In each episode of History Fix, I discuss lesser known stories from history that you won't be able to stop thinking about. Need your history fix? You've come to...
Ep. 107 Bloody Mary: Why England's First Queen Was Cast as an Evil Villain Instead of a Triumphant Underdog
I have danced around the story of Mary Tudor, oldest daughter of Henry VIII, for far too long. It's finally time to recognize Mary with her own episode, the perfect story to wrap up Women's History Month. This is a tragic story. The lot cast upon Mary was often cruel and unjust, her life marred by trauma and heartache. But it's also a story of triumph, an underdog rising up, overcoming insurmountable challenges to claim her rightful place as England's first ever queen regnant. Despite being villainized by history ever since, cast as "Bloody Mary," the stuff of childhood urban legends and sleepover games, Mary was no more evil than her father and brother who came before her or her sister, Elizabeth I, who came after her. So what happened? Why has the myth of "Bloody Mary" persisted for so long and who was Mary Tudor, Queen Mary I, really? Let's fix that. Support the show! Join the Patreon (patreon.com/historyfixpodcast)Buy some merchBuy Me a CoffeeVenmo @Shea-LaFountaineSources: Royal Museums Greenwich "Why is Mary I Known As 'Bloody Mary?'"History Extra "The lost heirs of Henry VIII"Smithsonian Magazine "The Myth of Bloody Mary"History.com "What Inspired Queen 'Bloody' Mary's Gruesome Nickname?"The Fitzwilliam Museum "Mary Tudor"Tudor Extra "The Illness, Death, and Burial of Mary I"Wikipedia "Mary I of England"Wikipedia "The Education of a Christian Woman"Shoot me a message! Persons of InterestFrom murderers to money launderers, thieves to thugs – police officers from the...Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify
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Ep. 106 Madame Restell: The "Wickedest Woman in New York" and Why Abortion Really Became Controversial in the US
Amidst the chaos of 19th century New York City, one poor immigrant woman named Ann Lohman managed to climb her way out of the slums and into a brownstone mansion on 5th avenue. But her means of doing this rubbed some people the wrong way. Ann, alias Madame Restell, was a notorious abortionist operating in the city with satellite offices in Philadelphia and Boston. She built an empire selling married women birth control and performing procedures to help them end unwanted pregnancies. Soon after she began this profitable practice, there were many who hoped to take her down, put a stop to it. But not for the reasons you might expect. Not for the reasons people oppose abortion today. Turns out, abortion, though mostly unseen and unspoken of, has been mostly an accepted necessity throughout history. It wasn’t until the mid 1800s when women like Madame Restell rose up, challenging the status quo that abortion became controversial. Let’s fix that. Support the show! Join the Patreon (patreon.com/historyfixpodcast)Buy some merchBuy Me a CoffeeVenmo @Shea-LaFountaineSources: Smithsonian Magazine "Madame Restell: The Abortionist of 5th Avenue"Science History Institute "How Notorious Abortionist Madame Restell Built a Drug Empire"The New York Historical Society "Life Story: Ann Trow Lohman, a.k.a Madame Restell"The New York Historical Society "Urbanization"Johns Hopkins University "A Brief History of Abortion in the US"CNN "Abortion is ancient history: Long before Roe, women terminated pregnancies"Shoot me a message! Persons of InterestFrom murderers to money launderers, thieves to thugs – police officers from the...Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify
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Ep. 105 Castles: Why Medieval Castles Still Stand As a Testament to Human Strength
We're going medieval this week to rectify some misconceptions about castles. Despite what many believe and what's put out there in fairy tales, castles are a very specific thing built in a specific time and place for a specific purpose. We'll examine the medieval period (AKA the middle ages or the dark ages) in Europe to better understand why and how castles were built and what they were used for. We'll also unpack the story of lesser known heroine, Nicola de la Haye, who defied gender norms to defend England's Lincoln Castle against invaders on more than one occasion, successfully withstanding siege after siege. Support the show! Join the Patreon (patreon.com/historyfixpodcast)Buy some merchBuy Me a CoffeeVenmo @Shea-LaFountaineSources: How Stuff Works "How Castles Work"History.com "Middle Ages"Wikipedia "Castles"Road Trips Around the World "Why Are There So Many Castles in Europe?"History in the Margins "From the Archives: a Woman's Home Is Her Castle"Catherine Hanley "Nicola de la Haye"Summoning Magna Carta "Who Was King John?"Royal UK "Royal Residences: Windsor Castle"Historic Royal Palaces "The Story of the Tower of London"Shoot me a message! Persons of InterestFrom murderers to money launderers, thieves to thugs – police officers from the...Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify
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Ep. 104 Aspasia of Miletus: Why This Powerful Woman Had All the Men In Ancient Athens Talking
This week, we're going all the way back to ancient Greece. We'll examine the story of Aspasia of Miletus, a woman who came to Athens around 450 BC and quickly became the talk of the town. Her name appears over and over again in writing from the time, Socrates wrote about her, Plato, Plutarch, Cicero the orator, Xenophon the historian, Athenaeus the writer, Aristophanes the comic playwright, Pericles the leader of the city-state of Athens. One woman’s name was on all of their minds: Aspasia of Miletus. They loved her. They hated her. They called her a great mind, a teacher, a master of rhetoric. They called a prostitute, a cheap whore, a brothel madam. They gave her credit for writing great speeches passed on to men. They gave her credit for starting great wars, the ruin of Athens. But who was Aspasia really and why was everyone talking about her? Join me to find out! Support the show! Join the Patreon (patreon.com/historyfixpodcast)Buy some merchBuy Me a CoffeeVenmo @Shea-LaFountaineSources: Prisoner of History: Aspasia of Miletus and Her Biographical Tradition by Madeleine M. Henry (affiliate link) National Geographic "Greek City States"Lake Forest College "Everybody’s a Little Bit Sexist: A Re-evaluation of Aristotle’s and Plato’s Philosophies on Women" by Kayla HuberEncyclopedia Britannica "Pericles: Athenian Statesman"World History Encyclopedia "Aspasia of Miletus"World History Encyclopedia "Women in Ancient Greece"PBS "Aspasia"Brooklyn Museum "Aspasia Place Setting"Wikipedia "Aspasia"History of Women Philosophers and Scientists "Aspasia of Miletus"University of Chicago "Aspasia of Miletus"Shoot me a message! Persons of InterestFrom murderers to money launderers, thieves to thugs – police officers from the...Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify
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Ep. 103 Radium Girls: How These Inspiring Women Stood Up To Their Abusers and Won
This week, we'll delve into a cautionary tale: the "Radium Girls." These women were employed to paint glow in the dark numbers on watch faces and dials in the 1920s and 30s using radium paint. Assured that the paint was safe, the girls were instructed to shape their paintbrushes into sharp points with their own lips. But, turns out, ingesting radioactive radium paint isn’t safe at all, and as the women became sick and sicker and died, the companies they worked for chose to gaslight them, refusing to take responsibility all while lining their pockets with profits. But these women fought back, standing up while laying down and their fight set an important precedent we can’t afford to forget. Let’s fix that. Support the show! Join the Patreon (patreon.com/historyfixpodcast)Buy some merchBuy Me a CoffeeVenmo @Shea-LaFountaineSources: International Atomic Energy Agency "What is Radiation"US Department of Energy "Nuclear Fuel Facts: Uranium"Library of Congress Blogs "Radium Girls: Living Dead Women"Wikipedia "Radium Girls"Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center "Hot Times in 'Radium Hospital'"Mariecurie.org "Marie Curie the scientist"American Physical Society "Henri Becquerel Discovers Radioactivity"Northern Public Radio "Ottawa's 'Radium Girls' At Forefront of Worker Protections"Encyclopedia Britannica "Radium Girls: The Women Who Fought For Their Lives in a Killer Workplace"Shoot me a message! Persons of InterestFrom murderers to money launderers, thieves to thugs – police officers from the...Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify
In each episode of History Fix, I discuss lesser known stories from history that you won't be able to stop thinking about. Need your history fix? You've come to the right place.Support the show at buymeacoffee.com/historyfix or Venmo @Shea-LaFountaine. Your donations make it possible for me to continue creating great episodes. Plus, I'll love you forever! Find more at historyfixpodcast.com
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