Louisiana Considered

Want to feel better? Get unstuck? Be inspired? Remake the world? Then this episode is for you. We talk with Katherine Wilkinson, author of the book Climate Wayfinding, and Colette Pichon Battle, lawyer and co-founder of Taproot Earth, about finding our way through the climate crisis.

To read more about Climate Wayfinding, or order a copy of the book, click here.

This episode was hosted by Carlyle Calhoun and Eva Tesfaye. Eva conducted the interview. Sound design by Kurt Kohnen, and our theme music is by Jon Batiste.

Sea Change is a WWNO and WRKF production. We're a part of the NPR Podcast Network and distributed by PRX. To help others find our podcast, hit Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Sea Change is made possible with major support from the Gulf Research Program of the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. WWNO's Coastal Desk is supported by the Walton Family Foundation, the Meraux Foundation, and the Greater New Orleans Foundation.

It’s Thursday, and that means it’s time to catch up on politics with The Times-Picayune/The Advocate’s Stephanie Grace. Today, we discuss the two candidates still in the race vying for Bill Cassidy’s Senate seat. 

Last week, a ruling came down in the case of the notorious farm line at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. A federal judge ruled that while men forced to work on the farm line are subject to dangerous and harsh conditions, the court cannot force the state to fix the problem. 

The ruling follows nearly three years of litigation and comes just as the summer heat season is rolling in.

The coastal desk’s Michael McEwen has been following the case and joins us for more. 

This weekend, New Orleans’ annual Black Nerd Fest, or BLERDFEST!, returns. The event is meant to increase representation within the Black community when it comes to all things anime, superheroes, sci-fi, cosplay and more. The event is open to both kids and adults, reminding everyone that there is room for them in the multiverse. 

True, creator and CEO of Blerd Fest, along with programming coordinator Jasmine Walker, joins us for more.

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Today’s episode of Louisiana Considered was hosted by Alana Schreiber. Our managing producer is Alana Schreiber. We get production and technical support from Garrett Pittman, Adam Vos and our assistant producer Aubry Procell. 

You can listen to Louisiana Considered Monday through Friday at noon and 7 p.m. It’s available on Spotify, Google Play and wherever you get your podcasts. 

Louisiana Considered wants to hear from you! Please fill out our pitch line to let us know what kinds of story ideas you have for our show. And while you’re at it, fill out our listener survey! We want to keep bringing you the kinds of conversations you’d like to listen to.

Louisiana Considered is made possible with support from our listeners. Thank you!

Lawmakers in Baton Rouge wrapped up the regular session this week without money in the budget to give teachers another one-time stipend, as they’ve done for the past three years. Instead, Gov. Jeff Landry is asking lawmakers to pull the money needed from existing school funding. 

WWNO and WRKF’s education reporter Aubri Juhasz joins us for more on this topic. 

Summer is right around the corner, and that means it’s mosquito season in our part of Louisiana. They’re an annoyance, of course, but they’re also a public health concern because mosquitoes are vectors for diseases like the West Nile virus.

Kevin Caillouet, director & medical entomologist with the St. Tammany Parish Mosquito Abatement District, tells us how to protect ourselves from mosquitoes while still being a good steward of the environment.

How do you quantify the music economy in a city like Baton Rouge? Where does the data come from? Who do you ask? Those are the questions the Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge pursued when it conducted the Baton Rouge Region Music Census. And they recently released a report detailing what they found out.

Jonathan Grimes, President & CEO of Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge, tells us what the findings revealed about the entertainment economy in the capital city. 

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Today’s episode of Louisiana Considered was hosted by Adam Vos. Our managing producer is Alana Schreiber. We get production support from Garrett Pittman and our assistant producer, Aubry Procell.

You can listen to Louisiana Considered Monday through Friday at noon and 7 p.m. It’s available on Spotify, the NPR App and wherever you get your podcasts. Louisiana Considered wants to hear from you!

Please fill out our pitch line to let us know what kinds of story ideas you have for our show. And while you’re at it, fill out our listener survey! We want to keep bringing you the kinds of conversations you’d like to listen to.

Louisiana Considered is made possible with support from our listeners. Thank you!

After 12 weeks, Louisiana’s regular legislative session officially wrapped on Monday night. Capitol Access Reporter Brooke Thorington gives us the latest, including the new congressional voting map, teacher pay raises and environmental legislation. 

Students in New Orleans recently celebrated the end of the school year and all the milestones that come with it. This was Fateama Fulmore’s first full year as the city’s superintendent. She spoke with WWNO’s education reporter Aubri Juhasz for more on the biggest lessons she learned this year and her hopes for next. 

Louisiana Public Broadcasting is launching a new digital series. Called “LA64” the series will embark on a five-year initiative to explore each parish in the state, what sets them all apart, and what unites them. 

Host and producer of the new series, Karen LeBlanc, tells us more about the first season, and highlights some of the state’s forgotten small towns. 

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Today’s episode of Louisiana Considered was hosted by Sara Henegan. Our managing producer is Alana Schreiber, and our assistant producer is Aubry Procell. Our engineer is Garrett Pittman.

