Historical Drama with The Boston Sisters

In episode 43 we welcome back CARLA L. PETERSON ( from Ep. 28 ), author of the 2011 book  “ Black Gotham: A Family History of African Americans in Nineteenth-Century New York City. ” Carla takes us inside the parties, pleasures, and fashionable lifestyles of New York's Black middle class of the 19th century, and how the philsophy of "taste" informed the lives of that century's Bl...

Episode 42 features THE GREAT “by request” by podcast subscriber MARSHA WEINER and a conversation with SAM DIXON , food stylist for THE GREAT’s 2nd and 3rd seasons for a behind-the-scenes look at food in the satirical comic series about the rise of Catherine the Great. THE GREAT was created by Tony McNamara and features Elle Fanning as the idealistic future ruler of Russia, Catherine the Great; an...

We welcome back Susanne Simpson , Executive Producer of the PBS drama series MASTERPIECE and MASTERPIECE MYSTERY! for a preview of new and continuing dramas with a special focus on WORLD ON FIRE , now in its second season on PBS MASTERPIECE.   Created by Peter Bowker, WORLD ON FIRE is an adrenalized, emotionally gripping, and resonant World War II drama that follows the intertwining fates of ordin...

Episode 40 features a conversation with ROBERT HOFLER , author of " The Way They Were: How Epic Battles and Bruised Egos Brought a Classic Hollywood Love Story to the Screen" (Citadel Press, 2023) about the behind-the-scenes stories about the inspiration and making of the iconic 1973 film THE WAY WE WERE (Columbia Pictures) directed by Sydney Pollack featuring Barbra Streisand and Robert...

In episode 39, we talk with Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and journalist Kai Bird about the Christopher Nolan film OPPENHEIMER, based on the 2005 biography "American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer" co-authored by Kai Bird and the late Martin J. Sherwin. The conversation focuses on the theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer's formation and struggl...

In Episode 39 we talk about the impact of fandom with JULIET CREESE and MONI SENGUPTA from the Sanditon Sisterhood Strategy Group . SANDITON was supposed to be gone for good when ITV in the U.K. canceled the series in its first season and before its U.S. premiere on PBS MASTERPIECE in 2020. But the Sanditon Sisterhood Strategy Group with the fandom were determined not to let this series, inspired...

“If you could travel back in time, where would you go and why?”  This is our 2nd TIME TRAVEL Bonus episode. We picked 5 guest responses to our time travel question from the 2nd season of the podcast. Go back in time with:  NAHIR OTAÑO GRACIA, Medievalist and scholar who joined us for a conversation about the Netflix series VIKINGS VALHALLA; PEARL MACKIE who appears in the PBS MASTERPIECE series’s...

In Episode 37, the Boston Sisters (Michon and Taquiena) wrap up their second podcast season with 5 great Book/Film recommendations for Summer reading and watch lists. Film and series adaptations premiere this fall through 2024, with a few titles available for streaming now! DAISY JONES & THE SIX (streaming on Amazon) PACHINKO (part 1 is streaming on Apple TV+, part 2 in 2024) KILLERS OF THE FL...

Professor of French and French Studies (University of the South) JULIAN LEDFORD brings to life the historical Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-George who is dramatized in the film CHEVALIER by Kelvin Harrison Junior in the title role. CHEVALIER highlights Joseph Bologne’s improbable rise in French society as a celebrated violinist-composer, horseman, and fencer. Saint-George is bestowed the titl...

In episode 35 we’re talking with actor PEARL MACKIE (THE DIPLOMAT, DOCTOR WHO) about the PBS MASTERPIECE mini series TOM JONES . Pearl Mackie plays Honour Newton, the worldly-wise trusted lady’s maid of Sophia Western (Sophie Wilde) in a 4-part reimagining of Henry Fielding’s comic novel, "The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling," published in 1749. We discuss the dynamics of Honour and So...

In episode 34 Peabody award-winning documentary filmmaker JOHN VALADEZ joins us for a conversation about THE HEAD OF JOAQUÍN MURRIETA, the Amazon Prime Western action drama series that shares the same title as Valadez’s 2017 PBS documentary. In his film Valadez believes he has the actual head of Joaquín Murrieta, the legendary Mexican outlaw who blazed a trail of revenge across California until he...

In Part 2 of our S ANDITON Wrap-Up! , we talk about Georgiana Lambe , the heiress from Antigua who, in season 3, must defend and secure her inheritance as well as her reputation. Joining us in this conversation is SHARON D. JOHNSON , depth psychologist and story consultant to SANDITON .  Georgiana has been on a dedicated search for her mother, who was an enslaved African woman sold away by Georgia...

