Louisiana Insider

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 helped the magazine win its second Magazine of the...

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 an immersive journey into the city’s, and the dist...

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 Atlanta for 13 years. As an energy expert, he spent...

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, or maybe they were just enjoying a great cocktail a...

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 that prior to that night, women were not allowed in t...

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, “Jesus, Jews, Jihad and Me: M...

“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 Massicot, about his new book, “The Great River: T...

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 the oven lately. That includes relocating Saint J...

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 strategies for re-building; and the other “After...

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 minor but colorful baseball group that played ball m...

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 book, "WINGING IT: Improv's Power an...

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 “Tip of the Tongue," and she’s a magician i...

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 elected officials including Russell Long, John...

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 operates her own business, Magnolia Physical Ther...

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 history of both one of the city's olde...

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 Commissioner (1991- 2000) joins  Louisiana Life Executi...

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 t...

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 Chai...

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 G...

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 ga...

 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 r...

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...

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...

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 Hon...

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...