This is an IHeart podcast.

I'm Maeve Higgins, and this is Solvable.

Interviews with the world's most innovative thinkers working to solve the world's biggest problems.

My name is Mitch Landrum from New Orleans, Louisiana,

and I am trying to solve the problem of racial reconciliation in the United States of America.

Mitch Landrieu was sworn in as mayor of New Orleans in 2010,

back when the city was on the verge of bankruptcy.

It was five years after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina and it was the midst of the BP oil spill.

In 2016, he was voted America's top turnaround mayor in a survey of mayors that was compiled by Politico.

And Mitch gained national prominence for his powerful decision to take down four Confederate monuments in New Orleans.

Mitch has written about the entire process in his New York Times best-selling book.

It's called In the Shadow of Statues, a white southerner confronts history.

And in it he recalls his personal journey, confronting racism.

And he also tackles the broader history of slavery, race relations and institutional inequalities that still plague America today. You'll hear more in this conversation with Malcolm Gladwell,

and you'll also hear how things are developing with his organisation. It's called the E Pluribus

Unum Fund, and he founded it to bring people together across the American South around the issues of race, equity, economic opportunity and violence.

And he does that by convening diverse community members to listen to and learn from one another.

What is it about this problem that attracted you?

Well, in my 30 years of experience, 16 years as a legislator,

six as lieutenant governor, eight as the mayor of the city of New Orleans.

Being in a position of having to solve problems,

it became fairly evident to me that it just

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