Louisiana Considered Podcast WWNO/WRKF Newsroom

May is National Bike Month, and we’re dedicating Wednesday’s show to the topic of bike infrastructure in Southern Louisiana. 

Baton Rouge and New Orleans have been rated as some of the most dangerous places for cyclists in the country. An analysis of data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration ranks East Baton Rouge Parish the fourth-most dangerous place to cycle in the United States. New Orleans is the sixth-most. 

We’ll talk with two people advocating for bicycle riding and bicyclists in Baton Rouge and in New Orleans. We’ll talk with a former city planner in Lafayette. And we’ll also hear about how the decisions surrounding how we build our cities affect how easy it is to walk and bike.

We’re joined by Mark Martin, chair of the Complete Streets advisory committee of the City-Parish of East Baton Rouge; Allene La Spina, executive director of Bike Easy in New Orleans; and Carlee Alm-LaBar, chief of staff based in Lafayette for Strong Towns, a national organization that addresses urban development and city planning practices.

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Today’s episode of Louisiana Considered was hosted by Adam Vos. Our managing producer is Alana Schreiber; our contributing producers are Matt Bloom and Adam Vos; we receive production and technical support from Garrett Pittman and our assistant producer, Aubry Procell.

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

Hundreds of doctors across Louisiana are asking lawmakers not to pass a bill that would make abortion medications controlled substances in Louisiana. They've signed an opposition letter to Republican state Senator Thomas Pressly, the bill's main sponsor. 

Reporter Rosemary Westwood joins the show to update us on the proposal and opposition to it. 

Nearly half the natural gas pulled out of the ground in the U.S. gets exported overseas, and that number could get even higher over the next decade. 

A new report out of the Bullard Center for Environmental and Climate Justice criticizes federal regulators for allowing the rapid growth of the industry without scrutinizing the impact to historically marginalized communities nearby nor its contribution to climate change.

Halle Parker spoke with the report’s authors and she joins the show to discuss their findings.

Music, food and art will bring crowds of revelers to Bayou St. John in New Orleans this weekend as the 2024 Mid-City Bayou Boogaloo kicks off. 

The festival, which takes place on the bayou and its banks, is presented by the Friends of Bayou St. John. 

Jared Zeller, founder, and president of Friends of Bayou St. John and executive producer of Mid-City Bayou Boogaloo joins the show to talk about what’s new at the festival this year. 

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Today’s episode of Louisiana Considered was hosted by Diane Mack. Our managing producer is Alana Schrieber. Matt Bloom and Aubry Procell are assistant producers. Our engineer is Garrett Pittman.

You can listen to Louisiana Considered Monday through Friday at 12 and 7 p.m. 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.

Gov. Jeff Landry signed a package of bills last week that will deregulate Louisiana’s insurance market.

They’re part of Insurance Commissioner Tim Temple’s plan to address the state’s ongoing insurance crisis, he says by making Louisiana a more attractive place for insurers to do business. Critics say the policies weaken consumer protections and will increase rates.

Sam Karlin, reporter with the Times Picayune/New Orleans Advocate, joins the show with a look at these new laws and the controversy.

Carbon dioxide leaks are a growing concern across Louisiana. Energy companies here are quickly building out a new network of pipelines for carbon capture projects.

Leaks from the pipelines are harmless when small. But in large doses, the colorless, odorless gas can cause drowsiness, suffocation and even death.

Tristan Baurick, reporter for Vertie News, investigated a big leak that happened recently in the southwest Louisiana town of Sulfur in Calcasieu Parish. He joins the show to share more about what he found.

The Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge has a new leader. Jonathan Grimes has served as interim president and CEO since the January retirement of Renée Chatelain.

Grimes will be formally introduced as the council's permanent head at their annual meeting this Thursday.

He joins the show today to talk about what’s happening in Baton Rouge’s art scene and his vision for the community is moving forward.


Today’s episode of Louisiana Considered was hosted by Karen Henderson. Our managing producer is Alana Schrieber. Matt Bloom and Aubry Procell are assistant producers. Our engineer is Garrett Pittman.

You can listen to Louisiana Considered Monday through Friday at 12 and 7 p.m. It’s available on Spotify, Google Play and wherever you get your podcasts.

