Folks in Central Louisiana sometimes refer to their beloved section of the state as “CENLA.” There was a time when some wags might have referred to the city of Alexandria and the area around it as “Sinla.” Historian Michael Wynne joins host Errol Laborde, and podcast producer Kelly Massicot, to talk about discoveries from researching his new book, …

Political analyst Robert Collins joins Louisiana Life Executive Editor Errol Laborde to talk about the past historic Nov. 5 election. Collins, a political science professor at Dillard University and a political analyst for WVUE TV Fox 8, discusses what was learned from Donald Trump’s election including the domination of the Republican party not onl…

Journalist Peter Finney Jr. joins Louisiana Life Executive Editor Errol Laborde and podcast producer Kelly Massicot to talk about his new book, “Drago’s: An American Journey.” It is a compelling story about the Civitanovich family that migrated from Croatia after World War II and the eventual evolution of a great seafood restaurant, Drago’s, best k…

If you have lived in New Orleans for any time at all you have heard about this fellow referred to simply as “Bienville” –although his baptismal name was Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville. The native of Montreal gets the credit for founding New Orleans and being the Louisiana territory’s colonial governor as part of the exploits, for the French cr…

It was along Bayou Teche, at St. Martinville, where Evangeline, according of Henry Longfellow’s classic poem, searched for her love Gabriel. The two had been separated by the Acadian expulsion from Nova Scotia. Not far away in Breaux Bridge there is a happier scene at the annual Crawfish Festival when the bounty is served. At New Iberia, Weeks Hall…

It is not the most poetic of nicknames but it is backed by science. Author Ned Randolph joins Louisiana Life Executive Editor Errol Laborde and podcast producer Kelly Massicot to talk about his new book, "Muddy Thinking in the Mississippi River Delta," and his experiences covering the state’s landscape including the river known informally as “The B…

For this the 200th edition of Louisiana Life magazine’s “Louisiana Insider” podcast, we feature the magazine’s most awarded feature writer. Kevin Rabalais has been the first place winner several times as designated by the International Regional Magazine Association (IRMA) for his articles mostly on the outdoors. A 2022 feature on alligator hunting …

You have heard of Basin Street and its blues? Well intersecting that street on the edge of New Orleans’ French Quarter is “Conti,” a street that was part of the neighborhood that gave Basin its reputation because of the surrounding Storyville red-light district. Storyville has been closed since 1917 but now there is a great new museum that creates …

Presidential politics and energy expert Jay Hakes, a former University of New Orleans Political Science professor, has written a compelling new book about contemporary presidents and their response to environmental issues. He helped organize Jimmy Carter’s Louisiana campaign in 1976 and he would go on to manage the Carter Presidential Library in At…

Sometimes life seems to move in a circle taking its passengers from where they started, to other destinations and then back again. Some of the literary figures who were regulars at the historic Hotel Monteleone in New Orleans’ French Quarter – like Truman Capote and Tennessee Williams – might have experienced that in their journeys for discovery, o…

One evening in 1949, a group of women stormed into the lobby of the majestic Roosevelt Hotel in New Orleans. They headed straight to the bar and demanded to be served Sazeracs, the house specialty and a New Orleans legendary cocktail. What else could the bartender do? A round of Sazeracs for everyone? The geo-social implication of the event was tha…

As a former Louisiana Secretary of State, Insurance Commissioner and State Senator, Jim Brown has had to cross many rivers including the Mississippi, Atchafalaya, the Red and the Pearl. In his retirement, Brown has had the chance to wade in the Jordan River. Brown joins Louisiana Life Executive Editor Errol Laborde to talk about his new book, “Jesu…

“Down the River” is more than a variant of a poker game. For the writer it can be a stream for words; for the adventurer it can be a highway past great cities and alongside bountiful wetlands. Boyce Upholt, a prolific author who describes himself as a “nature critic” talks to Louisiana Life Executive Editor Errol Laborde, along with Producer Kelly …

As a chef, Eric Cook is known for having lots of spice and flavor in his creations. The same can be said about his conversations. Cook – who owns Gris-Gris restaurant on Magazine Street in New Orleans’ Garden District, as well as restaurant Saint John located along the streetcar line on St. Charles Avenue near Lafayette Square – has had plenty in t…

After traumatic events, such as hurricanes, there are two areas in particular that need damage repair. One is the actual physical destruction and the other can be the psychological damage. A two-part documentary produced and streamed by Louisiana Public Broadcasting deals with both areas. One “Trauma in the Wake of Climate Change” looks at the life…

There was a time and region where a homerun might have been exclaimed as being a coup de circuit! The added excitement that the ball may have landed in a field such as near the southwest Louisiana towns of Rayne or Crowley (whose teams were the Rice Birds and the Millers) added to the local color. Those were the days of the Evangeline League, a min…

Randy Fertel knows how to serve with a sizzle, including on steaks or in life. Fertel, the son of Ruth’s Chris's Steakhouse founder Ruth Fertel (known for her butter-topped sizzling steaks), is an author who is fascinated with ideas. He joins Louisiana Life Executive Editor Errol Laborde along with Producer Kelly Massicot to talk about his latest b…

Liz Williams dishes out information about food in several different servings. She is the founder of New Orleans’ Southern Food and Beverage Museum (SoFab). She has written books about food, the latest being “So Fab Cookbook: Recipes from the Modern South,” and she writes a column about food for Louisiana Life magazine. She also has a podcast called…

Few people understand Louisiana, especially its politics, history and issues, better than Robert Mann. He is an author of several books about Louisiana politics, none so close to the topic as his most recent publication, "Kingfish U," a rollicking history of Huey Long and his championing of LSU. Mann has been an insider working for prominent electe…

We know, sometimes back pains can be a real pain in the neck, or something like that. Between our extremities and our shoulders muscles get tight, tensions increase. Beth Winkler is a physical therapist who worked at a hospital where she specialized in outpatient care and developed her own ideas about how to make therapy more compassionate. She now…

This week, producer Kelly Massicot is taking on the role as host to talk to New Orleans culinary icon Poppy Tooker about a special cocktail that got its start in the Crescent City. Thanks to her obsession with the Apple TV+ show "Palm Royale," where The Grasshopper acts as one of the stars, Massicot enlists Tooker to share her knowledge into the hi…

Insurance is supposed to provide security; in Louisiana it has become a crisis. We hear stories of homeowners being challenged to pay house notes because of the growing costs of home insurance. Automobile rates have increased, too, and what about health costs? Jim Brown who served as a Louisiana state senator, Secretary of State and Insurance Commi…

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, b…

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. …

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 i…

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…

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…

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 …

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 …

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 s…

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 hos…

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 p…

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 upriv…

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 photogra…

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 tim…

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 man…

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 ar…

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 E…

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 qu…

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 as…

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, Caj…

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…

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 Bla…

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 s…

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 Lou…

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,…

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 wi…