What'sHerName

Mae Mallory was a radical civil rights activist, Black Power movement leader, school desegregation organizer and strong proponent of Black armed self-defense. Her passionate dedication to “solving Black peoples’ problems” changed the world, but her name is mostly known because of her false arrest and conviction for kidnapping an elderly white couple in 1961. After the verdict was overturned by the North Carolina Supreme Court, Mallory continued to work for freedom, autonomy and security for African Americans and was influential in the early foundations of the African nation of Tanzania. Guest Dr Ashley Farmer is Assistant Professor of History and African and African-Diaspora Studies at the University of Texas-Austin and author of Remaking Black Power: How Black Women Transformed an Era. Farmer is also a co-editor of New Perspectives on the Black Intellectual Tradition (NUP Press, 2018) and an editor of the Black Power Series published with NYU Press. Music for this episode provided by Jeff Cuno, Daniel Henderson and His Big Band, and Cynthia Meng & Kim Onah. Want to help us “make history”? Become a Patron or Donate here! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this episode, a 17th-century tale of true love and extreme patience. Dorothy Osborne and William Temple fell deeply in love, but her family forbade the match. For years, while Dorothy’s creepily overbearing brother presented her with suitor after suitor of his own choosing, Dorothy and William faithfully sent each other secret love letters. Dorothy’s letters survive, and reveal the story of her escape from the clutches of her possessive brother in pursuit of “happily ever after.” Katie interviews Professor Bernard Capp, foremost expert on 17th-century Britain and author of the new book, The Ties That Bind. A digital archive of Dorothy Osborne’s letters can be found here, and free audio performances of her letters are at Librivox. After completing his masters and doctorate at the University of Oxford, Guest Bernard Capp went on to teach at the University of Warwick for half a century. He has written books on a wide range of early modern English topics including the family, gender, radical movements in the English Revolution, the impact of puritan rule during the interregnum, astrological almanacs, popular literature, and the Cromwellian navy. Music featured in this episode included: “Canarios” by Gaspar San, performed by Marc Nelson, and “Queen Marie’s Dumpe,” “The Nightingale,” “Franklin & Focky,” “Parthenia,” “Gerard’s Mistresse,” and “Fairwell Fair Armidia” by Dr. Phillip Serna. Want to help us “make history”? Become a Patron or Donate here! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Marjorie Hillis’ surprise bestseller Live Alone and Like It was a sensation when it was published in 1936. Determined to shift the narrative around singleness and encourage women to make active choices about their lives, Hillis used the insights gained in her decades as an editor for Vogue to empower single women to enjoy their single years instead of viewing them as an embarrassment. Her innovative ideas about relationships, female empowerment, friendship and career are still relevant today, and her witty, irresistible writing made her books mandatory reads for everyone in the 30s, men and women, married and single alike. Discover how one woman’s common-sense ideas about what singleness could look like took a country by storm, and how history’s changing narrative turned her story into something she never could have expected. Olivia interviews guest Joanna Scutts, author of The Extra Woman: How Marjorie Hillis Led a Generation of Women to Live Alone and Like It. Joanna Scutts is a literary critic, cultural historian, and the author of The Extra Woman, the story of the 1930s lifestyle guru Marjorie Hillis and the lives of single women in midcentury America. Her writing has appeared in The Washington Post, Wall St. Journal, New Republic, The New Yorker, and The Guardian US, among many other venues. She was the inaugural Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in Women’s History at the New-York Historical Society, and holds a PhD in English and Comparative Literature from Columbia University. Music for this episode provided by Vintage Vocal Quartet, Daniel Henderson and His Big Band, and the New Hot 5. Want to help us “make history”? Become a Patron or Donate here! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When your heart tells you to do one thing, and your parents tell you to do another, what do you do? 22-year-old Perpetua faced this dilemma 1,800 years ago in ancient Carthage. She faced a grisly death in an ancient Roman arena with her slave, Felicitas, at her side. Their tale is full of bizarre twists, gladiators, preemie babies, religious visions, and even a “most ferocious cow.” Katie interviews Eliza Rosenberg, Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow in Religious Studies at Utah State University, where she teaches courses in world religions, biblical studies, Judaism, Christianity, and Greek. Browse a truly comprehensive collection of all resources related to the story of Perpetua and Felicitas, and explore the mysterious world of Ancient Roman music with guest musician Michael Levy. We are fascinated by his explorations into what the ancient world might have sounded like. Guest Eliza Rosenberg is a Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow in Religious Studies at Utah State University, where she teaches courses in world religions, biblical studies, Judaism, Christianity, and Greek. She holds a Ph.D. in New Testament from McGill University. Her recent publications include “Weddings and the Return to Life in the Book of Revelation” in the volume Coming Back to Life: The Permeability of Past and Present, Mortality and Immortality, Death and Life in the Ancient Mediterranean, edited by F.S. Tappenden and C. Daniel-Hughes (McGill University, 2016) and “‘As She Herself Has Rendered’: Resituating Gender Perspectives on Revelation’s ‘Babylon,'” in the volume New Perspectives on the Book of Revelation, edited by Adela Yarbro Collins (Peeters, 2017). She is currently completing a book manuscript on the book of Revelation and violent theodicy. Icon of Perpetua and Felicitas by Élisabeth Lamour - no other use allowed without written permission from the artist. Music featured in this episode included: “Nero’s Lyre" “Gloria Belli,” “Contemplationis,” “Sorrow” composed and performed by Michael Levy, and “March of the Lizards” composed and performed by Unstoppable Farmer. Want to help us “make history”? Become a Patron or Donate here! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Constance Fenimore Woolson was one of the most popular writers of the 19th century. Though her life was full of drama, excitement and fame, for nearly a hundred years she’s been known only for the story of her death. Our guest, Dr. Anne Boyd Rioux, is changing that with her biography of Woolson, Portrait of a Lady Novelist. We join forces to help put this astonishingly brilliant writer “back in the canon.” Olivia interviews Anne Boyd Rioux, author of Constance Fenimore Woolson: Portrait of a Lady Novelist. Guest Anne Boyd Rioux is the author or editor of six books about nineteenth-century American women writers, including Meg, Jo, Beth, Amy: The Story of Little Women and Why It Still Matters, and Constance Fenimore Woolson: Portrait of a Lady Novelist, named one of the ten best books of the year by the Chicago Tribune. She is a professor of English at the University of New Orleans and the recipient of two National Endowment for the Humanities fellowships, one for public scholarship. Want to help us “make history”? Become a Patron or Donate here! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Caroline Herschel lived a real-life Cinderella story. Except instead of marrying a handsome prince, she became a world-renowned astronomer! Her brutal childhood of servitude and misery stunted her growth, disfigured her face and blinded her in one eye. But Caroline Herschel’s story is an incredibly beautiful tale of triumph and achievement. Her astonishing work in Astronomy (she discovered a planet, for one!) led to international renown. And she lived happily ever after. Join Katie with Joseph Middleton on location at the Herschel Museum of Astronomy in Bath, England. This episode also features excerpts from Caroline Herschel’s memoirs wonderfully performed by Kevin E Green for Librivox. Guest Joseph Middleton is manager of the Herschel Museum of Astronomy and has worked in museums in Bath for over a decade, including at the famed No.1 Royal Crescent. He studied Fine Art at Falmouth University. Music for this episode provided by the Herschel Ensemble. Want to help us “make history”? Become a Patron or Donate here! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Alma Schindler Mahler was a brilliant composer, pianist, and “influencer” who has largely been remembered only for the men with whom she had relationships. Her musical compositions are finally beginning to be recognized for their brilliance and performed on stage in the past few years, and her reputation as a “femme fatale” is long overdue for an overhaul. The “It Girl” of turn of the century Vienna, Alma Schindler was a famed wit, a renowned beauty, and a gifted pianist whose highest ambition, despite the restrictions put on her musical education, was to be a composer. After giving up her own work to marry “rock star” composer Gustav Mahler, Alma Mahler supported his career for nearly a decade until a series of tragedies led her to reclaim her own identity and creative work. After Gustav’s death, Alma Mahler would have several relationships and two more marriages, and her life would span a dizzying breadth of world events from Golden Age Vienna to a Sound of Music-style escape from the invading Nazi forces in France to Hollywood at the height of its glamour. Olivia interviews acclaimed author Mary Sharratt about her new novel Ecstasy, about the extraordinary life of Alma Mahler. This episode also includes excerpts from “Art Sung, a collaborative stage performance celebrating the life and works of Alma Mahler, featuring Liz Mucha and Alexandra Weaver. Guest Mary Sharratt is the award-winning author of seven historical novels and is “on a mission to write women back into history.” Ecstasy, her book about the life of Alma Mahler, was published in April 2018. Born in Minnesota, Mary lives with her Belgian husband in Lancashire, England. Her books span women’s history from the medieval visionary Hildegard of Bingen to Elizabethan poet Emilia Lanier to the Pendle Witches. Mary’s articles and essays have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Huffington Post, Publisher’s Weekly, and Historical Novels Review. When she isn’t writing, she’s usually riding her spirited Welsh mare through the Lancashire countryside. Music featured in this episode included: “Waldseligkeit,” “Ansturm,” “Bei dir ist es Traut,” “Hymne” and “Ich wandle unter Blumen” recorded live during a performance of Art Sung by Liz Mucha and Alexandra Weaver, and “Laue Sommernacht” performed by Dr. Amanda Setlik Wilson. Want to help us “make history”? Become a Patron or Donate here! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sally Lunn was born in France, but moved to Bath, England in 1680 to escape religious persecution. She brought with her a special skill: baking delicious brioche-style bread. Developing her own unique recipe, she sold her buns in the streets of Bath, soon becoming famous for the “Sally Lunn Bun.”Fast-forward 350 years to the 1930s: a baker in Bath with a love of archaeology decided to excavate the ground beneath his own house. What he uncovered resurrected the story of Sally Lunn and revealed in microcosm the whole history of Britain! Come along on a tour of the oldest house in Bath and wander the streets of the historic town through our vivid soundscape. Katie interviews guest Simon Lloyd-Williams, general manager of the Sally Lunn’s House restaurant and museum, on the site of her original bakery in Bath, England. Simon Lloyd-Williams has been the General Manager of Sally Lunn’s House in Bath for about a year. He has lived near Bath for the past eight years and previously worked as a chef. You can find a modern recipe for a Sally Lunn bun here. If you’d like to dig deeper into the “did Sally Lunn really exist” debate, The Food Timeline is a great resource. Music featured in this episode included “None Shall Plunder But I”, “The Merry Milkmaid,” “Blew Cap,” “Now the Fight’s Done” and “Amarillis” composed by John Playford and performed by Philip Serna. Dr Serna also runs the fantastic nonprofit Viols in our Schools which is dedicated to bringing Early Music to a wide audience. Want to help us “make history”? Become a Patron or Donate here! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Claudia Jones (born Claudia Cumberbatch) was a journalist, Black Nationalist and prominent member of the American Communist Party. Emigrating from Trinidad to NYC at eight years old, she was an extremely well-known peace activist and worked toward civil rights and women’s rights in America. Arrested for giving a speech promoting peace and women’s rights, in 1955 she was deported to England. There she founded the nation’s first Black newspaper, continued her work fighting racism and sexism, and founded the famous Notting Hill Carnival to promote understanding between white Londoners and their Caribbean immigrant neighbors. Guest Dr. Carole Boyce-Davies is Professor of Africana Studies and English at Cornell University. She has held distinguished professorships at a number of institutions, including the Herskovits Professor of African Studies and Professor of Comparative Literary Studies and African American Studies at Northwestern University. She is the author of Black Women, Writing and Identity: Migrations of the Subject (Routledge, 1994) and Left of Karl Marx: The Political Life of Black Communist Claudia Jones (Duke University Press, 2008). Music featured in this episode included: “Afro-Cuban Lullaby” arranged by Daniel Henderson, performed by Daniel Henderson and his Big Band, “Evening Glow” composed by Daniel Henderson performed by Daniel Henderson and his Big Band, “Oasis” composed by Jennifer Duerden, performed by Crosscurrent, and “Blinded” and “Me” composed and performed by Jeff Cuno. Want to help us “make history”? Become a Patron or Donate here! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Living in Saxony 1100 years ago, in a culture much like the Vikings, Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim probably witnessed violence against women all the time. Violence was a part of society, and she retreated to an intellectual life. But there, too, she found violence against women in the ancient Roman plays she was reading. If she couldn’t change society, at least she could change the plays! She rewrote them, altering the plots so that the women emerged victorious! Katie interviews Mark Damen, Professor of Classics at Utah State University and translator of several of Hrotsvitha’s plays. Guest Mark Damen began studying Latin in junior high and has been at it ever since. He completed his BA in Latin at the University of Florida and his MA and PhD at the University of Texas at Austin where he focused his work on ancient comedy, the subject of most of his publications. Following his wife Fran Titchener who joined Utah State in 1987, he has taught classes on a wide range of subjects, including ancient history, myth and drama, classical literature, language and etymology, and even playwriting. In 1998 he was Utah’s CASE Professor of the Year. Music featured in this episode included: “Karitas” composed by Hildegard von Bingen, performed by Maria Jonas and Pina Rücker, various music performed by Kate Fletcher and Corwen Broch, and “Waehaell” composed and performed by Hrōðmund Wōdening. Want to help us “make history”? Become a Patron or Donate here! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Bessie Margolin grew up in the New Orleans Jewish Orphan’s Home, was one of the first women to graduate from Tulane Law School and earned her PhD in Law from Yale University in 1932. Her groundbreaking work as Assistant Solicitor of Labor for the New Deal’s Fair Labor Standards Act championed many of the wage and hour rights Americans take for granted today and enshrined in law the basic human dignity of American workers. She still ranks sixth for most arguments at the Supreme Court by a woman, and her brilliance in banter with the Justices is legendary. Margolin’s passionate dedication to her life’s work made an indelible impact on American legal history and the lives of ordinary Americans. It also shaped the life of our guest Marlene Trestman, author of Fair Labor Lawyer: The Remarkable Life of New Deal Attorney and Supreme Court Advocate Bessie Margolin. Trestman followed Margolin’s guidance and her model from fellow ward of the New Orleans Jewish Children’s service to study at a prestigious law school, and finally to admission at the Supreme Court. Guest Marlene Trestman, author of Fair Labor Lawyer: The Remarkable Life of New Deal Attorney and Supreme Court Advocate Bessie Margolin (LSU Press), is currently at work on a collective biography, Most Fortunate Unfortunates: The History of New Orleans’s Jewish Orphans’ Home, 1855-1946. Both books draw on experience. Lawyer-turned-author Trestman, who has won funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Hadassah-Brandeis Institute, American Jewish Archives, Supreme Court Historical Society, and Texas Jewish Historical Society, had a personal relationship with Margolin prompted by common childhood experiences; Margolin grew up in the orphanage and Trestman was a ward of the successor agency. Music featured in this episode by The New Hot 5, Jeff Cuno, Peak Duo, and Trialogo. Want to help us “make history”? Become a Patron or Donate here! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Maria Ruiz de Burton was a writer, entrepreneur and businesswoman, and the first Mexican-American woman to publish a novel in English. Born in 1832 in Baja California, Mexico to a prominent Spanish family, Maria Amparo Ruiz was fifteen when the Mexican-American war ended and California became part of the United States. She married the commander of the American forces that invaded Baja shortly after the end of the war, and his career took them all over the United States, giving her an insider view at every level of American society. Her sentimental novels disguised pointed critiques of American culture and policy inside thrilling tales of love and intrigue. She spent most of her adult life fighting to regain legal rights to the land her family had owned for generations (essentially all of San Diego county). After her death, her books were forgotten for over 100 years, but were rediscovered in the 1990s and are now recognized as important examples of early Chicano literature. Olivia