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Speaker 1: Well, we're so excited to be sharing the trailer for

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Speaker 1: our brand new show, Brief Recess, a legal podcast with

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Speaker 1: Michael Foot and Melissa Mautbranch.

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Speaker 2: You may know Michael as the immigration lawyer from TikTok

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Speaker 2: who gives an insider's perspective on the legal system, usually

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Speaker 2: with way more humor than it deserves. And Melissa has

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Speaker 2: spent her career as a nonprofit leader, a writer, and

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Speaker 2: most importantly, Michael's best friend.

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Speaker 1: And together they discuss real life legal issues that affect

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Speaker 1: us all. It's smart, hilarious, and it makes the law

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Speaker 1: accessible in a time when we all need to know

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Speaker 1: what's going on.

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Speaker 2: So stick around after this episode of My Favorite Murder

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Speaker 2: to hear the trailer for Brief Recess, premiering Thursday, November thirteenth.

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Speaker 1: And you can follow Brief Recess now on the iHeartRadio app,

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Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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Speaker 3: Goodbye, last hello, and welcome to My Favorite Murder. That's

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Speaker 3: Georgia hart Stark.

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Speaker 2: That's Karen Kilgareff, and we're back.

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Speaker 3: For a moment from the road.

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Speaker 2: We are in the midst of our tour. Let's see

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Speaker 2: when this goes up we'll only have two cities left.

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Speaker 2: Can you believe that? Just on la which is insane.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it feels like it was just a gleam in

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Speaker 1: our eye and now it's almost over.

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Speaker 2: What's your favorite moment? I know what your favorite gift

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Speaker 2: is from the road you do? Yeah, we haven't talked

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Speaker 2: about this yet for some reason.

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Speaker 3: Favorite moment.

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Speaker 1: I did enjoy kicking that stuffed animal back out into

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Speaker 1: the audience after they threw it at us.

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Speaker 2: That's right, someone threw up like a big plushy and

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Speaker 2: it rolled on to the stage like a grenade.

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Speaker 3: It was very scary.

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Speaker 2: It was a very surreal, quiet moment that we just

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Speaker 2: stared at it and we didn't know what to do,

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Speaker 2: and then Karen just took two steps and punted it

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Speaker 2: back into the audience.

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Speaker 3: I mean, one of my proudest moments. What about yours?

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Speaker 2: Well, I was going to say to you. Do you

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Speaker 2: remember when someone in the me and greet very early

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Speaker 2: on was a dentist and brought you the little scrub

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Speaker 2: oh tooth brush toothpaste thing from think after you get

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Speaker 2: your teeth clean.

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Speaker 1: It was the most meaningful gift, Like what you know,

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Speaker 1: the real gift is people actually hearing you when you

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Speaker 1: say things right. He came up and he's like, I'm

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Speaker 1: a dentist, so I brought you the gift that only

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Speaker 1: I can give you or whatever. You know.

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Speaker 2: His little speech was, yeah, that you asked for an

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Speaker 2: episode like two hundred something.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, where the story of me asking my own childhood

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Speaker 1: dentist that when I was like ten years old. And

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Speaker 1: he just started laughing. He's like, what are you talking about? Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and then he was like, I'm a dentist and I

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Speaker 1: got it for you.

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Speaker 2: He gave you a baggie like full of dental scrubs of.

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Speaker 1: This scrubbiest tooth polish that I can't really use it home.

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Speaker 1: I don't have a polisher, but oh, I'm so glad

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Speaker 1: you reminded me of that.

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Speaker 2: That was so incredible.

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Speaker 3: That was really good.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, thanks to everyone for coming to the show

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Speaker 2: so far. They've been just absolutely incredible. To come back.

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Speaker 2: I just having not done that in six years, I

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Speaker 2: forgot what it was like to walk on stage with

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Speaker 2: people screaming at you, and it is just like unlike

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Speaker 2: any feeling you'll ever have. I'm assuming like giving birth

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Speaker 2: is like that. I don't know, I'll never know.

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Speaker 1: I think it's a lot louder than giving birth, although

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Speaker 1: who am I to say?

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Speaker 3: A lot more fun so good, So like I do.

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Speaker 1: Think it's that electricity that you can only get in

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Speaker 1: that situation. It's easy to go like, oh yeah, I

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Speaker 1: remember and whatever, but it's like, once you're doing it,

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Speaker 1: I don't know.

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Speaker 3: I find it addictive. I love it.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm worried I'll be like chasing that high for

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Speaker 2: the rest of my life once yeah, this twenty years

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Speaker 2: when this all ends, All right, what do you got?

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Speaker 1: Well, let's see. Oh, can I read you this email

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Speaker 1: that's from a listener from a story I told about

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Speaker 1: pulling up behind somebody that actually had an SSDGM bumper sticker.

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Speaker 1: So I got to see it in real life. And yeah,

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Speaker 1: it was the first time. Well, someone wrote in and

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Speaker 1: this subject line is Karen hanked at me, and it says,

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Speaker 1: let's get into it.

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Speaker 3: It was a weird day.

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Speaker 1: I was brushing home from work because I got a

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Speaker 1: call that my wife was in a bike accident. And

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Speaker 1: then it says she's okay, banged up in ruse, but okay.

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Speaker 1: I was just focused on getting to her at the

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Speaker 1: urgent care off pass avenue. I exited the one thirty

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Speaker 1: four pass, Oh my god, and was letting my mind

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Speaker 1: go to dark places.

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Speaker 3: One Hong Kong. H that was weird. Who's honking?

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Speaker 1: I look in my rear view mirror and the woman

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Speaker 1: behind me is waving. Okay, weird. The light turns green

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Speaker 1: and I'm making my left turn and Hong Kong Kong.

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Speaker 1: Now said woman has her window rolled down and she's

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Speaker 1: waving emphatically. She's smiling, so she must not be pissed

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Speaker 1: at me for something I've done. In my confusion, I

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Speaker 1: waved back because it's the polite thing to do.

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Speaker 2: Oh my god, this person having an actual emergency, and

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Speaker 2: you were like you were concerned as to why they

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Speaker 2: weren't paying attention to you, but they were literally having

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Speaker 2: an emergency.

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Speaker 1: I demand that you talk to me about my podcast,

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Speaker 1: no matter what's happening in your family. Okay, it says.

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Speaker 1: I turned left into the parking lot and she kept going.

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Speaker 1: I figured I'd never know what the hell that was about.

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Speaker 2: Him, didn't even know it was you.

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Speaker 3: Oh my god, No, that's this is hilarious.

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Speaker 1: So cut to a few weeks later, and I get

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Speaker 1: a frantic text from my friend Anne, and then it

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Speaker 1: says quotes was this you? And then she sent me

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Speaker 1: an Instagram post where Karen describes her version of this encounter.

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Speaker 1: I wish I'd realized it was Karen, even though I

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Speaker 1: was in the middle of a weird, damn life sucks

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Speaker 1: sometimes moment. It would have lifted my spirits, even for

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Speaker 1: just a passing moment. Oh that's nice, Karen, if you

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Speaker 1: see me again, a new honk. I promised to be

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Speaker 1: as joyful and excited as you looked last time.

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Speaker 2: Oh, oh my god, I can't believe we get on

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Speaker 2: the other side of this story.

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Speaker 3: Hilarious. And then it says my friend Amber and I

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Speaker 3: will see you ladies in Pasadena. Can't wait.

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Speaker 1: Will be the ones waving in the middle section XO

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Speaker 1: xo kat See. We gotta wave with them, We gotta

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Speaker 1: say hi to them. That is yeah, the sweet I mean,

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Speaker 1: what a horrible and yet thank god it wasn't you

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Speaker 1: know it turned out okay?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, man, But just to have that happen while you're

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Speaker 2: having a panic attack, essentially, oh.

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Speaker 1: My god, it's a real act out of you never

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Speaker 1: know what other people are going through, and it's like.

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Speaker 3: Hong Hong Kong Hey, Hong Kong conger you alright, Hong Kong.

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Speaker 2: Oh, that's that's amazing.

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Speaker 3: All right, should we do some highlights?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, we have a podcast network called what's it called

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Speaker 2: exactly right Media. That's right, I'm so tired. Here are

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Speaker 2: some highlights.

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Speaker 1: Okay, So tomorrow Buried Bones, we'll have a very special

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Speaker 1: bonus episode from the High Seas. Live from the Virgin

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Speaker 1: Voyages Crime Cruise, Paul and Kate take on one of

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Speaker 1: their most requested cases ever, the Black Dahlia.

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Speaker 2: Whoa.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: You can watch the full episode on the exactly right

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Speaker 1: YouTube channel YouTube dot com slash exactly right Media, or

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Speaker 1: you can listen to the audio wherever you get your podcasts.

