This 2025 Ten Across podcast year in review takes a deep dive into the critical issues shaping the future of the Interstate 10 corridor.  

We’ve curated a series of interview clips and reflections that will examine contemporary U.S. climate, economic, and governance-related concerns as presented along this transect. From rising risks in insurance markets to the shifting responsibilities for disaster recovery, we’ll examine the urgent need for proactive solutions.  

Some of the key questions we tackle include: 
      
Can insurance remain affordable and accessible in an era of escalating climate risks?
As disaster recovery moves to state and local levels, do these agencies have the capacity to handle increasing demands?
On the twentieth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, what lesson have we learned and how are they shaping our adaptation efforts today?  

Tune in for a thought-provoking recap and discussion that offers valuable insights into how we can better prepare for and mitigate the impacts of climate change.  

Featured podcasts by order of appearance in this recording:   

10X Convergence: The Region’s Experts Convene to Address the Insurability Crisis  

The Future of Insurability: New Approaches and Mindsets  

Mississippi River Mayors Coalesce to Address Shared Climate Risks

Why the Ten Across Geography Needs FEMA with Dr. Samantha Montano  

Extreme Heat Has Only Just Begun: How Prepared is the U.S.?     

Katrina’s 20th: Vann R. Newkirk II on What We Owe Climate Disaster Survivors Today  


Katrina’s 20th: Jeff Hébert on Community Recovery and Resilience  

Credits
Host: Duke Reiter
Producer and editor: Taylor Griffith
Research and support provided by: Kate Carefoot, Rae Ulrich, and Sabine Butler

Economic and social science research suggests climate risks are beginning to inform where people choose to live, raise families, and invest, foreshadowing the decline of a near 75-year trend of domestic migration to the Southern U.S. This is the focus of urban planner and trusted climate adaptation scholar Jesse M. Keenan’s new book, North: The Future of Post-Climate America.  

As the costs of environmental risks to homes, communities and livelihoods become insupportable in the most vulnerable areas of the country, many who are able will gravitate to regions where life can be relatively stable and secure.  North is a comprehensive assessment of trendlines and evidence that suggest how this migration will occur—and how leaders can ensure equity and continuity as American populations shift.  

Drawing on his extensive background in climate adaptation research, Keenan offers strategies for locations that will be sending people and those that will receive them. He concludes North with a fictional description of what America could look like near the end of this century, when many climate impacts are expected to mature.   

In this episode, Ten Across founder Duke Reiter and author Jesse Keenan discuss implications for the Ten Across geography, which is among the most climate-vulnerable regions in the country.  

Relevant Articles and Resources  

North: The Future of Post-Climate America  

“Zillow deletes climate risk data from listings after complaints it harms sales” (The Guardian, December 2025)  

“America’s Home Insurance Affordability Crunch: See What’s Happening Near You.” (The New York Times, November 2025)  

“As millions face climate relocation, the nation’s first attempt sparks warnings and regret” (Floodlight, September 2025)  

“Snow Belt to Sun Belt Migration: End of an Era?” (Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, July 2024)  

“Climate-proof Duluth? Why the city is attracting ‘climate migrants’” (MPR News, October 2021)

“Want to Escape Global Warming? These Cities Promise Cool Relief” (The New York Times, April 2019)  

“The Rise of the Sunbelt” (Edward L. Glaeser and Kristina Tobio, May 2007)  

Relevant Ten Across Conversations Podcasts  

How the 10X Region Can Plan for Climate Migration with Abrahm Lustgarten  

Credits
Host: Duke Reiter
Producer and editor: Taylor Griffith
Music by: Pearce Roswell, Out To The World, Johan Glössner
Research and support provided by: Kate Carefoot, Rae Ulrich, and Sabine Butler  

About our guest
Jesse M. Keenan is the Favrot II Associate Professor of Sustainable Real Estate and Urban Planning and Director of the Center on Climate Change and Urbanism at the School of Architecture and Built Environment at Tulane University. His research spans design, engineering, finance, and policy, with service to U.S. government agencies, international organizations, and major corporations. Widely published and cited, Jesse’s work has shaped climate policy, financial regulation, and concepts like climate gentrification. He is the author of North: The Future of Post-Climate America, which is available in bookstores on December 17.

