Our Guests

We are unbelievably lucky to feature such incredible historians, scholars, writers, filmmakers, curators, artists and more on our podcast!

Episode 1: THE SAINT Margaret Clitherow

Peter Marshall is 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).

Episode 2: THE SINNER Pearl DeVere

& Episode 26: WITCHES & MEDIUMS & GHOSTS, OH MY! Halloween Special

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. She has been awarded the Southern Colorado Conservation Friend of Open Space Award and the Mary Kiser Volunteer Service Award from Colorado Byways. Bumgarner is currently the Treasurer for National Scenic Byway Foundation. Preserving the culture and the land of Colorado is her passion.

Episode 3: THE BOOK MISSIONARY Mary Lemist Titcomb

Sharlee Mullins Glenn is an award-winning poet, essayist, and children’s book author. She was a Hinckley Scholar at Brigham Young University, holds an MA in Humanities, and taught college for a number of years before giving up academia for the writing life. Glenn presents at conferences and workshops across the country and her work has appeared in Women’s Studies, Irreantum, The Southern Literary Journal, Segullah, and BYU Studies. She has also published a novel and a number of picture books for children. She is the founder and president of Mormon Women for Ethical Government. Her newest book Library on Wheels: Mary Lemist Titcomb and America’s First Bookmobile was published in April.

Episode 4: THE PRINCESS Te Puea Herangi

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 a forthcoming volume from the University of Utah Press, Decolonizing Mormononism, 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.

Episode 5: THE UNSINKABLE Margaret “Molly” Brown

Jamie Melissa Wilms was Director of Education at the Molly Brown House Museum in Denver, Colorado 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.

Episode 6: THE PHILOSOPHER Margaret Cavendish

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.

Episode 7: THE MUSICIAN Mary Lou Williams

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’s Independent Lens series on February 19, 2018.

Episode 8: THE DISAPPEARING WOMAN Adelaide Herrmann

& Episode 26: WITCHES & MEDIUMS & GHOSTS, OH MY! – 2018 Halloween Special 

Paul Draper is an Anthropologist, Mentalist, Comedy Presenter, Mind-Reader, and Speaker, who has appeared on the History Channel, A&E, HBO, Hallmark, the Travel Channel, HGTV, and shows like Hell’s Kitchen, Pawn Stars, Ghost Adventures, Mindfreak, and House Hunters. In Las Vegas, he has headlined for many casinos, including seven years as house magician for the Venetian Hotel & Casino. He has also appeared Off Broadway in New York and on the West End in London. His website is www.mentalmysteries.com and you can find his Patreon here and access exclusive bonus content for as little as $5 a month.

Episode 9: THE VISIONARY Hildegard of Bingen

Episode 10: THE RADICAL Lola Ridge

“Terese Svoboda is one of those writers you would be tempted to read regardless of the setting or the period or the plot or even the genre.”–Bloomsbury Review. 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. Winner of a Guggenheim, a Bobst Prize in fiction, an Iowa Prize for poetry, a NEH grant for translation, an O. Henry Award for the short story, the Graywolf Nonfiction Prize, 3 NYFA fellowships, a Pushcart Prize for the essay, a Bellagio Fellowship for libretto, and the Jerome Foundation Award in video, she also wrote the libretto for the opera WET that premiered at L.A.’s RedCat Theater. Great American Desert (stories) is forthcoming next year.

Episode 11: THE SAGE Gargi Vachaknavi

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.

Episode 12: THE SISTERS Jane and Anna Maria Porter

Episode 13: THE REVOLUTIONARY ACTRESS Sahibjamal Gizzatullina

Danielle Ross is an Assistant Professor of Asian History at Utah State University, and 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.

Episode 14: THE MAID OF MONTEREY Maria Ruiz de Burton

María Carla Sánchez teaches U. S. literature at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, where she is an Associate Professor of English and Women’s and Gender Studies. 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.

Episode 15: THE FAIR LABOR LAWYER Bessie Margolin

Episode 16: THE SAXON Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim

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.

Episode 17: THE JOURNALIST Claudia Jones

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).

Episode 19: THE COMPOSER Alma Mahler

& Episode 26: WITCHES & MEDIUMS & GHOSTS, OH MY! – 2018 Halloween Special
& Episode 78 THE MYSTIC: Margery Kempe

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.

Episode 20: THE ASTRONOMER Caroline Herschel

Joseph Middleton has been the manager of the Herschel Museum of Astronomy for the past six years and has worked in museums in Bath, England, for the last ten years, including being the manager of No.1 Royal Crescent. He studied Fine Art at Falmouth University.

Episode 21: THE LADY NOVELIST Constance Fenimore Woolson

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.

Episode 23: THE SINGLE LADY Marjorie Hillis

Episode 25: THE REVOLUTIONARY Mae Mallory

Dr. Ashley D. Farmer is an Assistant Professor of History and African and African-Diaspora Studies at the University of Texas-Austin. She is the author of  Remaking Black Power: How Black Women Transformed an Era (UNC Press, 2017) and a co-editor of  New Perspectives on the Black Intellectual Tradition (NUP Press, 2018). She is also an editor of the Black Power Series published with NYU Press.

Episode 26: WITCHES & MEDIUMS & GHOSTS, OH MY! Halloween Special

Our Halloween Special brings back previous What’sHerName Guests: Paul Draper (Episode 8), Mary Sharratt (Episode 18 and Episode 78) and Charlotte Bumgarner (Episode 2), as well as future guest Sharon Wright (Episode 29), with new stories from the darker side of women’s history.

Episode 27: THE AMBULANCE DRIVER Maud Fitch

Valerie Jacobson is Project Manager for the Utah Centennial World War I Commission. She earned her BA/BS in History/Geography from Weber State University and her MA in History from Utah State University.

Episode 28: THE EMPRESS Nur Jahan

Ruby Lal is Professor of South Asian Studies at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. She holds a D.Phil. in Modern History from the University of Oxford, UK, and an M.Phil in History from the University of Delhi, India. Her narrative history Empress: The Astonishing Reign of Nur Jahan, was published in 2018. Her first two books were Domesticity and Power in the Early Mughal World and Coming of Age in Nineteenth Century India: The Girl-Child and the Art of Playfulness, both from Cambridge University Press.

Episode 29: THE AERONAUT Sophie Blanchard

& Episode 26: WITCHES & MEDIUMS & GHOSTS, OH MY! Halloween Special
& Episode 60: THE ABSENCE Maria Branwell Brontë

Josette Lorig is a PhD candidate in English, English Instructor, and manager of the Laboratory for Race & Popular Culture at the University of Colorado Boulder. Her research focuses on mid-twentieth century literature and culture, popular novels, women’s life-writing, and gender sexuality studies.

Episode 36: THE WHITE ROSE Sophie Scholl

and Episode 121: THE ANTI-FASCIST Gerda Taro

Kip Wilson is the author of young adult verse novels White Rose (Versify 2019), about anti-Nazi political activist Sophie Scholl, The Most Dazzling Girl in Berlin (Versify 2022), set in a queer club in Berlin during the last days of the Weimar Republic, and One Last Shot (Versify 2023), about anti-fascist Spanish Civil War photojournalist Gerda Taro. Kip holds a Ph.D. in German Literature and works in a high school library. Find her online at kipwilsonwrites.com and on Instagram @kipwilsonwrites.

Holly Andrew is an anthropologist, historical archaeologist, and museum professional. She currently serves as the Director of Museums and Education at the Ogden Union Station. An avid anthropologist, Andrew’s specialties and interests include cultural landscapes as expressions of community identity, public archaeology, heritage preservation, material culture, and participatory museums. Andrew has received a MA in Anthropology from the University of Oklahoma in 2015 and has led heritage preservation and interpretive programs and projects since 2009. She enjoys working with small to mid-scale museums and has worked as a museum professional for over 10 years.

