The History Chicks : A Women's History Podcast
History
About
Two women. Half the population. Several thousand years of history. About an hour. Join us on an award-winning journey through herstory! The History Chicks celebrates the lives of remarkable women from ancient times to the modern day, exploring women’s history in engaging episodes full of deep research, pop culture references, and the occasional tumble down a rabbit hole.
Episodes
- Queen Anne
Queen Anne spent her whole life in the violent storms of other people’s ambitions - her family, politicians, and yes, one very dramatic friend who made sure her reputation took a beating for centuries. But behind all that noise was a stead…
- Laura Ingalls Wilder: The Do-over, Part Three
At last, at last! We have arrived at the part of her story that Laura Ingalls Wilder is most famous for; her series of eight (not yet nine!) books which tell decades of readers the romanticized story of young Laura's childhood during the t…
- Laura Ingalls Wilder: The Do-over, Part Two
Laura Ingalls Wilder's books inspired us as children with a fascination for history. And her story has been with us since the beginning of the podcast, all of those years ago. She has deserved a second look from us for a long time! In part…
- Laura Ingalls Wilder: The Do-over, Part One
Once upon a time, back in 2011, we shared the story of Laura Ingalls Wilder, beloved author of the Little House series and chronicler of life on the US prairie in the late 1800s. Now, 15 years later, we thought it was time to revisit her w…
- Boudica
Boudica (formerly known as Boadicea ) was a first‑century Celtic queen of the Iceni tribe in what’s now eastern England. After the Roman Empire seized her late husband’s kingdom and brutalized her family, she rallied a massive coalition of…
- Bonus: History Chicks History
To celebrate International Women's Day on March 8th, and Women's History Month during all of March, we have a short message for you all. We couldn't possibly narrow down one or even 31 women to honor this month, so we'll keep honoring as m…
- Dovey Johnson Roundtree
Dovey Johnson Roundtree grew up in the Jim Crow era South and carried her grandmother’s philosophy of "find a way or make one” as her armor into every challenge she faced. She became one of the first Black women in the Women’s Army Auxilia…
- Odetta
Odetta was one of the defining voices of American folk music. Though she had been trained in classical music, she was drawn to spirituals, work songs, traditional ballads, and blues. These songs told the stories of true life - of struggle…
- Grandma Moses
Grandma Moses spent most of her life living on family farms in upstate New York, raising a large family and running a household. She was known in her neighborhood for her award-winning preserves and pickles... not her embroidered artwork!…
- Ona Judge, 2026
Ona Judge defied one of the most revered historical figures in America in order to escape the institution of slavery. Though she spent the rest of her life as a fugitive, she managed to direct her own existence on her own terms; answering…
- Mother Jones
Mother Jones lived one of the most dramatic second acts in American history. Though her early life was shaped by poverty, immigration, and repeated personal tragedies, she reinvented herself in middle age as a warrior for justice. She was…
- Martha Gellhorn
Martha Gellhorn was one of the most influential war correspondents of the 20th century. Over the course of a 60-year career, she reported from nearly every major global conflict - the Spanish Civil War, World War II, Vietnam, and more. In…
- Martha Washington, 2025
As a tie-in to our coverage of Betsy Ambler and Ken Burns' American Revolution documentary we decided to revisit Martha. Some called her The Mother of the Country, some curtseyed and called her "Lady Washington," but no one could doubt tha…
- Sarah Rector
Once upon a time, an eleven-year-old girl named Sarah Rector struck it rich with a discovery that was perfectly timed for the rise of the automobile and the expansion of American manufacturing. After hitting the jackpot, she had to escape…
- ITALY TRAVELOGUE - 2025
Viva l'Italia! We took 50 listeners on an epic journey filled with history, architecture, camaraderie and SO MUCH delicious food! From the ancient layers of Rome through the castles and hilltop villages of Tuscany, the art and influence of…
- BONUS - The American Revolution on PBS - Our interview with co-director Sarah Botstein
The American Revolution changed the way the world worked; the principles of governance in the new country laid the foundation for movements all over the world. On November 16th, Ken Burns and his team premiere their 6-part documentary seri…
