Did you enjoy listening to people try to guess obscure Victorian ads? Are you curious about what the terrible pun ad-venture could mean? Well, have we got a show for you! In this fun intermission between history expositions, listen as some of my guests try to guess what 20th century ads are for based on out-of-context quotes and descriptions. Through this fun game, we unpack some of the rhetoric surrounding advertisements over time, and, of course, look at the intersections of food, gender, and social history! Enjoy.

Welcome back to the podcast after a most unfortunate hiatus! History was happening to me in real life, but rest assured that Albion Tonight lives on. This episode is about the lives of historic mothers—the pressures placed on them, the things they fed their babies, and the sociocultural implications of such issues as breastfeeding and nutrition. In this episode we explore the tragedies and triumphs experienced by everyday people as they tried to take care of their infants.

This episode explores a few case studies related to the history of cookbooks and how they can be seen as a source of community, empowerment, and expression for women in the 19th and 20th centuries. From individual publishing feats to supporting causes like suffrage and temperance, cookbooks have served as an important tool for more than just making a tasty meal.

Disclaimers: In the episode, I used the word “produced” in reference to Charles Dickens and a play from which his wife’s pseudonym was taken. By this I meant that he managed and assisted in performances in which she took part in Used Up: A Petit Comedy In Two Parts. This play was adapted from Felix- Auguste Duvert’s L’homme blasé, by Charles Mathews and Dion Boucicault. The images include an in-depth explanation of this backstory if you are curious.

Welcome to an unconventional and experimental episode of Albion Tonight! Join me for an evening of storytelling where I read, react to, and share insights on gender, food, and history related to the original penny dreadful version of Sweeney Todd.

This episode is the first requested success of the show! Due to an email request, I researched beef and burgers in Britain. Join us to learn a bit about why beef is historically and culturally embedded in British identity. See how hamburgers crossed the Atlantic. Journey with us from beloved markets and butchershops to the homes of 1960s housewives and beyond, and find out how even beef made its impact on gendered performance, expectations, and beauty standards.

NOTE: Turns out the podcast recording studio at my local library caused some of the audio for this episode to jump around and be a little funky for the first 22 minutes, so please bear it for a bit. My sincerest apologies. I hope it will still be enjoyable. I put many, many days and hours into this episode, and I hope it still shows.

In this episode, discover how sparkling waters made it from spa towns to middle class homes. Discover the mysteries behind the soft drinks that pervade our lives, from the sparkling lemonades in British pubs to ginger beers, colas, and fruity sodas galore. Learn the ways in which women appear in the archive. Spoiler alert: they have a big role in the history of soda, pop up in soda trade journals, and in some silly shenanigans! Enjoy!

My favorite soda is whatever lemonade they serve at George & Vulture, London. What’s yours? Leave a comment on Spotify or YouTube and let me know!

An Afternoon Tea is considered a quintessential British experience nowadays, but have you ever wondered what lies beneath this elegant tradition? In this episode, I discuss some of the history, origins, and fun facts about British tea and the culture surrounding it. Most importantly, we look at how tea affected women’s lives at work, at home, and on the dance floor! Pour yourself a cuppa, eat some biscuits, and settle in for one of my favorite episodes yet.

*Some content in this episode may be suggestive and unsuitable for children. *

In this special episode, some of my guests of podcast past, present, and future come together to guess what in the world some of my favorite Victorian (and Victorian-ish) ads are for, since these ads are notoriously obtuse and eccentrically euphemistic. Please feel free to play along at home and put your historical chops to the test. Some of these ads feature women, of course, and advertise some indigestible items, so they are still on par with this season’s theme. Some of these ads contain views that are inherently racist, colonialist, sexist, or prejudiced. This was not okay then and it is not okay now, but hopefully, we can learn something about the past through play, and also acknowledge how advertising reflects and shapes culture, sometimes for better and, oftentimes, for worse. If you are interested in learning more and hearing some more critical thoughts on Victorian advertising, you can email me and/or continue to listen to other episodes in which such issues will have time to be addressed in greater depth.

Oh, Beans on Toast. It is a multifaceted dish, which has developed many identities over time from that of the economical wonder meal to a quick breakfast and even that of a quintessential element of British identity (and of a full English breakfast). Both beloved by many and despised by many, there is no way to deny its importance to British history, culture, and identity. In this episode, I seek to take you on a wild roller coaster ride into the history of this dish AND, most importantly, how it relates to women. Believe me, it certainly does. If you want to find out more, pull up a chair, toast your bread, bake your pre-baked beans, and listen to this fantabulous episode.

Notes: I mispronounced Ken Albala’s name quite a bit in this episode and sincerely apologize. I accidentally pronounced it with two B’s and I want to own up to my mistake.

When fighting for their right to vote, women in the UK broke off into two main groups: militant suffragettes and pacifistic suffragists. The former were so determined to achieve their goals that they were willing to make huge sacrifices, including transforming their bodies into battlefields for political protest. In this episode, we will discuss the hunger strikes that suffragettes undertook in prison and the government’s response, which was to forcibly feed them, raising questions of what it meant to “protect women” and where the lines between torture and survival lie.