On this week’s show, we look at New Orleans history through the lens of the city’s material culture.

We begin with Jim Bruseth and Toni Turner, who reveal a surprising turn of events that preceded the official founding of New Orleans. Evidently, if the French explorer La Salle hadn’t blundered in his attempt to form a colony here, the city would have celebrated its 300th birthday in 1988 instead of 2018.