What Does Landman Get Right? Fracks and Fictions of the Oil Industry, with Deborah Gordon

In this episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Deborah Gordon, a senior principal at the Rocky Mountain Institute and senior fellow at the Watson School of International and Public Affairs at Brown University. Together, they discuss the hit television show “Landman,” which exposes an up-close view of working and living in the oil and gas industry. “Landman” portrays some of the major risks and complications that arise when working for an oil company in the Permian Basin of Texas: injuries, accidents, contaminants, reckoning with automation and climate change, and more. Gordon pulls from her expertise to separate the “frack” from the fiction of working in oil and gas. She also expands on the future-facing questions of the fossil fuel industry and its role in shaping society and addressing climate change. With a third season on the way, Gordon and Raimi riff on some ideas for what the next plotline in “Landman” could be, and the off-screen realities for the oil and gas industry. References and recommendations: “Landman” television show; https://www.paramountplus.com/shows/landman/ “There Will Be Blood” film; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There_Will_Be_Blood “Argo” film; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argo_(2012_film) “Dallas” television show; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dallas_(TV_series) “Private Empire” by Steve Coll; https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/303537/private-empire-by-steve-coll/ “Lessons of Darkness” documentary film; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lessons_of_Darkness Subscribe to stay up to date on podcast episodes, news, and research from Resources for the Future: https://www.rff.org/subscribe/