The Thanh Report

Saying goodbye to elections and the conspiracy theories surrounding them. As voters in Louisiana prepare to head to the polls for many races including one for the next governor, Louisiana Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin is preparing to step away from his post as the person who oversees elections across the state. Ahead of the October 14th primary elections, Ardoin decided not to run for another ter...

Help wanted, but so are skills. Adequate staffing remains a big challenge for New Orleans area employers post pandemic even with Louisiana experiencing its lowest level of unemployment in recent history. The state’s low unemployment rate gives job seekers more bargaining power. That’s according to one local staffing agency. In this episode, I visit with Adeeta Corporate Staffing, a “temp agency” t...

Getting your message across. Now more than ever, we have more ways to control the amount and type of messaging that comes our way. We can fast forward or skip through commercials. We can subscribe to premium services to bypass ads altogether. With that as a backdrop, what’s it like for the people, companies and organizations trying to deliver their messages to you? In this episode, I visit two pub...

A truly hairy business, a barber and his barber shop celebrate more than 50 years of cutting hair. Back in 1973, Sherwood Parker opened Parker’s Hair Styling & Barber Shop on the west bank of the Mississippi River in Terrytown, La. He’s still cutting hair 50 years later. Parker has managed to stick with a profession longer than many people have been alive. Many marriages don’t last as long as...

Golf course warriors, U.S. veterans in New Orleans and across the country are learning more about themselves as they learn the game of golf. Golf hasn’t always been viewed as the most accessible sport, but PGA HOPE (Helping Our Patriots Everywhere) is seeking to change that. In collaboration with the Dept. of Veterans Affairs, PGA Hope is introducing golf as a form of therapy to veterans and activ...

Removing the scars of human & sex trafficking. It took many years for Scott Vaughan to find his true purpose in life: helping survivors of human and sex trafficking get rid of tattoos, brandings and other physical signs from their former lives. His current work through the nonprofit he co-founded, Unbranded, is markedly different from his previous career as a football official in the NCAA’s So...

The heat in Louisiana is becoming more intense and more deadly. If you’ve found yourself thinking that this summer has just felt hotter than others, there’s data to back that up. Researchers tracking heat related illnesses and heat related deaths for the Louisiana Dept. of Health say more people have died or have become sick because of the heat this year. It’s a situation that will likely worsen....

A small-town newspaper in Louisiana keeps surviving as others have collapsed. The current owners of the Plaquemines Gazette are managing to cover news in Plaquemines Parish and produce a physical newspaper at a time when “digital content” is king. Profitable years are rare, as are high paying salaries. So, how does the Plaquemines Gazette continue to operate? I visited the paper’s offices in Belle...

Can’t get enough of hot sauce? An ongoing shortage of the most popular brand of Sriracha hot sauce has left many restaurants in Louisiana and across the U.S. without enough of the wildly popular Asian style hot sauce. Social media has been full of funny and extreme anecdotes from fans of Huy Fong’s Sriracha as they’ve searched for the iconic green capped bottles. In this episode, I sit down with P...

A crisis in Louisiana’s shrimp industry is threatening to wipe it out and there’s real concern it may never come back. Commercial fishermen or “shrimpers” in Louisiana say the prevalence of cheap, imported shrimp has caused prices for wild caught Louisiana shrimp to sink so low that they can’t make a living. The high cost of fuel mixed with lowered shrimp prices is causing many shrimpers to look e...

What’s behind skyrocketing home insurance premiums in Louisiana? If you think it’s all about insurance companies trying to rake in profits, you may want to reconsider. In the wake of several hurricanes going back to 2020, more than a dozen insurance providers doing business in Louisiana became financially insolvent. Others pulled out of the state due to the number of claims and payouts. To help at...

So, you think the driving is bad in your city? People in New Orleans have been known to march to the beat of a different drum and that could apply to many drivers in this city. The shortage of police officers in New Orleans has contributed to a driving environment which could be described as lawless. Hop in the car with me as I ride along with a driving instructor to discuss how reckless some driv...

