A Non Mom Happy Hour

A special announcement:

This week's episode is bittersweet as it will be our last, fresh episode until the New Year. Due to many variables, including Kelly's need to focus on healing after her next surgery, the podcast will be on hiatus.⁣⁣ It wasn’t an easy decision. But this next surgery is a doozy, and Kelly owes it to herself and every single fan we've told to put self-care first, to do just that.⁣⁣⁣⁣Kelly will be in the hospital from October 22 - 25 or 26. She'll be working with occupational therapists to teach her how to navigate her body and life without hurting herself.⁣⁣Kelly is currently working on book No. 2 which is on medical gaslighting, still writing her blog and newsletter, and generally trying to kick as much ass as she can from the #businesscouch. There’s a promo code of HAPPYHOUR at nerdzillakelly.com/store to receive a discount on Nerdzilla and Mechanerdzilla merch. If you want to keep up with Kelly while we are away, you should subscribe to her newsletter atnerdzillakelly.com/newsletter. 

 

On to this week's episode!:

Kelly tells Debbie Jo about the amazing horseback librarians of Eastern Kentucky!  During The Great Depression, The Pack Horse Library Project was launched as part of President Roosevelt's Work Progress Administration -- First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt had a passion for creating jobs that benefited women and children, especially, and saw a great need for literacy and access to education in Kentucky. 

At the time, unemployment in the region was at 40% and about 31% of the population in Eastern Kentucky couldn’t read. But how to deliver books to families living in the Appalachian Mountains, in treacherous terrain and cut off from so much of civilization?

You guessed it -- horseback! The ladies who delivered books, scrapbooks, magazines, and newspapers were definitely everyday heroes. We hope you enjoy learning about them as much as we did. ⁣

Sources:

http://www.bookishbuzz.info/badass-female-librarians-delivered-books-on-horseback-in-1930s/2/https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/librarians-horseback-new-deal-book-delivery-wpahttps://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/horse-riding-librarians-were-great-depression-bookmobiles-180963786/https://www.npr.org/2018/09/13/647329067/the-pack-horse-librarians-of-eastern-kentucky

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This week Kelly and Debbie Jo got to hang out with Win Kelly Charles! Win is definitely a badass lady. Born with Cerebral Palsy and severe Scoliosis, Win made quite the early entrance into the world, changing her parents lives and the lives of those around her, forever. You can't help but fall in love with Win's spirit and perseverance.

She has authored multiple books, hosts and co-hosts multiple podcasts, and spreads education and awareness about living with Cerebral Palsy and chronic pain, daily. We talked about Spoonie life, fashion for Spoonies and her podcast Diary of a Fashionista, grief & loss, and authenticity!

We hope you enjoy hearing Win's story and our conversation in the virtual studio.

Connect with Win Here:

http://askwin.weebly.com/

Make sure you check out her podcast Diary of a Fashionista, on one of these fine listening apps:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a-diary-of-a-fashionista/id1444555159?mt=2

https://radiopublic.com/a-diary-of-a-fashionista-8g0qwZ

https://tunein.com/podcasts/Education-Podcasts/A-Diary-of-a-Fashionista-p1205222/

This week's episode is a hoot!

To keep things interesting Debbie Jo shares again (who needs rules anyway amiright) all about America's favorite pastime, baseball!

The story of Jackie Mitchell is full of controversy, mystery, + badassery. The 17 year old struck out 2 of baseball's best players in an exhibition game on April 2, 1931.

Or did she?

We'll let you decide based on the evidence but we'd love to hear your thoughts + theories so send us a message after you listen!

Thanks for listening this week + every week :)

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-woman-who-maybe-struck-out-babe-ruth-and-lou-gehrig-4759182/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackie_Mitchell

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/07/obituaries/jackie-mitchell-overlooked.html

We're coming to you this week with our first ever Corrections Quadrant! A new (and hopefully lasting) listener and friend wrote to us in response to our episode last episode and the use of the term "Gypsy" and she offered us some education on Roma culture. If you'd like to learn more about Roma culture, please check out this awesome article. 

Next, Kelly surprises the heck out of Debbie Jo when she tells her why she's working on removing the word "Y'all" from her vocabulary. All about learning, knowing, and doing better, folks. We're all human and don't have to be perfect, but we should try to be better whenever possible.

Speaking of being a real ass human... This week Debbie Jo tells Kelly about Carrie A. Nation, a somewhat controversial woman in history. We don't want to give too much away in the show notes, so you should definitely listen and draw your own conclusions. Her story begs the question: are badasses and heroes only ever perfect? (Spoiler alert: No.) And Carrie is credited with opening the country's first ever battered women and children's shelter, so there's that! 

