Katrina and the River

Big Picture Science

Science, Technology

4.6 • 986 Ratings

🗓️ 3 November 2025

⏱️ 66 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 Descripción en español 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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1:02.4	or wherever you like to listen. Hi, everybody, Molly here. Just a quick note before we proceed
1:08.0	with this episode. Earlier this year, Big Picture Science aired a three-part
1:11.5	series about hurricane preparedness and recovery on the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.
1:17.2	Over the last week, Hurricane Melissa barreled through the Caribbean. It reached Jamaica as one of
1:22.6	the strongest Atlantic storms in recorded history before turning north toward Cuba and eventually the Bahamas.
1:29.4	As these countries deal with the devastating effects of Melissa, we wanted to revisit the final
1:33.9	show in our series, Katrina and the River. In this episode, we explore how New Orleans responded
1:39.9	to the historic storm and how climate change exacerbates the challenges of hurricane-prone areas.
1:47.1	And here's the episode.
2:03.6	There is one river that shapes and defines the city of New Orleans. I'm walking up to the top of the levee.
	...

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