Walls Plus One: Recent Episodes
Samantha Morgan
Welcome to Walls Plus One! We all hit walls in our life, but some of us face bigger challenges than others, and most of the time it's due to reasons beyond our control. From equal pay to climate change, we're taking on the big topics that matter most. Along with a featured guest, each episode spotlights someone working with the Walls Project to further our mission of breaking down the societal walls that keep people in poverty. It sounds really deep, we know, but there are some laughs and light moments mixed in, too.
Louisiana has suffered more than financially from natural disasters than any other state in the nation. Hurricane Katrina remains the most expensive natural disaster in US History. The estimated cost is $86.9 billion. Behind it is Hurricane Ida, another storm that devastated Louisiana’s coast to the cost of $36 billion.
Louisiana is the only southern state to have a climate task force. Both of our guests on this episode are members of the Climate Initiatives Task Force and offer up incredible insights regarding the systems of poverty that are tied to the climate crisis.
Camille Manning-Broome, the President and CEO of the Center for Planning Excellence (CPEX), connects the dots between poverty and the climate crisis.
Colette Pichon Battle, a climate advocate and attorney for Taproot Earth, explains that we are not going to recycle our way out of the climate crisis. Instead, we’re going to have to get uncomfortable and redefine our understanding of what poverty is and how equity can be achieved.
Our featured supporter of this episode is Cluey Consumer, which is a Louisiana-based company focused on conscious consumerism. The company’s founder, Maryclaire Manard, explains how she came up with the idea and what prompted her to take on this challenge. To get clued in on how to support the brands that fall in line with your values, sign up for their newsletter and listen to their new podcast.
If you enjoyed this episode, please consider sharing it with your friends and leave us a review.
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Did you know that Louisiana gets more rain on average than any other state? Sadly, we still have issues with having enough clean drinking water and with keeping our waterways free of pollution. On this episode of Walls Plus One, we’re taking a deep dive down the well of problems facing our aquifers and natural waterways.
Our first guest is General Russel Honore', a 37-year army veteran and leader of the Green Army. Military and environmentalism probably don’t seem like something that go together, but General Honore' explains how those two things are more closely related than you might think.
Our second guest is Justin Ehrenwerth CEO of the Water Institute located in Baton Rouge. Some of the work being done there has already been discussed by a couple of our guests, but now we’re really getting a full understanding of the importance of the research they are doing.
Finally, we’re going to take a trip out to the BREC Howell Park farm in Baton Rouge to talk to Jacquel Curry, Farm Manager for Baton Roots.
If you’re enjoying this season of Walls Plus One, please consider becoming a Walls Project Insider. When you become an Insider, you’ll get access to the full interviews with each guest, including Walls Project team members. You’ll also see extended resources, information, and even a glossary of terms related to each episode presented this season.
To gain access to full interviews and bonus material, sign up to become a Walls Project Insider. With a donation of $10 a month or more, you will help sustain this podcast as well as the many programs sponsored by this organization.
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We’re talking trash on this episode of Walls Plus One.
LSU Chemical Engineering Professor Bhuvnesh Bharti is taking a microscopic look at the air we breathe to find the tiny little microparticles of plastic that are drifting about.
Richard LeBouef is the executive director of St. Landry Solid Waste and Disposal District. Thanks to some local government foresight, that parish is doing some really interesting things with waste. Oh, and he’s also a pretty amazing musician. We’ll play one of his songs at the end of the show.
And we wrap up the whole conversation with Baton Roots Program Manager Mitchell Provensal. He’s going to tell you about an easy way to compost food waste at home rather than sending it to the landfill. It’s called bokashi and he has a full demonstration on the Walls Project YouTube account. CLICK HERE to watch.
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Bees are an incredibly important part of our modern agriculture system as well as being a general indicator of the overall health of our environment. You probably remember hearing a lot about colony collapse back in the mid-aughts, and it probably gave you a good scare. The good news is that the EPA reports that Colony Collapse Disorder, or CCD, has dropped from roughly 60% of total hives lost in 2008 to 31.1% in 2013.