Thank you for being with us this week and every week. We had a really great time recording this episode, and Kelly was able to do it from a bedside studio thanks to our distinguished producer, Wade Freeman. Thanks, Wade!

Always be a real as human and have a great week, friends!

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrie_Nationhttps://web.archive.org/web/20110606154501/http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=1091&ResourceType=Buildinghttps://catalog.archives.gov/id/123850187http://arkansasroadstories.com/history/nation.htmlhttps://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/carry-a-nation/15502https://onlyinark.com/culture/hatchet-hall-a-piece-of-womens-history-in-eureka-springs/

It's been a bit of a hot mess express over here at the Non Mom Happy Hour Virtual Recording Studio the past two weeks. We are going through some growing pains with Squadcast.fm v2.0. We are doing are best to work with the support team at Squadcast.fm and get it figured out. They're just as frustrated as we are, we're sure, so please hang in there with us while we get the kinks out. (For instance, in this episode you'll notice that Debbie Jo's audio isn't up to our usual standards. Long story.)

SURPRISE! We have some new business.

First of all, if you haven't yet, please check out our new-and-improved website, www.anonmomhappyhour.com. We decided that since our podcast audience has had a serious upgrade in recent months, so should our website, and we think it's pretty cool. Find links to all the social meds, our merch store, photos of us at PodX, all kinds of things.

Now, on to the show:

This week Kelly tells Debbie Jo about esteemed American author Toni Morrison. Morrison was important for so many reasons; she challenged so much about how we as a society and culture view race, American beauty standards, civil rights, and the balance of good and evil. It's hard to adequately put into words just how important her work has been and what a loss our country and the world suffered when she passed away in August. We hope you dig the tribute.

Debbie Jo tells Kelly about... no one. You'll have to listen to learn why! Get to it! Thanks for hanging with us, and remember:

Always be a real ass human. (Even if that means you go a week without a podcast episode release, and then your next episode release has audio issues.)

 

 

Sources:

https://wp.nyu.edu/tonimorrison/2016/12/15/the-impact-of-toni-morrison/

https://www.biography.com/writer/toni-morrison

https://www.notablebiographies.com/Mo-Ni/Morrison-Toni.html

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Toni-Morrison

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Garner

https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1993/summary/

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Princeton-University

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/aug/06/toni-morrison-author-and-pulitzer-winner-dies-aged-88

For you, it's only been two weeks since we recorded and released an episode. For the Non Moms, it has been four weeks. Time is so weird. 

Our producer has an official pseudonym. You can follow him on Instagram as @Wade.Freeman. Do it. Give him production feedback. It'll be great. (He's going to hate us, which is hilarious.)

This week you can hear all about Kelly's (successful) neurosurgery and hospital experience (so much tragic comedy); Debbie Jo's new meditation and gratitude practices; Kelly's plumbing disaster which of course took place just days after the neurosurgery; our birthdays! That's right, we're both officially older and neither of us is totally comfortable with it. 

This episode, in other words, is a journey through some serious real life, a few disasters, a little bit of success, and a whole lot of fun. Join us next week when we'll have new research for you! 

We love y'all so much. Thanks for being here. Also, please consider checking out our patreon at www.patreon.com/anonmomhappyhour and becoming a patreon for as little as $3 a month! (We'll send you mail that's not bills. How fun is that?!)

Ok, ok, so... yes, Debbie Jo said like a dozen times on our last episode that we were going to do an Area 51-themed episode since it would be our 51st. However, Kelly had major brain fog and this episode was recorded the day before her major neurological surgery and she totally freaking forgot. 

That being said, after a bit of ribbing from Debbie Jo, Kelly kicks things off by telling everyone about Sylvia Pankhurst (thanks mom!) Sylvia was raised by folks who were actually into women's rights and education and raised her as such. She "hated fascism and lipstick," and for a time was very involved in Communism. She drifted from Communism eventually but remained active in movements against fascism and colonialism for all her adult life. She died an Honorary Ethiopian at the age of 78, in 1960.

Debbie Jo stuck to the actual theme of the show and talked about what was supposed to be the first all-female spacewalk, explains that it was canceled, and why. Yes, it's because there weren't enough medium-sized suits, but it actually goes deeper than that. Just listen, trust me, it's worth it. There's also some conspiracy and alien talk thrown in the mix for fun. 

Today marks 10 days since Kelly's surgery, which turned out to be a double laminectomy and full spinal fusion of the C6-C7 vertebrae (there's a cool animated video!) because her spinal disc had actually ruptured. She's recovering well, in spite of a plumbing disaster and stomach virus you're sure to hear all about on next week's episode. Tragic comedy, here we come! 

