BitchStory - Stories of badass women that history "forgot"

Happy Pride Month! On this episode of Bitchstory, we’re spending time with Anne Lister — a Queer Englishwoman of the 1800s. She is the woman behind a wild code that she used her entire life, to document every detail of her life. She was many things, a wife, the landowner, the original “Gentleman Jack” (which would have been considered a slur). We get into the diaries, the relationships, the textur...

You know the perfume. You don’t know the woman. By the end of this episode you’re going to be furious that the only thing most people associate with her name is a bottle on a department store counter. We don’t usually think about fashion and war crimes at the same time. Today’s episode forces us to. This story is about 2 MAJOR fashion houses and the very different roles they played in Nazi occupat...

This week we have a true crime story for you. I don’t want to give away too much here in the notes. But Dorothy Kilgallen was the Oprah or Barbara Walters of her time (the 40s, 50s & 60s)…and most of us have never heard of her. She was erased. Why? Dun-dun-dun… This story is wild! 🎧 We are on all major platforms- Listen wherever you get your podcasts, THE BLOG: kellymcclain.blogspot.com PATREON:...

This week on Bitchstory, Kelly and Lisa uncover the Black women who invented parts of everyday life — and then got ignored for it. From laundry tech and menstrual products to home security systems and space-saving furniture, these innovators made modern life easier while battling racism, sexism, and a patent system that rarely worked in their favor. Some lost their fortunes, some had their inventi...

During the 19-teens and through the Great Depression, women and particularly black women were holding together literacy in society with their bloody fingertips and blistered feet. In this episode we discuss the Packhorse Librarians of Kentucky, and the black librarians of the Harlem Renaissance. Literacy is power, guys. And Black history is American history. And women’s history is still sadly over...

Dr. Gladys West is the mathematical genius whose work helped create the GPS you literally use to find coffee, Target, and your emotional support parking spot. Her groundbreaking satellite modeling helped map the Earth with wild precision — and, shockingly, she didn’t get the credit she deserved for decades. This Black History Month, we’re celebrating the Black women who built the future while the...

Hannah Arendt didn’t write about monsters. She wrote about ordinary people who stop thinking — and what that does to the world. In this episode, we dig into the life of the Jewish philosopher who gave us the phrase “the banality of evil,” fled the Nazis, pissed off half the intellectual world, and refused to make evil feel dramatic or mysterious. This is the story of a woman who believed thinking...

Christmas looks like it belongs to men — Santa, Jesus, the Wise Men, even Frosty — but the holiday itself has always been built, carried, and saved by women. In this episode of Bitchstory, we reclaim Christmas for the girls, the gays, and the theys by telling the stories history tends to forget:the women whose words, labor, courage, and organizing shaped the holiday as we know it. In this episode...

They were called the Glow Girls — until their glow started killing them. In this episode, we dive into the haunting story of the Radium Girls: the teenage dial painters who trusted their employers, lip-pointed their brushes, and unknowingly swallowed enough radiation to light up a dance hall. Their bodies became evidence, their fight became historic, and their courage forced the first real convers...

Back in the 1970s, when women were still told they needed a husband or father to sign for a loan, a group of bold Denver women said no more. They founded The Women’s Bank of Denver to claim not just access to money—but power. In this episode, we unpack how they built a bank from scratch in 1978, how they rewrote the rules of finance for women, and what their legacy means for us today. Expect femin...

This week, we’re keeping it short and spectral with Violet Paget — better known by her pen name, Vernon Lee. A 19th century brainiac queer Victorian writer, art critic, and master of the uncanny, Violet blurred the lines between intellect and imagination long before it was fashionable. 🎧 Listen wherever you get your podcasts. THE BLOG: kellymcclain.blogspot.com THE EMAIL: heybitches@bitchstory.ne...

Grab your beret and hold onto your typewriter, darlings — it’s our hundredth episode! And what better way to celebrate than with the woman who made single, working, independent life look not just possible, but fabulous: Mary Tyler Moore. This week, Kelly and Lisa take a …shallow to medium-ish dive into The Mary Tyler Moore Show — the groundbreaking sitcom that tossed its hat (and the patriarchy) i...

