Le Guest

Part-time N.O. resident Harry Shearer sometimes devotes his radio show, Le Show, to earnest discussion of what's up in the city, post-Katrina. He did that this week (February 18 episode) and I was pleased that his guest was Lolis Eric Elie. The interview starts out with a discussion of what non-New Orleanians tend not to understand about about Carnival. Elie also offers an interesting answer to why Ray Nagin was re-elected, a more nuanced take than I'm used to hearing about Nagin himself.

And toward the end, almost in passing, he makes an observation about the worldwide reputation of New Orleans: "We used to be known for Louis Armstrong. Now we're known for Hurricane Katrina."

Some of Shearer's previous choices of guests to talk New Orleans have been, frankly, pretty annoying. But this one is good.

You can listen to the whole thing, or just the Elie segments, here.