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Speaker 2: Wow, what a show. Speaking of YouTube, a brand new

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Speaker 2: Halloween episode of MFM Animated premiered yesterday. Head over to

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Speaker 2: the exactly right YouTube channel again, YouTube dot com, slash

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Speaker 2: exactly right Media to watch child Devil out.

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Speaker 3: Now we got to see Nick Terry in Seattle.

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Speaker 1: Here's the greatest is and Episode five of our newest

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Speaker 1: series Hell in Heaven, producer with Blanchard House and iHeart Podcasts,

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Speaker 1: is out today. It is a hit podcast. It's so exciting.

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Speaker 1: This thing shot up the charts and you should listen.

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Speaker 1: One gunshot, one body, and a mystery that only gets

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Speaker 1: stranger from there. It's Helen Heaven.

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Speaker 2: And in honor of this week's episode of rewind, we're

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Speaker 2: re releasing our classic Triflers need Not Applied merch design

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Speaker 2: from twenty seventeen. You can pre order a Lady's boxy

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Speaker 2: tea which you guys seem to love, a unisext or

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Speaker 2: a hat now until November fourth at exactly right store

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Speaker 2: dot com. You guys love that design, so we'll bring

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Speaker 2: it back. All right, Karen, You're you're up, and you're

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Speaker 2: only up, and only.

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Speaker 1: I'm the only one up. You're sitting up with me,

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Speaker 1: So thank you for that, and thank you for everyone

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Speaker 1: else doing it too. I'm going to tell you, guys

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Speaker 1: a little story in honor of Halloween tomorrow. It takes

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Speaker 1: place in Lake Geneva, Switzerland, in nineteen eighteen, and that

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Speaker 1: summer is remembered for two big things. One grace Guy's

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Speaker 1: in very little sunshine and two the birthday of a

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Speaker 1: very very famous monster. The real story of his creation

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Speaker 1: is fittingly Gothic. There's death, disaster, a lot of drama,

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Speaker 1: and a handful of bohemian literary heavyweights huddled in a room,

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Speaker 1: drunk and fawning all over each other while thunder and

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Speaker 1: lightning rages outside. And among those bohemians is our famous

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Speaker 1: monster's true creator and she is only a teenager. This

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Speaker 1: is the story of Mary Shelley and that gloomy summer

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Speaker 1: vacation when she created Frankenstein.

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Speaker 2: Holy shit.

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Speaker 1: Okay, So the main sources that Maren used in this

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Speaker 1: story today are works of several Mary Shelley biographers, including

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Speaker 1: Charlotte Gordon, Fiona Sampson, and Miranda Seymour. And the rest

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Speaker 1: of the sources are in our show notes so truly

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Speaker 1: to really set the scene, the story starts in eighteen

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Speaker 1: fifteen in Indonesia on the island of sum and that

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Speaker 1: is where the volcano Mount Tambora erupts in a deadly

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Speaker 1: series of blasts.

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Speaker 2: There is a book I was just gonna tell you

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Speaker 2: that I'm obsessed with, called The Year Without Summer eighteen

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Speaker 2: sixteen and the Volcano that darkened the world and changed history,

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Speaker 2: and her story. She's in it. Mary Shelley, Like.

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Speaker 3: Yes, yes, this is it.

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Speaker 2: So William Klingman and Nicholas Klingman it's so fucking good.

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Speaker 3: I'm about to retell you this story that you that you.

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Speaker 2: Know but nobody. I had never heard of it before,

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Speaker 2: and like people don't know me either, changed history and.

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Speaker 1: It's such a big, like the kickoff disaster event is

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Speaker 1: such a gigantic disaster.

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Speaker 3: It's like beyond bleie, yeah, the volcano.

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Speaker 2: But the thing is that's cool too, is that nobody

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Speaker 2: knew why everything changed, that it was a volcano until

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Speaker 2: the future because they didn't have just like weatherman telling

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Speaker 2: you what was going on.

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Speaker 3: Oh yeah, yeah, that makes sense, mystery.

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Speaker 1: So they're just like it's rainy, it's just summertime, but

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Speaker 1: it's thunderstorms and crazy.

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Speaker 2: Not only that, it's like none of the crops are growing.

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Speaker 2: Why is this happening? No one knew? Okay, oh my god,

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Speaker 2: I'm so exciting. This is so widespread. Found very dorky

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Speaker 2: about loving this book and now I'm so excited to

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Speaker 2: hear this.

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Speaker 1: No, it's so good. Okay, so then tell me and

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Speaker 1: jump in when you know stuff, please if there's like

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Speaker 1: details or whatever. So it's Mount Tambora erupting in a

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Speaker 1: series of deadly blasts. The final explosion happens on April tenth,

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Speaker 1: and it is particularly catastrophic. To put it into perspective,

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Speaker 1: it's considered the most destructive explosion in recorded history. It

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Speaker 1: is one hundred times more powerful than Mount Saint Helen's

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Speaker 1: eruption in nineteen hundred times one hundred times. And if

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Speaker 1: you want to know how powerful that eruption was, you

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Speaker 1: can go to episode three seventy necessary Yelling, and I

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Speaker 1: will tell you all about it.

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Speaker 3: Okay.

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Speaker 1: So some reports say that the blast could be heard

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Speaker 1: more than two thousand miles away, So that would mean

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Speaker 1: if you're in Los Angeles, you can hear an explosion

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Speaker 1: in Atlanta, Georgia. It blows more than four thousand eat

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Speaker 1: off the mountaintop, and eye witnesses say that it looks

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Speaker 1: like Mount Tambora has been quote consumed by liquid fire,

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Speaker 1: a fountain of ash, water and molten rock shooting in

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Speaker 1: every direction. So this explosion creates fiery, hot, extremely powerful

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Speaker 1: gusts of wind that flatten homes, uproot trees, and toss

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Speaker 1: human beings around like rag dolls. Pummice stones the size

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Speaker 1: of grapefruits are falling from the sky.

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Speaker 2: Oh pre pummice stones.

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Speaker 1: Right, Just grab one for your heels and get indoors, please,

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Speaker 1: But it won't matter if you're indoors, because fifteen foot

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Speaker 1: tall Tsunamis hit land and destroy everything that is still standing.

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Speaker 1: Heavy ash falls from the skies, burying everything within twenty

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Speaker 1: miles of the volcano, and most lethally scorching one thousand

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Speaker 1: degree debris shoots down the side of Mount Tambora at

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Speaker 1: one hundred miles an hour in what look like fiery

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Speaker 1: avalanches that incinerate everything in their pasts, vegetation, homes, and

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Speaker 1: of course the people. It's estimated ten thousand people die

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Speaker 1: instantly in this explosion. But then, as you were saying,

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Speaker 1: in the months that follow the nearby village is reel

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Speaker 1: from destruction of crops and all the ash that's still

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Speaker 1: in the air and no clean water, and then the

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Speaker 1: death toll in Indonesia grows eventually to ninety thousand. According

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Speaker 1: to Scientific American quote, no other volcanic explosion in history

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Speaker 1: has come close to wreaking disaster of that magnitude, so

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Speaker 1: it's obviously humongous, and then has all these repercussions because

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Speaker 1: once that debris is in the atmosphere, it forms a

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Speaker 1: massive cloud of volcanic junk, and it envelops the entire

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Speaker 1: planet in two months, and that causes bizarre, unprecedented weather

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Speaker 1: systems all around the world. So some places see strange

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Speaker 1: sudden frosts, some see unending rain, others suffer horrible droughts.

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Speaker 1: And it all causes the following year, eighteen sixteen to

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Speaker 1: go down in history as quote the year without a summer.

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Speaker 2: So crazy. And if you look at paintings from that time,

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Speaker 2: landscape paintings, a sky is a different color in all

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Speaker 2: those paintings because the sky was literally different color for years.

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Speaker 1: It's insane, like ashy, ashy, gray, reddish, weird, yeah, ashy,

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Speaker 1: oh yeah, like when it's sunset but there's been a

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Speaker 1: fire and it turns those crazy colors.

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Speaker 2: We know that you're in la too.

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Speaker 3: Well.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, but that's not the end of the devastation. The

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Speaker 1: eruption sends more than thirty five cubic miles of ash,

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Speaker 1: gas and debris into the skies. Wired magazine will say

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Speaker 1: it was enough to quote bury all the playing surface

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Speaker 1: of Fenway Park in Boston eighty one five hundred and

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Speaker 1: forty four miles deep in ash.

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Speaker 2: What I can't even wrap my head around that.

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Speaker 1: I know it's because we're not based by people, but

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Speaker 1: it's basically like from here to that far into space

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Speaker 1: essentially is so much much. So much was in the

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Speaker 1: air as far away as the southern United States. No

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Speaker 1: fall is reported in both June and July, with one

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Speaker 1: Virginian note that quote. On July fourth, water foes and

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Speaker 1: cisterns and snow fell again, with Independence Day celebrants moving

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Speaker 1: inside churches where hearth fires warmed things a mite end quote.