Sarah Singh is the Head of Special Collections and Assistant Professor at Weber State University where she has worked since 1999. She has a MA in Russian History from Utah State University and a MLIS with a focus on archives from San Jose State University. She is the co-author of four books on the history of Ogden. Sarah’s research interests include the history of Ogden, 25th Street, women, crime and oral history. She is also a co-host of an upcoming podcast series called “Zion Gone Bad” that focuses on crimes in Utah’s history.

Episode 41: THE ORACLE Pythia

Episode 44: THE EMPEROR Wu Zhao (Wu Zetian)

Dr. N. Harry Rothschild was a Professor of Chinese History at the University of North Florida and the author of The World of Wu Zhao: Annotated Selections from Zhang Zhuo’s Court and Country, Wu Zhao: China’s Only Woman Emperor and Emperor Wu Zhao and Her Pantheon of Devis, Divinities, and Dynastic Mothers. Dr. Rothschild’s teaching career spanned nearly a quarter of a century, beginning as a K-12 substitute in the hills of western Maine after he graduated from Harvard University in 1992 with a B.A. in East Asian Language and Civilizations and “cleverly decided to write a novel on bronzecasting and kingship in Shang China in his parents’ basement.” From 1988 to 1990, he lived, studied Mandarin, and worked in Beijing. Dr. Rothschild died in December 2021.

Episode 45: THE PAPER DAUGHTER How Jiu

Casey Dexter-Lee is a State Park Interpreter II with California State Parks and the lead for the educational programs at Angel Island State Park. Starting as a seasonal employee conducting living history programs and guided tours for school groups, she has lived and worked at Angel Island State Park for nineteen years. Casey has a BA in history from the University of California, Santa Cruz, home of the fighting banana slugs.

Episode 47: THE WITCH Mother Shipton

& Episode 109: A COUNTRY HOUSE CHRISTMAS Phyllis Sandeman

Jay Stelling is an office assistant at Mother Shipton’s Cave as well as an illustrator, doll maker and storyteller from North Yorkshire, England. She graduated in 2018 from Leeds Arts University where she received a First in BA(hons) Illustration. You can often find her making tiny dolls in her little attic studio with her partner and their two fluffy cats. Jay is fascinated by fairies and folklore, with most of her work centred around charming character and children’s stories, such as fairy tales and Yorkshire legends. Jay’s first children’s book Whistle-Stop Thistle is a story about recycling and reusing scrap materials. It is available on her website.

Episode 49: THE WOMAN IN THE CHALK Cranborne Woman

Janet Montgomery is Professor of Archaeology at Durham University. She was the first archaeologist to apply combined radiogenic lead and strontium isotope analysis to British archaeological humans and she is currently working on a wide range of archaeological projects of humans and animals ranging in date from the Neolithic to the 19th century. In addition to archaeological case studies, her research continues on the two main themes of her NERC fellowship which are fundamental to a better understanding of how isotope analysis can be applied to archaeological questions of diet and mobility.

Episode 52: THE FREE WOMAN Harriet Jacobs

Maria A. Windell is assistant professor of English at the University of Colorado Boulder, where she teaches classes on ethnic and early US literatures. Her research focuses on intersections between the US and the Americas, and her book Transamerican Sentimentalism and Nineteenth-Century US Literary History is forthcoming from Oxford University Press. She co-edited, with Jesse Alemán, a special issue of English Language Notes on “Latinx Lives in Hemispheric Context.” She is currently working on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century literary flirts and the classification of coquette hummingbirds in Central America.

Episode 53: THE SORCERER Gunnhild

& Episode 55: THE VIKING Coppergate Woman

Chris Tuckley received his PhD at the Institute for Medieval Studies, University of Leeds, in 2009. He has worked for York Archaeological Trust since 2004, and is currently YAT’s Head of Interpretation and Engagement, based at the JORVIK Viking Centre.

Episode 56: THE WOMAN IN RED Anita Garibaldi

Diana Giovinazzo is the co-creator of Wine, Women and Words, a weekly  literary podcast featuring interviews with authors over a glass of wine. Diana is active within her local literary community as the president of the Los Angeles chapter of the Women’s National Book Association. The Woman in Red is her debut novel.

Episode 57: THE SURGEON James Barry

Monica A. Walker has a Ph.D. in the History of Art from Complutense University in Madrid, Spain, and she is a part-time tutor at the Department for Continuing Education at the University of Oxford. In addition, she is the Marketing, Events and Retail Manager at the Old Operating Theatre Museum & Herb Garret in London. It was here where she developed an interest in the history of medicine and the history of Old St Thomans’ Hospital. It was in the museum where she first heard the name of James Miranda Barry, since he briefly trained at Old St Thomas’ Hospital, and developed a curious interest in him.

Episode 58: THE ANCESTORS Mother’s Day Special

Our first Mother’s Day Special features six What’sHerName listeners sharing stories of remarkable from their own family history! From all around the world and from the 18th century to the 21st, join us as we Meet the Ancestors!

Episode 59: THE STORYTELLER Mae Timbimboo Parry

Darren Parry is the grandson of Mae Timbimboo Parry, and serves as the Councilman of the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation, on the Board of Directors for the American West Heritage Center, The Utah State Museum Board, and the American Indian Services Board. He is the author of The Bear River Massacre; A Shoshone History and teaches Native American History at Utah State University. He is currently running for Congress.

Episode 63: THE LAST QUEEN OF JUDEA Shelamzion

Lauren Jacobs is a multi – award winning author, whose historical fiction books, focus on the forgotten, marginalised women of the Ancient Near East. When she’s not writing books, she is speaking across stages and nations, on social injustices facing women globally. She hosts her own journalism show on national radio in South Africa, and she loves connecting with like minded women on her instagram @profuselyprofound.

Episode 64: THE RESISTANCE Truus and Freddie Oversteegen

Sophie Poldermans is the author of the New York Post & Amazon best seller Seducing and Killing Nazis. Hannie, Truus and Freddie: Dutch Resistance Heroines of WWII (USA, 2019). She personally knew Truus and Freddie Oversteegen for 20 years and worked closely with them for over a decade as a board member of the National Hannie Schaft Foundation. Poldermans is the founder of “Sophie’s Women of War,” shedding light on women leaders in times of conflict, and a Dutch women’s rights advocate, author, public speaker, lecturer and consultant on women and war, human rights-related issues from a legal, historical and sociological perspective and women’s leadership.

Episode 65: THE FLOWER IN THE WATER Zazil-ha

& Episode 115: THE DISCOVERY Naia

Gabriel Cemé is native Maya of Akumal, Mexico with a passion for history. Gabo traveled the globe for years before returning to the Yucatan to cultivate his deep relationship with the land and found Eco Maya. At Eco Maya’s Animal Sanctuary, Gabo and his team work to rehabilitate wild animals for their release back into the wild. Eco Maya also aims to foster ecologically sustainable tourism to the Yucatan.

Episode 66: THE MUCKRAKER Ida Tarbell

Stephanie Gorton has written for NewYorker.com, Smithsonian.com, The Paris Review Daily, Los Angeles Review of Books, The Toast, The Millions, and other publications. Previously, she held editorial roles at Canongate Books, The Overlook Press, and Open Road. A graduate of the University of Edinburgh and Goucher College’s MFA program in Creative Nonfiction, she lives in Providence, Rhode Island, with her family. Citizen Reporters is her first book; she is currently working on a new book about the legalization of birth control.

