The Bitchionary

In Part 2, we walked through the minstrel show and met its cast of characters. This episode picks up exactly where that left off, and asks the harder question: what were those characters for , and where did they go when the minstrel stage finally went dark? The answer is that they didn't go anywhere. They just got new costumes and they're still all around us. This episode is a direct conti...

In Part 1, we met Nancy Green, the woman hired to become America's first living trademark. To understand what she was actually performing at that 24-foot flour barrel, and why it worked so powerfully on white audiences, we have to go back further. Before the brand. Before the fair. Back to the minstrel stage. This episode is a direct continuation of Part 1, and it's a heavy one.  In this e...

This season begins with a woman most of us were never taught about, though many of us grew up seeing the character she was hired to perform. Nancy Green was born enslaved in Kentucky in 1834. In 1893, at the Chicago World’s Fair, she became America’s first “living trademark,” portraying the fictional figure known as Aunt Jemima. This episode lays the foundation for a multi-part series. In this fir...

In the final episode of Witches to Trad Wives , we bring this series to its present-day conclusion. Across these episodes, we’ve traced how fear of women repeatedly organizes itself into moral panic—each time wearing a new, era-appropriate costume. What begins as witchcraft becomes medical diagnosis, criminal spectacle, political threat, and wartime anxiety. Today, that same fear reappears as some...

In WWII, German soldiers on the Eastern Front whispered about witches in the night—figures who arrived silently and dropped bombs before vanishing into the dark. They were real. In this episode, we tell the story of the Night Witches, an all-female Soviet night bomber regiment that flew obsolete wooden planes with no radar, no parachutes, and almost no support. Facing relentless sexism and brutal...

In this episode, we turn the Jack the Ripper story inside out—not to mythologize a faceless killer, but to restore the lives of the five women history reduced to “canonical victims.” Polly Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes, and Mary Jane Kelly lived full, complicated, often heartbreaking lives in a Victorian world obsessed with policing women’s morality. Instead of accept...

What happens when women’s knowledge threatens men’s power? This episode follows the shift from witches and midwives to medical degrees and “scientific authority,” revealing how the medical establishment grew by excluding the very women who had been healing for centuries. We also trace the surprising moral panic around women on bicycles—and how these old anxieties still animate today’s gender polit...

Or The Witch Who Wouldn’t Die In 1684, in a Puritan town in Massachusetts, a woman named Mary Webster was accused of witchcraft. Poor, outspoken, and “not the most placid,” she became an easy target for her neighbors’ fears. What followed was one of the strangest and most revealing stories of the colonial witch-hunt era—one that would echo through centuries of women’s resistance. This Halloween bo...

Every era has its witches. And its bitches. In this opening arc of Season 2, From Witches to Trad Wives , we trace the long shadow of moral panic around women—from the burning stakes to the culture wars. Drawing on Becca’s research for her upcoming book on moral panics, we explore how power, purity, and fear shape women’s stories, and why the figure of the “dangerous woman” keeps coming back. This...

In which Becca and Lily review the meta-themes of this season, harking back to the word "bitch" and how they relate to it now. We talk about what this podcast has done for us and wonder what it has done for you, if anything. We still want to hear from you! And, we note that this is the last episode of this season while we take a break and regroup for the next one. Are there topics or wom...

Here's our short-mini episode about the Matilda Effect. We're interested in exploring and learning more about women who have been "Matilda Effected" (yes, that's a phrase, we're sure of it). So let us know if there are women out there whose stories you'd like us to explore. We'd love to hear from you! Sources Jodi Picoult’s novel ⁠By Any Other Name⁠ (2024) ⁠https:...

Is there a stigma against women publishing or getting credit for a discovery? Is there any credibility to the theory that the works of Shakespeare were written, in part, by a woman? Join us in this episode for a discussion about Shakespeare, publishing as women, pen names, and the Matilda Effect. And look out for a short-mini episode to follow this one where we talk a little more deeply about the...

Is there a stigma against women publishing or getting credit for a discovery? Is there any credibility to the theory that the works of Shakespeare were written, in part, by a woman? Join us in this episode for a discussion about Shakespeare, publishing as women, pen names, and the Matilda Effect. And look out for a short-mini episode to follow this one where we talk a little more deeply about the...

This series of episodes was inspired by the film 9 to 5, a 1980s comedy starring Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, and Dolly Parton. What most people don’t know is that the movie was made deliberately to raise awareness around women’s issues in the workplace and in direct relationship to a movement, an organization, and, ultimately, a labor union called 9 to 5. In Part Four, we circle back to the movie 9 t...

This series of episodes was inspired by the film 9 to 5, a 1980s comedy starring Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, and Dolly Parton. What most people don’t know is that the movie was made deliberately to raise awareness around women’s issues in the workplace and in direct relationship to a movement, an organization, and, ultimately, a labor union called 9 to 5. In Part Three, we do a deep dive into the tac...

Note: The audio's a little inconsistent in this one. And Lily had a wicked fever while she was editing it, so bear with us! This series of episodes was inspired by the film 9 to 5, a 1980s comedy starring Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, and Dolly Parton. What most people don’t know is that the movie was made deliberately to raise awareness around women’s issues in the workplace and in direct relation...

This series of episodes was inspired by the film 9 to 5, a 1980s comedy starring Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, and Dolly Parton. What most people don’t know is that the movie was made deliberately to raise awareness around women’s issues in the workplace and in direct relationship to a movement, an organization, and, ultimately, a labor union called 9 to 5. In Part One, we talk a little bit about the m...

In the final episode of our three-part series about the women of the early labor movements in the US, we learn about Frances Perkins, architect of the New Deal and the first female cabinet member, appointed by FDR before women even had the right to vote. Perkins witnessed the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire and, in so doing, found her calling to fight for protections for workers. Without her tire...

In which Becca and Lily have a free form discussion about the 2023 film, and 2021 novel, Nightbitch. The film is described as a “black comedy horror film” that was written and directed by Marielle Heller and stars Amy Adams. It is based on the 2021 magical realism novel by Rachel Yoder. In the most basic terms, it’s a tale of motherhood in which a mother transforms into a dog. In more complicated...

This episode continues the story we began with Clara Lemlich and the uprising of the 20,000. We focus exclusively on the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire—a defining moment in American history, one that would go on to inspire France Perkins and the New Deal. The final episode in this series will follow France Perkins from the day of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire and into FDR’s cabinet. This...

In this episode, we do a deep dive into the story of Clara Lemlich, a Jewish immigrant and labor organizer who, in 1909, sparked an uprising of 20,000 workers that began a great wave of labor laws and protections for all workers in America. This is Part 1 of what has turned into a 3-part series. Part 2 will continue the story, detailing the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire and the role this disast...

In which Becca and Lily engage in a freeform discussion around the word “Bitch”--its historical roots, its personal connotations, whether derogatory words like this can ever be reclaimed fully as a term of positive empowerment, and many digressions and diversions in between! Special thanks to our friend and colleague Spencer Nilsen for all of his help with our recording setup, helping us learn how...