Broads You Should Know

In 1908 making coffee was a pain in the butt, and Melitta Bentz was frustrated to take a sip on her mug only to have over-brewed flavor and grounds in her mouth. She sets to work to fix this problem, and soon she graces the world with the paper coffee filter! Her invention not only creates income and jobs for her whole family, it also creates a company that will stand the test of time, including t...

In 1856, 23-year-old Kate Warne walks into Allan Pinkerton's office replying to a job posting recruiting new detectives. Only, no woman had ever been hired as a detective before. It was unthinkable, even laughable. However, Kate's extremely logical arguments eventually win over Pinkerton and she would, indeed, become the first female detective in US history. And she was a VERY GOOD one, at that. I...

Today Sara brings us the story of one of the most epic warrior Queens in history: BOUDICA! When the Romans destroy everything most precious to her, take her land, enslave her people and lash her publicly - this Queen of the Iceni tribe (in pre-celtic Britain) doesn't sit around and cry about it. She rallies her Celts, combining the warring tribes to lead a legendary show of force against the Roman...

Bringing back this classic bad*ss broad - 16th Century Irish pirate queen, Grace O'Malley! Grace was infamous in Ireland and England alike. Her enemies feared her. Her followers respected her. And for over 40 years, she raided and pillaged English settlements in protest of the creeping Imperialism in her home country. A day after the birth of her son, she got out of bed to quell an attempt by cors...

You've seen the iconic photo - a woman jogging in the midst of a large race with a blustery man at her shoulder grabbing at her sweatshirt and runner identification tag. But what is the story behind this photo? And who is this legendary Broad we see? This Broad is none other than KATHRINE SWITZER - the first woman to officially* run the Boston Marathon! Hear the full story behind this legendary ph...

Jean Nidetch spent much of her early life yo-yo-ing between different fad diets, pills, Doctors' recommendations and even specialized facilities that were said to be able to help her lose weight, but time after time the result was the same: She'd lose a few pounds, only to have it bounce right back and be even harder to lose the next time around. She finally decided there had to be a better way, a...

Maria Sibylla Merian was born into a family of artists in mid-17th century Germany, so it's no surprise when she starts detailing fine illustrations of nature at just 13 years old, but what we're sure her parents didn't see coming was her vast collection of... CATERPILLARS! That's right. Maria ends up becoming the foremost expert on our favorite very hungry insects, and whole bunch of other works...

Dottie spends her young life on her father's sailboat, becoming quite a good swimmer, even as a toddler; but when her dad asks her to fetch something he accidentally dropped 15 feet under the waves Dottie unlocks her destiny as one of the best divers - and one of the only female divers of the mid-20th century. Dottie's journey upward is filled with fun and joy, scares with underwater sealife (can...

Marian Anderson had a gift for singing from an early age. Her aunt Mary helped her book paid gigs as early as age 6. When her family could no longer afford lessons, the community and church pooled their resources to help develop Marian's talents. From there, her career blossomed, and she performed live on the radio and in front of a crowd of 75,000 on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, and then al...

It's (still) Black History Month, and the perfect reason for Sara and Chloe to continue strolling through all of the incredible Black Broads we have learned about since the beginning of this pod! This is part 2 of an episode whose first half aired last week. We (briefly) revisit each Black Broad, spanning across time and the globe including Madagascar's Ranavalona I, II and III, to the revolutiona...

It's Black History Month, and thus the perfect reason for Sara and Chloe take a stroll through all of the incredible Black Broads we have learned about since the beginning of this pod! We (briefly) revisit each Black Broad, from our very first, Madam CJ Walker, through activists who built the civil rights movement like Ella Jo Baker and Mary McLeod Bethune, to babes that won the west, like Stageco...

Born enslaved, Biddy traveled with her master across the United States to settle in the new Mormon Utopia of Utah before heading even farther west to California. When he sought to return with Biddy to Texas, where her children would have been—as far as Texas law was concerned—immediately enslaved, she enlisted the help of a few free Black people, and successfully sued her owner for her freedom. Af...

Given to the convent at just 9 years old, young Benedetta sees miracles in everything from a statue falling, to a big black dog not killing her. As she dives into the strict aesthetic lifestyle her experiences evolve to full-on visions including a marriage proposal from Christ himself. WHOA! Her visitations and eventual stigmata quickly raise her to leadership levels and she gains much notoriety,...

