In 1917, Katharine Gibbs rebounded from personal tragedy in an unusual way: she decided to train a subversive, feminist army. Nearly broke and with only a high school education, Gibbs trained women as executive secretaries, building a famous school in just a few years. “Gibbs Girls” were so intelligent, competent, and polite, that no one could justify the dusty old notions that women belonged at home. The American workplace was changed forever. Our guest is …
Leonora Sansay lived through the last chaotic years of the Haitian Revolution – but the book she wrote about it would tell an entirely unexpected story. Join returning guest Dr. Maria Windell as we explore the fascinatingly “messy-complicated” life of novelist Leonora Sansay – and uncover a fascinating link with “almost-Founding Father” (and 21st century Broadway icon) …Vice President Aaron Burr? The text of Sansay’s novel Secret History is also available free on Project …
135 years ago, Norwegian immigrant Thea Foss lived in a ramshackle driftwood houseboat on the coast of Tacoma Washington. Kind, capable, and hard-working, she was an anchor for hundreds more immigrants during America’s Gilded Age. Thea built the largest maritime company west of the Mississippi- but more than that, she was the heart of the community. (Plus there’s a boat parade, a catastrophic fire, and a truly delightful cow.) Join Katie on location in Tacoma, …
What if we could reopen a primordial spiritual portal, and summon peace on earth? For Eva Palmer Sikelianos in 1920s Greece, world peace wasn’t a lofty dream — it was an achievable goal. The key, Eva believed, was ancient Greek art, returned to Delphi. She had a bold plan, and if she could pull it off, she just might save the world. Join Katie on location at the Benaki Museum in Athens, with Maria Dimitriadou, …
Mary Ware Dennett was one of the most important and influential activist for women’s rights, contraception, free speech and sex education in early 20th century America. So why does her nemesis Margaret Sanger get all the attention? Returning guest Stephanie Gorton helps Olivia unravel the mystery of this fascinating, forward-thinking woman. Stephanie Gorton wrote The Icon and the Idealist: Margaret Sanger, Mary Ware Dennett, and the Rivalry that Brought Birth Control to America (2024), longlisted for the …
When world-famous strongman Eugen Sandow finally met his match, nobody expected it to be at the hands of an 18-year-old girl. But whether it was bending metal bars, beating horses in a tug-of-war, or hefting her own husband over her head with one arm, German strongwoman Katie Sandwina would continue to shatter records (and Victorian gender norms) for another forty years. Guest Haley Shapley, author of Strong Like Her, introduces us to this astonishing, unexpected …
A pirate ship jammed with treasure. The worst storm to ever hit Cape Cod. The mythical shipwreck — 280 years later, found. Everything in this swashbuckling tale (full of impossible things that really did happen) occurred because of Maria Hallett. Did she turn witch, to curse her lover’s ship, or to save it? Join us on location at Real Pirates Museum in Salem, MA. Stephanie Clements is a Cape Cod native and guide at Real …
Travel to snowy Victorian Maine in this year’s Christmas Special, as Katie reads from the memoirs of Sarah Orne Jewett. An immensely famous and beloved novelist in her day, Sarah wrote wholesome tales of the county folk of Maine, where as a child she had accompanied her physician father on his rounds. Find a massive collection of Sarah Orne Jewett’s works collected by the Sarah Orne Jewett Text Project HERE. Music featured in this episode …
When Sigrid Schultz was offered a job as a reporter in Berlin, Germany in 1919, she had no idea how her life was about to change – or how her work would change the world. Returning guest Pamela Toler introduces us to this indomitable woman, who was one of the first to raise the alarm about the Nazis, one of the last to leave as WWII made reporting impossible, and the first woman in history …
For decades, her remarkable achievements as United States First Lady have been overshadowed by her husband’s big mistakes. Returning guest Heath Hardage Lee is back to help change that! Olivia introduces us to the remarkable and unfairly forgotten Pat Nixon. All photos courtesy of the US National Archives unless otherwise indicated. Heath Hardage Lee is an award-winning historian, biographer, and curator. Heath’s first book, Winnie Davis: Daughter of the Lost Cause, won the Colonial Dames …
