Stories of Strange Women

Mallory O’Meara Jun 10, 2019

In this episode we talk to Mallory O’Meara – horror screenwriter, producer and the author of The Lady from the Black Lagoon. Join us as we discuss the book which features the story of Milicent Patrick, the creator of Gill-man from the film Creature from the Black Lagoon. He was, and still is, one of the most recognizable monsters in cinema history alongside Dracula, Frankenstein and the Wolfman. For decades the credit for the creation of the creature was given to Bud Westmore, the head of the Universal makeup department, who fired Patrick rather than have her role in the creature’s success become known. This book sets out to right this wrong.

O’Meara discusses her obsession with bringing Patrick’s story out of the murky swamp and into the light, the almost impossible journey it took to uncover the truth, dealing with the haters in horror after she did. She talks openly about what it is like to be a woman in the horror industry today — and how very little has changed, and what it was like growing up as a girl who loved monsters.

Parker Posey Jul 27, 2018

Posey was dubbed by Time Magazine as the “Queen of Indies” after starring in such cult hits as Dazed and Confused, Party Girl and The House of Yes. She later played unforgettable improvisational roles in Christopher Guest mockumentaries, including Waiting for Guffman and Best in Show. She has gone onto create memorable roles in both TV and film and is currently Dr. Smith in the Netflix reboot of Lost in Space. Her memoir, You’re on an Airplane, proves that Posey is not only a film icon, but also a talented writer. In this episode she talks about her road from soap opera actress to indie queen, how much the business has changed since her start, growing up with a cast of characters, how she paved her own way outside of the Hollywood machine, and how it’s important to always show up for friends.

Handsome Devils Puppets Apr 20, 2018

Han exists primarily as the one-human show Handsome Devils Puppets. A self taught sculptor and puppeteer, touring storyteller and songwriter, her creative journey is about much more than creating art, it is a means of self-expression. “I started making puppets when I felt I didn’t have a voice. I sculpted powerful, magical creatures to dance and sing and cry and give me that voice.” In this episode, Han talks about growing up in a strict Catholic household in Kansas and how that shaped her and her art, her background in costume design, her love of murder ballads, her battle with anxiety and how her puppets are her proxy for interacting with the world, how she deals with life’s tragedies through her art and how not revealing her full name and moving to a different city every few years helps her cope and keeps her sane.

Han will be touring the West Coast soon, so check out her website for upcoming performances and follow her on instagram to see her custom puppets which include Merricat Blackwood — the main character from Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Sylvia Plath, post mortem babies, Frida Kahlo, Wednesday Addams, Vampira and David Bowie. This episode is a must-listen for creative souls forging their own paths and struggling to cope with life in general.

Amanda Palmer Apr 02, 2018

Palmer is a singer, songwriter, musician, author and performance artist with an experimental bent. Beginning her career as one half of the beloved “Brechtian punk cabaret” duo Dresden Dolls, she embarked on a solo career in 2007 releasing acclaimed solo albums and collaborations with Ben Folds, Jherek Bischoff, Brendan Maclean, her father, Jack Palmer, and her husband, writer Neil Gaiman. November 2014 saw the release of Palmer’s part memoir/part self-help book, The Art of Asking: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Let People Help by Grand Central Publishing. It became a New York Times bestseller, and is considered one of the definitive works about crowd-funding and getting things done outside the system. Join us as she opens up about her personal life – her marriage to Neil Gaiman, giving birth to her son Ash – her latest projects and striking the balance between protecting her family’s privacy and her artistic ambition to live her life as an open book.

Elizabeth Harper Mar 28, 2018

In this special Easter edition, just in time for the Catholic funeral processions, we feature Catholic relic hunter and creator of the All the Saints You Should Know blog Elizabeth Harper. Harper travels the word to photograph and write about the unusual (and often macabre) things she finds in Catholic churches—incorrupt corpses, holy relics (which are often the preserved body parts of saints), memento-mori tombs, exotic taxidermy and human bone art. Currently, her photographs of incorrupt saints are featured in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s catalog Like Life: Sculpture, Color and the Body. Join us as Harper opens up about growing up catholic, how she related to saints as a young girl –especially Catherine of Sienna the patron saint of eating disorders, when Harper suffered from anorexia and what Holy Week in Zamora, Spain is really like – what happens in Zamora stays in Zamora.

Cassandra Peterson Mar 13, 2018

Cassandra Peterson is an actress, comedian and entrepreneur born in Manhattan Kansas in 1951. She is best known for her longtime portrayal of the legendary horror hostess character Elvira, Mistress Of The Dark, which she created for local Los Angeles television station KHJ-TV in the early 1980s. Her sexy gothic look, dark humor and Valley Girl speak were an instant hit, attracting a national audience for Elvira’s Movie Macabre, her weekly horror movie show, and making Peterson the only nationally syndicated horror host in history.

