BitchStory - Stories of badass women that history "forgot"

In WW2, women filled all sorts of important roles, from secretaries to spies. Many of these stories have been buried in HIStory, but in this current wave of feminism, it isn’t hard to find a good story about a badass woman in a war.

“Operation Mincemeat” was a British MI5 plot devised to fool Hitler into pulling back his troops from Sicily, thereby allowing the allies to secure it and turn the war hard in their favor.

There were a number of women who were essential to the success of this ruse, and in this episode we cover a few of them.

Here’s a link to the photo that deceived Hitler, and my blog about her:

https://kellymcclain.blogspot.com/2025/07/operation-mincemeat-women-behind-plot.html

If you'd like to contribute to our work here at Bitchstory, we'd be thrilled to receive your financial support so we can keep going and maybe actually not be in the red.

Our venmo is @bitchstory

Thanks for listening! <3

We had an absolute blast talking to Karen Wang Diggs, author of the book “Awesome Asian Women”! Karen was a freakin’ delight! She’s the real deal-a true intersectional feminist and a gifted storyteller with a passion for lifting women up. Her book contains inspiring stories of over 120 women, from Empress Wu Zetian to Congresswoman Tammy Duckworth (who was just on Stephen Colbert and we love!)

It is going to be a fixture on the Bitchstory bookshelf!

• ​You can find Karen on Instagram at @herstoryinhx
• ​Her website is herstoryinhistory.com
• ​Buy the book here: https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-book-of-awesome-asian-women-becca-anderson/21690746 (Or on Amazon if you must)

You can read about the women we discuss on the pod on my blog every week: ⁠Kellymcclain.blogspot.com⁠

If you'd like to contribute to our work here at Bitchstory, we'd be thrilled to receive your financial support so we can keep going and maybe actually not be in the red.

Our venmo is @bitchstory

Thanks for listening! <3

Lisa and I had the pleasure of speaking to two very cool women recently. The author and illustrator of “I’m Not Your Muse” and companion deck (so cool!) “More Than Muses”, Lori Zimmer & Maria Krasinski! We discussed at length where this vision and inspiration came from and how they brought it to life. This book feels like it was made for this podcast, and you can bet your ass we’ll be using it often! This book highlights women from all walks of life who created all kinds of art and in the process broke out of society’s boxes. This isn’t their first project together. They are lifelong friends and also collaborated in “Art Hiding in Paris” and “Art Hiding in New York”. My artsy heart really loves this! You can find all of their projects and info at “Arthiding.com” and @arthiding

You can read about the women we discuss on the pod on my blog every week: ⁠Kellymcclain.blogspot.com⁠

If you'd like to contribute to our work here at Bitchstory, we'd be thrilled to receive your financial support so we can keep going and maybe actually not be in the red.

Our venmo is @bitchstory

Thanks for listening! <3

Ash from the true crime podcast, “f**k that” joins us to tell us about a huge scientific discovery that was made by a woman but stolen by a man! Rosalind Franklin needs to be added to the history books!!

Check out the revision history on the Wikipedia article!

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

Google’s if-y search results:

https://www.google.com/search?q=who+discovered+dna+structure&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-us&client=safari

https://time.com/5793551/rosalind-franklin-100-women-of-the-year/

Ash’s podcast:

https://www.fthatpod.com/

https://www.instagram.com/fthat_pod

You can read about the women we discuss on the pod on my blog every week: ⁠Kellymcclain.blogspot.com⁠

If you'd like to contribute to our work here at Bitchstory, we'd be thrilled to receive your financial support so we can keep going and maybe actually not be in the red.

Our venmo is @bitchstory

Thanks for listening! <3

We are back on our DEI shit...oh wait, we were never off of it. Ok well anyway, this episode is a nod to Black History, Women's History, and WW2 Military History. Put those all together and you get a story of black women being given the impossible task of unfucking a big mess that a bunch of men thought they were too good for (probably) - We are talking about the "Central Postal Directory Battalion", better known as 6888 Battalion. The 6888 was an all black, all female unit that was handed the "impossible" task of sorting several million pieces of mail in a 6 month period in the middle of WW2 in Europe.

You can watch the Netflix movie "The Six Triple Eight", but first, listen to this podcast :)

SOURCES:

• https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/colonel-charity-adams-6888th-commanding-officer

• https://www.uncrownedcommunitybuilders.com/person/indiana-1

• 
  https://www.seacoastonline.com/story/news/local/2021/02/15/women-6888-central-postal-directory-battalion-doris-moore-portsmouth/4481280001/
  

You can read about the women we discuss on the pod on my blog every week: ⁠Kellymcclain.blogspot.com⁠

If you'd like to contribute to our work here at Bitchstory, we'd be thrilled to receive your financial support so we can keep going and maybe actually not be in the red.