Louisiana Considered wants to hear from you! Please fill out ourpitch line to let us know what kinds of story ideas you have for our show. And while you’re at it, fill out ourlistener 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’re dedicating today’s show to a special conversation about the expansion of liquefied natural gas. 

Sea Change hosts Halle Parker and Carlyle Calhoun sit down with grassroots leaders from across the world to discuss the industry’s local and worldwide impacts. 

Andy Gheorghiu, an independent campaigner from Germany; Hiroki Osada a development finance and environment campaigner for Friends of Earth Japan from Japan; and James Hiatt, founder of For A Better Bayou in Lake Charles, Louisiana, join the show to share more about their work and research on the LNG industry.  

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Today’s episode of Louisiana Considered was hosted by Ryan Vasquez. Our managing producer is Alana Schreiber; our contributing producers are Matt Bloom and Adam Vos; we receive production and technical support from Garrett Pittman and our assistant producer, Aubry Procell.

You can listen to Louisiana Considered Monday through Friday at 12:00 and 7:00 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 Thursday, which means it’s time for our look at the week in politics. Joining us is Stephanie Grace, the Times Picayune/The Advocate’s editorial director and columnist.

This week, we’re discussing the latest news in the legal saga around Louisiana’s new congressional district map. We’ll also get an update on Gov. Jeff Landry’s efforts to hold a constitutional convention this summer. 

Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students’ rights are at the center of another clash between Landry’s administration and President Biden. 

Late last month, the state’s Republican attorney general, Liz Murrill, sued the federal government alongside several other Republican-led states over changes to Title IX. The 1972 law prohibits sex-based discrimination in federally funded education programs. And protections now explicitly apply to LGBTQ students. 

Louisiana’s top education official Cade Brumley called the new rules “radical” and has told school districts to not follow them.

To help us get up to speed, we’re joined by Aubri Juhasz, WWNO/WRKF’s education reporter. 

The French Quarter in 1920’s New Orleans was part slum, part tourist trap, and part incubator. It was a time of rebellion and freedom, of prohibition and free-flowing alcohol. One informal group of residents and friends at that time included William Faulkner, Sherwood Anderson, and Caroline Durieux.

Among them was Genevieve Pitot, a young pianist, trained in Paris, and described by one group member as crazy as could be.

Pitot was a piano prodigy whose travels also took her to New York where she worked with some of the formative choreographers of the early 20th Century, the Federal Dance Project of the Great Depression, and then Broadway.

Denise Tullier-Smith, Pitot’s niece, joins the show to preview her upcoming lecture about the pianist at the Pitot House in New Orleans.

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Today’s episode of Louisiana Considered was hosted by Bob Pavlovich. Our managing producer is Alana Schreiber; our contributing producers are Matt Bloom and Adam Vos; we receive production and technical support from Garrett Pittman and our assistant producer, Aubry Procell.

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

Louisiana’s death penalty law got a big rewrite earlier this year as part of the state’s special session. Gov. Jeff Landry signed a bill that adds electrocution and nitrogen hypoxia to the list of state-approved methods for carrying out capital punishment.

Now, the latter method is getting some pushback late in the legislative session. Some Democratic and Republican lawmakers are hoping to remove the use of nitrogen gas as an execution method. Notable supporters include some prominent leaders in Louisiana’s Jewish community.

Sara Lewis is chair of the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans, and she is on the steering committee for Jews Against Gassing. She joined the show to discuss her group’s efforts.

Alternative funding plans, or AFPs, are a growing tool used by health insurance coverage providers nationwide. The plans have been causing some consternation for policyholders who thought they were covered by their health insurance, but discovered they weren’t for certain chronic health conditions.

Ashley Castello is executive director of the Louisiana Hemophilia Foundation, and she joined the show to share more about AFPs and how they can impact you.

A national nonprofit has filed a lawsuit against the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services on behalf of 4,000 foster children in the state. It claims the state’s child welfare system is failing its most vulnerable children. Alleged failures include too few social workers and placements for children.

To tell us more about the situation, including what the lawsuit claims and how DCFS is responding we heard from Andrea Gallo, a reporter with The Advocate/Times Picayune who has been covering the story.


Today’s episode of Louisiana Considered was hosted by Adam Vos. Our managing producer is Alana Schreiber; our contributing producers are Matt Bloom and Adam Vos; we receive production and technical support from Garrett Pittman and our assistant producer, Aubry Procell.

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