But we’re not out of the woods yet and there is a lot of work being done to try and save our bees. In this episode we talk to two women who are part of the battle. First is backyard beekeeper, Jen Bernard. Then we’re going to go deeper into the hive with Lanie Bilodeau who heads up a major research operation happening at the USDA Honey bee Breeding, Genetics and Physiology Laboratory in Baton Rouge.
Finally, I introduce to you our Artist in Residence Ashli Ognelodh. One of her recent paintings had a bee as its focal point.
We have a lot to lose if our bee population declines… which is why so much time and attention is being given to help them thrive. But we also have a lot to learn from our bee friends. Saint Francis De Sales once said, “The bee collects honey from flowers in such a way as to do the least damage and destruction to them, and he leaves them whole, undamaged and fresh, just as he found them.”
If we begin to look at creating with the same level of respect, we too will restore our balance with nature.
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Currently, the electric power sector contributes roughly 25% of all greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. That’s why a lot of effort is being placed into figuring out alternative ways to power up our homes and our vehicles.
In this episode we begin with a little lesson about solar from Terrence L. Chambers. Some incredible work is being done at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Along with debunking a few myths, we really get into the economics of solar. Could this be what pulls one of the poorest states in the nation out of poverty? It certainly could help.
Then, we’re going to chat with Ann Vail, the Executive Director of Louisiana Clean Fuels, to learn more about electric vehicles. Interestingly enough, that opens up the conversation to health disparities.
During my chat with Ann I brought up the old South Baton Rouge neighborhood, which is where my next guest is originally from. His name is Paul Franklin and he is working with the Dallas side of our operation.
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In many ways this episode is a seamless continuation from our last episode. We’re going to build on many of the ideas put out there by Jessi Parfait and Ian Richardson. If you’d like to listen to that episode first, CLICK HERE.
In this episode, we’re going to talk about the idea of using old methods for creating new sustainable practices, as well as the need for more education surrounding food and nutrition.
First, Carl Motsenbocker, an LSU professor and Executive Director of the Louisiana Farm To School program called Seeds to Success. Education is going to be the key because currently we are plant blind. We’re seeing it in the lack of connection to our natural environment and in the lack of understanding about healthy eating.
Marguerite Green is our second guest and she is the Executive Director of Sprout New Orleans, a nonprofit organization focused on creating a community food system rooted in equity. The organization has several programs rooted in that mission. CLICK HERE to learn more about them and how to get involved.
Both guests in this episode represent individuals with or from LSU’s agriculture program. However, Southern University is also located in Baton Rouge and has an amazing agriculture program. To learn more about that program, CLICK HERE.
Also featured in this episode is Helena Williams, the head of our marketing department. She takes a look at the historical perspective of our agriculture system and how that’s played out in our grocery stores. This was part of her research for an article she published in our monthly newsletter. To read that article, CLICK HERE.
To gain access to full interviews and bonus material, sign up to become a Walls Project Insider. With a donation of $10 a month or more, you will help sustain this podcast as well as the many programs sponsored by this organization.
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Before we get into the meat of this episode, I’d love for you to listen to the last interview of season 1. It is referenced a few times in this episode.
Season 1, Episode 11: Crisis on the Coast: Corey Miller
The person referencing that interview with Corey Miller is Jessi Parfait. She is the Campaign Representative at the Sierra Club for the Beyond Dirty Fuels Campaign. Additionally, she is a citizen of the United Houma Nation.
Jessi is going to tell you about her tribe and the impact that industry has made on the Louisiana coastline, a place her community has called home for thousands of years.
In addition to Jessi, we have Ian Richardson, a Louisiana native who is operating a backyard plant nursery called Beaver’s Abundance. His focus is on native plants and he explains why you should consider planting native plants on your property.
