Sea Change

It started in states like Florida and Louisiana. And, now it's spreading. The home insurance market is crumbling as climate-fueled disasters increase. Premiums are skyrocketing, and already, insurance is playing a role in determining where we can live, and who can afford to live there.

So we decided to host our very first Sea Change Live event dedicated to understanding what is going wrong, and how we can fix it. And, guess what? The event sold out! Join us as we dive deep into the insurance crisis—and possible solutions—with a panel of experts.

PANELISTS

Guillermo Franco: Head of catastrophic risk research for Guy Carpenter, an international reinsurance broker.

Haley Gentry: Senior Research Fellow at Tulane University's Institute on Water Resources, Law and Policy.

Jason Lewis: President of Noah W. Lewis and Associates, an insurance brokerage firm based in New Orleans.

Andreanecia Morris: Executive Director of Housing NOLA and President of the Greater New Orleans Housing Alliance.

Sea Change is made possible with major support from the Gulf Research Program of the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. WWNO’s Coastal Desk is supported by the Walton Family Foundation, the Meraux Foundation, and the Greater New Orleans Foundation.

You can reach the Sea Change team at [email protected].

There’s a lot going on in the world of liquified natural gas, or LNG. And we are here to tell you about it! The Department of Energy just released its big report on whether exporting more LNG is in the public interest...spoiler alert: it’s not. One of the largest LNG facilities in the world, located just south of New Orleans, recently began production. And there are a slew of other export terminals waiting in the wings for approval. Almost all of them are located on the Gulf Coast.

There are two competing LNG narratives...fossil fuel companies and their big investors all sing its praise saying LNG is great for the climate and Americans. But, environmentalists, scientists, the Department of Energy, and even other private industries all say the opposite.

It’s a pivotal time for energy. And the battle over LNG will play a huge role in our future climate. That’s why we at Sea Change produced a one-hour version of our 3 part series "All Gassed Up." If you don’t have time to listen to three episodes, this 1-hour special will give you the backstory...how this booming industry came to be, how the gulf coast became its epicenter, and how Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and even the nuclear meltdown of Fukushima all helped lead to this moment.

This 1-hour special was hosted, written, and reported by Halle Parker and Carlyle Calhoun. It was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center. This special was edited by Johanna Zorn and Jack Rodolico. Our sound designer is Emily Jankowski. And our theme music is by Jon Batiste.
This special was just one part of our three-part podcast series, All Gassed Up. To hear the full series, you can find Sea Change wherever you get your podcasts.

Sea Change is a WWNO and WRKF production. We are part of the NPR Podcast Network and distributed by PRX.

Sea Change is made possible with major support from the Gulf Research Program of the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. WWNO’s Coastal Desk is supported by the Walton Family Foundation, the Meraux Foundation, and the Greater New Orleans Foundation.

Louisiana is home to the country's largest hotspot for toxic air — an industrial corridor nicknamed “Cancer Alley.” More than 150 petrochemical plants line the Mississippi River between New Orleans and Baton Rouge. Amid the boom, many Black communities live with a disproportionate amount of pollution.

But years of protest have begun to bear fruit. We travel the Mississippi River to learn what has allowed the industry to flourish on its banks, see how the tide might turn in one neighborhood’s fight for clean air, and ask what’s next for a growing environmental justice movement as federal regulators take firmer action.

Find more information on local activists' tug of war with Denka Performance Elastomers and other environmental justice updates here.

To hear a reflection from Louisiana's former Department of Environmental Quality Secretary, Chuck Carr Brown, listen here.

Explore how the EPA is looking at environmental justice, their pending civil rights investigations and their updates on Denka and air monitoring at these links. Find a copy of the EPA's letter of concern to Louisiana's Department of Health and Department of Environmental Quality here.

You can find Denka Performance Elastomers website here.

A special thanks to members of the Concerned Citizens of St. John Robert Taylor, Mary Hampton, and Larry Soraporu for being so generous with their time. Find their group here.

