as we keep an eye on trends filtering out in the successful urban centers of

Read & Share   sourced from: Quartz

The number of Americans working for themselves could triple by 2020

by: Josh Wolsky  |  

The pace at which the world is changing seems to be on the increase, and one of the big transitions taking place: the way we make our money. The corporate ladder is no longer the goal. Instead, workers with valuable skills are choosing quality and autonomy of life over the perception of prestige. Trends like

Read & Share   sourced from: Quartz

Tapping Rural America: Craft Breweries Pour New Life Into Small Towns

by: Josh Wolsky  |  

Who would have guessed beer would be the vehicle that brought culture back to small towns on the plains? As unlikely as it seems, the world of craft beer and the small breweries that deliver it are changing the fabric of the places that settle. NPR has the story.

Read & Share   sourced from: NPR

The untold good news story of America today; rise of the local political class

by: Josh Wolsky  |  

This is Minot. The optimism shaping American towns and cities is overwhelming the national political negativity. The article is rich with quotes, here’s one: “So we are about to see a burst of institutional innovation and private investment in the US which will take New Localism to a whole other level.” Follow the link to

Read & Share   sourced from: BBC

On Politics and the Minot Mafia with Former State Senator Jim Maxson

by: Josh Wolsky  |  

This week’s episode of #GoodTalkMinot with Jim Maxson delves into the origination of the ‘Minot Mafia’ and all things political. Watch below or download the audio here or your favorite podcast channels through The Good Talk Network.

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