You can listen to Louisiana Considered Monday through Friday at noon and 7 p.m. It’s available on Spotify, the NPR App, and wherever you get your podcasts. 

Louisiana Considered wants to hear from you! Please fill out our pitch line to let us know what kinds of story ideas you have for our show. And while you’re at it, fill out our listener survey! We want to keep bringing you the kinds of conversations you’d like to listen to.

Louisiana Considered is made possible with support from our listeners. Thank you!

Shortly after his inauguration, Gov. Jeff Landry signed a package of tough-on-crime bills that drastically changed the state’s sentencing laws. Now, two years later, the governor is hoping to add even more beds to the state’s largest prison through a newly proposed corrections budget.

ProPublica and Verite News have spent more than two years investigating the impact of Landry’s policies on the criminal justice system and how expanding the state’s corrections budget would impact taxpayers.

Verite News reporter Richard Webster joins us with more.

Louisiana Republican State Sen. Jay Morris used his office to help bring one of the world’s largest data centers to Richland Parish. But he also owned thousands of acres surrounding the site that the company planned to build on. He then sold some of that land for the construction of a power plant that will provide energy to Meta’s massive array of computers.

Garrett Hazelwood, an investigative reporter at Floodlight, worked in partnership with Verite and the Louisiana Illuminator to break the story. He tells us more about his findings that Morris’s conduct may have violated state ethics laws. 

In New Orleans, there’s an ongoing battle at the office of the clerk of criminal court — or what was the office of the clerk of criminal court. Calvin Duncan, a lawyer, criminal justice advocate and wrongfully convicted Black man who served almost 30 years in prison before his exoneration, ran for clerk of criminal court and won. Afterward, state lawmakers removed his position, seeking to combine his office with the civil court clerk.

In a recent interview on Louisiana Considered, Duncan traced the move to unseat him before taking office back to the days of Reconstruction. Arguing that Louisiana has a history of diluting Black political power.

Jarret Luter is an Instructor of History at Southern University. He joins us for more on the throughline between Reconstruction and modern examples of diluting Black voting power.

June 1 marks the start of Pride Month, so today we’re remembering the late gay rights activist Stewart Butler. A survivor of the tragic Upstairs Lounge fire, the New Orleans native’s activism spanned over 40 years as he helped found numerous LGBTQ+ organizations.

In 2019, Butler spoke with Mark Cave from the Historic New Orleans Collection about his contributions to the movement, including the first gay rights conference at LSU. Today, we give his recollections a second listen.

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Today’s episode of Louisiana Considered was hosted by Karen Henderson. Our managing producer is Alana Schreiber. We receive production and technical support from Garrett Pittman, Adam Vos and our assistant producer, Aubry Procell. 

You can listen to Louisiana Considered Monday through Friday at noon and 7 p.m. It’s available on Spotify, the NPR App and wherever you get your podcasts. 

Louisiana Considered wants to hear from you! Please fill out our pitch line to let us know what kinds of story ideas you have for our show. And while you’re at it, fill out our listener survey! We want to keep bringing you the kinds of conversations you’d like to listen to.

Louisiana Considered is made possible with support from our listeners. Thank you!

Today we’re bringing you the second part of the latest Sea Change episode, Losing Paradise.

As Louisiana’s coastal wetlands are claimed by the rising Gulf, fishermen and oil companies disagree over who has the right to the drowned land. 

Oil companies say they still pay taxes on the drowned property and have a right to keep off trespassers. Meanwhile fishermen say these are public navigable waters.

Attempts to pass legislation that would bring clarity have failed, so host Carlyle Calhoun brings us to another battlefront - the courthouse.

Billions from opioid settlements are flowing to local governments to help communities devastated by addiction.

In Louisiana, one of the hardest-hit areas — Jefferson Parish — is set to receive tens of millions of dollars.

But as the Gulf States Newsroom’s Drew Hawkins and Verite News’ Katie Jane Fernelius report, the parish has spent little of it so far.

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Today’s episode of Louisiana Considered was hosted by Alana Schreiber. Our managing producer is Alana Schrieber. We get production and technical support from Garrett Pittman, Adam Vos and Aubry Procell. 

You can listen to Louisiana Considered Monday through Friday at noon and 7 p.m. It’s available on Spotify, Google Play and wherever you get your podcasts. 

Louisiana Considered wants to hear from you! Please fill out our pitch line to let us know what kinds of story ideas you have for our show. And while you’re at it, fill out our listener survey! We want to keep bringing you the kinds of conversations you’d like to listen to.

Louisiana Considered is made possible with support from our listeners. Thank you!

Why are fishermen being arrested in Louisiana? An epic battle over "Sportsman's Paradise" is being waged on Louisiana's water. This is a story about public rights and private power colliding. As more and more of Louisiana’s coast disappears underwater, the state’s two most powerful and iconic forces – fishing and fossil fuels – are waging war over who owns the drowned land.