- Betsy Ambler - and an interview with Sarah Botstein from the PBS documentary The American Revolution
Life during the Revolutionary War was more than military strategy; there were plenty of battles to be fought at home. Betsy Ambler was a young teenager during the turbulent years, and through her records and letters, we can see the conflic…
- Elizabeth Packard
In 1860, Elizabeth Packard was committed to a mental institution by her husband - for YEARS - for the crime of speaking her mind . This practice was completely legal at the time, and she had no mechanism by which to free herself from confi…
- Frida Kahlo, 2025
We're going back to our 2013 coverage of this iconic artist who turned her pain, passion, fear, and unique outlook on life into remarkable and memorable art. Her bold subject and color choices (as well as her bold life choices) defied conv…
- Catherine De Medici Part 2
Catherine de Medici lived in a century defined by the the contributions of remarkable women, and she distinguished herself as one of the most remarkable of them all. No longer an apprentice in the art of intrigue, she was sharp and strateg…
- Catherine de Medici, Part 1
As the last legitimate heir to a powerful family, Catherine de Medici was married at only 14 into one of the most powerful royal houses in Europe. The two halves of her story are VASTLY different, and here in Part 1, we are going to tell y…
- Philadelphia 2025 Travelogue
It's field trip time again! We took 50 listeners with us to the cradle of our country - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Over the course of a long weekend, we absorbed the sites and stories we'd learned about in school, and learned about those…
- Suzanne Valadon
Suzanne Valadon was born on the wrong side of the tracks, and the wrong side of the blanket, but grew up to be one of the It Girls of the Impressionist era. She traveled a unique journey to stardom by parlaying her career as an artist's mo…
- Alice Paul Part 2
The road to equality has never run smooth - in part 2, Alice Paul and the suffragists finally achieve their goal of a constitutional amendment giving women the vote - but not until a great deal of lobbying, schisms, sacrifice, and sheer wi…
- Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Early Suffragists, 2025
Years before Alice Paul was even born, the women's suffrage movement began with Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Lucretia Mott, and others at the first women's rights convention in the US in 1848. The efforts of these early suffra…
- Alice Paul, Part 1
Alice Paul was one of the most prominent activists of the 20th-century women's rights movement, who believed that moral authority always trumps the letter of the law; injustices must be called out and resisted as a matter of principle. By…
- Paris Field Trip Travelogue, 2025
We lived the dream... and traveled to Paris in the springtime! Fifty of our friends joined us in the City Of Light for forays into history, art, wine, architecture, shopping, camaraderie, and SO MUCH FROMAGE! Some of our friends join us he…
- Anne Frank 2025
During our coverage of Miep Gies, we presented the story of the events that were happening in the world at large during WW2, closer in within the city of Amsterdam, and then to a smaller scale within the lives, offices and homes of the hel…
- Miep Gies Part 2
Miep Gies risked her life in order to help her Jewish friends hide from the Nazis during World War 2. In Part 2 of her story, we'll take you through the years of struggle and subterfuge, the dark day when the Secret Annex was raided, and h…
- Miep Gies Part 1
In a land fraught with turbulence and oppression, Miep Gies helped to shelter and supply Anne Frank's family (and others) while they were in hiding from the Nazis; an act of civil disobedience that was, though illegal, the most moral of hu…
- A Conversation with Anne Sebba: The Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz
To leave you with a bit of lagniappe for Women's History Month, we broke our usual format to sit down for a talk with Anne Sebba, author of the new book The Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz: A Story of Survival . Anne tells us about some of…
- Wallis Simpson, 2025
Puppet? Manipulating social climber? Misunderstood? Deeply in love? However you see her, the fact remains that a king abdicated his throne, defied his family, and lived in exile to marry the twice divorced American socialite Wallis Simpson…
- Wangari Maathai Part 2