Jimmy Kimmel got headlines when he was suspended — but what about the women who’ve been silenced for speaking truth on TV? From Hazel Scott’s jazz-and-justice to Bea Arthur’s Maude, from trailblazing journalists to feminist comedians, women who dared to push boundaries have been canceled faster than Trump changes subjects . In this episode of Bitchstory, Kelly and Lisa dig into the women who riske...

What happens when women refuse to stay quiet? This week, we’re telling the stories of badass whistleblowers who risked everything to speak the truth—about corruption, violence, and patriarchy’s dirty little secrets. Spoiler: honesty didn’t exactly win them any popularity contests. From smear campaigns to erasure, we’ll unpack the gendered double standards of whistleblowing and celebrate the women...

We have an admitted fixation on women who are spies. This episode focuses on women in WW2 who put it all on the line to fight fascism…and defeat Nazis. Not all of these women were spies, but some were. Some of these women are decorated heroines. Some were executed. Some had to keep their achievements a secret for many years. Some were very young. All of them were absolute badasses! Ever heard of R...

This might be one of my favorite episodes. I had not really given much thought to the concept of “water equality” until Lisa suggested this topic. It’s not that I never think of drought stricken parts of the world or Gaza’s ongoing fight for survival. It’s just that when you can walk into the next room and turn a handle, the notion of “gendered burden” and “the geopolitics of water” isn’t top of m...

In WW2, women filled all sorts of important roles, from secretaries to spies. Many of these stories have been buried in HIStory, but in this current wave of feminism, it isn’t hard to find a good story about a badass woman in a war. “Operation Mincemeat” was a British MI5 plot devised to fool Hitler into pulling back his troops from Sicily, thereby allowing the allies to secure it and turn the war...

We had an absolute blast talking to Karen Wang Diggs, author of the book “Awesome Asian Women”! Karen was a freakin’ delight! She’s the real deal-a true intersectional feminist and a gifted storyteller with a passion for lifting women up. Her book contains inspiring stories of over 120 women, from Empress Wu Zetian to Congresswoman Tammy Duckworth (who was just on Stephen Colbert and we love!) It...

Lisa and I had the pleasure of speaking to two very cool women recently. The author and illustrator of “I’m Not Your Muse” and companion deck (so cool!) “More Than Muses”, Lori Zimmer & Maria Krasinski! We discussed at length where this vision and inspiration came from and how they brought it to life. This book feels like it was made for this podcast, and you can bet your ass we’ll be using it oft...

Ash from the true crime podcast, “f**k that” joins us to tell us about a huge scientific discovery that was made by a woman but stolen by a man! Rosalind Franklin needs to be added to the history books!! Check out the revision history on the Wikipedia article! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosalind_Franklin Google’s if-y search results: https://www.google.com/search?q=who+discovered+dna+structure&...

We are back on our DEI shit...oh wait, we were never off of it. Ok well anyway, this episode is a nod to Black History, Women's History, and WW2 Military History. Put those all together and you get a story of black women being given the impossible task of unfucking a big mess that a bunch of men thought they were too good for (probably) - We are talking about the "Central Postal Directory...

This week we are highlighting a couple of badass ladies that we plucked out of the 2 books that came to our attention via listeners or followers of the pod - the first black librarian Belle da Costa Greene came from Lori's book, and from Karen's book, astrophysicist Dr. Ma z lan Othman ! Lori Zimmer's book: "I'm not your muse" - From the publisher: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/lori-zim...

April is Scottish Heritage Month, so we are covering an event in Scottish history...ahem...herstory...ahem...bitchstory (trust, they were called Bitches and then some!) ! that changed the educational options and career paths for millions of women that came after it. The Edinburgh Seven were a group of 7 women (there were more than 7 actually) who had to fight for their rights to attend med school....

You know the saying…behind every great man…is a woman doing all the work and never getting mentioned. Isn’t that the saying? Well anyway, we’ve created an imaginary reality show about the wives of the famous men of the Revolution. Who is gonna be the table tipper? Any guesses? I’ll upload sources later. I’m already behind on posting this :) .

This week we have an ancient badass Queen, and a present day badass lady, both have spoken truth to power and stood up against corruption. Lisa covers Queen Amanirenas of 24 BCE, and Kelly covers Texas Representative Jasmine Crockett!m and some of her sassy clapbacks. Keep calling your representatives- the pressure does make a difference! Use this app! "5 Calls" App- It's SO easy and cool!!! https...