Episode 67: THE SPIRIT Xtabay

Jesus Antonio Cupul Cetzal is native Maya from the little town of Yalcoba, Mexico. He studies in Valladolid, Yucatan, but everything he knows about his proud Mayan heritage, he learned from his parents and grandparents. Everyday, he aims to learn something new.

Episode 68: THE CITIZEN SCIENTIST Jane Marcet

Miranda Garno Nesler earned her PhD from Vanderbilt University and serves as the Director of Women’s Literature & History for Whitmore Rare Books. At WRB, she researches manuscript and print materials through which women and other marginalized people told their own stories; and she places them with institutional clients around the globe to ensure that students and researchers can access a more diverse swath of history. She has been an invited speaker for a range of organizations including WriteGirl LA, The American Culinary Museum, The Belletrist, and the Antiquarian Bookseller’s Association of America. Past work has appeared in The Shakespearean International Year Book, Studies in English Literature, and The Journal of Narrative Theory. Her essay on the impact of 17th century printer Elizabeth Holt is slated to appear in the collection Making Impressions: Women in Printing and Publishing (Legacy Press, 2021).

Episode 69: THE LITTLE WOMAN May Alcott Nieriker

Jan Turnquist is the executive director of Orchard House, and director and co-executive producer of the Emmy award-winning documentary Orchard House: Home of the Little Women.

Episode 70: THE FULTON FLASH Helen Stephens

A native New Englander, Elise Hooper spent several years writing for television and online news outlets before getting a MA and teaching high-school literature and history. She now lives in Seattle with her husband and two daughters and is the author of The Other Alcott, Learning to See, and Fast Girls.

Episode 72: THE CAGED BIRD Florence Price

Guthrie P. Ramsey, Jr. is a music historian, pianist, composer, and the Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Term Professor of Music at the University of Pennsylvania. He’s the author of Race Music: Black Cultures from Bebop to Hip-Hop, and The Amazing Bud Powell: Black Genius, Jazz History and the Challenge of Bebop and recently edited and wrote a foreword for Rae Linda Brown’s The Heart of A Woman: The Life and Music of Florence B. Price. As a producer, label head, and bandleader, he’s released five recording projects, including A Spiritual Vibe, vol. 1  and has performed at The Blue Note, The Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, and Harlem Stage. He recently scored the 2019 prize-winning documentary Making Sweet Tea: Black Gay Men of the South and his documentary Amazing: The Tests and Triumph of Bud Powell was a selection of the BlackStar Film Festival. He co-curated the National Museum of African American History and Culture’s 2009 exhibition Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing: How the Apollo Theater Shaped American Entertainment and was a consultant and narrator in the 2020 Emmy Award winning HBO documentary Apollo: The Soul of American Culture.

Karen Walwyn, Concert Pianist, Composer and an Albany Recording Artist, is the first female African American pianist/ composer to receive the Steinway Artist Award. As a Composer, she received the Global Award: Gold Medal -Award of Excellence for her recording of her composition entitled Reflections on 9/11, which was first premiered in full at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. As a Mellon Faculty Fellow at the John Hope Franklin Institute, Duke University, Walwyn composed her debut choral work entitled Of Dance & Struggle: A Musical Tribute on the Life of Nelson Mandela. She is Area Coordinator of Keyboard Studies at Howard University, and has performed throughout the contiguous United States, Hawaii, West Indies and the Virgin Islands.

Episode 73: THE SUFFRAGIST SENATOR Martha Hughes Cannon

Rebekah Clark is co-author of the recently-released book Thinking Women: A Timeline of Suffrage in Utah. She holds a law degree from the J. Reuben Clark Law School at Brigham Young University and studied as a visiting student at Harvard Law School. She graduated with a degree in American History and Literature from Harvard University, where her honors thesis focused on Utah women’s activism in the national suffrage movement. Her work has appeared in journals such as the Utah State Historical Quarterly, Journal of Mormon History, BYU Studies, Pioneer Magazine, and BYU Law Review and in podcasts by the National Conference of State Legislatures, Zion Art Society, Church News, and the Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship. She serves on the board of the Mormon Women’s History Initiative Team and currently works as the Historical Research Associate at Better Days, a nonprofit public history organization dedicated to expanding education about Utah women’s history.

Episode 77: THE ROADBUILDER K’awiil

Ezequiel May lives in the community of Coba Quintana Roo Mexico. He was born in 1989 and has spent his entire life here in this beautiful town. He has been working as a tourist guide for 9 years. He feels it has been an honor to share the different archaeological investigations and the important dates that they have raised during their discovery.

Episode 78: THE MYSTIC Margery Kempe

& Episode 19 THE COMPOSER Alma Mahler

& Episode 26 WITCHES & MEDIUMS & GHOSTS, OH MY!

Author Mary Sharratt is on a mission to write women back into history. Originally from Minnesota, Mary now lives in Portugal, near the beautiful medieval town of Obidos on the Silver Coast. Her latest novel Revelations, which will be published in April 2021, is drawn from the colorful life of Margery Kempe, 15th century mystic, intrepid world traveler, and author of the first autobiography in the English language. 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.

Episode 79: THE ROUND-THE-WORLD CYCLIST Annie Londonderry

Peter Zheutlin is a freelance journalist and author whose work has appeared  in The Boston Globe, Christian Science Monitor, Los Angeles Times, Parade Magazine, AARP Magazine and numerous other publications. He’s the author of the New York Times best-seller, Rescue Road: One Man, Thirty Thousand Dogs, and a Million Miles on the Last Hope Highway and Rescued: What Second-Chance Dogs Teach Us About Living With Purpose, Loving With Abandon, and Finding Joy in the Little Things and The Dog Went Over the Mountain: Travels with Albie: An American Journey. He’s also the co-author, with his wife Judith Gelman, of The Unofficial Mad Men Cookbook: Inside the Kitchens, Bars and Restaurant, of Mad Men and The Unofficial Girls Guide to New York: Inside the Cafes, Clubs, and Neighborhoods of HBO’s Girls. He previously practiced law and taught legal research and writing at the Northwestern University School of Law and the University of Virginia Law School, worked as the Public Affairs Director of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW).

Episode 80: THE EXILE Stefania Turkevych

Erica Glenn is a current Fulbright Scholar and Director of Choral Activities at Brigham Young University – Hawaii. Previously, she worked at Arizona State University, conducting the Women’s Chorus, teaching Beginning Conducting (Teaching Excellence Award), and serving as chorus master for operas. She also co-founded the Arizona Women’s Collaborative and Phoenix Singing. Glenn holds a BM/MM in Music Composition and an Ed.M. in The Arts in Education (Harvard). She is the 2020 recipient of an American Councils Grant, a Knowledge Mobilization Award, a Creative Constellation Grant, and Melikian Center funding for her research into Stefania Turkevych, Ukraine’s first female composer. Glenn recently presented at the Ukrainian Institute of America and the Longy New Music Festival, and she has led interest sessions at ACDA and AATSEEL. Her original opera (Dreamweaver) won the International VocalWorks Competition, and her musical (The Weaver of Raveloe) was performed at both the NY Musical Theatre Festival and the American Repertory Theatre.

Episode 81: THE QUEEN OF THE COMSTOCK Eilley Bowers

Tammy Buzick is a native Nevadan who grew up in the Reno, Carson City area. After graduating from the University of Nevada Reno, she spent her entire career teaching math at Procter R. Hug High School in Reno. While in college, she wrote a research paper on Eilley Bowers. The curator told her most of what she had written was wrong, so she spent the next 30+ years researching the family and the mansion they built. When the mansion curator for 40 years retired in 2008, Buzick became the mansion caretaker.

