Katrina and the River

Big Picture Science

Science, Technology

4.6 • 986 Ratings

🗓️ 18 August 2025

⏱️ 65 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

“The Mississippi River will always have its own way; no engineering skill can persuade it to do otherwise,” said Mark Twain. In this, our final episode marking the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, we consider how efforts to control the Mighty Mississippi – a river engineered from its Minnesota headwaters to its Gulf Coast outlet – have responded to the devastating storm, and how New Orleans’ relationship to the river has changed. Can the city keep up with the pressure that climate change is putting on this engineered system, or is retreat the only viable response? Plus, a wetland recovery project that aims to bolster protection from hurricanes and flooding in the Lower Ninth Ward. Guests: Boyce Upholt – Journalist and author of “The Great River: The Making and Unmaking of the Mississippi River” Nathaniel Rich – Author of “Second Nature: Scenes From a World Remade” and the New York Times Op-Ed, “New Orleans’ Striking Advantage in the Age of Climate Change” Harriet Swift – New Orleans resident Andrew Horowitz – Historian, University of Connecticut, author of "Katrina: A History, 1915-2015" Rashida Ferdinand – Founder and Executive Director of Sankofa Community Development Corporation, overseeing the Sankofa Wetland Park and Nature Trail in New Orleans Jason Day – Biologist, wetland Scientist, Comite Resources in Louisiana Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support! Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact [email protected] to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science. ©2025 Big Picture Science, All Rights Reserved Search formSupport the show or Get the Podcast and follow us on social media Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to an Airwave Media podcast.
0:04.2	I'm Matt Kaplan, the host of Safeguarding Sound Science, Evolution Edition.
0:09.6	Evolution is the unifying principle of biology, yet it still breeds controversy a century
0:15.3	and a half after Charles Darwin.
0:17.7	Join us as we meet the passionate researchers and communicators who are expanding our knowledge
0:23.0	and fighting to keep good science in our schools and politics. Subscribe to Safeguarding Sound
0:29.3	Science on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, or wherever you like to listen.
0:48.5	There is one river that shapes and defines the city of New Orleans.
0:52.9	I'm walking up to the top of the levee.
0:57.4	I'm walking through this slope of green grass and occasional wildflowers and coming up over this crest of this long slope is wow the
1:08.3	Mississippi River it It is big.
1:12.6	But when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in August 20 years ago,
1:17.6	the levees retaining the river water held firm.
1:20.6	The canal levees and flood walls, however, proved to be a catastrophic failure of engineering. We welcome you back to this continuing coverage on Hurricane Katrina.
1:31.3	It is 4 o'clock in the east, 3 o'clock in New Orleans.
1:34.3	Officials are telling us that a levy that holds back part of Lake Pontchartrain has been breached.
1:39.3	They say it's a two-block span along the 17th Street and Canal Streets area.
1:48.0	This is a potentially devastating problem because the Crescent City, as you may know,
1:49.7	is below sea level.
1:53.7	As another hurricane season reaches its peak 20 years after Katrina,
1:57.2	we consider the lesson that the devastating storm taught us about being prepared for a natural disaster on an unimaginable scale.
2:01.8	In our previous episodes, we discussed what we have learned about hurricanes and our state
	...

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