We continue the story of Nobel Prize winning environmentalist Dr Wangari Maathai, who defied convention, financial hurdles, and the violent opposition of her own government to make her Green Belt Movement into an enduring worldwide force f…
- Wangari Maathai Part 1
Wangari Maathai understood the vital connections between living things and the Earth; of local communities and the wider world. It is true that many trees make a mighty forest, and Maathai's Green Belt Movement made it clear to us all that…
- Marie Laveau, 2025
How much of the New Orleans Voodoo Queen's legend is myth? (Hint: A lot) Happy Mardi Gras and, more importantly, Happy Women's History Month! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
- Sojourner Truth 2025
Sojourner Truth was an enslaved woman, a freewoman, a preacher, a speaker, an abolitionist, and a women's rights advocate in the Civil War-era United States. Like a lot of women's history, Sojourner's truth may have been edited long ago, b…
- Georgia Gilmore
Georgia Gilmore was one of the unsung heroes of history during the Civil Rights movement in America; a prime example of how one person's contributions can change the course of a country. Her tireless fundraising efforts were critical to th…
- Josephine Bonaparte and Eugénie Bonaparte
Josephine and Eugénie, related by marriage, and separated by only a generation, both rose from relative obscurity to become the Empress of France during tumultuous times. The paths of these very different women never crossed, but they both…
- Fannie Lou Hamer, 2025
In honor of Martin Luther King Day, we are again shining the spotlight on the remarkable life of Fannie Lou Hamer. As a small child, her hard labor was key to her family’s survival. She grew up to become a fiery civil rights activist who w…
- Charity Adams Earley
Charity Adams Earley was the first, and highest ranking, African-American officer in the Women's Army Corps. During WW2, she led the 6888th - The Central Postal Directory Battalion, which was sent to Europe to make sure that years of backl…
- Mrs, Claus, 2024
This story of Christmas' unsung hero has been our holiday tradition since 2014! We change bits of it every year, so no two years are exactly the same! If you have little ears with you, you may want to preview it so no secrets are spoiled!…
- Katharine Graham
Katharine Graham was the head of the Washington Post empire during a turbulent time in American history. After a personal tragedy catapulted her into the public eye (and the eye of the hurricane), she took on the doubters and became the mo…
- Pocahontas, 2024
It's Thanksgiving and National Native American Heritage Month here in the United States so, this week, we continue our tradition of sharing this episode from 2017. Pocahontas' real story is much different than the romanticized versions of…
- Paris 2024 Travelogue
We took fifty friends with us on our latest women's history tour to the City of Light! From a private nighttime tour of Versailles to a luncheon at Veuve Clicquot, through pastries shaped like apples at A. LaCroix patisserie and an ocean o…
- Sarah Winchester and the Winchester Mystery House
Join us on this Halloween bonus episode as we revisit our 2019 coverage of Sarah Winchester! The Winchester Mystery House has intrigued people for almost a century. Its story has always been a dramatic one, full of ghosts, guns, and desper…
- New York City Travelogue 2024
Join us as we discuss our recent field trip to the city that never sleeps! Fifty friends joined us for a women's history extravaganza (and thirty more dropped by for a celebration on the water)! From the gritty realities of the Tenement Mu…
- Victoria Woodhull, 2024
It's election season here in the US, so we're revisiting the life of the very first woman to run for the American Presidency in 1872. Victoria Woodhull crafted a life for herself from very raw materials when she traveled from an abusive ch…
- Gertrude Ederle
They said it couldn't be done; that the deck, and the odds, were stacked against her, but Trudy Ederle listened only to her heart during her record-breaking swim across the English Channel. She was the first woman to accomplish this feat -…
- Fannie Lou Hamer 2024
We reached back a few years to again shine the spotlight on this remarkable woman. Fannie Lou Hamer began life as a small child whose hard labor was key to her family’s survival. She grew up to become a fiery civil rights activist who woul…
- Emily Roebling
Emily Roebling stepped in to facilitate the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge after her husband, its chief engineer, fell victim to a mysterious illness. Though her contributions were kept shadowed at the time, later generations have com…