Digging yourself out of debt. According to one consumer credit agency, Louisiana is third in the U.S. when it comes to the average amount of credit card debt. To pay off a balance of roughly $5,400 would take about 21 months says data from Transunion. Those numbers are optimistic according to Melika Honoré. Through her business, she’s been helping people in Louisiana get a handle on their credit d...

Gulf Shrimp is about taste and delivery according to Mr. Shrimp. In the span of just a few years, Larry Thompson Junior has made a name for himself in the world famous and locally competitive food scene in New Orleans. He’s known as Mr. Shrimp. Raised in the city’s 7th Ward, Mr. Shrimp’s approach to delivering and cooking shrimp has earned him praise and partnerships with restaurants like the lege...

Carla Pesono is a social media influencer who despises that term, but she doesn’t hate the results of marketing herself on platforms like Instagram, Facebook and Tik Tok. In the few months since she went all in with being a social media influencer, she’s doubled her number of followers. But has that paid off monetarily? How do you make money as an influencer? And does a person Buffalo know about N...

Dad of “Praline King” on the meaning of Father’s Day, parenting, and the special bond with his special needs child. Patrick Bode is a blue-collar guy from Metairie, La. Five years ago, he and his family started Pirogue Praline Company. Their take on the uniquely Louisiana sugary treat quickly got recognition locally and even thumbs-up from the likes of southern culinary giants like Paula Deen. The...

Can you really get quality healthcare if you don’t have health insurance?  A network of healthcare clinics in Jefferson Parish is specifically catering to low-income families who may not have the means to pay for the care they need. But how does that work when you don’t have health insurance? I visited the InclusivCare network to find out.

They called him “The Ringmaster”. The founder of the largest Carnival Krewe in New Orleans was more than a parade man. Ed Muniz was also an influential player in politics and radio within the New Orleans region. Following his recent death, I take a look at the life and legacy of a man who truly enjoyed juggling more than one ball. 

Recent shootings and murders in New Orleans involving female victims have grabbed headlines and the attention of city leaders. Those are the incidents that have taken place in public spaces or have gotten public attention. There is an often less visible kind of violence against women, but it can be equally dangerous and deadly. To better understand how that violence affects women and their familie...

Louisiana should learn to live with water, that’s what the lead author of a recent Tulane University study on sea level rise is encouraging locals to do. Sonke Dangendorf is an assistant professor at Tulane’s relatively new Department of River-Coastal Science and Engineering. In the spring of this year, Dangendorf and a team of researchers published a study that found sea-levels along the Gulf and...

Mother’s Day is often filled with flowers, gifts and families taking mom out for the holiday. But for some mothers in the New Orleans area, Mother’s Day can be painful because of the loss of their child. In this episode, we sit down with the founder of A Mother’s Cry, a support network for mothers who have had their child’s life taken by violence. The harsh realities of the city make such a suppor...

Is $7.25/hour a reasonable minimum wage? In Louisiana, which consistently ranks as one of the poorest states in the U.S., the minimum wage hasn’t changed since 2009. Louisiana is one of five states which has no minimum wage requirement. As his second term nears its end, the governor of Louisiana is urging legislators for a “modest” increase to the minimum wage. One attorney who has been advocating...

Hoda Kotb has all the fame and celebrity that comes with being the co-host of the Today Show . But before her network news life, there was her New Orleans life. It’s one that she’s never forgotten, and one that keeps her coming back to the city. Recently, she persuaded the Today Show to take a trip to New Orleans. In this episode, Kotb talks about the timing of her latest visit and how the city an...

Orphanage to Orleans, a New Orleans woman born in Vietnam during the Vietnam War is searching for her birth mother. Saran Bynum was among an estimated 3,300 infants and children evacuated from south Vietnam in what was called Operation Babylift. Adopted by a New Orleans couple, Bynum grew up unaware of her Vietnamese heritage, but she had a feeling she didn’t quite fit in. As she matured, Bynum di...

In 50+years in the car selling business, Ronnie Lamarque has made himself millions of dollars through his dealerships in the New Orleans area. Now at the age of 77, the car salesman is crooning. Lamarque is scheduled to perform at this year’s French Quarter Festival and at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. I sat down with Lamarque to talk about his motivation to perform music at this p...