Episode 82: THE UNBOWED Wangari Maathai

Virginia Phiri is an author and activist in Zimbabwe. Phiri has written both fiction and non-fiction books in English, and in two of Zimbabwe’s local languages, chiShona and isiNdebele. She is founder of Zimbabwe Women Writers and Zimbabwean Academic and Non Fiction Authors Association. Having been raised in a family of political activists aligned to the Zimbabwe African Peoples Union, she was actively involved in the Zimbabwe’s liberation war at the age of seventeen, Phiri is an accountant by profession, as well as an African orchid expert, who has co-authored orchid articles in journals such as Die Orchidee since 1996. She was an IUCN Africa Committee member up to 2012 and is currently a member of IUCN Species Survival Commission.

Episode 83: GONE TO THE ENEMY Eve

Julie Richter received her Ph.D. in American History from the College of William & Mary in 1992. Richter has worked as a Historian for the Historical Research and Architectural Research Departments at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation in addition to working as the Project Manager for Virtual Jamestown. She teaches courses on colonial and Revolutionary Williamsburg as part of the National Institute of American History and Democracy. Richter’s interest in studying historic sites can be seen in her work as the Project Manager for the American Colonial Experiences, a forthcoming National Park Service website that links colonial history with the places where it happened. She is a consultant for ‘Full of Slime and Filth’: A Historical and Geologic Analysis of The Link between Water Quality and Death in Early America, and has received two NEH Fellowships in African and African American History and Culture from the John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Library at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.

Episode 84: THE RANI OF JHANSI

& Episode 35: THE WARRIOR Zenobia

& Episode 143: THE DRAGON FROM CHICAGO Sigrid Schultz

Armed with a PhD in history, a well-thumbed deck of library cards, and a large bump of curiosity, author, speaker, and historian, Pamela D. Toler translates history for a popular audience. She goes beyond the familiar boundaries of American history to tell stories from other parts of the world as well as history from the other side of the battlefield, the gender line, or the color bar. Toler is the author of eight books of popular history for children and adults. Her most recent books are  Women Warriors: An Unexpected History and Across the Minefields.

Episode 86: THE PIRATE Ching Shih

Dr. Jamie Goodall is a staff historian at the U.S. Army Center of Military History in Washington, D.C. She is the author of Pirates of the Chesapeake Bay: From the Colonial Era to the Oyster Wars and National Geographic’s Pirates: Shipwrecks, Conquests, and their Lasting Legacy. She received her B.A. in Archaeology and my M.A. in Public History-Museum Studies from Appalachian State University (Boone, North Carolina) and her PhD from Ohio State. You’ll often find her presenting her work at regional, national, and international conferences, and at the Maryland and Virginia Renaissance Festival dressed as her alter ego: Torienne, Ship’s Scholar of the crew Mare Nostrum!

Episode 87: THE FIRST ACCUSED Tituba

Army vet, playwright, and military historian David Tullis guides off-the-beaten-track tours of Salem and works as a historical pewtersmith.

Episode 88: THE ORGANIZER Celia Sánchez

Director of the Honors College and Professor of History at Auburn University, Dr. Tiffany Sippial received her Ph.D. in Latin American History with distinction from the University of New Mexico in 2007. Dr. Sippial has completed prestigious fellowships with the Southeastern Conference’s Academic Leadership Development Program, the HERS Leadership Institute, and was the university’s Presidential Administrative Fellow in 2017. She has secured several prestigious research grants and awards, including a Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Grant, a CCWH Berkshire Conference of Women Historians Award, and an American Historical Association Albert J. Beveridge Grant for Research in the History of the Western Hemisphere. A strong advocate for student international experiences, Dr. Sippial leads the Honors College study and travel courses to Cuba. Dr. Sippial published an award-winning book on Cuba in 2013 with the University of North Carolina Press and published a second book on Cuban revolutionary leader Celia Sanchez Manduley with that press in January 2020. Sippial also served as president of the Latin American and Caribbean Section of the Southern Historical Association in 2018-2019.

Episode 89: THE SCREENWRITER Frances Marion

Pam Munter is the author of Fading Fame: Women of a Certain Age in Hollywood and many other books. She is a former clinical psychologist, a performer and a writer.

Episode 91: THE WARRIOR QUEEN Chand Bibi

Sarah Waheed is Research Affiliate of Davidson College, North Carolina, where she has previously taught numerous courses in History and Gender Studies and served as Director of the Semester in India Program. She holds a PhD in South Asian History from Tufts University, and an MA from University of Chicago. Her first book, Hidden Histories of Pakistan: Censorship, Literature, and Secular Nationalism in Late Colonial India is forthcoming with Cambridge University Press this January 2022. She is currently a Fulbright Scholar carrying out research towards her second book, The Warrior Queen Who Died Thrice: Gender, Sovereignty and Islam in Premodern India.

Episode 92: THE UNVEILED Huda Shaarawi

Ayfer Karakaya-Stump was born and raised in Istanbul, Turkey. An Associate Professor of History at the College Of William and Mary, she received her Ph.D. in History and Middle Eastern Studies from Harvard University. Her scholarly interests include medieval and early modern Middle East, social and cultural history of the Ottoman Empire, Ottoman-Safavid borderlands, Sufism, nonconformist religious movements, Alevi/Bektashi communities, and women and gender in Islamic(ate) societies.

Episode 93: THE MOTHER OF FORENSIC SCIENCE Frances Glessner Lee

Bruce Goldfarb is an award-winning writer whose work has appeared in the Baltimore Sun, Washington Post, USA Today, Baltimore magazine, American Archaeology, American Health and many other publications. Since 2012 Bruce has served as executive assistant to the Chief Medical Examiner for the State of Maryland. He is public information officer for the OCME and curator of the Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death. His first book of popular nonfiction is 18 Tiny Deaths: The Untold Story of Frances Glessner Lee and the Invention of Modern Forensics.

Episode 94: THE NATURALIST Maria Sibylla Merian

Kim Todd is the author of four books of literary nonfiction, including Chrysalis: Maria Sibylla Merian and the Secrets of Metamorphosis, Tinkering with Eden: a Natural History of Exotic Species in America, Sparrow, and her newest work, Sensational: The Hidden History of America’s “Girl Stunt Reporters,” which dives into the lives of undercover journalists who exposed societal ills in the 1880s and 1890s. Todd was raised in California, educated in Montana, and after moving from coast to coast and landing many places in between, now lives in Minneapolis. She is on the faculty at the MFA program at the University of Minnesota.

Episode 95: THE PHOTOJOURNALIST Catherine Leroy

Elizabeth Becker is an award-winning journalist and author, most recently of You Don’t Belong Here: How Three Women Rewrote the Story of War. She began her career as a war correspondent for the Washington Post in Cambodia. She later became the Senior Foreign Editor of National Public Radio. As a New York Times correspondent she covered national security and international economics and was a member of the team that won a Pulitzer Prize for coverage of 9/11. Her earlier books include Overbooked: The Exploding Business of Travel and Tourism and When the War Was Over: Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge. In 2015 she testified as an expert witness at the international war crimes tribunal of the senior Khmer Rouge leaders. She was a fellow at Harvard’s Shorenstein Center, holds a degree from the University of Washington and studied language at the Kendriya Hindi Sansthaan in Agra, India. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the board of the Oxfam America Advocacy Fund.

 Episode 96: THE GOOD WIFE Elizabeth Bray Allen

Carol Wiedel is the site coordinator at Preservation Virginia’s Bacon’s Castle in Surry County where she has worked for 9 years. She is a strong member of the community, serving on the Chamber of Commerce as well as the Tourism Advisory Group. She lives in Surry with her husband and their chickens and has 4 grown children and 7 grandchildren. Carol loves Bacon’s Castle and all of its many years of history and works to make more people aware of its importance and place in the greater community. She enjoys introducing new guests to the castle as well as building relationships with those who have family or other connections to the site.

