Half the population. Several thousand years of history. The History Chicks podcast invites you in with those words, and soon enough you will be both in awe of some of history’s greatest women, and angry that you never learned much about them in school.
Every few weeks, Beckett Graham and Susan Vollenweider present an episode about a female from history.
Most of their subjects were real women, but they also include some fictional characters that loom large in our culture. I say “were,” by the way, because that is one of the rules: in order to be discussed on the podcast, the subject must be dead. And for a while. So you won’t get any episodes about women who are still with us, because their stories aren't finished yet.
What is so great about this podcast is the absolute treasure trove of information that each episode delivers to listeners.
The Chicks choose their subject, and then they drop her into history for the listener. They talk about what historical events were happening when the woman was alive. For example, the latest episode about Pocahontas reminds us that, in 1607, while Pocahontas was dealing with John Smith and the English, Galileo was shaking things up over in Italy.
That honestly blew my mind. We are so used to learning about history in a compartmentalized way, that it’s easy to forget that history is often happening all at once. Think, more tapestry, less a boring straight line.
Once we have an idea of the time that the woman lived in — or, if she's a fictional character, what was happening in the world when her story was written — Beckett and Susan talk us through her biography.
Each host has done her own research, and this is the first time they are discussing their findings, as they don’t want to influence the other’s reading of the subject while they are still gathering information. They offer commentary as they go along, and provide you with footnotes as needed.
The banter between Beckett and Susan is part of what makes this podcast so great. They are two very different women, in personality and occasionally belief, but that is what makes their friendship work. When they do disagree on something, it’s always in a respectful way, and they make each other think.
Consequently, they make the listener think too. And, for what it’s worth, because I like the people whose work I admire to be good people, from what I know of them through the podcast, and social media interactions, they’re lovely.
They interact with listeners quite a lot, especially on Twitter and in a special Facebook group for listeners: The History Chicks Podcast Lounge. I’m in the group, and it’s a great space for all of us to talk about our favorite episodes, or just to chat about the podcast or related materials.
And it’s a wonderful place to learn about new exhibits, or historical places you can visit, or books you might want to check out about one of the subjects from the podcast.
After Beckett and Susan discuss the life story of the woman they’ve chosen for the episode, they discuss her legacy, as well as media based on her. Each episode has lots of great book recommendations, as well as movies to check out. My own reading list has grown to epic proportions since I started listening to this podcast.
The value of what this program does cannot be calculated. I have learned so very much about women that I either A) learned precious little about in school or B) have never even heard of before.
It saddens me that, when we are taught history, there is one whole half of the story missing.
What this podcast does shouldn’t be called “herstory.” It’s just history.
It’s filling in the gaps, telling us the parts we haven’t heard yet.
The stories of these women are the story of the world.
All of the episodes are good (seriously) but here are some of my favorites:
• Marie Antionette
• Helen Keller
• Gilded Age Heiresses
• Queen Victoria
• Clara Barton
• Nellie Bly
• Sophie Blanchard
• Alice in Wonderland
• Julia Child
• Josephine Baker
• Elizabeth Cady Stanton
• Amelia Earhart
• Frida Kahlo
• Sybil Ludington
• Agatha Christie
• Joan of Arc
• Shirley Chisholm
• Queen Nzinga
• Mulan
• Artemisia Gentileschi
• Annie Oakley
• Hypatia of Alexandria
• Sojourner Truth
• Queen Lili'uokalani
• Pocahontas
You can find The History Chicks on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, and on their website, with all of their wonderful show notes and media recommendations, at thehistorychicks.com.