Feb 17, 2021 - News

Screen Time: R.T. Rybak rhymes and reads

Photo illustration of an array of phone screens, with former Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak on the center one. — Photo illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios. Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images

He's not positive, but R.T. Rybak, a three-term mayor of Minneapolis, thinks he was the first mayor to join Twitter, back in 2008.

In those early years on the social media platform, Rybak would create poems that reminded people to move their cars during snow emergencies.

We talked to Rybak, now the CEO of the Minneapolis Foundation, about his media habits:

📱Device of choice: iPad Pro
👇 First tap of the day: The Star Tribune and newsletters, including Monocle Minute and Twins Daily.
📰 Go-to news source: He uses Twitter as a jumping off point, but called the (recently defunct) Southwest Journal "the most important publication."
🎧 Podcast queue: "The Daily" and "Conversations with Chanda."
📖 Reading list: "Gods of the Upper Air," "Evil Geniuses" and "Nixonland."
🎶 Most used app: "Shazam and Spotify ... I'm constantly walking down the street, watching a television show or in a store and I hear a snippet of music and I Shazam it and then build it into a Spotify list."

This story first appeared in the Axios Twin Cities newsletter, designed to help readers get smarter, faster on the most consequential news unfolding in their own backyard.

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Screen Time: R.T. Rybak rhymes and reads

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