Episode 97: THE CONSTANT SCANDAL Valeska Gert

Janet Collard (she/her/hers) is a dancer, actor, singer, and choreographer from the San Francisco Bay Area. She has a BFA in dance from CalArts and an MFA in dance performance and choreography from Mills College, and is currently pursuing an MA in Dance Philosophy and History at Roehampton University in London. As a dancer, Janet has performed for many choreographers and companies in Los Angeles and the Bay Area. Janet was a member of AXIS Dance Company from 2008-2011 where she toured the country performing in the works of many renowned choreographers. As a choreographer, Janet has created dance works for youth through adults, and choreographs for theatrical productions. Janet Collard Dance Theater is interested in highlighting historical feminist themes and the performance of lost history through re-creation and re-interpretation.

Episode 98: THE GLEANER Judith Sargent Murray

& Episode 135: THE ABOLITIONIST Ellen Garrison

Jen Turner is a doctoral candidate in history at UMass Amherst and a long time adjunct faculty member in the history department at Bridgewater State University. She is also a museum professional and has worked at various museums throughout Massachusetts, including the Paul Revere House and Plimoth Patuxet Museums. Currently, she is the part-time Museum Educator at the Buttonwoods Museum in Haverhill, Mass and the Lead Tour Guide, Curatorial Associate, and Site Manager of the Sargent House Museum in Gloucester, Massachusetts. She is the harried mother of a toddler son born in the middle of a global pandemic and a first grader who may or may not like history as much as her mother.

Episode 99: THE TEACHER Lois Meek Stolz

Betsy More is a historian and Director of Programs at the Jewish Women’s Archive,  a national organization dedicated to collecting and promoting the extraordinary stories of Jewish women. She earned her PhD in American history from Harvard University, where her research focused on the history of work and motherhood in the United States. She lives outside Boston, MA, with her husband and daughter.

Episode 101: THE QUEEN OF CHOCOLATE Luisa Spagnoli

Diana Garvin is an Assistant Professor of Italian at the University of Oregon.  Her first book, Feeding Fascism: The Politics of Women’s Food Work, came out in February 2022. Garvin often writes articles on daily life under the dictatorship. She has explored everyday objects ranging from baby dolls to razor blades for academic journals and the popular press. Fellowships and awards from AAR, Fulbright, Getty, Oxford, Wolfsonian-FIU, Julia Child Foundation, CLIR Mellon, FLAS, AAUW, NWSA, and AFS have supported Garvin’s research at over thirty international archives, libraries, and museums. Her favorite Italian proverb is “O mangi questa minestra o salti dalla finestra” – “Eat this soup or jump out the window.”

Episode 102: THE ONE WHO STAYED Caty Taylor

Hilarie M. Hicks is the Director of Museum Programs at James Madison’s Montpelier. She served on the research and writing team for the award-winning exhibition The Mere Distinction of Colour, and is currently writing biographies of the enslaved for The Naming Project on Montpelier’s Digital Doorway website. Hilarie previously served as Curator of Interpretation at Tryon Palace Historic Sites & Gardens (New Bern, NC) and Executive Director of the Rosewell Foundation (Gloucester, VA). She is an alum of the College of William and Mary (B.A.), the Cooperstown Graduate Program in History Museum Studies (M.A.), and the Seminar for Historical Administration.

Episode 103: THE CARPENTER Elizabeth Gregory

Aaron Paterson leads the Community Engagement programme at Westminster Abbey and runs a small media company supporting cultural organisations to deliver quality digital content. Alongside these roles Aaron is a trustee for SouthWestFest, a health and culture festival in Westminster, and sits on the working group for the Families in Museums Network. All of these roles are underpinned by a passion for the undervalued and overlooked stories that highlight marginalised people.

Episode 104: THE GRATEFUL DUCHESS Harriot Mellon

Dr Ian Mortimer is the author of over twenty books on the history of England, which have sold more than a million copies and been translated into fifteen languages. He’s been described by The Times as ‘the most remarkable medieval historian of our time,’ and is best known as the author of the four Time Traveller’s Guides – to Medieval England (2008), Elizabethan England (2012), Restoration Britain (2017) and Regency Britain (2020). He is currently the president of the Moretonhampstead History Society and vice president of the Mortimer History Society. He lives in Dartmoor (Devon), with his wife Sophie and enjoys visiting historical sites and museums, studying local history, playing guitars, walking in the country and running.

Episode 105: THE POISONER Goeie Mie

& Episode 133: THE BUTTERFLY IN THE SUN Mata Hari

Josine Heijnen holds an MA in humanities and studies history & theology – naturally she would end up having her own distillery, right? Maneuvering through the financial world right after graduating, she started distilling Goeie Mie Gin, named after Maria Swanenburg ‘the Leiden Poisoner.’ She expanded the business and now spreads these unbelievable-but-true stories in liquid form throughout Europe. (And more to come: do you know the greatest spy of all time, Mata Hari? Or ever tasted something called Radithor?)

Episode 106: THE NURSE Mary Seacole

Helen Rappaport is the author of In Search of Mary Seacole, The Romanov Sisters, The Last Days of the Romanovs, and many other critically acclaimed titles. She has been a full-time writer for more than twenty-three years, and in 2003 discovered and purchased an 1869 portrait of Mary Seacole that now hangs in the National Portrait Gallery, sparking a long investigation into Seacole’s life and career.

Episode 107: THE BRIDGE Brigid of Kildare

Rita Minehan is a Brigidine Sister and a native of Co. Tipperary, Ireland. A secondary school teacher and psychotherapist by profession, she was a founding member of APT (Act to Prevent Human Trafficking), working to raise awareness about human trafficking. She has worked with women affected by prostitution and human trafficking in a variety of capacities, and has been involved with Afri (Action from Ireland)’s St. Brigid’s Peace Campaign and Justice and Peace Conference for nearly 30 years. As a founding member member of the Solas Bhríde Centre team, she has been involved in the creation of several initiatives, including its pilgrimage programme. A second edition of her book, Rekindling the Flame: A Pilgrimage in the Footsteps of St Brigid of Kildare will be published in December 2022.

Episode 108: THE QUEEN OF THE WEST Dale Evans

Theresa Kaminski, who earned her PhD in history from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, specializes in writing about scrappy women in American history. She is the author, most recently, of Queen of the West: The Life and Times of Dale Evans. In 2020, she published Dr. Mary Walker’s Civil War: One Woman’s Journey to the Medal of Honor and the Fight for Women’s Rights. Theresa also wrote a trilogy of nonfiction history books on American women in the Philippine Islands during World War II. After more than twenty-five years as a university history professor, she is now retired from teaching (but not from writing), and lives with her husband in central Wisconsin at a place known affectionately as Southfork.

Episode 109: A COUNTRY HOUSE CHRISTMAS Phyllis Sandeman – 2022 Christmas Special

& Episode 47: THE WITCH Mother Shipton

Jay Stelling is an illustrator, doll maker and storyteller from North Yorkshire, England and an assistant at Mother Shipton’s Cave. She graduated in 2018 from Leeds Arts University where she received a First in BA(hons) Illustration. You can often find her making tiny dolls in her little attic studio with her partner and their two fluffy cats. Jay is fascinated by fairies and folklore, with most of her work centred around charming character and children’s stories, such as fairy tales and Yorkshire legends. Jay’s first children’s book Whistle-Stop Thistle is a story about recycling and reusing scrap materials. You can purchase her dolls, books, and more on her website.

