35-years ago on a Saturday morning, I drove my mother to LAX where she flew to the North Dakota family farm for a reunion with five of her remaining siblings that once numbered twelve. When I saw her off, little did I know that Garrison Keillor would fatefully change my plans. Born and raise in Los Angeles, I grew up in the 1950's and 60's and I was sent back every other summer to work on my grandparents farm with them, a German bachelor uncle and a widowed aunt. I really enjoyed those summers and In those days the local North Dakota small towns of Oriska and Tower City were were a mirror of what would later become Garrison's vision of Lake Wobegon. I had thought about flying back with my mother to be with everyone at this reunion. But I was busy at work and decided not to. That Saturday night after earlier seeing my mother off, I was working in my garage and listening to Garrison Keillor's PHC when he started his News from Lake Wobegon story. It was about a family reunion at a farm house to celebrate an elderly aunt's birthday. Garrison noted she was so thin and frail that you could see light through her hands.....a perfect description of my widowed aunt. I stopped what I was doing and there were tears in my eyes as he finished the story and ended the show. I then walked into the house and told my wife I needed to go to that reunion and made reservations to fly out the next day. After calling my boss Sunday morning I flew to Fargo and rented a car. Before heading out the last leg of the drive to the farm I stopped at the Tower City Cafe and Truck Stop and had a Walleye dinner with a piece of fresh rhubarb pie for desert. When I arrived at the family farm I walked into the kitchen and saw my mother and her siblings sitting at the table talking and drinking coffee. I hadn't told them I was coming and one of my aunts said "Curtis, what are you doing here?" My mother looked at her sister as if to say 'what are you talking about' and then looked at me with the most surprised look I had ever seen on my mother's face. She later told me I was the last person she was expecting to see walking into that North Dakota farm house. It ended up being the last time all my mother's siblings were ever able to get together. Eventually they all passed and in 1998 the farm was sold. But I am forever grateful to Garrison Keillor and his fateful story that moved me to tears and lead me back to that final family gathering at a farmhouse in North Dakota.

I close my eyes and listen to his voice, it instantly takes me back to a simpler and I think better times. Thank you sir.

I really miss Prairie Home Companion, I listened to it every week for over 20 years. I loved it!

My husband and I would go on long rides in the country just to listen to the show on the car radio. Show ended, we'd find a place to eat then head home. Such good memories and PHC was a part of it. Thank you, Garrison. It's a shame about this scandal.

I miss the days or tuning into NPR and enjoying PHC, Car Talk, and Whad,ya Know

I'm grateful for his writing and work, and I'm glad to see he is well.

I drove every Saturday 2-4 pm to listen to him on NPR. Awesome story teller.

I've listened to Garrison since 1984 and have seen many of his live performances. He is an icon and has brought joy to so many people. We all make mistakes and bad decisions in our lives. All we can do is learn from them and move forward.

I think it is true that the culture changed. We need to find a way to forgive people who have made lessor mistakes and admit them. It is the only way we can allow people to change. Look at how much he gave us. I wish I could have been in Denver to see him. Once I wrote a letter to him and he wrote back a personal response on a postcard that specifically related to my letter. Bless your soul Garrison Keillor.

i miss him on the radio every staurday at 5pm

A PHC was/is show always better seen on the radio. I would listen with my kids in the car. They grew up “having” to listen to him. Years later when my oldest daughter left home and was thousands of miles away she listened to him (PHC) and becoming homesick wrote him a letter thanking him for giving her great memories of her childhood with her dad! He wrote he a wonderful letter which i have framed with a picture of her and me. Whatever he might of done to this one person he certainly did a wonderful thing for my daughter and me. 😊

I am a 30 year fan of Prairie Home Companion. I'm 64 years old and I bought many, many books on tape to listen to in my car over the years. Garrison Keillor feels like family to me. Lake Wobegon is as familiar to me as my own home town. This country has lost it's direction when it allows people to be punished without EVIDENCE of wrong doing. God bless you, Mr. Keillor and his family. I miss you every Sunday!!

