{"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":"The sextortion pandemic in Minnesota","slug":"the-sextortion-pandemic-in-minnesota","published_at":"2026-09-18T09:30:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/essential-minnesota-7677952/the-sextortion-pandemic-in-minnesota","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/essential-minnesota-7677952","url":"https://traffic.megaphone.fm/STB9901845438.mp3","audio_url":"https://traffic.megaphone.fm/STB9901845438.mp3","summary":"Over the past few years there has been a 2000% increase in the number of sextortion cases reported to police. These scams have taken millions of dollars and the lives of countless young people. Journalist Chip Scoggins tells the story of one Minnesota family’s experience.","meta_description":"Over the past few years there has been a 2000% increase in the number of sextortion cases reported to police. These scams have taken millions of doll…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":1542,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/essential-minnesota-7677952/episodes/the-sextortion-pandemic-in-minnesota/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/the-sextortion-pandemic-in-minnesota.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}