When the norms and expectations of the workplace aren’t working for you, what do you do?

If you’re Alex West Steinman, you create your own workplace.

In 2017, West Steinman left a career in advertising and communications and joined three colleagues to found The Coven.

Eight years later, The Coven has two coworking sites in the Twin Cities and another five franchise locations in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Along with desk space and professional development, the coworking network provides an inclusive community that lifts up its members.

MPR News host Angela Davis talks to Alex West Steinman about her entrepreneurial journey and how to create workplaces that are welcoming.  

This conversation was made possible in part by the Minnesota Legacy Amendment's Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund.

Last week, the Centers for Disease Control released new data that shows a continued increase in the number of children diagnosed with autism.

One in every 31 children in the U.S. has an autism spectrum disorder diagnosis. That’s up from one in 44 just a few years ago, and it’s a huge increase from the one in every 150 children who received the diagnosis twenty years ago.

Autism has gotten more national attention in recent months after U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. resurfaced debunked claims linking autism to childhood vaccines.

MPR News host Angela Davis talks with experts and advocates about the prevalence numbers, what autism is, what it isn’t and why the conversation matters.

Guests:

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• Zephyr James is the director of marketing and communications at the Autism Society of Minnesota, also known as AuSM.

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• Dr. Jennifer Hall-Lande is a psychologist and one of the principal investigators of the Minnesota division of the Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network.

  
  

  For autism information and resources, contact the Autism Society of Minnesota.

  
  

  Call: 651.647.1083

  
  

  Email: info@ausm.org

  
  

  Text: 651.321.2909

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  MPR News with Angela Davis Living with autism as an adult
  
  
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  MPR News with Angela Davis Living with autism as an adult, part 2
  
  
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Subscribe to the MPR News with Angela Davis podcast on: Apple Podcasts, Spotify or RSS.

Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.    

For decades, Minnesotans and Canadians have been friends and trading partners. But President Donald Trump’s tariff policies have raised questions about the future of the relationship between Minnesotans and our neighbors to the north.

MPR News host Angela Davis and Chris Farrell, senior economics contributor for MPR News and Marketplace, drove up the North Shore and across the border to talk with Canadians living in Thunder Bay, Ontario. On the way, they talked with Minnesotans who live and work near the border, too.

Check out their special, “Our Canada Connections” to hear how Canadians are talking about Americans and what they are doing differently. You’ll also hear what some Minnesota business owners are noticing about the Canadian visitors they rely on for nearly a third of their business.