“I have been objectified as a vehicle”. We are delighted to welcome back our most-returning guest, as the brilliant historian and author Charlotte Lydia Riley talks us through the cursed world of being pregnant in public; about the way pregnant women – and, in different ways, mothers! – are treated by a frequently confused society. Why is there so much twee culture surrounding pregnancy, and how has it become so common to infantilise expectant mothers? And what is the role of the pin badge, as a way of announcing who we are?

This takes us into discussing public information films, government propaganda, behavioural ‘nudge’ messaging (“don’t swim in gravel pits!”), ‘chivalry’ and how people behave around each other on trains and buses.

Also: what does it mean that Starmer's government is one of fare evasion officers, not bus conductors?

Dr Charlotte Lydia Riley is a historian of twentieth-century Britain at the University of Southampton, specialising in questions about empire, politics, culture and identity. She is the author of Imperial Island: A History of Empire in Modern Britain and the co-author of Is Free Speech Under Threat? Listen to her first Cursed Objects episode here: https://www.cursedobjects.co.uk/episodes/rainy-empire-island

Also, thanks again for your patience while we a) put on a very successful two-month-long exhibition, and b) had a break over the summer. If you'd like to join our Patreon, it is still only £4 a month, and there are 30+ bonus episodes in there already - our next episode will be Patreon-only: https://www.patreon.com/c/cursedobjects