Blood and Oil

Lauren Kenny & Travers of South by Northeast Prod•www.bloodandoilpodcast.com

Blood and Oil is the New Orleans history podcast that starts after the tourist booklets end. Join hosts Lauren Whitley-Haney & Kenny Haney as they detail the story of industry & violence in 1900s South Louisiana plantation country.

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Episodes

The Plantation Museums on River Road, Part II

In the finale of Blood & Oil, hosts Kenny & Lauren detail their experiences at some of the plantation museums in South Louisiana: Oak Alley Plantation, Laura Plantation & Creole Heritage Site, and the Whitney Plantation & Slavery Museum. Thank you to all of our listeners for supporting our project of untold Southern history! Come with us inside these museums and see for yourself what we discuss in the episode! View our photos on the Episode 9 Show Notes page: www.bloodandoilpodca...

Jan 30, 2023•55 min•Season 1Ep. 9

The Plantation Museums on River Road, Part I

While progressive River Road residents organized for a better environment, their conservative neighbors organized to create Louisiana’s River Road plantation museums. New historical societies transformed their socioeconomic power into the institutional power to construct a lasting historical narrative. Plantation museums might not pollute the natural environment like refineries, but they have polluted Louisiana in a completely different way. Episode 8 Notes Page: www.bloodandoilpodcast.com/episo...

Jan 23, 2023•49 min•Season 1Ep. 8

“Cancer Alley”

Many people have heard of “Cancer Alley,” a fatalistic name given to South Louisiana’s chemical corridor along the Mississippi River. But how did this region receive that name, who created it, and what is being done to challenge industrial domination? This episode looks at the swell of Louisiana’s grassroots environmental organizing during the 1980s and 1990s. Episode 7 Notes Page: www.bloodandoilpodcast.com/episode-7 Find Steve Lerner’s book, Diamond: A Struggle for Environmental Justice in Lou...

Jan 16, 2023•32 min•Season 1Ep. 7

Holiday Special! Tourism in NOLA: Then & Now

In this special episode of Blood & Oil, hosts Kenny & Lauren go on a festive tangent: the history of tourism in America’s Most Interesting City, New Orleans. With the help of friends and family to describe what makes New Orleans special to them, Blood & Oil looks at New Orleans’ other big industry and asks the question: how can learning about the history of tourism deepen our love of NOLA and help us be better tourists? Music: Time To Swing - Neil Cross Join our Patreon for hours of ...

Dec 19, 2022•51 min

The Oil Boom in Plantation Country: Labor in Louisiana

In part 3 of our Oil Boom episode series, we dive into Louisiana’s labor history. We talk about why the Jim Crow South had so few labor unions before World War II and when labor finally arrived in Louisiana, how it changed the refinery forever and killed the company town. Join our Patreon for hours of extra content & to support independent research: www.patreon.com/bloodandoilpodcast Episode 6 Show Notes Page: www.bloodandoilpodcast.com/episode-6 For more about the history of the Oil Workers...

Dec 05, 2022•37 min•Season 1Ep. 6

The Oil Boom in Plantation Country: The Company Town

Part 2 of our Oil Boom episode series is all about the company town! Were refinery company towns really that different from the old sugar plantations they sprouted up around? In this episode, Kenny & Lauren focus on St. Charles Parish - home to two refinery company towns, one of which is still around today. Contributor Travers LaVille joins to watch and comment on the corporate propaganda needed to sustain company towns and the refineries they served. Join our Patreon for hours of extra cont...

Nov 28, 2022•39 min

The Oil Boom in Plantation Country: Why Louisiana?

Here it is, folks! The stage is set and the main act of “Blood and Oil” has arrived. In this episode, hosts Kenny and Lauren talk about what led to the creation of Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley” as we know it today. Why did global oil companies choose Louisiana back in the 1910s, and what was it like for the generation who experienced Louisiana’s Petrochemical Revolution? Contributor Travers LaVille joins to discuss the “Louisiana paradox” - high concentration of industry and high levels of poverty....

Nov 21, 2022•37 min•Season 1Ep. 4

What Plantation Museum Tours Don’t Tell You, Part II: Reconstruction

In this episode, we detail the other missing part of plantation museum tours: Reconstruction and the establishment of Jim Crow in the South. In the decades after the Civil War, the political pendulum swung far and wide with disastrous effects we trace to current day. Hosts Kenny & Lauren detail the hyper-partisan Reconstruction Era in New Orleans and South Louisiana, the start of local tourism, working class interracial collaboration, and Solid South Democrats’ creation of Jim Crow. Episode ...

Nov 14, 2022•24 min•Season 1Ep. 3

What Plantation Museum Tours Don’t Tell You, Part I: Antebellum Period

In this episode of “Blood and Oil,” we detail what the traditional plantation museum tour doesn’t tell you. The Louisiana sugar plantation before the Civil War wasn’t an agrarian daydream. It was an industrial nightmare. Hosts Kenny & Lauren provide background on colonial and antebellum life in Louisiana, from the late 1600s to the 1840s. They are joined by friend and contributor Travers LaVille to read Solomon Northup’s Twelve Years a Slave and discuss the 1811 German Coast Uprising. Episod...

Nov 07, 2022•42 min•Season 1Ep. 2

Plantations and Petrochemicals on the Great River Road

In the series premiere of “Blood and Oil,” we examine New Orleans & South Louisiana’s little-known history. Not voodoo curses, ghosts, and the antebellum romance you’ve heard a hundred times, but what happened afterward… the rampant greed, corruption, and exploitation that defined 1900s Louisiana, when many discovered that their American Dream was actually a waking nightmare of blood and oil. Sources: DemocracyNow YouTube clip https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpuXDX0YuvM Episode 1 Show Notes ...

Oct 31, 2022•42 min•Season 1Ep. 1

Teaser

Introducing Blood and Oil. A Podcast dedicated to revealing the complicated history of 20th century southern Louisiana. Support Blood & Oil on Patreon: www.patreon.com/bloodandoilpodcast Visit our website for more information: www.bloodandoilpodcast.com Follow us! Instagram: www.instagram.com/bloodoilpod Twitter: www.twitter.com/bloodoilpod The opinions voiced within this podcast’s conversations are just that - opinions. When facts and research are given, the sources are cited within our Sho...

Sep 16, 2022•1 min

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