Po' Boys: The Sandwich That Defines New Orleans
Dressed or Undressed, It Is Perfect Either WayThe po-boy is the sandwich that defines New Orleans — a long loaf of crusty French bread with a soft, pillowy interior, stuffed with anything from frie...
Streetcars: Rolling Through New Orleans History Since 1835
Rolling Through History Since 1835New Orleans streetcars are not a novelty. They are not a tourist attraction that was revived to look charming in photographs. They are a working transit system tha...
Second Lines: The People's Parade Through the Streets of New Orleans
The People's ParadeA second line is the most democratic form of celebration ever invented. It requires no ticket, no reservation, no invitation. All you need is a pair of feet and a willingness to ...
The Muffuletta: The Sicilian Sandwich That Conquered New Orleans
The Sandwich That Fed the WorkersThe muffuletta was created in the early twentieth century by Sicilian immigrants in New Orleans, and it was invented not as a delicacy but as a practical meal — a h...
Pimm's Cup: An English Cocktail with a French Quarter Address
An English Cocktail with a French Quarter AddressThe Pimm's Cup started its life in England, invented by James Pimm in the nineteenth century as a gin-based digestif served at his London oyster bar...
Snowballs: Not a Snow Cone — A New Orleans Summer Survival Tool
Not a Snow Cone — A SnowballLet us get one thing clear from the start: a New Orleans snowball is not a snow cone. A snow cone is crunchy, icy, and sad — the kind of thing they sell at county fairs ...
John James Audubon: The Bird Man Who Found His Wings in New Orleans
The Bird Man of New OrleansJohn James Audubon arrived in New Orleans in 1821, broke, desperate, and carrying a portfolio of bird paintings that nobody wanted to buy. He was 36 years old, his busine...
Alton Ochsner: The New Orleans Doctor Who Took On Big Tobacco
The Doctor Who Knew Cigarettes Were Killing PeopleIn 1939, a surgeon at Tulane University named Alton Ochsner noticed something alarming. He was seeing more and more patients with lung cancer — a d...
Sal Khan: The Metairie Kid Who Gave the World Free Education
The Man Who Put a Classroom in Every PocketSal Khan was born in Metairie, Louisiana, in 1976, the son of Bangladeshi and Indian immigrants. He grew up in the suburbs of New Orleans, attended public...
Michael DeBakey: The New Orleans Med Student Who Saved a Million Hearts
The Man Who Fixed the Human HeartMichael Ellis DeBakey was born in Lake Charles, Louisiana, in 1908, the son of Lebanese immigrants who had settled in the Cajun prairie. He came to New Orleans for ...
Brené Brown: New Orleans Raised the Queen of Vulnerability
The Vulnerability Researcher Who Became a PhenomenonBrené Brown grew up in New Orleans — a city that, if you think about it, is the perfect incubator for someone who would spend her career studying...
Stephen Ambrose: The Historian Who Gave New Orleans Its Greatest Museum
The Historian Who Made History Feel Like a StoryStephen Ambrose arrived at the University of New Orleans in 1971 and spent the next three decades turning the city into a headquarters for popular Am...
The Language of New Orleans: How a City Built Its Own Dictionary
You Can Hear New Orleans Before You See ItEvery city has an accent. New York has one. Boston has one. But New Orleans has something else entirely — a whole language system that exists nowhere else ...
Peychaud's Bitters: The Secret Ingredient in America's First Cocktail
The Secret Ingredient in America's First CocktailAntoine Amédé Peychaud was a Creole apothecary who immigrated to New Orleans from Haiti in the early nineteenth century and, from his pharmacy on Ro...
The Go-Cup: Take Your Drink with You in New Orleans
Take It with YouIn most American cities, walking down the street with an alcoholic beverage will earn you a citation. In New Orleans, it will earn you a nod of recognition and possibly a recommenda...
Dutch Morial: The Man Who Was First in Everything
First in EverythingErnest Nathan "Dutch" Morial was born in New Orleans on October 9, 1929, into a Creole family in the Seventh Ward — the neighborhood that has been the heart of Black Creole cultu...
Donna Brazile: The Kenner Kid Who Ran a Presidential Campaign
The Girl Who Organized Her First Campaign at Nine Years OldDonna Lease Brazile was born on December 15, 1959, in New Orleans, the third of nine children in a working-class family in Kenner. She gre...
P.G.T. Beauregard: The Creole General Who Fired the First Shot of the Civil War
The Creole General Who Fired the First ShotPierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard was born on May 28, 1818, in St. Bernard Parish, just downriver from New Orleans, into one of the oldest and most promin...
Cokie Roberts: The New Orleans Political Dynasty That Shaped American Journalism
Born Into Power, Built Her OwnMary Martha Corinne Morrison Claiborne Boggs — Cokie Roberts to the world — was born in New Orleans on December 27, 1943, into the most prominent political family in L...
Hoda Kotb: How New Orleans Made America's Favorite Morning Anchor
America's Morning Anchor Started in New OrleansHoda Kotb was born in Norman, Oklahoma, in 1964, to Egyptian immigrant parents, but New Orleans is where she became Hoda. She attended St. Martin's Ep...