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Speaker 1: Of course, that all makes for very bad harvests, meaning

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Speaker 1: food supplies around the world are much smaller than normal,

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Speaker 1: the prices for basics skyrocket, and that leads to a

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Speaker 1: widespread famine. A writer named Gillan Darcy Wood notes that

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Speaker 1: quote villagers in Vermont survived on groundhogs and boiled nettles, dear,

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Speaker 1: while the peasants of Yunnan in China sucked on white clay.

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Speaker 1: Summer tourists traveling in France mistook beggars crowding the roads

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Speaker 1: for armies on the march.

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Speaker 3: So it's horrible, and it's horrible everywhere.

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Speaker 1: Hunger, cold temperatures, and social chaos is all around, making

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Speaker 1: it hard for the average person to fend off disease Europe.

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Speaker 1: Sy's a brutal outbreak of typhus that kills forty thousand people,

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Speaker 1: and the first deadly global cholera pandemic begins soon after

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Speaker 1: that in eighteen seventeen. There's not an exact global death

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Speaker 1: toll that we can attribute to the Mount Tempore eruption,

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Speaker 1: but writer Gillan Darcy Wood estimates that it's somewhere in

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Speaker 1: the tens of millions.

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Speaker 2: That's because the cumulative issues that cause more and more death.

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Speaker 2: It reminds me of the Spanish flu of nineteen nineteen,

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Speaker 2: which I love reading about, where it's just this kind

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Speaker 2: of mystery of where it came from, but the devastation

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Speaker 2: it did is just so fascinating and widespread and like

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Speaker 2: it doesn't discriminate, Like everyone's fucked essentially.

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Speaker 1: Right, Okay, So it's a terrifying, disorienting time to be alive.

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Speaker 1: Death and desperation permeates everything all around. And this is

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Speaker 1: what's happening in the world. When we meet our hero

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Speaker 1: Mary Walston Craft Godwin in London, England. Mary is a

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Speaker 1: quietly intense redhead who comes from a famously radical family.

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Speaker 1: Her father is a well known writer and anarchist named

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Speaker 1: William Godwin, and he is also credited with publishing the

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Speaker 1: first English detective novel called Caleb Williams.

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Speaker 2: Oh, I had no idea, I.

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Speaker 1: Know, right, such a good title for a detective novel.

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Speaker 1: It am Caleb Williams. It's not sounds like a seventh

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Speaker 1: grader at a local junior high. And her mother is

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Speaker 1: Mary Walston Craft, who is a trailblazing feminist writer and

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Speaker 1: philosopher whose fierce devotions to women's rights inspire the men

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Speaker 1: of her time to dismiss her as quote a hyena

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Speaker 1: in petticoat. So she must have been good, Yeah, yeah, totally.

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Speaker 1: But the sad thing is Mary never knew her mother

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Speaker 1: because in seventeen ninety seven, days after giving birth to Mary,

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Speaker 1: Mary Walston Craft dies of infection because the doctors removed

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Speaker 1: her placenta with dirty, on washed hands. Guys, I mean,

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Speaker 1: it's so please, so horrifying. Mary carries the burden of

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Speaker 1: her mother's death from a very young age. She spends

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Speaker 1: a lot of time in the cemetery where her mother's buried.

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Speaker 1: It's said that Mary learns to write by tracing the

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Speaker 1: letters on her mother's headstone. And when she's a bit older,

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Speaker 1: she spends hours sitting on her mother's grave reading her

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Speaker 1: mother's feminist works.

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Speaker 2: Oh my god, heartbreaking.

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Speaker 1: She's like a little Edward Gorey character, like playing in

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Speaker 1: the cemetery. So then her father remarries and sadly, her stepmother,

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Speaker 1: Mary Jane Claremont, is a jealous, controlling woman who openly

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Speaker 1: favors her own children, especially her daughter Claire. It's a tense,

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Speaker 1: crowded living situation. Mary feels completely cast aside, and she

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Speaker 1: spends even more time at the cemetery to escape from

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Speaker 1: her increasingly fraught home life. And then it gets worse.

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Speaker 1: As she grows into a teenager, Mary starts to look

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Speaker 1: exactly like her mother, which seems to be more than

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Speaker 1: her stepmother can handle. So under the guise of a

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Speaker 1: health treatment, Mary is sent off to Scotland to live

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Speaker 1: with family friends. So at the time, Scotland has a

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Speaker 1: huge arts and literary scene and there's tons of inspiring

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Speaker 1: revolutionary thinkers.

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Speaker 2: So her stepmom kind of did her a favor by

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Speaker 2: kicking her out.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, getting her out of there, and suddenly it's like, ooh,

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Speaker 1: best case.

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Speaker 2: Scenario, Yeah, the world opens up.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, So one of Mary's biographers, Charlotte Gordon, describes it

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Speaker 1: as quote like going to San Francisco during hayd ASHBURYO.

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Speaker 1: And it's here, while in exile from her own home,

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Speaker 1: that Mary really starts developing her creative voice and her

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Speaker 1: interest in writing. So from time to time Mary travels

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Speaker 1: back to London to visit her beloved father, and it's

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Speaker 1: on one of these visits that she first meets a

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Speaker 1: poet named Percy bish Shelley. He's five years her senior.

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Speaker 1: He is now famous for his sonnet Ozzie Mandias, but

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Speaker 1: when they meet in the eighteen tens, he's not a

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Speaker 1: famous poet. He's actually an authority bucking young bohemian from

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Speaker 1: a filthy rich family who spends a lot of time

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Speaker 1: with Mary's father trying to learn about his philosophical takes

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Speaker 1: on anarchy. Percy also has some notoriety after being Dad

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Speaker 1: of Oxford for refusing to admit that he'd circulated a

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Speaker 1: pamphlet entitled The Necessity of Atheism. Percy is also a

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Speaker 1: married father, though he's sometimes said to be estranged from

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Speaker 1: his wife, Harriet Shelley, it seems safe to say Percy

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Speaker 1: is not a particularly present husband to his wife, and

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Speaker 1: he has actually adopted a non monogamous ethos that Mary

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Speaker 1: will struggle with from here on out, as.

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Speaker 3: Will Harriet, of course.

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Speaker 1: But all this is to say, when Percy and Mary

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Speaker 1: first meet sparks fly, she will bring him to her

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Speaker 1: mother's grave. That's where they'll first say I love you.

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Speaker 1: They end up running off together not long after, and

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Speaker 1: pretty soon after that, Mary gets pregnant. She is sixteen

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Speaker 1: at the time, shit uh huh, and Percy's twenty one,

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Speaker 1: so that's a huge scandal. So to escape the dirty

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Speaker 1: looks in the gossip, they leave England and they just

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Speaker 1: start traveling around Europe. Mary's stepsister, Claire, the one that

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Speaker 1: the stepmother favored. She dabbles in writing and speaks several languages,

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Speaker 1: so she joins them and acts as kind of a

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Speaker 1: local translator. And Mary is actually very close with her stepsister,

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Speaker 1: even though she doesn't like her mother. They're like a

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Speaker 1: year apart in age. So as the three move throughout

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Speaker 1: the continent, Percy encourages Mary to write, but she's so

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Speaker 1: exhausted from her pregnancy she feels constantly sick and weak.

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Speaker 1: Her lack of energy is only intensified by the fact

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Speaker 1: that they are constantly traveling, and then she tries to

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Speaker 1: start projects and then she can't finish them, and it's

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Speaker 1: all She's just all kind of exhausted all the time.

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Speaker 2: So I sometimes travel and I'm not pregnant, and I

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Speaker 2: can't fucking imagine, I know.

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Speaker 1: Just like and not being able to take like vitamins

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Speaker 1: or something that you're just kind of like on a.

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Speaker 3: Train for for God.

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Speaker 2: Okay.

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Speaker 1: So in February of eighteen fifteen, Mary goes into premature

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Speaker 1: labor and they lose the baby. She's overcome with grief,

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Speaker 1: and just one week after losing her child, she writes

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Speaker 1: in her diary quote dreamt that my little baby came

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Speaker 1: to life again, that it had been cold, and that

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Speaker 1: we rubbed it before the fire and it lived awake

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Speaker 1: and find no baby. I think about the little thing

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Speaker 1: all day, not in good spirits, so sad. But it

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Speaker 1: is a significant moment for more reasons than one. So

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Speaker 1: it's two months after this tragedy that Mount Tambora erupts,

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Speaker 1: and it is a fitting reflection of her grief. The

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Speaker 1: way the skies all darken and the sun never comes out.

