Louisiana Considered

Louisiana is the only state where students have gotten better at reading since 2019. Officials credit new laws, and now, the final piece is taking effect: holding back third graders who are behind in reading. Education reporter Aubri Juhasz explains how schools are trying to help kids pass the test. Then, she joins WRKF’s Karen Henderson to follow up on the state’s new third-grade reading law. 

Four ensembles are gearing up to open the New Orleans Ballet Association’s 2025-26 season. Upcoming performances include “Dance Theatre of Harlem,” and “Argentina’s Tango After Dark.” Executive director Jenny Hamilton tells us what to expect at the series of performances.

The Deep South continues to be left out of the tech industry boom.

Yes there are exceptions like Huntsville, Alabama, but states like Missisisppi and Louisiana have not seen nearly as many high paying jobs the tech industry has bought elsewhere.

Stephan Bisaha of the Gulf States Newsroom reports on the advantages of being a tech company in Mississippi…and what’s holding the state back.

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Today’s episode of Louisiana Considered was hosted by Diane Mack. 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!

Over the weekend, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders came to Shreveport, the latest stop on his speaking tour, “Fighting Oligarchy: Where We Go From Here.” The senator discussed issues like tax cuts, health care, food insecurity, and Trump’s “big beautiful bill” – in front of a crowd of 1,800 in House Speaker Mike Johnson’s district. 

Ahead of his Shreveport rally, Sanders joined us to discuss some of his talking points. 

On Sunday, LSU Baseball won the College World Series. Their 5-3 victory over Coastal Carolina University marked the eighth time the team has won the championship, the second time in three years.

Koki Riley covers LSU baseball and football for the Baton Rouge Advocate He was at the series in Omaha, and joined us for a recap. 

The City of Kenner has canceled its annual Hispanic Heritage Festival amid growing concerns in the Latino community about immigration enforcement activity in the area. Organizers worried attendees wouldn’t feel comfortable attending the September event at the Kenner Boat Launch. 

AnaMaria Bech, publisher of bilingual magazine VIVA NOLA and promoter of the festival, tells us how the local Latino community is feeling.

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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!

It’s official, the LSU Tigers Baseball Team is headed to the College World Series Finals. They clinched in an exciting victory over Arkansas on Wednesday, and will now face Coastal Carolina University in Omaha. If they pull out a win, it will be the Tigers second baseball title in three years.

Koki Riley covers LSU baseball and football for The Baton Rouge Advocate. He joins us now from Omaha for more.

Climate change is impacting everyone, but indigenous communities are often on the frontline. Today we bring you the second part of the latest episode of Sea Change to learn about similarities between tribal communities in south Louisiana and western Alaska. Coastal reporter Eva Tesfaye visits Louisiana’s Point-au Chien-Indian Tribe, which is losing their land to coastal erosion. KYUK’s Sage Smiley visits Nunapitchuk in Alaska where residents are being forced to move to a nearby hill as thawing permafrost destroys their village’s infrastructure. 

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Today’s episode of Louisiana Considered was hosted by Bob Pavlovich. 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!

It’s Thursday, and that means The Times-Picayune/The Advocate’s editorial director and columnist Stephanie Grace. Today, she tells us how Senate President Cameron Henry, R-Metairie, pushed back on Gov. Jeff Landry’s agenda during the legislative session, despite his record of sticking to party lines. 

Climate change is altering the land we live on, and Indigenous communities are on the frontline. In the first part of the latest episode of Sea Change, we bring you to Alaska, where rapid permafrost thaw is threatening the Native village of Nunapitchuk. Then, we head to Louisiana, where the Pointe-Au-Chien Indian Tribe is watching their land disappear underwater due to sea level rise. These threats are forcing these tribes to make the difficult decision: to stay and adapt, or to leave their ancestral home.

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Today’s episode of Louisiana Considered was hosted by Bob Pavlovich. 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!

Louisiana’s legislative session wrapped last week with 300 bills now heading to Gov. Jeff Landry’s desk.  He’s expected to sign many of them into law, but he’s already vetoed three. 

WWNO and WRKF’s Capitol Access reporter Brooke Thorington, health reporter Rosemary Westwood and education reporter Aubri Juhasz join us to break down the legislation. 

Churchill Downs, which owns Fair Grounds race track, threatened to leave Louisiana, raising concerns about the future of horse racing in New Orleans. City and state lawmakers recently passed legislation to keep horse racing there, and on Tuesday, Churchill Downs Inc. reached an agreement with horsemen to continue racing in New Orleans. However, the deal has yet to be finalized. 

Before the agreement was reached, Tony McAuley, a reporter covering the matter for The Times-Picayune/The Advocate, joined Louisiana Considered to discuss the situation. 

