What does it take to book the Rolling Stones? A lot of patience and persistence according to Quint Davis. He’s the producer of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival and has been pursuing the Rolling Stones for quite some time. Every year, over two weekends in the spring, the New Orleans Fairgrounds is transformed from a venue for horse racing to one of the biggest music festivals in the world. “Jazz Fest” is nearing its 55th anniversary. Throughout the decades, musicians like Bruce Springsteen, Elton John and Stevie Wonder have been marquee acts. Quint Davis has been at the center of it all. Ahead of the first weekend of this year’s festival, I sat down with Davis to get to know the man behind all the music. From dropping out of college to his friendship with a late 60 Minutes correspondent, Davis gives us a glimpse of a life that even he didn’t quite expect.    

It was a massive cargo ship striking a portion of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore that caused the catastrophic bridge collapse which captured the attention of the nation. Video of that collision showed how quickly the bridge buckled after the cargo ship named Dali struck one of the bridge’s support beams. If stood upright, the Dali would almost reach the top of the Eiffel Tower. The Dali’s size is considered to be average in the cargo industry. The size of cargo vessels has greatly increased since 1956, when the first commercially successful cargo ship was introduced. In this episode, I visit the Port of New Orleans to get a sense of why these ships have grown so much and why the port and others like it are building to host so called monsters of the sea. 

What’s your favorite Easter candy? Your answer may say a lot about where you live and what kind of candy and chocolate you ate during your childhood. Of course, Easter is a religious holiday for Christians, and along the Gulf South there seems to be quite a religious following for treats like the Gold Brick Egg, Heavenly Hash, and Pecan Egg. Those are a few of the Easter chocolates made by Elmer Chocolate. The company is based in the small city of Ponchatoula, Louisiana, but it got its start in New Orleans back in 1855. Today, the Elmer Candy Corporation uses state of the art robotic technology to produce chocolate and candy that can be found in stores across the U.S. and beyond. When it comes to Elmer’s Easter chocolates though, the company and its workers go back to some old school ways. In this episode, I go inside Elmer’s chocolate factory to see how man and machine are cranking out something truly sweet. 

You’ve heard of the Grand Ole Opry, but how about the Abita Spring Opry? There’s one stop light in the town of Abita Springs, Louisiana. It’s nestled in the piney woods about 40 minutes north of New Orleans. Abita Springs is probably best known for being the place where Abita Beer originated. But, for more than 20 years, it’s also been home to the Abita Springs Opry. Each year, the Abita Springs Opry hosts six performances. Its main mission has been to showcase and preserve Louisiana roots music. In this episode, I visit the Abita Springs Town Hall where the show takes place and to learn about how Louisiana roots music has evolved. My guide is the founder of the Abita Springs Opry, who has a very personal connection to the sleepy, small town. 

Crawfish, culture and cash. It’s crawfish season in Louisiana, and normally the supply of the crustacean would be plentiful, but not this year. Heat and drought are being blamed for an abnormal crawfish season where crawfish farmers/producers are seeing fewer “mudbugs”, and consumers are seeing outrageous prices for the crawfish that are making it to market. Prices for live and boiled crawfish can vary from week to week, but who actually sets these prices which an entire state keeps an eye on? The answer is a true mystery. I traveled to a crawfish farm in Church Point, La to learn more about the pricing system and the challenges within the crawfish industry.  

The “Pirate Oncologist” and his personal journey with cancer. Dr. Jack Saux has been working to help cancer patients in Southeast Louisiana for more than 25 years. He knows how serious the issue is throughout the state. Louisiana is ranked 7th worst in the U.S. for cancer outcomes. It’s some heavy stuff for sure. To lighten things up, Dr. Saux has been dressing up as a pirate and other characters during office hours at his practice in Covington, La. Over the years, his patients and the community have lovingly called him the Pirate Oncologist. Dr. Saux is full of wit and personality but following a cancer diagnosis that hit close to home, he was filled with fear and anxiety. In this episode, Dr. Saux opens up about how that diagnosis has changed his approach to oncology. He also explains in very relatable terms why cancer is particularly deadly in Louisiana.

Faith vs. finances, a church in New Orleans is desperately trying to get itself off a list of closures and consolidation. There are only a few months left before more than a dozen Catholic churches in the greater New Orleans area will close their doors or be absorbed into another parish. Last year, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans announced the 13 parishes that will be affected. The Archdiocese filed for bankruptcy protection in 2020 after more than 500 claims of sexual abuse by Archdiocesan clergy or staff. As it struggles with its own financial situation, the Archdiocese selected 13 parishes which have been diminishing in population to consolidate. Our Lady Star of the Sea parish in the St. Roch neighborhood of New Orleans is on the list. In this episode, I visit the parish and its members as they try to find ways to keep their individual church alive while trying keep their faith in the broader Catholic church.     

Nonprofit newsroom carves out niche in NOLA’s market. Whether it’s for print, radio, tv or digital, newsrooms across the nation are shrinking. Earlier this year, the Los Angeles Times announced it would be laying off 20% of its newsroom and Sports Illustrated planned to cut a significant number of staff members, possibly all of them. Like any other sector of the economy, the news industry must maintain a level of profitability to stay viable. With the rise of digital and social media, traditional ad-based, for-profit news organizations have had to slash jobs while trying to produce quality journalism. In 2022, two former veterans of New Orleans’ newspaper of record, the Times-Picayune, decided to go a different route and founded a nonprofit news organization, Verite News. But if for-profit news is struggling, how does Verite plan to stay in the game as a nonprofit? In this episode, I visited Verite’s newsroom to find out.