Join us for a tell-all interview with the Queen of Halloween as she discusses the ups and downs of her fascinating life and career — from go-go dancer at the age 14 to Vegas showgirl at 17, hanging out with Jimi Hendrix, dating Elvis and losing her virginity to Tom Jones, joining the Groundlings with her friend Paul Reubens, balancing being a brand and a personal life, as well as some horrific casting couch experiences, #MeToo moments, divorce and and how she overcame it all to ultimately become an icon.

Lydia Lunch Jan 11, 2018

This week’s guest, Lydia Lunch, is passionate, confrontational and bold. Whether attacking the patriarchy and their pornographic war mongering, turning the sexual into the political or whispering a love song to the broken hearted, her fierce energy and rapid fire delivery lend testament to her warrior nature.

Queen of No Wave, muse of The Cinema of Transgression, writer, musician, poet, spoken word artist and photographer, she has released too many musical projects to tally, has been on tour for four decades, has published dozens of articles, half a dozen books, appeared in numerous documentaries, conducted workshops and taught at Universities and simply refuses to shut up. Lucky for us! Listen to Lunch talk about everything from Louis C.K., the #MeToo movement and the Golden Globes to growing up abused and hustling her way to survival on the streets of New York City in this essential episode of in-your-face timely truths.

Kate Pierson Dec 08, 2017

This episode we dive deep into the beehive for a wide ranging discussion with legendary B-52s singer, songwriter, multi instrumentalist and small business owner Kate Pierson! The post punk pioneer and kitsch culture icon talks growing up in NJ, the band’s punk and New Wave beginnings in Athens, GA, their rise in the gritty New York City music scene in the 1970s – the first band to play the infamous Mudd Club, the band’s thrift store chic fashion, the decision to carry on after the AIDS related death of bandmate Ricky Wilson and their worldwide success in the late 80s and 90s, her unforgettable collaborations with REM, Iggy Pop, The Ramones and Sia and her more recent adventures as a motel keeper in Woodstock. Tune in to find out what it was like then and what it’s like now to be an artist, to be an entrepreneur, to be a woman in music, to be Kate Pierson.

Kat Kinsman Nov 20, 2017

This week we welcome Kat Kinsman for a special Thanksgiving edition. Kat is the Food and Drinks Editor at Time Inc.’s all-breakfast site Extra Crispy and the author of the book Hi, Anxiety: Life with a Bad Case of Nerves. Previously, she was an Editor at Large and Editor in Chief of Tasting Table. the Managing Editor of CNN’s Eatocracy, edited CNN’s Matrimony section and First Person essay series and was a writer and editor for CNN Living. Join us as we talk holiday food and drink, anxiety & depression, finding your tribe, day-in-the-life of a dominatrix & the magic of whiskey sours and much more!

Dr. Lindsey Fitzharris Nov 07, 2017

This week we welcome Dr. Lindsey Fitzharris—storyteller, medical historian and author of The Butchering Art: Joseph Lister’s Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine. Fitzharris received her doctorate in the History of Science, Medicine and Technology at the University of Oxford. She is the creator of the popular website The Chirurgeon’s Apprentice, and she writes and presents the YouTube series Under the Knife. Join us as we talk about her love of storytelling, the gruesome history of Victorian medicine, surgery horrors, the importance of failure, reinventing yourself after divorce and growing up in Illinois with a grandmother who loved cemeteries.

Ruth Franklin Oct 29, 2017

Join us for a special Halloween edition of Stories of Strange Women podcast as we welcome book critic and award-winning Shirley Jackson biographer Ruth Franklin! In this episode we explore Franklin’s epic biography Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life — discussing Jackson taking her crown as the queen of horror, being a female writer in the 40s and 50s, managing a demanding husband, four children and work, growing up as an outsider with a verbally abusive mother, her struggle with mental illness, Jackson as a feminist and her reputation as a witch.

Franklin is a former editor of The New Republic. Her biography, Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography and was named a New York Times Notable Book of 2016, a Time magazine top nonfiction book of 2016, and a “best book of 2016” by The Boston Globe, the San Francisco Chronicle, NPR, and others. In The Washington Post, Elaine Showalter called it “a sympathetic and masterful biography that both uncovers Jackson’s secret and haunting life and repositions her as a major artist.”

Franklin’s work appears in many publications, including The New Yorker, The New York Times Book Review, The New York Review of Books, and Harper’s. She is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in biography and a Cullman Fellowship at the New York Public Library.

Caitlin Doughty Oct 13, 2017

This week we welcome Caitlin Doughty — mortician, funeral home owner, the creator of the web series “Ask a Mortician”, founder of The Order of the Good Death, and author of the bestselling books Smoke Gets in Your Eyes & Other Lessons from the Crematory and From Here to Eternity. Doughty talks about growing up Goth in Hawaii, her road to getting published, owning a funeral home, and spearheading the death positive movement.

