Read Senior Editor Femi Oke's notes on the series below.

It's been three years since Hurricane Katrina tore through the Gulf Coast and changed the lives hundreds of thousands of Americans. This week, The Takeaway is talking to some of those people and looking back at the events that followed the storm.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, then FEMA director Michael Brown took a beating for his lack of formal emergency management experience. It’s been three years since Brown stepped down as FEMA’s director. But in one way at least, he’s picked up where he left off: Brown now owns a crisis management firm. We check in with Michael Brown about life after Katrina, lessons learned, and how he thinks about that tragic moment now that he has the clarity that often comes with the passing of time.

Last week, 6,800 people gathered in Chicago for UNITY, a conference held every four years for journalists of color. It's the largest reoccurring journalism convention in the nation. Between panels, a Sunday appearance by Barack Obama and industry parties, attendees spoke with The Takeaway about media coverage of the 2008 election.

The nation's largest mortgage finance companies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, are in trouble. So much so that the White House announced a plan Sunday to show stock markets and debt markets that the government has their back.

Guest: Louis Uchitelle, The New York Times