I miss PHC a lot; my wife and I listen to it every Sunday, and we're not some old couple but in our late 30s. The fact the show was canceled and not allowed to grow with the times means a whole generation will miss out on its wholesomeness.

Many years ago Keillor worked with his romantic partner Margaret Moos who was a producer on the show and referred to as part of the show at every episode. He went to a high school reunion and ran into an old romantic interest, dumped Moos and talked on air a lot about being newly in love. For those of us who had heard him work with Moos for years, it was weird to hear him insensitively go on about the new relationship on air. Not only had Moos lost him as a partner but presumably her job and a name we heard for years simply disappeared. He upended her life and didn’t see how this might come across as he waxed lyrical about his new love. We could never hear him the same way again. He apparently divorced the then new wife and has remarried. He is a brilliant storyteller but in terms of his own actions apparently has significant blind spots…..and doesn’t even allow that is possible. It’s sad for all involved.

I still listen to his Writer's Almanac on podcasts apps & on his website. A true legend.

The man is a national treasure who unfortunately is a human being

I really missed him.

Oh my gosh! I didn't realize how much I miss him and his soothing stories while driving for my job! 😊😍 *sigh* He will always be my sweet Prairie Home Companion. Love and best wishes to you always for the countless hours of radio companionship, Garrison. 😘❤🤗

In 2009, David Letterman spoke on his show about having sexual relationships with several of his female staffers over the years. He apologized and that was about it.

During my childhood and adolescence I used to listen to Prairie Home Companion on the radio in the kitchen on Saturday evenings. Years later I sent Prairie Home Companion a bilingual song, 'La rana/The Frog,' I wrote for my students while I was teaching at a primary school in Guatemala. And Richard Dworsky actually played my song most beautifully during their show. It was such an enormous honor! I have only positive feelings regarding Garrison Keillor and Prairie Home Companion!

I think he hit the nail on the head when he described a shifting social climate in which so many of the "accepted" practices of the past--some of which may have been perfectly innocent--put men who were in positions of power or authority at risk for perceived threats, overtures, or indecencies on the part of the receiver. Painful lesson learned. I, for one, have been listening to Garrison since the late 1970s and I love the man. If numerous evengelical preachers can request "confession, redemption, and forgiveness" for past mistakes or crimes, why can't Keillor?

I am glad for this update. I began listening to PHC in the early 1980s and became a longtime fan. Keillor had a very long, distinguished career and his downfall was swift and shocking.

I’m in the uncomfortable in-between of having grown up with PHC; loving the show and Keilor’s work over the decades. But I can’t just dismiss the accusations because they are against someone influential to me. I think he’s telling people the wrong lesson from all of this too. Men and women can be friends at work, but maybe don’t send emails or have conversations discussing intimate encounters, theoretical or not.

How Garrison's story is reported and talked about is a good reminder to me about how incomplete the news we receive is. Having worked at the organization, (although not for APHC but in the same location) I can tell you that this situation is *a lot* thornier and complex than either Team Keillor or Team MeToo thinks it is. If you're tempted to make some pat judgement on either side, do so with the understanding that you don't have all the information.

