"He Would Have BLOWN UP the Beach!" The Women Who Stopped the World's Richest Man from Destroying the Seacoast

**The next "Seacoast Stories" LIVE PODCAST is on June 19! It's at The Word Barn in Exeter, N.H., and it will feature conversations with Flight House Gym's Jay Collins, Live Freely's Alyssa Pine, and Cup of Joe's Joanna Kelley. For tickets, click here.

The Seacoast as we know it today?

It nearly never existed.

That's because, in the 1970s, the world's then-richest man, Aristotle Onassis of Greece, wanted to build a $600M oil refinery in Durham, N.H. Its size and output (400,000 barrels per day) would have made it the largest refinery in the world, and thereby putting the entire Seacoast ecosystem and natural beauty at risk.

But the residents of Durham, led by three women in particular, refused to let it happen.

From the West End of Portsmouth, Professor David W. Moore, a senior fellow at UNH's Carsey School of Public Policy and author of "Small Town, Big Oil: The Untold Story of the Women Who Took on the World's Richest Man-And Won" joins host Troy Farkas to spill the tea on the relationship between Onassis and Jackie Kennedy (JFK's widow), and to discuss how the world's richest man had landed upon Durham Point, the state government's push for the refinery, the citizens' opposition to it, and why the Seacoast would look drastically different had Onassis succeeded.

CHAPTERS:

• 6/19 live podcast details (00:00)
• Aristotle Onassis' dream of building an oil refinery (01:07)
• Jackie Kennedy's odd marriage to Onassis (05:25)
• Why Durham, N.H., was the ideal spot for the refinery (13:00)

• SPONSOR: Meconi Financial Management & Advisory (24:32)
• SPONSOR: Holistic & Hormonal (25:58)
• Why the citizens were opposed to the refinery (27:28)
• How the media cozied up to Onassis (35:11)

• What if the refinery had been built? (41:58)
• Lessons to apply today from this experience (45:57)

• Advice to younger self (51:36)

To support Professor Moore, you can purchase "Small Town, Big Oil" at Water Street Bookstore in Exeter, N.H., Book Nook in Portsmouth, N.H., or Barnes & Noble in Newington, N.H.

THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS:

• For a free lab consultation with Dr. Whitney Elsesser, visit the Holistic & Hormonal web site and write "HORMONES" on the contact page.
• To get started on your financial planning journey, learn more about Meconi Financial Management & Advisory here.

To support "Seacoast Stories," can you FOLLOW the show on our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ or ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠pages?