Why don't women's clothes have more pockets? Who are the female writers and artists my education forgot to include? How does a woman go about seizing control of her government? What was it like to be a female slave and how did the lucky ones escape? When did women get to put their own name on their credit cards? Is the life of a female spy as glamorous as Hollywood has led me to believe? In short, what were the women doing all that time? I explore these and other questions in this thematic a ...
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To cover the history of hair would be a podcast in and of itself, and the host should not be me. But hair has been very, very important to a great many women, both past and present, so I am going to give it a go, hitting only the points that caught my eye. Topics included are: Cornrow braids Romans who sewed their hair into place Medieval women who…
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13.5 The Quest for a Hairless Body
20:23
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Surely I am not the only woman who has ever eyed the razor and the shaving cream and wondered "Why?" Women have been questing for hairlessness at least since Egyptian times, and though the record is mostly silent on this question, there are occasional hints about why and when and how women through the ages did it (mostly painfully and sometimes let…
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The origins of footbinding are lost in time, but I think it is safe to say that the first woman to do it could not possibly have imagined what was coming. This episode covers the earliest evidence (in the 1100s) through to the final demise of the practice in 1957. The historical records are heavy on hormone-inspired odes to beauty. They are relativ…
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13.3 To Boost or to Bind: A History of the Bust
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The mostly male writers of historical records were reasonably interested in breasts, but quite uninterested in the day-to-day management of them. For most of history, there's not much to go on, but this episode covers time periods where women bound up their breasts to make them as small as possible. It also covers time periods where women used incr…
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Corsets are infamous as torturous devices, specially designed to keep women in their place and helpless. But reality is a little more complicated than that, as it always is. This episode discusses: the origin of the corset the evolving function of the corset the 19th century corset how small could a woman go? who enforced this idea anyway? how bad …
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13.1 The Ideal Body Shape, Historically Speaking
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Women have been chasing impossible beauty standards for at least hundreds of years and probably longer. But just what we think is beautiful keeps changing. This is an overview look of what body shape different historical cultures found desirable. Whether you are stick thin or medically obese, well-endowed or small-breasted, firm or fleshy, it has a…
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Mayans, Aztecs, and Chocolate by Pamela Toler
12:38
12:38
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What woman doesn't love chocolate? (Okay, I do know a few, but still.) Guest writer Pamela Toler tells us about the history of chocolate in this episode. Please check out Pamela's other work! She has an excellent book called Women Warriors and an upcoming book called The Dragon from Chicago. Find both and more at the following links: Website: https…
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Peggy Shippen Arnold by 2 Complicated 4 History
1:03:58
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For the 4th of July, learn about Peggy Shippen Arnold! She's the wife of Benedict Arnold, the most famous American traitor. Had things gone just a little differently, we might not be celebrating independence today. I am on research break to prepare Series 13: Shaping the Female Body, so this is a guest episode by Dr. Lynn Price Robbins and Isaac S.…
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Ain't I a Woman? by Sojourner Truth
8:50
8:50
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I am on research break to prepare Series 13: Shaping the Female Body. But in the meantime, here is a beautiful speech by Sojourner Truth, the emancipated slave, abolitionist, feminist, preacher, and all around fabulous woman. Visit the website (herhalfofhistory.com) for sources, transcripts, and pictures. Support the show on my Patreon page (https:…
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12.15 Alexandra Feodorovna, Last Empress of Russia
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Alexandra was born German, but she married into the Romanov dynasty of Russia. Her marriage is one of European royalty's few great love stories. But the world of the late 19th century was one where absolute monarchies were crumbling, and her family's fall is also one of European royalty's saddest tragedies. Visit the website (herhalfofhistory.com) …
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12.14 Yaa Asantewaa, Last Queen of the Asante (Ghana)
19:52
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When the British came for her country, Yaa Asantewaa (aged nearly 70) rallied the Asante warriors and fought back. Though she lost in the end, she became one of Ghana's great heroes. Visit the website (herhalfofhistory.com) for sources, transcripts, and pictures. Support the show on my Patreon page (https://www.patreon.com/user?u=83998235) for bonu…
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12.13 Lili'uokalani, Last Queen of Hawaii
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Lili'uokalani did not grow up expecting to be queen, but once she was, she had no intention of being a figurehead. Unfortunately, that is what big business and foreign investors wanted her to be. Their clashes were (mostly) nonviolent, but a coup toppled the monarchy and eventually Hawaii was annexed by the United States. Visit the website (herhalf…