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Speaker 1: Everything turned to unending gray before long, Mary's pregnant again,

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Speaker 1: and in January of eighteen sixteen, as that volcanic ashes

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Speaker 1: circles the earth, nineteen year old Mary gives birth to

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Speaker 1: a boy named William. So now it's May of eighteen

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Speaker 1: sixteen and it's the beginning of the so called volcanic Winter. Mary, Percy,

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Speaker 1: and the baby are cushioned from the worst of it.

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Speaker 1: When their funds dry up, they just get money from

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Speaker 1: Percy's father, who bails them out, so they always have food,

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Speaker 1: they always have shelter. But the world outside is very

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Speaker 1: bleak for a lot of people, and there's just a

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Speaker 1: sense of dread everywhere. So it's at this point that

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Speaker 1: Marian Percy decide that they're going to go to Geneva, Switzerland,

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Speaker 1: and Claire is the one who actually suggests this idea,

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Speaker 1: but she does have an agenda. Claire actually knows that

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Speaker 1: twenty eight year old poet Lord Byron is going to

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Speaker 1: be in Geneva, Switzerland.

436
00:22:27,359 --> 00:22:29,280
Speaker 2: She's like, he's totally going to be there, and I've

437
00:22:29,400 --> 00:22:30,160
Speaker 2: got to meet him.

438
00:22:30,359 --> 00:22:33,199
Speaker 1: Yes, well, no, she'd already been having a bit of

439
00:22:33,240 --> 00:22:34,000
Speaker 1: an affair with him.

440
00:22:34,080 --> 00:22:36,560
Speaker 3: I've been Fuckingham and I've got to see him exactly.

441
00:22:36,640 --> 00:22:39,960
Speaker 1: She's kind of obsessed. She's been writing him witty, flirtatious

442
00:22:40,040 --> 00:22:43,720
Speaker 1: letters and basically propositioning him. He takes her up on

443
00:22:43,760 --> 00:22:46,119
Speaker 1: the offer, but then she kind of won't leave him alone,

444
00:22:46,119 --> 00:22:49,879
Speaker 1: and he's Lord Byron is infamous for being really awful

445
00:22:49,960 --> 00:22:52,320
Speaker 1: to his exes, so he's just like a love him

446
00:22:52,320 --> 00:22:55,200
Speaker 1: and leaving type of guy. He is also the Titan

447
00:22:55,240 --> 00:22:58,760
Speaker 1: of the Romantic movement, but unlike Percy Bishelley, Byron is

448
00:22:58,760 --> 00:23:02,080
Speaker 1: a massive celebrity of this. Charlotte Gordon likens him to

449
00:23:02,240 --> 00:23:04,240
Speaker 1: Mick Jagger at the height of his fame.

450
00:23:04,440 --> 00:23:04,960
Speaker 2: Wow.

451
00:23:05,080 --> 00:23:07,800
Speaker 1: So one of Lord Byron's most famous literary works, which

452
00:23:07,840 --> 00:23:11,000
Speaker 1: is called Child with an E at the end Child

453
00:23:11,080 --> 00:23:15,320
Speaker 1: Harold's Pilgrimage, It was published a few years earlier to

454
00:23:15,440 --> 00:23:19,520
Speaker 1: serious acclaim. But he's as famous for his private life.

455
00:23:20,000 --> 00:23:22,440
Speaker 1: He has a reputation for sleeping with anyone he thinks

456
00:23:22,480 --> 00:23:26,199
Speaker 1: is interesting, men or women, married or single, even his

457
00:23:26,240 --> 00:23:29,160
Speaker 1: own family members. He actually is rumored to have had

458
00:23:29,200 --> 00:23:30,760
Speaker 1: an affair with his own half sister.

459
00:23:31,760 --> 00:23:33,840
Speaker 2: Sounds like a vampire. Is he a vampire?

460
00:23:34,560 --> 00:23:37,520
Speaker 1: Right? Oh? Well, shit, that will come that will come up,

461
00:23:37,600 --> 00:23:38,440
Speaker 1: that will come up.

462
00:23:38,800 --> 00:23:41,240
Speaker 2: Classic vampire moves right there.

463
00:23:41,119 --> 00:23:44,399
Speaker 1: Classic just being like, there's no boundaries, I'm really open

464
00:23:45,000 --> 00:23:49,640
Speaker 1: and I love blood. So in eighteen sixteen, amid accusations

465
00:23:49,880 --> 00:23:54,240
Speaker 1: that he's engaging in quote sodomy and homosexuality, both illegal

466
00:23:54,280 --> 00:23:57,560
Speaker 1: in England at the time, he moves to Switzerland. So

467
00:23:57,600 --> 00:24:01,360
Speaker 1: the problem with Claire's plan is Lord Iron has made

468
00:24:01,359 --> 00:24:03,639
Speaker 1: it clear he is not into her and he doesn't

469
00:24:03,720 --> 00:24:07,360
Speaker 1: like her, but she can't help herself, so she basically

470
00:24:07,359 --> 00:24:10,240
Speaker 1: hopes if they go there, Mary and Percy will be

471
00:24:10,320 --> 00:24:13,200
Speaker 1: the ones that help rekindle the connection because Lord Byron

472
00:24:13,280 --> 00:24:16,560
Speaker 1: will be like obsessed with them because they're two young writers,

473
00:24:16,600 --> 00:24:20,240
Speaker 1: you know, doing it all. They're bohemian, they're creative, and

474
00:24:20,440 --> 00:24:23,440
Speaker 1: they're all out running scandals. So there's just a lot

475
00:24:23,440 --> 00:24:26,920
Speaker 1: of it's very juicy. So in May of eighteen sixteen,

476
00:24:27,000 --> 00:24:29,800
Speaker 1: the Shelleys arrive in Lake Geneva and they rent a

477
00:24:29,840 --> 00:24:34,080
Speaker 1: house there, just steps from Lord Byron's lakeside mansion, Villa

478
00:24:34,160 --> 00:24:36,879
Speaker 1: Dio Dotti. Even though it's supposed to be a summer vacation,

479
00:24:37,119 --> 00:24:40,840
Speaker 1: the weather's brutal. The fallout from Mount Tambora is hitting

480
00:24:40,840 --> 00:24:44,800
Speaker 1: your apart, especially in Switzerland. It rains nearly every single

481
00:24:44,880 --> 00:24:48,439
Speaker 1: day that summer. It floods Geneva with mud and rotting

482
00:24:48,480 --> 00:24:51,920
Speaker 1: crops from the soaking wet fields. On June first, Mary

483
00:24:51,920 --> 00:24:54,440
Speaker 1: writes a letter to a family member saying, quote and

484
00:24:54,560 --> 00:24:58,560
Speaker 1: almost perpetual rain confines us principally to the house. One night,

485
00:24:58,680 --> 00:25:01,640
Speaker 1: we enjoyed a finer storm that I had never before beheld.

486
00:25:02,000 --> 00:25:04,840
Speaker 1: The lake was lit up, the pines made visible, and

487
00:25:04,920 --> 00:25:07,879
Speaker 1: all the scene illuminated for an instant when a pitchy

488
00:25:07,920 --> 00:25:11,520
Speaker 1: blackness succeeded and the thunder came in frightful bursts over

489
00:25:11,560 --> 00:25:13,600
Speaker 1: our heads amid the blackness.

490
00:25:13,640 --> 00:25:16,640
Speaker 2: Wow, moody, so moody.

491
00:25:16,760 --> 00:25:20,640
Speaker 1: Right, they're like stuck in the beginning of the movie Franken'stime,

492
00:25:20,760 --> 00:25:23,600
Speaker 1: and it's just like constantly that thing. It was a

493
00:25:23,680 --> 00:25:27,119
Speaker 1: dark and stormy night. So one afternoon, amid all this

494
00:25:27,280 --> 00:25:30,600
Speaker 1: intense gloomy weather, the Shelley household finally crosses paths with

495
00:25:30,680 --> 00:25:33,480
Speaker 1: Lord Byron, and Claire was right. He hits it off

496
00:25:33,480 --> 00:25:36,600
Speaker 1: with Percy and Mary immediately, and he invites them back

497
00:25:36,600 --> 00:25:39,760
Speaker 1: to his villa, so they meet his fleet of dogs,

498
00:25:39,840 --> 00:25:44,120
Speaker 1: monkeys and even a falcon, and his twenty year old

499
00:25:44,119 --> 00:25:49,120
Speaker 1: traveling companion John Polodori. He serves as Byron's personal physician.

500
00:25:49,480 --> 00:25:53,000
Speaker 1: Paulodori also has literary ambitions, and he's being paid by

501
00:25:53,000 --> 00:25:56,919
Speaker 1: Byron's publisher to keep journals on their travels together, and

502
00:25:56,960 --> 00:26:00,119
Speaker 1: then they plan to publish them as a book of

503
00:26:00,119 --> 00:26:02,280
Speaker 1: Byron and Shelley Camps. Linking up makes it all the

504
00:26:02,320 --> 00:26:05,080
Speaker 1: way back to England, where they're talked about as like

505
00:26:05,119 --> 00:26:10,280
Speaker 1: a scandalized supergroup. Newspapers refer to them as quote League

506
00:26:10,280 --> 00:26:14,680
Speaker 1: of Incest. A gaggle of British guests at a nearby

507
00:26:14,760 --> 00:26:18,919
Speaker 1: Geneva hotel set up a telescope aimed right at the villa,

508
00:26:19,240 --> 00:26:21,760
Speaker 1: but the thick fog makes it impossible for them to

509
00:26:21,800 --> 00:26:24,080
Speaker 1: be able to look inside, but they're trying.

510
00:26:23,800 --> 00:26:24,679
Speaker 3: To look inside.

511
00:26:25,480 --> 00:26:28,280
Speaker 1: If they could see inside, what they'd see is everyone

512
00:26:28,359 --> 00:26:32,240
Speaker 1: drinking tons of wine and laudnum, which is diluted liquid opium,

513
00:26:32,760 --> 00:26:35,280
Speaker 1: and then either sleeping with each other or getting into

514
00:26:35,359 --> 00:26:37,760
Speaker 1: fights with each other, or some combination of the two.

515
00:26:38,480 --> 00:26:42,240
Speaker 1: So even though Lord Byron openly despises Claire, by the

516
00:26:42,359 --> 00:26:45,399
Speaker 1: end of the summer, he's still sleeping with her, and

517
00:26:45,440 --> 00:26:46,399
Speaker 1: so she gets pregnant.

518
00:26:46,440 --> 00:26:48,800
Speaker 2: I think this is Love Island, Ukay.

519
00:26:48,760 --> 00:26:54,840
Speaker 1: It's almost like better, It's like Haunted Frankenstein, Love's watch It.

520
00:26:55,200 --> 00:26:58,800
Speaker 1: There are some historians who've speculated, but nothing's been proven

521
00:26:59,000 --> 00:27:03,000
Speaker 1: that actually this child is Percy Bisch Shelley's child, because

522
00:27:03,000 --> 00:27:06,280
Speaker 1: he and Claire are suspected of having an affair, and

523
00:27:06,320 --> 00:27:08,600
Speaker 1: depending on which source you're reading, it's also been said

524
00:27:08,600 --> 00:27:12,679
Speaker 1: that Pauladori is infatuated with either Lord Byron or Mary

525
00:27:13,280 --> 00:27:17,480
Speaker 1: Drama aside, it's impossible for these people to enjoy the outdoors,

526
00:27:17,800 --> 00:27:21,240
Speaker 1: so they basically spend every night by a fire at

527
00:27:21,240 --> 00:27:24,320
Speaker 1: the villa, reading spooky poems and stories while thunder and

528
00:27:24,400 --> 00:27:29,560
Speaker 1: lightning rattle the mansion. They're reading from a book named Phantasmagoriana,

529
00:27:30,200 --> 00:27:33,480
Speaker 1: which is a collection of German horror stories recently translated

530
00:27:33,480 --> 00:27:37,760
Speaker 1: into French. It has a bit of everything, ghosts, malevolent spirits,

531
00:27:37,800 --> 00:27:42,359
Speaker 1: family curses, haunted places, stuff like that. And they are

532
00:27:42,400 --> 00:27:45,280
Speaker 1: all drunk and high, so these stories hit pretty hard.

533
00:27:45,880 --> 00:27:49,320
Speaker 1: One night, as Lord Byron is reading, Percy jumps out

534
00:27:49,359 --> 00:27:51,639
Speaker 1: of his chair and bolts out of the room, and

535
00:27:51,720 --> 00:27:55,399
Speaker 1: he later says quote he'd seen a terrifying vision of Mary,

536
00:27:55,400 --> 00:27:58,160
Speaker 1: who'd been in the corner nursing their child with staring

537
00:27:58,320 --> 00:28:00,919
Speaker 1: eyes instead of nipple on her breast.

538
00:28:02,480 --> 00:28:05,639
Speaker 2: Dude, take a nap, freaking out, take a nap freaks

539
00:28:05,640 --> 00:28:08,400
Speaker 2: of orangelicense me down.

540
00:28:09,160 --> 00:28:11,080
Speaker 3: Stop with the opium for one second.

541
00:28:11,119 --> 00:28:15,440
Speaker 2: I nipples. That's fucking a new one from hate Ashbury.

542
00:28:15,560 --> 00:28:16,160
Speaker 2: I don't think.

543
00:28:16,520 --> 00:28:17,720
Speaker 3: No, that's not cool.

544
00:28:18,280 --> 00:28:20,760
Speaker 1: So after a while, Lord Byron switches things up and

545
00:28:20,840 --> 00:28:24,280
Speaker 1: tasks the group with writing their own horror stories. It's

546
00:28:24,280 --> 00:28:27,680
Speaker 1: a contest, and whoever creates the most chilling visceral work wins.

547
00:28:28,160 --> 00:28:31,040
Speaker 1: So by day they all go to their respective rooms

548
00:28:31,200 --> 00:28:33,639
Speaker 1: and pull out their ink pens and they write. And

549
00:28:33,680 --> 00:28:36,000
Speaker 1: at night they come back together and they share their

550
00:28:36,040 --> 00:28:38,120
Speaker 1: works and progress and they give each other feedback.

551
00:28:38,200 --> 00:28:40,800
Speaker 2: I love this. I want to do this with my friends,

552
00:28:40,800 --> 00:28:45,400
Speaker 2: but without so many drugs and alcohol, but without not

553
00:28:45,480 --> 00:28:47,719
Speaker 2: as many. I don't want to see eyeballs.

554
00:28:47,840 --> 00:28:49,640
Speaker 3: Let's not make a rule right now, Let's just like

555
00:28:49,680 --> 00:28:50,400
Speaker 3: see what happens.

556
00:28:50,480 --> 00:28:52,760
Speaker 2: Let's not let's not can go however, we.

557
00:28:52,680 --> 00:28:55,640
Speaker 1: Don't want to go into eyeball territory. But yeah, you're right. Well,

558
00:28:55,680 --> 00:28:57,480
Speaker 1: here's what I think is kind of cool. And I'm

559
00:28:57,520 --> 00:29:01,160
Speaker 1: giving the credit to Lord Byron, which is everyone's fighting

560
00:29:01,240 --> 00:29:01,960
Speaker 1: and fucking and.

561
00:29:01,840 --> 00:29:02,840
Speaker 3: Doing all this crazy shit.

562
00:29:02,920 --> 00:29:05,240
Speaker 1: It's like, how about everyone gets creative and puts their

563
00:29:05,280 --> 00:29:08,040
Speaker 1: work on the paper and just puts their energy that way,

564
00:29:08,560 --> 00:29:10,600
Speaker 1: and then look what comes out of it. It's wild

565
00:29:10,680 --> 00:29:13,479
Speaker 1: what comes out of it. So it doesn't seem like Percy,

566
00:29:13,480 --> 00:29:17,120
Speaker 1: Bishelley or Claire contribute much to this little writing group

567
00:29:17,200 --> 00:29:20,800
Speaker 1: if anything. Instead they're working on their own projects that

568
00:29:20,880 --> 00:29:23,800
Speaker 1: have nothing to do with the horror genre. Lord Byron meanwhile,

569
00:29:23,880 --> 00:29:27,440
Speaker 1: takes inspiration from stories he's heard while traveling in Eastern

570
00:29:27,480 --> 00:29:31,520
Speaker 1: Europe of vampires. But those ones are a little different

571
00:29:31,560 --> 00:29:34,760
Speaker 1: than our modern vampire. Per the folklore that he heard,

572
00:29:34,760 --> 00:29:37,720
Speaker 1: they were grotesque, undead corpses that would rise out of

573
00:29:37,720 --> 00:29:40,600
Speaker 1: their graves at night like zombies and suck the blood

574
00:29:40,640 --> 00:29:44,280
Speaker 1: of the living. Different kind of monster, sure, different flavor,

575
00:29:44,360 --> 00:29:48,080
Speaker 1: more of a Roquefort situation with those ones. So he

576
00:29:48,160 --> 00:29:50,680
Speaker 1: starts a story that he never ends up finishing, but

577
00:29:50,800 --> 00:29:53,760
Speaker 1: in it he takes the concept of a vampire and

578
00:29:53,840 --> 00:29:57,160
Speaker 1: makes a little sexier. His vampire is a socially intelligent

579
00:29:57,240 --> 00:30:00,960
Speaker 1: British aristocrat who also has a thirst for blood, but

580
00:30:01,040 --> 00:30:03,160
Speaker 1: he is able to blend in with the upper class,

581
00:30:03,240 --> 00:30:03,800
Speaker 1: and he's a.

