History

1-800-1800

Brought to you by Mandylion®, 1-800-1800 is your guide to 19th-century history, art, literature, culture, and scandal. Each episode, we dial into a random year of the 1800s to gab about the chaos that shaped the modern world. Hosted by Madeline Porsella and Mabel Taylor, two Victorian Nightgown Girls and historians of art and design, 1-800-1800 delivers rigorous research with a healthy dose of gossip. So pick up the phone, the nineteenth century’s calling!

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Music by Jeronimo Ezquerro Aguilar-Alvarez.

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Latest Episodes:

1-800-Sense and Sensibility Nov 05, 2026

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This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit mandylion.substack.com

Hello dolls. Welcome back to 1-800-1800, everyone’s favorite guide to the nineteenth century. Every episode we call up a random year of the 19th century and simply say, “what’s up?” We also do special bonus episodes about pressing topics facing nineteenth-century obsessives such as yourselves. This week we are talking about the latest addition to the Ja…

1-800-The Murders in the Rue Morgue Oct 31, 2026

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Happy halloween girls and ghouls. Welcome back to 1-800-1800. On today’s special haunted episode we are joined by the writer Grace Byron to discuss Edgar Allan Poe’s 1841 short story “The Murders in the Rue Morgue.” Grace is a real 19th-century reader as well as the author of Herculine, an amazing novel published last year about a secluded camp for demonic trans girls named after Herculine Barbin. It’s so good, order your copy now!! Also, subscribe to Grace’s Substack! This episode was edited by Jack Gorman.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mandylion.substack.com/subscribe

1-800-1800: Maria Edgeworth invented political economy Oct 27, 2026

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Yes, you read that episode year correctly! We are taking it back to the first year of the nineteenth century this week. For this major year, we read Jeanna Smailek’s new book The Invisible Hand of Maria Edgeworth: How a Nineteenth-Century Novelist Taught the World Economics. Smialek argues that Edgeworth pioneered the field of political economy by “hid[ing] her version of economics in storybooks,” earning her a place among the greats of early economic theory, including Adam Smith, David Ricardo, and Thomas Malthus. Edgeworth was a prolific writer, publishing over two dozen novels and short story collections between 1795 and 1848. She was encouraged to write by her father, Richard Lovell Edgeworth, an absolute kook who Smialek describes as “a law student turned philosopher turned gentleman farmer who would go on to have four wives, twenty-two children, and a lifelong interest in seemingly every idea the Scottish and English Enlightenments had to offer.” Together, Maria and Richard implemented the ideas of Adam Smith, the author of The Wealth of Nations (1776), on their estate in Ireland. In 1800, Maria published Castle Rackrent, a rollicking story of life on an Irish estate narrated by Thady Quirk, a servant to the foolish Rackrent family who utterly mismanage their property and tenants.

After reading Castle Rackrent, King George III apparently commented,“I know something of my Irish subjects”

Maria Edgeworth was read by monarchs (Queen Victoria was raised on Edgeworth’s children fiction), and was one of the best-selling and most famous authors of her generation, at a time when novels were a major form of mass media. Despite her prolific career, Edgeworth is often overlooked today, perhaps because she infused her fiction with complex ideas about political economy. Listen and get a taste of Edgeworth’s world! This episode was edited by Jack Gorman. If you like 1-800-1800, subscribe to Mandylion’s substack to hear paid bonus episodes!

If you want more…

Jeanna Smialek, The Invisible Hand of Maria Edgeworth: How a Nineteenth-Century Novelist Taught the World Economics, 2026.

Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations, 1776. Order the book or read online for free.

Maria Edgeworth, Castle Rackrent, 1800. Order the book or read online for free.

Maria Edgeworth, Belinda, 1801. Order the book or read online for free.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mandylion.substack.com/subscribe

1-800-Salter House Oct 22, 2026

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This is a very special episode of 1-800-1800 because it is our first ever LIVE episode!

We were honored to be in conversation at Salter House & Picture Room on October 15. It was a truly one-of-a-kind night. We were joined by old and new friends alike, and had the chance to take our little act out into the real world. Thank you to everyone who came and …

1-800-1894: Queen Victoria Woodhull Oct 13, 2026

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Welcome back to 1-800-1800. This week, we are talking 1894, the year that Victoria Woodhull (Spiritualist medium, Wall Street broker, Presidential candidate, newspaper publisher, etc.) sued the British Museum for harboring libelous material about her. For this special episode we were joined by Alex Sujong Laughlin, podcaster, writer, and co-owner of Defector Media. Alex is the author of the forthcoming book The Talent Cult: Ambition, Visibility, and Power in the Attention Economy, coming 2027 from One World/Penguin Random House!!! Find more information about her book here and listen to her podcast Try Hard!!!