Despite more than two years of intense negotiations, the Veterans Day deadline to agree on the allotment of reduced water supplies under the Colorado River Compact passed without a consensus. If the seven states divided into the upper and lower basins of the river cannot put forward a joint proposal by February 14, the federal government will institute its own plan—which will likely result in appeals to the Supreme Court.  

Since the first federal shortage declaration in 2021, Arizona has volunteered to accept the largest cuts in shares of Colorado River water. Given that a third of its overall water demand has relied on the river’s supply, leaders in the state are anxious to conclude the current negotiations so that their long-term planning for alternatives can proceed.  

The Central Arizona Project (CAP) is a 330-mile manmade canal built to transport Arizona’s portion of Colorado River water across the state. Approved for federal funding by President Lyndon Johnson in 1968, CAP is an outstanding example of the infrastructural might that has often been required for cities in the Ten Across region to thrive. The urban boom that began in Phoenix and Tucson in the 1980s and 90s would not have been possible without CAP water.  

In this episode Duke Reiter and Terry Goddard, CAP Board president and former Phoenix mayor, discuss how the state has weathered uncertainties surrounding growth and water security in the past, and how leaders need to step up to meet the present moment...and the future.  

Relevant Articles and Resources  

“Former Phoenix mayor: Embrace bad news” (AZ Central, April 2015)  

“40 Years of Central Arizona Project Water Use” (Kyl Center for Water Policy, December 2025)  

“’Dream’ of desalinating water to boost Arizona’s supplies moves ahead with vote” (AZ Central, November 2025)  

“The Peirce Report, Revisited: Greater Phoenix Grows Up” (Greater Phoenix Leadership)  

1987 interview with Neal Peirce on PBS Horizon  

Relevant Ten Across Conversations Podcasts  

Latest Deadpool Projections Inject New Urgency into Colorado River Negotiations  

Understanding Groundwater Risks in the Southwest with Jay Famiglietti  

Checking in on Tense Colorado River Negotiations with Anne Castle and John Fleck  

Credits
Host: Duke Reiter
Producer and editor: Taylor Griffith
Music by: Gavin Luke and Pearce Roswell
Research and support provided by: Kate Carefoot, Rae Ulrich, and Sabine Butler  

About our guest 
Terry Goddard served as Arizona attorney general from 2003 to 2010, addressing major issues, including the fallout from the mortgage crisis, border security, and consumer and environmental protections. While mayor of Phoenix from 1984 to 1990, Terry conceived and presided over the Phoenix Futures Forum, the largest city visioning process in the U.S., measured by the number of citizen participants and scope. He was also elected president of the National League of Cities in 1988. Today, Terry is serving his third term as president of the Central Arizona Water Conservation District Board, which oversees the Central Arizona Project.

In October, stakeholders representing an unusual combination of sectors — public, private, academic, non-profit and journalism — gathered with insurance industry experts at the 10X Convergence in Jacksonville, Florida, to explore solutions to unsustainable insurance and disaster recovery costs throughout the Interstate 10 region.

Insurers continue to cancel homeowners policies across California, Texas, Louisiana, and Florida as exposure to accelerating billion-dollar disasters undermines carriers’ ability to pay out claims while remaining solvent. The industry crisis has begun to spread northward, where a widening Tornado Alley sees growing impacts from property-damaging storms.  

This is a complex, all-hands-on-deck issue. Insurance practices and building standards have not adapted to the realities of climate change, and have neglected potential to be of powerful mutual support to one another. On the whole, 10X Convergence participants were clear that viable solutions will require a combination of applied climate and economic research with proactive governance and communications strategies, and that this must be matched by industry willingness to innovate its systems of underwriting and community development.  

In this podcast, Ten Across journalists Maya Chari and Taylor Griffith take you through the problems and potential solutions discussed by the diverse group of experts at the 10X Convergence.  