Having knowledge and respect for our land and the plants that keep it thriving is going to be an important component to having a sustainable future. If you didn’t already know, The Walls Project has a program devoted to urban agriculture and sustainability practices. It’s called Baton Roots!
Program Director SK Groll joins in to talk about Sow Good Saturday. We realize that this program is really only good for those of you in the Baton Rouge area, so we want to hear about the programs happening in YOUR area. Tell us about it on social media.
To gain access to full interviews and bonus material, sign up to become a Walls Project Insider. With a donation of $10 a month or more, you will help sustain this podcast as well as the many programs sponsored by this organization.
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The experts weighed in on the last episode of Walls Plus One and they agree that climate change is happening now. What’s going to happen next is still up for debate, but we know for certain that we have a lot to think about when it comes to housing.
Urban sprawl has been attributed to be responsible for about a third of global CO2 emissions. That new, beautiful subdivision on the outskirts of town seems like such a great value, it’s costing us all a lot more than we care to admit.
But the demand for housing never seems to go away. So what’s the solution? Many are turning back to the cities that were all but abandoned when urban sprawl really started to take off. More importantly, there are questions as to whether or not we can retrofit them to be more sustainable.
I have two guests who will weigh in on the future of our cities.
First up is Manny Patole, an engineering professor at NYU and research scholar who specializes in sustainable urban environments. He lives in Brooklyn, so he is no stranger to the challenges faced by city living. He also knows that improving city life is the way forward in a future with a changing climate.
Stephen Poss is a former lawyer turned public school educator. Based out of Baton Rouge, he spends his free time advocating on environmental issues and putting his knowledge to use through green landscaping practices.
During our talk, Stephen schooled me in a few different areas.
First, I had no idea leaf blowers were as environmentally harmful as they are annoying. In fact, some are more harmful than a cross-country trip. I did, however, do a little more research on the topic and found an additional report that suggests the numbers are maybe a little less dramatic than some reports, but even so, they are still worse than one would ever imagine.
ADDITIONAL READING
Verify: Is pollution from a leaf blower equal to a cross country drive
More cities consider bans on gas powered leaf blowers
Second, I never thought about how polluted a lake situated next to a golf course could become from fertilizer and herbicide runoff. In this case he’s talking about the history of the LSU lakes, a major human landmark in Baton Rouge. I wrote a story about the history of the lakes if you’d like to get a little more context regarding how they were created.
And finally, he told me about a fun way to share with people the idea that a traditional lawn is harmful. It’s called Lawns and God.
Also in this episode is an introduction to Pepper Roussel, the program manager for OneRouge.
To gain access to full interviews and bonus material, sign up to become a Walls Project Insider. With a donation of $10 a month or more, you will help sustain this podcast as well as the many programs sponsored by this organization.
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We’re beginning our season-long discussion on climate change with the cold hard facts, not the hot takes. Although we will talk to many scientific experts this season, our first two guests are specifically focused on our atmosphere.
Starting the conversation off is Dr. Barry Keim, who serves as the Louisiana State Climatologist. He’s also a faculty member in the Department of Geography and Anthropology at LSU where he teaches and conducts research on climate change and variability, extreme climate events, hydroclimatology and human dimensions of global change.
Although he spends a lot of time looking at data, he’s no stranger to the Louisiana coast. He was born in Chalmette and raised in New Orleans. He knows the value of our coastal communities so he has a particular passion for understanding how the weather will impact its future.
Our second guest, Dr. Josh Eachus, was actually a student of Dr. Keim. As the chief meteorologist for WBRZ, Channel 2 in Baton Rouge he is a direct line of communication between the data and the public. His doctoral research focused on how to effectively communicate those weather messages, especially during high impact events such as hurricanes, floods and tornadoes. Things we know all too much about in the south.
Weather impacts every single one of us, but how we respond to potential threats really depends on how the message is presented. This is where psychology and meteorology collide. And we’ve seen how much damage can be done when a message isn’t conveyed properly.
Finally, I’d like to introduce you to one of the members of our Futures Fund family. Meet Program Director Dominique Dallas!