582
00:30:03,880 --> 00:30:08,320
Speaker 2: Romantic, imagine that, who are we talking about? And he's

583
00:30:08,400 --> 00:30:10,520
Speaker 2: so hot, he's so sexy.

584
00:30:11,080 --> 00:30:11,680
Speaker 3: So hot.

585
00:30:12,240 --> 00:30:15,320
Speaker 1: But essentially, this version of the vampire is actually the

586
00:30:15,320 --> 00:30:18,200
Speaker 1: one that sticks in our culture, from Dracula to Twilight.

587
00:30:18,280 --> 00:30:21,760
Speaker 1: So that does come from Lord Byron's original idea.

588
00:30:22,440 --> 00:30:23,560
Speaker 3: So when the.

589
00:30:23,440 --> 00:30:26,479
Speaker 1: Rest of the group here's this, they tell Lord Byron

590
00:30:26,640 --> 00:30:29,560
Speaker 1: he's onto something, but he doesn't listen and he scraps

591
00:30:29,560 --> 00:30:33,800
Speaker 1: the story. Basically, he doesn't enjoy writing horror or gothic horror.

592
00:30:34,280 --> 00:30:36,760
Speaker 1: But John Paula Dory takes it and he makes it

593
00:30:36,800 --> 00:30:39,600
Speaker 1: his own, and he eventually releases a novella called The

594
00:30:39,720 --> 00:30:43,160
Speaker 1: Vampire p yr And that is said to be the

595
00:30:43,200 --> 00:30:45,960
Speaker 1: first English language vampire story ever published.

596
00:30:46,800 --> 00:30:49,560
Speaker 2: Was Byron pissed that he fucking copied him?

597
00:30:49,840 --> 00:30:51,320
Speaker 3: He doesn't seem like the tire.

598
00:30:51,480 --> 00:30:54,200
Speaker 1: He seems like he's like, you've have mild idea whatever,

599
00:30:54,240 --> 00:30:56,000
Speaker 1: and he's got like a kerchief in his hand at

600
00:30:56,040 --> 00:31:01,080
Speaker 1: all times. But obviously, the inarguable winner of this writing

601
00:31:01,080 --> 00:31:04,240
Speaker 1: contest is nineteen year old Mary Shelley, whose entry starts

602
00:31:04,240 --> 00:31:07,000
Speaker 1: as a short story. It's so compelling that the others

603
00:31:07,120 --> 00:31:10,800
Speaker 1: urge her to expand it into a novel, and it

604
00:31:10,880 --> 00:31:15,160
Speaker 1: eventually becomes Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus.

605
00:31:14,600 --> 00:31:16,480
Speaker 3: Which is the full title. I never knew that.

606
00:31:16,920 --> 00:31:19,600
Speaker 1: The condensed refresher that no one needs but it will

607
00:31:19,600 --> 00:31:20,200
Speaker 1: be fun to do.

608
00:31:20,880 --> 00:31:21,320
Speaker 2: Is that.

609
00:31:21,360 --> 00:31:24,080
Speaker 1: Frankenstein's about a young scientist who makes the very risky

610
00:31:24,120 --> 00:31:27,320
Speaker 1: decision to play god, designing a creature that looks somewhat

611
00:31:27,400 --> 00:31:31,520
Speaker 1: human and using it electricity to jolt into life. Frankenstein's

612
00:31:31,520 --> 00:31:33,920
Speaker 1: creature is born with a kind heart, but he's very

613
00:31:33,960 --> 00:31:37,040
Speaker 1: lonely and he longs for connection, and he's beaten down

614
00:31:37,080 --> 00:31:39,920
Speaker 1: by people's fear as well as their cruelty toward him,

615
00:31:40,200 --> 00:31:42,880
Speaker 1: and he's abandoned by his own creator. All the poor

616
00:31:42,920 --> 00:31:47,040
Speaker 1: treatment hardens the creature until he becomes a monster, just

617
00:31:47,080 --> 00:31:50,840
Speaker 1: as Frankenstein's abandonment of the creature turns the scientist into

618
00:31:50,880 --> 00:31:54,480
Speaker 1: a monster. And if you watch Young Frankenstein, that's exactly

619
00:31:54,480 --> 00:31:55,080
Speaker 1: what happens.

620
00:31:55,360 --> 00:31:57,560
Speaker 2: There's a Frankenstein bar that we went to in Edinburgh

621
00:31:57,640 --> 00:32:00,720
Speaker 2: that was fucking incredible Scotland.

622
00:32:00,920 --> 00:32:02,640
Speaker 3: Ooh, did like did a thing go up?

623
00:32:02,760 --> 00:32:06,040
Speaker 2: Every hour? Whatever the monster would come out that like

624
00:32:06,280 --> 00:32:08,760
Speaker 2: music would go down and like the crazy ass creepy

625
00:32:08,760 --> 00:32:10,560
Speaker 2: shit would happen there's like all these lights. It's a

626
00:32:10,560 --> 00:32:11,480
Speaker 2: fucking rat bar.

627
00:32:11,920 --> 00:32:14,640
Speaker 3: Yes, that sounds so good, Okay.

628
00:32:14,720 --> 00:32:16,920
Speaker 1: So as this group leaves like Geneva at the end

629
00:32:16,960 --> 00:32:19,760
Speaker 1: of the summer, Mary does keep working on the story

630
00:32:19,760 --> 00:32:21,800
Speaker 1: when she gets back to England, but her writing is

631
00:32:21,920 --> 00:32:24,800
Speaker 1: sidelined once again by even more tragedy. And I have

632
00:32:24,800 --> 00:32:27,239
Speaker 1: to tell you, there's so many more things I'm going

633
00:32:27,280 --> 00:32:29,160
Speaker 1: to tell you that are sad that happen in her life.

634
00:32:29,280 --> 00:32:32,320
Speaker 1: It's like kind of devastating how much bad shed happens

635
00:32:32,360 --> 00:32:36,240
Speaker 1: to this woman. So her half sister Fanny, who is

636
00:32:36,280 --> 00:32:39,280
Speaker 1: a daughter of her mother's from a different relationship, takes

637
00:32:39,320 --> 00:32:44,000
Speaker 1: her own life, and then weeks after that, Percy's estranged wife, Harriet.

638
00:32:43,640 --> 00:32:45,080
Speaker 3: Also dies by suicide.

639
00:32:46,440 --> 00:32:48,560
Speaker 1: So as horrible as all of that is, it does

640
00:32:48,600 --> 00:32:51,840
Speaker 1: allow Percy and Mary to finally get married, which they weren't.

641
00:32:51,880 --> 00:32:54,000
Speaker 1: They had kids together and stuff with the bay weren't married.

642
00:32:54,040 --> 00:32:57,320
Speaker 1: So they finally get married, but Mary is consumed with

643
00:32:57,440 --> 00:33:02,600
Speaker 1: guilt over Harriet's death. Year in eighteen seventeen, she finishes Frankenstein.

644
00:33:02,840 --> 00:33:06,400
Speaker 1: It's published in January of eighteen eighteen, on New Year's Day,

645
00:33:06,400 --> 00:33:10,040
Speaker 1: when she's twenty years old. It's released anonymously, so her

646
00:33:10,120 --> 00:33:12,800
Speaker 1: name is not on the book in the beginning, and

647
00:33:13,240 --> 00:33:17,160
Speaker 1: it's a small publisher, not particularly well known. There's only

648
00:33:17,200 --> 00:33:19,600
Speaker 1: about five hundred copies that they put out on very

649
00:33:19,640 --> 00:33:23,959
Speaker 1: cheap paper and with no fanfare. But people still end

650
00:33:24,040 --> 00:33:26,000
Speaker 1: up buying it, and then the people who buy it

651
00:33:26,040 --> 00:33:28,200
Speaker 1: and read it talk about it, and so the word

652
00:33:28,280 --> 00:33:31,760
Speaker 1: spreads that because it's just that good, and some critics

653
00:33:31,800 --> 00:33:35,000
Speaker 1: love it, some find it distasteful, but it captivates the

654
00:33:35,000 --> 00:33:38,240
Speaker 1: public's interest and nothing like it has ever existed before.

655
00:33:38,520 --> 00:33:42,400
Speaker 1: Frankenstein is as romantic and philosophical as it is horrifying,

656
00:33:42,880 --> 00:33:46,040
Speaker 1: and it's often called the first science fiction novel, and

657
00:33:46,080 --> 00:33:49,200
Speaker 1: it just keeps growing in popularity, even getting adapted into

658
00:33:49,240 --> 00:33:53,640
Speaker 1: incredibly popular stage plays. And because the book includes a

659
00:33:53,680 --> 00:33:57,880
Speaker 1: dedication to Mary's father, William Godwin and a preface that's

660
00:33:57,880 --> 00:34:01,040
Speaker 1: written by Percy, rumors swirl that one of these men

661
00:34:01,080 --> 00:34:04,520
Speaker 1: are the ones that actually wrote this book. Mary meanwhile,

662
00:34:04,800 --> 00:34:07,640
Speaker 1: stays in the shadows. She doesn't make much off of

663
00:34:08,120 --> 00:34:11,120
Speaker 1: the popularity of her book. It's not clear how much

664
00:34:11,120 --> 00:34:13,160
Speaker 1: she actually earns from it. We do know that the

665
00:34:13,160 --> 00:34:16,080
Speaker 1: bulk of the money goes to the publisher and of

666
00:34:16,120 --> 00:34:19,279
Speaker 1: course there's no copyright protections at the time, so the

667
00:34:19,280 --> 00:34:22,719
Speaker 1: theatrical productions that use her story don't pay her for it.

668
00:34:22,840 --> 00:34:24,040
Speaker 3: Oh yeah.

669
00:34:24,120 --> 00:34:27,520
Speaker 1: And then in eighteen eighteen, a year after Frankenstein's published,

670
00:34:27,840 --> 00:34:31,200
Speaker 1: Mary loses another daughter. One year old Clara dies in

671
00:34:31,239 --> 00:34:36,120
Speaker 1: Mary's arms after contracting dysentery. The year after that, Mary's

672
00:34:36,360 --> 00:34:40,760
Speaker 1: son William dies of malaria. So these losses compound Mary's

673
00:34:40,760 --> 00:34:44,240
Speaker 1: existing grief. She goes into a deep depression, with Percy

674
00:34:44,320 --> 00:34:47,479
Speaker 1: writing around this time, quote my dearest Mary, wherefore hast

675
00:34:47,520 --> 00:34:50,520
Speaker 1: thou gone and left me in this dreary world alone?

676
00:34:50,880 --> 00:34:52,400
Speaker 1: That's a Percy Bis Shelley line.

677
00:34:53,480 --> 00:34:54,080
Speaker 3: So sad.

678
00:34:55,080 --> 00:34:58,040
Speaker 1: But the same year Mary will give birth again, this

679
00:34:58,160 --> 00:35:00,400
Speaker 1: time to a son named Percy, and he will be

680
00:35:00,600 --> 00:35:03,279
Speaker 1: the one child that they have that lives to adulthood.

681
00:35:04,040 --> 00:35:04,360
Speaker 2: Yeah.

682
00:35:04,880 --> 00:35:08,319
Speaker 1: Tragedy seems to follow the whole Villa crew from Lake Geneva.

683
00:35:08,560 --> 00:35:11,239
Speaker 1: In eighteen twenty one, John Pauladori, the author of The

684
00:35:11,320 --> 00:35:15,160
Speaker 1: Vampire and Lord Byron's one time physician, takes his own life.

685
00:35:15,239 --> 00:35:18,680
Speaker 1: He's only twenty five years old. It's been speculated he

686
00:35:18,719 --> 00:35:21,200
Speaker 1: was suffering from depression and felt buried under the weight

687
00:35:21,280 --> 00:35:25,040
Speaker 1: of his gambling debts. Then the Shelleys continue to cross

688
00:35:25,080 --> 00:35:28,600
Speaker 1: paths with Lord Byron, though he does refuse to see Claire.

689
00:35:29,640 --> 00:35:33,319
Speaker 1: Mary stepsister Claire, and he treats her with hostility even

690
00:35:33,360 --> 00:35:35,920
Speaker 1: though they have a child together. They have a daughter

691
00:35:36,200 --> 00:35:40,320
Speaker 1: that Claire named Alba. Lord Byron takes custody of the baby,

692
00:35:40,360 --> 00:35:43,919
Speaker 1: renames her Alegra, and then cuts Claire off from ever

693
00:35:43,960 --> 00:35:46,839
Speaker 1: seeing her. It's just like a horrible thing. He takes

694
00:35:46,880 --> 00:35:48,920
Speaker 1: custody of the baby, but then puts her in foster

695
00:35:49,280 --> 00:35:52,759
Speaker 1: like rotating foster homes, and then in a convent. And

696
00:35:53,160 --> 00:35:56,000
Speaker 1: when Allegra is five years old, she dies from typhus

697
00:35:56,040 --> 00:35:59,879
Speaker 1: at the convent, and then Lord Byron dies two years

698
00:36:00,160 --> 00:36:03,880
Speaker 1: later of a fever. So Claire herself lives to be

699
00:36:04,000 --> 00:36:06,520
Speaker 1: eighty and of course mourns her daughter for the rest

700
00:36:06,560 --> 00:36:09,680
Speaker 1: of her life. Then, in eighteen twenty two, three years

701
00:36:09,719 --> 00:36:12,680
Speaker 1: after their son Percy is born, twenty nine year old

702
00:36:12,719 --> 00:36:16,919
Speaker 1: Percy Bishelly drowns in Italy when his sailboat gets caught

703
00:36:16,960 --> 00:36:21,000
Speaker 1: in a storm. So Mary's widowed. She's twenty five years old, Jesus,

704
00:36:21,120 --> 00:36:24,239
Speaker 1: and she will live another three decades. She dies when

705
00:36:24,280 --> 00:36:26,799
Speaker 1: she's fifty three of a suspected brain tumor, but she

706
00:36:26,880 --> 00:36:30,680
Speaker 1: never remarries. The year after Percy's death is when Mary

707
00:36:30,719 --> 00:36:34,120
Speaker 1: finally reveals that she is the author of Frankenstein. She

708
00:36:34,239 --> 00:36:37,759
Speaker 1: basically needs money and they're reissuing the novel so she

709
00:36:37,760 --> 00:36:40,920
Speaker 1: can get some cash. She only receives a small allowance

710
00:36:40,960 --> 00:36:44,240
Speaker 1: from Percy's family as a widow, and she mostly supports

711
00:36:44,280 --> 00:36:46,759
Speaker 1: herself and her young son by writing and taking on

712
00:36:46,920 --> 00:36:50,319
Speaker 1: editing work. But the reveal that Mary is the one

713
00:36:50,360 --> 00:36:55,359
Speaker 1: who wrote Frankenstein is literally unbelievable to some people. Akamen.

714
00:36:56,000 --> 00:36:59,040
Speaker 1: Critics immediately try to give the credit to her late husband,

715
00:36:59,080 --> 00:37:01,279
Speaker 1: thinking there's no way a woman could have written something

716
00:37:01,360 --> 00:37:05,440
Speaker 1: so dark and layered. But Frankenstein is so unmistakably hers.

717
00:37:05,560 --> 00:37:09,080
Speaker 1: It is about grief, alienation, and guilt, things Mary has

718
00:37:09,080 --> 00:37:12,440
Speaker 1: felt since childhood, and she even lifts passages from her

719
00:37:12,480 --> 00:37:16,920
Speaker 1: own personal journal, particularly dispatches about the wet, stormy weather

720
00:37:17,120 --> 00:37:20,279
Speaker 1: in Lake Geneva during the year without a Summer. Even

721
00:37:20,280 --> 00:37:23,720
Speaker 1: the premise itself of generating life from something not living

722
00:37:23,920 --> 00:37:26,960
Speaker 1: echoes the dream Mary had after her first daughter died.

723
00:37:28,160 --> 00:37:29,799
Speaker 2: Yeah, oh my god.

724
00:37:29,800 --> 00:37:32,120
Speaker 1: I dreamt that my little baby came to life. Again,

725
00:37:32,239 --> 00:37:34,040
Speaker 1: that it had been cold, and that we rubbed it

726
00:37:34,080 --> 00:37:38,360
Speaker 1: before the fire and it lived right. Both Mary and

727
00:37:38,400 --> 00:37:41,799
Speaker 1: Frankenstein's monster yearn for the type of unconditional love, a

728
00:37:41,880 --> 00:37:45,640
Speaker 1: motherly love that they've never had. Frankenstein has been interpreted

729
00:37:45,640 --> 00:37:48,719
Speaker 1: by many modern scholars as a feminist text, and one

730
00:37:48,760 --> 00:37:51,640
Speaker 1: that's clearly shaped by Mary's grief and longing for her

731
00:37:51,680 --> 00:37:52,239
Speaker 1: own mother.

732
00:37:52,960 --> 00:37:54,520
Speaker 3: I know, right, it's so sad.