This episode was hosted and reported by Sea Change's executive producer, Carlyle Calhoun. The episode was edited by Eve Abrams. Additional help from Johanna Zorn, Drew Hawkins, Eva Tesfaye, and Michael McEwan. The episode was fact-checked by Philip Kiefer. Sound design by Dennis Funk, and our theme music is by Jon Batiste.

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Sea Change is a WWNO and WRKF production. We are part of the NPR Podcast Network and distributed by PRX. Sea Change is made possible with major support from the Gulf Research Program of the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. WWNO’s Coastal Desk is supported by the Walton Family Foundation, the Meraux Foundation, and the Greater New Orleans Foundation.

The new documentary “Steal This Story, Please!” tells the story of independent investigative journalist and co-founder of Democracy Now, Amy Goodman. Produced by Elsewhere Films, the documentary explores Goodman’s globe-trotting reporting, covering the Indonesian invasion of East Timor, tracking down oil executives in Nigeria and her advocacy for the release of a man she believes was wrongfully imprisoned in Louisiana. 

The film highlights her commitment to democracy and truth-telling, and is imbued with a strong sense of her Jewish identity and New York roots. 

Goodman joins us alongside one of the co-directors, Tia Lessin. Lessin, alongside her husband and production partner Carl Deal, also directed the Oscar-nominated documentary about Hurricane Katrina, “Trouble the Water.”

They discuss how the documentary came together, what sets Goodman apart from other journalists and the future of the increasingly attacked industry. 

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Today’s episode of Louisiana Considered was hosted by Adam Vos. Our managing producer is Alana Schreiber. We get production support from Garrett Pittman and our assistant producer Aubry Procell.

You can listen to Louisiana Considered Monday through Friday at noon and 7 p.m. It’s available on Spotify, the NPR App and wherever you get your podcasts. Louisiana Considered wants to hear from you!

Please fill out our pitch line to let us know what kinds of story ideas you have for our show. And while you’re at it, fill out our listener survey! We want to keep bringing you the kinds of conversations you’d like to listen to.

Louisiana Considered is made possible with support from our listeners. Thank you!

The Louisiana legislative session is entering its final week. Times-Picayune/The Advocate’s editorial director and columnist, Stephanie Grace, tells us what bills passed, which failed, and what efforts are underway to change voting in the party primary system. 

Another school year has come and gone. In Louisiana, reading scores are continuing to rise after a COVID drop. WWNO and WRKF’s education reporter Aubri Juhasz joins us to discuss some of the biggest stories from the last school year.

For years, Louisiana has had one of the highest rates of incarceration in the country. But for many women leaving prison, the barriers don’t end once they’re released — especially when it comes to education and employment.

Operation Restoration is working to change that through higher education, job training and reentry support for formerly incarcerated women and girls. 

Syrita Steib, founder and CEO of Operation Restoration, and Stephanie King, the first graduate of the organization’s College-in-Prison partnership with Tulane University, join us with more.

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Today’s episode of Louisiana Considered was hosted by Sara Henegan. Our managing producer is Alana Schreiber, and our assistant producer is Aubry Procell. Our engineer is Garrett Pittman.

You can listen to Louisiana Considered Monday through Friday at noon and 7 p.m. It’s available on Spotify, the NPR App, and wherever you get your podcasts. 

Louisiana Considered wants to hear from you! Please fill out our pitch line to let us know what kinds of story ideas you have for our show. And while you’re at it, fill out our listener survey! We want to keep bringing you the kinds of conversations you’d like to listen to.

Louisiana Considered is made possible with support from our listeners. Thank you!

Louisiana lawmakers recently passed a bill eliminating New Orleans’ clerk of criminal court. The parish had been the only one with two clerks, one for criminal court and another for civil. Governor Jeff Landry signed the bill into law just days before Calvin Duncan, a formerly wrongfully incarcerated Black man, was set to take office, after being elected to the criminal court position in November. 

Calvin Duncan joins us for more on his fight to keep the job he was elected to serve. 

Last year, journalist Susan Saulny read the headline, “New Pope Has Creole Roots in New Orleans.” As she learned more about Pope Leo XIV’s mixed racial heritage from Louisiana, she began to think about her own family. In particular, her white passing great uncle who moved north, and her Black grandfather who stayed in the south. 

She set out to learn more about her family history, and recently wrote about her process and discoveries for the New York Times. Susan joins us for more on her discoveries.

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Today’s episode of Louisiana Considered was hosted by Alana Schreiber. Our managing producer is Alana Schrieber. We get production and technical support from Garrett Pittman, Adam Vos and Aubry Procell. 

You can listen to Louisiana Considered Monday through Friday at noon and 7 p.m. It’s available on Spotify, Google Play and wherever you get your podcasts. 

Louisiana Considered wants to hear from you! Please fill out our pitch line to let us know what kinds of story ideas you have for our show. And while you’re at it, fill out our listener survey! We want to keep bringing you the kinds of conversations you’d like to listen to.

Louisiana Considered is made possible with support from our listeners. Thank you!