The Mississippi Valley Traveler Podcast

The Decades-Long Effort to Tame the Wild Mississippi River: How Engineers Reshaped America's Greatest River

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2020383/fan_mail/new] In this episode, I talk with Dr. David Beadenharn, a river engineer who has spent over 45 years studying the lower Mississippi River. David grew up in Vicksburg, Mississippi, stumbled into river work after leaving the Air Force, and never really managed to leave. Our conversation starts with a picture of what the Mississippi looked like a couple hundred years ago, when the river was wide, shallow, full of sandbars, islands, and massive logjams. Back then, the river was constantly on the move, eating away at its banks and shifting course. That erosion was producing an almost unimaginable amount of sediment — around 600 million tons a year. In comparison, the river today carries somewhere around 120 to 150 million tons.  Then we transition to the engineering projects. The Army Corps of Engineers has spent decades trying to get the river under control — first for navigation, then for flood control after the catastrophic 1927 flood. They built levees, tried to stop the river from naturally shortening itself, and eventually decided to deliberately cut off some of those big sweeping bends. The immediate effect was dramatic — water levels at some spots dropped 10 to 15 feet almost overnight. But shortening the river made it faster and more powerful, and the Mississippi started scouring its own bed looking for more sediment to carry. That process is still rippling through the system today, decades later, slowly working its way upstream toward Cairo, Illinois. On top of the cutoffs, the Corps locked the riverbanks in place with concrete mattresses in the 1950s and 60s, essentially freezing the river's shape. That stopped the bank erosion — but it also cut off the river's natural sediment supply almost entirely. David's big takeaway after all these years? You can't just fix one spot on a river and call it a day. Every change you make sends ripples — upstream, downstream, decades into the future. The Mississippi has a long memory, and it's still responding to decisions made 80 or 90 years ago. Understanding that complexity, he says, is what keeps him coming back to the river year after year.

Better Safe Than Sorry? My Radical Choice to Trust the World

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2020383/fan_mail/new] Travel has played an outsized role in my life, has shaped it in overwhelmingly positive ways. In this episode, I share the story behind my new memoir, Better Safe Than Sorry? Slow Boats, Chicken Buses, and the Radical Choice to Trust the World. Drawing from 25 years of independent travel, this book is a raw, honest collection of travel stories that will challenge what you think about playing it safe.  These are stories with real highs and lows that showcase my drive to get past the reflexive fears and anxieties that once kept my world small. These stories illustrate how choosing curiosity over caution transformed me and fueled travel to places across the planet. From canoeing to the Gulf of Mexico with John Ruskey to exploring Southeast Asia, Madagascar, and Guatemala, these 18 stories celebrate the joy of saying yes.  The book launches exclusively on Kickstarter on June 15, 2026, and includes the option to buy a hardcover edition featuring 63 full-color photos that won't be available anywhere else. The paperback, audiobook, and ebook will release widely in late summer 2026. Stick around to hear a sample from the audiobook edition, the Introductory chapter to the book.

The River Is Calling — Will You Answer? River Days of Action and National Mississippi River Day 2026

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2020383/fan_mail/new] The weather is warming in our part of the world, which means many of us are working on plans to spend time on or near the Mississippi River. And now we’ve got a couple of excellent ways to kick it off, two events that have quickly become central to celebrating the river and doing our part to help restore the health and beauty of the river: River Days of Action (June 1-15) and National Mississippi River Day (June 2). In this episode, I talk with Michael Anderson, the Director of Outreach and Education for One Mississippi, and one of the prime forces making them happen. He describes each event’s unique focus, what events are happening to mark them, why these events are important to the present and future of the River, and what he’s learned from his years working so diligently on issues related to the Mississippi River.  After the discussion with Michael, you’ll hear a couple of other people describe why the Mississippi matters to them and the organizations they are affiliated with, and why they believe carving out time to celebrate the Mississippi and give something back to the river are important. You’ll hear from  Amanda Wigen from Owámniyomni Okhódayapi and avid kayaker Perry Whitaker who also volunteers with many river-related groups, including the Mississippi River Water Association.  To find out more about these events and to see the full schedule of events and opportunities to help the river, head to mississippiriver.org.

Lake Pepin’s Legends, Communities, and Future with Michael Anderson

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2020383/fan_mail/new] Lake Pepin is a natural widening in the main channel of the Mississippi River and one of the most popular sections of the river. In this episode, I have a wide-ranging conversation about the lake with Michael Anderson, Executive Director of the Lake Pepin Legacy Alliance. After we cover the basics about the lake (where it is, how it formed), we talk about the long human history in the region and delve into the lore about monsters that many believe inhabit the lake. We then take a virtual tour around the 100-mile perimeter of the lake, highlighting the communities and offering tips about what to visit, including recreational options such as paddling and hiking. We also take a brief detour to talk about one of my favorite events, Grumpy Old Men Days in Wabasha, which celebrates the joys of winter. We finish by talking about threats to the health of the lake, focusing mostly on sedimentation, and what the Lake Pepin Legacy Alliance and others are doing to address those threats. In the introduction, I offer a few additional tips on making the most of a visit to Lake Pepin.

After Andersonville: The Sultana and the Cruelest Twist of the Civil War

Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2020383/fan_mail/new] Deep into the night on April 27, 1865, the boilers on the steamboat Sultana exploded, triggering the worst maritime disaster in US history. More than a thousand people died, either from the explosion itself or trying to survive in the freezing cold Mississippi River afterward. The disaster was tragic well beyond the number of casualties as most of the dead were Union soldiers returning home from Confederate prison camps at the end of the Civil War. In this episode, Jeff Kollath, the executive director of the Sultana Disaster Museum, gives a detailed recounting of the events that led to the Sultana’s demise, from the corrupted boarding process at Vicksburg, to the conditions on the boat before the boilers exploded, to the immediate impact of the explosion, and how people scrambled to survive. We finish the episode with a discussion about the Sultana Disaster Museum’s plans to expand their ability to tell the story of the disaster and its victims.