The Dissenter
On the legacy of Louisiana Supreme Court Chief Justice Bernette Johnson and her battle with the Deep South’s white power structure.
On the legacy of Louisiana Supreme Court Chief Justice Bernette Johnson and her battle with the Deep South’s white power structure.
Elon Green The Appeal Mar 2021 40min Permalink
A grandmother’s tale of the night her first love had to leave town.
Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah VQR Jun 2014 35min Permalink
The state loses a football field’s worth of land every hour and a half. Now engineers are in a race to prevent it from sinking into oblivion.
Elizabeth Kolbert New Yorker Mar 2019 25min Permalink
How the disappearing bayou town of Jean Lafitte, Louisiana is trying to delay its inevitable end.
Kevin Sack, John Schwartz The Times-Picayune Feb 2018 35min Permalink
A young, shackled black man is shot to death — and the police say he killed himself. The resulting investigation has pitted the victim’s father against the most powerful man in New Iberia, La.
Nathaniel Rich New York Times Magazine Feb 2017 30min Permalink
“Private prisons are shrouded in secrecy. I took a job as a guard to get inside—then things got crazy.”
Shane Bauer Mother Jones Jun 2016 2h20min Permalink
A study of the Mississippi River, its history, and efforts by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to hold it in place.
John McPhee New Yorker Feb 1987 1h55min Permalink
“Since 1932, the Gulf of Mexico has swallowed 2,300 square miles of the state’s wetlands, an area larger than Delaware. If no action is taken, the missing Delaware will become a missing Connecticut, and then a missing Vermont.”
Nathaniel Rich The New Republic Oct 2014 25min Permalink
In the bayou south of New Orleans, a program called the Nurse-Family Partnership tries to reverse the life chances for babies born into extreme poverty. Sometimes, it actually succeeds.
Katherine Boo New Yorker Feb 2006 20min Permalink
A multi-part series exploring Louisiana’s role as “the world’s prison capital.”
Cindy Chang, Jan Moller, John Simerman, Jonathan Tilove Times-Picayune May 2012 2h Permalink
A first-person account of Louisiana’s prison rodeo in which:
...thousands of visitors drive down this road toward an inmate-constructed, 10,000-seat arena to watch Louisiana’s most feared criminals compete in harrowing events like “convict poker” (four prisoners sit around a card table and are ambushed by a bull; last one seated wins); “guts and glory” (a poker chip is tied to the forehead of a bull and inmates try to grab it off); and the perennial crowd pleaser, “bull riding.” Prisoners can win prize money, but have no chance to practice before entering the ring.
Liliana Segura Color Lines Aug 2011 15min Permalink
An hour-by-hour account of the explosion and rescue effort on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico.
Sean Flynn GQ Jun 2010 30min Permalink