NOLA at 300: A Look Back

2018 will mark the tricentennial anniversary of the founding of the city of New Orleans, and throughout the city, preparations are being made to commemorate the beginning of the complicated and colorful history of America’s most unique city (and, if they know what’s good for them, investing heavily in rum futures). Three hundred years is a lot of history for any city, but in New Orleans, with its deserved reputation as a place where interesting things happen, it’s almost an embarrassment of riches.

The Historic New Orleans Collection is teaming up with WWNO and the Midlo Center for New Orleans Studies at UNO to help make sense of these busy and tumultuous centuries through a new radio show and podcast, TriPod. Each episode will be a bite-sized documentary look at some aspect of New Orleans history, organized according to monthly themes. Upcoming shows will include interviews with Haitian immigrants who fled to New Orleans to escape the Duvalier government as well as a walking tour of the CBD and Quarter, focusing on former sites of outdoor slave markets.

Kevin Harrell of The Historic New Orleans Collection emphasized that these stories will generally focus on lesser-known aspects of New Orleans history. “We’re going to depart from the myth and create real human-interest pieces,” he said. “These aren’t the well-worn stories everyone knows and tells tourists.”

TriPod will air weekly on WWNO (89.9 FM) on Thursdays at 8:30 am. Late risers will be able to access episodes at wwno.org, where there will also be archived segments, graphics, and expanded content.