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Latest Episodes:

THE RESISTANCE Truus and Freddie Oversteegen Aug 31, 2020

Show notes

Freddie and Truus Oversteegen were just 14 and 16 years old when the Nazis invaded their hometown of Haarlem. Determined to do their part, the sisters joined the Dutch Resistance and began bombing trains, smuggling out Jewish children, and running refugee safehouses. But their most dangerous work by far was also the most unlikely for two young girls to ever take on: assassinating Nazi officers in broad daylight.

Olivia interviews guest Sophie Poldermans, author of Seducing and Killing Nazis, to discover this astounding true story of courage, camaraderie, and the fight to stay human in inhuman times.

A full transcript of this episode is available here.

Guest 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.

Music featured in this episode provided by: Amanda Setlik Wilson, Paula Robison, Mariko Anraku, Brent Hugh, Emmit Fenn, Irén Marik and Esther Abrami.

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THE REBORN Jemima Wilkinson & Publick Universal Friend Jun 22, 2020

Show notes

Jemima Wilkinson, born in 1752, was a devout Quaker and skilled medical practitioner in colonial Rhode Island. When a typhus outbreak in 1776 left her feverish and near death, she experienced a series of dramatic religious visions. When the fever finally cleared, the person who rose from Wilkinson’s sickbed declared that Jemima Wilkinson was gone (dead?) and had been replaced by Publick Universal Friend, a genderless evangelist who would become a wildly influential and popular preacher throughout New England. Publick Universal Friend would launch a completely unique (and distinctly American) religious movement, and Friend’s teachings and social influence would permanently shift American views on religion, slavery, race, gender and colonialism. Yet somehow Wilkinson and Friend were nearly forgotten to history until our guest Michael Bronski “reintroduced” the world to this fascinating enigma of a story.

A full transcript of this episode is available here.

Guest Michael Bronski is an independent scholar, journalist, writer and long time activist. He is Professor of the Practice in Activism and Media in the Studies of Women, Gender and Sexuality at Harvard University. His Queer History of the United States won the 2011 Lambda Literary Award for Best Non-Fiction as well as the 2011 American Library Association Stonewall Israel Fishman Award for Best Non-Fiction. In 2017 he was awarded the awarded the Bill Whitehead Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Publishing Triangle. Past recipients include Audre Lorde, Adrienne Rich, Martin Duberman, Samuel R. Delany, and Alison Bechdel. His A Queer History of the United States for Young People was published in 2019.

Music for this episode was provided by Andy Reiner, Robert Stoddard and Boston Sing.

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THE PEACEMAKER Queen Matilda Jun 08, 2020

Show notes

For a thousand years, March 14th has been celebrated as St. Matilda’s Day in Quedlinburg, Germany. She was celebrated as a Peacemaker in her time, and has been a unifying figure ever since. Discover with us the remarkable story of Queen Matilda, who inspires Protestants and Catholics to gather together to celebrate her, even today. (Hint: she wielded words to end violence, and once talked a deer into puking up a wine bottle.)

Our guest Dr Thomas Wozniak was born in Quedlinburg and grew up as an active Catholic under the communist regime of the GDR. When the Wall came down he did his civil service instead of joining the army and worked with disabled people in Tabgha/Israel. After returning overland by bike tracing the crusaders he studied history. For the analysis of three late medieval taxation lists, which came to light during renovation work in his father‘s house an old half-timbered building, he earned his M.S. After completing his dissertation Quedlinburg in the 14th and 16th Century at the University of Cologne, he worked for several years at the University Marburg. His habilitation deals with Extreme Natural Events in the Middle Ages. He currently works in Tuebingen and Munich.

Our portrait of Queen Matilda by Know Your Mothers - no other use permitted without written permission from the artist.

Music featured in this episode provided by kind permission of Emily van Evera, Maria Jonas, Kevin MacLeod and Silverman Sound Studios.

