Imagine Louisiana without French. Even if you don’t hear it often, you know that it is there and part of the state’s history, culture and even its music and food. Well, it could have happened. In 1925 a state law was passed which, in effect, forbade the teaching of the French language in Louisiana. Perhaps the language was seen as being a stigma, but the law was certainly a mistake. In the years to follow, an effort was started to rescind the law and, to the contrary, embrace the language with i...
Jun 13, 2024•25 min
Here is a dash of chicory for your daily podcast listening. The Louisiana-based Community Coffee company is now in its 105th year. Headquartered in Baton Rouge with facilities in New Orleans, Community is the largest family-owned and operated retail coffee brand in the country and a top selling brand not only in Louisiana but throughout the South. Matt Saurage, the fourth generation owner and Chairman of Community, joins Louisiana Life Executive Editor Errol Laborde, along with producer Kelly Ma...
Jun 06, 2024•35 min
Louisiana was the location for the very first Tarzan movie, back in 1917 when actor Elmo Lincoln swung from the trees near Morgan City where the Atchafalaya Swamp played the role of Africa. Louisiana has produced many more settings including for the early burlesque comedians Abbott and Costello whose rocket flight to mars misfired and they landed in New Orleans where the day happened to be Mardi Gras and they mistook the street maskers for martians. Alfred Richard, a film critic whose gigs inclu...
May 23, 2024•1 hr 4 min
No sports figure represent mores of an emotional tug of war than Steve Gleason. It was he that, on the glorious night in 2006 when the New Orleans Saints returned to the Superdome after being away for a season because of the damage done by Hurricane Katrina, blocked a punt in the first two minutes of the national televised game that gave the Saints a touchdown. They never looked back the entire game. Gleason’s now legendary big play is even immortalized in a statue outside the Dome. But Gleason’...
May 16, 2024•55 min
Ramon Vargas, a former reporter for the New Orleans Times-Picayune and now an editor/reporter for the London-based publication The Guardian , has for several years been covering sex scandals mostly between adult educator authority figures and school age youth. Most of his work has centered around the Roman Catholic church in the New Orleans area but has wider implications. Recently, information released by the Louisiana State police who gained access to what has been private documents, has opene...
May 09, 2024•1 hr 10 min
Don’t you hate it when three alligator brothers will not listen to each other when trying to find a safe place to build a home? The reason: Well, two of the brothers, Bumpy and Lumpy, ignore the other brother, Stumpy, who they think has a big mouth and who always reminds his siblings that he knows better. If you think Stumpy has problems, there is a story about Wilbur, the neighborhood sheep, who is ignored because his ideas are always very unsheep-like. Such is a day in the menagerie of Leslie ...
May 02, 2024•35 min
In 1984, New Orleans hosted the Louisiana World’s Exposition, known more simply as the world’s fair. Through the years the evaluations have been similar – the fair was financially challenging but the locals loved it. Peggy Scott Laborde, a producer for public TV station WYES, was at the time a co-host and producer for WDSU TV Ch. 6’s coverage from the fair. She has since done a documentary on the event, as well as a follow-up featuring some of the people involved with the event. She joins Louisi...
Apr 25, 2024•50 min
Secretive Men’s organizations –º such as the Free Masons, Elks, Odd Fellows and many more – did not originate just for the sake of privacy. In many cases they had a social purposes such as providing health and security benefits for themselves at a time when neither government nor private enterprise provided much of either. Some groups were also a source of business and social connections. Jari Honora, an historian and genealogist who curated an exhibit for the Historic New Orleans Collection ent...
Apr 18, 2024•43 min
Louisiana’s longest running weekly news TV program celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. During that time topics have included the Katrina recovery; the David Duke vs. Edwin Edwards gubernatorial runoff; a World’s Fair; the ups and downs of the economy; crime and even the Saints magical season. Marcia Kavanaugh, the WYES TV show’s longtime host, joins Errol Laborde, the program’s producer as well as "Louisiana Insider" host and executive editor of Louisiana Life , to discuss 40 years of big...
Apr 11, 2024•52 min
Words are for reading, but sometimes it is good to pause and have a word or two about words themselves: how they are used; where they have taken us. Louisiana Life magazine Editor Reine Dugas joins Louisiana Life ’s Executive Editor Errol Laborde, along with producer Kelly Massicot, to discuss Southern literature and who have been some of the best practitioners. They also discuss the art of writing, as well as the future of the book industry and some of their own writing tips. (They might have a...