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12.12 Lakshmibai, Last Rani of Jhansi
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Lakshmibai is India's Joan of Arc. When the English claimed her country, she fought back. Her story is the most famous part of what the English called the Indian Mutiny of 1857 and the Indians call the First War of Independence. Though she lost in the end, Lakshmibai's story (and glory) lives on in Indian popular culture. Visit the website (herhalf…
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12.11 Marie Antoinette, the Bitter End
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For Marie Antoinette, the end was more bitter than she could possibly have imagined. After four years of imprisonment, several failed escape plans, and an endless onslaught of (mostly) false accusations, she went to her death. Visit the website (herhalfofhistory.com) for sources, transcripts, and pictures. Support the show on my Patreon page (https…
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12.10 Marie Antoinette, the Unfortunate Queen
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This is the 2nd of 3 episodes on Marie Antoinette. She is now queen, but it's not as fabulous as it sounds because her marriage needs counseling and her household budget is out of control. Though she did spend a lot, she spent far less than she was blamed for, especially during the infamous necklace affair, in which some ingenious criminals pulled …
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12.9 Marie Antoinette, the Luckiest Princess
24:43
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There is so much written about Marie Antoinette, much of it contradictory, that I just could not squeeze her story down into a single episode, not even with liberal use of the backspace button. So this is the first of three episodes on a woman who many hoped would be the last queen of France. In this episode: she is born in Vienna, though we don't …
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12.8 Zainatuddin Kamalat Syah, Last Queen of Aceh (Indonesia)
20:22
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The sultanate of Aceh enjoyed no fewer than four reigning queens in a row. They defended their country against rampant expansion by the Dutch and then the English. The last queen, Zainatuddin Kamalat Syah, was eventually deposed in 1699, through a combination of religious and personal factors, ending 59 years of a highly unusual political experimen…
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12.7 Arwa al-Sulayhi, Last Queen of the Sulayhids (Yemen)
19:22
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Yes! There have been Muslim queens who ruled their own countries! One of them was Arwa al-Sulayhi who ruled Yemen for 60 years in the 11th and 12th century. She outlasted her husband, her other husband, her son, and her other son, continuing to rule on her own authority through it all. Though the memory of her has faded, her mosque is still there, …
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12.6 Xiuhtlaltzin, Last Queen of the Toltec (Mexico)
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The history of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica is hard for historians because the best sources were all destroyed. Those that remain are of dubious historicity, but they do tell of the Queen Xiuhtlaltzin, who reigned somewhere in the 800s or 900s, shortly before the fall of the Toltec empire. Since the records are so sketchy, this episode is not exactly …
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12.5 Jinseong, Last Queen of Silla (Korea)
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The kingdom of Silla in ancient Korea had three queen regnants (a very good score, compared with most other countries of its time). Two reigned in Silla's golden age, but the last was Jinseong, who ruled at a time when decay had set in and the odds were not in her favor. Visit the website (herhalfofhistory.com) for sources, transcripts, and picture…
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12.4 Zenobia, Last Empress of Palmyra (Syria)
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Zenobia is one of the great enemies of Rome. From the oasis city of Palmyra (in modern-day Syria), she rose up in rebellion and conquered a great empire from Asia Minor through to Egypt. This episode covers: the background of Palmyra as an important stop on the Silk Road just how disastrous the 3rd century was for Rome how Zenobia's husband Odaenat…
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12.3 Boudica, Last Queen of the Iceni
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Rome stole her country, publicly flogged her, and raped her daughters. The woman known variously as Boudica, Boudicca, Boadicea, Bonducca, and a dozen other variations fought back with everything she had. This episode includes: How Rome came to the isle of Britain How the Icenian king split his country between Rome and his daughters How Rome wouldn…
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12.2 Cleopatra, Last Pharaoh of Egypt (rebroadcast)
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Cleopatra inherited a joint throne, but pushed first one and then a second brother out of it to rule alone. In a world where rising Roman dominance was a fact of life, she managed to maintain control of her country by negotiating (in every possible way) with both Julius Caesar and Mark Antony. Though she lost in the end, she still managed to close …
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12.1 Salome Alexandra, Last Queen of Judea
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She had many names: Salome, Alexandra, Shelamzion, and Schlomtzion, but the last monarch of an independent kingdom of Judea was a Queen Regnant. She ruled from (roughly) 78 to 69 BCE. Her time was remembered for generations as the golden age before Rome. Visit the website (herhalfofhistory.com) for sources, transcripts, and pictures. Support the sh…
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The Last Queen, for Now (by Cheryl Ciucevich)
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20:33