Relevant Articles and Resources  

VIDEO: 10X Convergence Event Wrap Up  

“It’s harder to get home insurance. That’s changing communities across the U.S.” (NPR, November 2025)  

“They survived the hurricane. Their insurance company didn’t.” (Grist, November 2025)  

“Insurance for Physical Climate Risk Management: Lessons from History” (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, August 2025)  

“Next to Fall: The Climate-Driven Insurance Crisis is Here—And Getting Worse” (Senate Budget Committee, December 2024)  

Relevant Ten Across Conversations Podcasts  

The Future of Insurability: New Approaches and Mindsets


Carolyn Kousky on Using Insurance Models to Drive Positive Change  

Checking in with Dave Jones on California’s Insurance Outlook  

Credits

Hosts: Maya Chari and Taylor Griffith
Producer and editor: Taylor Griffith
Music by: Out To The World, Marten Moses, Lennon Hutton, and Pearce Roswell
Research and support provided by: Duke Reiter, Kate Carefoot, Rae Ulrich, and Sabine Butler  

Guest Bios (in order of appearance):  

Steve Bowen is the Chief Science Officer and meteorologist at Gallagher Re.  

Adam Reeder is a civil-structural engineer and principal investigator at CDM Smith.  

Juliet Rogers is the president of Blue Cottage at CannonDesign.  

Laura Phillips-Edgecombe is the duPont Fund principal for public spaces and executive on loan to the City of Jacksonville, Florida.  

Clint Noble is a member of the City of Jacksonville Environmental Protection Board and professional geologist with CDM Smith.  

Dr. Quinton White is founding executive director of the Marine Science Research Institute and professor emeritus at Jacksonville University.  

Alex Harris is the lead climate reporter for the Miami Herald.  

Pete Nelson is the communications director for the Gulf Research Program at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.  

Dave Hondula is the director of the Office of Heat Response and Mitigation at the City of Phoenix.  

Casi Callaway is the founder and president of Activate Build Connect.  

Eric Corey Freed is the director of sustainability at CannonDesign.  

Sarina Beges is the associate director of philanthropy and social innovation at the Aspen Institute.  

Ashantae Green is the sustainability manager for the City of Jacksonville, Florida.

As a prelude to the Ten Across Convergence in Jacksonville coming up on October 22nd—where insurability planning will be a focal topic—we’re sharing a conversation Charlie Sidoti and Stephen Brandt, founders of the nonprofit InnSure. Concerned about the risk protection gap growing with climate change in the U.S., these two have applied their combined decades of insurance industry expertise to form a professional network dedicated to developing insurance products that support—and therefore incentivize—communities’ proactive fight against the risks they face.  

Ten Across participants are well-aware of disaster recovery costs soaring in this part of the country. Between 2020 and 2022, State Farm and Allstate dropped a shocking 2.8 million insurance policies in fire-prone areas of California—yet Florida and Louisiana lead the nation with even higher nonrenewal rates. Regulatory reform is struggling to relieve insurers and the insured, and the private market continues to retreat as losses exceed underwriting metrics.  

InnSure believes the insurance sector can lead the development of new models that incentivize risk reduction and community-based action—that in fact it must, in order to remain viable as an industry.  
In this episode, Charlie Sidoti and Stephen Brandt walk us through the challenges and solutions insurers consider in devising effective products to support climate risk mitigation—a preview to the multi-sector problem-solving work that attendees will undertake at the upcoming 10X Convergence.  
Relevant Articles and Resources  

Charlie Sidoti: “Running Toward Climate Risk” (InsuranceThoughtLeadership.com, August 2022)
 
“How Shutdown Gridlock Could Impede Disaster Preparedness” (The New York Times, Sept. 2025)  
“A Trump Administration Playbook: No Data, No Problem” (The New York Times, Sept. 2025)  

REPORT: “Next to Fall: The Climate-Driven Insurance Crisis is Here—And Getting Worse” (Senate Budget Committee, December 2024)  

“The risky economics of living without homeowners insurance” (Reuters, March 2024)  

Relevant Ten Across Conversations Podcasts  

Carolyn Kousky on Using Insurance Models to Drive Positive Change  

Checking in with Dave Jones on California’s Insurance Outlook  

Urban Expert Bill Fulton’s Perspective of How LA Can Rebuild Following the Fires  

2023 Insurance Series on California, Louisiana, and Florida  

Credits

Host: Duke Reiter
Producer and editor: Taylor Griffith
Music by: From Now On and Lennon Hutton
Research and support provided by: Kate Carefoot, Rae Ulrich, and Sabine Butler  

About our guests:
  
Charlie Sidoti is executive director of InnSure, a network of insurance professionals and consultants developing innovative industry tools that contribute to the battle against climate risk. Charlie is also a founding coalition partner of GreenieRE, a reinsurance company with a mission to de-risk and unlock capital for clean energy projects. He has more than 25 years of experience in the insurance industry.  

