On Good Authority

A New Orleans native may ask you where you went to high school and who your mama is. Those are ways we create connections around the city. Another way we identify New Orleanians is by our accents. Nathalie Dajko, associate professor of anthropology at the School of Liberal Arts and researcher of New Orleans accents, discusses the origins of various local accents and how they evolve over time.

Listen to examples of various New Orleans accents referenced by Professor Dajko.

Black Americans are more likely to die from COVID-19, yet communities of color are falling behind in the nation’s vaccine rollout. One of the nation’s leading experts in health disparities, Thomas LaVeist, dean of Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, talks about vaccine hesitancy in the Black community, what can be done to increase confidence in the vaccine, and how the pandemic has exposed long standing health inequities in the United States.

Leading cardiologist Dr. Keith Ferdinand at Tulane University School of Medicine talks about how stress and social isolation from the pandemic may be undermining our heart health, what researchers are learning about how Covid-19 affects the heart and what people at any age should know about keeping their hearts healthy. 

GameStop came roaring back from the ‘90s over the course of a few short days in January of 2021. How did GameStop become the hottest stock overnight and the talk of Wall Street? Tulane business professor Peter Ricchiuti talks about how the meme stock came to be, what the fallout will look like, and the future of small investors going forward.

Peter is also the founder of Burkenroad Reports and host of the business podcast “Out to Lunch.”

Sydney Labat and Rachel Turner, third-year students at Tulane School of Medicine and co-founders of an organization called The 15 White Coats, discuss why they decided to become physicians, the meaning of being a Black physician, and their viral photograph, taken in front of a former slave quarter, that symbolized Black excellence.

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, New Orleans musicians have borne the brunt of living in an economy where live music poses a threat to public health. Melissa Weber, curator of the Hogan Jazz Archive with Tulane University Special Collections, discusses how musicians are adapting and how this may impact New Orleans musicians’ legacies.

From routine checkups to end of life wishes, our health care doesn’t have to depend on a stranger in a white coat. Dr. Jacey Jones, academic hospitalist and assistant professor of clinical medicine in the Tulane Section of General Internal Medicine, shares how to approach medical visits and ensure we play an active role in our health and wellness. 

How can we make and implement better, healthier habits as we continue to navigate pandemic life in 2021? To figure that out, Heather Nace, Director of the Goldring Center for Culinary Medicine at Tulane University talks about tips and tricks to help make successful, sustainable changes to your diet.

When will most people have a realistic shot at getting their first doses of a COVID-19 vaccine? And will Americans trust the science behind a fast-tracked process to get them to market as soon as possible to end a public health crisis? Health economist Charles Stoecker, a vaccine policy expert at Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, talks about the five leading COVID-19 vaccines and answers questions about what the rollout will look like — and whether the end of the pandemic is in sight.

Wildfires in the west, a very active hurricane season, and repeated flooding from sea level rise: climate change has recently made significant headlines in an already unprecedented year. Jesse Keenan, a leading scholar on climate change and the built environment with Tulane’s School of Architecture, discusses how climate change impacts our lives and the importance of adaptation.