His is a voice I miss, his are stories that carried us all away to the places many of us hoped would have existed. Garrison's imagination, humor, candor, & unabashed honesty, refreshing familiarity and welcoming nature invited everyone to feel they had a life-long friend who would always welcome visitors each and every week. May God continually bless him with renewing creativity. Like The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Garrison Keillor's Lake Wobegon and Prairie Home Companion took us to a place far, far, away, in a memorably amusing and entertaining way. I was charmed. Upon reflection, I believed he did harm to the trust in his actual, virtual, and imagined relationships. Knowing what he admitted about himself, I question the authenticity of the idealization of his characters. Maybe a public apology would be better than simply a public admission. Yes indeed, the culture changed. Yet, there remains an absolute good regardless of cultural norms. Through the process of admitting norms were in need of correction, we all grow and mature in our relationships. Women are to be treated as equals, even if our roles are separated by cultural expectations. Yet, even this has changed. However, women deserve more respect rather than less as they retain the role of childbearing, something that elevates them rather than reduces them to merely objects of desire or affection. For one must consider the whole person even to their soul and spirit which is greater in importance than the body and the mind or anything dependent on physical elements such as feelings. We must respect the potential as well as the realized person who is beloved of God. Lusting in one's thoughts, also harms the individual's relationships. To be able to, jointly, be the bearers of newly formed persons, parents, indeed all persons bear the responsibility to care for and carry future generations with the utmost care. Beyond that, to bear one another's burdens, it is blessed, especially when assisting a woman who bears or cares for the most vulnerable among us. Fantasy, especially sexual, ignores most aspects of another person besides creating a grandiose image of one's self. This shame is on all of us for no one is separated from the love of God and we are one who place our trust in Christ Jesus. Any time someone watches an inappropriate film with enjoyment, anytime explicit photos are exposed, any time music with suggestive content is tolerated, one tolerates and perpetuates this culture of dehumanization.

I grew up listening to him and reading his books. He may have made some mistakes along the way, but who hasn't? Some of my funnest memories as a child involved listening to Garrison Keillor with my family.

The culture did change. Being employed in corporate America as a mid level manager I can attest to that cultural change. It is up to the person being harassed what is inappropriate. It is not up to the person being accused. For years what was considered flirtation between coworkers has now became a potentential issue for HR intervention. Garrison is correct in today's climate you cannot risk being friends with a coworker of the opposite sex.

Your voice your laugh your stories are truly missed every Saturday evening since 2016.....You are blessed!

I grew up listening to Prairie Home Companion. A fixture of my Saturday nights. There is no comparison, or replacement. The show painted images in my head, that cannot be undone. It’s unfortunate what happened, and only the two involved will ever know the truth. A settlement was reached, and life moves on.

I so miss his wonderful show and also the poems he used to read on NPR stations!

I have three wonderful memories from that era on NPR: 1) the annual PHC joke show, especially when Paula Poundstone was part of the gang; 2) Liane Hansen's mellifluous voice (always like a ray of sunshine), in particular her interview with Andre Previn; 3) Marian MacPartland's "Radio Jazz" program. // Today's NPR is, at best, a mixed bag.

I love Prairie Home Companion, I sure to miss listening to this weekly. I looked forward to it every week.

PHC was the highlight of my weekends, they have been as light hearted and full of just a simple happiness his stories used to bring since he signed off.

I learned English hearing and reading Tales from Lake Wobegon. I imagined being there and living its stories. Keillor is an amazing story teller. His stories are amazing full of life and spirit. It is sad to see him in this situation, his reputation tarnished. But I will always have a place in my heart for Prarie home companion and Lake Wobegon.

I loved Garrison 40 years ago and I love him today. His voice soothes me.

I will always be thankful to Garrison Keillor for giving me a five-minute reprieve from my daily tasks with his thoughtful "Writer's Almanac." CBS' "Sunday Morning" understands his contributions to popular culture, but also gave him an opportunity to publicly make amends (doable even within the confines of his non-disclosure agreement). At his age he should have been honest. This was a missed opportunity for Keillor.

I was once rushing across a busy NYC intersection more concerned with the light changing than looking ahead of me when this gentleman was doing the same thing but going in the other direction. We collided. Hard. It felt like hitting a brick wall wearing clothes. I wouldn’t be surprised if he found my makeup-smudged image on his shirt front when he got home. Luckily clear of traffic, we quickly steadied, studied, and “so sorried” each other. I knew instantly who he was. He noticed my astonishment. I didn’t ask why he wasn’t in Lake Wobegon. He didn’t offer an explanation, just a confirming trademark grin and a friendly squeeze of my arm before he stepped aside and disappeared into the oncoming throng still in the crosswalk behind me. I can’t help but wonder looking back if nowadays a woman experiencing such a startling encounter might not be too sensitized to be able to appreciate someone’s affectionate civility as intended. It certainly never occurred to me at the time to mistake kindness for trespass.

