Behind The Lens

Behind The Lens


Latest Episodes

Protected Speech or Anti-Semitism? A university syllabus draws scrutiny.
October 10, 2025

Delaney Nolan on a Tulane program manager who was fired. Bernard Smith on "outrageous" phone call rates in jails after new FCC Chairman delays mandated reductions. Marta Jewson on the 2019 Kennedy gra

Energy Monsters: AI data centers prompt concern about a ‘Digital Cancer Alley.’ Also, the first U.S. climate refugees have regrets
October 03, 2025

Gus Bennett on Big Tech data centers that threaten more environmental and economic harm in Cancer Alley. Terry Jones on climate refugees 10 years after relocation. [...]Read More... from Energy Monste

Odorless, invisible and deadly: Exxon plans to lay carbon pipeline alarmingly close to La. residents
September 26, 2025

Delaney Nolan and Emily Sanders on an Exxon pipeline set to carry highly compressed carbon dioxide in St. James Parish. And Elise Plunk on a Tulane study that found lizards in New Orleans are living w

Ep. 283: After the Smitty’s Supply explosion, concerns for Lake Pontchartrain
September 19, 2025

Reporter Delaney Nolan on environmental pollution concerns in the wake of the explosion at Smitty's Supply. [...]Read More... from Ep. 283: After the Smittys Supply explosion, concerns for Lake Pontc

Episode 282: Orleans Parish Prison after the storm ‘We’re still in here’
September 05, 2025

Bernard Smith and Katy Reckdahl on the men trapped in the Orleans Parish Prison and Broad Street Bridge in the wake of the levee breaches after Hurricane Katrina that flooded New Orleans. [...]Read M

Behind The Lens episode 281 part II: ‘Completely inadequate’
August 26, 2025

Longtime environmental reporter Mark Schleifstein on the federal flood after the U.S. Army Corps levees failed and flooded 80 percent of the city in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Delaney Nolan on on

Behind The Lens episode 281 part I: ‘Completely inadequate’
August 22, 2025

Longtime Times-Picayune environmental reporter Mark Schleifstein on the federal flood after the U.S. Army Corps' levees failed and flooded 80 percent of the city in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. [...

Behind The Lens episode 281: ‘Crumbling’
August 15, 2025

Reporter Marta Jewson, educator Deborah Richardson and advocate Ashana Bigard on John McDonogh High School's demise after a Los Angeles-based charter group took control. [...]Read More... from Behind

Behind The Lens episode 280: ‘The licensing of Essence’
August 08, 2025

Bernard Smith on conditions at Angola as heat alerts persist across the country. Gus Bennett on Essence Fest's rapid expansion and questions about who it's serving. [...]Read More... from Behind Th

Behind the Lens episode 279: ‘Incompetent or lying’
August 01, 2025

Delaney Dryfoos on what the Alabo Street Wharf development may mean for neighbors. Matthew Wollenweber on NOPD's use of surveillance, including 5,000 cameras and partnerships that use facial recogniti