Apr 04, 2024•31 min
Just having survived in New Orleans as a poor French Jewish immigrant was a major accomplishment for young Leon Godchaux. But having lived a life in his adopted city where he eventually opened his own department store, mastered the use of the newly-invented sewing machine for better clothes quality and then to establish a major sugar refinery upriver from New Orleans – which would be a model or the rest of the sugar industry – was a life well lived. Peter M. Wolf, the author of “Sugar King: Leon...
Mar 28, 2024•54 min
Louisiana is a state full of images: the swamps, New Orleans, Mardi Gras, sunsets over the Gulf, shrimp boats, musicians and you can add a touch of Voodoo. Longtime curator for The Historic New Orleans Collection John Lawrence joins Louisiana Life Executive Editor Errol Laborde, along with producer Kelly Massicot, to discuss the history of photography as presented in the collection’s must-have new publication, “Louisiana Lens.” The book is filled with fascinating images dating back from the earl...
Mar 21, 2024•47 min
Sally Asher is a historian, photographer and tour guide who specializes in the bawdy days of the early 20th century in New Orleans and the life and death of the Storyville bordello district. Asher joins Louisiana Life Executive Editor Errol Laborde, along with producer Kelly Massicot, to discuss how the city adapted to two major concerns of the times: prostitution and boozing. In both cases New Orleans has its own creative solutions. As a photographer she also has fascinating stories to tell inc...
Mar 14, 2024•42 min
Even in the worst of times great stories about compassionate people emerge. Stories such as the case of Julius Rosenwald, who in the tense days pf the early 19th Century was concerned that kids from African American families in the South were denied educational opportunities because of segregation laws. Rosenwald, who had achieved wealth at the managerial level of the Chicago based Sears and Roebuck company, became a major philanthropist and used much of his wealth to fight social problems. He c...
Mar 07, 2024•38 min
As a former TV news anchor, Warren Bell reported news of the day. Now in retirement, Bell is discovering news from the past and his sources are archives and cemeteries. Bell joins Louisiana Life Executive Editor Errol Laborde, along with producer Kelly Massicot, to discuss his new documentary “Buried History: Finding Our Past.” The story centers around St. Louis Cemetery # 2 where he discovered a deteriorating family tomb. That began a search for family records and also an investigation of the o...
Feb 29, 2024•54 min
Louisiana has always been known as a great state for news. The news itself my not have always been great but the flow of reporting on the politics, disaster, lifestyles and good times within a multi-cultural state has been continuous. Jari C. Honora, historian and genealogist for the Historic New Orleans Collection, joins Louisiana Life Executive Editor Errol Laborde to talk about the evolution of newspapers in the state including the rise of publications targeting the black community and the ch...
Feb 22, 2024•56 min
Rubensteins New Orleans has always been a place to shop for quality clothes. Now, the New Orleans business provides a quality place to stay. Located at Canal Street and St. Charles Avenue, Rubensteins has long shown a commitment to the city’s downtown. That support has been further expressed by combining some of its adjacent buildings into a new quality boutique hotel. Family member Kenny Rubenstein, an owner and general manager of the store, talks to Louisiana Life Executive Editor Errol Labord...
Feb 15, 2024•45 min
This week's episode is a crossover with sister podcast "Beyond the Beads" from New Orleans Magazine . Since the early 20th Century, the Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club has been a prominent figure in Carnival culture. From the meeting of the Courts every Lundi Gras to throwing their famous coconuts each Mardi Gras day, Errol and Elroy tackle all aspects of the krewe both in and outside of the Carnival season.
Feb 08, 2024•51 min
John Burke knows about swamps. He spends time living close to the Atchafalaya swamp near Patterson, Louisiana. Earlier in his career he was involved in a business of making caviar from the roe of the choupique, a native fish whose eggs have some of the similar properties properties usen in European caviar. Now he gives swamp tours. His company, Cajun Encounters, not only takes everyday tourist into the swamps, but media celebrities too, such as Troy Landry, the star of the "Swamp People" TV seri...
Feb 01, 2024•42 min
Why are people from Louisiana leaving? Well, not all of them are, but there has been a subtle decline enough to make people wonder. “Jobs” is usually the answer, but there is some good news for the future, including in the energy- and tech-based industries. Michael Hecht, president and CEO of Greater New Orleans Inc. (a nonprofit agency dedicate to economic development), talks to Louisiana Life Executive Editor Errol Laborde about both the challenges and the successes of the Gulf South region. W...
