Every drama deserves a good backstory. For New Orleans, this narrative takes place during the "long 1970s," a time when political transformation, cultural rebirth, and urban reimagining revived a fading port city. Hosted by historian Justin Nystrom and journalist Jack Davis, each episode of the Making Modern New Orleans podcast explores how the city we know came into being through first-hand accounts of the people who made them happen.
In the second part of our episode with Ella Brennan, we explore the opening of Mr. B's Bistro in 1979 and what it said about the changing dining tastes of New Orleans as the '70s came to a close, the arrival of Emeril Lagasse and how his symbiotic relationship with Commander's Palace enabled both to flourish, and Ella's reflection on the stakes of building a tourism economy in New Orleans.
4 Nov 2024
Ella Brennan - Part 1
Justin and Jack discuss their 2014 interview with Ella Brennan, matriarch of the storied restaurant family. In part one, Ella describes coming to Commander's Palace after the 1974 Brennan family split that sent them away from the Royal Street landmark and the enormous effort it took to transform the Garden District restaurant into the establishment that we would recognize today. She also talks about the changing culinary landscape of New Orleans and her relationship with the first chef to become famous while at Commander's Palace, Paul Prudhomme. Episode 1 of 2.
28 Oct 2024
Charles Ferguson
Jack and Justin discuss their interview with Charlie Ferguson - who was once Jack's boss back in the 1970s and early 1980s when they were both at the States-Item and after when that paper's team took over the Times-Picayune. Jack suggests that Ferguson had more of a positive impact on New Orleans journalism than anyone else in the latter half of the twentieth century, a record for which this episode makes a case. Ferguson began working in journalism when he was a copy boy in his father's office, and went on to become a reporter in the early 1960s for the New Orleans States-Item. At the age thirty-two he was made that paper's editor, a move that ushered in an era of aggressive reporting in an era when the city underwent profound change. We cover everything from the relationship between the paper and politics to the desegregation of Carnival, the emergence of food criticism in the city, and the impressive team of young journalists Ferguson assembled at the States-Item and later Times-Picayune.
28 Oct 2024
Bonus Track - Charles Ferguson
In this bonus track, Jack and Justin consider Charles Ferguson's observations about the decision to pursue convention business in New Orleans and the important legacy that it has had.
21 Oct 2024
Ben C. Toledano
This week Jack and Justin talk about their 2013 interview with self-exiled New Orleanian and iconoclast, Ben C. Toledano. Whether you agree or disagree with his point of view, it would be difficult to find a more interesting or complicated individual than Toledano. Born to one of the city's old families, he grew over time to see the failings of what he would describe as an insulated and intellectually incurious elite. He was an early Republican at a time when the Democratic Party dominated Louisiana politics, a talented lawyer who was happier discussing literature, and someone who loved the city so much that he couldn't bear to live here anymore. In this episode Toledano talks about what he saw as the hypocrisy of the political establishment, his unprecedented challenge to Moon Landrieu in the 1970 mayoral election, the failings of the elite institutions like the Boston Club, and literary figures like his friend Walker Percy.
14 Oct 2024
Robert Tucker
In this episode, Jack and Justin discuss their interview with New Orleans political insider and businessman Robert Tucker. As a young army veteran and civil rights activist, Tucker joined the 1969 mayoral campaign of Maurice "Moon" Landrieu and eventually served as the city's first African American deputy mayor. Landrieu came to rely on Tucker when it came to navigating conflict and change in the 1970s including the dramatic days surrounding the Black Panther standoff in the Desire Housing Project and the tragic Mark Essex incident.
7 Oct 2024
Lolis Edward Elie
Jack and JustinCreators & Guests
Jack Davis (https://makingmodernneworleans.transistor.fm/people/jack-davis) - Host
Justin Nystrom (https://makingmodernneworleans.transistor.fm/people/justin-nystrom) - Producer
interviewed noted civil rights attorney and political observer Lolis Edward Elie at his home on Henriette DeLille Street on November 16, 2012. Born in the neighborhood known today as the "Black Pearl" in 1930, Lolis Elie grew up doing all manner of odd jobs, from waiting tables and caddying at the nearby Audubon Park Golf Course to shining shoes at the corner of St. Charles and Broadway. By his own admission, he didn't set out to "become some Civil Rights attorney," that he "didn't want to spend the rest of my life shining shoes." In 1959, he became one of the earlier African American graduates of Loyola University New Orleans's Law School and went out immediately to set up a practice with Loyola classmate Nils Douglas and Robert Collins on what is today Oretha Castle Haley Boulevard. He played a pivotal role in the jurisprudence of desegregation and was a tireless civic advocate of equity for the people of New Orleans. Elie passed away in April 4, 2017.
In this episode, Elie discusses his involvement with the desegregation of Canal Street, the perspectives of Civil Rights activists on the pivotal mayoral election of 1969-70, the disruption to Black New Orleans communities brought by Interstate 10 and Armstrong Park, the rediscovery of music and especially food culture in the 1970s, and his work with Rudy Lombard on the classic volume Creole Feast.
30 Sept 2024
Trailer - Introducing Season 1 of Making Modern New Orleans
Justin Nystrom introduces Season 1 of the new podcast Making Modern New Orleans, a production of the Digital Humanities Studio, Department of History, Loyola University New Orleans. Episode 1 coming October 2024.
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