Hello and welcome to another edition of Inside the Cover.

I am Ted Ayres, and I have the pleasure and honor of serving as your guide fo commentary on yet another book.

Thank you for watching and supporting PBS Kansas.

Tonight I bring you yet another book found in my little free Public Library.

It is Blowout by Rachel Maddow, and now it's time to go inside the cover.

As I noted previously, tonight's book is Blowout by Rachel Maddow.

It was copyrighted in 2019, and I finished my copy on October 10th, 2024.

Maddow holds a bachelor's degree from Stanford and a doctorate in political scienc from the University of Oxford, which she attended as a Rhodes Scholar, having previously declined a Marshall scholarship.

Maddow is the author of four books, and her audiobook versio of Blowout won a Grammy Award.

The subtitle for blowout is ‘Corrupted Democracy, Rogue State Russia, and the Richest, Most Destructive Industry on Earth.

Let me suggest that this is very inclusively descriptive.

The underlying foundation of the book is the world's dependance on oil and natural gas.

Going back to a farm in northwest Pennsylvania when on August 28th, 1859, the operators of a drill found rock oil at a depth of 69 and one half feet.

I learned so very much from this book on a wide variety of topics.

It reaffirms from personal perspectives and it advised me of a multitude of things I was not previously aware of, but should have been.

I found the book to be well-researched for each of the book's 29 chapters.

Maddow provides an understanding of where she went hunting for statistics, scholarship, expert analysis, official inquiry, and reportage.

She also writes with humor and a bit of tongue in cheek sarcasm, which proved to be quite humorous at times.

For my reading of this book I learned about multiple efforts of city leaders to initiate a renaissance of downtown Oklahoma City, including the recruitment of the Seattle SuperSonics to become the Thunder.

I read how the oil and gas industry in Oklahoma sought and obtained favorable tax treatments, resulting in a tru economic crisis for the state.

I read how Rex Tillerson of ExxonMobil cozied up to Vladimir Putin in the search for higher corporate profits.

I read about the rise and fall of Aubrey McClendon of Oklahoma's Chesapeake Energy, including his fatal car crash before an upcoming trial about alleged violations of the Sherman Antitrust Act.

I learned about horizontal drilling or fracking, which allowed well operators to drill straight down, make a right angle, turn at a chosen depth, and then tunnel out thousands of yards or even mile more in search of natural gas.

I also learned about the connection between the fracking process and earthquakes, and we certainly know the experience of an earthquake right here in Wichita.

I read about the hacker Marcel Lazar, a Romanian also known as Guccifer, who seemingly could find his way into any technology.

This listing only scratche the surface of the information contained in this book.

I found it to be an eye opener in so many ways, and I feel compelled to suggest that it is certainly worth your time as an important and informative read.

Tonight's book has been Blowout by Rachel Maddow, and let me close with a personal connection with this book.

In her acknowledgments, Maddo refers to, ‘the great and good Mark Zwonitzer without whom this book would not exist.

I am proud to say that we are very good friends with Marks parents going back to our early days in Columbia, Missouri.

Also, check out my review of Marks book, The Statesman and the Storyteller, which was previously feature right here on Inside the Cover.

Good night and see you next time.