Med City Beat is no longer publishing new articles, though archives from 2014-2022 remain accessible to the public.
Med City Beat is a Rochester-based news project rooted in fairness, transparency and civic responsibility.
Est. 2014
All in Podcast
We talk with people from all corners of the industry to see how they think growth can be sustained in Rochester’s creative scene, and what the future of music will look like in this city.
Nobody knows exactly what the next few months will bring. Good news on the effectiveness of various vaccines brings hope, but a lack of federal aid leaves small businesses without a safety net when they need it the most. Inevitably, some of our favorite businesses will not survive the winter. For the businesses that do get through, though, what world will await them on the other side of the pandemic? How will things change?
On today’s episode of the Rochester Rundown, we have a conversation with Brooke Carlson, president-elect of the Rochester City Council. We touch on her top priorities in the first months of her term, plus the advice she received from her late father, Dr. David Ahlquist.
Katie Smith, Olmsted County’s elections director, says her office has received a ballot from roughly one-third of Olmsted County’s registered voters already — that’s over 30,000 ballots already, and she says that number is still going up fast.
Fourteen forums, 16 races, 32 candidates — it all Came to an end Thursday evening, with the last two installments of Med City Beat’s online forum series. The three-week lineup concluded with the candidates for Minnesota State Senate, pitting two sitting GOP Senators against ascendant DFL challengers — David Senjem vs. Sara Flick in District 25, and Carla Nelson vs. Aleta Borrud in District 26.
On this week’s edition of the Rundown, we continue our coverage of Med City Beat’s town hall debate series. Thursday night, the six candidates vying for a spot on the Rochester School Board joined Sean for a 90-minute forum on topics ranging from distance learning and Covid-19 precautions to racial equity among students and staff members, as well as the future of district-wide public choice schools like Friedell and Lincoln.
This week we hosted the first round of our Town Hall series in preparation for Election Day. The first four forums featured the candidates vying for the Rochester City Council seats up for grabs. On the latest episode of the Rochester Rundown, we sift through the debates to bring you the issues where candidates differentiated themselves. Affordable housing, DMC, the upcoming parks referendum... those issues and more are covered in this week's edition of the podcast, presented by Altra Federal Credit Union.
Our latest episode of the Rochester Rundown marks the 25th installment of the show, so for today, it feels right to look back. The world has changed in numerous ways since the first edition of the show debuted in late January — so for this installment, we'll review the best stories and quotes from the first nine months of this new journalistic endeavor.
On this week's episode of the Rochester Rundown, Isaac talks with city administrator Steve Rymer about the city's 2021 proposed budget. With revenues down and city construction slowing after a huge 2020, Rymer and his team had to find millions of dollars in cuts. What's being cut — and why your tax bill may look better, even during a down year — included in our main story.
Back-to-school season has always been a time of preparation and excitement for young families. While that feeling is still there this year, the persisting pandemic adds a layer of uncertainty, and raises a tough decision for many parents of Rochester's elementary schoolers: send my child back to school, or keep them at home? One in five parents have decided on the latter option… and we found some of the reasons why on the latest episode of the Rochester Rundown.
It may seem like the anti-vaccination movement is a recent fad. In recent years, the pseudo-scientific coalition has gained a foothold in some circles, leading to various outbreaks of diseases long considered eradicated — including a 2017 outbreak of measles in the Twin Cities. But on the latest episode of the Rochester Rundown, Dr. Priya Sampathkumar, chair of infection control at Mayo Clinic, says this is not a new problem for our society.
On this week's edition of the podcast, we hear from Graham Briggs and Meaghan Sherden — director and lead epidemiologist, respectively, at Olmsted County Public Health — about the latest Covid-19 numbers for our area. New case numbers have dropped to levels not seen since May, leading both officials to believe the situation in Rochester is consistently improving — although the time to stop wearing masks and social distancing is still far away. Their thoughts on what's driving the improved statistics, plus a round-up of other top stories from the week, including a possible ethics investigation into the office of Jim Hagedorn and a few tips from a Mayo Clinic pediatrician on helping your kids get back to school safely — all included in the latest edition of the Rochester Rundown.
This week on the Rochester Rundown, we hear from Olmsted County election officials about the results from Tuesday’s primary. The percentage of votes from mail-in absentee ballots shattered previous records and blew past the initial expectations of those in charge of counting the ballots. What will the county take from this week’s experience, and put into practice for November? That story, plus who’s moving on to the general election and a look at the news of the week, including the newest destination added to Rochester’s airport.
For the latest episode of the Rochester Rundown, we take a look at the changing future of downtown Rochester — more specifically, the relationship between Mayo Clinic employees, patients, and the businesses that serve them. With more ‘destination’ patients staying home instead of flying into Rochester, plus thousands of downtown workers now getting the bulk of their work done from home, what happens to the businesses that depend on that foot traffic? We spoke with business owners in the downtown area, plus local leaders searching for answers. That story, plus a recap of our top stories of the week — all included in this podcast episode.
This week on the Rochester Rundown, we bring you highlights of a conversation on diversity and inclusion with Roshy Didehban, chair of Mayo Clinic Practice. It comes after the Clinic committed $100 million to address racial disparities on its campuses — and Didehban says Mayo still has work to do to reach its own goals. Plus, the latest on Covid-19 in Olmsted County and a farewell to two downtown Rochester businesses — on the latest episode of the podcast.
Covid-19 has upended the music community at large — on the local, statewide and national levels. Today on the Rochester Rundown, though, we take a look at what Med City musicians have been able to do in the first half of 2020 — without live shows to play, it’s been all about recorded music. It’s a small roundup… just a snippet of the best music to come out of our city so far this year.
This week on the Rochester Rundown: a report on racial disparity in Rochester, specifically how it relates to this pandemic. Public data shows people of color, Black people in particular, are taking on a disproportionate share of Olmsted County’s Covid-19 cases. It is a microcosm of a much larger issue, one that can’t be captured in a single podcast — but today, we’ll start to tackle what’s behind this health disparity, and how gaps in wealth, education and housing all play into one another.
In 2015, two hopeful orthopedic surgeons arrived in Rochester for the first time. In the past two years, they have become famous for something completely different. After a meteoric rise to stardom, however, it’s come time for them to move on — but not before giving one final shout out to the city. This week on the Rochester Rundown, the story of Drs. Elvis Francois and William Robinson, otherwise known as the singing surgeons. Hear from the doctors themselves on what they learned during their time in the Med City as well as what the future holds — in medicine and in music.
With early absentee voting for the upcoming primaries set to begin one week from today, Olmsted County election officials are preparing for an anticipated surge in mail-in ballots due to the pandemic. For this upcoming election cycle, the county expects somewhere around 50 percent of voters to cast ballots absentee, an unprecedented figure likely to impact how we think about voting now and in the future.
This week on the Rochester Rundown, Isaac takes a look at the path forward for small businesses across five different industries, as the state of Minnesota cautiously begins to reopen most facets of life.