Victoria Woodhull was a truly singular 19th-century figure. Born into poverty in Homer, Ohio, Victoria California Claflin transformed herself several times over. First, following in their Mesmerist mother’s footsteps, she and her sister performed as Spiritualist mediums as a traveling roadshow. After a few unsuccessful marriages, Victoria remade herself as a clairvoyant to Cornelius Vanderbilt, ultimately running a Wall Street brokerage and opening a newspaper with her sister Tennessee. The sisters became the subject of huge scandal when they broke the Beecher-Tilton Affair, one of the biggest controversies of their time. In her spare time, Victoria advocated for free love and women gaining the vote. She even ran for president in 1872. In her final act, Victoria remade herself as a fine English lady, not unlike her namesake, Queen Victoria. You can take the girl out of Homer, Ohio, but you can’t take the Homer, Ohio out of the girl, and Victoria ended up suing the British Museum for (maybe) harboring (allegedly) libelous material about her. Listen and enjoy!!! This episode was edited by Jack Gorman. :)

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mandylion.substack.com/subscribe

1-800-Gangs of New York Oct 06, 2026

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This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit mandylion.substack.com

Welcome back to 1-800-1800. On this week’s special bonus episode, Madeline and Mabel travel back in time to 2002, and from there head to New York City circa 1846-1863, when violent gangs ruled the town. From the guys that brought you the #MeToo movement, Gangs of New York is an epic historical drama film directed by Martin Scorsese that Madeline has se…

1-800-1872: Abby and the chocolate factory Sep 29, 2026

Show notes

Welcome back to 1-800-1800! This week we are joined by the one and only Abigail Sandler, architect and author of Price Upon Request, a newsletter exploring the role of ornament in our modern lives. Abby delights us with discussion of her favorite building, the Menier Chocolate Factory in Noisiel, France. Designed by Jules Saulnier (1817-1881), the building is distinguished by its iron frame and ornamental brick infill. Listen, like, and subscribe! Xo

Herman Melville statue in New Bedford.

Claude Monet, Impression, Sunrise, 1872.

Charles Frederick Worth, Ball gown, 1872

Edgar Degas, Dance Class at the Opera, 1872

Edouard Manet, Berthe Morisot with a Bouquet of Violets, 1872

1-800-1871 with Sara Hinckley, for background on the Paris Commune.

France’s colonial expansion.

Did you know chocolate is a tree?

Loveman, Kate. “The Introduction of Chocolate into England: Retailers, Researchers, and Consumers, 1640-1730.” Journal of Social History 47, no. 1 (2013): 27–46. http://www.jstor.org.yale.idm.oclc.org/stable/43306044. Featuring the Earl of Sandwich’s recipe for a frozen choclate treat:

“Prepare the chocolatti [to make a drink] . . . and Then Putt the vessell that hath the Chocolatti in it,into a Jaraffa[i.e. a carafe] of snow stirred together with

some salt, & shaike the snow together sometyme & it will putt the Chocolatti

into tender Curdled Ice & soe eate a with spoons.”

Chocolatier, the Game.

Eplett, Layla. “For Oompa-Loompas, Orange Was the New Black.” Gastronomica 16, no. 2 (2016): 12–17. https://www-jstor-org.yale.idm.oclc.org/stable/26362342.

Charles Osborne for Tiffany & Co., Chocolate Pot, 1879.

1893 poster by Firmin Bouisset.

Now, what you’ve all been waiting for: the chocolate factory! As documented by Abby.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mandylion.substack.com/subscribe

1-800-The Awakening Sep 22, 2026

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This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit mandylion.substack.com

“It was not necessary for a writer of so great refinement and poetic grace to enter the over-worked field of sex-fiction” — said one critic of Kate Chopin’s landmark 1899 novel The Awakening. Mabel and Madeline dip their toes into the controversy in this week’s special bonus episode of 1-800-1800.

* Kate Chopin: A Reawakening

* “Kate Chopin: The Awakening, T…

1-800-1891: basketball is our favorite sport Sep 15, 2026

Show notes

This week, Harry Krinsky of Nothing But Respect joins us to talk about the invention of basketball. We discuss the rules of the game (you won’t believe how they dribbled), the cages they played in, and a hot controversy about its inventor. Listen now & follow Harry @lexaprotools on Substack & IG

Show Notes:

“1-800-PODCAST” from 99% Invisible

Football by Chuck Klosterman

From Cages to Jumpshots by Robert W. Peterson

Richard Sandomir, “Basketball’s Birth, in James Naismith’s Own Spoken Words,” New York Times.

Dan Barry, “Who Really Invented Basketball, ‘The Human Calculator’ Thinks He Knows” New York Times.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mandylion.substack.com/subscribe

1-800-The Tenant of Yesteryear Sep 08, 2026

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This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit mandylion.substack.com

On this week’s bonus episode of 1-800-1800, the girls dare to discuss a contemporary novel, Caro Claire Burke’s Yesteryear (2026), a novel about a tradwife influencer who time travels to 1855. To avoid being too modern with it, Mabel and Madeline compare Burke’s #1 New York Times bestseller with the least-popular Brontë novel, Anne Brontë’s The Tenant …

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