Halloween is almost here (at the time of posting) and doing a show about the Salem Witch Trials is perfectly on-brand for this spooky holiday. The Elizabeth that our episode is about is Elizabeth Parris - whose child Betty Parris and her niece Abagail Williams - were the first to be "afflicted" by alleged Satanic influences in 1692. Parris with her husband, Samuel, and another neighbor diagnosed the so-called nefarious symptoms of their children, and accused three of being Witches - two townswomen and Tituba, who was the slave who lived in the Parris household. This first case of "Witchcraft" started the fire (to paraphrase Billy Joel) and an epidemic of satanic activity across Salem and even parts of Connecticut. Do Elizabeth and her child Betty (a variation of Elizabeth) get a pass from Gideon and Kathy? And what caused these symptoms? Kathy and Gideon go through some of the theories including "Mass Hysteria" and ergot mushroom poisoning.

Later in the episode, Gideon and Kathy welcome guest Jane Borden, author of "Cults Like Us" and discuss whether the Puritans, who founded America, were essentially a cult, and how does the Puritans' cult-like behavior and thinking manifest in our modern society in America. In a twist, we channel Henry Louis Gates, and help reveal the descendant of our guest Borden...can you guess?

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A Storm of Witchcraft: The Salem Trials and the American Experience by Emerson W Baker

https://a.co/d/8k3xxRF

Hysterical by Dan Taberski

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hysterical/id1753789609

Cults Like Us: Why Doomsday Thinking Drives America by Jane Borden

https://a.co/d/g6Frn5F

I Totally Meant to Do That by Jane Borden

https://a.co/d/eh0c3Ot

The Crucible by Arthur Miller

https://a.co/d/383dc3f

John Proctor is the Villain by Kimberly Belflower

https://a.co/d/ez6xt4z

The Day of Doom - by Michael Wigglesworth

https://a.co/d/6q4G470

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Hosted by Gideon Evans & Kathy Egan-Taylor

Producer & Engineer: Will Becton / Executive Producer: Amber Becton

Recorded @ Jett Road Studios

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Jett Road Studios - Website - YouTube - Instagram - Substack

Bad Elizabeth - Instagram - YouTube - Substack

Queen Elizabeth I is known as the steady, confident ruler who beat the Spanish Armada, supported the arts, and led to England's golden age. But her reign also had a darker side, including killing of Catholic priests, terrorizing Puritans, and speculation she might've been part of a plot to kill a lover's wife.

In this episode Gideon and Kathy look past the legend to the woman behind the crown - part hero, part manipulator, and part mystery.

Our guest is Alice Loxton, also known as History Alice, who joins us to tutor us on the Tudors, and help make sense of the Virgin Queen.

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Hosted by Gideon Evans & Kathy Egan-Taylor

Producer & Engineer: Will Becton / Executive Producer: Amber Becton

Recorded @ Jett Road Studios

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Jett Road Studios - Website - YouTube - Instagram - Substack

Bad Elizabeth - Instagram - YouTube - Substack

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SOURCES

The First Elizabeth by Carolly Erickson

https://a.co/d/5UAb5x4

Eighteen: A History of Britain in 18 Young Lives by Alice Loxton

https://a.co/d/2OipuVO

Elizabeth I: A Study in Insecurity by Helen Castor

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/apr/05/elizabeth-i-helen-castor-study-insecurity-penguin-monarchs

Gideon and Kathy discuss the rise and fall of Elizabeth Holmes, the infamous CEO of Theranos. Holmes dropped out of college like Steve Jobs, she wore black turtle necks like jobs, and created a tech product like Jobs. But unlike Jobs, Homes' product didn't do what she said it would do and she lied about it repeatedly. The Theranos idea was to have a fast and easy way to run many medical tests using a tiny pin prick to the finger, but it turned out to be pie in the sky. If only Homes spent the same amount of energy covering up the fact that her product was a failure, and blaming her staff, into actually working on making the product work, maybe she'd attain the Jobs-like stature she desired. Both Gideon and Kathy have had their share of terrible work environments, but probably not nearly as toxic as that of Theranos. And like other bad Elizabeths we have covered, Holmes is attempting a comeback even though she's currently in prison, Gideon and Kathy discuss the how likely it'll be for her new ideas to work. Later in the episode Kathy and Gideon talk to writer E. Jean Carroll, who is also an Elizabeth, but a badass one. Carroll gives her take on Holmes and then we go in-depth about Carroll's life growing up in Indiana and her hard-fought battle to become the beloved writer she has become. The episode wraps up with Carroll talking about her gripping and often hilarious book "Not My Type" about her lawsuit against Donald Trump for assaulting her in the dressing rooms of a Manhattan, New York, Bergdorf Goodman. She won her case not once, but twice.

