683. Theresa McCulla. "Insatiable City."

683. Joining us today is historian and curator Theresa McCulla to discuss her book, Insatiable City: Food and Race in New Orleans. A 2025 James Beard Award nominee and named a Smithsonian Best Book of the Year, Insatiable City uncovers the complex, dual nature of the Crescent City’s legendary culinary culture. McCulla—who has served as a food and drink curator for institutions like the Smithsonian—dives deep into the archives to reveal how the pleasures of New Orleans cuisine have always been deeply intertwined with race, labor, and systems of power, tracing this evolution from 19th-century slavery to 20th-century tourism. Yet, alongside these challenging histories, the book highlights how enslaved and free people of color brilliantly used food and drink to carve out spaces of autonomy, creativity, and joy. It is an exploration of how food truly shapes our culture, history, and understanding of identity.

1. Now available: Liberty in Louisiana: A Comedy. The oldest play about Louisiana, author James Workman wrote it as a celebration of the Louisiana Purchase. Now it is back in print for the first time in 222 years. Order your copy today!
2. This week in the Louisiana Anthology. Chateaubriand. Rene.
   Once among the Natchez, René was obliged to take a wife, to conform to the ways of that American Indian people; but chose not to live with her. A tendency to melancholy drew him into the woods; he spent whole days there alone, and seemed a savage among the savages. Except for Chactas, his adopted father, and P're Sou'l, the missionary at Fort-Rosalie he renounced all relations with mankind. These two elderly men had won much influence over his feelings: the former by his friendly indulgence, the latter, in contrast, by his unrelenting severity. Since the beaver-hunt, during which the blind Sachem had told his story to Ren', the latter had not wished to speak of his own. However Chactas and the missionary had a strong desire to know by what misfortune a European nobleman had been led to the strange resolution of burying himself in the wilds of Louisiana. Ren' had always given as justification for his refusal, the limited interest to be found in his history which was confined, he said, to that of his thoughts and feelings. 'As for the events which led me to sail for America', he added, 'I would wish to bury them in eternal oblivion.'
   
3. This week in Louisiana history. June 19, 1953. Blacks protesting discriminatory treatment began a bus boycott in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.  
4. This week in New Orleans history. June 19, 1865: While celebrated as Juneteenth in Texas, New Orleans held massive "Emancipation Day" celebrations to mark the end of slavery in the region.
5. This week in Louisiana.
   McGee's Louisiana Swamp & Airboat Tours
   Daily Tours (year‑round)
   1337 Henderson Levee Road
   Henderson, LA 70517
   Website: mcgeesswamptours.com
   McGee's offers guided boat and airboat tours deep into the Atchafalaya Basin, the largest river swamp in the United States. Standard 90‑minute swamp boat tours typically run $25'$30 for adults and $15'$20 for children, with airboat rides available at a higher premium. The tours highlight the region's wildlife, cypress forests, and Cajun cultural history:
   
• Swamp Tours: 90‑minute guided excursions through the Atchafalaya's cypress‑lined waterways.
• Airboat Rides: High‑speed trips reaching remote areas of the basin.
• Wildlife Viewing: Alligators, wading birds, turtles, and classic swamp scenery.
6. Postcards from Louisiana. The Rock Block Band at Felix's Restaurant and Oyster Bar. 

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