My TEDx talk, Courage: Northern Minnesota's Untapped Resource

Monday, September 26, 2011 By Aaron Brown

This is my talk from last week's TEDx 1,000 Lakes Conference at the Reif Center in Grand Rapids. Enjoy!

UPDATE: You can watch the whole conference, speech by speech, here. There were some great talks that day. I'll post more with some context in the near future.

Labels: grand rapids, iron range, TEDx

1 comments:

cjh said...
September 30, 2011 1:01 PM
Sisu!

When you mentioned Dubuque, I was hoping for the stoner soccer player anecdote.

Oh well. It was a good speech nevertheless, and it disproves the Onion headline, "Three-minute Video Too Long."

If I may geek out for a moment: Those headworn microphones are remarkably well-behaved. I wish more of my presenters would use them.

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By Aaron J. Brown

Iron Range: General term for a region in northeastern Minnesota including the Mesabi, Vermilion and Cuyuna iron ranges. Often the term implies only the Mesabi and Vermilion ranges since the Cuyuna hasn’t seen mining activity since 1984. Positioned over once rich formations of natural iron ore and taconite the Iron Range has provided the largest domestic iron ore supply for the American steel industry since the late 1800s. Because of decades of geographic isolation, large influxes of European immigrants and a strong tradition of labor and political activism, the Iron Range also represents a distinct subculture within Minnesota and the Midwest in general. This subculture values a strong work ethic, votes a socially-conservative labor-friendly brand of Democratic, and remains deeply distrustful of outsiders, especially ones who dress well and drive foreign cars. The wild fluctuations in the steel industry and dependence on mining and logging as the dominant source of reliable jobs have created a boom or bust tradition on the Iron Range that continues today. Efforts to modernize and diversify have led to mixed results, though recent developments have been positive.

The Iron Range today owns a reputation as a rough place with a volatile economy, deeply-held ethnic and social traditions, easy access to bars, churches and the Great Outdoors, a unified but ill-disciplined political network, stock car racing, and an innate cultural fascination with guns, fire and alcohol. Public schools are the largest, most ornate and prized buildings on the Iron Range. About half those who graduate from these schools leave for Duluth, the Twin Cities or elsewhere. The other half stay to raise families and work jobs that, despite modern titles, remain indirectly tied to the fortunes of natural resource industries like mining and logging. I write for both groups, those who stay and those who left, and all who join us in body or spirit.

~ Promotional release for "Overburden: Modern Life on the Iron Range" from Red Step Press. Copyright 2008 by Aaron J. Brown.

My TEDx talk, Courage: Northern Minnesota's Untapped Resource

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