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Bonus Episode - Alternate Histories #5: Fast Girls Jul 08, 2020

Show notes

Today on Alternate Histories, I am joined by Elise Hooper. "A New Englander by birth (and at heart), Elise lives with her husband and two young daughters in Seattle, where she teaches history and literature. The Other Alcott was her first novel." Elise and I discuss her new novel, Fast Girls.

"In the 1928 Olympics, Chicago’s Betty Robinson competes as a member of the first-ever women’s delegation in track and field. Destined for further glory, she returns home feted as America’s Golden Girl until a nearly-fatal airplane crash threatens to end everything.

Outside of Boston, Louise Stokes, one of the few black girls in her town, sees competing as an opportunity to overcome the limitations placed on her. Eager to prove that she has what it takes to be a champion, she risks everything to join the Olympic team.

From Missouri, Helen Stephens, awkward, tomboyish, and poor, is considered an outcast by her schoolmates, but she dreams of escaping the hardships of her farm life through athletic success. Her aspirations appear impossible until a chance encounter changes her life.

These three athletes will join with others to defy society’s expectations of what women can achieve. As tensions bring the United States and Europe closer and closer to the brink of war, Betty, Louise, and Helen must fight for the chance to compete as the fastest women in the world amidst the pomp and pageantry of the Nazi-sponsored 1936 Olympics in Berlin."

Learn more about Elise Hooper and her work at https://www.elisehooper.com

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Radium Girls with Kate Moore Jul 02, 2020

Show notes

Radium is an element that appears in 88th spot on the periodic table. It is radioactive with a half-life of 1600 years and the radiation in produces as it decays produces a low level light through a process known as radioluminescence. Today, radium is considered the most hazardous of the radioelements and is handled only in controlled and contained environments.

My guest today is Kate Moore. Kate is a book editor, actress, theater director, and bestselling author. She joins me on the podcast today from her home in the U.K. to discuss her book, Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women. In Radium Girls, Kate dives into America's early fascination with radium and profiles the tragic lives of several 1920s women whose job painting with luminescent radium paint led to horrific medical problems and an uphill legal battle to seek justice from the factories that knowingly exposed them to hazardous materials.

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Bonus Episode - Alternate Histories #4 : The Joyce Girl Jun 03, 2020

Show notes

Today on Alternate Histories, I am joined by UK writer and novelist Annabel Abbs. "Annabel has a degree in English Literature from the University of East Anglia and a Masters in Marketing from the University of Kingston After fifteen years running a consultancy, she took a career break to bring up her four children, before returning to her first love, literature. Her debut novel, The Joyce Girl, won the 2015 Impress Prize for New Writing and the 2015 Spotlight First Novel Award, and was longlisted for the 2015 Caledonia Novel Award and the 2015 Bath Novel Award." She joins my from her home in London via Zoom to discuss The Joyce Girl: A Novel of Jazz Age Paris.

"The review in the Paris Times in November 1928 is rapturous in its praise of Lucia Joyce’s skill and artistry as a dancer. The family has made their home in Paris—where the latest ideas in art, music, and literature converge. Acolytes regularly visit the Joyce apartment to pay homage to Ireland’s exiled literary genius. Among them is a tall, thin young man named Samuel Beckett—a fellow Irish expat who idolizes Joyce and with whom Lucia becomes romantically involved.

Lucia is both gifted and motivated, training tirelessly with some of the finest teachers in the world. Though her father delights in his daughter’s talent, she clashes with her mother, Nora. And as her relationship with Beckett sours, Lucia’s dreams unravel, as does her hope of a life beyond her father’s shadow.

With Lucia’s behavior growing increasingly erratic, James Joyce sends her to pioneering psychoanalyst Carl Jung. Here, at last, she will tell her own story—a fascinating, heartbreaking account of thwarted ambition, passionate creativity, and the power of love to both inspire and destroy.

The Joyce Girl creates a compelling and moving account of the real-life Joyce Girl, of unrealized dreams and rejection, and of the destructive love of a father."

Learn more about Annabel Abbs at www.annabelabbs.com

This podcast is part of Straight Up Strange Productions. Check out www.straightupstrange.com for more shows like this one.

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The Contact Paradox with Keith Cooper May 25, 2020

Show notes

Are we alone in the universe?

