Wicked Women: The Podcast

The name Hatshepsut has become synonymous with female power in ancient Egypt. But her daughter Neferura has been largely lost and forgotten. In today’s episode I will be speaking with Malayna Evans, author of the novel Neferura: The Pharaoh’s Daughter in which she tries to recapture the voice of Neferura and the turbulent world she lived in. Listen to my discussion with Malayna as we cover he...

Jezebel has been a term used to demean, sexualize, and demonize women for millenia. But before it became a byword for “wicked women”, Jezebel was a queen of Israel who dared to worship different gods. She has been both erased, lost in a tide of scandal and rumor, and immortalized. In the end, perhaps becoming infamous was vindication for her villainization.  In today's episode, I will be disc...

For anyone growing up in a Christian church, the name Mary Magdalene would be familiar. The first person recorded in the four Gospels to see Jesus after the resurrection, her true role as an apostle has been mainly lost over time, replaced by a persistent image of her as a penitent prostitute and sinner.  In today’s episode, I will be in discussion with playwright Sylvia Milo, the mind behind...

In today’s episode I will be in conversation with historian Emma Southon, author of the recently published A Rome of One’s Own: The Forgotten Women of the Roman Empire . In our conversation we will be looking specifically at the life of Tullia Minor and the woman she is most often depicted as a foil to, Lucretia. This discussion was an enlightening look into the lives of two Roman women as well as...

Perhaps some of the most recognizable American photos of the early 20th century. A young woman poses in front of a car with a cigar between her teeth and a gun on her hip. In another she points a rifle at the chest of a man who stares back at her without fear. Bonnie and Clyde made headlines in ways few couples have before or will again. There have been films, tv series, books, Broadway musicals,...

It is a horror story stained with blood. A Hungarian noblewoman tortures and murders her female servants out of jealousy and sadistic need for violence. After the grisly deed, she bathes in the blood of her victims to gain eternal youth and beauty. Some claims put her kill count in the range of 600 young women to thousands, making her possibly the most prolific female serial killer in history. Lad...

On an endlessly bright summer night in St. Petersburg in 1777, a glamorous three masted ship sailed into harbor. On board the yacht was a lone woman, responsible for scandalizing the British public and ready to make her name known at the court of Catherine the Great. This inconspicuous woman on the regal yacht had quickly become the anti-hero of a Georgian society desiring a headline other than th...

On today’s episode I will be chatting Maria the creator of Herstorical Walking Tours, a theatrical walking tour company that focuses on the stories of women in and around London, England through a feminist lens. Tours include "Hex and the City", "Harlots, Strumpets, and Tarts, Oh My!", and "Goal Birds of London". Continue listening to learn more about the tours and the process of bringing villaini...

In the remnants of a burned out farmhouse were the bodies of three children in the arms of a woman. What made this a more grisly scene was the fact that the woman had no head. Headlines praised the woman for selflessly comforting her children in the last agonizing moments of life. However, the following days would reveal a far darker and violent story. Spread amongst the farm were the dismembered...

Perhaps best known as the long-standing Royal Mistress for King Louis XV of France, Madame de Pompadour has become synonymous with a debauched period of French history. Known for her astounding beauty, wit, and charm, much of Madame de Pompadour's legacy is wrapped up in her supposed frivolity and manipulation. But who was the woman behind that glittering mask? Prof. Jones discusses a woman who de...

Fashion History is an integral part of our understanding of the past. It provides a visual marker of societal changes over time. It is also an accessible avenue into the study of history. We all wake up in the morning and put on clothes. We have plans, thoughts, and intentions behind what we choose and what we scorn. This can be a thread that connects us to other people throughout thousands of yea...

“I marvel that Aspasia, who is only a woman, should be able to compose such a speech; she must be a rare one.” –Menexenus by Plato  The ancient Greeks loom large in history. Responsible for architectural wonders, cultural institutions, and historic figures However, there is one woman who loomed large on the Greek political and philosophical stage who has been relegated to the shadows of histo...

When people think about wicked women, Anne Boleyn is usually one of the first names to come to mind. It seems that every generation has its own version of Anne: Slutty Anne, Religious reformer Anne, Innocent Anne, Manipulative Anne, Sexy Anne, Evil Anne, Educated Anne, Feminist Anne, the list goes on. Thousands of people flock annually to locations Anne once walked (Hampton Court, Hever Castle, Th...