If you follow the royal news, you may be aware that we had a queen abdicate last month. Or possibly, you missed it because it wasn’t in the British royal family. It was Margrethe II of Denmark. I am researching last queens for series 12, fully aware that the word “last” is a little ambiguous here, but I must confess, the connection with this curren…
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LaVern Baker (by The Dead Ladies Show)
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It's Black History Month, and we're looking at LaVern Baker, the pioneering R&B singer LaVern Baker. Today's episode is a guest episode from the fabulously named Dead Ladies Show, which celebrates women - both overlooked and iconic, through live history storytelling on stage in Berlin, and beyond. Check out other episodes from The Dead Ladies Show …
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Interview with Kelly Chase from the History Detective Podcast
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Kelly Chase of the History Detective Podcast interviewed me last year about how and why my podcast is produced. Here is our conversation about podcasting and history and why it is important. Kelly is also the author of History, Her Story, Our Story, a fantastic resource for middle and high school students and teachers, as well as anyone who wishes …
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11.13 The Discovery of Teenagers
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For most of human history, teenagers have been lumped in with children or with adults, depending on which way was most convenient at the time. People between the ages of 13 and 19 didn't become "teenagers" until the 20th century. In this episode, I talk about: how the Classical writers defined the difference between childhood and youth/adolescence …
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11.12 Coming of Age: A History of Puberty
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Girls have always been reaching puberty, but what that meant for her has varied. In this episode we look at the age of menarche (when girls start their period) and whether that was cause for shame or celebration: In ancient Greece, girls at puberty "acted the she-bear." In Rome they dedicated their dolls to Venus. In many cultures girls entered a p…
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11.11 Girls at Work in the Industrial Age
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The Industrial Revolution did not invent child labor, but it changed how people viewed it. A growing middle and upper class provided their kids with long childhoods filled with play, education, and preparation for a productive adulthood. The poorer classes sent their children to work in factories and fields where they worked long hours at dangerous…
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Child labor has existed since the beginning of humanity. Poor girls, both slave and free, worked as cleaned, carried water, cared for other children, and worked in the fields, often with long hours under harsh treatment. Most of their stories went undocumented but this episode does have anecdotes from Harriet Tubman, Elizabeth Keckley, Mary Jemison…
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St Lucia’s Day is December 13th. It is celebrated in a number of countries, but today is specifically about the Swedish celebration. You may have seen a picture of a beautiful blond girl, dressed in a white dress with a red sash and a wreath on her head with burning candles? That is St Lucia, as celebrated in Sweden or countries influenced by Swede…
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The underlying question behind educating girls is: Why? Why are you educating them? Throughout history, there have been varying answers to that question, and each answer has produced a wildly different strategies on how to do it. This episode covers the major strategies, from home tutoring to convent schools to governesses to listening in on your b…
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11.8 The Reading Girl (after 1860)
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24:59
The 1860s blew new life into children's literature, especially for girls. Alice in Wonderland (1865) has been called the first modern children's book, and one in which moral didacticism was replaced by a fantastic and total disregard for the laws of physics. Little Women (1868) pioneered the intimate home life story and is still one of the best exa…
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11.7 The Reading Girl (up to 1860)
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25:10
Is there anything better than books? Today I’m not talking about the compulsory part of books at school (that’s a later episode in this series), I’m talking about reading for the love it. Reading because as Meg Ryan's character said in You've Got Mail, “When you read a book as a child, it becomes part of your identity in a way that no other reading…
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11.6 The Clothes Make the Girl
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26:07
Why pink? And when did girls start dressing in pink, for that matter? (Hint: a lot more recently than you probably imagine.) This episode also covers whether you actually need baby clothes (probably not, historically speaking) and how long a girls skirts should be, and we also touch on why the boys don't get lace, ruffles, and pink. I also mention …
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The Fox Sisters (a haunted history)
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In 1848, the Fox family prepared to go to bed as usual, but the darkness was punctuated by mysterious rapping noises for which they could find no source. Through hours of terrified questioning, they eventually discovered that it was the ghost of a peddler murdered by a previous resident. Or so the story goes. . . Kate, Maggie, and Leah Fox became t…
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11.5 From Knucklebones to Bicycles (a history of girls at play)
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25:39
Games and pastimes mostly don’t get a mention in the records that are more concerned with the death of kings and the collection of taxes. If we manage to know about an ancient or medieval game at all, we usually have no idea who played it, and certainly there is no logical reason to think that only one age or gender might enjoy a game. And yet at l…