Since humans first gazed up into the cosmos, we have tried to answer to this question, sometimes using theology and sometimes philosophy. In our literature, particularly in the science fiction genre, we have speculated what contact with otherworldly beings could look like. In recent centuries, we have used science and our ever-increasing advances in technology to look out into the heavens and search for tell-tale signs that someone else is out there.

Studying the stars for alien life has a long and interesting history, most notably with the founding of SETI (The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) nearly sixty years ago. My guest today is Keith Cooper, author of The Contact Paradox: Challenging Our Assumptions in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, who joins me to discuss the history surrounding academic efforts of "seeking out new life and new civilizations." Keith has a background in astronomy and astrophysics and has served as the Editor of Astronomy Now since 2006. His articles on cosmology, planetary science, astrobiology, and related disciplines have appeared in Sky & Telescope, Physics World, and the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society. In our conversation, Keith and I discuss early searches for ET intelligence and the origins of the SETI program, what SETI has done to listen for signals from other worlds, and the controversy surrounding the idea of whether or not we should respond if we do indeed intercept an alien signal. Keith and I then dive into our own evolutionary history to speculate on how life might have evolved elsewhere, and we explore examples from Earth's history of first contact between cultures to see what lessons we might be able to apply to first contact with an extraterrestrial civilization.

Check out the massive selection of sci-fi comics, books, toys, and games available at Things from Another World!

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Lady from the Black Lagoon with Mallory O’Meara May 14, 2020

Show notes

The Creature from the Black Lagoon was always my favorite classic monster movie growing up. The "creature" is certainly one of the most original and iconic monsters to ever grace the silver screen. But did you know that it was designed by a woman? Millicent Patrick was a makeup artist, animator, special effect designer, and an actress, but unfortunately her contributions to the horror film genre have largely been forgotten. My guest today is Mallory O'Meara and she has written the first biography of Millicent's life and career in Hollywood, The Lady from the Black Lagoon: Hollywood Monsters and the Lost Legacy of Millicent Patrick. Mallory is an award-winning author, co-host of the literary podcast Reading Glasses, and she works in the horror movie industry as a screenwriter and producer. Today, Mallory and I discuss Millicent's unique childhood, how she entered Hollywood, and how the film industry failed to recognize her achievements.

If you've never experienced this classic film or want to revisit it, you can rent or buy The Creature from the Black Lagoon from Amazon Prime Video.

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Biography of Resistance with Dr. Muhammad H. Zaman Apr 24, 2020

Show notes

As the world grapples with the coronavirus pandemic, the topic of infectious diseases has taken centerstage in our public consciousness. While COVID-19 may be viral in nature, many of the most dangerous diseases are caused by bacteria. Medicine has traditionally treated these infections with antibiotics, but increasingly our antibiotics are becoming less and less effective. My guest today is Dr. Muhammad H. Zaman who joins me to discuss his new book Biography of Resistance: The Epic Battle Between People and Pathogens. Dr. Zaman is a professor of Biomedical Engineering and International Health at Boston University and his research has led him to become a Fellow with the American Institute of Biological and Medical Engineering. He has shared his expertise with newspapers across globe with columns appearing in over thirty countries. Dr. Zaman joins me via Zoom from his home in Massachusetts to discuss the evolutionary history of bacteria and the microscopic war that has occurred between them for millions of years, the first human efforts to understand these organisms and influence that battle, and how those efforts have led the world of medicine into an age of highly resistant "superbugs."

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D-Day Girls with Sarah Rose Apr 17, 2020

Show notes

We are well familiar with the massive deployment of troops on the beaches on Normandy on June 6, 1944. But we are less familiar with the two years worth of groundwork laid behind enemy lines to ensure the D-Day invasion would be a success. My guest today is Sarah Rose, author of D-Day Girls: The Spies Who Armed the Resistance, Sabotaged the Nazis, and Helped Win World War II, and she joins me to discuss brave women who parachuted into Nazi-occupied France to work undercover as arms smugglers, army recruiters, and saboteurs. Sarah is a news and travel journalist whose columns have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Travel + Leisure Magazine, and the Saturday Evening Post. She joins me from Hawaii via Skype to discuss her second bestselling history book, D-Day Girls.

For incredible gourmet freshly roasted coffee delivered to your door, check out Phil & Sebastian Coffee Roasters! Free shipping anywhere in the US or Canada!