Hosted by Halle Parker and Kezia Setyawan.

Our managing producer is Carlyle Calhoun. Editing help was provided by Carlyle Calhoun, Rosemary Westwood Priska Neely, Patrick Madden, and Eve Abrams. Our sound designer is Maddie Zampanti.

Sea Change is a production of WWNO and WRKF. We are part of the NPR Podcast Network and distributed by PRX.

Your expert guide to sustainable seafood is here! Get ready to feel the salt spray, and tuck into a wide-ranging conversation about what's on your plate and the future of our ocean.

Seafood has been called our "last wild food." Humans have been enjoying seafood for a long time—over 2 million years. But in recent decades, how we catch and eat fish and shellfish has changed dramatically.

Even though it might not always seem like it when we are digging into a Po'Boy with so much fried shrimp that they’re falling out the ends—our oceans are not the endless bounty we once thought they were. The UN reports that 94% of global fish stocks are overfished. So if we want to keep loving our seafood and making sure there are still shrimpers, fishers, and oyster harvesters able to make a living along our coast, then we’ve got to think about sustainability.

We talk about the future of fish with one of the foremost seafood and ocean sustainability experts in the country, Paul Greenberg. And, Chef Jim Smith of the Hummingbird Way in Mobile gets us hungry to help save our seafood explaining how to eat it sustainably.

You'll find more about Paul Greenberg here, with links to his books, including his new release, A Third Term.

For more about Chef Jim Smith and his sustainability efforts, check out The Hummingbird Way. And check out our bonus episode with the extended interview with Jim.

This episode was hosted and reported by Carlyle Calhoun Despeaux and cohosted by Halle Parker. Johanna Zorn edited this episode. Our sound designer is Emily Jankowski and our theme music is by Jon Batiste. Our managing producer is Carlyle Calhoun Despeaux.

Sea Change is a WWNO and WRKF production. We are part of the NPR Podcast Network and distributed by PRX. To help others find our podcast, please hit subscribe wherever you get your podcasts!

Sea Change is made possible with major support from the Gulf Research Program of the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. WWNO’s Coastal Desk is supported by the Walton Family Foundation, the Meraux Foundation, and the Greater New Orleans Foundation.

You can reach the Sea Change team at [email protected].

Sea level rise is this big, scary reality. We’re always hearing predictions from scientists that the oceans will swallow islands, flood major cities, and wipe out huge stretches of coastline. The longer we burn fossil fuels, the bigger the surge. It sounds apocalyptic on this huge, global scale.

But also totally abstract – it’s hard to picture. What will it mean for the sea to rise two feet... 4 feet...even 7 feet by the end of the century?

Turns out, it depends where you look.

In this episode, we’re going to drop in on communities on each of America’s three coasts, each coming up with their own set of solutions to the water that is slowly consuming their edges.

Want to know more about the growing problem of failing septic systems? Sure you do! Check out more of Katherine's reporting here and read this article about how the failure of septic systems due to climate change is impacting public health.

Look no further for more information about San Francisco's Waterfront Flood Study.

This episode was hosted and co-reported by Halle Parker. The episode was reported in collaboration with Ezra David Romero of KQED in San Francisco and Katherine Hafner of WHRO in Norfolk, Virginia. Editing by Jack Rodolico with additional editing help from Carlyle Calhoun and Eve Abrams. Carlyle Calhoun is our managing producer. Our sound designer is Emily Jankowski and our theme music is by Jon Batiste.

Sea Change is a WWNO and WRKF production. We are part of the NPR Podcast Network and distributed by PRX. To help others find our podcast, please hit subscribe wherever you get your podcasts!

Sea Change is made possible with major support from the Gulf Research Program of the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. WWNO’s Coastal Desk is supported by the Walton Family Foundation, the Meraux Foundation, and the Greater New Orleans Foundation.

You can reach the Sea Change team at [email protected].