BATON ROUGE — During his storied career in Louisiana politics, Jay Dardenne has worn many hats.

He's been the Secretary of State, a State Senator and Lieutenant Governor. He's even been called the official historian of Louisiana due to his passion for telling stories and highlighting what makes Louisiana so unique. 

Dardenne is presenting a series of lectures about the state's history starting this week at the Old Governor's Mansion. The lecture, which is free to the public, starts at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday. Learn more here.

The lecture series will cover everyone from Fats Domino, Jimmy Swaggart, John Fred and his Playboy Band and Mahalia Jackson. 

To kick off his lecture series, Dardenne visited with 2une In's John Pastorek to give WBRZ viewers a taste of what makes Louisiana's rich history so special.