BLOODLINE
Tracing the unwritten history of cockfighting and culture of the gamefowl community.
Jesse Sidlauskas
Show overview
BLOODLINE has been publishing since 2020, and across the 3 years since has built a catalogue of 8 episodes, alongside 1 trailer or bonus episode. That works out to roughly 3 hours of audio in total. Releases follow an irregular cadence.
Episodes typically run twenty to thirty-five minutes — most land between 22 min and 26 min — and the run-time is fairly consistent across the catalogue. It is catalogued as a EN-US-language History show.
The catalogue appears to be on hiatus or wound down — the most recent episode landed 3.4 years ago, with no new episodes in over a year. Published by Jesse Sidlauskas.
From the publisher
Today among the most populous animals on earth, the domestic chicken followed the earliest human civilizations across the globe not for food--initially--but cockfighting. Bloodline explores the rich history between human civilization and chickens, especially gamefowl and the sport of cockfighting. Host Jesse Sidlauskas, who once fought and riased gamecocks with three generations of his family, explores the narratives of the ancient past-time through hard-hitting historical research and interviews with cockfighters and gamefowl breeders.
Latest Episodes
Ep 7No. 7: Worth Its Weight in Gold
In late 1830, Nash County, N.C. plantation owner Nicholas Arrington accepted Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna's challenge to a cockfight. Arrington and about a dozen friends spent six months crossing the country with more than 300 gamecocks in a dozen mule-drawn wagons to meet the Mexican president outside modern-day El Paso in April the following year.
Ep 6No. 6: The Society for Prevention
Today, almost 200 years after the formation of the SPCA in London, there are satellite organizations in countries all over the globe and in many major cities. 16 years after Broome’s meeting, the crown will grant it a royal commission, and its members will dominate the politics and business of animal law in the country, and elsewhere in the world, for at least the next two centuries.
Ep 5No. 5: Kings of the Cockpit
We’ll be exploring the lives of some of the all-time-great cockers of England and the world up to that time, including Edward Smith-Stanley, The 12th Earl of Derby and some of his contemporaries, including William Tregonwell Frampton, William "Bill" Gilliver, Joe Gilliver and Paul Potter.
Ep 4No. 4: Royal Pastime, Rabble Darling, Part II
At the end of the 1600s, cockfighting was about as prevalent among the British as it...
Ep 3No. 3: Royal Pastime, Rabble Darling
At its height in the 17th and 18th centuries, cocking permeated British culture without exclusion, occupying crown, court, church and countryman for centuries. Called the "Pleasure of Princes" or the "Royal Pasttime" in books from that time, it was at the same time a rabble darling, a people’s diversion.
Ep 2No. 2: A Gringo Walks into a Cockfight
Puerto Rican cockers currently have an appeal pending in the First Circuit Court in Boston which challenges the constitutionality of the ban and also argues the cockers were entitled and did not receive due process of law prior to the prohibition. Oral arguments were made earlier this month, and gamefowl community awaits the decision of the court judges.
Ep 1No. 1: The Phantom Cockfight
In this episode, we hear the story of Tommy Carrano and also talk to the gamefowl show standards expert, the chicken-man's chicken expert, Anthony Saville.
BLOODLINE: The Introduction
trailerBloodline explores the largely unwritten history and culture of the gamefowl community, including but not limited to the ancient past time of cockfighting.