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In this episode, I talk with Jim Gass, Director of Research and Education at the Centre for French Colonial Life, about the long and rich history of Sainte Genevieve, Missouri. We begin with a discussion of what we know about the indigenous people who lived in the area before Europeans arrived, then talk about the French settlers who moved into the region in the 18th century. Jim describes their daily lives, the crops they grew, connections to other early settlements (including New Orleans), and how they had fun. We then talk about the architectural style the town is best known for today, including how it developed, what makes it unique, and its advantages and disadvantages. We talk about the different organizations working to preserve Sainte Genevieve’s architectural past and wrap up with a discussion of the work of the Center for French Colonial Life.

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In this episode, I interview long-time river guide and Sage of the Lower Mississippi, John Ruskey. John has been guiding and living on the Mississippi for nearly 30 years, so I start by letting him describe the Lower Mississippi River that he knows. We talk about some of the river’s characteristics that make it a special place, including its vastness, its extreme variations from high water to low water, and the diversity of life it supports. Still, John emphasizes that to get to know the river, to learn its language, we have to be willing to slow down and look at the details around us. He offers ideas on how we can encourage more people to connect with the river, overcome their fears about it, and grow into stewards. He also offers a few observations about how the river has changed over time. John closes out the interview by singing an original song inspired by the river he knows so well.

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A hundred years ago, shantyboat communities could be found along many rivers in the US. Historian Gregg Andrews went in-depth to research these communities, inspired in part by the discovery of a personal connection to them, which resulted in a book called “Shantyboats and Roustabouts: The River Poor of St. Louis, 1875 to 1930.” In this episode, I talk with Gregg about those shantyboat communities. After Gregg describes how he got interested in shantyboat communities, he describes what a shantyboat was and who lived in them, what it was like to live in one of these communities and their frontier-like culture, some of the characters he came across, including Louis Seibt and Rose Mosenthein, the legal basis shantyboaters used to defend their communities (often successfully), and their eventual dissolution.