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Russians Among Us with Gordon Corera Mar 23, 2020

Show notes

When you think of spies, what comes to mind? Daniel Craig dressed in a tuxedo ordering a martini shaken, not stirred? Or perhaps Tom Cruise dangling from a wire in a pressure sensitive room? Today we are talking about the slightly less dramatic, but just as incredible history of real world espionage.

My guest today is BBC security correspondent Gordon Corera. Gordon studied modern history at Oxford and U.S. foreign policy at Harvard before becoming a reporter, a 20+ year career in which he has covered foreign affairs and security issues. He joins us today from the U.K. via Skype to discuss his latest book, Russians Among Us: Sleeper Cells, Ghost Stories, and the Hunt for Putin's Spies, which is an in-depth look at Russia's "Illegals Program" that survived the collapse of the Soviet Union and has evolved into Russia's high-tech foreign intelligence apparatus today.

For incredible gourmet freshly roasted coffee delivered to your door, check out Phil & Sebastian Coffee Roasters! Free shipping anywhere in the US!

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Bonus Episode - Alternate Histories #3: The Operator Mar 12, 2020

Show notes

I am joined today on Alternate Histories by Gretchen Berg. "Gretchen was was born on the East Coast, raised in the Midwest, and spent a number of years in the Pacific Northwest. She has taught English in South Korea and in Northern Iraq and has traveled to all the other continents." She joins me on the podcast from Chicago via Skype to discuss her debut historical fiction novel, The Operator.

"Nobody knows the people of Wooster, Ohio, better than switchboard operator Vivian Dalton, and she’d be the first to tell you that. She calls it intuition. Her teenage daughter, Charlotte, calls it eavesdropping.

Vivian and the other women who work at Bell on East Liberty Street connect lines and lives. They aren’t supposed to listen in on conversations, but they do, and they all have opinions on what they hear—especially Vivian. She knows that Mrs. Butler’s ungrateful daughter, Maxine, still hasn’t thanked her mother for the quilt she made, and that Ginny Frazier turned down yet another invitation to go to the A&W with Clyde Walsh.

Then, one cold December night, Vivian listens in on a call between that snob Betty Miller and someone whose voice she can’t quite place and hears something shocking. Betty Miller’s mystery friend has news that, if true, will shatter Vivian’s tidy life in Wooster, humiliating her and making her the laughingstock of the town.

Vivian may be mortified, but she isn’t going to take this lying down. She’s going to get to the bottom of that rumor—get into it, get under it, poke around in the corners. Find every last bit. Vivian wants the truth, no matter how painful it may be.

But as Vivian is about to be reminded, in a small town like Wooster, one secret usually leads to another. . . ."

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Operation Chastise with Sir Max Hastings Mar 05, 2020

Show notes

In 1943, World War II was in its third year and the tide was finally slowly beginning to turn against the Axis Powers. That spring, the Royal Air Force embarked on one of the boldest, most ambitious bombing campaigns in aviation history in an effort to deal a crippling blow to the Nazi war industry in the heart of Germany.

Today, renown historian Sir Max Hastings joins me to discuss his latest book, Operation Chastise: The RAF's Most Brilliant Attack of World War II, on the plan to use specially designed bombs to break open several hydroelectric dams and flood the Ruhr Valley. Sir Hastings has had a long career in journalism as a foreign correspondent for the BBC and as an editor and editor-in-chief for the Evening Standard and Daily Telegraph. In his career as a historian, he has authored over twenty books on warfare and military history and has received numerous international awards. Sir Hastings was kind enough to join me from the U.K. via Skype to discuss the logistics of implementing such a audacious plan as Operation Chastise, the engineering that went into creating the so-called Upkeep Device capable of breaching a massive structure like a dam, and the brave pilots who flew at dangerously low altitudes to complete this famous mission.

Check out the massive selection of comics, books, toys, and games available at Things from Another World!

Want to listen to new episodes a week earlier and get exclusive bonus content? Consider becoming a supporter of the podcast on Patreon!

Like the podcast? Please subscribe and leave a review! Follow @CMTUHistory on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram & TikTok

Mid-roll Music:

Megaepic by Alexander Nakarada | https://www.serpentsoundstudios.com Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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