 

Sources

https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-37833https://www.historytoday.com/archive/sylvia-pankhurst-sent-jailhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvia_Pankhursthttps://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/mar/25/nasa-all-female-spacewalk-canceled-women-spacesuitshttps://www.ibtimes.com/nasa-cuts-live-feed-hide-aliens-ufo-background-2782021

Hey hey friends! Lil bit of a curveball for ya today. Rather than sharing research we are sharing some lessons we've learned in business + in life over the past several years.

 

Naturally we begin the episode with some hilarity. We chat about conspiracy theories, do you think we actually went to the moon? We also chat about secret experiments, MK Ultra anyone?

 

Then we share some of our biggest lessons from recent years. Like don't be a big fat jerk + message someone about your acne fighting skincare because they post a picture of them with a giant zit on their face. Try new things but if it doesn't feel right or work how you want it to then stop doing that shit!

 

Probably the biggest productivity hack of all is to get your ass out + get re-inspired. Hear how we have re-inspired ourselves recently in this episode too.

 

Thank you for listening you guys!

(It's our producer's fault that this episode is late because he procrastinated. He will henceforth be known as the King of Procrastination Nation.)

This is our last episode before Kelly's big surgery! Kelly goes for spinal fusion on July 18th and becomes part Mechanerdzilla and part Bionic Woman. Don't worry, we'll still have new content to post while Kelly is in recovery because we recorded in advance!

Kelly kicks things off with the story of English chemist and volunteer Air Raid Warden Rosalind Franklin. This Lady Badass stayed on at Cambridge to pursue her studies in spite of the world (figuratively) and bombs (literally) falling down all around her in WWII. Then, she helped discover the structure of DNA molecules, but of course, received no freaking credit for it, because of men.Debbie Jo lightens the mood with Moms Mabley (born Loretta Mary Aiken), a well-known vaudeville comedian, and prominent member of the African American comedy community's so-called Chitlin' Circuit. It was in the era of segregation in America that Moms Mabley began to gain popularity with black and white audiences. She performed on the Ed Sullivan Show, The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, and set a record for performances at the Apollo! Definitely a trailblazer!

Thanks for being here with us this week and every week. Again, we apologize for being late, on behalf of our producer. Please check out our patreon and consider becoming a patron at www.patreon.com/anonmomhappyhour. We look forward to hearing from everyone what you think of this week's show! Byyeee.

 

SOURCES 

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/databank/entries/bofran.htmlhttps://www.britannica.com/biography/Rosalind-Franklinhttps://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/KR/https://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/ps/retrieve/Narrative/KR/p-nid/183https://www.sdsc.edu/ScienceWomen/franklin.htmlhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosalind_Franklinhttp://www.primaryhomeworkhelp.co.uk/war/wardens.htmlhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moms_Mableyhttps://www.biography.com/performer/moms-mableyhttps://www.biography.com/news/famous-female-comedians-national-humor-month

Happy one-year podiversary, listeners! Thank you so much for being here with the Non Moms for a whole year of episodes. We are honored to be allowed in your earholes every week. Real talk.

New hashtag: #DontLetKellyGoBankrupt Please consider buying her book! www.nerdzillakelly.com/book. To all of our #Spoonie listeners, hang in there! This life isn't easy or cheap. Thankfully, we have each other. 

Debbie Jo officially kicks the episode off with the life and times of Babe Didrikson Zaharias. Babe was an incredibly accomplished athlete and took home not one, but two Olympic Gold Medals in Track & Field in 1932. She followed that up with becoming a professional golf player and helping to found the Lady's Professional Golf Association (LPGA). Kelly proves beyond a doubt that she was not ever any kind of jock or athlete. Thank goodness Debbie Jo used to play golf, otherwise Kelly would likely not have understood half of what she said about Babe.

Kelly follows Babe up with the story of American poet Phillis Wheatley. Phillis Wheatley is not her birth name, but her slave name, and unfortunately, we do not know her birth name. However, Phillis was the first African American woman to be published as an author in America. Her poetry served as a covert way for her to participate in sociopolitical discussions and support the abolition of slavery, without taking too much heat from colonial white folks about it. This conversation might make you uncomfortable. It's probably supposed to.

Tune in next week for our last episode before Kelly's spinal fusion surgery! There may even be a guest!

Sources:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babe_Didrikson_Zahariashttps://www.biography.com/athlete/babe-didrikson-zahariashttp://writersrelief.com/2019/03/06/8-trailblazing-badass-women-writers-you-should-read-writers-relief/https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/phillis-wheatleyhttps://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/phillis-wheatleyhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Whitefield