To gain access to full interviews and bonus material, sign up to become a Walls Project Insider. With a donation of $10 a month or more, you will help sustain this podcast as well as the many programs sponsored by this organization.
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Here's a little preview of what to expect for season 2. Join us on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok to be part of the conversation.
While we finish working on season 2 of Walls Plus One, we wanted to give you a little bonus material we gathered this summer.
We have been BUSY! We have celebrated our 10th anniversary not once, but TWICE!
RELATED: Breaking X - Walls Project Celebrates 10 Years
The interviews in this episode were gathered during the 10th anniversary Breaking X event held on August 5 at Chelsea’s Live.
During the event we managed to conduct a few unique interviews. First off is a former Futures Fund instructor talking to three of her former students. Her name is Jenn Ocken and she is a Baton Rouge-based photographer with over 20 years experience. The students are Mordecai Logan, Kennedy Morgan, and Orion Roberts.
While that whole interview was happening, you heard a lot of cheering in the background. That’s because the phenomenal Michael Armstead was performing. When he got off the stage, I told him that his performance made me mad. Why? Because I spent years covering the local music scene and I’m mad that I didn’t get a chance to interview him!
The live performance was incredible! And, in this episode, he reveals a huge detail about his upcoming album.
For those of you who were at the X event, we hope you had as much fun as we did. If you didn’t make it, have no fear, we’re already planning the next big event. But you’ll have to wait to find out more.
If you want to stay looped in and get future discounts to any of our events, you’re going to want to become a Walls Project Insider. When you make a recurring donation of 10 dollars or more, you’ll get access to all kinds of great things happening within the Walls Project.
But more importantly, you’ll be supporting kids like Mordecai Logan… Kennedy Morgan… and Orion Roberts. Teachers like Jenn Ocken. And performers like Michael Armstead. Everything we do at the Wall Project is to further create and promote the creative economy. So when you give, we give opportunities.
We did it! This is the last episode of our FIRST season. I am happy to say that Walls Plus One will continue on to have a season 2. That will be released September 2022 and we’re going to make one little change.
With season 1, we took a broad look at a variety of topics. When we started, our goal was to spotlight all of the hard work and big problems being addressed by nonprofits. But when we had a handful of interviews under our belt, a big theme started to emerge.
The symptoms of poverty and the systems that keep poverty in place.
Every topic came back to poverty. Our season started with equal pay and ended with climate change.
And that’s where we’re going to make a shift for the second season. Instead of continuing on with a new topic each week, we’re going to devote all of season two to climate change.
In particular, we are going to explore what is being done to try and catch up with the damage we’re already experiencing, and then focus on what proactive steps we can take to try to mitigate its impacts.
Vulnerable populations are at the highest risk for feeling the impact of climate change, but does it have to be that way?
If you missed an episode of this season, make sure to go back and catch up. We’ll see you in September!
This is our final interview of the first season of Walls Plus One and our last topic is the climate crisis. Louisiana knows all too well the damage caused by hurricanes, and the amount and frequency of those storms is increasing.
Our guest on this episode is Corey Miller, the director of community resilience at the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana. He explains why Louisiana’s is actually a bit ahead of other states regarding research and mitigation efforts thanks to coastal restoration programs.
“One of the important things for people to understand is that while we do have this wonderful Coastal Master Plan and there’s legislative mandates to continue to reiterate that plan, that plan buys us time.”
The determining factor regarding what will happen next contingent on how we, as a global community, address climate change. The solution is proactive planning and funding. It will also require some very tough decisions, like knowing when to stop rebuilding.
Consider becoming a Walls Project Insider to help keep programs like this part of our organization. Through a monthly donation of $10 or more, you will help all of our programs grow and thrive.
We’re approaching the end of the first season of Walls Plus One, but we still have two very big topics left to discuss.
This episode is devoted to education. There’s no better person to speak on this topic than Adonica Pelichet Duggan. She is the Chief Executive Officer at Baton Rouge Alliance for Students, a nonprofit organization devoted to ensuring that students are at the forefront of school improvement decisions.
During our discussion with Toni Bankston, we learned the ways that trauma and stress can impact the youngest members of our community. Poverty creates situations of trauma that make the complexities of providing a quality education even more difficult.
In this episode, Adonica really brings home that all of the things we have talked about this entire season are connected to the challenges for the education system. Essentially, we cannot continue to address these things individually. Rather, we need more wraparound services.
Consider becoming a Walls Project Insider to help keep programs like this part of our organization. Through a monthly donation of $10 or more, you will help all of our programs grow and thrive.
The stress being put on the kids in our community is something Toni Bankston has witnessed for decades through her work in the nonprofit sector. She is the founder of MindBody Baton Rouge and the former executive director of the Baton Rouge Children’s Advocacy Center.
During her three-decade career as a child and family therapist, she has focused on trauma, particularly with those who are considered part of the disadvantaged population.
Consider becoming a Walls Project Insider to help keep programs like this part of our organization. Through a monthly donation of $10 or more, you will help all of our programs grow and thrive.
This episode gets a little meta because we communicate about the need for more communication. Specifically, we’re looking at the need for empathy when addressing all of the big topics we’ve hit on so far this season.
Our featured guest is Jahi Mackey, founder of The 821 Project and the Southeast Regional Manager for Narrative 4. Both organizations are devoted to using storytelling and dialogue as methods of increasing empathy and building community.
Also featured in this episode is Walls Project staff Cynthea Corfah. She serves as our digital communications specialist, which means she is the person you never see but who does all the things you see. Along with her work for our organization, she hosts an event called Brunch for the Soul.
If you haven’t already, make sure to sign up for the Walls Project newsletter. And if you can, please consider becoming a Walls Project Insider.
If you’ve been listening to these episodes in order, you’re probably noticing a theme. All of our speakers have had one connecting thread, poverty. Specifically, the systems that create it and keep people locked into it.
Alfredo Cruz talks to us about issues surrounding housing. During our talk he really cuts to the heart of it all by saying that poverty is something that should concern us all. It’s not an us vs them because we’re all “them.”
Lifting people up while breaking down the societal walls that keep people in poverty is our mission here at the Walls Project. It’s why we started our program called Futures Fund. Earlier this season we talked to Nina Tran, an instructor for the Coding Boot Camp, which is the side of the program for adults. In this episode I talk to Dexter Jackson, who runs the side of the program for teens
If you’re enjoying this series, please consider becoming a Walls Project Insider. With a monthly donation of $10, you’ll get access to bonus material delivered directly to your inbox. There are other perks, too. LEARN MORE on our website.
We are at the half-way mark of season one. If you’re enjoying this podcast, please make sure to share it with your friends and give us a review. That will really help us with season two, which we’re currently in the process of creating. And trust me, it’s going to be a really hot topic (that’s a hint).
We’re continuing the idea of connectivity, which we started to explore in episode 5 with Mark Martin. We discussed car culture and how cities have been built in isolated pockets. The problems this type of infrastructure creates is seen greatly in the areas impacted by poverty.
In this episode we talked to Pat McCallister-LeDuff, who is a community advocate for an area of Baton Rouge known as Scotlandville. The village was founded and named after a cotton planter whose plantation was located near the Mississippi River.
CLICK HERE to learn more about how to contribute to the Scotlandville CDC.
Also in this episode is Baton Rouge-based muralist Bryson Boutte, who has completed two major murals for the Walls Project. In this episode he mentions his anime series. To learn more about that, CLICK HERE.
Please consider becoming an Insider to help support the Walls Project and all of its programs, this one included. CLICK HERE to learn more about how to become an insider.
In this episode we’re grinding our gears on my favorite topic - transportation.
On the last episode, Davante Lewis talked about various forms of the debt trap and how it’s keeping roughly half of all Louisiana residents in poverty. One example he used over and over was cars issues.