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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!

While House Speaker MikeJohnson has been supporting President Trump’s “One Big, Beautiful Bill,” its proposed Medicaid cuts could cause many of his constituents to lose coverage. The Gulf States Newsroom’s Drew Hawkins traveled to Shreveport to hear what people are saying. 

One of the longest-running Broadway productions, “A Chorus Line,” opens at the Tulane Summer Lyric Theatre this weekend. And for the first time in the company’s history, all productions this season are directed and choreographed by women. 

Director and choreographer Jauné Buisson and cast member Michael Paternostro share the details.

Another performance debuts at Tulane this weekend as the New Orleans Shakespeare Festival continues its run of “The Imaginary Invalid.” Cast members Doug Spearman and Alix Paige tell us about performing Molliere’s 17th century comedy.

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Today’s episode of Louisiana Considered was hosted by Diane Mack. 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  passed more than 200 bills during this year’s regular legislative session. WWNO/WRKF Capitol Access reporter Brooke Thorington joined Louisiana Considered to give us an overview of what lawmakers achieved this session, from approving ivermectin sales without prescriptions to insurance reform.

A new lawsuit by the Southern Poverty Law Center and National Housing Law Project alleges that Louisiana’s eviction process incentivizes justices of the peace to order evictions and encourages landlords to file more cases. The suit alleges that allowing justices of the peace to fund their salaries with court fee revenue violates the due process and equal protection rights of Louisiana’s poorest tenants. 

Investigative journalist Delaney Nolan has been covering the lawsuit for Bolts, and joins us with more details.

Pennington Biomedical Research launched a new initiative earlier this month that aims to reduce rates of childhood obesity in Louisiana. Melissa Martin, director of Greaux Healthy, joins us to discuss the group’s work.

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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!

Louisiana counts nearly 2,000 foster homes across the state. There are more than 4,000 children in the foster care system.

Right away, you can see the math doesn’t work unless every foster family doubles up on the number of children they take — and of course, that’s not feasible or even recommended in lots of cases.

This week, we’ll get the perspective of those involved in Louisiana’s foster care system to see if and how the gaps can be filled.

We’ll hear from a faith-based group that’s the state’s go-to for therapeutic foster care.

David Matlock, secretary of the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services, the state agency in charge of foster care, will also join us.

And we’ll learn how people who were once in the system now get a say in how it operates.

It’s Thursday and time for our week in politics with the editorial director and columnist for the Times-Picayune/The Advocate, Stephanie Grace. Today, she discusses how rising crime and the recent jailbreak are impacting approval ratings for the city’s law enforcement officers. And she reviews approval ratings for the current mayoral candidates. 

Flag football’s upcoming debut at the 2028 LA Olympics has sparked a debate: should seasoned flag football players or NFL bigshots be the ones going for gold?

Recently, NFL team owners voted to allow the league’s best players to compete in the Olympic games, but practiced flag football players want their chance to try out as well, arguing that they play this version of the game better than the pros.

Darrell Doucette III, known as “Housh,” is quarterback of the U.S. Flag National Team and one of the top flag football players in the world. The New Orleans native joins us for more on his journey in the sport and what he hopes to see at Olympic try-outs. 

Starting a small business can be daunting, exciting, vexing and expensive. But in New Orleans, the not-for-profit group Propeller has been helping entrepreneurs start and grow their businesses since 2009.

Propeller has appointed a new CEO, Jessica Allen, who comes from within the ranks of the group’s team. She joins us for more on her plans to help grow the city’s small business economy.

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Today’s episode of Louisiana Considered was hosted by Bob Pavlovich. 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!

Cyberattacks on big companies get plenty of attention, but small businesses are hit about four times as often. A New Orleans restaurant owner lost thousands after her Facebook was hacked. 

The Gulf States Newsroom’s Stephan Bisaha shares why hackers are targeting small businesses. 

There’s been roughly $11 billion in cuts to university research funding since President Trump took office in January. Trump has cited widespread political bias, including antisemitism, as the reason for these cuts, saying universities have forfeited the right to taxpayer support. 

While institutions like Harvard and Johns Hopkins are temporarily self-funding their research, not every institution has the means to do this. 

Robert Twilley,  a professor and vice president at the Office of Research & Economic Development at Louisiana State University joins us to discuss how research funding cuts could impact schools like LSU.

Recent national analysis shows Louisiana is bucking a national trend related to state budgets. It’s called revenue volatility, and the report from The Pew Charitable Trusts shows Louisiana’s is actually lower than most of the nation.

Justin Theal, senior officer with The Pew Charitable Trusts tells us how this rating relates to the state’s budget.

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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!