{"podcast":{"title":"Essential Minnesota","slug":"essential-minnesota-7677952","podcast_index_feed_id":7677952,"rss_url":"https://feeds.megaphone.fm/essentialminnesota","website_url":null,"image_url":"https://megaphone.imgix.net/podcasts/bc053764-f646-11f0-af37-4358c03a09a8/image/e978c9ce6b10da51398ae11d72bee4d8.png?ixlib=rails-4.3.1&max-w=3000&max-h=3000&fit=crop&auto=format,compress","author":"The Minnesota Star Tribune","episode_count":40,"summary":"Every Friday host Melissa Townsend brings her distinct curiosity and humor to these weekly deep-dive conversations with journalists from the Minnesota Star Tribune. Together they dig into interesting and important local stories that matter to Minnesota and beyond. It’s what the Minnesota Star Tribune does best. Available Fridays at 4:30 A.M. Central.","last_synced_at":"2026-09-18T20:19:33.591844+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/essential-minnesota-7677952"},"episode":{"title":"Minnesota elections face new challenges as federal support is pulled back","slug":"minnesota-elections-face-new-challenges-as-federal-support-is-pulled-back","published_at":"2026-07-24T09:30:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/essential-minnesota-7677952/minnesota-elections-face-new-challenges-as-federal-support-is-pulled-back","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/essential-minnesota-7677952","url":"https://traffic.megaphone.fm/STB2629085840.mp3","audio_url":"https://traffic.megaphone.fm/STB2629085840.mp3","summary":"Longtime political reporter Briana Bierschbach details how the Trump administration has pulled back key support that has helped Minnesota safeguard elections while pushing changes based on unproven allegations that could make it harder for legitimate voters to cast ballots.","meta_description":"Longtime political reporter Briana Bierschbach details how the Trump administration has pulled back key support that has helped Minnesota safeguard electi…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":1763,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/essential-minnesota-7677952/episodes/minnesota-elections-face-new-challenges-as-federal-support-is-pulled-back/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/essential-minnesota-7677952/minnesota-elections-face-new-challenges-as-federal-support-is-pulled-back.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}