Where the Route Has Taken Nick Spitzer

Bonus Episode : The State of Louisiana's Crawfish Industry in 2024

In this episode of DETOURS, James and Jordan are joined by Baton Rouge Chef Yvette Bonanno to discuss the ins and outs of Louisiana's challenging 2024 crawfish season.

Where the Route Has Taken Nick Spitzer

In this episode of DETOURS, Jordan, Alex, and contributor John Wirt sit down with host of NPR's nationally-syndicated American Routes [http://americanroutes.wwno.org/] Nick Spitzer to discuss his career chronicling American music, particularly Louisiana's. Nick shares his tips for cultivating intimacy and trust in interviews with the three journalists, as well as countless tales from his conversations with American music legends from the Grateful Dead and Carlos Santana to Dewey Balfa and Alphonse "Bois Sec" Ardoin. He also fills us in on why he won't be running for governor of Louisiana anytime soon.

Whooping Crane Love Stories

In this episode of DETOURS, Jordan and James are joined by Eva Szyszkoski, a wildlife technician with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries who specializes in the state's efforts to reintroduce the endangered whooping crane population to the landscape. One of the rarest birds in the world, the whooping crane's population in North America was down to only twenty-one birds in the wild in 1945. Since then, scientists have combined efforts to raise the birds in captivity while monitoring, and on occasions intervening with, populations released in specific habitats around the continent. Since 2011, Louisiana has hosted a small population—which Szyszkoski has played a major part in monitoring for years now. Over the course of our conversation, she shares the major struggles of Louisiana's reintroduction program, as well as its recent successes—and tells us what it is like to be face to face with these majestic, five-foot beauties.

"The Louisiana Folklife Lady"

In this episode of DETOURS, James [https://countryroadsmagazine.com/api/pv/12PvgjOLSPhPCBHElzE3JTeK9e8gm9UejPN4wE6u9wffyVi324VGwBAYVkLwjfrf/++/topics/james-fox-smith/] is joined by contributor Chris Turner-Neal [https://countryroadsmagazine.com/api/pv/12PvgjOLSPhPCBHElzE3JTeK9e8gm9UejPN4wE6u9wffyVi324VGwBAYVkLwjfrf/++/topics/chris-turner-neal/] for a conversation with Maida Owens, the director of the Louisiana Folklife Program [https://www.crt.state.la.us/cultural-development/arts/folklife/]—a position she has held for nearly forty years now. The three discuss the definition of “folklife” and its iterations in Louisiana, as well as some of Owens’s biggest projects, including the ten-year culmination of folktales collected through the Louisiana Storytelling Project. [https://www.louisianafolklife.org/lfp/main_prog_storytell_projec.html] Owens emphasizes the importance of investing in and preserving cultural practices, especially from the perspective of the challenges Louisianans face today as threats to life in coastal communities increase. Through projects like the Bayou Culture Collaborative and its popular workshops dedicated to bringing together artists, tradition bearers, folklorists, and scientists—Owens is working to provide solutions and infrastructure for the future of Louisiana folklife.

Well-Read: The Hitachi Rice Cooker

In this season's "Well-Read" special episode—in which contributors and local personalities read some of our favorite stories from recent issues—Managing Editor Jordan LaHaye Fontenot reads aloud her story on Hitachi rice cookers from our July 2023 Cuisine issue. In the article [https://countryroadsmagazine.com/cuisine/Louisiana-foodways/hitachi-rice-cooker-in-Acadiana_1/], which has been shared far and wide across social media by Louisiana residents who have memories of the rice cooker, she explores the history of the Japanese appliance's rise to prominence in the rural towns of Acadiana.