The Exploress

Join me and author Brigitte Dale as we explore the fascinating history of women's suffrage through the lens of Brigitte's novel  The Good Daughters, about three young women who risk everything in the fight for women's voting rights in early 20th-century London. We cover t he diverse motivations of women in the suffrage movement, t he importance of female friendships in the fight for the vote, and...

When we think about Renaissance art, men's names are usually the first to come to mind. But some the period's artists were, of course, also women, and we'll be learning about three of them today: Lavinia Fontana, Elisabetta Sirani, and Artemisia Gentileschi. All of them were talented and extremely hardworking, lauded and adored (and occasionally harassed by terrible men). They also all made their...

Today we're time traveling somewhere The Exploress has rarely been - World War II - to meet some of its daring female pilots. Turns out women flew some of the war's most dangerous aircraft, and our guest, Becky Aikman, is here to bring their stories roaring back to life. Her book, SPITFIRES, follows the incredible true stories of the twenty-five daring young aviators who bolted for England in 1942...

Genghis (or Chinggis) Khan is pretty famous for building the largest contiguous land empire the world has ever seen. But he couldn't have done it with his wife, Börte. She was his advisor in all things, bore him MANY children, and ran their expansive horde while he was away. Empress Börte was the Mongols's chief manager, organising seasonal migrations, dealing with herders, and holding meetings wi...

In this episode of the Exploress Book Club, Natasha Solomons and I explore her new book I Am Cleopatra and the complexities of bringing Cleopatra's character to life on the page. Natasha discusses her inspiration for writing about Cleopatra, the challenges of researching a historical figure often viewed through a male-dominated lens, and the importance of portraying women's voices in history. We t...

In this series, we're time traveling back to past empires to meet some of the woman who ran them. This time, we're revisiting a ruling lady we've met before: the mighty Cleopatra of ancient Egypt's Ptolemaic Empire. This isn't just a re-release, though: I've re-recorded the three-part original series, giving it a 2026 glow-up, and smushed it into one big glitter bomb of goodness. Join me as we exp...

In this series, we're time traveling back to past empires to meet some of the woman who helped run them. Let's link up with Empress Theodora, who's going to walk us through her Byzantine (aka Eastern Roman) Empire. We'll see her rise from a fairly humble, and sometimes scandalous, background as an actress and courtesan to become the most powerful woman in Constantinople. After she marries Justinia...

In this series, we're time traveling back to past empires to meet some of the woman who helped run them. Allow me to introduce you to Empress Taytu Betul, who wasn't afraid to storm battlefields, boss around her emperor husband, and tell certain colonial powers to go on home. Let's walk with Taytu on her extraordinary journey and find out what life was like for women during her reign.   Ways to su...

Dr. Elizabeth Norton has returned! This time, she's taking us out of the Tudor period to take a more global look at queenship. Her new book 'When Women Ruled the World: 500 Years of Female Monarchy' explores the history of female monarchs across time and cultures. We dive into the challenges faced by women in power, the male relative problem, and some of the obstacles to their reigns. We'll meet B...

There is a woman in the Old Quarter who can give you the world for a price. They say her followers gather deep in the bayou after dark. Some say she's got the governor in her pocket. Others say she eats babies, and that she learned her magic in the depths of the African jungle. They say her potions can heal you, and that her charms can kill you. How much of it is true? In this year's Halloween spe...

Season 6, Episode 13. Welcome back to Exploress Book Club! Join me and Adriana Herrera, author of the historical romance novel  A Tropical Rebel Gets the Duke , as we time travel back to the 1890s Paris. Adriana will tell us all about putting women of color back into historical romance, women's medicine and reproductive rights in the 19th century, and the pioneering lady doctors who defied convent...

Season 6, Episode 12. In this series, we're time traveling with three different empresses, exploring their reigns, their worlds, and what it might have been like to be them. First up, we're going to spend some time in the Mughal Empire of India to learn about the adventurous and powerful empress Nur Jahan. From tiger hunting in the Bengali wildness to court life in the imperial harem, this ruling...

EMPRESS. The word comes from Old French, but its roots stretch back to the Latin imperium. It means a command; it means authority, it means power over a realm. But what does it mean, to be a woman with power over so many? What does it look like when an empire allows a woman to rule? In this series, we will travel with three different empresses, exploring their reigns, their worlds, and what it mig...