interviews guest Maria Carla Sanchez, who is associate professor of English Literature and Women’s Studies at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. She is co-editor, with Linda Schlossberg, of Passing: Identity and Interpretation in Sexuality, Race, and Religion (NYU P 2000); author of Reforming the World: Social Activism and the Problem of Fiction in Nineteenth-Century America (U Iowa P 2008), as well as essays on women writers, pedagogy, and race relations; and an associate editor for College Literature. Her book-in-progress looks at nineteenth-century U. S. and Mexican literature, slavery, and genre. Music for this episode provided by Ana Laura Allende, the Earth Stringband, Fiddlesticks, Andy Reiner, Jeff Cuno, and Marc Nelson. Want to help us “make history”? Become a Patron or Donate here! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A classic story of a young woman defying her parents to follow her heart, but with a fascinating Russian twist! Sahib Gizzatullina lived for the stage, introducing Russian audiences to theater for the first time in their lives. She and her penniless traveling theater troupe experienced all the passion, heartbreak, and drama that you’d expect from a roving band of actors. But they did it during Russia’s most turbulent time: through the reign–and murder–of Tzar Nicholas II, through both world wars, the Bolshevik revolution and the rise of the USSR. Katie interviews guest Danielle Ross, Assistant Professor of Asian History at Utah State University where she teaches pre-modern and modern Islamic and world history. A native of California, Ross has published articles on Muslim participation in the First World War and Islamic law and education in the Russian empire. She is currently researching Muslim merchant-industrialist networks in the nineteenth and early twentieth-century Russia. All music for this episode from field recordings provided by Dr. Ross. Want to help us “make history”? Become a Patron or Donate here! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sisters Jane and Anna Maria Porter were wildly popular writers–among the most widely-read writers in Regency England. (Yes, more popular than Jane Austen!) Their novels were on every British bookshelf, their poetry was popular and acclaimed, and Jane Porter’s historical novel The Scottish Chiefs would retain its popularity for nearly 150 years. So how did these bestselling icons of British literature end up nearly penniless and living as “professional houseguests” without a home to call their own? And why did the eternal fame they expected elude them in the end? Guest Devoney Looser is the author of the award-winning book The Making of Jane Austen (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2017). She was awarded the prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship in 2018 for her work on a book about the Porter Sisters. She is Professor of English at Arizona State University and the author or editor of six other books on literature by women. Her recent writing has appeared in The Atlantic, the New York Times, Salon, The TLS, and Entertainment Weekly, and she’s had the pleasure of talking about Austen on CNN. Looser has played roller derby as Stone Cold Jane Austen and is on Twitter @devoneylooser and @Making_Jane Music featured in this episode by Amanda Setlik Wilson, Allison Kim, Peter Ryan, and Half Pelican. Want to help us “make history”? Become a Patron or Donate here! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Are public debates like the feuds we see on Twitter and Facebook a product of modern society? Gargi Vachaknavi has long been remembered in India for her brilliant performance in a public debate 2,700 years ago. Her story offers a refreshing model for how to engage in heated ideological discussions: she didn’t just throw down an epic victory, humiliating her opponent. She did something much more clever! Guest Ravi M. Gupta holds the Charles Redd Chair of Religious Studies and serves as Director of the Religious Studies Program at Utah State University. He is the author or editor of four books, including an abridged translation of the Bhagavata Purana (with Kenneth Valpey), published in 2017 by Columbia University Press. Gupta has received four teaching awards, a National Endowment for the Humanities summer fellowship, and two research fellowships at Oxford. He is a Permanent Research Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies and a past president of the Society for Hindu Christian Studies. He received his PhD from the University of Oxford. His current research focuses on the Bhagavata Purana’s Sanskrit commentaries. He enjoys teaching World Religions, Hinduism, Sanskrit, and Religious Studies Theory and Method. Music featured in this episode provided by Navatman Music Collective, Nimisha Shankar, Ashok Pathak, and Vinod Prasanna, Okey Szoke & Pompey. Want to help us “make history”? Become a Patron or Donate here! