This is the On the Media Midweek podcast. I'm Brooke Gladstone. So this year was Earth's hottest on record,

and the Atlantic storm season brought with it five major hurricanes. And yet in December,

the Pew Research Center found that only some 20% of Americans expect to make major sacrifices in their

lifetime due to the climate crisis. When it comes to planning for a fraught future, writer and

essayist Nathaniel Rich recently argued in a piece in the New York Times that his city of New Orleans

can set an example that the rest of the

country would be wise to follow. Welcome to the show, Nathaniel. Thanks for having me. It's great to be

back. How does New Orleans perspective differ from other places where inevitable natural disaster

is foreseen sometime in the future, and I emphasize, sometime in the future.

What do you think?

I think the perspective down here is franker and more honest than you tend to see anywhere else in this country, certainly.

I was struck by this kind of metronomic drumbeat of the reporting this hurricane season

from places like Asheville or even to the Florida coast of people saying things like,

I would never would have expected this, or who could have imagined?

And nobody says that kind of thing here.

People here live with their eyes wide open to existential risk because we know every hurricane

season might be the last.

And how does that perspective play out in how New Orleans plan?

We're ready.

I think everybody here has a fully filled pantry. They have

gallons of water. Those who can afford it have whole house generators. There are evacuation plans,

as you said, depending on the trajectory of a storm and the duration of the devastation,

...