1 00:00:05,360 --> 00:00:08,280 Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha and welcome to stuff. 2 00:00:08,280 --> 00:00:19,360 Speaker 1: Moon never told your production of I Heart Radio. So 3 00:00:19,440 --> 00:00:23,319 Speaker 1: today we are excited to bring another crew who also 4 00:00:23,400 --> 00:00:26,160 Speaker 1: love to talk about amazing women in history and talk 5 00:00:26,200 --> 00:00:29,480 Speaker 1: about all the amazing or even unknown accomplishments they did. 6 00:00:29,760 --> 00:00:39,360 Speaker 1: So let's welcome Olivia. Olivia him so happy to be here. Yay, Olivia, 7 00:00:39,400 --> 00:00:42,440 Speaker 1: thank you for joining us. Can you introduce yourself for us? Yeah, 8 00:00:42,600 --> 00:00:47,520 Speaker 1: my name's Olivia Michael, and I teach women's studies in Denver, Colorado, 9 00:00:48,080 --> 00:00:50,360 Speaker 1: and I am the host of the What's her Name 10 00:00:50,520 --> 00:00:54,959 Speaker 1: Women's History podcast with my sister and co host Katie Nelson. Ah, 11 00:00:55,120 --> 00:00:57,800 Speaker 1: and we are so excited that you have joined us. 12 00:00:58,200 --> 00:01:00,400 Speaker 1: You and I actually kind of connected because well I 13 00:01:00,400 --> 00:01:02,120 Speaker 1: thought you and I because I was the one handling 14 00:01:02,120 --> 00:01:05,360 Speaker 1: the social media at that point. Um, because we got 15 00:01:05,360 --> 00:01:07,959 Speaker 1: listed together and I was like, oh my god, it's 16 00:01:08,560 --> 00:01:13,440 Speaker 1: be a crossover, so exciting. So can you tell a 17 00:01:13,520 --> 00:01:16,720 Speaker 1: little bit about yourself, our listeners, and about your fantastic 18 00:01:16,760 --> 00:01:19,679 Speaker 1: podcast and the reason you and your sister decided to 19 00:01:19,680 --> 00:01:23,680 Speaker 1: start all of it. Yeah. So I was finishing up 20 00:01:23,680 --> 00:01:26,959 Speaker 1: grad school and jobs were very thin on the ground here. 21 00:01:26,959 --> 00:01:29,240 Speaker 1: I live in Boulder, and like the people bagging your 22 00:01:29,280 --> 00:01:31,920 Speaker 1: groceries have a master's degree, so it's really hard to 23 00:01:31,920 --> 00:01:34,120 Speaker 1: get an academic job here, and I was afraid I 24 00:01:34,120 --> 00:01:37,039 Speaker 1: wasn't gonna find anything. Thank goodness, I did, but um, 25 00:01:37,080 --> 00:01:41,080 Speaker 1: and I didn't want to do nothing with my degree. 26 00:01:41,080 --> 00:01:45,000 Speaker 1: It felt like it felt frustrating to not do anything 27 00:01:45,000 --> 00:01:47,760 Speaker 1: with this degree that I had discerned. And so I 28 00:01:47,840 --> 00:01:51,280 Speaker 1: called Katie, my sister, who is a history professor, and 29 00:01:51,640 --> 00:01:53,960 Speaker 1: we had been talking for a while about doing something 30 00:01:54,200 --> 00:01:56,600 Speaker 1: for women's history since it was the perfect crossover of 31 00:01:56,600 --> 00:02:00,600 Speaker 1: our interests, and so we thought about writing our goals 32 00:02:00,840 --> 00:02:04,279 Speaker 1: or doing a blog or something to get more women's 33 00:02:04,320 --> 00:02:08,359 Speaker 1: history into the world. And at that point, podcasting was 34 00:02:08,520 --> 00:02:11,600 Speaker 1: just about to shift from do you know what a 35 00:02:11,600 --> 00:02:16,120 Speaker 1: podcast is? Two? Do you listen to podcasts? And so 36 00:02:16,360 --> 00:02:19,280 Speaker 1: we realize if we can jump on this early on, 37 00:02:20,280 --> 00:02:23,280 Speaker 1: then we have an advantage over all the other podcasts 38 00:02:23,280 --> 00:02:26,600 Speaker 1: that will start, and this really seems like the venue 39 00:02:27,520 --> 00:02:29,760 Speaker 1: that we're looking for. We want this to be public 40 00:02:30,200 --> 00:02:32,800 Speaker 1: and accessible and something that you can use in classes, 41 00:02:32,840 --> 00:02:36,440 Speaker 1: but also something that your next door neighbor will enjoy. 42 00:02:36,560 --> 00:02:40,680 Speaker 1: And so we decided to do this to try to 43 00:02:40,680 --> 00:02:42,800 Speaker 1: find a way to do a podcast. We knew nothing 44 00:02:42,840 --> 00:02:46,760 Speaker 1: about it at all, and humanities professors learning to audio 45 00:02:46,880 --> 00:02:51,120 Speaker 1: edit was hilarious, so we'll tell you, um and incredibly frustrating, 46 00:02:51,720 --> 00:02:56,120 Speaker 1: But so we we weren't really exactly sure what we 47 00:02:56,200 --> 00:02:59,560 Speaker 1: wanted to focus on. Just you know, we knew women's history, 48 00:02:59,560 --> 00:03:01,560 Speaker 1: and that you were frustrated that you keep hearing the 49 00:03:01,639 --> 00:03:05,000 Speaker 1: same five women's stories over and over again. And there 50 00:03:05,040 --> 00:03:06,600 Speaker 1: are I don't know if you know this, but there 51 00:03:06,600 --> 00:03:13,399 Speaker 1: are more women than five who didn't want There might 52 00:03:13,480 --> 00:03:19,679 Speaker 1: be dozens of women who did stuff throughout history. And 53 00:03:20,280 --> 00:03:22,440 Speaker 1: Katie's idea was that she really wanted to focus on 54 00:03:22,480 --> 00:03:25,639 Speaker 1: all the women that have not been talked about. The 55 00:03:26,000 --> 00:03:30,000 Speaker 1: tagline is fascinating women you've never heard of, and she 56 00:03:30,120 --> 00:03:31,799 Speaker 1: knows this now. I didn't tell her at the time. 57 00:03:31,800 --> 00:03:35,240 Speaker 1: I thought it was a terrible idea, because you have 58 00:03:35,360 --> 00:03:38,160 Speaker 1: has a brilliant idea, but a terrible idea because, as 59 00:03:38,200 --> 00:03:40,400 Speaker 1: you know, it's really hard to get people interested in 60 00:03:40,440 --> 00:03:45,240 Speaker 1: women's history anyway, and doing a whole podcast around women 61 00:03:45,280 --> 00:03:47,760 Speaker 1: that you've never heard of before just seemed like such 62 00:03:47,800 --> 00:03:50,280 Speaker 1: a hard sell to me. And I was worried that 63 00:03:50,280 --> 00:03:52,560 Speaker 1: nobody would listen to it. And then I was walking 64 00:03:52,560 --> 00:03:55,960 Speaker 1: through a graveyard, as one does. I do. I'm informed 65 00:03:56,040 --> 00:04:00,280 Speaker 1: that people don't, but apparently they I do. And I 66 00:04:00,320 --> 00:04:02,840 Speaker 1: was walking through this great old Semitarian boulder and I 67 00:04:02,920 --> 00:04:05,720 Speaker 1: just sort of stumbled across this gravestone that didn't have 68 00:04:05,760 --> 00:04:08,960 Speaker 1: any name on it. All it said was mother. And 69 00:04:09,000 --> 00:04:12,760 Speaker 1: I was just horrified. I mean it, it gutted me 70 00:04:13,320 --> 00:04:15,800 Speaker 1: because I'm I'm a mother and I love being a mother. 71 00:04:15,840 --> 00:04:18,760 Speaker 1: I have three children who I love, and I am 72 00:04:18,800 --> 00:04:23,520 Speaker 1: not mother. I am Olivia, and I am more than 73 00:04:23,560 --> 00:04:27,280 Speaker 1: that identity. And I just it suddenly just felt so 74 00:04:29,200 --> 00:04:33,400 Speaker 1: horrifying to me that this woman was gone. Um. And 75 00:04:33,480 --> 00:04:36,000 Speaker 1: I know that that usually there's a larger gravestone with 76 00:04:36,000 --> 00:04:38,680 Speaker 1: all the names and and you know that it was 77 00:04:38,680 --> 00:04:41,400 Speaker 1: probably attached to something at one point, but nothing else 78 00:04:41,480 --> 00:04:44,160 Speaker 1: was there anymore, and all she was was mother. And 79 00:04:44,240 --> 00:04:48,440 Speaker 1: I freaked out frankly and called Katie on the way 80 00:04:48,480 --> 00:04:50,960 Speaker 1: back to my car out of the reabue. Yes, we're 81 00:04:51,000 --> 00:04:53,599 Speaker 1: doing it, We're doing the Forgotten Women podcast. We have 82 00:04:53,760 --> 00:04:57,640 Speaker 1: to rescue these women from the security and and that 83 00:04:57,760 --> 00:04:59,640 Speaker 1: was it. And she claims that since then that I've 84 00:04:59,680 --> 00:05:01,039 Speaker 1: been four seeing her to do it, but it was 85 00:05:01,080 --> 00:05:07,000 Speaker 1: her idea, so and it's been it's been really fun 86 00:05:07,080 --> 00:05:11,040 Speaker 1: to to do, and it's been way more successful than 87 00:05:11,080 --> 00:05:14,360 Speaker 1: we expected, especially given that setup of you've never heard 88 00:05:14,400 --> 00:05:15,800 Speaker 1: of any of these people, but we're going to make 89 00:05:15,839 --> 00:05:17,680 Speaker 1: you interested in them. And it's been really fun to 90 00:05:17,680 --> 00:05:22,080 Speaker 1: have it take off and and be much much more 91 00:05:22,160 --> 00:05:25,400 Speaker 1: successful than we anticipated it being. I love that. And 92 00:05:25,440 --> 00:05:28,320 Speaker 1: it is the last day of March, which is still 93 00:05:28,360 --> 00:05:35,599 Speaker 1: technically Women's month. We'ven'tgotten it. Oh my god, it's March. March, 94 00:05:39,360 --> 00:05:42,760 Speaker 1: the longest month in the world. It really feels like 95 00:05:42,839 --> 00:05:46,719 Speaker 1: it's been this month for over two years now, because 96 00:05:46,839 --> 00:05:48,920 Speaker 1: I'm like, wait, I've been in quarantine for how long? 97 00:05:48,920 --> 00:05:52,040 Speaker 1: Because it feels like six years. I'm pretty sure I 98 00:05:52,120 --> 00:05:56,120 Speaker 1: died and came back and it's still the same time frame, right, 99 00:05:56,279 --> 00:05:59,000 Speaker 1: it's Groundhogs Day all the time. Well, we were so 100 00:05:59,080 --> 00:06:02,479 Speaker 1: excited when you talking with you about bringing in some 101 00:06:02,520 --> 00:06:04,520 Speaker 1: women that you want to talk about, and can you 102 00:06:04,600 --> 00:06:08,039 Speaker 1: kind of introduce us to who you have brought for 103 00:06:08,080 --> 00:06:12,920 Speaker 1: our listeners. Yeah, so, um, I have picked two of 104 00:06:12,920 --> 00:06:16,800 Speaker 1: our women who I think are some of my favorite 105 00:06:16,920 --> 00:06:20,240 Speaker 1: stories to tell and and it really is hard I mean, 106 00:06:20,279 --> 00:06:22,799 Speaker 1: it's you probably get this one, which is your favorite episode. 