Dolls of Our Lives

Latest Episodes:

This is Not a Drill: Dear America: Voyage on the Great Titanic Oct 01, 2024

Show notes

This month our Patreon bonus features commentary on *Dear America: Voyage on the Great Titanic.*We talk about the iceberg-level cultural fascination with the ship, the Titanic Historical Society, and survivors' videos on Youtube.

The Titanic documentary we discuss can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HchZvjV_4o

Original Air Date: April 20, 2020

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Amanda Montell’s Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism Oct 01, 2024

Show notes

Tis the season … to be bombarded with MLM offers, fanatic workout club ads, and thought-terminating cliches (well, it is what it is!). For this month’s episode, we discuss Amanda Montell’s Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism. Montell is a linguist interested in why people end up in cults and how cultish language shapes all of us.

Original air date: November 27, 2021

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Dolls of Our Lives! (Our book Q&A) Oct 01, 2024

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You asked and we answered! This month’s Patreon episode features your burning questions about our book, Dolls of Our Lives: Why We Can't Quit American Girl, out this month. What part of the book changed the most? Which topics required the most research? We cover these topics and more.

This book would not exist without all of you, so this episode is also another chance to say thank you for your support!

Original air date: November 30, 2023

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Lavender House Oct 01, 2024

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Is this novel about a lavender haze or smoke and mirrors? How about both? In Lev AC Rosen’s Lavender House, a family of soap makers tries to keep their side of the street clean. There’s one big problem: someone in the Lavender home probably committed murder. Set in the Bay Area in 1952, Rosen’s novel imagines a home where queer love makes a chosen family—-and a poisonous mother tries to tear it apart. We discuss recent book bans and echoes of repression in historical fiction.

Original air date: May 26, 2023

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The One Where We Got Tamagotchi Pets Oct 01, 2024

Show notes

For this episode, Mary and Allison bravely took on a pair of brand-new Tamagotchi digital pets. It's true what folks say: the days are long, but the Tamagotchi years go very fast (especially when you hit the reset button). Learn about the origins of digital pets and hear our cautionary tales about the care and keeping of virtual creatures, including Neopets.

Original air date: August 23, 2023

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The Birchbark Diaries Oct 01, 2024

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The Birchbark House has finally moved off the Patreon TBR list. This beautifully written novel by Louise Erdrich has been much requested by you, our listeners! Set in 1847, The Birchbark House is a story about an Ojibwa girl named Omakayas. Throughout the book, we spend several seasons with Omakayas and her kin as they weather a smallpox outbreak. Omakayas learns more about her own history and starts to see herself as a healer. We discuss Erdrich's beautiful writing, how this book connects to themes in American Girl books, and why this widely acclaimed book ought to have a place on your shelf.

Original air date: August 27, 2022

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Dear America: Coal Miner’s Daughter Oct 01, 2024

Show notes

This month, we read A Coal Miner's Bride: The Diary of Anetka Kaminska. This fictional diary was written by Susan Campbell Bartoletti, who doesn’t shy away from complex or dark histories. Our lead Anetka marries a miner at age 13 and is a widow by 14. The book builds to the Lattimer massacre, with Anetka narrating her story and the challenges of being young and far from home along the way. Join us as we talk labor history, Loretta Lynn, and the purpose of diaries.

Oh, and ... Did we mention how grateful we are for YOU?

Original air date: November 25, 2020

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Wishbone Oct 01, 2024

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Did you know one of the greatest interpreters of literature is a dog? Wishbone is one of the greats, and on this ep we get into why.

Original air date: October 16, 2023

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The Princess Diaries and a Prince's Memoir Oct 01, 2024

Show notes

The Princess Diaries is a novel about an ordinary teen, Mia Thermopolis, who discovers she is actually heir to a throne in a distant country few people have even heard of. In addition to the challenges of math class, Mia has to decide if she would like to be the ruler (someday) of this small, fictional foreign nation. We discuss this classic coming-of-age story and the enduring allure (or fear) of being a princess. Since this is also the same month that Prince Harry's memoir debuted, we also got into the connections between these two royals. What does it mean to take charge of your own story?

Next up: We'll cover Everything I Need I Get from You: How Fangirls Created the Internet as We Know It by Kaitlyn Tiffany.

Original air date: January 28, 2023

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Early Sunday Morning Oct 01, 2024

Show notes

Imagine leaving your home in Washington, D.C., and moving to Hawaii mere weeks before the attack on Pearl Harbor. Barry Denenberg takes on this thought experiment and a world of family conflict in one of his offerings to the Dear America series. In this episode, we cover the absolute whirlwind that is Early Sunday Morning: The Pearl Harbor Diary of Amber Billows, Hawaii 1941. Released on October 1, 2001, Denenberg’s novel provides a brutal portrait of a young girl making sense of the attack on the USS Arizona. We talk about how this compares to the Nanea books and Denenberg’s unflinching approach to children’s literature.

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Original air date: March 18, 2023

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