Stephen Brandt is chief development officer and founding board member of InnSure. Stephen previously served as senior vice president of sales for Vitech Systems Group, a group insurance and pension administration software company. He has more than 20 years of experience in the insurance technology field.

The Ten Across Resilience Network convened in Jacksonville, Florida, in April to share strategies from their communities—the hottest in the nation—for mitigating the mortality and economic loss caused by extreme heat, and to identify common obstacles to both long-term planning and immediate response. Representatives from the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) joined the exercise to discuss and document the findings.  

With co-author Dr. Melissa Guardaro, Senior Global Futures Scientist for ASU’s Global Futures Lab, FAS’s Grace Wickerson has drafted a set of policy recommendations for all levels of government and non-governmental actors, “Framework for a Heat-Ready Nation.” This document draws heavily upon the recommendations, challenges and successes raised by Ten Across participants and outlines a series of steps that can be taken to protect people and their livelihoods from rising temperatures nationwide.  

In this episode, Grace walks us through the five high-priority measures defined in the report;  how these points were determined and what it will take to see them carried out. A scientist recognized for their policy advocacy work by last month’s 2025 Grist 50 list, Grace discusses the importance of decisions based on sound science, and how to move forward even as most federal climate policy is rolled back.   

Relevant Articles and Resources  

Framework for a Heat-Ready Nation (Ten Across/Federation of American Scientists, July 2025)  

2025 Heat Policy Agenda (Federation of American Scientists, January 2025)  

“As summer ends, Maricopa County is on track to see fewer heat-related deaths than last year” (KJZZ, September 2025)  

“Ten Across Joins 60+ Organizations in Supporting Federal Policy Agenda for Tackling Extreme Heat” (Ten Across blog, January 2025)  

“Here’s why an Arizona medical examiner is working to track heat-related deaths” (NPR, June 2024)  

Relevant Ten Across Conversations Podcasts  

ASU Researchers Tackle Extreme Heat Relief as Phoenix Temps Soar  

Urban Planners: The Unexpected Champions of the U.S. Heat Resilience Effort  

What Some of the Hottest Cities on The 10 Are Doing to Address Deadly Heat  

Credits
Host: Duke Reiter
Producer and editor: Taylor Griffith
Music by: Dew of Light and Lennon Hutton
Research and support provided by: Kate Carefoot, Rae Ulrich, and Sabine Butler  

About our guest  

Grace Wickerson is senior manager of Climate and Health on the Climate and Environment team at the Federation of American Scientists. Grace leads programmatic work to showcase how a changing climate impacts health outcomes and public health and healthcare systems through emerging threats like extreme heat and wildfire smoke. Grace holds a master’s of science in Materials Science and Engineering from Northwestern University and was named to this year’s Grist 50 list of climate and justice advocates to watch.

The human interventions intended to make Louisiana's coastline habitable and productive over the past century have contributed to the region's most existential threats. Without redress, displaced river sediment, compromised wetlands, and land subsidence will increasingly expose the state to extreme storm surge and sea level rise.  

In 2007, following the devastating impacts of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Louisiana adopted its Coastal Master Plan. More than 100 projects have been approved under the plan, including the $3 billion Mid Barataria Sediment Diversion. The largest project of its kind, the diversion was designed to regenerate 40 square miles of barrier wetlands by allowing the leveed river to flood the Barataria Basin. Construction began in 2023, but it was ultimately canceled by Governor Jeff Landry in July of 2025 due to financial and environmental objections.  

The arc of this project, from its design through its cancellation, exemplifies how complicated and divisive collective decision-making can become in the age of climate change. Projects scaled to meet major resilience issues are rarely able to serve the conflicting priorities, values, and interests of all stakeholders equally—and trade-offs can bring conflict at every step.  

The Water Institute CEO Beaux Jones and award-winning environmental journalist Boyce Upholt both return to the podcast—this time for a joint conversation about the dilemmas in Mississippi River management, conflicting interests and negotiations in coastal resilience, and what it all means for Louisiana’s future.  