Episode 110: THE INAUGURAL BALLER Lusia Harris

Andrew Maraniss is a New York Times bestselling author of sports and social justice nonfiction for teens and adults. His books include Strong Inside: Perry Wallace and the Collision of Race and Sports in the South (winner of the RFK Book Awards Special Recognition Prize and the Lillian Smith Book Award), Games of Deception (winner of the Sydney Taylor Honor Award), Singled Out (named one of Esquire Magazine’s “Top 100 Baseball Books Ever Written”) and his latest, Inaugural Ballers (a 2002 Book of the Year by Kirkus). Andrew is director of special projects at the Vanderbilt University Athletic Department and lives in Nashville. Follow him on Twitter @trublu24.

Episode 111: THE WARDEN Maria van Nispen

Susan Suèr is an art historian and public historian. She works as an education manager at Heritage Leiden which holds the old city archives. As part of her work Susan gets to see a lot of archival records, and she was instantly fascinated by the 18th century criminal archives of confessions and verdicts. She is currently writing a novel about the female jailor Maria van Nispen.

Episode 112: THE USELESS HOUSEWIFE SCIENTIST Beverly Paigen

& Episode 31: THE FLY GIRL Ruth Nichols

New York Times Bestselling author Keith O’Brien is a former reporter for the Boston Globe and a frequent contributor to National Public Radio. His work has appeared on shows such as All Things Considered, Morning Edition, and This American Life. He has also written for the New York Times Magazine, Politico, and Slate, and is the author of Paradise Falls: The True Story of an Environmental Catastrophe, Fly Girls: How Five Daring Women Defied All Odds and Made Aviation History, and Outside Shot: Big Dreams, Hard Times, and One County’s Quest for Basketball Greatness. He lives in New Hampshire.

Episode 113: THE PIRATE QUEEN OF CONNACHT Grace O’Malley

Kathryn Connolly is Supervisor and Lead Tour Guide at Westport House. Kathryn has an honours degree in History and Heritage, graduating from ATU Castlebar, Co. Mayo in 2015. She began working in Westport House March 2016 when the House was still owned by the Browne Family and has been part of the transition of ownership to the Hughes of Westport. She has immersed herself in the history of Westport House and is passionate about the story. Kathryn has had her own blog delving into the many stories, writing about the architecture, and restoration of the magnificent Georgian Manor.

Episode 114: THE SUN QUEEN Maria Telkes

Amanda Pollak has been directing and producing highly acclaimed documentaries for over two decades, including over a dozen films for the national PBS series, American Experience. In addition to directing The Sun Queen, she produced and co-directed The Great War, an epic six-hour series on America’s role in World War 1, which was seen by more than 10 million people nationwide. She also produced Into the Grand Canyon, an environmental adventure story that premiered on National Geographic and is now streaming worldwide on Disney+, and executive produced Ailey, an immersive portrait of the renowned choreographer, which premiered at Sundance, was released theatrically by NEON, and broadcast on PBS’s American Masters. Pollak was part of the founding team for Retro Report, an online series of investigative pieces featured on the front page of The New York Times digital edition. Her work has been recognized with three Emmy Awards, a Cine Golden Eagle Award, and the George Foster Peabody Award.

Gene Tempest is an award-winning American filmmaker and historian. Her work has appeared in The Boston Globe and The New York Times, and her screenwriting has been recognized by the Writers Guild of America. A coeditor of Une Histoire De La Guerre (2018) and a former contributor to the French magazine L’histoire, her projects include the PBS documentaries The Sun Queen (writer/producer; 2023), The Great War (coproducer; 2017), American Veteran (cowriter; 2021), and Citizen Hearst (writer/producer; 2021). She received her BA from the University of California at Berkeley, and her PhD from Yale University, where she won the Hans Gatzke Prize for her work in military history. She has taught at SUNY Cortland and Boston University, and from 2016-2017 served as the first ever Historian in Residence for American Experience at WGBH-Boston, where she helped fund and develop new history programming for public television.

Episode 115: THE DISCOVERY Naia

& Episode 65: THE FLOWER IN THE WATER Zazil-ha

Gabriel Cemé is native Maya of Akumal, Mexico with a passion for history. Gabo traveled the globe for years before returning to the Yucatan to cultivate his deep relationship with the land and found Eco Maya. At Eco Maya’s Animal Sanctuary, Gabo and his team work to rehabilitate wild animals for their release back into the wild. Eco Maya also aims to foster ecologically sustainable tourism to the Yucatan.

Episode 116: THE ACCUSED Clara Ford

Carolyn Whitzman is a writer and housing policy researcher who lives in Ottawa. She is the author of Clara at the Door With a Revolver and four other books, including Suburb, Slum, Urban Village: Transformations in Parkdale, Toronto 1875–2000.

Episode 117: THE PUNA HELE Mary Kawena Puku’i

Dr. Eve Okura Koller holds a Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of Hawai’i at Manoa. Her research has taken her to places such as New Zealand, the Akwesasne Mohawk Reservation, and Finland. Her publications include the Open Handbook of Linguistic Data Management (MIT Press) and Language Nests (Oxford University Press). She is from Hilo, Hawai’i.

EPISODE 118: THE WOMAN KING Hatshepsut

& Episode 46: THE PHARAOH Tawosret

Dr. Kathlyn (Kara) Cooney is a professor of Egyptian Art and Architecture at UCLA. In her latest book, The Good Kings, she turns to five ancient Egyptian pharaohs – Khufu, Senwosret III, Akenhaten, Ramses II, and Taharqa – to understand why many so often give up power to the few, and what it can mean for our future. She is also the author of The Woman Who Would Be King: Hatshepsut’s Rise to Power in Ancient Egypt and When Women Ruled the World: Six Queens of Egypt, exploring the lives of six remarkable female pharaohs. Cooney also produced Out of Egypt, a comparative archaeology series which aired in 2009 on the Discovery Channel.

Episode 119: THE WESTERN WOMAN Rattlesnake Kate Slaughterback

Neyla Pekarek (she/her/hers) began playing cello at age 9 in her hometown of Aurora, Colorado. She studied Musical Theatre and earned a degree in Music Education at UNC in Greeley, CO. In 2010, she joined the Denver folk-rock group The Lumineers as a cellist and vocalist, and spent 8 years touring the world and recording with the band. In January 2019 she released her debut album Rattlesnake (streaming now!) on S-Curve records, and was commissioned by the Denver Center for the Performing Arts to develop her album into a musical production entitled Rattlesnake Kate, which had its World Premier at the DCPA in February 2022. Neyla wrote the music and lyrics and garnered a Best Supporting Actress Henry Award for her portrayal of the cello-playing horse, Brownie. She released a companion EP entitled Western Woman on June 30, 2023. Neyla is a proud member of Sweet Adelines International and The Barbershop Harmony Society, two organizations that nurture the craft of Barbershop Quartet singing. She sang baritone for the 2009 Rising Star Champion quartet Vogue and currently sings tenor in Clever Girl Quartet. She’s on Instagram at @NeylaPekarek.

Episode 120: THE CLEANING LADY Seraphine of Senlis

Alicia Basso Boccabella is curator of the Museums of Senlis.

Episode 121: THE ANTI-FASCIST Gerda Taro

and Episode 36: THE WHITE ROSE Sophie Scholl

Kip Wilson is the author of young adult verse novels White Rose (Versify 2019), about anti-Nazi political activist Sophie Scholl, The Most Dazzling Girl in Berlin (Versify 2022), set in a queer club in Berlin during the last days of the Weimar Republic, and One Last Shot (Versify 2023), about anti-fascist Spanish Civil War photojournalist Gerda Taro. Kip holds a Ph.D. in German Literature and works in a high school library. Find her online at kipwilsonwrites.com and on Instagram @kipwilsonwrites.

