This week on The Reading Life, The Neighborhood Story Project's Woodlief Thomas, Lake Area NTEC High School creative writing teacher Jeremy Roussel, and Lake Area students Rejeanne Boudreaux and Devin Lafrance, creators of the new book from the Neighborhood Story Project, Straight Outta Swampton.

We’ll also talk with Karin Giger, who’s one of the folks behind the Pinckley Memorial Little Free Library on Soniat St. in the side yard of Latter Library. And Susan has some picks for summer reading.

This week on Inside the Arts, a milestone in New Orleans dance history: the internationally-recognized Giacobbe Academy of Dance is celebrating 70 years! 

Then FestiGals, a four day extended weekend getaway for women, gears up for a bodacious celebration in the French Quarter. The FestiGals ladies are rolling out  the "pink" carpet for their third anniversary. 

In the wide-ranging effort to reform the New Orleans criminal justice system, this new nonprofit works for more equal access to expungements of criminal records to help people get jobs and move on after release.

The Coast Guard is winding up its clean-up work in three Gulf Coast states with beaches soiled by the BP oil spill. But operations in Louisiana are continuing.

Did you know New Orleans now has a brand new, world-class car and motorcycle race track?

Wes Ratcliff, NOLA Motorsports Park Director of Business Development & Technology, along with Max Materne, GM of The Transportation Revolution New Orleans, are Peter’s guests on this week’s Out to Lunch.

After interviewing nearly 20 people involved in the coastal restoration process and program — from scientists and engineers, to public officials leading agencies — one of the surprising findings was the consensus among them that people living inside these levees — who live in the most threatened spot in North America due to sea level rise, subsidence and coastal land loss — don’t seem to be fully engaged or aware of just how precarious their situation is.

So, is this common?

The New Orleans criminal justice system will be center stage at federal court proceedings set to begin this week. The city argues it can’t pay for fixing the police department and jail at the same time.

People who say that nothing lasts forever are dead wrong when it comes to Styrofoam.

Styrofoam (or polystyrene, as the men in white coats call it) is a petroleum based product that will likely outlast us all — and that’s not a good thing. Environmentally it's non-recyclable, and refuses to break down, even when exposed to light. Combine that with the fact that Styrofoam is lightweight and floats, and you’ve got massive quantities accumulating along coasts and waterways around the world, which makes it a health hazard for marine life.

It’s summertime, the kids are out of school, and Hollywood is, once again, following the money.

“Right now you can literally go see Fast and Furious 6 at practically any theater in the city, said John Desplas, artistic director for the New Orleans Film Society, “and it’s starting in 20 minutes on one of the 20 screens.”

Who:  Valerie West, 44, a New Orleans native who returned home after years of traveling the world as a military wife because her kids wanted to graduate from high school in the city in which they were born. A housekeeper at Ochsner who lets loose every Sunday as an active member of the New Orleans second-line culture (her club is the Original New Orleans Lady Buckjumpers). A teen mother who saw all three of her kids go to college. A woman whose life was forever changed by violence.