By Host Tom Ashbrook:

For the past two weeks, the city of New Orleans has been turned by catastrophe into a roaring national and global news story.

But at bottom, the devastation of Hurricane Katrina and the trials that have followed are being lived in intensely personal stories — of families and dreams dashed, of hope and horror in the floodwaters, of the agony and ruin of a city that is very deeply like no other.

The well-known flair of Bourbon Street was just the first face. New Orleanians know how deep runs the culture of cemetery and song and Southern queenliness that has now been drowned and ravaged.

Hear about the city of New Orleans, up close and personal, after the deluge.

Guests:

Douglas Brinkley, Distinguished Professor of History and director of the Eisenhower Center at the University of New Orleans. He is author of “Tour of Duty: John Kerry and the Vietnam War” and “The Boys of Pointe du Hoc: Ronald Reagan, D-Day, and the U.S. Army 2nd Ranger Battalion.”

Derrick Moss, Bass drummer and founding member of the Soul Rebels.

Big Chief Monk Boudreaux, he is part of New Orleans’ Mardi Gras Indian tradition. He sings and plays the tambourine as Big Chief of the Golden Eagles tribe, which performs Afro-Caribbean funk.