Episodes

  • The Plantation Museums on River Road, Part II
    Jan 30 2023

    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.bloodandoilpodcast.com/episode-9 


    Music: Blood & Oil Theme, Brotha Trav www.instagram.com/BrothaTrav


    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 Show Notes page on our website and/or within the episode.

    Questions, comments and corrections: bloodandoilpodcast@gmail.com

    Show More Show Less
    55 mins
  • The Plantation Museums on River Road, Part I
    Jan 23 2023

    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/episode-8 


    Music: Blood & Oil Theme, Travers LaVille. www.instagram.com/BrothaTrav 

    Fundraiser Acoustic Folk Guitar, Media Music Group


    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 Show Notes page on our website and/or within the episode.

    Questions, comments and corrections: bloodandoilpodcast@gmail.com

    Show More Show Less
    49 mins
  • “Cancer Alley”
    Jan 16 2023

    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 Louisiana’s Chemical Corridor here: https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262622042/diamond/ 


    Music:
    Blood & Oil Theme, Travers LaVille. www.instagram.com/BrothaTrav
    America The Blue, Patrick Smith

    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 Show Notes page on our website and/or within the episode.

    Questions, comments and corrections: bloodandoilpodcast@gmail.com

    Show More Show Less
    32 mins
  • Holiday Special! Tourism in NOLA: Then & Now
    Dec 19 2022

    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 extra content & to support independent research: www.patreon.com/bloodandoilpodcast 

    Holiday Special Notes Page: www.bloodandoilpodcast.com/holiday-special 


    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 Show Notes page on our website and/or within the episode.

    Questions, comments and corrections: bloodandoilpodcast@gmail.com

    Show More Show Less
    51 mins
  • The Oil Boom in Plantation Country: Labor in Louisiana
    Dec 5 2022

    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 International Union, see Ray Davidson’s book, Challenging the Giants.


    Music:

    Blood & Oil Theme, Travers LaVille: www.instagram.com/BrothaTrav


    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 Show Notes page on our website and/or within the episode.

    Questions, comments and corrections: bloodandoilpodcast@gmail.com

    Show More Show Less
    37 mins
  • The Oil Boom in Plantation Country: The Company Town
    Nov 28 2022

    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 content & to support independent research: www.Patreon.com/bloodandoilpodcast 


    Episode 5 Show Notes Page: www.bloodandoilpodcast.com/episode-5 

    Shell Norco 1997 video on Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/328540723 

    1916-1917 Pan American Record at Google Books: https://books.google.com/books/about/Pan_American_Record.html?id=jYQwAQAAMAAJ 


    Music:

    Blood & Oil Theme - Travers LaVille: www.instagram.com/BrothaTrav 

    Wilderness Mindset - Humans Win


    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 Show Notes page on our website and/or within the episode.

    Questions, comments and corrections: bloodandoilpodcast@gmail.com

    Show More Show Less
    39 mins
  • The Oil Boom in Plantation Country: Why Louisiana?
    Nov 21 2022

    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. 

    The story of Alex Royal is based upon census data and historical newspapers, and is inspired by Saidiya Hartman’s style of “critical fabulation,” filling in gaps of the cold historical record with warmth and life. 

    Part 1 of 3. Listen next week for Part 2: The Company Town. 


    Episode 4 Show Notes Page: www.bloodandoilpodcast.com/episode-4

    Together Louisiana’s “Why Louisiana Stays Poor.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWTic9btP38 


    Music: 

    Blood & Oil Theme, Travers LaVille: www.instagram.com/BrothaTrav


    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 Show Notes page on our website and/or within the episode.

    Questions, comments and corrections: bloodandoilpodcast@gmail.com

    Show More Show Less
    37 mins
  • What Plantation Museum Tours Don’t Tell You, Part II: Reconstruction
    Nov 14 2022

    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 3 Show Notes Page: www.bloodandoilpodcast.com/episode-3 


    Music: 

    Blood & Oil Theme, Travers LaVille: www.instagram.com/BrothaTrav 

    Lonely Dusty Trail, Jon Presstone


    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 Show Notes page on our website and/or within the episode.

    Questions, comments and corrections: bloodandoilpodcast@gmail.com

    Show More Show Less
    24 mins