Jan 25, 2024•36 min
Dennis Woltering had a long and distinguished career as the nightly news anchor on WWL tv, Ch. 4. Since retiring, he is still frequently in front of a camera and has lots of stories to tell. Acting as an independent producer, he has created documentaries of high-profile locals, including career healthcare pioneer Alton Ochsner and float builder Blaine Kern. (Both were shown on local public tv’s WYES tv., Ch. 12. ) His very latest effort (also on WYES) is “Louisiana Inventors and Innovators,” six...
Jan 18, 2024•45 min
There are lots of questions raised by numbers; fortunately, many answers have been found. Allison Plyer, chief demographer for the New Orleans-based Data Center, looks at both sides including analyzing why Louisiana’s population is declining and why there is still a large presence of handgun use. This week, Plyer shares her thoughts with Louisiana Life Executive Editor Errol Laborde, along with the technical expertise of producer Kelly Massicot. Plyer also specializes in analyzing critical Gulf ...
Jan 11, 2024•38 min
Arguably, no one knows Louisiana food better than Stanley Dry. Having served 21 years of writing the food column for Louisiana Life – as well as having been a contributor to national publications including Food & Wine , Travel + Leisure, The New York Times and the Times’ Book review – Dry, who is retiring from writing, also provided the recipes for a published Louisiana Life recipe collection, “The Essential Louisiana Cookbook. ” He joined Louisiana Life Executive Editor Errol Laborde, along...
Jan 04, 2024•50 min
Gordon “Nick” Mueller once had a conversation with Stephen Ambrose, a history professor colleague at the University of New Orleans. What Ambrose had to say would make history itself. He proposed a project to build a museum focused on the Normandy D-Day invasions. Taking advantage of the university’s lakefront location – which would be used to test the Higgins landing boats used in the invasion – plus Ambrose’s volumes of interviews on the war, the idea seemed like a natural. From that day, Muell...
Dec 21, 2023•1 hr
Louisiana has a rich literary history. All authors conduct interviews as part of their craft, but only one wondered what it would be like to interview a vampire. As another Louisiana author, Kate Chopin, might have said about Anne Rice’s vampire book, it was an awakening. Peggy Scott Laborde, a producer and documentary maker for public television station WYES tv in New Orleans joins Louisiana Life Executive Editor Errol Laborde, along with podcast producer Kelly Massicot, to talk about her lates...
Dec 14, 2023•47 min
When driving into Baton Rouge, one can be amazed by the object in the distance that looks like a rocket ship on a launch pad about to take off. The building, of course, is the state capitol, the tallest of all such buildings in the country and a monument to Huey Long, whose ambition always seemed to be reaching for the stars. “A Tall Order: The Louisiana State Capitol,” a documentary produced by Louisiana Public Broadcasting, tells the story of the building’s history and architecture. Both are i...
Dec 07, 2023•41 min
Jessica Harris has twice won James Beard Foundation awards, including one for Lifetime achievement. Rather than just being in the kitchen, she has proved herself to be especially skilled at blending sentences and paragraphs and then seasoning the mix with a generous heaping of knowledge to create fresh culinary history. For one of her recent books, “High on the Hog” she went to Africa to discover some of the links between African cooking and classic American dishes. Her Netflix series based on t...
Nov 30, 2023•40 min
Suppose your job is to take care of a tiger – a real tiger with jaws and claws and that is physically fit. David G. Baker is a veterinarian who for several year had the responsibility of overseeing the most recent cats who have been the Louisiana State University mascot. This week, Baker joins Louisiana Life Executive Editor Errol Laborde, along with podcast producer Kelly Massicot, to discuss his book "Mike: The Tigers of LSU." He talks not just about the life of a mascot, but also offers fasci...
Nov 16, 2023•42 min
One of the great green spaces in America is New Orleans’ City Park. In 2005, the flood waters from Hurricane Karina turned it into a gray space that was muddied, overcome with fallen trees, deprived of joy and hope. Robert Becker, the park’s former CEO, faced the task of rebuilding the park with no funding and most of the park’s employees having to be released. He succeeded. Becker, author of the new book "New Orleans City Park: From Tragedy to Triumph," joins Louisiana Life Executive Editor Err...
Nov 09, 2023•42 min
Who better to talk about the Day of the Dead celebration than a Vodou priestess? Also known as Día de los Muertos , the celebration has different roots than Vodou, which worked its way through Haiti. It is also Hispanic in origin. Yet both have a mystique with rituals and traditions that commemorate life and death. Sallie Ann Glassman an ordained Vodou priestess whose duties include conducting the annual St. John’s Eve celebration on Bayou St. John and who operates the Island of Salvation Botani...
Oct 19, 2023•33 min
