Louisiana Considered

Louisiana Considered comes from two stations, WWNO in New Orleans and WRKF in Baton Rouge, and it moves between those cities and the rest of the state without much fuss. Episodes string together two or three stories. The openings follow a habit: the lighter items get a quick preview, then a 'but first' swings to the harder news. That news is often close to home. On Thursdays, Stephanie Grace, editorial director and columnist for The Times-Picayune, the Advocate, joins for a weekly chat about politics, and one of those chats covers a batch of bills that set the rest of the state against New Orleans. Republican senator Jay Morris of West Monroe wrote some of them. One would reduce the number of judges, another would combine civil, criminal and juvenile courts, and Mayor Moreno is opposed. Baton Rouge gets the same attention. A blight segment starts with WRKF's Alex Cox, a Report for America corps member covering the metro, defining the word before turning to Mayor-President Sid Edwards and the more than 200 buildings his team demolished in his first year. Public health and public trust come up as well. There is the city's response to lead contamination found in New Orleans playgrounds, with Verite's Hallie Parker, and there are five Evangeline Parish officials arrested after a Louisiana State Police investigation found they had accessed government databases and shared protected information with a criminal defendant. Earthquakes are happening more often in Louisiana, and one segment asks how people may be to blame. The show also traces world events back to Louisiana. An update from the Sea Change podcast links the war with Iran and the closing of the Strait of Hormuz to surging demand at LNG export facilities in Texas and Louisiana. Russel Honoré, the retired lieutenant general perhaps best known for leading the military relief effort during Hurricane Katrina, talks about the costs of war in the Middle East, in an interview that detours through a Dolly Parton lyric Stanley McChrystal cited at Tulane. Then the rundown turns to culture, and it stays specific. Three members of LSD Clownsystem, a clown-themed LCD Soundsystem cover band founded in 2018, are heard ahead of French Quarter Fest. Comedian Ryan Rogers talks about his new special and the LGBT LOL queer comedy festival. The LSU Libraries Book Bazaar makes the case for print, and the New Orleans library's GenFest gives beginners a way into family research. History runs underneath, from Louisiana's place as a destination for the Orphan Train to the story of swamp blues ahead of a Baton Rouge festival. Even basketball comes in through a local door: the Pelicans' minor league team is leaving Birmingham for Kenner, and Joseph King of the Gulf States Newsroom was at its last home game there. The interviews are warm and plainspoken, and the closing credits list weekday airings at noon and 7 p.m.