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Louisiana was the location for the very first Tarzan movie, back in 1917 when actor Elmo Lincoln swung from the trees near Morgan City where the Atchafalaya Swamp played the role of Africa. Louisiana has produced many more settings including for the early burlesque comedians Abbott and Costello whose rocket flight to mars misfired and they landed in New Orleans where the day happened to be Mardi Gras and they mistook the street maskers for martians.

Alfred Richard, a film critic whose gigs include a weekly appearance of WWL TV’s morning news and frequent appearance on WYES TV’s “Steppin' Out” joins Louisiana Life Executive Editor Errol Laborde, along with producer Kelly Massicot, to talk about the local movie scene. We will also hear the podcast staff’s comments on "Barbie" and, as a bonus, Richard’s experience in the role of “Chocolate Thunder” as one of the longtime member of the 610 Stompers. It is fun conversation worthy of a movie.

No sports figure represent mores of an emotional tug of war than Steve Gleason. It was he that, on the glorious night in 2006 when the New Orleans Saints returned to the Superdome after being away for a season because of the damage done by Hurricane Katrina, blocked a punt in the first two minutes of the national televised game that gave the Saints a touchdown. They never looked back the entire game. Gleason’s now legendary big play is even immortalized in a statue outside the Dome. But Gleason’s story also represents one of life’s blocks since he contracted amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), known commonly as Lou Gehrig’s Disease. Times-Picayune reporter Jeff Duncan joins Louisiana Life Executive Editor Errol Laborde along with Producer Kelly Massicot to talk about "A Life Impossible: Living with ALS: Finding Peace and Wisdom Within a Fragile Existence," the book he has co-authored with Gleason who now communicates through an eye-blink sensitive computer software system. Gleason’s story is one of heroism, including that of his wife Michel, and his family. Duncan weaves it all together beautifully. It is a story that must be told, read about and certainly, through the podcast, listened to.

 Ramon Vargas, a former reporter for the New Orleans Times-Picayune and now an editor/reporter for the London-based publication The Guardian, has for several years been covering sex scandals mostly between adult educator authority figures and school age youth. Most of his work has centered around the Roman Catholic church in the New Orleans area but has wider implications. Recently, information released by the Louisiana State police who gained access to what has been private documents, has opened shocking revelations of new charges many made by alleged former victims. Vargas joins Louisiana Life Executive Editor Errol Laborde, along with producer Kelly Massicot, to talk about what was learned from the affidavits including what church officials might have known but not revealed.

 

Don’t you hate it when three alligator brothers will not listen to each other when trying to find a safe place to build a home? The reason: Well, two of the brothers, Bumpy and Lumpy, ignore the other brother, Stumpy, who they think has a big mouth and who always reminds his siblings that he knows better. If you think Stumpy has problems, there is a story about Wilbur, the neighborhood sheep, who is ignored because his ideas are always very unsheep-like. Such is a day in the menagerie of Leslie (Hebert) Helakowski, a Lafayette native who divides her time in Michigan writing nationally-acclaimed children’s books – 15 so far. She joins Louisiana Life Executive Editor Errol Laborde, along with Producer Kelly Massicot, to talk about the art of appealing to children through story telling. Will anyone ever listen to Lumpy? And does Wilbur have any credibility at all? These and other questions can be answered by getting to know Leslie and her books.

In 1984, New Orleans hosted the Louisiana World’s Exposition, known more simply as the world’s fair. Through the years the evaluations have been similar – the fair was financially challenging but the locals loved it. Peggy Scott Laborde, a producer for public TV station WYES, was at the time a co-host and producer for WDSU TV Ch. 6’s coverage from the fair. She has since done a documentary on the event, as well as a follow-up featuring some of the people involved with the event. She joins Louisiana Life Executive Editor Errol Laborde, along with producer Kelly Massicot, to recall the fair’s many great memories as well as the hardships. The interview also looks into the future and at the possible great legacies from the fair still ahead.

Secretive Men’s organizations –º such as the Free Masons, Elks, Odd Fellows and many more – did not originate just for the sake of privacy. In many cases they had a social purposes such as providing health and security benefits for themselves at a time when neither government nor private enterprise provided much of either. Some groups were also a source of business and social connections.

Jari Honora, an historian and genealogist who curated an exhibit for the Historic New Orleans Collection entitled Mystery and Benevolence: Masonic and Odd Fellows Folk Art, joins Louisiana Life Executive Editor Errol Laborde, along with producer Kelly Massicot, to discuss the organizations, which had a strong presence in New Orleans as well as globally.

In New Orleans and Mobile the structure of the groups even had an influence on Carnival krewes. The groups also left a strong architectural presence either through their lodges; office buildings and memorial sites. The interview offers a rare opportunity to peer inside the world of secrecy.