Our venmo is @bitchstory

Thanks for listening! <3

This week we are highlighting a couple of badass ladies that we plucked out of the 2 books that came to our attention via listeners or followers of the pod - the first black librarian Belle da Costa Greene came from Lori's book, and from Karen's book, astrophysicist Dr. Mazlan Othman!

Lori Zimmer's book: "I'm not your muse" -

From the publisher: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/lori-zimmer/im-not-your-muse/9780762485383/?lens=running-press

From Amazon (she has other books so search her name if you love art!):

https://a.co/d/4HXJ1pu

Lori's instagram: @thelorizimmer

Karen Wang Diggs' book "Awesome Asian Women"

From independent book seller Book Hampton :

https://www.bookhampton.com/book/9781684817238

From Amazon: https://a.co/d/dwhB94p

Author Website: herstoryinhistory.com

Karen's Instagram: @herstoryinhx

Publisher instagram: @mangopublishing

(we were not paid to link any of the above, btw)

The reliquary triptych we mentioned that is displayed in the Morgan Library is this thing: ⁠https://www.themorgan.org/objects/item/93248⁠

You can read about the women we discuss on the pod on my blog every week: Kellymcclain.blogspot.com

If you'd like to contribute to our work here at Bitchstory, we'd be thrilled to receive your financial support so we can keep going and maybe actually not be in the red.

Our venmo is @bitchstory

Thanks for listening! <3

April is Scottish Heritage Month, so we are covering an event in Scottish history...ahem...herstory...ahem...bitchstory (trust, they were called Bitches and then some!) ! that changed the educational options and career paths for millions of women that came after it. The Edinburgh Seven were a group of 7 women (there were more than 7 actually) who had to fight for their rights to attend med school. We'll cover who they were and what they had to go through.

This is a cautionary tale for American women, who are having their rights eroded in the 21st century at an alarming rate, while much of the rest of the world is progressing. Fight, bitches!

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

• Sophia Jex-Blake

• Isabel Thorne

• Edith Pechey

• Matilda Chaplin

• Helen Evans

• Mary Anderson

• Emily Bovell

If you'd like to contribute to our work here at Bitchstory, we'd be thrilled to receive your Venmo @bitchstory

Thanks for listening! <3

You know the saying…behind every great man…is a woman doing all the work and never getting mentioned. Isn’t that the saying?

Well anyway, we’ve created an imaginary reality show about the wives of the famous men of the Revolution.

Who is gonna be the table tipper? Any guesses?

I’ll upload sources later. I’m already behind on posting this :)

.

This week we have an ancient badass Queen, and a present day badass lady, both have spoken truth to power and stood up against corruption. Lisa covers Queen Amanirenas of 24 BCE, and Kelly covers Texas Representative Jasmine Crockett!m and some of her sassy clapbacks.

Keep calling your representatives- the pressure does make a difference! Use this app!

"5 Calls" App- It's SO easy and cool!!!

https://5calls.org/

SOURCES

https://www.history.com/news/nubian-queen-amanirenas-roman-army

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

EXTRAS

Here’s a video we mentioned of President Zelenskyy THANKING an American WW2 Vet!!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KBofHkLqXZE

This week, we tell the tale of some amazing black women. And in a weird twist, Kelly talks about sports, which is usually a Lisa thing, and Lisa talks about an AIDS activists, which is one of Kelly's passions.

We also discuss ways you can pressure our Representatives and Congress people to do the right thing and stand up to the Tangerine Tyrant and his horny tech-bro boyfriend by using an App called "5 Calls". It's SO easy and cool!!!

https://5calls.org/

sources:

https://espnpressroom.com/us/press-releases/author/shakeemahvsw/page/2/

https://www.prdaily.com/ragan_speakers/chantal-romain/

https://www.agentnicolelynn.com/about

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

Prudence Nobantu MabeleWikipediahttps://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Prudence_Nobantu_M...

Remembering AIDS activist Prudence Mabele - WGBHWGBHhttps://www.wgbh.org › news › remembering-aids-activ...

Prudence Mabele: The life of the South African HIV ... - BBCBBChttps://www.bbc.com › news › world-africa-40653944