In March, Loyola University New Orleans named a new university president, Xavier Cole. When he begins his tenure this fall, Cole will be the first person of color and second layperson to lead the 111-year-old Jesuit institution. 

Cole joins us today for more on returning to his Southern home, his love of jazz and his goals for the university. 

The 2022 school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, resulted in federal funds for local school districts meant to shore up safety measures to prevent gun violence. And while most schools are designating entry points and installing video cameras, some are turning to artificial intelligence. 

Marie Fazio, reporter for The Times-Picayune | The Advocate, joins us to share what she’s learned on the potential for AI gun detectors in Louisiana schools.

But first, it’s Thursday, which means it’s time to catch up on this week in politics with The Times-Picayune | The Advocate's editorial director and columnist, Stephanie Grace. With the veto override session in the rearview mirror, we hear about all the bills that Gov. John Bel Edwards successfully vetoed or signed into law. 

Today’s episode of Louisiana Considered was hosted by Bob Pavlovich. Our digital editor is Katelyn Umholtz and our engineers are Garrett Pittman and Aubry Procell.

You can listen to Louisiana Considered Monday through Friday at 12:00 and 7:30 pm. 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.

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During a single-day veto override session on Tuesday, Louisiana lawmakers passed a ban on gender-affirming healthcare for minors. The controversial bill was the only one that passed from this special veto session. Capitol Access reporter Molly Ryan tells us more about what this means and what may happen next. 

Last week, the conservative activist group Citizens for a New Louisiana released a survey by pollster Greg Rigamer showing Louisiana voters have an especially negative view of the state legislature, following this year's regular legislative session. 

Bernie Pinsonat provided analysis of that poll; he joins us to talk about what Louisianans think. And just a note, while the poll was released by a conservative organization largely known for their support censoring library materials, the pollsters are independent and not representatives of this group. 

Next week, the Governor’s Office of Disability Affairs will hold its annual conference to look at disability rights across the state. The conference, scheduled around the anniversary of the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act ( ADA), will focus on a range of accessibility issues including increasing broadband access and voting assistance. 

Bambi Polotzola, executive director of the Governor’s Office of Disability Affairs, tells us more about what’s on the agenda at this annual meeting.

Today’s episode of Louisiana Considered was hosted by Adam Vos. Our managing producer is Alana Schreiber and our digital editor is Katelyn Umholtz. Our engineers are Garrett Pittman and Aubry Procell. 

You can listen to Louisiana Considered Monday through Friday at 12:00 and 7:30 pm. 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!

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Earlier this month, author Maurice Carlos Ruffin was selected as the 24th recipient of the Louisiana Writer Award. The New Orleans native’s debut novel, We Cast a Shadow, was a finalist for multiple awards, and his second book, The Ones Who Don’t Say They Love You, was a New York Times Editor’s Choice and selected as the focus of One Book One New Orleans, a city-wide reading campaign. 

Maurice Carlos Ruffin joins us now for more on his literary journey and how he characterizes his hometown of New Orleans through his writing. 

The New Orleans Shakespeare Festival at Tulane is rounding out its summer season with a production of Romeo and Juliet. Director Burton Tedesco, along with leading actors Edward Montoya and Alexandria Miles, tell us more about how they’re giving this classic story of star-crossed lovers a fresh interpretation. 

But first, for the last decade a program in Clarksdale, Mississippi, has been teaching moms to care for their babies from birth until toddler-age. Over the years, it’s given more than 400 parents a safe space to ask questions about everything from birth control to mental health. Maya Miller of the Gulf States Newsroom takes us inside a classroom at Baby University.

Today’s episode of Louisiana Considered was hosted by Diane Mack. Our managing producer is Alana Schreiber and our digital editor is Katelyn Umholtz. Our engineers are Garrett Pittman and Aubry Procell.

You can listen to Louisiana Considered Monday through Friday at 12:00 and 7:30 pm. 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.

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A new New Orleans law that seeks to protect tenants from landlord retaliation went into effect earlier this month. The Healthy Homes Ordinance makes it harder for landlords to retaliate against renters who ask for repairs or report problems covered by the City’s housing health and safety rules.  

Josie Abugov reported this story for the nonprofit news site Verite, and she joins us now for a look at the law’s effectiveness over the last month. 

For years, Louisiana’s medical marijuana market has been stagnant. The state has some of the most restrictive policies in the nation. But a recent study projected skyrocketing legal cannabis sales in Louisiana in the coming years. To meet this growing demand, Louisiana State University is now offering four online medical cannabis education programs in partnership with Green Flower, a leader in legal marijuana education.

