The Mississippi Valley Traveler Podcast

Send us Fan Mail For decades, Louisiana has been losing coastal marshes in areas around the mouth of the Mississippi River. The biggest causes for the loss of land are the levees built along the Mississippi and the hundreds of canals cut through the marshes for oil and gas exploration. Hurricane Katrina helped renew the determination to not only stop this loss but find ways to restore the Mississi...

Send us Fan Mail Historian, musician, and author Gregg Andrews grew up in the Mississippi River bottoms south of Hannibal, Missouri, in the shadow of Mark Twain. In this episode, Gregg shares stories about the struggles and hardships his family faced but also about how the community known as Monkey Run stuck together and looked out for each other. . He also describes how growing up in a working-cl...

Send us Fan Mail The Mississippi River is polluted! It’s for barges only. Dams on the upper river were built for flood control. These are a few of the myths about the Mississippi that persist. In this episode, Klinkenberg will tackle these and other mistaken beliefs about the Mississippi. For the Mississippi Minute, I offer a few quick thoughts about Moro Island, a place near Sainte Genevieve, Mis...

Send us Fan Mail The Mississippi River is one of the great attractions in the United States, and the route that parallels the river, the Great River Road, is one of the best drives in America. What makes it so attractive? Why do so many people keep coming back? In this episode, Klinkenberg digs into the major reasons travel along the Mississippi River can be so rewarding, from the rich history alo...

Send us Fan Mail In the inaugural episode of the Mississippi Valley Traveler podcast, host Dean Klinkenberg describes his journey to the Mississippi River. After leaving behind a small city in the corn belt, he started college in a Mississippi River town where the river first captured his heart and imagination, but it would be a while before his life centered around learning and writing about the...