A car is one of the many ways Americans are forced into debt. According to the Bureau of Labor and statistics, transportation is the second highest expenditure for a household. That’s second only to housing!
In this episode, I talk to bicycle advocate Mark Martin about car culture. He explains why the choice of avoiding the personal vehicle debt trap is not one easily made.
To learn more, visit the Walls Project website and become an Insider.
This is our third interview of the first season of Walls Plus One. In this episode we’re talking to another member of the Louisiana Budget Project. Davante Lewis is Director of Public Affairs and Outreach and he’s an expert on the topic of payday lending.
Payday lending, or predatory lending as it’s also known, is a short-term loan that knowingly traps thousands of people in long-term cycles of debt. It’s a trap that is often only resolved with bankruptcy.
The Louisiana Budget Project has advocated for several years by pushing for bills to cap the interest rate at 36%. The current average is 400%. Similar bills have seen bipartisan support nationwide and have been adopted in both red and blue states. Louisiana, however, has not been able to move the bill forward.
To get the full, uninterrupted version of this podcast, become a Walls Project Insider. With a $10 a month donation, you'll get the full version of each episode delivered directly to your inbox. CLICK HERE to learn more!
Previously on Walls Plus One we talked about equal pay. If you haven’t listened to that episode yet, no worries, here’s what you need to know… PAY WOMEN MORE! Louisiana has only recently passed legislation that requires equal pay among state employees. But besides that, not much has been done.
In this episode we take the discussion a step forward. Jan Moller is the executive director of the Louisiana Budget Project, which is a nonprofit that monitors and reports on public policy and how it affects Louisiana’s low-to-moderate-income families.
Before that, he was a political reporter. He’s got a lot to say about the halls of power and what you need to do to stay informed.
Also in this episode we highlight the fabulous Nina Tran, an instructor for the Futures Fund, a program by the Walls Project.
This is the shortened version of this episode. To get the full version, along with the full show notes delivered directly to your inbox, sign up to become a Walls Project Insider.
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Equal pay. Why is this such a complicated issue? Should women make as much as men? Although most would say yes without hesitation, the reality is that it’s not happening.
Nationally, women are still only earning 73.6% of what men are earning. In this episode, Sherreta R. Harrison points out some of the reasons why we are where we are today, and how this issue also disproportionately affects women based on subgroups. For example, in Louisiana, Black and Latina women make only 48 and 52 cents on the dollar compared to White men.
At the end of the episode, Sherreta gives some practical ways you can help push the movement forward. One additional way is to share this episode with your friends. It all starts with knowledge.
Also featured in this episode is Walls Project staff member Bryson Boyd. He is responsible for all of the amazing music you hear on this podcast. As a special treat for all of you, he’s included one of his instrumental tracks. It will play in full after the credits, so make sure to listen all the way to the end.
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We humans are running on empty. Between a pandemic, the climate crisis, and the ongoing lack of resources for those in need coupled with the continuation of systems that oppress them, we are in need of some serious rejuvenation.
Enter Walls Plus One.
The show’s creator and host, Samantha Morgan, has spent 20 years working in local media. After racking up over a thousand bylines, she was craving something more. Then, the pandemic hit, and everything changed.
It was during the pandemic that she was introduced to a weekly zoom meeting being hosted by the Walls Project, an organization she had been covering since the day it was founded. The calls were a breath of fresh air, even though they were addressing all of the big questions and leaning in to ask more.
So, she quit her job, joined the Walls Project, and started interviewing all of the fascinating people she was exposed to for over a year.
Everyone in season one is working in the nonprofit sector. Each episode addresses what it means to be part of a movement, and then gives you some really practical ways you can get involved.
Will it also be entertaining? Of course! This isn’t homework. We’re finding ways to bring more energy, more joy, and more equality to our communities. It’s all about your voice, and our culture. Hopefully, you’ll feel as inspired as Morgan. Maybe not to quit your job, but at least to take on the belief that change is possible.