Minneapolis

January 15, 2026

I think most of you know this, but maybe some of you don’t but I completed my graduate school at the University of Minnesota. I’ve loved Minneapolis, Saint Paul, and the rest of that glorious state since the first time I stood on the campus. It remains an incredibly special place to me. And my heart is absolutely broken by what I’m seeing now. I don’t have a lot of analysis to give to you guys tonight. I study humans for a living and for the life of me, I can’t figure out why we can’t be kind to one another. I see my friends back in Minneapolis and I’m worried. I’m writing this, but I don’t know how I’ll sleep tonight. So I thought maybe instead I’d show you a few pictures from my time in the Twin Cities. Something happier, something upbeat.

Standing over the St. Croix River between Minnesota and Wisconsin

I took this the weekend I flew back for my hooding ceremony in 2022.

Announcing Doctors Jason Herbert, Patrick Wilz, and Adrian Chavana

There’s only one Jucy Lucy, and you’ll find it at Matt’s Bar

Our monthly Dungeons and Dragons game—which often ran 12 hours or longer—became a necessary escape from the stress of our doctoral program

The tattoo on my right arm comes from this book by Ulysses Aldrovandi. That’s the original in the foreground. We have it at the Wangensteen Historical Library at the University of Minnesota—it’s from the year 1645.

Minneapolis by night. I used to love just looking at the city from a distance.

Hiking trips were the norm in grad school.

Women’s rights march

Fort Snelling—a place with its own tragic history

The famous cookie line at the Minnesota State Fair

The stairs in Stillwater.

Stillwater in winter

Alright, Substack says I’m out of room. Minneapolis and Minnesota are amazing places. They’re etched in my heart. I hope you get to go sometime.

J