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Fresh Air Weekend: Clarinetist Doreen Ketchens; 'White Lotus' actor Natasha Rothwell

Belinda (Natasha Rothwell) travels to Thailand in Season 3 of The White Lotus.
Fabio Lovino
/
HBO
Belinda (Natasha Rothwell) travels to Thailand in Season 3 of The White Lotus.

Fresh Air Weekend highlights some of the best interviews and reviews from past weeks, as well as new program elements specially paced for weekends. Our weekend show emphasizes interviews with writers, filmmakers, actors and musicians, and it often includes excerpts from live in-studio concerts. This week:

Celebrating Mardi Gras with New Orleans clarinetist and vocalist Doreen Ketchens: Known as "Lady Louie," Ketchens has been a fixture of the French Quarter for nearly four decades. We talk about her classical training and her career as a street performer, and she'll play some music.

Last Seen: After slavery, family members placed ads looking for loved ones: Formerly enslaved people would placed ads in newspapers hoping to find lost children, parents, spouses and siblings. Historian Judith Giesberg tells the stories of some of those families in a new book.

Natasha Rothwell on checking into The White Lotus Thailand: 'It felt like home': In the new season of The White Lotus, Rothwell reprises her role of spa manager Belinda, a woman "on the precipice of change" as she straddles the line between guest and staffer.

You can listen to the original interviews here:

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SOMOS CONNECTICUT es una iniciativa de Connecticut Public, la emisora local de NPR y PBS del estado, que busca elevar nuestras historias latinas y expandir programación que alza y informa nuestras comunidades latinas locales. Visita CTPublic.org/latino para más reportajes y recursos. Para noticias, suscríbase a nuestro boletín informativo en ctpublic.org/newsletters.

The independent journalism and non-commercial programming you rely on every day is in danger.

If you’re reading this, you believe in trusted journalism and in learning without paywalls. You value access to educational content kids love and enriching cultural programming.

Now all of that is at risk.

Federal funding for public media is under threat and if it goes, the impact to our communities will be devastating.

Together, we can defend it. It’s time to protect what matters.

Your voice has protected public media before. Now, it’s needed again. Learn how you can protect the news and programming you depend on.