733
00:37:55,000 --> 00:37:58,720
Speaker 1: As biographer Charlotte Gordon puts it, quote, Frankenstein is actually

734
00:37:58,719 --> 00:38:01,440
Speaker 1: a book about women. I would say it's a dystopian

735
00:38:01,480 --> 00:38:04,320
Speaker 1: novel about a world without mothers and a world without

736
00:38:04,360 --> 00:38:08,479
Speaker 1: strong women. Unchecked male ambition, says Mary Shelley is going

737
00:38:08,480 --> 00:38:11,760
Speaker 1: to wreak havoc on the world. And that's the story

738
00:38:11,880 --> 00:38:14,879
Speaker 1: behind one of the greatest works of Gothic fiction, Mary

739
00:38:14,920 --> 00:38:15,640
Speaker 1: Shelley's Franken.

740
00:38:15,719 --> 00:38:21,160
Speaker 2: Still Wow, what a fascinating story that I didn't know.

741
00:38:21,400 --> 00:38:26,280
Speaker 2: I didn't know, right, Oh my god. Good that's incredible,

742
00:38:26,480 --> 00:38:30,240
Speaker 2: so good, So great job, good job for Halloween especially.

743
00:38:30,600 --> 00:38:33,600
Speaker 1: Thank you, and great job marrying Muglashan once again, just

744
00:38:33,719 --> 00:38:34,320
Speaker 1: killing it.

745
00:38:34,320 --> 00:38:35,040
Speaker 3: It's so good.

746
00:38:35,239 --> 00:38:36,560
Speaker 2: That was incredible, great.

747
00:38:36,400 --> 00:38:39,040
Speaker 3: Job, Thank you, well, Happy Halloween, Thank.

748
00:38:38,840 --> 00:38:41,120
Speaker 2: You, Happy Halloween. What are you going to be for

749
00:38:41,239 --> 00:38:41,960
Speaker 2: Halloween this year?

750
00:38:42,200 --> 00:38:42,480
Speaker 3: Home?

751
00:38:42,680 --> 00:38:45,600
Speaker 1: I think this year I'm going to be a person

752
00:38:45,640 --> 00:38:48,960
Speaker 1: who's at home. I told someone what I was going

753
00:38:49,040 --> 00:38:50,359
Speaker 1: to be the other day, and now I can't remember

754
00:38:50,400 --> 00:38:52,840
Speaker 1: what it was. What a great joke that I can't remember?

755
00:38:53,360 --> 00:38:54,840
Speaker 1: What are you going to be for Halloween? To me?

756
00:38:55,520 --> 00:38:58,640
Speaker 2: In a cute Halloween dress with maybe cat ears on

757
00:38:58,760 --> 00:39:00,880
Speaker 2: passing out candy to all the kids in our neighborhood.

758
00:39:00,880 --> 00:39:01,640
Speaker 2: It's my favorite.

759
00:39:01,960 --> 00:39:04,320
Speaker 3: Nice. Oh yeah, you have to go on full on candy.

760
00:39:04,600 --> 00:39:05,959
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's the best.

761
00:39:06,200 --> 00:39:07,359
Speaker 3: Well, enjoy thank you.

762
00:39:07,880 --> 00:39:11,160
Speaker 2: Last year we counted on a clicker and there was

763
00:39:11,400 --> 00:39:14,239
Speaker 2: nine hundred ninety eight kids before we had We ran

764
00:39:14,280 --> 00:39:17,359
Speaker 2: out of candy and had to turn the lights off.

765
00:39:17,400 --> 00:39:19,880
Speaker 3: I know it could have kept going. Yeah, it's fucking weiry.

766
00:39:20,080 --> 00:39:20,520
Speaker 2: I love it.

767
00:39:20,520 --> 00:39:21,600
Speaker 3: It's so crazy.

768
00:39:22,000 --> 00:39:25,399
Speaker 1: Well, I hope everybody that's listening is going to trick

769
00:39:25,480 --> 00:39:27,800
Speaker 1: or treat their asses off and really enjoy themselves.

770
00:39:27,840 --> 00:39:31,080
Speaker 2: That's right, have so much fun. Be safe and watch

771
00:39:31,080 --> 00:39:33,719
Speaker 2: out for spooky spooky, watch out for volcanoes.

772
00:39:34,920 --> 00:39:37,920
Speaker 1: Yeah, watch out for teenagers trying to egg your house,

773
00:39:38,560 --> 00:39:39,120
Speaker 1: it's real.

774
00:39:39,840 --> 00:39:42,080
Speaker 2: And stay sexy and don't get murdered.

775
00:39:42,480 --> 00:39:45,560
Speaker 3: Goodbye, Elvis, Do you want a cookie?

776
00:39:49,480 --> 00:39:51,839
Speaker 4: We come to this legal system for justice, but.

777
00:39:51,840 --> 00:39:54,680
Speaker 2: We don't always get it. I'm Melissa Malbranch.

778
00:39:54,440 --> 00:39:57,040
Speaker 4: And I'm Michael Foot. You might know me as everyone's

779
00:39:57,080 --> 00:40:00,319
Speaker 4: favorite lawyer from TikTok. I'm sick of the this whole.

780
00:40:00,400 --> 00:40:02,439
Speaker 4: Like my life is separate from my job, it ain't.

781
00:40:02,640 --> 00:40:04,919
Speaker 4: I'm a fear Steven the courtroom as well as at home.

782
00:40:05,719 --> 00:40:08,000
Speaker 5: Every week on our podcast, Brief Recess, we take the

783
00:40:08,040 --> 00:40:10,520
Speaker 5: legal world out of the courtroom and into real life,

784
00:40:10,560 --> 00:40:12,400
Speaker 5: like can your boss actually fire you for what you

785
00:40:12,400 --> 00:40:13,200
Speaker 5: post online?

786
00:40:13,239 --> 00:40:15,040
Speaker 4: What happens if ice knocks on your door?

787
00:40:15,160 --> 00:40:16,520
Speaker 5: Oh? What should you do if you get arrested at

788
00:40:16,520 --> 00:40:17,000
Speaker 5: a protest?

789
00:40:17,239 --> 00:40:21,000
Speaker 4: We break down insane headlines, answer real questions from listeners,

790
00:40:21,080 --> 00:40:24,239
Speaker 4: and share wild stories about what really happens in court.

791
00:40:24,920 --> 00:40:25,360
Speaker 3: Friends.

792
00:40:25,400 --> 00:40:28,399
Speaker 5: Please remember, while Michael is a lawyer, he is not.

793
00:40:28,560 --> 00:40:30,759
Speaker 2: Your lawyer unless you want to hire me. I mean

794
00:40:30,760 --> 00:40:31,360
Speaker 2: that's a difference.

795
00:40:31,400 --> 00:40:34,000
Speaker 4: I am everyone has the price, and I'm actually prittent

796
00:40:34,040 --> 00:40:35,240
Speaker 4: ship from.

797
00:40:35,040 --> 00:40:36,160
Speaker 2: The Exactly Right Network.

798
00:40:36,239 --> 00:40:39,920
Speaker 5: Brief Recess premieres on November thirteenth, with new episodes thursdays.

799
00:40:39,960 --> 00:40:41,560
Speaker 5: Watch Brief Recess on YouTube.

800
00:40:41,600 --> 00:40:44,840
Speaker 4: Listen to Brief Recess on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts,

801
00:40:44,920 --> 00:40:51,360
Speaker 4: or wherever you get your podcasts.

802
00:40:53,400 --> 00:40:55,040
Speaker 3: This has been an Exactly Right production.

803
00:40:55,200 --> 00:40:57,880
Speaker 2: Our senior producers are Alejandra Keck and Molly Smith.

804
00:40:57,960 --> 00:40:59,920
Speaker 3: Our editor is Aristotle Osceiveta.

805
00:41:00,120 --> 00:41:02,160
Speaker 2: This episode was mixed by Leona Squalacci.

806
00:41:02,280 --> 00:41:05,160
Speaker 3: Our researchers are Maaron McGlashan and Ali Elkin.

807
00:41:05,280 --> 00:41:08,280
Speaker 2: Email your hometowns to My Favorite Murder at gmail dot com.

808
00:41:08,320 --> 00:41:10,800
Speaker 3: Follow the show on Instagram at my Favorite Murder.

809
00:41:10,840 --> 00:41:14,239
Speaker 2: Listen to My Favorite Murder on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts,

810
00:41:14,320 --> 00:41:15,680
Speaker 2: or wherever you get your podcasts.

811
00:41:15,719 --> 00:41:18,280
Speaker 1: And now you can watch us on exactly Right's YouTube page.

812
00:41:18,320 --> 00:41:20,520
Speaker 3: While you're there, please like and subscribe.

813
00:41:20,760 --> 00:41:21,719
Speaker 4: Good byebye