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11.4 From Venus to Barbie (a history of dolls)
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Of all the words I did not think I would have to define, doll probably tops the list. We all know what the quintessential girls’ toy is, right? Only it turns out we don't. Separating the dolls from the statues, idols, effigies, puppets, and fertility symbols is a complex (and possibly hopeless) task in the pre-modern world, but we give it a go in t…
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11.3 Of Nursery Rhymes and Fairy Tales
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25:21
Historical mothers did not have a lot of pink and purple merchandise for their baby girls, but they did have words. Lullabies, nursery rhymes, and fairy tales are probably as old as humanity, but they mostly didn't get written down until the 17th to 19th century. This episode ranges from the one (and sadly only one) ancient Roman lullaby we know, t…
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11.2 The Discovery of Childhood
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Childhood doesn't sound like it needs discovering, right? Surely everyone, up to and including a large number of animal species, are aware of children. But the historical record does not really agree with you on that. Ancient biographies tend to start at adulthood. Apparently nothing interesting happened before that, even to very interesting people…
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11.1 It's a Girl! (the history of being born female)
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In the days before ultrasounds, expectant mothers still wanted to know if they were having a boy or a girl, and experts from Aristotle to celibate male monks to midwives were eager to help them find out. Methods ranged from dubious to really, really dubious, but if you want to try any of them out, this episode will tell you the most common methods.…
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Captain Carolyn Kurtz (by Shipwrecks and Sea Dogs)
1:00:56
1:00:56
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Today I have an episode by fellow Into History podcaster Rich Napolitano, of the Shipwrecks and Seadogs podcast. He looks at maritime history across the world and across the ages. Historically speaking, ships were often named as women, but they didn’t have a whole lot of women working on them. With some exceptions. There are a handful of known wome…
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Annie Oakley (by Wild West Extravaganza)
25:49
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25:49
On the Wild West Extravaganza podcast, Josh tells the stories of the tumultuous American Old West, including characters like Billy the Kid, Jesse James, Wyatt Earp, and Wild Bill Hickok. But in this episode he tells us about the amazing Annie Oakley, a sharpshooter, an entertainer, and one tough lady. I am still on research break. Series 11 on the …
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Helen Keller (by Kate Twitchell King)
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Today's episode is by guest writer Kate Twitchell King, who researched Helen Keller, a deaf-blind American, born in 1880. There are many books, many films, and many TV shows about her, especially about her early childhood, but this is the story of what happened after her extraordinary breakthrough with her teacher Anne Sullivan. I am still on resea…
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Elizabeth Freeman (with People Hidden in History)
29:53
29:53
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August 21st will mark 242 years since an incredible woman named Elizabeth Freeman sued her owner for freedom and won. In celebration, I am going to play today an interview with her that I did with Kathleen Langone of the People Hidden in History podcast. Kathleen began historical research by doing her own family history, and she has branched out fr…
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Double Feature: Nellie Bly and Queen Victoria (by History Daily)
35:36
35:36
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35:36
History is made every day, and the History Daily podcast is too. For today's episode, I am bringing you two of their episodes: Nellie Bly Races Around the World and Queen Victoria Survives Assassination for the Eighth Time. You can hear more of History Daily wherever you get your podcasts or on their website (https://www.historydaily.com/) or in th…
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Artemisia Gentileschi (with A History of Italy)
28:58
28:58
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I am currently on a research break working on Series 11, but instead of going dark during this time, I have lined up a variety of content for you. This week I am playing an interview I did a few months ago with Mike Corradi of the fabulously entertaining History of Italy podcast. He starts with the Fall of the Roman Empire and has just recently com…
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10.14 Georgia O'Keeffe, an American Painter
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Georgia O'Keeffe is the hardest to classify of all the painters I have covered. Her work is neither abstract, nor realistic, nor surreal. She is simply a modern painter, most famous for her gorgeous flower paintings and landscapes of New Mexico, which feature bold colors and swirling shapes. She made it big in the art world in a way that few other …
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Announcement: Into History Podcast Network
2:57
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I’m happy to announce Her Half of History is now part of the Into History podcast network, a brand-new subscription channel of podcasts made by history lovers for history lovers. You’ll get access to hundreds of ad-free episodes, plus exclusive curated feeds around a topic, a bookclub, a newsletter, and a community hub to keep the conversation goin…
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