Season 6, Episode 11. Welcome back to Exploress Book Club! Join me in talking to Victoria Christopher Murray, author of the historical fiction novel  Harlem Rhapsody, as she talks about the unsung heroine of the 1920s Harlem Renaissance, Jessie Redmon Faucet. In this conversation, Victoria dives into what life was like for Black women in 1920s Harlem. She'll tell us more about the women of the Har...

Season 6, Episode 10. In this series, we're exploring what life was like for women in the Viking (Norse) Age. In this episode, we're exploring one of our favorite Viking archetypes - the shield maiden, or shield maid. Were there really axe-weilding, braid rocking warriors who went on raids alongside the men? We'll examine the Norse myth about the Valkyries, then dive into what archaeologists have...

Season 6, Episode 9. In this series, we're exploring what life was like for women in the Viking (Norse) Age. In this episode, we're going to talk about one of a lady's most involved and important tasks: weaving. The Viking Age wouldn't have been possible without the sails and clothes Norse ladies made. We'll also talk about the work women did in the realm of trade, learn a bit about the dreaded Vi...

Season 6, Episode 8. Happy Pride Month! Join me and Eleanor Medhurst to discuss her book 'Unsuitable: A History of Lesbian Fashion,' which explores the intersection of fashion, identity, and politics within lesbian communities throughout history. We'll talk about historical figures like the slightly messy Queen Christina of Denmark and the queer-coded songs of 1920s jazz singer Ma Rainey. We'll al...

Season 6, Episode 7. If you were living in Paris in the late 1600s and happened to pick up a newspaper, you might have read about the latest exploits of a beautiful and talented opera singer. She was famed for her many on-stage talents. But it was her behavior off-stage that made her notorious. And she wasn't one to shrink away from drama. As this queer woman, known for crossdressing, illegal duel...

Season 6, Episode 6. Welcome to Exploress Book Club! Join me in talking to Alison Goodman, author of The Benevolent Society of Ill-Mannered Ladies , as she tells us what life was really like for the ladies in Regency England. Alison has done a LOT of research into this period, and she has a lot to tell us about the agency (or lack thereof) of women during this period and the societal expectations...

Season 6, Episode 5. One Thousand and One Nights – the famed collection of stories in which the vizier's daughter, Scheherazade, agrees to wed a paranoid king who marries a new bride each night only to kill her in the morning. To delay her execution, Scheherazade starts to tell the king a different story every evening, but makes sure to leave it unfinished at sunrise so he'll keep her alive for an...

Season 6, Episode 4. In this series, we're exploring what life was like for women in the Viking (Norse) Age. In this episode, we're going to spend a day with your average Norse woman. We'll find out everything from what we're sleeping on, what sorts of chores we're doing, what we're wearing and eating, what our houses are like, where we're going to the bathroom, and so much more. Our experts for t...

Season 6, Episode 3. In this series, we're exploring what life was like for women in the Viking (Norse) Age. In this episode, we're going to find out more about what the Vikings looked for in their ladies: what traits did the ideal Norse woman possess, according to the Sagas? We'll also explore courtship and marriage: Norse runic love notes, fathers as marriage brokers, and some amorous adventures...

Season 6, Episode 2. In this series, we're exploring what life was like for women in the Viking (Norse) Age. Let's start by talking about our sources: how do we know what we know about the Vikings? We'll explore our written sources, runes, and archeological material, as well as the biases male writers and scholars have brought to the study of women in this age. We'll find out who the Norse where -...

Season 6, Episode 1. In this series, we're going to explore what life was like for women in the Viking (Norse) Age. But first, let's meet Freyja, a powerful Nordic goddess, who will introduce us to the Viking religious pantheon. We'll hear some of her more famous stories and learn about her links to magic, fertility, sexuality, war, and death. She's quite the lady! CW: this one's clean in terms of...

Season 6, Episode 1 -  It's Exploress Book Club time! Join me for this excellent chat with Jenny Williamson, one half of the podcast Ancient History Fangirl, about her debut steamy ancient Roman romantasy novel, Enemy of My Dreams. We'll discuss her inspiration, how much of the true ancient past made it into her fictional novel, some of the real ancient Roman imperial women who inspired her, and w...