Articles by Todd Svanoe
Border-crossing dentist saved the best for last
After 34 years of repairing teeth, no one would have blamed Stillwater, MN dentist Fred Kalinoff for taking a year off to rest, reflect, or just plain golf.
But the drill, probe and forceps are still …
How Latinos Changed My Life
“A story about overcoming our own biases…is exactly the kind of story we need to hear in America. We should (discuss) in a truthful and mature and responsible way the divides that still exist — …
Camel-herding boy becomes a true Minnesotan
Neither his guerilla gunfire nor time in prison were as powerful as the simple seeds of education planted in the life of Dahir Jibreel, 58, a Somalian father of 10 now living in Monticello, MN.
But …
Nature Miracle Transforms Fishermen
This remarkable story about UW-Madison environmental grad student Susan Drake, written for the Capital Times, chronicles the fruit of faith-based work and change in a real world Chesapeake Bay fishing community.
Click here to see published …
How a big-city Jew made room for a small-town Cheesehead
When, as a small-town Wisconsin Cheesehead, I came to marry a fun-loving Jewish girl from the Bronx, her poetic “New Joisey” uncle toasted this union as the joining of the “Empire State and the State …
Hmong youth navigates maze; finds career passion
As a daughter of transitory Hmong migrant workers, Belick Pha had reason to believe that her life would be hard in middle-class America.
It was hard when her parents fled from Laos to Thailand across the …
Wilderness Retreats Heal Family Relationships
Caryn Hirshleifer thought she had done her job by arranging wilderness therapy expeditions for her teenaged girls with Soltreks, based north of Duluth in Two Harbors, MN.
When filling out application forms and describing the family …
Who are Your Spiritual Pied Pipers
HOW SPUNKY COUSINS CHANGED MY LIFE
Energetic guitarist and songwriter Steven Curtis Chapman has a reputation for seeking and joyfully expressing the best that life has to offer. Maybe that’s why he confesses his surprise at …
The Land Cries Out
SUMMARY: A pioneering prophet-activist exposes the rarely reported social and ecological roots of a crisis that has claimed 43,000 lives since 2006 in Mexico. His untiring community development in the most dangerous state of Mexico …
Beloved Italian down but not out
FINDS SECOND-WIND CAREER AT AGE 65
A hand-waving and exuberant Catholic, Will DeSanto is best known for two things: joyful mischief and faithful prayer. Though he’s a beloved “people person” who loves to encourage others, his …