Episode 122: THE QUEEN OF HAITI Marie-Louise Christophe

Vanessa Riley is the award-winning author of Island Queen and Queen of Exiles. Riley’s historical novels showcase the hidden histories of Black women and women of color, emphasizing strong sisterhoods and dazzling multicultural communities. Her works encompass historical fiction, historical romance, and historical mystery. This Southern, Irish, Trini girl holds a doctorate in Mechanical Engineering and an MS in Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management from Stanford University. Her research skills have helped NASA, GM, Hewlett Packard, and several startups. Yet, her love of history (Caribbean, Georgian, and Regency) and lattes overwhelmed her passion for math, and has led to the publication of over twenty titles. Vanessa is an avid baker who loves creating her Trinidadian grandma’s cake recipes. You can find Vanessa writing on her southern porch with proper amounts of caffeine.

Episode 123: THE MONGOL KHATUN Genghis Khan’s Daughters

Jack Weatherford is the New York Times bestselling author of The Secret History of the Mongol Queens and many other books, which have been published in more than thirty languages. In 2022, on the 860th anniversary of the birth of Genghis Khan, President Khurelsukh made Weatherford the first foreigner to receive Mongolia’s highest honor, the Order of Chinggis Khan, which had only been awarded fifteen times in Mongolian history.

Episode 124: THE BLOOD COUNTESS Elizabeth Báthory

Kimberly L. Craft holds bachelor and master’s degrees as well as a juris (law) doctorate. She also received a Zertifikat Deutsch als Fremdsprache from the Goethe Institut in Munich. Prof. Craft has served on various faculties, including DePaul University and Florida A&M College of Law. An attorney and legal historian, Prof. Craft has spent over a decade researching the life and trial of Countess Báthory and over a year translating original source material into English.

Episode 125: THE BOSTON BRAHMIN Ethel Gibson Allen

Sarah Hagglund is Museum Program & Curatorial Assistant at The Gibson House Museum, where she has worked for the past two years. She has an MA in Art History from Boston University and a BA in History and Anthropology from Kent State University. She was named a 2021 Portz Scholar for her research on women’s cultural production in Italy during the 17th century, and has always been fascinated and inspired by the stories of women in history. Sarah is a painter, a lover of quirky museums, and a long-time listener of What’sHerName.

Episode 126: THE WILD CHILD Alice Roosevelt

Shelley Fraser Mickle is an award-winning author who has published over a dozen books, which, along with her commitment to literacy and the power of story, led to her being nominated to the Florida Women’s Hall of Fame in 2014. Her newest book is White House Wild Child: How Alice Roosevelt Broke All the Rules and Won the Heart of America. Her books have been New York Times Notables, Library Journal’s Best Adult Books and her nonfiction book, Barbaro: America’s Horse (2007) won a Bank Street Award. She lives on her ranch in Gainesville, Florida.

Episode 128: THE GUNG-HO ORIGINAL Helen Foster Snow

As the grand nephew of Helen Foster Snow, Adam Foster is the founder of the Helen Foster Snow Foundation and is currently serving as Chairman of the Board. He also works for Adobe as a Talent Development Partner in Lehi, Utah. With an MBA, he has over 15 years experience leading teams in strategic planning, leadership development, and project management. In 2022, Mr. Foster received a personal letter from President Xi Jinping encouraging HFSF to continue Helen’s bridge building efforts. He has strong relationships with the Chinese embassy in DC, as well as national and subnational leaders throughout China. As a trailblazer in US-China relations, and the torch-bearer of Helen’s remarkable legacy, he regularly appears in major Chinese media outlets representing HFSF. Mr. Foster also serves on the advisory board for the Helen Foster Snow Cultural Center at Southern Utah University.

Professor An Wei was Helen Foster Snow’s translator during her 1978 visit to China. Their friendship grew over the years and An Wei became Helen’s major translator in China and founded the Edgar and Helen Foster Snow Study Center in Xi’an.

Episode 129: THE EQUESTRIAN Anna Sewell

Celia Brayfield is a New York Times and Sunday Times bestselling author of nine novels and six nonfiction titles. In addition to Writing Black Beauty, her most recent book is Rebel Writers: The Accidental Feminists. She is an associate professor of creative writing at Bath Spa University and lives on the Jurassic Coast in Dorset, where she used to enjoy riding.

Episode 130: THE SOLID CITIZEN Frances Perkins

Stephanie Dray is a New York Times, Wall Street Journal & USA Today bestselling author of historical women’s fiction. Her award-winning work has been translated into many languages and tops lists for the most anticipated reads of the year. Now she lives in Maryland with her husband, cats, and history books. Her newest novel, Becoming Madam Secretary, was published March 12, 2024.

Episode 131: THE VOYAGER Hannah Masury Howe

Katherine Howe is a New York Times bestselling and award-winning historian and novelist. Her newest novel, A True Account: Hannah Masury’s Sojourn Amongst the Pyrates, Written by Herself, is a mystery adventure set in the Golden Age of Piracy. Katherine has appeared on “Good Morning America,” “CBS This Morning,” NPR’s “Weekend Edition,” the BBC, the History Channel, Smithsonian TV, the Travel Channel, and she hosted Salem: Unmasking the Devil for National Geographic. Her fiction has been translated into over twenty languages. She holds a BA in art history and philosophy from Columbia and an MA in American and New England studies from Boston University. A native Houstonian and avid sailor, she lives in New England with her family, where she is at work on her next book.

Episode 132: THE COUNTERFEIT COUNTESS Janina Mehlberg

Dr. Elizabeth “Barry” White recently retired from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, where she served as historian and as Research Director for the USHMM’s Center for the Prevention of Genocide. Prior to working for the USHMM, Barry spent a career at the US Department of Justice working on investigations and prosecutions of Nazi criminals and other human rights violators. She served as deputy director and chief historian of the Office of Special Investigations and as deputy chief and chief historian of the Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section. She lives in Falls Church, Virginia. With Dr. Joanna Sliwa, she is co-author of The Counterfeit Countess: The Jewish Woman Who Rescued Thousands of Poles During the Holocaust.

Dr. Joanna Sliwa is a historian at the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference) in New York, where she also administers academic programs. She previously worked at the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, and at the Museum of Jewish Heritage—A Living Memorial to the Holocaust. She has taught Holocaust and Jewish history at Kean University and at Rutgers University and has served as a historical consultant and researcher, including for the PBS film In the Name of Their Mothers: The Story of Irena Sendler. Her first book, Jewish Childhood in Kraków: A Microhistory of the Holocaust won the 2020 Ernst Fraenkel Prize awarded by the Wiener Holocaust Library. She lives in Linden, New Jersey. With Dr. Elizabeth White, she is co-author of The Counterfeit Countess: The Jewish Woman Who Rescued Thousands of Poles During the Holocaust.

Episode 133: THE BUTTERFLY IN THE SUN Mata Hari

& Episode 105: THE POISONER Goeie Mie

Josine Heijnen holds an MA in humanities and studies history & theology – naturally she would end up having her own distillery, right? Maneuvering through the financial world right after graduating, she started distilling Goeie Mie Gin, named after Maria Swanenburg ‘the Leiden Poisoner.’ She expanded the business and now spreads these unbelievable-but-true stories in liquid form throughout Europe at True Tales Distillery, including her latest offering, Mata Hari Rum.

