Thanks for reading during our fourth year of existence! Below, you'll find our four staffers picking their favorite work of '25, plus staff picks for (some of) the best freelancer contributions of the year. If you're happy to see these types of stories in the Twin Cities, please help support our worker-owned, reader-funded, award-winning independent media org.
Jay Boller's Favorites
A 25th(ish) Anniversary Oral History of Mitch Hedberg’s Never-Released Movie
The Minnesota-shot comedy 'Los Enchiladas!' premiered at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival, but never received a proper release. Twenty years after the death of its writer/director/star, that could soon change.
How Alive or Dead is Dinkytown in 2025? Depends on Who You Ask.
Business owners, politicians, students, and longtime observers debate the health of the singular Minneapolis neighborhood.
After George Floyd’s Murder, MN Companies Pledged Millions. We Asked 14 How Much They’ve Given.
The corporate climate around racial equity these days? Profoundly different.
Meet Minnesota’s Rocketman: Inside the Incomparable Life of Ky Michaelson
You've seen his outrageous Bloomington compound from Penn Avenue. Now get to know the drag racer, stuntman, inventor, businessman, and rocketeer who lives there.
Em Cassel's Favorites
Meet the Volunteer Pilots Flying Patients From Red States to Reproductive Care
Removing barriers to bodily autonomy, one prop plane flight at a time.
Why Do So Many of Minneapolis’s Best Sandwiches Come From Liquor Stores?
Racket investigates a delicious phenomenon.
Fork Over A Few Quarters and Take Home a Mini Masterpiece From These Art Vending Machines
Accessible, affordable, nostalgic, and fun, mini art vending machines are taking over the Twin Cities.
36 Ways to Make Friends in the Twin Cities
Where to go, what to do, and how to get those darned lifelong locals to let their guards down.
Jessica Armbruster's Favorites
Minnesota’s Mighty Maker Spaces
Need a cement mixer? A 3D printer? A pottery wheel? A laser cutting station? Yeah, these places have got you covered.
A Guide to Minneapolis Art Galleries for Beginners
You don’t need a monocle and a million dollars to experience the local scene.
Weed in MN: What’s Really Going On?
We spoke to journalists, business owners, and advocates about where THC bubbly, flower, and the law is headed toward in 2025.
Weed Weview Wewards 2025
Looking back on a year of weed.
Keith Harris's Favorites
What I Saw at This Weekend’s Minnesota MAHA Fest Scared the Hell out of Me
Over 1,000 Christian opponents of modern medicine descended on Alexandria, MN, to testify that drugs, doctors, and Satan were making us all sick at the 7th annual Freedom Summit.
I Ate (At Least) 32 Dumplings in St. Paul Last Weekend
A 'Dumpling Passport' offers a guide to the capital city's stuffed goodies. Why not wolf 'em all down in 36 hours?
‘An All-You-Can-Eat Buffet of Humanity’: How the Eagles #34 Mixes Punk, Pulltabs, and Social Club Tradition
The south Minneapolis outpost of a national 'fraternal organization' has broadened its reach to stay true to its mission.
Paul Simon May Be Old But He’s Not Dead
The aging voice of the 83-year-old singer changed the meaning of familiar tunes Tuesday night at the Orpheum.
Our 12 Favorite Freelance Stories
Goodbye to Palmer’s: A Requiem for Minneapolis’s Weirdest and Wonderfullest Bar
By Seth A. Richardson
The landmark West Bank bar will close in 10 days. Here's why that happened—and what will be lost.
‘I Can’t Let It Go’: Inside the 74-Year Search for the Klein Brothers, MN’s Oldest Missing Persons Cold Case
By Madison Roth
Detectives, journalists, and family members are still searching for three young brothers who disappeared from a north Minneapolis park in 1951.
How One MN School District Killed Its Right-Wing Book Ban
By Spencer White
St. Francis School Board members recently restricted certain books to appease conservative ideologues. But the Trump-voting exurban community isn’t as monolithic as the book banners thought.
An Elegy for My Boundary Waters
By Lily Osler
It’s cliché to call the Boundary Waters a refuge, but it certainly was mine when I was a kid.
The Case for Seeing a Psychic (Even If You Don’t Believe in Them)
By Alexa Kocinski
Magic, misogyny, and the origin of tarot.
For the Homeless, Finding a Place to Live Is Only Part of the Problem
By Caroline Jackson
From navigating financial aid to staying mentally well enough to work, the road to shelter is a long one that can take years.
What’s the Deal With Paul Bunyan?
By Ian Ringgenberg
A Racket investigation that’s larger than life.
In South Minneapolis, the Black Radish Transforms Lawns Into Vibrant Urban Farms
By Sarah Brumble
Every scrap of an acre TBR has cobbled together has been turned into artfully designed, sustainable, organic farm space.
(Glass) Block List: 20 Twin Cities Dive Bars Ranked By Their Glass Block Windows
By Kyle Nelson
The blurred glass cubes foreshadow your impairment.
Click here to read Minneapolis + here to read St. Paul
Meet the Big-Money Donors Trying to Buy Your Vote in Minneapolis
By Kelly Rogers
PACs will flood this November’s election in Minneapolis with almost $2 million, most of that going to boost the chances of Mayor Jacob Frey and centrist City Council candidates. Who’s bankrolling this fundraising bonanza, and what do they want in return?
Shoegaze is Having a Moment and Twin Cities Bands Are Here For It.
By Macie Rasmussen
The genre has expanded since its birth in the ’90s, and young musicians are once again chasing escapism into ethereal sounds.
Raising the Sausage Curtain: How Art-A-Whirl Helped Turn NE Minneapolis Into an Arts District
By Carly Pruszinske
Thirty years ago, most people in Minneapolis thought Northeast was too sleepy or dangerous to visit. A scrappy open-studio tour with some unlikely political support changed that.