I woke up most mornings for many years to the Prairie Home Morning Show on MPR with Garrison and the late Tom Keith, his engineer, as sidekick Jim Ed Poole. They played a wildly eclectic selection of music (where else could you hear Swann and Flanders, Kate Wolf, Mozart, Buddy Holly, and Tom Lehrer, to name just a few, on the same show on the same day?) with sponsors including Jack’s Auto Repair (all tracks lead to Jack’s), Bertha’s Kitty Boutique, Powdermilk Biscuits, and the Catchup Advisory Board. It made mornings a lot easier to swallow.

Love you, Garrison. You've been such a gem for so many years in my life. May you have precious years going forward!

Garrison Keillor was a man of the 20th Century and the 21st Century saw him outside of the mainstream. I remember how the world was in the 1980s and 90s and even then, it was a world where powerful men at the top openly took liberties with women they worked with, where as long as they were charming and likeable as a whole to most people they came in contact with that they could intimidate staff, make inappropriate jokes, creepily "flirt" with underlings, cross lines and boundaries pretty much with impunity. Keillor wasn't the worst offender but he was still an offender and ultimately he didn't lose much other than a chunk of his audience and reputation. Hopefully these women have moved on with some peace and solace themselves.

I started listening to PHC in 1981, and from then on I planned my weekends around it. As much as I loved the show, when the MeToo thing happened I wasn't actually surprised. I had been noticing Keillor's creepy interactions with female guests on the air for a couple of years. Saddens me, but I still admire and respect the work he did for decades.

I discovered PHC only a few short years ago. Loved the show. I tell people that I work with, we are co-workers NOT friends. I can be friendly at work, but (usually) have no desire to hang out after work with them. I keep it separate.

PHC and Writer's Almanac are two parts of the entertainment world this country needs right now. Loved miss them both very much.

I do miss his show on the BBC.. it would have been a real comfort during the last 2 or 3 horrid years...

It sets women in the work force to say You can never be friends with women at work. You should not write email about imagining sexual settings. He has learned nothing.

I briefly interned at MPR in the late 1980s and was warned to steer clear of "Scary Gary." So, I did.

Welp, I started the video hoping to be able to listen to him again, it was going well, then the interview happened.

A great storyteller that I've enjoyed through the years ...Glad he's back for an encore!

I know Garrison is bitter and I don't know complete story to make a judgement. But you can have good and decent relationships with your colleagues or employees. I separate my work life from my social life. No non-work related banters in the office. Definitely no touching or anything close to it. Years later, I am on friendly terms with former co-workers, more so than when we were working together.

It is so hard when we come to love and respect and learn a lot from someone's artistry and then have to understand that they are not the people we might hope them to be. Then we must see their art as separate from their lives, broken as we all are and maybe more so.

“You lose your ambition, but you still love your work.” Hmm….seems I’m about 40 years ahead of schedule on that milestone.

I was missing and lamenting the demise of Prairie Home Companion just this morning on my commute. Finding this tonight was a pleasant surprise.

How hard is it to admit that you did some creepy things and you're sorry?

I Worked in a 5 star hotel for 11years meeting many celebrities and international business people, Garrison Keeller was a guest in the hotel. He was the rudest, most arrogant person I ever encountered in all the years I worked in the hospitality business

I believe and stand with survivors. I used to listen to his show. I don't miss it. It is a slap in the face to survivors to deify him, and act like his actions were meaningless or somehow ok.

He did the show for a long, long time, but I could never stomach listening to the entire broadcast.

Reminds me of that other nice guy, Charlie Rose.