Relevant Articles and Resources  

Subscribe to receive the Southlands Magazine and newsletter here!

 Learn more about the 10X Convergence and attending  

“’It’s a tragedy’: Current, former state officials spar over scuttled coastal project” (The Current LA, August 2025)  

“What scrapping a $3 billion coastal project means for Louisiana’s future” (The Washington Post, July 2025)  

“Proponents of Mid-Barataria diversion warn against abandoning wetlands” (Louisiana Illuminator, May 2025)  

Mississippi River 100 (The Water Institute)  

Relevant Ten Across Conversations Podcasts  

Past and Future Resilience Along the Mississippi with Boyce Upholt  

Want to Understand the Future of U.S. Climate Resilience? Look to the Gulf Coast  

Mississippi River Mayors Coalesce to Address Shared Climate Risks  

Credits
Host: Duke Reiter
Producer and editor: Taylor Griffith
Music by: Emanuel Wilde and Johan Glössner
Research and support provided by: Kate Carefoot, Rae Ulrich, and Sabine Butler  

About our guests 

Beaux Jones is the president and CEO of The Water Institute. Prior to joining the Institute, Beaux was environmental section chief of the Louisiana Department of Justice, where he represented the state on a variety of matters ranging from environmental and coastal law to criminal and appellate law. He previously was an environmental and coastal lawyer for the firm Baldwin Haspel Burke & Mayer. Beaux also served on the BP spill litigation team with the Louisiana State Attorney General.  
Boyce Upholt is the founding editor of Southlands Magazine and the author of The Great River: The Making and Unmaking of the Mississippi. His award-winning environmental reporting has appeared in The Atlantic, National Geographic, and The New Republic, among others.

Negotiators representing seven states, 30 tribes, and Mexico are running out of time to agree on new rules to guide sharing of Colorado River water before a federally mandated deadline next fall. Failure to do so would forfeit water allocation authority to the Bureau of Reclamation, and costly state and tribal litigation would be argued before the U.S. Supreme Court.  

Potable water supply for much of the West is not all that’s at stake in managing demands on the river’s supply. “Deadpool” levels in the reservoirs at Lake Powell and Lake Mead would result in inability of the Glen Canyon and Hoover Dams to generate hydropower. The establishment of new post-2026 operating guidelines among the river’s competing stakeholders is a complex undertaking, consuming much of the region’s attention and effort.  

However, an analysis published last week by six leading scholars in the basin warns that immediate, substantial action to conserve water is needed. Their study suggests that if the coming year’s patterns of water supply and use mirror past years, then by the time any hard-won new guidelines are in place, the basin may already be in serious trouble.  

In this episode, study author Kathryn Sorensen and water policy expert Sarah Porter provide perspectives on the near-term science, human behavior, and potential solutions relating to conditions around the Colorado River.  

Relevant articles and resources  

“Analysis of Colorado River Basin Storage Suggests Need for Immediate Action” (Jack Schmidt, Anne Castle, John Fleck, Eric Kuhn, Kathryn Sorensen, Kathrine Tara, September 2025)

“As the Colorado River slowly dries up, states angle for influence over future water rights” (The Conversation, August 2025)  

“Inside the ‘revolutionary’ new Colorado River proposal” (E&E News by Politico, July 2025)

Colorado River Shortage: What This Means for Arizona & What Comes Next (Arizona Water Blueprint)  

“The Colorado River needs some ‘shared pain’ to break a deadlock, water experts say” (KUNC, May 2025)  

“Floating Pools & Grand Bargains” (Kyl Center for Water Policy at Morrison Institute, April 2025)  

Relevant Ten Across Conversations podcasts  

Checking in on Tense Colorado River Negotiations with Anne Castle and John Fleck  

Understanding Groundwater Risks in the Southwest with Jay Famiglietti  

Experts Share Insights on the Ongoing Colorado River Negotiations  

Why Everyone Should Care About the Colorado River with Rhett Larson  

Getting Honest About the Colorado River Crisis with Anne Castle & John Fleck  

The Future of Water is Here: Are We Ready?  

