The Mississippi Valley Traveler Podcast
1) Beyond Plantations: Getting to Know Louisiana’s River Road
Send us a text Mary Ann Sternberg has spent twenty years challenging the idea that the River Road between Baton Rouge and New Orleans is nothing more than rows of noxious chemical plants interspersed ...Show More
2) A French Village in the American Heartland: Historian Jim Gass on Sainte Genevieve, Missouri
Send us a text In this episode, I talk with Jim Gass, Director of Research and Education at the Centre for French Colonial Life, about the long and rich history of Sainte Genevieve, Missouri. We begin...Show More
3) Learning the Language of the Mississippi River with John Ruskey
Send us a text In this episode, I interview long-time river guide and Sage of the Lower Mississippi, John Ruskey. John has been guiding and living on the Mississippi for nearly 30 years, so I start by...Show More
4) The Mississippi’s Forgotten People: Life on Shantyboats and the Margins of American Society
Send us a text A hundred years ago, shantyboat communities could be found along many rivers in the US. Historian Gregg Andrews went in-depth to research these communities, inspired in part by the disc...Show More
5) Beyond Mark Twain: Faye Dant on Hannibal's African American Stories
Send us a text You probably know a little bit about Hannibal, Missouri, because of the books written by a guy named Mark Twain, but I bet you don’t know much about the history of African Americans who...Show More
6) Tips for Traveling the Great River Road, Part 2
Send us a text Our summer road trip down the Great River Road continues in this episode. We start just after Lake Pepin and make our way to the Mississippi’s confluence with the Ohio River at Cairo, I...Show More
7) Tips for Traveling the Great River Road, Part 1
Send us a text It’s summer and many of y’all will be hitting the road to travel and see something new (or revisit places you enjoy). I haven’t done a travel-themed podcast in a while, so in the next c...Show More
8) The Missouri River, Part 2: Channelization, Community, and Recreation
Send us a text In this episode, we continue our detour along the Missouri River with part 2 of my conversation with Steve Schnarr from Missouri River Relief. In part two, Steve describes the process t...Show More
9) The Missouri River, Part 1: Geography, Ecology, and Human Impacts
Send us a text In this episode, we detour off the main channel of the Mississippi River to get to know its longest tributary: the Missouri River. Our guide for this exploration is Steve Schnarr, Race ...Show More
10) The First National Mississippi River Day: Building Community Around the Big River
Send us a text February 1 is National Baked Alaska Day. April 14 is National Ex-Spouse Day, but April 22 marks Earth Day. We’ve had these (and more!) national days celebrating things silly and crucial...Show More