The Mississippi Valley Traveler Podcast
The Mississippi Valley Traveler Podcast
Latest Episodes
Better Safe Than Sorry? My Radical Choice to Trust the World
Travel has played an outsized role in my life, has shaped it in overwhelmingly positive ways. In this episode, I share the story behind my new memoir, Better Safe Than Sorry? Slow Boats, Chicken Buses, and the Radical Choice to Trust the Wo...
The River Is Calling — Will You Answer? River Days of Action and National Mississippi River Day 2026
The weather is warming in our part of the world, which means many of us are working on plans to spend time on or near the Mississippi River. And now we’ve got a couple of excellent ways to kick it off, two events that have quickly become centra...
Lake Pepin’s Legends, Communities, and Future with Michael Anderson
Lake Pepin is a natural widening in the main channel of the Mississippi River and one of the most popular sections of the river. In this episode, I have a wide-ranging conversation about the lake with Michael Anderson, Executive Director of the...
After Andersonville: The Sultana and the Cruelest Twist of the Civil War
Deep into the night on April 27, 1865, the boilers on the steamboat Sultana exploded, triggering the worst maritime disaster in US history. More than a thousand people died, either from the explosion itself or trying to survive in the ...
You Can Make It Illegal, But You Can't Make It Unpopular: History of Brothels and Prostitution in Mississippi River Towns
From the brothels of post-Civil War-era St. Louis to the streets of New Orleans' Storyville, this episode traces the history of prostitution along the Mississippi River — and the endless tug-of-war between tolerance, regulation, and suppression...