Episode 134: THE BYZANTINE Irene of Athens

Judith Herrin was educated at the universities of Cambridge and Birmingham, and received additional training in Paris, Munich and Athens. She was awarded several fellowships and visiting appointments before 1991 when she took up the Stanley J. Seeger Professorship in Byzantine History at Princeton University. From there she moved to King’s College London where she remains Professor Emerita and Constantine Leventis Senior Research Fellow attached to the Classics Department. Her major books include The Formation of Christendom (Princeton University Press, 1987), now reprinted as a Princeton Classic (2021); Byzantium: The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire (Penguin Books, 2007), translated into twelve languages, and Ravenna. Capital of Empire, Crucible of Europe (Penguin Books, 2020), which was awarded the Duff Cooper-Pol Roger Prize for History. In 2013 Princeton UP published two volumes of essays: Unrivalled Influence: Women and Empire in Byzantium, and Margins and Metropolis: Authority across the Byzantine Empire.

Episode 135: THE ABOLITIONIST Ellen Garrison

& Episode 98: THE GLEANER Judith Sargent Murray

Jen Turner is a doctoral candidate in history at UMass Amherst and a long time adjunct faculty member in the history department at Bridgewater State University. She is also a museum professional and has worked at various museums throughout Massachusetts, including the Paul Revere House and Plimoth Patuxet Museums. Currently, she is the part-time Museum Educator at the Buttonwoods Museum in Haverhill, Mass and the Lead Tour Guide, Curatorial Associate, and Site Manager of the Sargent House Museum in Gloucester, Massachusetts. She is the harried mother of a toddler son born in the middle of a global pandemic and a first grader who may or may not like history as much as her mother.

Episode 137: THE INDOMITABLE SPIRIT Artemisia Gentileschi

Lindsay Huss has been creating for as long as she can remember. She is a visual storyteller and loves for her work to contain a narrative. Creating public art has presented a unique opportunity to tell the stories of many peoples and places. As a student, she took as many art classes as her schedule would allow. She graduated from Weber State University and went on to teach art at a public high school for ten years. She left teaching to pursue her longest and most passionate love of creating. After leaving teaching in 2019, Lindsay hit the ground running as a full time artist and was honored the Indie Ogden award for Best Ogden Artist, Nurture the Creative Mind award for Artist of the Year, and most proudly the Ogden Mayor’s award for Visual Arts. She continues to create from her home base in Ogden, Utah. Follow her on Instagram and Facebook.

Episode 138: THE IRISH JOAN OF ARC Maud Gonne

Orna Ross is an award-winning Irish novelist and poet whose books explore creative expansion and the rebalance of male and female forces. An international bestseller, her writing awards include the Goethe Grand Prize for Historical Fiction and the Gold Literary Titan award for poetry, and she has been named one of the Top 100 People in Publishing for her work with ALLi, the Alliance of Independent Authors. She was born and raised in Wexford, in the south-east of Ireland, and now lives in St Leonard’s on Sea, in the south-east of England, within working reach of London. Her motto is: “When in doubt, be braver.”

Episode 139: THE FIRST LADY Pat Nixon

& Episode 48: THE ACCIDENTAL ACTIVIST Sybil Stockdale

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 of America (CDA) Annual Book Award as well as a Gold Medal for Nonfiction from the
Independent Publisher Book Awards. Heath’s second book The League of Wives: The Untold Story of the Women Who Took on the U.S. Government to Bring Their Husbands Home from Vietnam won the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) Women in American History Award. The League of Wives is now being developed into a television series. She lives in Roanoke, Virginia, with her husband Chris, her children Anne Alston and James, and her French bulldog Dolly Parton.

Episode 140: THE TANK COMMANDER Aleksandra Samusenko

Hayley Noble is a public historian and the Executive Director of the Latah County Historical Society in Moscow, Idaho. She received her MA in public military history from Boise State University in 2019. Her research focused on Soviet women in combat on the Eastern Front during World War II and used that historical example to argue in support of integrating American women into combat jobs. Hayley continues to research and share Soviet women during WWII to raise awareness for their often forgotten service. Some of her other history work experience involves Idaho’s Old Idaho Penitentiary, ground penetrating radar at the ancient Roman site, Libarna, and management of the 1886 McConnell Mansion Historic House Museum.

Episode 141: THE FILMMAKERS The McDonagh Sisters

Mandy Sayer is an award-winning novelist and narrative non-fiction writer. Her honours include the Vogel Award (Mood Indigo), the National Biography Award, and the Australian Audio Book of the Year (Dreamtime Alice: A Memoir); the South Australian Premier’s Award for Non-Fiction, and The Age Book of the Year for Non-fiction (Velocity: A Memoir); and the Davitt Award for Young Adult Fiction (The Night has a Thousand Eyes). In 2021, she was the recipient of the Hazel Rowley Literary Fellowship, which supported her research and writing of Those Dashing McDonagh Sisters: Australia’s First Female Filmmaking Team, published 2022. She lives in Sydney with her husband, playwright and author, Louis Nowra.

Episode 142: THE SWORN SPINSTER Fanny Law

Teresa Lim grew up in Singapore but has lived in London since 1992. She read Economics and Sociology with Anthropology at the National University of Singapore before working as a business journalist and in finance for many years. After moving to the United Kingdom, she wrote a fortnightly column on life in London for The Straits Times, Singapore. Teresa lives in South London and Devon with her husband. They have two grown-up sons.

Episode 143: THE DRAGON FROM CHICAGO Sigrid Schultz

& Episode 35: THE WARRIOR Zenobia

& Episode 84: THE RANI OF JHANSI

Armed with a PhD in history, a well-thumbed deck of library cards, and a large bump of curiosity, author, speaker, and historian Pamela D. Toler translates history for a popular audience. She goes beyond the familiar boundaries of American history to tell stories from other parts of the world as well as history from the other side of the battlefield, the gender line, or the color bar. Toler is the author of ten books of popular history for children and adults, including The Dragon From Chicago: The Untold Story of an American Reporter in Nazi Germany, Heroines of Mercy Street: Real Nurses of the Civil War, Women Warriors:  An Unexpected History. Her work has appeared in American Scholar, Aramco World, Calliope, History Channel Magazine, MHQ: The Quarterly Journa Military History, Ms., Time.com and The Washington Post and has been featured in National Geographic.

Episode 144: THE APOTHECARY Giulia Tofana

Born in Cagliari, Sardinia, Gaia Aloisi started her musical career as a singer, obtaining her bachelor’s degree from the Haute École de Musique in Geneva and subsequently a master’s degree in Contemporary Voice Performance from the Conserv atorio della Svizzera Italiana in Lugano. She then turned her attention to composition, studying under Alessandro Solbiati at the Conservatorio “G. Verdi” in Milan and then under Ivan Fedele at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome. Her music blends traditional elements from her native Sardinia with cutting edge modernity. Aqua Tofana is her debut opera, a haunting blend of ancient soundscapes and unsettling electronic music.

Ted Blackburn started his career as a dancer moving to Russia aged 15 to attend Perm State Choreographic College and then graduating in 2018 in classical and contemporary ballet from the Accademia Teatro Alla Scala in Milan. Whilst a dancer Ted performed in many ballets and operas both in Italy and the UK, performing alongside greats such as Roberto Bolle, Svetlana Zakharova and Placido Domingo. After leaving dance he continued to study in Milan, completing the academy’s Master in Performing Arts Management programme where he could further explore his passion for the future of the classical performing arts. Now a stagehand at the ROH, Ted works on full scale productions of both opera and ballet as well as developing his understanding of production and direction.

Episode 145: THE LEGEND Zainab Pasha

Afarin Bellisario bridges East and West, Past and Future, Modernity and Tradition. Born and raised in Tehran in a family with its feet in the past and its head in the future, she was educated and built a career in high-tech in the US. But her passion has always been writing. She started writing in pre-revolutionary Iran. Today, she writes, mentors startup ventures (over 300 and counting), and teaches. She loves to travel, plays piano, and is a board member of the Cambridge Chamber Ensemble. She has a regular publication on Medium and is working on a sequel to Silenced Whispers. You can follow her Substack here.