107 00:06:22,839 --> 00:06:27,520 Speaker 1: All of them don't make me choose a child. But 108 00:06:27,520 --> 00:06:31,680 Speaker 1: but I think these are two um important ones to 109 00:06:31,760 --> 00:06:34,560 Speaker 1: tell and and some of the most surprising that they 110 00:06:34,600 --> 00:06:38,640 Speaker 1: have been erased or that they have been ignored, because 111 00:06:38,640 --> 00:06:40,960 Speaker 1: some of the women that we profiled are are just 112 00:06:41,040 --> 00:06:44,640 Speaker 1: genuinely like no one knows about them except the person 113 00:06:44,680 --> 00:06:46,479 Speaker 1: that we talked to, because every every episode we have 114 00:06:46,520 --> 00:06:49,280 Speaker 1: a guest, and some of them just genuinely like this 115 00:06:49,400 --> 00:06:52,800 Speaker 1: guest found this person and no one in the world 116 00:06:52,960 --> 00:06:54,960 Speaker 1: knows about them except this person that's talking to us. 117 00:06:54,960 --> 00:06:58,560 Speaker 1: And those are exciting. But these ones are more well 118 00:06:58,640 --> 00:07:02,320 Speaker 1: known in certain circles and certain areas of the world, 119 00:07:02,440 --> 00:07:06,120 Speaker 1: but still just way less celebrated than they should be. 120 00:07:06,480 --> 00:07:10,280 Speaker 1: So I've chosen Harriet Jacobs, who is the author of 121 00:07:10,440 --> 00:07:13,040 Speaker 1: Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl and she 122 00:07:13,200 --> 00:07:16,440 Speaker 1: was a self emancipated slave in the American South. And 123 00:07:16,840 --> 00:07:21,559 Speaker 1: noor Jahan, who was the only Mughal empress to rule 124 00:07:21,760 --> 00:07:25,480 Speaker 1: as a co emperor and sort of even more important 125 00:07:25,480 --> 00:07:31,320 Speaker 1: than her husband. So we're India and the uses a 126 00:07:31,360 --> 00:07:36,960 Speaker 1: couple of centuries apart, and the composite sides of the world, right, 127 00:07:38,080 --> 00:07:43,480 Speaker 1: and completely different situations. One was so yeah, I love 128 00:07:43,560 --> 00:07:46,320 Speaker 1: this variation, So yeah, tell us about Harriet Jacobs. I'm 129 00:07:46,320 --> 00:07:48,120 Speaker 1: not gonna lie. When I was delving into it, we 130 00:07:48,200 --> 00:07:50,800 Speaker 1: kind of had a similar story from our female first 131 00:07:51,040 --> 00:07:54,880 Speaker 1: also named Harriet, right, yeah, yeah, there's a lot of 132 00:07:55,320 --> 00:07:57,440 Speaker 1: I think we even set up the episode with her 133 00:07:57,480 --> 00:08:03,280 Speaker 1: similarity to Harriet Tubman, the famous Harriet, because the one 134 00:08:03,280 --> 00:08:05,360 Speaker 1: of the things that is frustrating about women's history is 135 00:08:05,360 --> 00:08:07,800 Speaker 1: that we have one slot for each story, right, we 136 00:08:07,840 --> 00:08:11,120 Speaker 1: have one slot for a runaway slave, and we have 137 00:08:11,200 --> 00:08:14,160 Speaker 1: one slot for a pilot, and we and we well, 138 00:08:14,200 --> 00:08:17,240 Speaker 1: we already talked about a black woman singer, so now 139 00:08:17,280 --> 00:08:19,360 Speaker 1: there's no more room for them, and there's plenty of 140 00:08:19,480 --> 00:08:23,920 Speaker 1: room for everyone. We talk about all kinds of kings, 141 00:08:24,200 --> 00:08:27,640 Speaker 1: and we don't just have room for one queen. But 142 00:08:27,960 --> 00:08:33,640 Speaker 1: her story is bananas, like, you couldn't make it up. 143 00:08:33,720 --> 00:08:36,480 Speaker 1: If you made it up, no one would believe you. 144 00:08:36,640 --> 00:08:40,000 Speaker 1: And that's what happened, is that her story is so 145 00:08:40,640 --> 00:08:44,080 Speaker 1: amazing and ridiculous that four hundred years everybody thought it 146 00:08:44,200 --> 00:08:47,840 Speaker 1: was fiction. They believed that this must be a composite 147 00:08:47,840 --> 00:08:52,760 Speaker 1: story trying to invoke the worst possible experiences in order 148 00:08:53,000 --> 00:08:57,560 Speaker 1: to serve abolition, and instead it's the absolutely factual narrative 149 00:08:57,720 --> 00:09:02,559 Speaker 1: of this real woman who was an enslaved person who 150 00:09:02,840 --> 00:09:06,560 Speaker 1: emancipated herself and whose story is not at all what 151 00:09:06,600 --> 00:09:09,360 Speaker 1: we expect. And that's what I love about her, is 152 00:09:09,400 --> 00:09:12,600 Speaker 1: that we when we think of in the u S, 153 00:09:12,640 --> 00:09:15,440 Speaker 1: when we think of runaway slave stories, the story is 154 00:09:15,480 --> 00:09:19,120 Speaker 1: that you run away, that you run north, and you, 155 00:09:19,240 --> 00:09:21,080 Speaker 1: if you're lucky, you go all the way to Canada. 156 00:09:21,440 --> 00:09:23,679 Speaker 1: But at least you run to the north, you leave 157 00:09:23,760 --> 00:09:26,199 Speaker 1: the location and you go somewhere else, and that's how 158 00:09:26,240 --> 00:09:31,920 Speaker 1: you become free. And Harriet Jacobs didn't. She ran away 159 00:09:31,960 --> 00:09:36,559 Speaker 1: across the street because she was the man who owned her, 160 00:09:36,559 --> 00:09:41,280 Speaker 1: who probably stole her by forging a will um, which 161 00:09:41,360 --> 00:09:45,559 Speaker 1: is a whole other horrific side of the story. She 162 00:09:45,760 --> 00:09:48,200 Speaker 1: probably should have been freed, but he forged a will 163 00:09:48,320 --> 00:09:51,800 Speaker 1: and he becomes to own her and is at least 164 00:09:52,160 --> 00:09:56,480 Speaker 1: sexually harassing her, and probably more. She can't tell the 165 00:09:56,480 --> 00:10:00,480 Speaker 1: truth about this. In nineteenth century writing eventually reatens to 166 00:10:00,480 --> 00:10:04,120 Speaker 1: sell her children to try to force her to put 167 00:10:04,200 --> 00:10:07,839 Speaker 1: up with his sexual advances, and she knows that as 168 00:10:07,880 --> 00:10:10,800 Speaker 1: long as she is there, he's going to keep trying 169 00:10:10,840 --> 00:10:14,320 Speaker 1: to abuse her children to get to her. But she 170 00:10:14,400 --> 00:10:16,760 Speaker 1: doesn't have any way to get north. She doesn't have 171 00:10:16,800 --> 00:10:19,520 Speaker 1: any funds, she doesn't have a network, she doesn't know 172 00:10:19,559 --> 00:10:24,040 Speaker 1: where the underground railroad is running, and so she runs 173 00:10:24,080 --> 00:10:29,440 Speaker 1: away across the street to her grandmother's house, wherein I 174 00:10:29,520 --> 00:10:31,480 Speaker 1: didn't know this was going to be this appropriate when 175 00:10:31,520 --> 00:10:35,160 Speaker 1: I chose her for this, but where she self isolates 176 00:10:36,200 --> 00:10:42,920 Speaker 1: in a coffin sized space in her grandmother's attic for 177 00:10:43,000 --> 00:10:48,920 Speaker 1: seven years. Now, if we're all losing our minds after 178 00:10:49,080 --> 00:10:52,400 Speaker 1: two weeks, and we can still go to the grocery 179 00:10:52,400 --> 00:10:59,800 Speaker 1: store and we can sit up, she is literally laying 180 00:11:00,040 --> 00:11:02,240 Speaker 1: down in a space that is seven by ten by 181 00:11:02,240 --> 00:11:05,640 Speaker 1: three ft tall, and it's in the eaves of the attic, 182 00:11:05,760 --> 00:11:08,280 Speaker 1: so it's three ft tall at the point, but it 183 00:11:08,400 --> 00:11:11,560 Speaker 1: slopes down to the side. She can lay on one side. 184 00:11:12,000 --> 00:11:14,720 Speaker 1: She can't even lay down and roll over in this 185 00:11:14,800 --> 00:11:22,240 Speaker 1: space for seven years. It's I genuinely don't even know 186 00:11:22,240 --> 00:11:24,960 Speaker 1: how to think about this right. My back's already heart 187 00:11:24,960 --> 00:11:28,679 Speaker 1: and thinking about this, and our our guest Mario and Dell, 188 00:11:28,679 --> 00:11:31,079 Speaker 1: who's wonderful. She's a professor at CE Boulder, and she 189 00:11:31,160 --> 00:11:35,080 Speaker 1: talks about when she teaches this book, she tapes out 190 00:11:35,120 --> 00:11:39,880 Speaker 1: on the floor these dimensions, and the tables in the 191 00:11:39,880 --> 00:11:42,760 Speaker 1: classroom are exactly three feet tall, so she teaches it 192 00:11:42,800 --> 00:11:46,520 Speaker 1: from under the table, just to help them realize how 193 00:11:46,559 --> 00:11:49,240 Speaker 1: small this space is. And you know, after one hour, 194 00:11:49,720 --> 00:11:53,720 Speaker 1: she can barely get up, and I mean very occasionally, 195 00:11:53,760 --> 00:11:55,560 Speaker 1: in the middle of the night, they would sneak her 196 00:11:55,559 --> 00:11:57,839 Speaker 1: down and let her walk around a little, and that's 197 00:11:57,880 --> 00:11:59,960 Speaker 1: the only reason she can walk. But she has physical 198 00:12:00,520 --> 00:12:02,480 Speaker 1: damage to her body for the rest of her life 199 00:12:02,480 --> 00:12:05,680 Speaker 1: from this. She has difficulty walking, and she has back problems, 200 00:12:05,720 --> 00:12:10,160 Speaker 1: and and you know, aside from the the extreme isolation 201 00:12:10,360 --> 00:12:13,000 Speaker 1: and the you know, being forced to be in the space, 202 00:12:13,080 --> 00:12:17,960 Speaker 1: it's also it's North Carolina and it's you know, a 203 00:12:18,040 --> 00:12:21,560 Speaker 1: hundred and twelve degrees and hundred percent humidity, and there 204 00:12:21,559 --> 00:12:24,480 Speaker 1: are bugs. And this is not a modern attic, this 205 00:12:24,559 --> 00:12:28,319 Speaker 1: is just planks, and it's raining and it's hot and 206 00:12:28,360 --> 00:12:34,720 Speaker 1: then it's freezing cold, and she is just entombed alife 207 00:12:35,000 --> 00:12:39,240 Speaker 1: in this space and that that to her, is preferable 208 00:12:39,800 --> 00:12:43,120 Speaker 1: to what looked from the outside as a good situation 209 00:12:44,080 --> 00:12:47,960 Speaker 1: as an enslaved person, I think really drives home. We 210 00:12:48,000 --> 00:12:50,319 Speaker 1: can tell all the narratives we want about, Oh, slavery 211 00:12:50,400 --> 00:12:52,920 Speaker 1: wasn't that bad. It was bad enough that this woman 212 00:12:53,080 --> 00:12:58,240 Speaker 1: spent seven years in a coffin to escape. Yeah, And 213 00:12:58,320 --> 00:13:01,040 Speaker 1: worse than that, to me is that her children didn't 214 00:13:01,080 --> 00:13:03,200 Speaker 1: even know where she was. Her grandmother knows where she is, 215 00:13:03,280 --> 00:13:05,080 Speaker 1: and her uncle knows where she is. No one else 216 00:13:05,120 --> 00:13:08,080 Speaker 1: knows where she is. And so she can see her 217 00:13:08,200 --> 00:13:11,360 Speaker 1: children in the streets, she can hear them visiting her 218 00:13:11,400 --> 00:13:15,360 Speaker 1: grandmother's house, and they don't know she's there. That I 219 00:13:15,520 --> 00:13:21,320 Speaker 1: just can't. I can't imagine. It's brilliant too, because he's 220 00:13:21,360 --> 00:13:25,600 Speaker 1: not looking here. No one would stay here, and he 221 00:13:25,640 --> 00:13:28,760 Speaker 1: immediately assumes she's gone north, and she plays into that. 222 00:13:28,840 --> 00:13:31,839 Speaker 1: She is writing letters as if she's in New York 223 00:13:32,320 --> 00:13:35,200 Speaker 1: and sending them with people to mail back from the north, 224 00:13:35,240 --> 00:13:37,080 Speaker 1: and he is spending all of this time, he keeps 225 00:13:37,120 --> 00:13:39,480 Speaker 1: going north and wasting all this time looking for her 226 00:13:40,040 --> 00:13:43,880 Speaker 1: when she's five hundred feet away and he has no 227 00:13:44,000 --> 00:13:49,080 Speaker 1: ideas she's there. I mean, it's brilliant and horrifying and 228 00:13:49,360 --> 00:13:55,160 Speaker 1: sobering and amazing. Eventually he agrees to sell her children 229 00:13:55,480 --> 00:13:59,320 Speaker 1: to their father, who's a white lawyer in town, and 230 00:13:59,360 --> 00:14:02,480 Speaker 1: so she knows children are safe. He doesn't free his children, 231 00:14:03,080 --> 00:14:06,680 Speaker 1: this lawyer, but at least they're not going to get 232 00:14:06,679 --> 00:14:09,960 Speaker 1: sold to the plantation anymore. So then she eventually does 233 00:14:10,640 --> 00:14:14,880 Speaker 1: go north and gets incredibly involved in abolition. She's running 234 00:14:14,880 --> 00:14:19,600 Speaker 1: reading rooms, she is working on running other slaves. You know, 235 00:14:19,680 --> 00:14:22,400 Speaker 1: she's doing all of this incredible work, but mostly she's 236 00:14:22,400 --> 00:14:27,120 Speaker 1: focusing on education. She was educated because the woman who 237 00:14:27,120 --> 00:14:32,040 Speaker 1: owned her before this man treated her well for an 238 00:14:32,080 --> 00:14:35,160 Speaker 1: enslave person and educated her. And she knew how important 239 00:14:35,240 --> 00:14:36,880 Speaker 1: that was to be able to read and write, to 240 00:14:36,920 --> 00:14:42,360 Speaker 1: be able to escape in a way from the the 241 00:14:42,400 --> 00:14:46,680 Speaker 1: absolute brutal reality of her world. So she starts some 242 00:14:46,760 --> 00:14:51,440 Speaker 1: of the first colored schools. She starts these massive education 243 00:14:51,480 --> 00:14:55,440 Speaker 1: programs for all of these escaping and and freed slaves. 244 00:14:55,920 --> 00:15:00,240 Speaker 1: And she is a huge force for black education in 245 00:15:00,560 --> 00:15:05,120 Speaker 1: the Northern United States and just a hugely important person. 246 00:15:06,400 --> 00:15:13,720 Speaker 1: And so when she publishes this memoir anonymously because she 247 00:15:14,040 --> 00:15:17,040 Speaker 1: at the point she publishes this memoir, she is still 248 00:15:17,960 --> 00:15:23,000 Speaker 1: officially owned by Dr. Norkam her the man who owns her, 249 00:15:23,480 --> 00:15:28,400 Speaker 1: or Dr Norcom's daughter technically owns her, and so she 250 00:15:28,480 --> 00:15:33,320 Speaker 1: publishes this memoir anonymously and no one knows who it is, 251 00:15:33,520 --> 00:15:39,600 Speaker 1: and it eventually gets it's so it's so wild that 252 00:15:39,880 --> 00:15:42,520 Speaker 1: people assume it must be fake and it must be 253 00:15:42,520 --> 00:15:46,080 Speaker 1: written by a white woman. And so the woman who 254 00:15:46,080 --> 00:15:49,040 Speaker 1: writes a preface for her one of her friends, it 255 00:15:49,240 --> 00:15:53,280 Speaker 1: starts being ascribed to her lydia child. And even though 256 00:15:53,280 --> 00:15:55,360 Speaker 1: she keeps saying no, no, no, no no, I didn't 257 00:15:55,360 --> 00:15:57,520 Speaker 1: write this. But that's how it's taught for a hundred 258 00:15:57,560 --> 00:16:00,760 Speaker 1: years in schools that this is fiction by a white woman. 259 00:16:01,520 --> 00:16:06,760 Speaker 1: And it's not until the nineteen eighties someone starts putting 260 00:16:06,760 --> 00:16:10,600 Speaker 1: this together and realizes, wait a minute, this story tracks 261 00:16:10,640 --> 00:16:15,120 Speaker 1: exactly with the things that that important, famous abolitionist educator 262 00:16:15,200 --> 00:16:18,440 Speaker 1: Harriet Jacobs said about her life. Tracks everything down and 263 00:16:18,520 --> 00:16:22,040 Speaker 1: even to the floor plans of the houses and the 264 00:16:22,120 --> 00:16:26,560 Speaker 1: description of all of these places. It matches exactly. And 265 00:16:26,600 --> 00:16:30,120 Speaker 1: they realized this was Harriet Jacobs who wrote this, So 266 00:16:30,160 --> 00:16:34,800 Speaker 1: she was already important and famous, and no one knew 267 00:16:34,840 --> 00:16:40,560 Speaker 1: she wrote this book. It's it's just unbelievable to me. 268 00:16:40,880 --> 00:16:43,400 Speaker 1: So it took over a hundred, like hundred forty years 269 00:16:43,400 --> 00:16:47,280 Speaker 1: almost for them to realize who this belonged to. When 270 00:16:47,560 --> 00:16:49,800 Speaker 1: even though when it first came out it wasn't sold 271 00:16:49,800 --> 00:16:51,560 Speaker 1: as fiction, it was sold as this is a narrative, 272 00:16:51,600 --> 00:16:54,120 Speaker 1: this is a true narrative, but there were some fake 273 00:16:54,200 --> 00:16:57,160 Speaker 1: narratives floating around. And but I think, you know, it's 274 00:16:57,280 --> 00:17:01,080 Speaker 1: very easy for people to say, well, and I'm sure 275 00:17:01,360 --> 00:17:03,840 Speaker 1: that there was an element of this is very well written. 276 00:17:03,960 --> 00:17:07,639 Speaker 1: It must be a white woman, and it's not employing 277 00:17:07,680 --> 00:17:11,440 Speaker 1: all of the tricks that we expect, and and so 278 00:17:11,520 --> 00:17:13,560 Speaker 1: it just it makes me so happy that she's getting 279 00:17:13,600 --> 00:17:15,360 Speaker 1: credit now and it is being taught a lot more 280 00:17:15,359 --> 00:17:19,280 Speaker 1: in classes. But we don't have enough slave narratives, as 281 00:17:19,320 --> 00:17:23,320 Speaker 1: this genre is called already taught, but that when we 282 00:17:23,359 --> 00:17:26,800 Speaker 1: do read them, we read Frederick Douglas is or we 283 00:17:26,960 --> 00:17:30,560 Speaker 1: read these men's narratives. When frankly, her story is the 284 00:17:30,640 --> 00:17:33,960 Speaker 1: wildest story that you have ever heard about. All this, 285 00:17:34,000 --> 00:17:35,800 Speaker 1: I mean, this is the very pair debt. There's so 286 00:17:35,920 --> 00:17:38,160 Speaker 1: much more going on in her story than these tiny 287 00:17:38,200 --> 00:17:43,919 Speaker 1: little vignettes here and you know, running off over and 288 00:17:43,960 --> 00:17:46,240 Speaker 1: over again, nor con traming to find her and the 289 00:17:46,320 --> 00:17:48,280 Speaker 1: white family she's living with, sending her off with their 290 00:17:48,359 --> 00:17:51,439 Speaker 1: baby so that she can escape, like, no, no one 291 00:17:51,440 --> 00:17:53,160 Speaker 1: will stop you if you have a white baby with you, go, 292 00:17:53,160 --> 00:17:58,320 Speaker 1: go go, and just astonishing, and the way that she 293 00:17:58,400 --> 00:18:02,840 Speaker 1: talks about the importance of emancipating herself that one of 294 00:18:02,880 --> 00:18:07,240 Speaker 1: her friends eventually purchases her to free her. And while 295 00:18:07,320 --> 00:18:10,960 Speaker 1: that's a very kind act and she acknowledges like that 296 00:18:11,119 --> 00:18:13,320 Speaker 1: was probably the best way to prevent me from being 297 00:18:13,359 --> 00:18:18,160 Speaker 1: sold back into slavery, it breaks her heart because once 298 00:18:18,200 --> 00:18:21,879 Speaker 1: again she's been you know, after decades of being free 299 00:18:22,200 --> 00:18:27,359 Speaker 1: of her own work, she is again, she said, Now 300 00:18:27,520 --> 00:18:30,480 Speaker 1: history has a bill of sale that Harriett Jacobs was 301 00:18:30,520 --> 00:18:35,920 Speaker 1: sold in the nineteenth century in New York City, when 302 00:18:35,920 --> 00:18:40,239 Speaker 1: I had already freed myself. So it it's complicated and 303 00:18:40,320 --> 00:18:44,119 Speaker 1: it's messy, and it doesn't conform to the ways that 304 00:18:44,160 --> 00:18:46,760 Speaker 1: we like to tell these stories. And this really was 305 00:18:46,800 --> 00:18:51,480 Speaker 1: the first one that pointed out that women have an 306 00:18:51,520 --> 00:18:56,639 Speaker 1: exceptionally specific problem when they are enslaved people. Right that now, 307 00:18:56,720 --> 00:19:00,520 Speaker 1: our standard narrative of slavery includes sexual violence, but didn't 308 00:19:01,000 --> 00:19:03,240 Speaker 1: until that point, no one had talked about it, and 309 00:19:03,280 --> 00:19:06,959 Speaker 1: it was carefully hidden away as a thing that didn't happen, 310 00:19:07,080 --> 00:19:09,280 Speaker 1: and and she's the one who shone a light on 311 00:19:09,280 --> 00:19:14,439 Speaker 1: it and said, women, if you value Christianity, if you 312 00:19:14,600 --> 00:19:18,040 Speaker 1: value fidelity and marriage, you have to abolish slavery, because 313 00:19:18,080 --> 00:19:21,320 Speaker 1: look what's happening right under your nose. It was just 314 00:19:21,400 --> 00:19:27,199 Speaker 1: brilliantly strategic writing too. Yeah. One of the things I 315 00:19:27,280 --> 00:19:30,480 Speaker 1: read while UM we were researching this, there was a 316 00:19:30,560 --> 00:19:34,600 Speaker 1: quote that our researchers said that this was specifically for 317 00:19:34,960 --> 00:19:38,000 Speaker 1: white women and for them to acknowledge that this is 318 00:19:38,040 --> 00:19:41,439 Speaker 1: something that's happening and to call out the patriarchy for 319 00:19:41,640 --> 00:19:45,600 Speaker 1: sexual tyranny over black women like herself, and that she 320 00:19:45,680 --> 00:19:47,840 Speaker 1: was trying to put it in delicate ways, but to 321 00:19:48,000 --> 00:19:50,800 Speaker 1: let them know this is actually happening, and you were 322 00:19:50,840 --> 00:19:54,439 Speaker 1: allowing this to happen, and it's happening in your house, 323 00:19:55,600 --> 00:19:59,760 Speaker 1: because I think until it had been talked about, of course, 324 00:20:00,280 --> 00:20:02,600 Speaker 1: most women knew this was happening because it's happening in 325 00:20:02,640 --> 00:20:05,960 Speaker 1: their house, but it's not spoken about, and so they 326 00:20:06,000 --> 00:20:09,760 Speaker 1: don't know that it's happening everywhere. It's humiliating and shameful 327 00:20:09,800 --> 00:20:12,160 Speaker 1: that it's happening in my house. But once I find 328 00:20:12,160 --> 00:20:15,840 Speaker 1: out that it's happening, everywhere. This is not me. This 329 00:20:15,880 --> 00:20:19,160 Speaker 1: is not a me problem. This is a societal problem. Right. 330 00:20:19,200 --> 00:20:21,600 Speaker 1: It's not that I can't keep my husband's interest, which 331 00:20:21,640 --> 00:20:25,160 Speaker 1: is usually how it was framed, horrifyingly, It's that this 332 00:20:25,400 --> 00:20:30,480 Speaker 1: system is a system of sexual assault that we have, 333 00:20:30,640 --> 00:20:34,000 Speaker 1: you know, codified, and that has to go if we're 334 00:20:34,040 --> 00:20:37,080 Speaker 1: going to call ourselves Christians. Yeah, and I did like 335 00:20:37,119 --> 00:20:41,440 Speaker 1: her point of saying that she almost it almost seemed 336 00:20:41,480 --> 00:20:43,159 Speaker 1: like she was implying, and you can correct me if 337 00:20:43,160 --> 00:20:47,119 Speaker 1: I'm wrong, that it was a lesser evil to have, uh, 338 00:20:47,320 --> 00:20:51,960 Speaker 1: this love affair with this white man, definitely in order 339 00:20:52,080 --> 00:20:55,280 Speaker 1: to kind of validate what's happening and to actually pull 340 00:20:55,320 --> 00:20:59,080 Speaker 1: herself from that situation as well. Right, Yeah, that her 341 00:20:59,240 --> 00:21:03,359 Speaker 1: her only choice chices were succumb to. I mean, in 342 00:21:03,400 --> 00:21:06,080 Speaker 1: the story she doesn't succumb, but right, that's not a 343 00:21:06,160 --> 00:21:09,639 Speaker 1: choice you can make, uh to her owner who is 344 00:21:09,720 --> 00:21:14,920 Speaker 1: trying to rape her or have an affair consensually. Whatever. 345 00:21:15,000 --> 00:21:17,560 Speaker 1: We can argue about what consent means in this scenario 346 00:21:18,040 --> 00:21:21,720 Speaker 1: with a white man who at least might be able 347 00:21:21,760 --> 00:21:25,360 Speaker 1: to buy her children his children, right and might at 348 00:21:25,480 --> 00:21:30,000 Speaker 1: least protect them from this system in a tiny amount, 349 00:21:30,400 --> 00:21:33,520 Speaker 1: and might at least give her some semblance of agency 350 00:21:33,600 --> 00:21:35,760 Speaker 1: that she made a choice to do this, and but 351 00:21:35,880 --> 00:21:38,280 Speaker 1: she knows that very well that this is a choice 352 00:21:38,280 --> 00:21:40,760 Speaker 1: that will be hugely frowned on by these very devout 353 00:21:40,840 --> 00:21:44,440 Speaker 1: Christian abolitionist women she's writing to, and that balancing act 354 00:21:44,520 --> 00:21:48,560 Speaker 1: she has to do of that's the point. Look, what 355 00:21:48,640 --> 00:21:51,720 Speaker 1: choices you left me? You left me no choices. My 356 00:21:51,800 --> 00:21:55,760 Speaker 1: choices are affair. Her owner wouldn't let her marry the 357 00:21:55,760 --> 00:21:59,400 Speaker 1: man she wanted to marry, a free black man, so 358 00:21:59,520 --> 00:22:03,359 Speaker 1: she does have choices outside of these ones, and she 359 00:22:03,480 --> 00:22:06,639 Speaker 1: made the best choice she could, even though she says repeatedly, 360 00:22:06,760 --> 00:22:10,160 Speaker 1: knowing her audience, I know this was wrong, but it 361 00:22:10,200 --> 00:22:14,080 Speaker 1: was less wrong than the other choices. And that old 362 00:22:14,119 --> 00:22:16,679 Speaker 1: man was Sam tread Well Sawyer, who ended up being 363 00:22:16,680 --> 00:22:20,280 Speaker 1: in the US House of Representatives, right right, Yeah, the 364 00:22:20,320 --> 00:22:23,960 Speaker 1: man who significance, Yeah, and who was sent who bought 365 00:22:24,000 --> 00:22:27,719 Speaker 1: his children and then sent them to work for his 366 00:22:27,760 --> 00:22:33,280 Speaker 1: white children as enslaved people. I mean they treated them 367 00:22:33,320 --> 00:22:37,080 Speaker 1: a little better. No, they didn't. They didn't. He bought 368 00:22:37,080 --> 00:22:40,000 Speaker 1: his children and put them to work. It's just it's 369 00:22:40,119 --> 00:22:42,439 Speaker 1: not the White Night story that we wanted to be, 370 00:22:42,520 --> 00:22:46,160 Speaker 1: which is an important thing to pay attention to, you know, 371 00:22:46,400 --> 00:22:48,520 Speaker 1: and that's kind of there are no white saviors in 372 00:22:48,640 --> 00:22:51,240 Speaker 1: this story. Yeah, and that was kind of her point, 373 00:22:51,400 --> 00:22:54,080 Speaker 1: is Hey, I think quote she said, to tell you 374 00:22:54,119 --> 00:22:57,240 Speaker 1: the truth, let it cost me what it may. Yeah, 375 00:22:57,600 --> 00:23:00,520 Speaker 1: and and that makes a lot of sense. This, like, 376 00:23:00,880 --> 00:23:03,480 Speaker 1: there's no good situation. This is the best that I 377 00:23:03,480 --> 00:23:06,520 Speaker 1: could do. And now I'm able to fight for my 378 00:23:06,720 --> 00:23:09,560 Speaker 1: rise and for others and let people know the atrocities 379 00:23:09,560 --> 00:23:11,840 Speaker 1: that are happening that you are turning a blind eye to, 380 00:23:12,480 --> 00:23:16,560 Speaker 1: which is really significant of a conversation in itself. Yeah, 381 00:23:16,600 --> 00:23:19,840 Speaker 1: it's I mean, aside from the story, which is all 382 00:23:19,920 --> 00:23:22,159 Speaker 1: very I mean, it seems it's the first time you 383 00:23:22,240 --> 00:23:25,159 Speaker 1: read it. You know, students reading go, this can't be true. 384 00:23:25,359 --> 00:23:29,560 Speaker 1: This is exaggerated, it's verified, it's fact checked. She is 385 00:23:29,720 --> 00:23:34,919 Speaker 1: underplaying the story, if anything. They literally said that she 386 00:23:35,040 --> 00:23:37,399 Speaker 1: was kind of trying to make it mild enough that 387 00:23:37,440 --> 00:23:40,280 Speaker 1: people would read it, right, Yeah, you can't tell the 388 00:23:40,280 --> 00:23:43,760 Speaker 1: truth about what really happened, or it'll be too vile 389 00:23:43,920 --> 00:23:47,240 Speaker 1: for ladies to read. I mean, and walking that line 390 00:23:47,280 --> 00:23:51,280 Speaker 1: of making it voyeuristically exciting enough that people want to 391 00:23:51,320 --> 00:23:53,800 Speaker 1: read it who might not be interested in abolition, but 392 00:23:53,960 --> 00:23:58,320 Speaker 1: also not selling out your own dignity. I mean, it's 393 00:23:58,359 --> 00:24:02,359 Speaker 1: a masterful of writing. It really is. And and the 394 00:24:02,400 --> 00:24:06,320 Speaker 1: woman who edited it, Lydia Child. Again, often even when 395 00:24:06,359 --> 00:24:09,000 Speaker 1: they said once they realized, oh, she didn't write this, 396 00:24:09,040 --> 00:24:11,000 Speaker 1: Harriett Jacobs right it, there are a lot of people 397 00:24:11,040 --> 00:24:14,080 Speaker 1: who still say, well, she heavily edited, but she herself 398 00:24:14,119 --> 00:24:16,520 Speaker 1: was very upfront and said, I did almost nothing. I 399 00:24:16,600 --> 00:24:20,679 Speaker 1: moved a few things around this. She wrote this. I 400 00:24:20,720 --> 00:24:24,360 Speaker 1: didn't fix this. This is how she wrote it. Um 401 00:24:24,440 --> 00:24:29,359 Speaker 1: and that urged to delegitimize her voice. I think is 402 00:24:30,040 --> 00:24:34,200 Speaker 1: it tells us a lot and it's upsetting. So, I mean, 403 00:24:34,200 --> 00:24:38,239 Speaker 1: it's an amazing book. I really strongly recommend everybody read it. 404 00:24:38,240 --> 00:24:43,439 Speaker 1: It's just astonishing from a plot perspective, from a literary perspective, 405 00:24:43,960 --> 00:24:47,320 Speaker 1: from a history perspective, it's a gem of a book. 406 00:24:48,960 --> 00:24:52,760 Speaker 1: And her daughter went on to become an extremely important educator. 407 00:24:52,800 --> 00:24:55,800 Speaker 1: And I mean she just she really she made a 408 00:24:56,040 --> 00:25:00,640 Speaker 1: powerful impact on the world and changed it in really 409 00:25:00,680 --> 00:25:04,320 Speaker 1: important ways, even when no one knew that she wrote this. 410 00:25:04,760 --> 00:25:06,960 Speaker 1: And now that we put these things together, that this 411 00:25:07,040 --> 00:25:12,400 Speaker 1: woman wrote this book, that's it's amazing. So Yeah, Harriet Jacobs. 412 00:25:13,080 --> 00:25:18,119 Speaker 1: I hope she deserves a lot more attention she's getting. 413 00:25:18,320 --> 00:25:22,640 Speaker 1: And she died in d C. Right, Yeah, and she 414 00:25:23,200 --> 00:25:26,440 Speaker 1: was a significant impact in just women in bondage and slavery. 415 00:25:26,520 --> 00:25:31,119 Speaker 1: And again, the horrendous things that were are happening that 416 00:25:31,160 --> 00:25:35,359 Speaker 1: people oftentimes want to ignore because it's just you know, shames, 417 00:25:35,400 --> 00:25:44,080 Speaker 1: there sensibilities. Yeah, the the determination of so many people 418 00:25:45,200 --> 00:25:48,919 Speaker 1: to clean this up and too, to convince ourselves that 419 00:25:49,000 --> 00:25:54,080 Speaker 1: slavery wasn't that bad. It was so much worse than 420 00:25:54,119 --> 00:25:56,760 Speaker 1: you can imagine. Imagine the worst thing you can imagine 421 00:25:56,800 --> 00:25:59,320 Speaker 1: about slavery, and it was worse than that. And just 422 00:25:59,480 --> 00:26:03,600 Speaker 1: let's just go it's slavery the word of itself. It's 423 00:26:03,640 --> 00:26:06,920 Speaker 1: gonna be bad. That's such an obnoxious conversation. And saying 424 00:26:06,920 --> 00:26:09,800 Speaker 1: ownership is not a bad thing, right, well, as long 425 00:26:09,840 --> 00:26:12,840 Speaker 1: as you know, as long as they weren't physically beaten, 426 00:26:13,000 --> 00:26:16,119 Speaker 1: it wasn't that. But no, you owned a person, You 427 00:26:16,160 --> 00:26:18,920 Speaker 1: own a person. They didn't get paid, they didn't get 428 00:26:18,960 --> 00:26:21,560 Speaker 1: any kind of compensation, they didn't get help, they weren't 429 00:26:21,560 --> 00:26:25,960 Speaker 1: treated as equals. That means as bad and whatever. The 430 00:26:26,000 --> 00:26:29,679 Speaker 1: greatest situation is, Yeah, if you wouldn't be willing to 431 00:26:29,720 --> 00:26:34,320 Speaker 1: trade right now. Then it was bad. We have some 432 00:26:34,359 --> 00:26:36,200 Speaker 1: more of our conversation, but first we have a quick 433 00:26:36,200 --> 00:26:51,600 Speaker 1: break for a word from our sponsor, and we're back. 434 00:26:51,640 --> 00:26:54,680 Speaker 1: Thank you sponsor. So let's get back into it now. 435 00:26:54,760 --> 00:27:00,040 Speaker 1: Let's go back even further into the past side of 436 00:27:00,119 --> 00:27:03,520 Speaker 1: the world. Yes, and tell us about our next famous 437 00:27:03,720 --> 00:27:08,440 Speaker 1: fabulous woman. Yeah, nor Johan. And first nor Johan, I 438 00:27:08,440 --> 00:27:11,680 Speaker 1: had never heard of her until I did this interview 439 00:27:11,880 --> 00:27:15,240 Speaker 1: for this episode with Dr Ruby Lall of Emory University, 440 00:27:15,240 --> 00:27:19,880 Speaker 1: who's wonderful and Katie teaches this period in history a lot, 441 00:27:19,920 --> 00:27:21,959 Speaker 1: so she had heard of her, but there was still 442 00:27:22,000 --> 00:27:24,040 Speaker 1: this whole aspect of the story that she had never heard. 443 00:27:24,560 --> 00:27:29,000 Speaker 1: Because nor John is wildly famous in India. She is 444 00:27:29,359 --> 00:27:34,199 Speaker 1: a household name. Her story is the story that you 445 00:27:34,240 --> 00:27:37,200 Speaker 1: hear from your grandmother and your mother. It is a famous, 446 00:27:37,280 --> 00:27:42,679 Speaker 1: famous story. But her story doesn't tell any of her story. 447 00:27:43,400 --> 00:27:47,880 Speaker 1: The story that is famous about nor Johan is about 448 00:27:47,880 --> 00:27:52,240 Speaker 1: her falling in love with Emperor John Gear and then 449 00:27:52,280 --> 00:27:56,639 Speaker 1: marrying him. And that's her story, like she she married 450 00:27:56,720 --> 00:28:00,639 Speaker 1: him the end, and it's a beautiful love story. I 451 00:28:00,680 --> 00:28:03,480 Speaker 1: mean it is, and I think that's important too, for 452 00:28:04,920 --> 00:28:08,159 Speaker 1: especially those who study European history and Western history, have 453 00:28:08,240 --> 00:28:11,280 Speaker 1: this idea that like love wasn't a thing courtly, you know, 454 00:28:11,359 --> 00:28:13,639 Speaker 1: until courtly love, no one fell in love. Nonsense. The 455 00:28:13,640 --> 00:28:17,080 Speaker 1: Eastern world has been talking about love for thousands of years. 456 00:28:17,119 --> 00:28:20,920 Speaker 1: But this love story, this really powerful genre of love story, 457 00:28:21,160 --> 00:28:23,840 Speaker 1: is an important thing to talk about in the way 458 00:28:23,920 --> 00:28:28,840 Speaker 1: that women influence society's But it's so frustrating because this 459 00:28:28,880 --> 00:28:32,960 Speaker 1: woman was amazing and none of the stuff she did 460 00:28:33,080 --> 00:28:37,240 Speaker 1: is in her story that everyone knows. And so Ruby 461 00:28:37,320 --> 00:28:41,040 Speaker 1: Law's biography, which is called Empress, and it's just amazing. 462 00:28:41,120 --> 00:28:44,959 Speaker 1: It's so great, and I recommend it really strongly takes 463 00:28:45,080 --> 00:28:48,680 Speaker 1: all of that and puts it all back together. And 464 00:28:49,240 --> 00:28:52,959 Speaker 1: as not a historian myself, but someone who has studied 465 00:28:52,960 --> 00:28:54,880 Speaker 1: a lot of history and women's studies in one of 466 00:28:54,920 --> 00:28:59,280 Speaker 1: these related fields, I love when historians acknowledge the power 467 00:28:59,400 --> 00:29:03,040 Speaker 1: of literally true, the power of mythology, the power of story, 468 00:29:03,120 --> 00:29:06,120 Speaker 1: and that it's not just written off as well, that's 469 00:29:06,120 --> 00:29:09,280 Speaker 1: the legend, yeah, but the legend has affected the history. 470 00:29:09,920 --> 00:29:12,719 Speaker 1: She is as much her legendary self as she was 471 00:29:12,760 --> 00:29:15,600 Speaker 1: her historical self now, and so she brings all of 472 00:29:15,640 --> 00:29:18,240 Speaker 1: those things in together and talks about the intersection of 473 00:29:18,280 --> 00:29:21,600 Speaker 1: those in ways that I really love, and but then 474 00:29:21,640 --> 00:29:27,000 Speaker 1: also tells us the unbelievable forgotten facts about Nora Jahn, 475 00:29:27,520 --> 00:29:34,760 Speaker 1: such as she was a world renowned tiger hunter and 476 00:29:34,920 --> 00:29:39,840 Speaker 1: she once shot four man eating tigers with six musket 477 00:29:39,880 --> 00:29:45,360 Speaker 1: shots from the top of an elephant. I mean, there's 478 00:29:45,440 --> 00:29:48,320 Speaker 1: not a better story in the world than that, no 479 00:29:48,360 --> 00:29:53,800 Speaker 1: matter what else happened, Like just those sentences. Tier Queen. 480 00:29:54,680 --> 00:29:59,360 Speaker 1: Yeah she was. I mean she was at the time 481 00:30:00,520 --> 00:30:04,480 Speaker 1: when only the king, only the emperor is allowed to 482 00:30:04,680 --> 00:30:09,960 Speaker 1: kill a tiger, and she does it, which is how 483 00:30:10,040 --> 00:30:14,240 Speaker 1: we know she was the emperor. She was co regent 484 00:30:14,320 --> 00:30:17,400 Speaker 1: with her husband, who was either ill or alcoholic or 485 00:30:17,440 --> 00:30:20,239 Speaker 1: maybe both and kind of out of the picture for 486 00:30:20,280 --> 00:30:22,360 Speaker 1: a lot of it. She took over and she is 487 00:30:22,480 --> 00:30:27,000 Speaker 1: running it and instead of thankfully running scary side chose 488 00:30:27,000 --> 00:30:30,680 Speaker 1: who's she is rescuing people from man eating tigers on 489 00:30:30,680 --> 00:30:35,680 Speaker 1: the rampage. But that, I mean, I just muskets have 490 00:30:35,800 --> 00:30:38,920 Speaker 1: barely been invented. No one knows how to shoot them, 491 00:30:38,920 --> 00:30:41,880 Speaker 1: and if anyone has ever shot an old school like 492 00:30:42,000 --> 00:30:47,240 Speaker 1: black powder rifle, musket something, they are difficult and they 493 00:30:47,280 --> 00:30:50,440 Speaker 1: are wildly inaccurate. I mean, if you hit anything within 494 00:30:50,520 --> 00:30:55,320 Speaker 1: an eight foot range, you did well. And she kills 495 00:30:55,400 --> 00:31:00,520 Speaker 1: four man eating tigers in one day with six shots 496 00:31:01,040 --> 00:31:05,160 Speaker 1: from an elephant, which you know is not standing there 497 00:31:05,240 --> 00:31:07,960 Speaker 1: nicely while tigers nippet its heels and she's shooting a 498 00:31:08,040 --> 00:31:11,040 Speaker 1: musket like this is an impossible job and she does it. 499 00:31:12,200 --> 00:31:15,000 Speaker 1: That's that woman is. I don't care what else she did. 500 00:31:15,080 --> 00:31:19,880 Speaker 1: That woman I want to learn about, right, and but 501 00:31:20,080 --> 00:31:24,080 Speaker 1: she was absolutely incredible. She is taking over this very 502 00:31:24,160 --> 00:31:30,240 Speaker 1: male dominated society and ruling and stepping into the role 503 00:31:30,280 --> 00:31:35,320 Speaker 1: of emperor in very public and meaningful ways, and and 504 00:31:35,400 --> 00:31:40,240 Speaker 1: doing it effectively that people love her. She's mint minting 505 00:31:40,280 --> 00:31:42,160 Speaker 1: coins in her own name, which is the number one 506 00:31:42,200 --> 00:31:44,959 Speaker 1: sign that you know, that's how in most of history 507 00:31:45,000 --> 00:31:47,040 Speaker 1: we know who was in charge there on the coin. 508 00:31:47,760 --> 00:31:50,640 Speaker 1: And she's doing executive orders with her own seal, not 509 00:31:50,720 --> 00:31:56,520 Speaker 1: her husband's name, her name. Just really astonishing power that 510 00:31:56,600 --> 00:32:01,600 Speaker 1: she's wielding. But then, like her husband gets kidnapped by 511 00:32:01,720 --> 00:32:04,040 Speaker 1: people who are trying to take over, probably one of 512 00:32:04,080 --> 00:32:07,040 Speaker 1: his sons is involved trying to undermine his his rule, 513 00:32:07,640 --> 00:32:09,560 Speaker 1: and rather than send the army or send one of 514 00:32:09,560 --> 00:32:13,760 Speaker 1: her stepsons or do political channels or whatever you know, 515 00:32:14,000 --> 00:32:17,840 Speaker 1: a good wife he should do. She gets on another 516 00:32:17,880 --> 00:32:23,600 Speaker 1: elephant and storms off across India to go rescue him. 517 00:32:23,680 --> 00:32:25,640 Speaker 1: And then when her stepson sells her out and it 518 00:32:25,680 --> 00:32:29,320 Speaker 1: doesn't work, she gets captured, and she's now captured with him. 519 00:32:29,520 --> 00:32:32,920 Speaker 1: Rather than feeling bad about that, she goes, great, I'm 520 00:32:32,960 --> 00:32:36,480 Speaker 1: inside the machine. Now this will be even easier, and 521 00:32:36,560 --> 00:32:41,160 Speaker 1: she stages an elaborate like escape coup from inside the 522 00:32:41,160 --> 00:32:45,480 Speaker 1: prison camp, raises an army under the noses of her captors. 523 00:32:45,520 --> 00:32:48,640 Speaker 1: Because she's a woman, she couldn't be and escapes and 524 00:32:48,760 --> 00:32:53,240 Speaker 1: rides triumphantly back into town with her husband that she 525 00:32:53,320 --> 00:32:58,480 Speaker 1: has saved. I mean, it's just it's made up, crazy, 526 00:32:58,760 --> 00:33:04,400 Speaker 1: hilarious nonsense, and it absolutely happened. It's impossible that you 527 00:33:04,480 --> 00:33:07,320 Speaker 1: did that, and she did it. She was just the coolest, 528 00:33:07,720 --> 00:33:12,600 Speaker 1: unstoppable force of this Mughal empress. She dressed like a man. 529 00:33:13,200 --> 00:33:16,680 Speaker 1: She would go hunting. She sometimes dressed like a man, 530 00:33:16,760 --> 00:33:19,200 Speaker 1: but other times was like the peak of fashion. She 531 00:33:19,280 --> 00:33:22,200 Speaker 1: was a fashion designer and influenced the entire fashion of 532 00:33:22,280 --> 00:33:26,520 Speaker 1: a hundred years of India. She designed jewelry, She was 533 00:33:26,560 --> 00:33:31,560 Speaker 1: an artist. She designed tombs, she designed buildings. She shifted 534 00:33:31,560 --> 00:33:35,760 Speaker 1: the course of Indian architecture forever. Like the most famous building, 535 00:33:35,880 --> 00:33:39,280 Speaker 1: the taj Mahal, is based on the tomb she built 536 00:33:39,320 --> 00:33:44,080 Speaker 1: for her parents that was wild and ridiculous white marble. 537 00:33:44,160 --> 00:33:47,040 Speaker 1: Who uses white marble, We use red sandstone. And she 538 00:33:47,240 --> 00:33:51,560 Speaker 1: made up this new hole entirely different form and then 539 00:33:51,560 --> 00:33:53,640 Speaker 1: everyone went, oh, it's kind of cool and copied it. 540 00:33:53,680 --> 00:33:56,080 Speaker 1: And that's where we get the taj Mahal from her 541 00:33:56,760 --> 00:34:03,520 Speaker 1: step son. She was just this massive force in society 542 00:34:03,640 --> 00:34:11,720 Speaker 1: and that she's known for getting married. It's frustrating because 543 00:34:11,760 --> 00:34:14,359 Speaker 1: not only well, yes, she got married, but she kind 544 00:34:14,360 --> 00:34:18,560 Speaker 1: of fixed the mistakes have been occurring or what are 545 00:34:18,560 --> 00:34:21,399 Speaker 1: the card under the husband's reign, who again was either 546 00:34:21,760 --> 00:34:24,680 Speaker 1: sick or an alcoholic or whatever whatnot, And she was like, no, 547 00:34:24,800 --> 00:34:27,839 Speaker 1: I got this, let me let me not. On top 548 00:34:27,880 --> 00:34:29,719 Speaker 1: of that, she's like, and you're gonna see me do it. 549 00:34:30,560 --> 00:34:33,560 Speaker 1: You're going to see that no one making this change right, 550 00:34:33,600 --> 00:34:36,760 Speaker 1: and that everybody apparently was cool with it until until 551 00:34:36,760 --> 00:34:38,879 Speaker 1: she wrote off on elephant at the head of the army. 552 00:34:38,920 --> 00:34:41,600 Speaker 1: That seems to have been the line when her stepson went, okay, 553 00:34:41,760 --> 00:34:45,399 Speaker 1: stop it no, I'm in charge now you're not a man. 554 00:34:46,120 --> 00:34:50,479 Speaker 1: But I mean, it's just it's amazing, and I think 555 00:34:50,480 --> 00:34:54,680 Speaker 1: it it illustrates the point that we we as soon 556 00:34:54,719 --> 00:34:56,920 Speaker 1: as she is out of power, they erase her again. 557 00:34:57,200 --> 00:35:01,000 Speaker 1: And they not only erase her, they base all women, 558 00:35:01,040 --> 00:35:03,439 Speaker 1: that all women are chaotic and unstable, and that's why 559 00:35:03,440 --> 00:35:06,520 Speaker 1: she was chaotic and unstable, and therefore she was terrible 560 00:35:06,600 --> 00:35:09,080 Speaker 1: and we should not talk about her anymore. And it 561 00:35:09,480 --> 00:35:14,160 Speaker 1: this very effective erasure that doesn't just erase her, that 562 00:35:14,200 --> 00:35:16,400 Speaker 1: we do this over and over and over again. We 563 00:35:16,480 --> 00:35:20,160 Speaker 1: act like women weren't ever in power. And this comes 564 00:35:20,200 --> 00:35:23,120 Speaker 1: up in the podcast all the time that we pretend 565 00:35:23,360 --> 00:35:27,680 Speaker 1: that women ruling is an aberration that just every once 566 00:35:27,680 --> 00:35:29,799 Speaker 1: in a while we get a weird queen victoria, but 567 00:35:29,840 --> 00:35:32,320 Speaker 1: it's not the norm, and it doesn't happen very often, 568 00:35:32,320 --> 00:35:36,240 Speaker 1: and it's and we shouldn't encourage it. And that's nonsense. 569 00:35:36,400 --> 00:35:38,800 Speaker 1: Women are in power all over the place all the time. 570 00:35:39,640 --> 00:35:42,560 Speaker 1: And one of our other guests, Pam Toler, who's wonderful. 571 00:35:42,640 --> 00:35:45,880 Speaker 1: She has a book called Women Warriors that's fantastic. She 572 00:35:46,360 --> 00:35:48,359 Speaker 1: Um was a guest on another episode, but she talked 573 00:35:48,400 --> 00:35:50,480 Speaker 1: about when she went into writing that book, she had 574 00:35:50,480 --> 00:35:53,760 Speaker 1: a list of, you know, a few dozen famous warrior 575 00:35:53,800 --> 00:35:55,920 Speaker 1: women that she knew about, and she stood by the 576 00:35:56,040 --> 00:35:58,560 Speaker 1: end she had thousands. She had thousands of names of 577 00:35:58,600 --> 00:36:01,440 Speaker 1: these women who were rulers, warriors and broke all of 578 00:36:01,440 --> 00:36:04,759 Speaker 1: these norms, which means they aren't norms. I mean, it 579 00:36:04,840 --> 00:36:08,920 Speaker 1: happens all the time, but we every time we pretend like, oh, 580 00:36:08,920 --> 00:36:12,279 Speaker 1: this was unusual, and then five years later happens again 581 00:36:12,320 --> 00:36:14,960 Speaker 1: and go, oh, unheard of, never seen this happen before. 582 00:36:15,360 --> 00:36:18,360 Speaker 1: Maybe pay attention that it happens a lot and it's normal. 583 00:36:19,840 --> 00:36:21,759 Speaker 1: But as long as we keep women convinced that women 584 00:36:21,800 --> 00:36:23,840 Speaker 1: have never been in power, women don't ask for power, 585 00:36:25,800 --> 00:36:30,239 Speaker 1: it's easier to insist that it's not normal. I think 586 00:36:30,239 --> 00:36:33,200 Speaker 1: that's one of the conversations that we've had with past guests, 587 00:36:33,320 --> 00:36:36,480 Speaker 1: as the fact that there's always a discovery that when 588 00:36:36,480 --> 00:36:38,400 Speaker 1: we think we know who did the first, there was 589 00:36:38,440 --> 00:36:40,840 Speaker 1: also someone else who may have done that first, and 590 00:36:40,880 --> 00:36:44,160 Speaker 1: we just didn't recognize it until then because they weren't 591 00:36:44,160 --> 00:36:46,600 Speaker 1: given the credit for the world that they had done. 592 00:36:47,120 --> 00:36:49,359 Speaker 1: And then as we keep continuing to dig more and more, 593 00:36:49,360 --> 00:36:52,400 Speaker 1: we're realizing there's a lot of significant people is specifically 594 00:36:52,400 --> 00:36:54,760 Speaker 1: women are those who identify as women are non binary 595 00:36:55,000 --> 00:36:58,560 Speaker 1: that just got passed over, right, or at least just 596 00:36:58,600 --> 00:37:03,359 Speaker 1: the their ideas stolen or their the credit taken from them, right. Yeah, 597 00:37:03,400 --> 00:37:06,920 Speaker 1: I mean even even when we give women credit, it's 598 00:37:06,960 --> 00:37:10,440 Speaker 1: often at the expense of other women, like the famously 599 00:37:10,520 --> 00:37:14,600 Speaker 1: and I adore her. Mary Shelley invented science fiction, as 600 00:37:14,640 --> 00:37:19,360 Speaker 1: we all are told. No, she didn't. Margaret Cavendish invented 601 00:37:19,400 --> 00:37:23,840 Speaker 1: science fiction two years earlier, but we don't pay attention 602 00:37:23,880 --> 00:37:25,640 Speaker 1: to it, you know, and I love Mary Shelley, but 603 00:37:25,680 --> 00:37:28,800 Speaker 1: she didn't invent science fiction. It was a thing well before, 604 00:37:29,239 --> 00:37:32,680 Speaker 1: and and that we don't talk about the many, many 605 00:37:32,760 --> 00:37:35,400 Speaker 1: generations and layers of women who have been doing stuff. 606 00:37:35,440 --> 00:37:39,280 Speaker 1: We picked the one story and and Mary shelley story 607 00:37:39,320 --> 00:37:41,680 Speaker 1: is amazing and fantastic and we should tell it, but 608 00:37:41,719 --> 00:37:45,759 Speaker 1: we don't need to add things that, you know, Frankenstein 609 00:37:45,880 --> 00:37:47,600 Speaker 1: stands on its own. Whether it was the first time 610 00:37:47,640 --> 00:37:50,360 Speaker 1: someone had done something like that or not, it's it 611 00:37:50,520 --> 00:37:54,600 Speaker 1: is peak science fiction, but it's not the person. Yeah, 612 00:37:54,640 --> 00:37:57,479 Speaker 1: and I do love when we talk about these amazing women, 613 00:37:57,480 --> 00:37:59,920 Speaker 1: whether it's true or not. We do have this fantasized 614 00:38:00,040 --> 00:38:03,799 Speaker 1: level of and and we know beauty does accentuate and 615 00:38:03,880 --> 00:38:07,480 Speaker 1: help give some privilege. But the fact Nor John was 616 00:38:07,560 --> 00:38:10,640 Speaker 1: known as a beauty as one of the first things 617 00:38:10,680 --> 00:38:14,440 Speaker 1: as you recognize, and then all of the soap opera backgrounds, yea, 618 00:38:15,320 --> 00:38:18,480 Speaker 1: that she was in love with the emperor but had 619 00:38:18,520 --> 00:38:21,000 Speaker 1: to marry someone else. And I mean, it's an unusual 620 00:38:21,000 --> 00:38:23,600 Speaker 1: story anyway, because now the Empress is someone who is 621 00:38:24,160 --> 00:38:28,560 Speaker 1: a widow, right, she's already been married. That's not something 622 00:38:28,880 --> 00:38:32,120 Speaker 1: that's supposed to happen, you know, But but he loved 623 00:38:32,120 --> 00:38:34,560 Speaker 1: her before she got married, So I mean, it's it's 624 00:38:34,600 --> 00:38:37,520 Speaker 1: an interesting, unusual story, especially from a Western perspective who 625 00:38:37,520 --> 00:38:42,400 Speaker 1: doesn't understand the way these stories work in Mughal culture. 626 00:38:42,520 --> 00:38:47,320 Speaker 1: But it's it's just it's a wild ride no matter 627 00:38:47,480 --> 00:38:50,640 Speaker 1: what you know about her, And and Ruby Lall had 628 00:38:50,680 --> 00:38:52,719 Speaker 1: to do all of this detective work to find out 629 00:38:52,800 --> 00:38:55,560 Speaker 1: these things about her, you know that, Yeah, we all 630 00:38:55,760 --> 00:38:58,160 Speaker 1: why do they keep talking about her hunting? Why is 631 00:38:58,200 --> 00:39:01,919 Speaker 1: they they're so obsessed with her tigers? Because they were 632 00:39:01,960 --> 00:39:04,440 Speaker 1: telling us something because if you you know, if we 633 00:39:04,480 --> 00:39:07,319 Speaker 1: don't know until Ruby Lall digs this up, who was 634 00:39:07,360 --> 00:39:10,640 Speaker 1: allowed to hunt tigers the emperor. When they keep talking 635 00:39:10,680 --> 00:39:13,480 Speaker 1: about this in court documents, they're making a point she 636 00:39:13,760 --> 00:39:16,920 Speaker 1: is the emperor that we we don't have the historical 637 00:39:16,960 --> 00:39:21,480 Speaker 1: knowledge to understand the clues they've been trying to give us, 638 00:39:21,560 --> 00:39:24,320 Speaker 1: you know. And I do love that her fact that 639 00:39:24,360 --> 00:39:28,160 Speaker 1: her name was and I'm going to butcher this mayor Nissa, 640 00:39:28,800 --> 00:39:30,759 Speaker 1: that she was born with the name which was son 641 00:39:30,840 --> 00:39:33,880 Speaker 1: among women, and then the Emperor changed her name to 642 00:39:33,960 --> 00:39:36,839 Speaker 1: new John, which is the light of the world. Right. 643 00:39:37,160 --> 00:39:40,400 Speaker 1: I love that kind of like the transition for that 644 00:39:40,520 --> 00:39:44,040 Speaker 1: as well, to show the significance of how amazing she 645 00:39:44,239 --> 00:39:49,319 Speaker 1: was an influencing the emperor. Yeah, I mean he absolutely that. 646 00:39:49,440 --> 00:39:52,080 Speaker 1: The love story part is not a lie. He absolutely 647 00:39:52,200 --> 00:39:57,040 Speaker 1: adored her. I mean it was a devoted, passionate love 648 00:39:57,080 --> 00:40:01,040 Speaker 1: affair that also turns into this honest ng story of 649 00:40:01,080 --> 00:40:09,000 Speaker 1: female power and political boundary pushing and and historical detective work. 650 00:40:09,160 --> 00:40:13,240 Speaker 1: It's it's interesting. It's really the portraits of her bizarre 651 00:40:14,040 --> 00:40:17,799 Speaker 1: and fascinating. There's one of her loading a musket. I mean, 652 00:40:18,000 --> 00:40:20,720 Speaker 1: have you ever seen a royal portrait of a queen 653 00:40:20,840 --> 00:40:24,880 Speaker 1: where she's loading a musket? No, And she's dressed like 654 00:40:24,920 --> 00:40:26,440 Speaker 1: a man. The only reason they can tell it's a 655 00:40:26,480 --> 00:40:28,480 Speaker 1: woman is the very small waist and the henna on 656 00:40:28,520 --> 00:40:32,200 Speaker 1: her feet. I mean, this broke every boundary of art. 657 00:40:32,239 --> 00:40:35,040 Speaker 1: Women all look the same in moughal art. Right, it's 658 00:40:35,040 --> 00:40:37,759 Speaker 1: the same woman, the perfect woman with different dresses on, 659 00:40:38,520 --> 00:40:41,040 Speaker 1: and she doesn't look anything like that? Was that her? 660 00:40:41,719 --> 00:40:43,920 Speaker 1: The royal artist who did this had never done another 661 00:40:43,960 --> 00:40:46,320 Speaker 1: portrait like that ever for the rest of his career. 662 00:40:46,680 --> 00:40:50,080 Speaker 1: So is she insisting? Is she saying no drama draw? 663 00:40:50,200 --> 00:40:53,319 Speaker 1: You know who knows? And it's so it's so many 664 00:40:53,360 --> 00:40:56,400 Speaker 1: fun rabbit holes to go down, like who was this woman? 665 00:40:57,360 --> 00:41:01,239 Speaker 1: And you know, how did she manage all of this, 666 00:41:02,040 --> 00:41:06,440 Speaker 1: all of these grown stepsons that are vying for power 667 00:41:06,480 --> 00:41:10,359 Speaker 1: as soon as her husband dies. And it's just it's fascinating, 668 00:41:10,520 --> 00:41:13,640 Speaker 1: it is she's she's such a fascinating woman. I did 669 00:41:13,719 --> 00:41:16,920 Speaker 1: love that that there was like a poem about her. 670 00:41:19,040 --> 00:41:22,279 Speaker 1: He was like, though, nor John being formal woman in 671 00:41:22,320 --> 00:41:26,520 Speaker 1: the ranks of men, she's a tiger slayer. Yeah, yeah, 672 00:41:26,640 --> 00:41:30,760 Speaker 1: making it very clear, like don't mess with her. She's 673 00:41:31,320 --> 00:41:34,320 Speaker 1: she's in charge here, you know. I mean, unfortunately it 674 00:41:34,400 --> 00:41:36,600 Speaker 1: does sound like, oh, she's not one of those women 675 00:41:37,280 --> 00:41:39,400 Speaker 1: different I mean, that's an unfortunate say, but at the 676 00:41:39,400 --> 00:41:41,200 Speaker 1: same time, it kind of is the credit to her 677 00:41:41,600 --> 00:41:44,160 Speaker 1: that she took a challenge. It was like, Nah, I'm 678 00:41:44,160 --> 00:41:45,800 Speaker 1: not I'm not going to stay behind. I'm going to 679 00:41:45,880 --> 00:41:49,360 Speaker 1: be the forefront of this. Watch me. Yeah, I will 680 00:41:49,360 --> 00:41:52,799 Speaker 1: write an elephant into battle and I will bring my 681 00:41:52,880 --> 00:41:56,880 Speaker 1: husband home. And she did. I mean, it's just amazing. 682 00:41:57,840 --> 00:42:02,320 Speaker 1: And I especially love the stories where patriarchy ignores women 683 00:42:03,200 --> 00:42:06,839 Speaker 1: and gets bitten for it. Right that over and over 684 00:42:06,880 --> 00:42:09,439 Speaker 1: again women, i mean the Roman Empire, every single time 685 00:42:09,440 --> 00:42:12,279 Speaker 1: a woman rises up against them, they're like, what is this? 686 00:42:12,400 --> 00:42:14,920 Speaker 1: We have never seen a woman. We had no idea 687 00:42:14,960 --> 00:42:18,480 Speaker 1: how women could fight, and they don't. They refuse to 688 00:42:18,480 --> 00:42:20,840 Speaker 1: acknowledge that as possible. So it keeps happening over and 689 00:42:20,920 --> 00:42:23,240 Speaker 1: over and over all. These women defeat the Roman Empire 690 00:42:23,280 --> 00:42:26,360 Speaker 1: because they refuse to admit that it might happen. It 691 00:42:26,680 --> 00:42:30,279 Speaker 1: just happened three years ago. Man, Hey, attention. Yeah, there's 692 00:42:30,320 --> 00:42:35,759 Speaker 1: nothing more dangerous than underestimate made woman. So that when 693 00:42:35,760 --> 00:42:38,239 Speaker 1: you can use that ideology, you know they're not going 694 00:42:38,280 --> 00:42:41,200 Speaker 1: to pay attention to you. You know, so many spies 695 00:42:41,280 --> 00:42:43,640 Speaker 1: during the Civil War, spies all the time, who just 696 00:42:44,160 --> 00:42:47,320 Speaker 1: are absolutely they know that the men aren't going to 697 00:42:47,400 --> 00:42:49,680 Speaker 1: think they're anything, so they could do whatever they want. 698 00:42:50,040 --> 00:42:53,040 Speaker 1: It just didn't interview about these amazing teenage girls who 699 00:42:53,600 --> 00:42:57,279 Speaker 1: were the some of the most effective anti Nazi resistance 700 00:42:57,440 --> 00:43:01,760 Speaker 1: workers in the nether Lens during World War Two because 701 00:43:01,800 --> 00:43:04,759 Speaker 1: they were cute teenage girls. And nobody thought that cute 702 00:43:04,760 --> 00:43:07,279 Speaker 1: teenage girl is gonna ride by on her bicycle and 703 00:43:07,320 --> 00:43:11,799 Speaker 1: assassinate the Nazi captain, but they did. I mean, it 704 00:43:11,960 --> 00:43:18,160 Speaker 1: was just I love those when you you take the 705 00:43:18,280 --> 00:43:20,560 Speaker 1: terrible structure as you've been given and use them to 706 00:43:20,600 --> 00:43:23,960 Speaker 1: subvert the power. Those my favorite stories always. I love it. 707 00:43:25,280 --> 00:43:27,360 Speaker 1: I'm just so glad people are doing this work because 708 00:43:27,400 --> 00:43:30,080 Speaker 1: it is something we talked about a lot. How unfortunately, 709 00:43:31,080 --> 00:43:33,160 Speaker 1: these stories have been lost, And there's a part of 710 00:43:33,200 --> 00:43:36,080 Speaker 1: me that when I hear such an amazing stories like these, 711 00:43:36,680 --> 00:43:38,719 Speaker 1: I'm so glad to hear them. They're great, but I'm 712 00:43:38,719 --> 00:43:42,359 Speaker 1: also angry that I'm learning them so late in life. 713 00:43:42,520 --> 00:43:45,879 Speaker 1: I would have loved this story about a tiger slayer 714 00:43:45,880 --> 00:43:47,439 Speaker 1: when I was a kid. I would have loved How 715 00:43:47,560 --> 00:43:51,360 Speaker 1: did this not feature in our history classes? Come on, 716 00:43:52,000 --> 00:43:55,279 Speaker 1: you know, it's not a movie like a big you know, 717 00:43:57,360 --> 00:44:00,440 Speaker 1: lots in India. Right, there's lots of great Bollywood versions 718 00:44:00,440 --> 00:44:02,680 Speaker 1: of this, which I adore Bollywood, so like they've done 719 00:44:02,680 --> 00:44:06,120 Speaker 1: it better than you need more dancing anyway, So we 720 00:44:06,120 --> 00:44:09,439 Speaker 1: wouldn't got enough dancing in that fight. My teenage sons 721 00:44:09,440 --> 00:44:11,560 Speaker 1: when they were quite young, they've grown up watching Bollywood 722 00:44:11,600 --> 00:44:13,720 Speaker 1: with me and one of them, Um, we were watching 723 00:44:13,800 --> 00:44:17,000 Speaker 1: some American, famous American movie I can't remember, and my 724 00:44:17,080 --> 00:44:19,160 Speaker 1: son at that point, probably about nine, set the problem 725 00:44:19,160 --> 00:44:22,560 Speaker 1: with American movies is there aren't enough angry dance offs. 726 00:44:23,600 --> 00:44:27,080 Speaker 1: That is the problem with American movies. You can only 727 00:44:27,080 --> 00:44:32,160 Speaker 1: get that in the fifties and sixties. And yeah, why yeah, 728 00:44:32,480 --> 00:44:36,240 Speaker 1: that's why we love that. Right, you need more dance offs. 729 00:44:36,320 --> 00:44:41,600 Speaker 1: And I'm just saying, Hollywood, get it together, agreed. And 730 00:44:41,640 --> 00:44:44,279 Speaker 1: that's the other part of this, right, that that we 731 00:44:44,520 --> 00:44:47,920 Speaker 1: the Western world in scare quotes just feel free to 732 00:44:48,000 --> 00:44:52,680 Speaker 1: absolutely ignore the entire rest of the world, and that 733 00:44:52,840 --> 00:44:55,799 Speaker 1: you know, with that story doesn't matter. I mean, come on, 734 00:44:57,040 --> 00:44:59,520 Speaker 1: that story is amazing. And if you want to make kids, 735 00:44:59,520 --> 00:45:03,239 Speaker 1: you know, my son, my younger son, just about a 736 00:45:03,320 --> 00:45:06,440 Speaker 1: year ago, just in passing, mentioned that history was boring 737 00:45:07,000 --> 00:45:10,160 Speaker 1: and I just like his brother went, oh, don't, don't 738 00:45:10,280 --> 00:45:15,440 Speaker 1: what do you know? It's like what? And so I 739 00:45:16,320 --> 00:45:19,160 Speaker 1: pulled it together because I know what he means. Right, 740 00:45:19,280 --> 00:45:21,879 Speaker 1: we tell history so badly. And so we were out. 741 00:45:21,920 --> 00:45:24,040 Speaker 1: I was forcing him to walk with me around this lake, 742 00:45:24,280 --> 00:45:26,319 Speaker 1: and so for three laps around the lake, I told 743 00:45:26,400 --> 00:45:28,319 Speaker 1: him just the story of Henry the eighth and his 744 00:45:28,600 --> 00:45:32,760 Speaker 1: three wives and his six wives and just all the details, 745 00:45:32,800 --> 00:45:35,600 Speaker 1: and people walking past we're looking at us like what 746 00:45:36,080 --> 00:45:39,879 Speaker 1: that's a weird conversation. And then she was beheaded. But 747 00:45:40,280 --> 00:45:41,880 Speaker 1: by the end of the lake, I said, so, do 748 00:45:41,920 --> 00:45:43,640 Speaker 1: you think history is boring? He said, no, I think 749 00:45:43,680 --> 00:45:49,839 Speaker 1: my history teachers are boring. That's amazing, thank you. But 750 00:45:49,920 --> 00:45:52,799 Speaker 1: that's that's like so many good stories. And I think 751 00:45:52,840 --> 00:45:55,759 Speaker 1: it's from where you're from too, because growing up in 752 00:45:55,800 --> 00:45:59,160 Speaker 1: Georgia myself, as you can tell from my accident, uh, 753 00:45:59,320 --> 00:46:04,640 Speaker 1: I got the a edited dumb down, not completely history 754 00:46:04,640 --> 00:46:07,560 Speaker 1: of things, because you know, when you are from a 755 00:46:07,680 --> 00:46:13,840 Speaker 1: very politically angled Yeah. I don't even know how to 756 00:46:13,840 --> 00:46:15,439 Speaker 1: say that all of that, but you know your your 757 00:46:15,520 --> 00:46:18,839 Speaker 1: history is it through a very specific filter variation. I mean, 758 00:46:19,000 --> 00:46:21,239 Speaker 1: even to the point when we're talking about Harriet Jacobs again, 759 00:46:21,360 --> 00:46:24,439 Speaker 1: that point of slavery wasn't that bad. The Civil War 760 00:46:24,560 --> 00:46:29,680 Speaker 1: wasn't based on slavery. A little more like every single 761 00:46:29,800 --> 00:46:33,280 Speaker 1: one of the state's mentioned slavery and their statement of secession. 762 00:46:33,320 --> 00:46:35,960 Speaker 1: But that's probably just a coincidence, right, I mean, that's 763 00:46:36,000 --> 00:46:37,839 Speaker 1: kind of like a variation of history. So you start 764 00:46:37,920 --> 00:46:40,120 Speaker 1: being like, wait, this is not this history is not 765 00:46:40,280 --> 00:46:42,600 Speaker 1: pertained And again for me as an Asian woman that 766 00:46:42,640 --> 00:46:45,000 Speaker 1: I could call myself brown woman, and I'm like, that's 767 00:46:45,080 --> 00:46:48,440 Speaker 1: this is not pertained to me in that level. So 768 00:46:48,560 --> 00:46:50,560 Speaker 1: you have a very like excued version. And I would 769 00:46:50,640 --> 00:46:55,120 Speaker 1: love to, yeah, hear about this badass empress who was 770 00:46:55,480 --> 00:46:58,840 Speaker 1: shooting up tigers and doing her thing, rescuing her husband 771 00:46:58,840 --> 00:47:01,640 Speaker 1: and fighting too much a civil battle with her own 772 00:47:01,640 --> 00:47:05,600 Speaker 1: stepsons because we're afraid of women. I'm like, oh my god, 773 00:47:05,640 --> 00:47:08,239 Speaker 1: where was that at in my growing up? I want 774 00:47:08,239 --> 00:47:11,239 Speaker 1: to know about those heroes. Yeah, we you know, you 775 00:47:11,239 --> 00:47:13,160 Speaker 1: can't be what you can't see. How are we supposed 776 00:47:13,160 --> 00:47:19,040 Speaker 1: to grow into tiger shooting, elephant writing warrior women. No. 777 00:47:19,160 --> 00:47:21,919 Speaker 1: And I will say, as someone who adores tigers a lot, 778 00:47:22,960 --> 00:47:25,480 Speaker 1: like I can't even I can't even bring myself to 779 00:47:25,600 --> 00:47:29,120 Speaker 1: watch the Tiger King show because it will hurt my 780 00:47:29,160 --> 00:47:33,160 Speaker 1: heart too much. But she's only shooting man eating tigers. 781 00:47:33,560 --> 00:47:36,839 Speaker 1: She's doing that are killing people. It's not just out 782 00:47:36,880 --> 00:47:41,760 Speaker 1: shooting tigers. They send, no, they send for the emperor 783 00:47:41,800 --> 00:47:43,799 Speaker 1: to come and rescue them from the tiger who's killed 784 00:47:43,800 --> 00:47:46,839 Speaker 1: a hundred people, and then she shoots the tigers. That's 785 00:47:46,880 --> 00:47:50,080 Speaker 1: the kind of awesome, badass warrior queen that I can 786 00:47:50,080 --> 00:47:53,040 Speaker 1: get behind. Again, it was, So that's a hold of 787 00:47:53,120 --> 00:47:56,279 Speaker 1: the level. We have some more for you listeners, but 788 00:47:56,320 --> 00:47:58,040 Speaker 1: first we have one more quick break for word from 789 00:47:58,040 --> 00:48:14,920 Speaker 1: our sponsors, and we're back. Thank you sponsored. Well, I mean, 790 00:48:14,960 --> 00:48:18,759 Speaker 1: these stories are not just for like a feminist perspective. 