Credits
Host: Duke Reiter
Producer and editor: Taylor Griffith
Music by: Johan Glössner and Daniel Gunnarsson
Research and support provided by: Kate Carefoot, Rae Ulrich, and Sabine Butler  

About our guests

Sarah Porter is the director of the Kyl Center for Water Policy at Arizona State University’s Morrison Institute for Public Policy, and professor of practice in ASU’s College of Global Futures. Sarah previously served as the Arizona state director of the National Audubon Society and led their Western Rivers Project. She also serves on Governor Katie Hobbs’ Water Policy Council, the City of Phoenix’s Environmental Quality and Sustainability Commission, and several other community boards. In 2023, she was named to the Arizona Capitol Times Powerlist as an “Unsung Hero,” in recognition of her work on Arizona water policy.  

Kathryn Sorensen is director of research at the Kyl Center for Water Policy and a Senior Global Futures Scientist at Arizona State University’s Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory. Kathryn is also a member of the Colorado River Research Group and board member on the Water & Health Advisory Council. Kathryn previously served as director of City of Phoenix Water Services and director of the Water Resources Department at the City of Mesa.

Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast from Florida to Louisiana in 2005 and is still the costliest disaster in U.S. history. New Orleans, a city resting below sea level, is uniquely dependent on engineering for its safety. On August 29th, nearly every defense seemed to fail, allowing storm surge to flood 80% of the city.  

As terrible as the storm itself, arguably, were the human failures that contributed to what happened to New Orleans during and after Katrina—flaws in planning, infrastructure, governance, and social equity.  

Yet change is possible. And in the intervening years, New Orleans has become known globally as a leader in preparedness, adaptation and recovery knowledge.  

New Orleanians are weary of being praised for their resilience. In the past five years alone, the metro area has faced 17 federally declared national disasters—four times the national average. And the challenge of long-term adaptation can be especially overwhelming, especially at a time when consensus seems nearly impossible. But there is no substitute for New Orleans. Its people, environment, culture, and history add up to an inimitable home worth sustaining.  

In this episode, longtime friend of Ten Across Jeff Hébert joins us to talk about the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina—the recovery process and the lessons in it that continue to resonate for the future of all our communities. Today, Jeff is chief executive officer for HR&A Advisors. In the years after Katrina, as a New Orleans native and urban planner, he served as a director with the Louisiana Recovery Authority and as a senior official in Mayor Mitch Landrieu's administration. He was also among the first chief resilience officers appointed under The Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities program.  

Ten Across founder Duke Reiter talks with Jeff about how his experiences with the long game of adaptation and recovery in New Orleans and beyond have shaped his perspective and his work.  


Relevant articles and resources
 
 “Trump’s former FEMA chief opens up — and says administration is ‘delaying’ aid” (Politico, August 2025)  

 “20 years after Katrina, New Orleans’ levees are sinking and short on money” (Grist, August 2025)  

 “Coastal communities restoring marshes, dunes, reefs to protect against rising seas and storm surges” (AP News, August 2025)  

 “Government to keep sharing key satellite data for hurricane forecasting despite planned cutoff” (AP News, July 2025)  

 “Forced to Move: An Analysis of Hurricane Katrina Movers” (U.S. Census Bureau, June 2011)  

 “Race, socioeconomic status, and return migration to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina” (Population and Environment, December 2009)  

Related Ten Across Conversations podcasts 
 
 Katrina’s 20th: Vann R. Newkirk II on What We Owe Climate Disaster Survivors Today

 Governing Through Times of Crisis and Opportunity with Mayor Mitch Landrieu — Part One

 Governing Through Times of Crisis and Opportunity with Mayor Mitch Landrieu — Part Two  

 Investing in New Orleans’ Future with GNOF CEO Andy Kopplin  


Credits

Host: Duke Reiter

Producer and editor: Taylor Griffith 

Music by: Hanna Lindgren, Lupus Nocte, Hushed 

Research and support provided by: Kate Carefoot, Maya Chari, Rae Ulrich, and Sabine Butler  


About our guest  

Jeff Hébert is chief executive officer and partner at HR&A Advisors, an urban development consulting firm with offices across the U.S., whose mission is to ensure their clients succeed in creating equitable and resilient communities. Prior to joining HR&A, Jeff served as Mayor Mitch Landrieu and the City of New Orleans’ first deputy mayor, chief administrative officer, and chief resilience officer. He also served as executive director of the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority, Vice President of Adaptation and Resilience for The Water Institute, and director of community planning for the Louisiana Recovery Authority.