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rose Emily Ridge was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1973. After spending her childhood in Australia and New Zealand, she fled an abusive husband for California in 1907. Arriving in America, she promptly changed her name, her age, her nationality and her marital status and launched her new life as Lola Ridge, radical poet, anarchist organizer, and editor of the influential avant-garde magazine Broom. Her unconventional life, radical activist work and influential writing should have placed her alongside literary giants (and friends) William Carlos Williams, Edna St. Vincent Millay and Jean Toomer, but the shifting political climate, and her first would-be biographer’s failure to produce any actual writing, meant that for decades she has been almost completely forgotten. Our guest, Guggenheim-award-winning writer Terese Svoboda, is working to remedy this tragic erasure. Along with Anything That Burns You: A Portrait of Lola Ridge, A Radical Poet, Terese Svoboda has published 6 books of fiction, 7 books of poetry, a memoir, and a book of translation from the Sudanese. Music featured in this episode by Half Pelican, Trialogo, The New Hot 5, and Killarney. Want to help us “make history”? Become a Patron or Donate here! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

900 years ago, the young Hildegard of Bingen was given by her parents to the Catholic Church. She was literally “walled up” in a tiny convent, completely cut off from the outside world. But over the course of her long and varied life, she emerged from the walls to embrace the world. She founded her own convents and traveled across Europe on preaching tours. She spent decades caring for the sick and infirm, resulting in her seminal medical text that endured for centuries. She is also much celebrated today as a composer; she wrote hauntingly beautiful music that was rediscovered just 100 years ago. But she is perhaps most famous for her vivid and prophetic religious visions. She did what her visions told her to do, even if it meant defying the Pope himself. Guest Alice Chapman is Associate Professor of Medieval History in the History Department at Grand Valley State University, in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She is the author of Sacred Authority and Temporal Power in the Writings of Bernard of Clairvaux, and she has published articles focusing on the role of the papacy in disputes between ecclesiastical and royal power including “Disentangling Potestas in the Works of Bernard of Clairvaux,” and “Ideal and Reality: Images of a Bishop in Bernard of Clairvaux’s Advice to Eugenius III (r. 1145-53). She is also working on a second book project focused on the role of Christ as Physician (Christus medicus) in the Middle Ages. Music featured in this episode by Solis Camerata, Kira Zeeman Rugen, Makemi, and selections from “Hildegard of Bingen: Visions of the Trinity” at the St. Paul’s Forum Want to help us “make history”? Become a Patron or Donate here! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Adelaide Herrmann ruled the stage for fifty years as one the brightest stars of the Golden Age of Magic. After the death of her husband, renowned magician Herrmann the Great, Adelaide took center stage, and toured for thirty years as one of the most famous magicians in the world. She was more famous than Houdini, and continued performing until her death at age seventy-nine - when she was inexplicably forgotten for nearly a century. Join our guest, anthropologist and mentalist/magician Paul Draper, as we discover how the Queen of Magic just... disappeared. [correction: Paul Draper mistakenly names the librarian of the Magic Castle as Lisa Cummings. Her name is Lisa Cousins.] Music for this episode provided by Jeremy Dittus, Peak Duo, Amanda Setlik Wilson, and Jeff Cuno. Want to help us “make history”? Become a Patron or Donate here! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mary Lou Williams was one of the most innovative, creative, groundbreaking musicians in the history of jazz. She was a brilliant and prolific composer and uniquely gifted pianist whose influence spans nearly the entire timeline of jazz music, but her name is almost never listed among the “giants of jazz.” Although prejudice kept her from achieving the recognition and fame she deserved during her lifetime, her contributions cement her legacy as a true pioneer of American music. Guest Carol Bash is an award winning filmmaker with over 15 years of experience in broadcast journalism and independent documentaries. She is the producer and director of the documentary film Mary Lou Williams: The Lady Who Swings the Band. Her production company Paradox Films is developing Clean Justice, a feature documentary on the environmental justice movement; and Blueprint For My People, a short film incorporating Margaret Walker’s poem, “For My People” and rare cyanotypes of African Americans in the late 19th/early 20th centuries. Most recently, she worked with the award winning Firelight Films as Archival Producer on Tell Them We Are Rising: The Story of Black Colleges and Universities, which premiered nationally on PBS’ Independent Lens series on February 19, 2018. All music excerpted from the film Mary Lou Williams, the Lady Who Swings the Band: “Lotta Sax Appeal” with Andy Kirk and his Twelve Clouds of Joy, “The Land of Oobla Dee” with Dizzy Gillespie, “Nightlife” by Mary Lou Williams, “Roll ‘Em” with the Benny Goodman Orchestra, “Roll ‘Em” and “The Jeep is Jumpin” from Live at Keystone Corner, “Free Spirits” and “Ode to Saint Cecile” from Free Spirits, “Our Father” from Mary Lou’s Mass, “Capricorn” and “Scorpio” from Zodiac Suite, and “St. Martin de Porres” from The Black Christ of the Andes. Want to help us “make history”? Become a Patron or Donate here! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Four hundred years ago, Margaret Cavendish dared to contemplate the biggest philosophical questions of her day. Brilliant and bold, she wrote 21 books despite being dismissed or mocked by the almost entirely male intellectual community. A famously eccentric dresser, she and her husband hosted high-society parties at their fantastical castle, but she was also paralyzed by bashfulness and dreaded talking to people. She hoped that her intellectual works would lead to eternal fame, but she remained quite ignored until recent scholars dug her books out of the shadows. Guest Dr. Rachel Robison-Greene earned her PhD from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She works in metaethics, normative ethics, and applied ethics. She teaches philosophy at Weber State University. She has co-edited eleven books on pop-culture and philosophy and is currently working on a solo edited collection on philosophy in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. Music featured in this episode by Solis Camerata, Mandy Clegg, Tommy Strawser, Sam Kreidenweis, Erik Gustafson, Kerry Ginger, Joel Wolcott, Carol Jennings, and Marc Nelson. Want to help us “make history”? Become a Patron or Donate here! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Margaret "Molly" Brown is often cited as the quintessential American rags-to-riches story. Born to poor Irish immigrants in Missouri, Margaret went on to become one of the wealthiest women in the country. She cemented her place in history through her heroism on the disastrous maiden voyage of the Titanic, but her life story is a compelling and unusual tale of character, compassion and just the right amount of bull-headedness. Her story is fully worthy of the many films, books and musicals which have born her name (even if that isn’t really her name, and most don’t in any way resemble her real story). Discover the remarkable woman behind the myth of the “Unsinkable Molly Brown.” Join us on-location at the Molly Brown House Museum in Denver, Colorado. Guest Jamie Melissa Wilms was Director of Education at the Molly Brown House from 2013-2018, and is now the Executive Director of the Denver Firefighter’s Museum. She has a BA in American History/Public Administration from Northern Michigan University, an MA in Historical Administration/American History from Eastern Illinois University, and has worked in the museum field for over fifteen years in locations across the United States. Music featured in this episode by Killarney, Andy Reiner and Jon Sousa, Marc Nelson, and The Earth Stringband. Want to help us “make history”? Become a Patron or Donate here! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Te Puea Herangi was one of the most important and influential Maori leaders of the 20th century. Born into the family of the Maori King, she was a tireless activist for her people. Her work to assure economic prosperity in the Waikato region, her fierce battles for justice for Maori communities harmed by illegal land seizures, and her passionate dedication to Maori cultural revival assure that she will long be remembered as a critical voice in New Zealand history. Olivia interviews Dr. Gina Colvin. Guest Gina Colvin is New Zealand Māori of Ngāti Porou and Ngā Puhi descent. She is an adjunct research fellow at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand. Colvin is the co-editor of Decolonizing Mormononism [University of Utah Press] and writes about the intersections of race, gender, culture and religion. Colvin is also the host of A Thoughtful Faith Podcast and she blogs at Patheos. Music provided by the talented students of Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Hoani Waititi Marae: “He Tatai Tangata” written by Metotagivale Schmidt-Peke and performed by Taniwha, and “Iwi Taketake” written and performed by Taniwha (Metotagivale Schmidt-Peke, Javan Rivers-Hall and Scarlett Manners Te Pania). Want to help us “make history”? Become a Patron or Donate here! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mary Lemist Titcomb was a pioneering librarian at the turn of the 20th century, when public libraries were first appearing in America. Believing strongly in the power of books, especially for children in far-flung places, she invented America’s first Bookmobile: a horse-drawn, specially constructed book-wagon to bring books to remote farms in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Her triumphs over prejudice and disaster resulted in nationwide bookmobile programs that continue to affect the lives of millions globally. *Correction–in this episode Glenn stated that Titcomb was only four feet tall. She misspoke, Titcomb was actually five feet tall. Katie inverviews Sharlee Mullins Glenn, award-winning author of Library on Wheels: Mary Lemist Titcomb and America’s First Bookmobile, and many other books, and is the founder and former president of Mormon Women for Ethical Government. Music featured in this episode by Marc Nelson, Andy Reiner, Jon Sousa, Jeff Cuno, Darol Anger, Bruce Molsky, and the Berklee World Strings. Want to help us “make history”? Become a Patron or Donate here! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

[episode remastered in Oct 2025] Pearl DeVere was one of the most famous and successful madams in the history of the American West. From a suitably mysterious background, Pearl built a thriving business that became one of the most famed “parlor houses” in the country. Her incredible business acumen, as well as her famed beauty and charm, ensured that her legend endures to this day in the historic gold rush town of Cripple Creek, Colorado. Recorded on-location at the Old Homestead House Museum in Cripple Creek, Colorado. Guest Charlotte Bumgarner has been Executive Director for Gold Belt Tour Scenic and Historic Byway Association since 2001, and is one of its founding members. She first became involved with the Old Homestead House Museum as a tour guide in 1996, and is now the manager and protector of the museum. Music featured in this episode performed by Half Pelican, The New Hot 5, Daniel Henderson, Amanda Setlik Wilson, and the Earth Stringband. Want to help us “make history”? Become a Patron or Donate here! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Margaret Clitherow’s life – and death – were shaped by the religious upheavals of the Protestant Reformation in Elizabethan (16th century) England. A devoted Catholic in a time and place where Catholicism was illegal, she played a powerful role in a kind of “spy” network secretly harboring Catholic priests in the city of York. When a young boy living in her household exposed her secrets, she was imprisoned and then executed by the gruesome method of being pressed to death. She is now Saint Margaret Clitherow, one of only 3 female martyrs of the English Reformation–the other 197 are male. Katie interviews renowned Reformation Historian Peter Marshall, Professor of History at the University of Warwick in England, and co-editor of Oxford’s English Historical Review. He is one of the world’s preeminent scholars in Reformation history and winner of the Harold J. Grimm Prize for Reformation History. His books include 1517: Martin Luther and the Invention of the Reformation (2017), The Oxford Illustrated History of the Reformation (2015), Heretics and Believers: A History of the English Reformation (2017), The Reformation: A Very Short Introduction (2009), and Mother Leakey and the Bishop: A Ghost Story (2007). Music featured in this episode provided by the Weber State University Choirs and Orchestra. Want to help us “make history”? Become a Patron or Donate here! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Committed to reclaiming forgotten history, What’sHerName podcast tells the stories of fascinating women you’ve never heard of (but should have). Hosted and produced by academic sisters Dr. Katie Nelson and Olivia Meikle, What'sHerName brings back the “lost” women of history through compelling interviews with guest historians, writers, and scholars. Fascinating and funny, thought-provoking and thoughtful, What’sHerName restores women’s voices to the conversation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices