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PODCAST

Her Half of History

Evergreen Podcasts

Women"s history doesn"t have be boring or depressing. I tell the stories of extraordinary women in history, including queens, slaves, spies, scientists, artists, wives, mothers, and more. But most women didn"t leave us enough material for a biography, so I also tell you what it was like to be an ordinary woman, including what they wore, how they did housework, how they worked, and how they played. In short, what were the women doing all that time while men were writing the standard history books

education

All Episodes

27:09

14.4 Isabella I, Sponsor of Columbus

Her Half of History ·

2025/01/16

Isabella was a force of natura before Columbus ever set foot in her court. As a teenager, she negotiated her own marriage contract, married behind her guardian's back, and seized the throne of Castile with questionable legitimacy. As queen and in partnership with her husband, she defeated first Portugal and then Granada. At a time when all of Christianity felt threated by the various Muslim countries, she made the Iberian peninsual universally Christian. It was a major victory from her point of

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18:48

14.3 The Daughters of Genghis Khan

Her Half of History ·

2025/01/02

Genghis Khan's daughters are shadowy figures: we don't know exactly how many there were or what all of their names were, but historians have pieced together bits and pieces of a story. Enough to know that Genghis valued his daughters highly and they played an essential role in his strategy. An army-on-the-move needs someone to rule the lands they've already conquered, and the Great Khan's daughters were born for that.Visit the website (herhalfofhistory.com) for sources, transcripts, and

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25:58

14.2 Olympias, Mother of Alexander the Great

Her Half of History ·

2024/12/26

Alexander the Great conquered much of the known-to-him world in lightning speed. But he probably couldn't have done it without the support of his mother, Olympias, who served as queen, regent, and many other roles. Her name was dragged through the mud by ancient writers who struggled with the idea of a powerful woman. That means it is hard to sort out the truth from the slander, but this is an attempt to do so. Visit the website (herhalfofhistory.com) for sources, transcripts, and pictures. Support

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23:37

14.1 Helena, Mother of Constantine the Great

Her Half of History ·

2024/12/19

Constantine the Great had a long list of accomplishments, including making Europe Christian for centuries to come. But he didn't do it alone. He had a good mom. This is the story of Helena, a girl from a low-class background who rose to be the most important woman in the empire. And she had a lot to do with making Europe Christian too. Visit the website (herhalfofhistory.com) for sources, transcripts, and pictures. Support the show on my Patreon page (https://www.patreon.com/user?u=83998235) for

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24:48

Mrs. Santa Claus

Her Half of History ·

2024/12/05

For a very long time, Santa was a single man. His wife occasionally peeped out of the historical record, but not often. Until a host of magazine writers in the 1870s, 1880s, and 1890s decided that enough was enough. Mrs. Claus appeared with an astonishingly feminist stance on who was doing the real work of Christmas. (Hint: It wasn't Santa.)The closing music is by Clavier Clavier, available at Pixabay. I have a new shop full of merchandise just in time for the holidays. Please help support the show

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43:10

Laundry: An Interview with the History Fix Podcast

Her Half of History ·

2024/11/21

I am currently on break preparing Series 14, The Woman Behind the Man. For today, I am bringing you an interview I did a few months ago with Shea LaFountaine of the History Fix podcast. If you haven’t tuned into her show, you should give it a try! She and I connected over the surprisingly interesting history of laundry, but she has at the time of this recording, 86 other episodes on subjects that vary from the history of the Nazca Lines, to the Mona Lisa, childbirth, Pocahontas, the Paris Catacombs

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4:08

Announcement on Series 14

Her Half of History ·

2024/11/07

The voters have spoken! The topic of Series 14 will be: The Woman Behind the Man.I’ll be looking at women across the ages who had a hand (sometimes a major hand) in the success of some very well-known men. I’m hoping you’ll have heard of the men: I’m choosing the blockbusters. But I suspect the women you have not heard of. Most of them anyway. The research has already begun, but if you know of a woman who should be included, please get in touch! Visit the website (herhalfofhistory.com) for sources,

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18:41

Bonus Episode: Women Who Got Elected

Her Half of History ·

2024/11/05

I make no comment on the current US election because this is a history podcast. But the entire concept of a woman running a country with even the semblance of an election involved is a recent phenomenon, historically speaking. We’re not even at a century yet. We’re not even at three quarters of a century yet. This episode will give you the rundown on women who have done it, from Sri Lanka to Iceland. Then I turn to women who served in the parliament/Congress in various countries, and finally women

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24:39

13.14 Why Beauty Mattered (and has anything changed?)

Her Half of History ·

2024/10/31

Throughout history and around the globe, women have routinely squeezed, bound, crushed, tweezed, poisoned, pricked, and stretched various portions of their anatomy, sometimes with permanent ramifications, sometimes with excruciating agony, all in the name of beauty. Why was beauty so important? There's no perfect answer, but I explain five theories:Darwinian Evolution To Catch a Man (economically) Outer Beauty Meant Inner Beauty Peer Pressure from Other Women For Herself Alone All of those