Frances Farmer first began making waves as a senior at West Seattle High when her prize-winning essay pissed off a whole bunch of people. Franny knew then and there that she was different and destined for something bigger and she jumped into action to forge ahead with her dream: to be an actress on Broadway. Her rise to fame was absolutely meteoric as she stunned audiences from her small local sta...

Anne Heche dazzled the screen in almost every role she ever played, and earlier this year her shining light was snuffed out in terrible, unexplained tragedy. However, much of her public life was scorned by the press and she was called - and even called herself - "crazy". How did this moniker come to be for one of the most brave and brilliant Hollywood talents we've ever seen? Her autobiographer is...

Sara and Chloe reunite once more to take a look through the spectacular Broads of 2022! This action-packed episode covers not only the top 10 most-listened to episodes of 2022, our personal favorite Broads on the pod and IRL, and our big milestone this year, but we also dive into our favorite feminist pop culture entries this year, the worst the patriarchal and colonial drivel, and of course a toa...

This week, Sam researched Yoko Ono, and finally answers the question of whether she broke up the Beatles (spoilers: she didn't!). Yoko Ono's life was rarely easy. She was in Tokyo during the bombing of Japan in WWII, and her family was forced to beg for food. She later lost a daughter and husband to a Christian Japanese Cult. John Lennon was killed in front of her. And on top of all of that, she w...

You've surely heard of Charlie Chaplin, but did you know he inherited his talent from his brilliant mother Hannah Chaplin? Okay, his dad was a talented performer too, but it was Hannah that nurtured Charlie's skill from his youngest days - performing skits and songs and stories for him and his brother and bringing them along with her while she worked. Why then, are all the history books filled wit...

Mary Todd Lincoln likely exists in your mind as merely "the wife of President Lincoln", but her story is so much richer, and packed full with a stunning amount of patriarchal injustice. From her youth as a wealthy socialite, to the first lady spotlight, then a torrent of grievous tragedies which ultimately leads to her own son arranging a trial of "insanity", Mary's story is one wild ride. Listen...

Margery was one of the more mysterious and unknown mystics of the medieval times until 1934, when her manuscript entitled The Book of Margery Kempe was discovered. Her book blew the door off the hinges, instantly becoming not only one of the most important historical documentations of what life for a woman at the turn of the 15th century was like, but also becoming the first autobiography publishe...

As we wrap up our revisit of some of our previously-aired Indigenous Broads, today we bring you Sam's deep dive on Sacagawea. While she's best known as the navigator during Lewis & Clark's expedition of the Louisiana Purchase, the truth is a bit more complicated than that. As a young girl Sacagawea was kidnapped and sold into slavery by a neighboring tribe, and was eventually sold to her now-husba...

Continuing our revisit of some of our previously-aired Indigenous Broads, today we revisit Jupiter's episode about Hawaii's Queen Ka'ahumanu. Queen Ka'ahumanu is one of the lesser-known Queens of Hawaii, but without her strategy, know-how, & willingness to break Kapu (holy Hawaiian law), the Kingdom as we know it may never have happened at all. She's a controversial figure to many, but her influen...

Continuing our revisit of some of our previously-aired Indigenous American Broads, today we bring back Chloe Skye's episode on one of the most prominent warriors in the fight to take down racially harmful mascots - Suzan Shown Harjo! In high school, Suzan learned about 3,000 racist sports mascots across the US, and a few years later, she started a foundation dedicated to eradicating those mascots....

We've entered gratitude season here in the US, which is the perfect time to revisit some of our previously-broadcast indigenous American Broads! Today we bring back Sam's brilliant episode on Native American two-spirit Chief, Pine Leaf Woman Chief! Pine Leaf was a teenager when her warrior father was killed by the Blackfoot Tribe. Still, she rallied a small army and led a retaliatory raid, killing...

The Broad, the Myth, the LEGEND! We all know her name, but do you actually know her story? To start with, did you know that wasn't really her name?! Joan was born into a war-torn France at a time when French hope was greatly diminished. How on earth does a thirteen-year-old farm girl travel across dangerous, disputed territory, win an audience with the Crown Prince of France, inspire the entire Fr...