Max Simon, CEO of Green Flower, joins us for more on these programs and the growth of cannabis education nationwide.

But first, last week the LSU Tigers made history when two of their championship-winning baseball players, Paul Skenes and Dylan Crews, were the first picks of the MLB draft. This was the first time that one school has produced the top two picks in any MLB draft. And they weren’t even the last Tigers to get the call up. Later, they were joined by 11 other teammates.

To learn more about this history-making draft, Louisiana Considered’s Managing Producer Alana Schreiber spoke with The Advocate’s LSU baseball and football reporter, Leah Vann.

Today’s episode of Louisiana Considered was hosted by Karen Henderson. Our managing producer is Alana Schreiber and our digital editor is Katelyn Umholtz. Our engineers are Garrett Pittman and Aubry Procell.

You can listen to Louisiana Considered Monday through Friday at 12:00 and 7:30 pm. 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!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

 It's no secret that 2023 has been a big year for sports in the Bayou State, as Louisiana State University took home two championship titles in women's basketball and baseball. But LSU's accomplishments aren't the only ones worth celebrating, as the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame (LSHOF) gears up to induct this year's class honoring some of the best athletes, coaches and journalists the state has ever seen.

Walter Imahara is a six-time USA National Weightlifting Champion and longtime resident of Baton Rouge, where he runs a gardening and landscaping business. He joins us for more on his athletic career that led him from a Japanese internment camp to becoming a six-time national weightlifting champion. 

The Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame doesn’t just honor former athletes, but all those who have contributed to the sporting world, including coaches, agents, journalists and broadcasters. 

For more, we are joined by two other 2023 LSHOF inductees: Paul Mainieri, former LSU baseball coach who led the Tigers to their 2009 championship win, discusses his love of working with young people. And Lori Lyons, sports reporter for The Advocate, L’Observateur and current journalism and multimedia teacher at Riverside Academy, discusses the trail she blazed for women in the industry. 

Today’s episode of Louisiana Considered was hosted by Kezia Setyawan. Our managing producer is Alana Schreiber and our digital editor is Katelyn Umholtz. Our engineers are Garrett Pittman and Aubry Procell.

You can listen to Louisiana Considered Monday through Friday at 12:00 and 7:30 pm. 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!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s been a year since Avis Williams started as superintendent of New Orleans public schools. She is the first woman to permanently hold the position in the district’s more than 180-year history. But as head of the only all-charter school system in the country, William’s role is unique and comes with its own challenges. 

She joined education reporter Aubri Juhasz to discuss the state of the city’s schools and her plans for the year ahead. 

Feral hogs are an exploding problem in Louisiana, posing threats to the environment, other animals and people. Some think we can hunt our way out of the problem, but LSU estimates there are more invasive wild pigs in the state than there are people in New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Shreveport combined.  

Dr. Glen Gentry, director of the LSU AgCenter’s Central Research Station, tells us about ‘pig briggs,’ a patent-pending solution to this problem he and his team are working on.

But first, it’s Thursday and that means it’s time to catch up on this week in politics with Stephanie Grace, columnist and editorial director for the Times Picayune. Today we hear whether or not lawmakers are set to override some of Gov. John Bel Edwards’ vetoes.

Today’s episode of Louisiana Considered was hosted by Bob Pavlovich. Our digital editor is Katelyn Umholtz and our engineers are Garrett Pittman and Aubry Procell.

You can listen to Louisiana Considered Monday through Friday at 12:00 and 7:30 pm. 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!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hurricane season is just around the corner, and as many Louisianans know, how well you can grapple with the damage and flooding of these storms is often based on how prepared you are. One Louisiana-based tech startup is focusing on making communities better prepared for floods by crowdsourcing data from individual neighborhoods and spreading the information to residents.

Julia Kumari Drapkin, founder of the technology startup, ISeeChange, and Jessica Dandridge, executive director of The Water Collaborative in New Orleans, tell us how they envision this app leading toward actionable steps to combat climate change. 

The University of Louisiana at Lafayette is designing a small solar-powered satellite — a ‘cube-sat’ — that will be used by NASA to do research into detecting radiation in space. Students from multiple departments at the university are collaborating on this project and its experiments. 

Jared Tessier, principal investigator with the Electrical and Computer Engineering department at ULL who is leading this project, tells us more. 

