Shows
The Mississippi Valley Traveler PodcastBoyce Upholt on the Making and Unmaking of the Mississippi RiverSend us a textVery few people today have any memory of a relatively free-flowing Mississippi River. The scale and persistence of river engineering is staggering, and for many of us, the engineered Mississippi is the only Mississippi we have known. That’s one reason journalist Boyce Upholt’s new book is so important. In The Great River: The Making and Unmaking of the Mississippi, Boyce details our century-plus history of tinkering with the natural Mississippi to remake it into a river that suits our wants and needs.In this interview, Boyce and I talk abou...2024-06-051h 09
The Mississippi Valley Traveler PodcastBoyce Upholt on the Plan to Rebuild Louisiana's Coastal MarshesSend us a textFor 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 Mississippi River’s ability to build land again. Journalist Boyce Upholt wrote about one of the plans to rebuild land in a recent article. In this episode of the Mi...2022-08-3152 min