Behind every powerful King has stood a Queen. And some women have filled the role of both King and Queen in their own right. Some quiet, others fiery, some powerful, others left powerless, some revered, others forgotten. What creates the legacy of one Queen but erases another? Listen to this episode as I discuss that question and more with the brilliant historian Dr. Valerie Schutte. Hosted on Aca...

Polly Adler was one of the most well-known Madams in NYC during the 1920s; a ruckus era of speakeasies, brothels, the mob, and sexual expression. Polly rose from a shtetl in the Russian Pale of Settlement to become “The Queen Madam”. Not only was she known to supply girls to wealthy men, but her nightclubs that dotted the city were a favorite haunt for some of the most famous names of 1920s New Yo...

Planned Parenthood divided and continues to divide American society to this day. But this organization that has become synonymous in the U.S. with birth control and abortion did not begin as an American company but as a global enterprise headed by strong and outspoken women. The International Planned Parenthood Federation (founded in 1953) was the first of its kind and by the 1960’s it was chaired...

She was known as the “wickedest woman in New York” during her lifetime. A physician adored by her patients but despised by the moralizing populace sweeping mid-19th century America. She defied all social conventions of her era, she rose from an immigrant widowed single mother living on the lower east side to a self-made millionaire outbidding the Catholic Diocese of New York for an empty lot on fi...

The mistresses of the French kings are some of the most iconic and recognizable. Madame de Pompadour, Agnès Sorel, Madame de Montespan, Madame de Maintenon, Diane de Poitiers. These are just a few of the hundreds of women who came to dominate the French court. In many cases they all shared a similar background; daughters of minor nobility who knew the ways of a royal court and played their parts a...

It’s the woman everyone loves to hate. The home wrecker, the social climber, the spendthrift, the whore. Mistresses have divided our society (and marriages) for centuries. But the Royal Mistress was a role in and of itself. In the early modern period it was a title as sought after as Duke or Comte. But it also provided a uniquely powerful role for a woman in a royal court, granting them political...

Traitorous, wanton, frivolous, obese, foreign, deceitful. These are all terms used to describe Isabeau of Bavaria, a woman at the center of one of the most turbulent eras in French history. She shared the world stage with names like Joan of Arc, Henry V, and Charles VII but her name would not be revered and lionized by later generations. Instead, she would be cast as the ultimate villain in the ta...

On a hot humid Parisian July day, the aristocratic Marie, Marquise de Brinvilliers was carted out to the scaffold before a seething crowd. Marie was accused of poisoning over 50 people, including her own father and brothers. The massive crowd on July 17, 1676, had come to witness a common entertainment, an execution. Marie de Brinvilliers has run the gambit of public opinion, from femme fatale to...

Elizaveta (Elizabeth) Petrovna was the daughter of Peter the Great and his history-making wife Catherine I, believed to have risen from being a serf to becoming Empress in her own right. Elizabeth was not raised to be ruler, there were plenty of distant male relatives to take on the mantle of Tsar, but as we’ll discuss later in this episode, Elizabeth clawed through heartbreak, tragedy, and abuse...

English writer, John Evelyn, called her “the curse of the nation,” while politician Sir John Reresby called her “the finest woman of her age”. By all accounts, Barbara Palmer was a stunning beauty with dark hair, blue eyes, and a charismatic personality. She rose to fame as one of the numerous royal mistresses of King Charles II. Throughout her life and subsequent legacy, Barbara has elicited both...

“Let him kill me, so long as he reigns” These are reportedly the words spoken by Agrippina when an astrologer told her that her son, Nero, would become the Roman emperor but he would also murder Agrippina. When making a list of the wickedest rulers, Nero is usually near the top. A bloody Roman emperor who burned Christians during parties. His mother Agrippina has often been blamed for the monstrou...

For many years Margaret was almost forgotten by history, overshadowed by her larger-than-life descendants. In recent years, she has made a comeback in popular media, but this rediscovery of the true founder of the Tudor dynasty saw the resurfacing of some of the worst rumors about her life. Many interpretations choose to focus on her ruthless ambition, and the work of Phillipa Gregory revived a th...