Here's a dirty little under-the-hood secret: For whatever algorithmic reason, Racket's Flyover posts—our daily digest of local news splashed with commentary—often do bonkers numbers. As such, if we were to include Flyover entries among our year-end tally of most-read stories, you'd more or less be reading a long list of random daily news roundups spanning 2025. So for this annual analytical exercise in overshare navel-gazing, we're omitting all things Flyover.
Instead, you'll get fun stuff, helpful stuff, serious stuff, silly stuff, bloggy stuff, longform stuff, and plenty more. It's a nice sample platter of what we think makes this worker-owned, reader-funded, award-winning media org special. (Keep in mind: We've published 910 total posts so far in '25.) We're grateful for the reader support that made these articles possible, and excited to grow and expand our coverage in 2026.
12. 36 Ways to Make Friends in the Twin Cities
July 2 | 10,249 views | click here to read
To answer an eternally vexing Q—how does one crack the icy social exteriors of Minnesotans?—Racket's Em Cassel chatted with dozens upon dozens of transplants who've managed to break through Minnesota Nice.
11. Why Do So Many of Minneapolis’s Best Sandwiches Come From Liquor Stores?
February 19 | 10,660 views | click here to read
For this one, Em attempted to answer a more specific/delicious question. Some (me) argue that we, as a people, won't be truly free until you can buy shit like beef jerky, chips, and other salty what-have-yous inside Minnesota liquor stores.
10. After George Floyd’s Murder, MN Companies Pledged Millions. We Asked 14 How Much They’ve Given.
May 21 | 10,681 views | click here to read
Hey, I, Racket's Jay Boller, wrote/reported this one. I'll leave you with what the wonderful local media personality Sheletta Brundidge told me...
These companies are just chickenshit. We have too many Fortune 500 companies in the state of Minnesota with wimps as the CEOs—people who don't have a backbone, who won't speak truth to power, won't demand justice for other people. You thought for a moment there might be lasting change, but anybody who's Black, anybody who knows historically what this country is all about? They know that kinda stuff doesn't happen overnight. They knew it was going to be temporary, that it was never real. I know I did.
9. Mary J. Blige Demands We Take Her as She Is at the Xcel
March 17 | 11,257 views | click here to read
Put simply? Racket's Keith Harris is the best music writer in Upper Midwest, and it ain't even close. In other news: We'll never get used to calling Xcel Energy Center by its new name which is... hold on a sec while look this up... ah, yes, Grand Casino Arena.
8. Local Guitar Amp Designers Keep Those Vacuum Tubes Aglow
October 24 | 11,535 views | click here to read
Freelancer Austin Gerth attracted a wide audience for his hyper-niche profile of the rock 'n' rollers who make local, artisanal high-voltage electronics.
7. Two Pages Per Day: How Minneapolis Author Kate DiCamillo Became the Beverly Cleary of Her Generation
August 13 | 12,936 views | click here to read
Did you know the author of Because of Winn-Dixie, whom freelancer Jerard Fagerberg calls "the Beverly Cleary of a generation," is One of Us?
6. Goodbye to Palmer’s: A Requiem for Minneapolis’s Weirdest and Wonderfullest Bar
September 5 | 13,218 views | click here to read
Freelancer Seth A. Ricardson delivers the best, most comprehensive remembrance of a departed Twin Cities institution in recent memory.
5. Your Neighborhood Textile Stores: Where To Go Now That JOANN Is Gone
June 24 | 13,736 views | click here to read
You guys really love fabric stores! That came as a surprise to our staff, but freelancer Makenzi Johnson seemingly knew all along.
4. Wanna Buy Karl-Anthony Towns's Absolutely Massive MN Mansion?
March 26 | 21,150 views | click here to read
This very tall ex-Wolf needed a very large Medina estate, one that previously belonged to disgraced auto tycoon Denny Hecker—how about that? (Curiously, nobody else in the local media world seized on Racket's home-snooping scoop here.) Still listed at $4.5 million, KAT's pad currently has an accepted pending offer.
3. What I Saw at This Weekend’s Minnesota MAHA Fest Scared the Hell out of Me
October 15 | 21,504 views | click here to read
When recently complimented for his fly-on-the-wall investigation into right-wing crack pottery, reporter Keith Harris responded "never going again." Well there you have it.
2. The Best, Worst, and Most Middling New Foods of the 2025 Minnesota State Fair
August 22 | 27,031 views | click here to read
Revisit the emergency podcast on this very subject; you can practically hear our stomachs reeling. Still thinking about those Somali Street Fries!
1. Amy Adams: ‘I Would Not Be Where I Am’ Without Chanhassen Dinner Theatres’ Michael Brindisi
March 25 | 34,724 views | click here to read
Did you know Hollywood star Amy Adams is an honorary Minnesotan? It's true! Also true: It's reeeeeeeally hard to land interviews with A-list celebs, so when freelancer Alex Lauer presented us this opportunity on a silver platter, we green-lit his pitch faster than you can say "Nightbitch."