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THE ABSENCE Maria Branwell Brontë May 25, 2020

Show notes

Maria Branwell Brontë most famously exists as an absence — the mother whose biggest, or only, influence resides in her “not being there there” during the lives of her famous daughters Charlotte, Emily and Anne. For 200 years scholars believed there wasn’t enough material for a biography of Maria. But author Sharon Wright believed there had to be more to find, if only she “went looking properly.” And what she found is truly remarkable.

Olivia interviews returning guest Sharon Wright as we meet The Mother of the Brontës.

Guest Sharon Wright is a British journalist, playwright and author of the critically-acclaimed biography Mother of the Brontës: When Maria Met Patrick. She was born in Yorkshire and lives in South West London. She has worked as a writer, editor and columnist for leading magazines, newspapers and websites including the BBC, The Guardian, Daily Express, Disney, Glamour and Red. She is also the author of critically acclaimed plays performed in Yorkshire and London. Her first book Balloonomania Belles: Daredevil Divas Who First Took To The Sky was serialized in the Mail on Sunday and received widespread coverage, including on BBC Woman’s Hour and in the New York Post.

Music featured in this episode by Amanda Setlik Wilson and Half Pelican.

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THE STORYTELLER Mae Timbimboo Parry May 11, 2020

Show notes

Mae Timbimboo was just eight years old when she entered a US federal boarding school designed to “kill the Indian to save the child.” The government hoped Native children like Mae would “assimilate” into Euro-American culture, but that certainly didn’t work on Mae. Instead, she harnessed her education to give voice to her people’s history. She told the world that they had the 1863 “Battle of Bear River” all wrong: it was a massacre. Our guest Darren Parry, Chairman of the Northwest Shoshone Nation, explores the power of storytelling in the life of his ancestor.

Mae Timbimboo Parry’s oral history is here and her obituary can be read here. Better Days 2020 has created a wonderful profile of Mae Timbimboo Parry here. Learn more about the Bear River Massacre here.

Guest 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 in Utah.

Music featured in this episode included works by Doug Maxwell, Kevin Macleod, Roljui, The Great North Sound Society, and audio from the 2013 Nevada Shoshone-Paiute Powwow, the 2013 Fort Wakashie Eastern Shoshone Powwow, and the 2019 Shoshone Bannock Powwow, used by kind permission.

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THE ANCESTORS Mother’s Day Special Apr 27, 2020

Show notes

What’sHerName presents our very first Mother’s Day Special! Come “meet the ancestors” as six What’sHerName listeners introduce some truly remarkable women from their own family history!

From Ukraine to Japan, Uzbekistan to Mexico, we’re traveling around the world, and through 275 years, to discover these amazing ancestors in this special double episode. Our guests are What’sHerName listeners Irit Namatinya, Susan Stone, Lisa Williamson, Adrienne, Sachiko Burton, and Michelle Thorley.

Rosalia and her daughter Sophia survived Nazi invasion, a train explosion, a month in a swamp, and famine and disease in a rural Russian village. Sophia’s granddaughter Adrienne, the cohost of the Dear World, Love History podcast, tells their story. All photos by permission of Adrienne.

In 18th century colonial Connecticut, Prudence Punderson was ignoring all the “rules” of needlework to create astonishing works of art. Lisa Williamson brings us the story of this truly remarkable “noted needlewoman.” [Correction: The man who brought Punderson’s embroidery to the State Fair after her death was her grandson, not her son-in-law as we mistakenly said.]

Young Highland Dancer Margaret Stewart Haldane could never have imagined that her life would lead her from urban Glasgow to a career as the Postmaster of Rattlesnake, Florida, USA. Her granddaughter Susan Stone, producer of the Dead Ladies Show Podcast, brings us her story. All photos courtesy of Susan Stone.

Michelle Thorley is an artist and family history researcher. Her instagram is FloraFamiliar.

Irit Namatinya is a Bollywood dance teacher in Thailand. She brings us the story of her grandmother Sarah Chaminov’s escape from Uzbekistan to Israel, and the unusual solution she discovered to an unusual and frightening problem.

