Flyover: Down the Mississippi River

Host Kerri Miller returns with a special edition of Flyover from MPR News.

For one week – from July 16-20 at 12 p.m. central time audiences in Middle America will hear a dynamic, live discussion about life along the Mississippi River, and how it influences the economy, culture and environment of the cities along its path.

Flyover: Down the Mississippi River gives audiences who live and work along the river an opportunity to share their unique stories and the ways they're intimately bound to cities both upstream and down.

Each of the five midday call-in shows will shine a spotlight on the Mississippi:

• Monday, July 16: Kerri starts the conversation in the same state the river begins: Minnesota. She discusses the river's history and culture and how it has shaped our Midwestern identity.
   
• Tuesday, July 17: Focus on the future: Who gets to decide how the river is managed?
   
• Wednesday, July 18: Live broadcast from Iowa Public Radio, with a discussion about the importance of agriculture in the Mississippi watershed and how land use and runoff affect the river's environment.
   
• Thursday, July 19: Down the river to New Orleans. Broadcasting live from WWNO, we'll hear how this city and other municipalities across the country are grappling with climate change while working to improve equity and opportunity along the river.
   
• Friday, July 20: Throughout this series we'll hear a lot about the problems facing those who live near the Mississippi River: runoff, climate change, regulation and access and equity. In this program, we wrap up our journey down the river with a community conversation on solutions. Stationed at the Larose Civic Center in Louisiana, Kerri Miller speaks to a crowd of engineers, educators, shrimpers and others about their ideas, programs and progress for improving the quality of life along the Mississippi River watershed. (This will be a live-to-tape broadcast, not a live call-in.)

Click Here for an Audio Preview (mp3)

Kerri Miller is host of Minnesota Public Radio's daily news call-in program MPR News with Kerri Miller as well as the literary conversations series "Talking Volumes". She was the political reporter for KARE 11 television in Minneapolis-St. Paul before coming to MPR in 2004. Kerri also hosts the national call-in show Flyover from MPR News, which returns for a second season in September.