791 00:48:18,840 --> 00:48:23,400 Speaker 1: These stories are the live realization of the amazing people 792 00:48:23,440 --> 00:48:27,120 Speaker 1: are and the fact that women are very much ignored 793 00:48:27,120 --> 00:48:29,080 Speaker 1: and a race through history, and so we have to 794 00:48:29,120 --> 00:48:32,319 Speaker 1: acknowledge and go beyond and be like, hey, listen to this. 795 00:48:32,320 --> 00:48:34,840 Speaker 1: This is a fascinating story about a human being. But 796 00:48:35,320 --> 00:48:37,560 Speaker 1: because she's a woman, or because she has a vagina, 797 00:48:37,880 --> 00:48:40,600 Speaker 1: people chose to ignore it. But now it's time. This 798 00:48:40,680 --> 00:48:42,840 Speaker 1: is just just listen to the good stories if you 799 00:48:42,880 --> 00:48:46,760 Speaker 1: want to. Yeah, I mean that you know, amazingly half 800 00:48:47,040 --> 00:48:54,239 Speaker 1: of humanity has done stuff and it's worth talking about. Yeah, 801 00:48:54,280 --> 00:48:59,160 Speaker 1: I mean, my my field makes me both very aware 802 00:48:59,160 --> 00:49:01,120 Speaker 1: of things and very soon the goal on some level. 803 00:49:01,160 --> 00:49:03,759 Speaker 1: Like I'm angry all the time doing these podcasts, Like 804 00:49:04,000 --> 00:49:05,759 Speaker 1: some of them are super inspiring, but a lot of 805 00:49:05,760 --> 00:49:10,080 Speaker 1: them might end up just furious, furious about these women's 806 00:49:10,120 --> 00:49:11,799 Speaker 1: lives or the things they had to endure or the 807 00:49:11,800 --> 00:49:14,759 Speaker 1: way they were erased or you know, it's it's it's 808 00:49:14,840 --> 00:49:17,359 Speaker 1: frustrating in so I do this, and then I teach 809 00:49:17,400 --> 00:49:19,600 Speaker 1: women's studies, and then I was writing a lot of 810 00:49:19,600 --> 00:49:21,719 Speaker 1: women study stuff. And finally my husband said, I think 811 00:49:21,760 --> 00:49:24,359 Speaker 1: you need a hobby that's not about feminism, because like 812 00:49:24,800 --> 00:49:26,880 Speaker 1: I just it was aiding me alive, and I thought, 813 00:49:26,960 --> 00:49:30,640 Speaker 1: you were right. I need something else that is just fun. Right, 814 00:49:30,760 --> 00:49:34,680 Speaker 1: that's just positive all the time, but it also makes 815 00:49:34,719 --> 00:49:37,880 Speaker 1: me unsurprised by things. So like I have the platonic 816 00:49:37,920 --> 00:49:41,719 Speaker 1: ideal of a supportive husband. He is the best there 817 00:49:42,000 --> 00:49:47,359 Speaker 1: if you could not improve as a person, my husband, um, 818 00:49:47,520 --> 00:49:51,120 Speaker 1: and so he is super helpful and supportive and and 819 00:49:51,480 --> 00:49:55,319 Speaker 1: great on all this stuff, and he is consistently surprised 820 00:49:55,640 --> 00:49:58,080 Speaker 1: by how few men listen to our podcast. You know, 821 00:49:58,120 --> 00:50:02,040 Speaker 1: we have pretty clear demographics. And when when the demographics 822 00:50:02,080 --> 00:50:04,080 Speaker 1: came through the first time, he came in just furious 823 00:50:04,080 --> 00:50:06,360 Speaker 1: and he said, do you how many men? What? What 824 00:50:06,480 --> 00:50:08,440 Speaker 1: percentage of your listeners do you think our men? And 825 00:50:08,480 --> 00:50:12,120 Speaker 1: I said, uh three, and he looked at me startled, 826 00:50:12,120 --> 00:50:14,239 Speaker 1: and he said, how did how did you know? How 827 00:50:14,280 --> 00:50:16,920 Speaker 1: do you do why? And he just was so angry. 828 00:50:16,960 --> 00:50:20,440 Speaker 1: He was like incandescen with anger that men aren't listening. 829 00:50:20,480 --> 00:50:24,000 Speaker 1: He's like, why are men so terrible? Why aren't they 830 00:50:24,160 --> 00:50:27,520 Speaker 1: listening to this? Don't they understand that this is just history. 831 00:50:27,600 --> 00:50:29,880 Speaker 1: Women's history is not a niche subject. And he like 832 00:50:30,080 --> 00:50:32,399 Speaker 1: ranted for a long time, and it was very good 833 00:50:32,440 --> 00:50:36,080 Speaker 1: for my soul to see my husband just so angry 834 00:50:36,680 --> 00:50:39,279 Speaker 1: that other men just blow this stuff off. You know 835 00:50:39,440 --> 00:50:43,799 Speaker 1: that it's not a podcast for women just because it's 836 00:50:43,840 --> 00:50:48,279 Speaker 1: about women, right, you can listen to it boys, exactly. 837 00:50:48,640 --> 00:50:50,520 Speaker 1: And I love that. So tell your husband he gets 838 00:50:50,520 --> 00:50:54,080 Speaker 1: an A plus from us, okay, and we are very 839 00:50:54,160 --> 00:50:58,319 Speaker 1: much approving that those are very bad. He's like out there, yeah, 840 00:50:58,400 --> 00:51:01,040 Speaker 1: I mean he's out there pushing and challenging people like, 841 00:51:01,080 --> 00:51:03,719 Speaker 1: oh you listen to history podcasts. Do you listen to 842 00:51:03,760 --> 00:51:09,200 Speaker 1: any women's history and they're like like, here's a list 843 00:51:09,360 --> 00:51:13,239 Speaker 1: of options for you. But and it's frustrating, right, it is, 844 00:51:13,320 --> 00:51:16,480 Speaker 1: just it keeps repeating, generation after generation, your trains to 845 00:51:16,520 --> 00:51:19,279 Speaker 1: believe that women aren't interesting and didn't do anything. And 846 00:51:19,320 --> 00:51:21,920 Speaker 1: even if we do the what we think is progressive 847 00:51:22,000 --> 00:51:24,800 Speaker 1: version of it's not women's fault. They didn't do anything. 848 00:51:24,840 --> 00:51:28,080 Speaker 1: They just weren't allowed to. Women weren't allowed to write, 849 00:51:28,120 --> 00:51:32,400 Speaker 1: and so they didn't write anything good. It's not their fault. Rubbish. 850 00:51:32,520 --> 00:51:35,120 Speaker 1: There's so much good stuff that's been thrown out and 851 00:51:35,400 --> 00:51:38,960 Speaker 1: this objective standard of only white men are good writers. 852 00:51:38,960 --> 00:51:44,000 Speaker 1: Oh interesting, who decided? Oh white man? Right, who's the 853 00:51:44,000 --> 00:51:48,719 Speaker 1: one that's the judges? And this moment there's so much 854 00:51:48,800 --> 00:51:51,760 Speaker 1: good stuff, you know when you watch I'm a huge 855 00:51:51,760 --> 00:51:54,480 Speaker 1: fan of The Good Place, the TV show, because there 856 00:51:54,480 --> 00:51:56,680 Speaker 1: are so many jokes in that show we've never heard 857 00:51:56,719 --> 00:51:59,960 Speaker 1: before in our lives. Right, we've heard every joke on sitcoms. 858 00:52:00,000 --> 00:52:02,040 Speaker 1: You always know where the joke is going, even when 859 00:52:02,040 --> 00:52:04,200 Speaker 1: they're funny. You're like, oh yeah, all right there, and 860 00:52:04,400 --> 00:52:06,160 Speaker 1: we don't never know where the jokes are going there 861 00:52:06,160 --> 00:52:09,080 Speaker 1: because they're written by people who have never written for television. 862 00:52:09,080 --> 00:52:13,480 Speaker 1: We've never let them right before, and it's great. It's 863 00:52:13,520 --> 00:52:16,200 Speaker 1: not about diversity because we need to check the boxes, 864 00:52:16,239 --> 00:52:21,399 Speaker 1: because it's better to have more people talking. There are 865 00:52:21,480 --> 00:52:28,040 Speaker 1: new stuff you've never heard before. We love that. Well, Olivia, 866 00:52:28,120 --> 00:52:30,600 Speaker 1: you are amazing and obviously going to be one of 867 00:52:30,600 --> 00:52:34,359 Speaker 1: our best friends. Yeah, because we're going to collaborate again. 868 00:52:34,400 --> 00:52:38,239 Speaker 1: I have a feeling that's the dream. Yes, and of 869 00:52:38,239 --> 00:52:42,359 Speaker 1: course let your system know. She is always welcome as well. Yeah, 870 00:52:42,440 --> 00:52:47,800 Speaker 1: hopefully she's a she's quarantined with small children, quarantine with teenagers, 871 00:52:48,200 --> 00:52:52,359 Speaker 1: so mine are happy to ignore me and hers are. 872 00:52:53,560 --> 00:52:56,480 Speaker 1: I'm going to say those women and the mothers with 873 00:52:56,840 --> 00:53:00,239 Speaker 1: tiny children children at all during quarantine times are rock 874 00:53:00,320 --> 00:53:03,920 Speaker 1: stars and heroes, because I'm annoyed with my dogs sometimes 875 00:53:04,000 --> 00:53:09,160 Speaker 1: and I could just tell her to be quiet. Can 876 00:53:09,200 --> 00:53:13,960 Speaker 1: you tell our listeners where to find you? Yes, we're everywhere. 877 00:53:14,120 --> 00:53:17,000 Speaker 1: We're everywhere that there are podcasts is what's your Name? 878 00:53:17,239 --> 00:53:19,719 Speaker 1: All one word with the apostrophe. Some of them are 879 00:53:19,800 --> 00:53:23,160 Speaker 1: very picky about getting that apostrophe in there, or just 880 00:53:23,200 --> 00:53:25,359 Speaker 1: google us. We're also at what's your Name podcast dot 881 00:53:25,360 --> 00:53:28,319 Speaker 1: com and from there there's links to all the main platforms, 882 00:53:28,680 --> 00:53:32,640 Speaker 1: and we're also on Spotify and YouTube. Our website has 883 00:53:32,680 --> 00:53:34,680 Speaker 1: tons of pictures and we always try to have pictures 884 00:53:34,680 --> 00:53:36,920 Speaker 1: and links and more information about all our subjects and 885 00:53:36,960 --> 00:53:40,520 Speaker 1: our guests who are amazing. That brings us to the 886 00:53:40,640 --> 00:53:43,600 Speaker 1: end of that wonderful interview with Olivia. Definitely go check 887 00:53:43,640 --> 00:53:46,040 Speaker 1: out their podcast. Um if you want to learn more 888 00:53:46,080 --> 00:53:50,680 Speaker 1: about these two women, are so many other women, and 889 00:53:50,800 --> 00:53:53,440 Speaker 1: if you would like to email us about women we 890 00:53:53,480 --> 00:53:56,239 Speaker 1: should be talking about, our other podcasts we should be 891 00:53:56,239 --> 00:53:59,080 Speaker 1: collaborating with. You can Our email is Stuff Media mom 892 00:53:59,120 --> 00:54:01,279 Speaker 1: Stuff at i heeart meatia dot com. You can also 893 00:54:01,360 --> 00:54:03,759 Speaker 1: find us on Twitter at mom Stuff Podcast and on 894 00:54:03,840 --> 00:54:06,080 Speaker 1: Instagram at Stuff Whom I've Never Told You. Thanks as 895 00:54:06,120 --> 00:54:09,720 Speaker 1: always to our super producer producing from Afar, Andrew Howard, 896 00:54:10,200 --> 00:54:13,120 Speaker 1: and thanks to you for listening Stuff I've Never Told You. 897 00:54:13,160 --> 00:54:15,360 Speaker 1: Protection of I Heart Radio. For more podcast from I 898 00:54:15,400 --> 00:54:17,840 Speaker 1: Heart Radio is the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, 899 00:54:17,920 --> 00:54:19,600 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.