Twenty years ago this week, Hurricane Katrina—still the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history—made landfall in New Orleans. Many mark the storm as the transition point to a new age of extreme weather impacts. The Federal Emergency Management Agency more than tripled the size of its Disaster Relief Fund going forward as a result of Katrina and two other major hurricanes in 2005.  

Yet two decades later, disasters of this scale have become so common that FEMA has been on track to run out of its Disaster Relief Fund for the second year in a row, unless Congress issues an emergency aid package.  And in this anniversary week, more than 180 FEMA employees have endorsed a letter submitted to members of Congress, urging their defense of the agency's continued operations in spite of the President's stated intent to eliminate or severely curtail its funding. The 36 co-signers that opted to use their names have been placed on administrative leave until further notice, The New York Times reports.  

This is the context for today’s conversation with the host and co-creator of the Peabody Award-winning podcast miniseries “Floodlines”, Vann R. Newkirk II.  Vann traces the events surrounding Hurricane Katrina as a demonstration of the ways a community's risk exposure and recovery assistance are often determined by race and class.  These disparities became nationally visible both in the immediacy of the disaster and long after, as some New Orleanians were able to return and recover their homes and livelihoods, while for many others such recovery still remains out of reach.    

Duke and Vann also look at Hurricane Katrina’s invigoration of a national and federal movement for environmental justice. Now that this work is being targeted and dismantled, they discuss how to maintain focus in the face of such dramatic reversals and the implications for the next major storm.   

Be sure to tune in again next week when we look further into the post-Katrina recovery period with one of its primary leaders, HR&A President and CEO Jeff Hébert, who formerly served as first deputy mayor for the City of New Orleans, executive director of the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority, and as one of the first chief resilience officers appointed under Rockefeller’s 100 Resilient Cities initiative.  

Relevant content from Vann R. Newkirk II 

Listen to the “Floodlines” podcast series, including “Part 9: Rebirth”, released five years later  

“Why the EPA Backed Down” (The Atlantic, September 2024)  

“What America Owes the Planet” (The Atlantic, June 2024)  

“The Coronavirus’s Unique Threat to the South” (The Atlantic, April 2020)  

“Climate Change is Already Damaging American Democracy” (The Atlantic, October, 2018)   Relevant articles and resources  

“Banks accounts for $20B climate program frozen amid Trump administration scrutiny” (The HillI, February 2025)  

“The Color of Coronavirus: COVID-19 Deaths By Race and Ethnicity in the U.S.” (APM Research Lab, October 2023)  

“An Exodus Unlike Any Other: Why Half the People in This Community Moved Away After Hurricane Katrina” (ProPublica, December 2022)  

“Flooding Disproportionately Harms Black Neighborhoods” (Scientific American, June 2020)  

“Hurricane Flooding and Environmental Inequality: Do Disadvantaged Neighborhoods Have Lower Elevations?” (Socius, 2017)  

“Remembering Katrina: Wide racial divide over government’s response” (Pew Research Center,  August 2015)  

Related Ten Across Conversations podcasts  

Catherine Coleman Flowers: A National Voice for Rural and Unincorporated America  

Financing Our Future: Justice40’s Legacy Beyond November  

Envisioning a Just Future for All with Dr. Robert Bullard  

Credits:
Host: Duke Reiter
Producer and editor: Taylor Griffith
Music by: Hanna Lindgren, Lupus Nocte, Hushed
Research and support provided by: Kate Carefoot, Maya Chari, Rae Ulrich, and Sabine Butler  

About our guest:
Vann R. Newkirk II is a senior editor at The Atlantic and is host and co-creator of the 2021 Peabody Award-winning podcast miniseries “Floodlines,” which documented Hurricane Katrina, and of the 2023 podcast miniseries “Holy Week”. He is an ASU Future Security Senior Fellow, Fellow of the New America Political Reform Program, and 2022 Andrew Carnegie Fellow. In 2024, Vann was named Journalist of the Year by the Washington Association of Black Journalists.