The Boston Sisters welcome back SHARON D. JOHNSON, script and story consultant for MASTERPIECE and SANDITON . In part 1 of a 2-part conversation, we focus on the themes of Marriage, Love, and Friendship between new and familiar characters over the past 3 seasons of the series based on Jane Austen’s unfinished novel written a few months before her death in 1817. SANDITON is the story of independent...

In Episode 31 our conversation about VIKINGS VALHALLA continues with NAHIR OTAÑO GRACIA, a medieval scholar whose “Global North Atlantic” extends the Viking story from the North Sea to the Iberian Peninsula, Mediterranean, and the tip of North Africa. We talk about how the Vikings’s travels and encounters changed their culture and destinies as seen in VIKINGS: VALHALLA . Nahir Otaño Gracia, is Ass...

Ep. 30 gives you a “watchers guide” to Viking dramas available for streaming starting with VIKINGS: VALHALLA now in its second season on Netflix. Alex Chisnall , host of the popular business podcast Screw It Just Do It , is our guest and guide. We met Alex via the Clubhouse social media app where he gave podcasters like us the incentive, courage, and a road map to just do it and launch Historical...

In Ep, 29 we talk about the Baz Luhrmann film ELVIS with GAYLE WALD, George Washington University professor of American Studies and author of Shout, Sister, Shout! The Untold Story of Rock-and-Roll Trailblazer Sister Rosetta Tharpe . Our conversation extends to Black musicians and music traditions that shaped Elvis Presley’s music and how that aspect of Elvis’s story is dramatized in this 2022 bio...

Episode 28 features a conversation with CARLA L. PETERSON, author of the 2011 book “ Black Gotham: A Family History of African Americans in Nineteenth-Century New York City .” Professor Peterson’s book served as a resource for the creation of the characters, story, and the Black community in HBO’s THE GILDED AGE . Part detective tale, part social and cultural narrative, "Black Gotham" is...

Episode 27 features a conversation with BEN VANSTONE , showrunner and writer for ALL CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL, about the making of the series currently in its 3rd season on the PBS drama series MASTERPIECE. ALL CREATURES GREAT & SMALL is the recent adaptation of the books written by veterinarian James Alfred Wight (who wrote under the pen name James Herriot) about a trio of veterinarian surge...

In episode 26 Michon and Taquiena look back on the highlights and a-ha’ s of the first year of “Historical Drama with The Boston Sisters.”  Included are historical dramas The Boston Sisters look forward to watching and talking about in 2023. There will be more opportunities for you to join live conversations with The Boston Sisters, and other historical drama activities when you sign up for the po...

In episode 25 The Boston Sisters feature Amma Asante ’s feature film BELLE by listener request from JOANNE FORT , an attorney living in Atlanta, Georgia. Joanne shares why she wanted the podcast to feature BELLE. We invited London-based figurative painter GLORY SAMJOLLY , to talk about the film and the story behind the portrait of the real-life Dido Elizabeth Belle (with her cousin Elizabeth). As...

The Boston Sisters talk with REV. DR. TERASA COOLEY , author of "Transforming Conflict," about leadership portrayals of Queen Elizabeth II, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, and Princess Diana in the NETFLIX drama series THE CROWN now in its 5th season. THE CROWN is a fictional drama inspired by real events during the reign of Queen Elizabeth II (1926 - 2022) in the last half of the 20th...

Orchard House (in Concord, MA) is most notable as the home where Louisa May Alcott wrote and set her iconic novel Little Women in 1868. In this podcast we talk with JAN TURNQUIST , executive director of Orchard House where visitors can go back in time to the world of the Alcott family as well as Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy March. Recreations of Orchard House can be seen in recent adaptations of Louisa...

SUSANNE SIMPSON , executive producer of the award-winning PBS drama series MASTERPIECE joins us for a conversation about the second season of Miss Scarlet and the Duke and other women of MYSTERY! along with a preview of MASTERPIECE’s 2022-23 season. Miss Scarlet and the Duke features Kate Phillips as Eliza Scarlet, the headstrong, first-ever female detective in Victorian London, who won’t let any...

Episode 21 takes a deep dive with Sharon D. Johnson, Ph. D into the feature film THE WOMAN KING . You may remember Dr. Johnson from the podcast “ SANDITON Regency Fiction and Racial History” (episode 13) In this podcast  we talk about: THE WOMAN KING as an example of how historical film offers a form of “medicine” for healing of historical wounds and trauma The impact of centering “highly melanate...

In episode 20 of the podcast, we talk with author and poet TONI ASANTE LIGHTFOOT about the Amazon series A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN .  In this bonus podcast, Toni talks about and reads her baseball-inspired poem “Bat Her Up: Mom’s Mabley watches Negro women play ball for their supper." JACKIE “MOMS” MABLEY (1897-1975) African American comedienne Loretta Mary Aiken created the elderly lady persona...