“Me too was good until I became a part of it and now it’s bad >:(“

Wholesome, quality entertainment. I listened every week.

When reading his words, I would at times laugh out loud and need to pause to savor the humor. Thank you 😊

He played himself and wrote the screenplay for the film version of A Prairie Home Companion which came out in 2006 that Robert Altman directed and was Altman's last film.

"You should never be friends with a female colleague, EVER!" It has been noticed since MeToo that older men are reluctant to mentor younger women strictly as a preemptive self-defense. -the Law of Unintended Consequences is one of those you just can't ever break.

He used to be at Ravinia Festival outside of Chicago for years. Always entertaining with a nostalgia for a Lost America that he 😊gifted his audience with on Summer Nights.

Mr. Keillor, thank you for sharing the "8 mm pearls of wisdom" over the years in your storytelling. Those pearls are the gift of learning from someone else's mistake and deciding, "I'm not doing THAT!" My personal motto is "Make Peace. Move Forward." You seem to be moving forward and you seem to have made peace. GJBrownDO 12/3/2023 13:25 Eastern

I still love him. The times changed As a woman in my 70s when I was in my 30s and 40s many men I worked with would hug us tease us etc ..much of the time while I was married as were the guys. I I was never offended as it was all in good humor and true affection. If you didn't like it a no was respected. If someone asked you something inappropriate I'd just say nothing to the question and give a sarcastic smile. And that always was respected. I think people are oversensitive these days. I met my husband under professional circumstances and liked him and he waited until he was not over me to ask me out. And I said yes. Many I know met their spouse ( still married forever) at work and it's ridiculous to think people can't be friends or date coworkers.

Excellent. I was an early and long time listener to Garrison. His storytelling prose is only comparable the a very few greats.

He reached WAY more than 4 million people!

Loved A Prarie Home Companion. He's a talented writer. He's also in the wrong and that fact he doesn't see it is concerning.

Without forgiveness there is only pain and despair. Forgiveness does not mean forgetting or learning from the past.

I grew up loving the Lake Wobegon stories. As a young adult in 20s I started reading some of his non-LW novels. Gross and creepy. His inability to accurately portray women with any sort of subjectivity (they're all objects, sexual and past being good for sexual objectivity) turned me off pretty quick. A few years later these accusations broke and I was not at all surprised. And as this interview confirms, he still doesn't get it.

Miss listening to the program. Nothing came close to replace it. And nothing will.

Thank you for all that you've done.

Are these show he's currently doing available? I'd love to hear them, miss his voice every weekend. On another note, I hope "Live From Here" returns soon, it is much needed

Missed this show

My husband introduced me to Garrison Keillor and Prairie Home Companion. When I heard my first few shows, I was convinced the whole thing was a farce put on by students at UC Berkeley. It was only after attending a live performance in San Francisco that I became a devoted fan of the man in red shoes with his imaginative stories and outstanding guests. I was so disappointed at hearing of his offensive behaviors...a work place line had been crossed...and this interview doesn't explain it all away with "different culture" comments.

The MeToo movement did a lot of good things, but in its early zeal it really victimized some men far beyond anything they did or were accused of. As somebody in the story said, the punishment should fit the crime. If the punishment goes too far, it's the MeToo movement that becomes the victimizing agent.

Longtime fan of Garrison's and PHC... I think someone in this video made an important point regarding "the punishment fitting the crime." Sure he made mistakes, but for someone to try and vilify or "cancel" him for the rest of his life imo is cold hearted. Love ya G.K. 😻

Lake Wobegon - where we waited for you, three days, in the rain...

God bless this man and his work. He's my hero, regardless.

I really miss the musical talent he brought on the show. Chris Thile also brought on some excellent talent. It really expanded me. I wish the would bring back 'Live from Here'.

so many of the women who worked at Minnesota Public Radio were warned about his predatory behavior when they were hired on. MPR didn't warn them. other female colleagues did.

