The “May the River Be With You” podcast series, six episodes to date, was developed over 2019-20 by staff at the Quapaw Canoe Company with support from the Mississippi River Network. The series, narrated by Mark “River” Peoples, covers a variety of topics important to establishing a better relationship to the Lower Mississippi River.
The series’ first episode picks up the sometimes-arcane subject of nutrient pollution in the Mississippi River delta and engages both a farmer and a recreational fisher for their insights on the impacts of nutrients on water quality. The second episode, “Education,” explores why the Mississippi River is not a required part of current curricula in Mississippi. Subsequent episodes explore microplastics, recreation, and, of course, river music, before the (to date) final examination of animal and plant species of the river corridor.
Too often, we see the Mississippi through a number of lenses that our work or academic discipline impose. Or we regard it nostalgically through a gauzy web of Mark Twain quotes. In fact, lenses are necessary: the river is too big to comprehend as a whole system. Yet they tend to abstract also, and we lose sight of the actual river in place of the river as we wish it was, or as we are hoping to make it.
But the blessing that this podcast series offers us is to get close to the river and see it through unexpected perspectives. These podcasts, together with the blogs and policy statements of the Mississippi River Network, offer a good “starter set” of materials to try to grasp this icon of the American landscape.