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Hosted by Gideon Evans & Kathy Egan-Taylor

Producer & Engineer: Will Becton / Executive Producer: Amber Becton

Recorded @ Jett Road Studios

----------------------------------------

Jett Road Studios - Website - YouTube - Instagram - Substack

Bad Elizabeth - Instagram - YouTube - Substack

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SOURCES:

New York Times - Elizabeth Holmes Partner Blood-Testing Start-up

ABC News - Elizabeth Holmes Prison Release Date

Vanity Fair - The Talented Ms Holmes

IMDB - The Dropout

The Dropout - Apple Podcasts

Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup

Not My Type: One Woman vs. a President

Lizzie Borden’s father and stepmother were found hacked to death in Fall River, Massachusetts over one hundred and thirty years ago, yet everyone today still knows her name. Kids dress up like Lizzie carrying bloody axes for Halloween, or spookily recite the famous nursery rhyme “Lizzie Borden took an axe and gave her mother forty whacks/When she saw what she had done, she gave her father forty-one." But what is the real story behind this gory tale?

Gideon and Kathy break down what happened the morning of August 4th, 1892, examining Lizzie as the number one presumed suspect, but also look into the possibility that someone else might’ve murdered Abby and Andrew Borden. What are the possible motives? Was Lizzie pissed because modern plumbing was available at the time, but her tight-pursed father made the family crap in chamber pots? Or was it for the money? And what exactly qualifies one as a “spinster?” But most importantly, was Lizzie Borden BAD? Gideon and Kathy pull from their many resources, including the salacious, and kinda weird, 1975 made-for-TV movie, “The Legend of Lizzie Borden,” starring beloved “Bewitched” actress, Elizabeth Montgomery, to explore the most critical questions behind one of America’s most enduring crime mysteries. 

Later in the episode, Kathy talks to Ricardo Rebelo, an instructor of Film, Video & Communications at Bristol Community College in Rhode Island, from his home in Fall River, Massachusetts. Ric discusses his PBS documentary, “Lizbeth: A Victorian Nightmare,” growing up on the same street from the infamous Borden house, the ecosystem of ghosts that haunt the town of Fall River, and the tourism industry it lures. Tuck in for some good tales as spooky Pumpkin Spice season has officially begun!

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Hosted by Gideon Evans & Kathy Egan Taylor

Produced & Engineer by Will Becton / Executive Producer: Amber Becton

Recorded @ Jett Road Studios

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Jett Road Studios - Website - YouTube - Instagram - Substack

Bad Elizabeth - Instagram - YouTube - Substack

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SOURCES:

The New Yorker: Legends of Lizzie

Smithsonian Magazine: How Lizzie Borden Got Away with Murder 

New York Times: Lizzie Borden Took an Ax

The Legend of Lizzie Borden (starring Elizabeth Montgomery)

Lizbeth: A Victorian Nightmare : A Lizzie Borden True Crime / Paranormal Documentary

One August Morning: The True Story of Lizzie Borden - Troy Taylor

Elisabeth Finch was an ambitious writer and producer of the hit ABC series Grey’s Anatomy. As talented as Finch was at crafting episodes of the beloved hospital drama, she was even more talented at lying her ass off about her own life. Finch got ahead in Hollywood by making up a sob story about having and inoperable spinal cancer. She shaved her head, and pretended to throw up in the restroom at work, pulling the heartstrings of her colleagues, family, and lovers. Her charade was so convincing that her "struggle" even became a Grey's Anatomy plot line. And that was just the beginning of the bullshit she spewed. Gideon and Kathy reluctantly marvel at the exploits of this “Zelig of Misfortune,” and her commitment to the reality she created.

Later in the episode Gideon sits down with legendary journalist Michael Musto in his native New York City, to discuss Hollywood icon Elizabeth Taylor. The glamorous star of films like Giant, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? was also known for tempestuous relationships with her many husband, like Richard Burton, and disastrous Hollywood flops like Cleopatra. Was Elizabeth Taylor an out-of-control, home-wrecking diva? Or a was she an ahead-of-her-time, philanthropic, badass? Listen to find out.

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Hosted by Gideon Evans & Kathy Egan Taylor

Produced & Engineer by Will Becton / Executive Producer: Amber Becton

Recorded @ Jett Road Studios

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Jett Road Studios - Website - YouTube - Instagram - Substack

Bad Elizabeth - Instagram - YouTube - Substack

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Vanity Fair (Article)

Vanity Fair article, Part One

Vanity Fair article, Part Two

Anatomy of Lies (TV)

Anatomy of Lies

The Plot Thickens: Cleopatra (Podcast)

The Plot Thickens: Cleopatra

Bad Elizabeth. Hosted by Gideon Evans & Kathy Egan-Taylor. Coming soon...