Simply Superior, April 30, 2021

President George W. Bush has released a new book called “Out of Many, One; Portraits of American Immigrants.” Among the 43 immigrants whose stories are told alongside their portraits, is Vietnamese-born Kimberly Mitchell. Raised in Solon Springs after being adopted by an American Airman from an orphanage in Da’Nang during the Vietnam War, she is now the Senior Vice President for Military, Veteran and Gov’t Affairs at National University in California after a career in the Navy and as an aide to the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Host Robin Washington talks with her about her life, her work, and being depicted in art by a president.

Also on this week’s show, Duluth’s Matt Dressel spent a decade working to get his screenplay produced, and with more than 500 rejections, had all but lost hope that “Killing Daniel” would ever be made. Then last fall, financial backing suddenly came through and Dressel was off to the Cayman Islands, where a crew and a cast headed by Bob Saget turned his dream into a major Hollywood production. Washington talks with Dressel about the challenges of shooting a film originally written for the frozen North on a tropical island, and the metamorphoses of “Killing Daniel” into “The Blue Iguana.”

Rounding out the show is a look back at the week’s news highlights. Washington is joined by WPR reporter Danielle Kaeding and the Star Tribune’s Brooks Johnson for a review of the biggest news moments of the past week.