It's too bad they spent so much time on the misconduct issue, and not his immense gift to the American literary landscape. It can't be measured.

Dear Mr. Keillor, Thank you for your 40 years, and I only wish you had never stopped. 'Keep on keeping on' as we used to say back in the 60's when I first heard your wonderful stories and enjoyed all of the great music you promoted to the world. Don't let the crocodiles get you down as, sooner or later, we all have crocodiles in our lives. Thanks again, Wo0dy

In the 1970s Garrison Kiellor and Jim Ed Poole ran the Morning Show on KSJN-FM Minnesota Public Radio. We woke up with it and listened throughout the 1970s and 1980s. It was there News From Lake Wobegon developed into Prarie Home Companion, mostly ad-lib between music selections, news and weather. Radio popularity brought live performances around Minnesota and then a national audience on National Public Radio. Catch his latest novel, BOOM TOWN, a sort of Lake Wobegon epitaph.

I used to go to the show when it was free, and those on the stage outnumbered the audience, and before he started referring to Lake Wobegon as his home town.

The show was formulaic, in the same way Captain Kangaroo was. Virtually the same thing over and over... YET, it was comfort and pleasure to listening a couple of times each weekend. He should have never given it up. Minnesota Public Radio and NPR should have spanked him and slapped his pocketbook enough to satisfy his accuser and their own animus and then... continued doing the show. The other players and how it showcased other talent is really missing from NPR now. Keillor as the ringmaster was the glue and the fuel for it all.

My ex introduced me to PHC in the '80s (he was much older), and as I had been brought up Missouri Synod Lutheran, it resonated with me. I LOVED that show! That Garrison became a casualty of the MeToo nonsense is sad. Glad to see he is well!

I LOVE ALL OF THIS!!

The once great show was already tired when he left and he’s completely clueless about what he did and how he manipulated the colleague in question. Of course you can be friends with women in a workplace. Do you flirt with your male colleagues and share your sexual fantasies of them? If not, the problem is you!

I can honestly say from the bottom of my heart I have absolutely no idea who this man is.

Always enjoyed his show and writing!

Great interview with a very down to earth man.

Keillor is a gifted story teller, so it is sad that he was caught up in a scandal. But, these sorts of events seem to rarely be one offs. I suspect it was a continuing course of conduct. Very unfortunate, but avoidable.

Every Saturday evening, for four years, I recorded PHC on a cassette tape. I was a Lutheran pastor in Minnesota at the time. I can't tell you how many weddings I conned people into changing the time for, ("You won't have time for the wedding banquet if you don't start a little earlier".) so I could start or flip the tape. I built a nice wood case of drawers to hold my shows in and from time to time, when I am working in the basement, I listen once again to, "Well, it's been a quiet week in Lake Wobegone, Minnesota, my home town." And every now and then I still try to look up its' location in the travel atlas!!

Greetings, can anyone out there, direct me to where or how, I can view that show? Somehow, I missed it, and cant find any recording. Thank- you, if you can, in advance, soooo much.👼

I watched his show when he did a live Cinne cast back in January or February of 2010. My wife and I enjoyed it.

I found his attitude in this interview to be profoundly disturbing. Full marks for honesty, I will grant him that, but saying honestly that you still cannot see , even now, today, after having it explained to you many times, that your behavior was wrong is just sickening to me. I get saying that "At the time, I didn't think I was doing anything wrong." But he's saying "even today I don't see how my behavior could possibly have been wrong, for putting her in an impossible and horrible situation, so I can't apologize for any of that.

I thought this was going to be about a misunderstanding.This is so disappointing,Garrison was a beloved figure but not now,not to me at least.Very sad.

Garrison Keillor is an incredibly intelligent man. He’s made some extremely profound statements, and issued some very prudent warnings.

Growing up in Minneapolis I used to listen to PHC on the radio in the mid 1970s & still sing the songs from back then... 'i found her little footsteps in the snow ho!' Great memories of Minnesota winters.