In this week’s episode of then & now, guest host Dr. Ben Zdencanovic is joined by Dr. Jennifer Klein, the Bradford Durfee Professor of History at Yale University, to explore Cancer Alley, the stretch of the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, Louisiana. Spanning roughly one hundred miles, Cancer Alley is densely packed with chemical plants, hazardous waste sites, and prisons, resulting in some of the highest rates of pollution in the country. Drawing together questions of environment, community health, and economic development, Jennifer considers how industrialization and environmental racism have shaped the lived experiences of residents along the Mississippi River corridor, while also illuminating broader debates about capitalism, geography, and inequality in American life.

Jennifer Klein is the Durfee Professor of History in the field of 20th-century U.S. history at Yale University. Jennifer’s research spans the fields of U.S. labor history, urban history, social movements, and political economy.  Her publications include Caring for America: Home Health Workers in the Shadow of the Welfare State (Oxford University Press, 2012), co-authored with Eileen Boris, which was awarded the Sara A. Whaley book prize from the National Women’s Studies Association; and For All These Rights: Business, Labor, and the Shaping of America’s Public-Private Welfare State (Princeton University Press, 2003)