Christine Vachon Aug 28, 2017

This week we welcome legendary indie film producer Christine Vachon of Killer Films. Vachon has produced such works as Far From Heaven (nominated for four academy awards), Boys Don’t Cry (Academy Award winner), Hedwig and the Angry Inch, One Hour Photo, Velvet Goldmine, I Shot Andy Warhol, infamous, Mildred Pierce, Still Alice, Carol (Academy Award nominee for best picture), and most recently Wonderstruck. She talks about her long career, the state of indie film, her grassroots approach, battling breast cancer and so much more.

Tish and Snooky of Manic Panic Aug 11, 2017

Sisters Tish and Snooky Bellomo are punk pioneers – they opened the first ever punk rock shop called Manic Panic on St Marks Place, NYC in 1977. Ramones, The New York Dolls, Blondie, Dead Boys, Patti Smith, Sid and Nancy were all fixtures at the store and on the scene. It was Manic Panic by day and CBGBs by night. Manic Panic sold clothes, whatever the sisters could find or make, and later makeup, accessories and finally hair dye for which they’re known worldwide. The sisters started out as backup singers for Blondie in 1975 and continue to sing backup (most recently for Patti Smith), as well as perform with their punk band the Sic F*cks. Theirs is the story of punk rock history and one not to be missed.

Pam Grossman Aug 03, 2017

Pam Grossman is the author of WHAT IS A WITCH, the WITCHEMOJI, an independent curator, writer, and teacher of magical practice and history. She is the creator of Phantasmaphile, a blog that specializes in art with an esoteric or fantastical bent and is working on the definitive book on witchcraft. Pam is also the Director of Visual Trends at Getty Images.

Tune in as she talks about WITCHCRAFT in the age of Trump and in the digital era, her pubescent experimentation in black magic, why witches are the quintessential feminist icons, the female gaze, Hermione and more!

Divya Anantharaman Jul 27, 2017

Divya is an award-winning taxidermist, animal lover and co-author of the book STUFFED ANIMALS. She is one of the female taxidermist spearheading the alt-taxidermy movement in Brooklyn, NY. She talks about starting out in taxidermy when it was populated with hunters and camo, her fascination with dead things when she was growing up in Miami, her passion for road kill recipes – she shares one for Woodchuck tacos on our Facebook page – and her Indian upbringing.

She has won awards in both traditional and alternative taxidermy competitions, including Second Place in the professional division at the World Taxidermy Championship 2017, Best in Show and Best in Category at the 2015 Garden State Taxidermists Show and Competition, and 2016 blue ribbons at the New England Association of Taxidermists. Divya teaches taxidermy classes nationally and internationally. She is a board member of the New England Association of Taxidermists and an NYC Audubon Volunteer.

Evan Michelson Jul 20, 2017

Star of the Science Channel’s show ODDITIES, Michelson is a collector, curator and co-owner of Obscura Antiques in NYC. In this episode she talks about being a reluctant TV star and a fixture at Comic Cons, her solitary childhood, why she surrounds herself with wax women, being a woman who came to popularity on TV in her mid-forties, her battles with breast cancer and more.

Alison Moyet Jul 13, 2017

This week’s episode features a candid interview with singer-songwriter Alison Moyet. Alison talks about growing up and feeling awkward, the punk scene where she found refuge, her meteoric rise to fame with Yazoo, the ups and downs of her solo career, her years of personal struggle and fight for creative control in the music business that led her off the grid for nearly 15 years, as well as her latest album OTHER. Basildon, body image and much more in this intimate conversation with a music icon.

Shannon Taggart Jul 06, 2017

In this week’s episode Shannon Taggart talks Spiritualism and the strangest things she’s witnessed, Feminism, the Fox Sisters and Michael Jackson.

Taggart started photographing the mediums of Lily Dale in 2001, and for 16 years after has documented the séances and practices of modern Spiritualism. Taggart has curated museum exhibits on spiritualism and has photographed basement Voodoo temples for CNN and Time and her work has appeared in Newsweek. She is the author of the upcoming book Séance: Spiritualist Ritual and the Search for Ectoplasm.

Ilise S. Carter Jun 12, 2017

The premiere episode features the “Sweetheart of the Sideshow” Ilise S. Carter aka The Lady Aye. Carter talks frankly about why she invented a persona to get over stage fright, how swallowing swords helped her overcome bulimia, the difference between woman in the field and making a name for herself as a sword swallower, block head and fire-eater.

As an award-winning writer, Ilise S. Carter’s work has appeared in The New York Times, The AV Club, Bust, O Magazine and other outlets. As the Lady Aye, she is one of fewer than three dozen living female sword swallowers, who’s worked with everyone from Cirque de Soleil to Rob Zombie and has been called one of “the masters of modern sideshow,” by Sideshow World.

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