But first, less than two weeks into the official start of summer, record-breaking heat has already swamped Louisiana and much of the South. And forecasters say the dangerous heat will likely continue. The Coastal Desk’s Halle Parker tells us how to stay safe from the rising temperatures. 

Today’s episode of Louisiana Considered was hosted by Adam Vos. Our managing producer is Alana Schreiber and our digital editor is Katelyn Umholtz. Our engineers are Garrett Pittman and Aubry Procell. 

You can listen to Louisiana Considered Monday through Friday at 12:00 and 7:30 pm. 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!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Just a few weeks ago, New Orleans' own Big Freedia debuted her new series, Big Freedia Means Business. The show follows the Queen of Bounce’s new music and entrepreneurial endeavors since her last documentary series, “Big Freedia Bounces Back.” 

We spoke to Big Freedia in January, ahead of the show’s release. Today, we listen back to that conversation. 

This month marks 157 years since a deadly riot at the Mechanics Institute, when a mob of white former Confederates attacked a group of Black residents marching for their right to vote, resulting in nearly 50 deaths and over 100 injuries. And while the event, which has come to be known as the New Orleans Massacre, was undeniably tragic, many argue it shaped positive Reconstruction-era policies. 

To remember this story, we bring you an episode of the Tripod Podcast, where NPR’s Laine Kaplan-Levinson aims to uncover the truth about this event and explore the relevance today. 

Content creator Joshua Darien started making videos on TikTok about Southern urban legends last summer. Since then, the Alabama native has amassed a loyal following. Today, we listen back to the Gulf States Newsroom’s Taylor Washington’s report on how he navigates telling otherworldly stories in the Bible belt. 

Today’s episode of Louisiana Considered was hosted by Diane Mack. Our managing producer is Alana Schreiber and our digital editor is Katelyn Umholtz. Our engineers are Garrett Pittman and Aubry Procell.

You can listen to Louisiana Considered Monday through Friday at 12:00 and 7:30 pm. 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!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We know that everyone has a role in tackling the climate crisis, so what about artists? Today on Louisiana Considered, we talk with Atlanta-based artist Heather Bird Harris, who has begun making her own paint out of the earth to talk about environmental problems in Louisiana. And we sit down with ecologist Ashley Booth and historian Jeffery Darensbourg to hear how art can combine with other disciplines to communicate in a way they can't.

Then, we go to A Studio in the Woods — literally, a studio tucked deep in the woods — to see a rock puppet show grappling with our increasingly extreme weather. Artists and musicians Quintron and Miss Pussycat then join us for a thoughtful conversation about the profound effect weather has on our lives. They discuss how they use their work to process their own experiences — and how it could help us give us a new perspective on long-standing problems.

To listen to the full episode, go to our website, wwno.org/podcast/sea-change

Today’s episode of Louisiana Considered was hosted by Halle Parker and Carlyle Calhoun. Our managing producer is Alana Schreiber and our digital editor is Katelyn Umholtz. Our engineers are Garrett Pittman and Aubry Procell.

You can listen to Louisiana Considered Monday through Friday at 12:00 and 7:30 pm. 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!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Back in 2020, Lake Charles, Louisiana suffered from back to back hurricanes, and while some areas of the city have since recovered, others look like the storms just blew through yesterday. Now, money from the Biden administration could help the area become more resilient, but some worry the investments won't get to the neighborhoods and people that need it most.

WWNO’s coastal reporter Halle Parker recently visited Lake Charles and spoke with residents. She joins us for more on her reporting.

According to a new report, Louisiana ranked 50th in children’s economic well-being and 49th in children’s health. The report found that the state lacks options when it comes to affordable child-care, and often affordable options cause parents to miss work or even quit their jobs. 

We hear more from Teresa Falgoust, director of data and research for Agenda for Children, Louisiana’s member of the KIDS COUNT network, which authored the report.

The Fourth of July holiday brought sweltering temperatures to the Gulf South as a deadly heat wave settled over the region. Experts say these extreme weather events are likely to become more common due to climate change. Drew Hawkins of the Gulf States Newsroom reports on how some of the people most vulnerable to the heat are dealing with it.

Today’s episode of Louisiana Considered was hosted by Bob Pavlovich. Our digital editor is Katelyn Umholtz and our engineers are Garrett Pittman and Aubry Procell.

You can listen to Louisiana Considered Monday through Friday at 12:00 and 7:30 pm. 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!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.