Rebecca Sachiko Suzuki is a writer in Washington state. She shares with us the ways her grandmother Fumie Suzuki Swenson and great-grandmother Hisa Shitagaki Suzuki gave her a legacy of courage and resilience, “even if you have to walk through fire.” All photos courtesy of Sachiko Suzuki.

Music used by permission in this episode performed by Cindy Henderson, Trialogo, Doug Maxwell and Zac Zinger, Nat Keefe and Hot Buttered Rum, Sláinte, Boston Sing and Robert Stoddard, Audionautix, Sir Cubworth, Radio Jarocho and Zenen Zeferino Huervo, Jeff Cuno, Aaron Kenny, and Son Jarocho.

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THE SURGEON James Barry Apr 13, 2020

Show notes

What would you sacrifice for a chance to chase your dream? Two hundred years ago in Ireland, penniless Margaret Bulkley shed her identity to live a big, bold, loud life as army surgeon James Barry, and took that secret (almost) to the grave. And by keeping his secret, Barry helped — even saved — suffering people across the world.

Hear this incredible story recorded on location at the Old Operating Theater Museum and Herb Garret in London with our guest, Dr. Monica A Walker.

Guest 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.

Music featured in this episode includes recordings by Doug Maxwell, Aaron Kenny, Kevin Macleod and Cooper Cannell. Find more info and links to our musicians on our website.

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THE WOMAN IN RED Anita Garibaldi Mar 30, 2020

Show notes

Anita Garibaldi is celebrated as a national heroine in three countries and on two continents. Yet the true stories of her remarkable, almost unbelievable life have seldom been told, and her legacy has been claimed, and used, by generations of men since her death in 1849. Hear the astonishing life of the “mother of Italy,” Brazilian gaucho revolutionary Anita Garibaldi.

Our guest is Diana Giovinazzo, author of the forthcoming novel The Woman in Redand 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.

Music featured in this episode included recordings by Marc Nelson, La Tabu, Amanda Setlik Wilson, Alejandro Cremaschi, Jeff Cuno and Doug Maxwell, all used by kind permission.

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THE VIKING Coppergate Woman Feb 24, 2020

Show notes

Dive into the stinky filth of everyday Viking life as Katie presents Olivia with a mystery. It’s not so much a Whodunnit as a WhoWASit: the skeleton of a woman found in a shallow grave on the banks of York’s River Foss. What can her bones, and all the other delightfully disgusting bits of evidence from Viking York, tell us about the mysterious Coppergate Woman?

Katie is on location at the Jorvik Viking Center in York, England, with guest Dr. Chris Tuckley. 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.

Music generously provided by Resmiranda, Duivelspack, and Daniel Foster Smith.

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THE MOTHER Olympias Feb 10, 2020

Show notes

If you’ve heard anything at all about the Ancient Macedonian Queen Olympias, it’s probably that she’s the mother of Alexander the Great. If you’ve heard anything else about her, it’s probably about her, uh…fondness…for snakes. But there’s so much more to this remarkable woman than just sons and snake cults! Join us for the story of Olympias, a woman of remarkable courage, brilliance, loyalty, innovation, and confidence as we travel back in time with guest Kate Armstrong, host of the wonderful women’s history podcast The Exploress.

Guest Kate J. Armstrong is a writer, teacher, and nonfiction book editor who’s worked on beautiful books about everything from food to space to climbing Mount Everest. She’s also the producer of The Exploress, a podcast that time travels back through history to find out what life was like for women of the past. Season 1 explores mid-19th century Civil War era America, while Season 2 dives into the ancient world. An adventurer at heart, she hails from Virginia but currently calls Melbourne, Australia home. View Kate’s fantastic “ladycentric” maps, timelines, and more on her website, and check out her Patreon page here!

Music generously provided by Michael Levy and Tyler Cunningham.

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