My latest: The restorers

Dear friends,

One of Darrah Fox Bach’s many skills is turning used oyster shells—buttery discards from restaurants in New Orleans and Baton Rouge—into living shorelines that protect cultural heritage sites and reduce erosion.

Her superpower, though, is building deep relationships in her adopted home of Louisiana: embracing people from different backgrounds and building allies among those who hold conflicting policy positions. At the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana, where she works, Darrah relies on these personal relationships to help protect the most fragile coastline in the continental United States.

“Addressing those political disagreements is made so much easier,” she says, “when you are ingrained in the community.”

https://apeaceofmymind.org/2025/09/25/darrah-fox-bach/

My interview with Darrah is Week 6 of “Still Here,” a multimedia series about the people who are working to preserve wetlands and traditions along the Louisiana coast. What began for us as a conversation about restoration projects became a deeper meditation on the nature of home.

“Still Here” is a collaboration with photographer John Noltner and his non-profit, A Peace of My Mind, which uses art and storytelling to bridge divides. You’ll find links to all the episodes here.

We have a bonus episode this week: an interview with Rashida Ferdinand, executive director of the Sankofa Development Corp. in New Orleans. Rashida grew up in the city’s Lower Ninth Ward and left to study ceramics. She returned in 2001. When Hurricane Katrina struck four years later, she made a pivot: Rather than sculpting clay, she turned her attention to reshaping her decimated neighborhood. Among her accomplishments is a 40-acre wetlands park that will help protect the Lower Ninth from future storms.

https://apeaceofmymind.org/2025/09/25/rashida-ferdinand/

Plus, what I’ve been reading:

• Hannah Natanson on a federal employee (and Trump voter) who tried three times to take the government's deferred resignation offer while his wife was dying, only to be turned down.

• Brendan I. Koerner’s profile of a 5G conspiracy theorist who's in prison for setting 22 cell towers on fire. (There's a cameo appearance by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.)

• Eva Holland’s investigation into why National Geographic disappeared its own documentary.

What someone wrote about me:

The Old Gold & Black, the student newspaper at Wake Forest University, published a well-crafted profile of me. Student-reporter Henry Holt captured my journalism career, including the ethical choices I make every day, with nuance.

And music I’ve been listening to:

Last week, I mentioned attending the North Carolina Folk Festival in Greensboro. One of the treats was listening to Peter One, a guitarist and singer-songwriter who emigrated from Côte d’Ivoire and later rebuilt his musical career in Nashville. Here’s “Cherie Vico,” a love song he wrote in the Guro language. (If you like the music, check out his interview with my friend Craig Havighurst on Tennessee’s WMOT.)

Next week, on “Still Here,” we’ll feature a self-proclaimed “Lady Monger” who has no use for talk of “trash fish.” See you then.

All best,
Barry Yeoman