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24:34

13.13 Losing a Breast to Gain a Life

Her Half of History ·

2024/10/24

Most of the episodes in this series have been about shaping the female body in the name of beauty. But there is at least one major reshaping that has nothing to do with beauty and everything to do with survival. Breast cancer was known to the ancient Egyptians and nearly every culture since, but for most of that time there was no effective treatment. The early modern period saw a growing recognition that the tumor or maybe the whole breast needed to go: a terrifying treatment plan in an age that

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23:22

13.12 In the Eye of the Beholder

Her Half of History ·

2024/10/17

They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and history proves it: blackened teeth, modified skull shapes, extended necks, lip plates, and piercings of various body parts. All of these have been considered the height of beauty, and women went to great lengths to achieve it. This week's episode gives the details. It is also time to vote on the topic of series 14! Make your voice heard on the website at herhalfofhistory.com. Visit the website (herhalfofhistory.com) for sources, transcripts, and

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24:59

13.11 The Witch's Mark

Her Half of History ·

2024/10/10

Jane Wenham was accused of witchcraft in 1712. One of the trials was a search of her body. Did she or did she not have a witch's mark where her familiar sucked her blood? Or maybe a Devil's mark where he sealed her as his after a nocturnal initiation.Most of the episodes have been on what women did to make themselves beautiful (whatever that happened to mean at the time). This episode is doing double duty as my second annual Halloween episode, and it is about what calamity might happen if perchance

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23:40

13.10 Body Art: Tattoos and Henna

Her Half of History ·

2024/10/03

If you do have one, you are part of a very long-standing worldwide tradition. Tattoos have existed since prehistoric times in many cultures, where they were often (but not always) for women.Evidence for henna is not nearly so old, but then again, how could we expect it to be? There may have been any number of women and cultures who used henna without leaving us any record. This episode tells the story from Spain to India. Visit the website (herhalfofhistory.com) for sources, transcripts, and

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20:41

13.9 Cosmetics in the Modern World

Her Half of History ·

2024/09/19

Women continued to make their own cosmetics in the 18th century. Then it was suddenly immoral in the 19th century (not that some women didn't do it anyway). And then they came roaring back in the 20th century. The revival was led by actresses and eagerly followed by the vast majority of other women. Lipstick! Face powder! Rouge! Mascara! Eyeliner! Eye shadow! There was no end to the number of beauty products you could buy in the 20th century.Visit the website (herhalfofhistory.com) for sources,

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22:43

13.8 Cosmetics in the Pre-Modern World

Her Half of History ·

2024/09/12

Cosmetics are nothing new. Women (and sometimes men) were using them in Egypt, Greece, Rome, China, and India. This is an overview of the art of making up your face across the millennia with white lead, poppy juice, mercury, and more. Also what the menfolk thought about it. (Hint: They were largely against the idea.)Visit the website (herhalfofhistory.com) for sources, transcripts, and pictures. Support the show on my Patreon page (https://www.patreon.com/user?u=83998235) for bonus episodes, polls,

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13:04

13.7 A Bad Hair Day in Ancient Rome

Her Half of History ·

2024/09/05

I hope you’ve never had a hair day quite like that of Corinna, the mistress to whom the Roman poet Ovid wrote Amores, or The Loves. Corinna dyed her hair so hard, it all fell out. And of all the strange things, Ovid wrote a poem about it.It's possible that Corinna was not a real person or that this wasn't a real incident. But the poem ranges from hair dye, to hair texture, to ancient Roman curling irons, and the proper treatment of hairdressers, so it is enlightening about Roman women and their

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21:14

13.6 The History of Hair

Her Half of History ·

2024/08/29

To cover the history of hair would be a podcast in and of itself, and the host should not be me. But hair has been very, very important to a great many women, both past and present, so I am going to give it a go, hitting only the points that caught my eye.Topics included are: Cornrow braids Romans who sewed their hair into place Medieval women who prized a receding hairline French women who put battleships on their heads Slave women who brushed their hair with the tools meant for sheep The

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20:23

13.5 The Quest for a Hairless Body

Her Half of History ·

2024/08/22

Surely I am not the only woman who has ever eyed the razor and the shaving cream and wondered "Why?"Women have been questing for hairlessness at least since Egyptian times, and though the record is mostly silent on this question, there are occasional hints about why and when and how women through the ages did it (mostly painfully and sometimes lethally). Visit the website (herhalfofhistory.com) for sources, transcripts, and pictures. Support the show on my Patreon page

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24:13

13.4 Chinese Footbinding

Her Half of History ·

2024/08/15

The origins of footbinding are lost in time, but I think it is safe to say that the first woman to do it could not possibly have imagined what was coming. This episode covers the earliest evidence (in the 1100s) through to the final demise of the practice in 1957. The historical records are heavy on hormone-inspired odes to beauty. They are relatively light on the actual lived experiences of hundreds of millions of women, but to the extent that I can, I talk about how it was done and why it was

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25:02

13.3 To Boost or to Bind: A History of the Bust

Her Half of History ·

2024/08/08

The mostly male writers of historical records were reasonably interested in breasts, but quite uninterested in the day-to-day management of them. For most of history, there's not much to go on, but this episode covers time periods where women bound up their breasts to make them as small as possible. It also covers time periods where women used incredible ingenuity to create devices that boosted those breasts up to as large as they could possibly go, and then some extra on top of that.Visit the

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221 results

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