A suffrage convention, a censored book, and a friendship that held the line—this is the 1896 showdown few of us were ever taught. We open the appendix to The Woman’s Bible and step into the room where NAWSA leaders tried to distance the movement from Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s fiercest work. The resolution’s catty phrasing calling it the “so-called Woman’s Bible” was more than shade; it was strategy, signaling a turn toward (so-called) respectability and away from the root critique that Stanton believed blocked every legal gain: scripture used to justify women’s subordination.

We trace the fault lines through names, speeches, and a near-split vote. Charlotte Perkins Stetson offers a surgical amendment to keep the association non-sectarian without shaming dissent. Then Susan B. Anthony rises with a spine-of-steel defense of Stanton, warning that censorship narrows coalitions and that progress cannot survive if questioning sacred authority is off-limits. Her words could be used to-day: you can’t promise freedom with a gag order, and you can’t build a durable movement by appeasing fear.

Along the way, we explore why the Bible became the battleground, how the vote re-centered the suffrage movement, and what that decision cost subsequent generations. We connect the dots to today where Christian nationalism, selective literalism, and rights rollbacks test whether advocates will name the story that shapes the law.  We marvel at the lives of victorian women whose lives spanned art, sociology, organizing, and risk. And we end with a poem that captures the ethos: be the rock that sets the boundary, not the tide that flatters and recedes.

If this shook your assumptions or filled a missing chapter in your mental timeline, share it with a friend, subscribe for the next deep dive, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway or maybe some of your own feminist history knowledge. We read every word.

LINKS!

The Woman's Bible Repudiated: https://sacred-texts.com/wmn/wb/wb75.htm

More about Charlotte Perkins: https://aeon.co/ideas/all-woman-the-utopian-feminism-of-charlotte-perkins-gilman

Video Bio: https://youtu.be/Cjw3-lM1Tyg?si=XuejpLTXjWVs_4-b

Her letter with her lovah: https://cds.library.brown.edu/projects/CreativeNonfiction/spring00/rabinowitz.html

This episode recorded at Bob's Basement Studio. Produced and edited by Sara Kaye Larson.

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Credits

Season Two Recorded at Bob's Basement Studios, Michigan

Produced and edited by Sara Kaye Larson

Intro/Outro Music: ‘Shifting pt. 2 (instrumental)’  by Rie Daisies

Executive Producer Kate ML Rogers

Season One Recorded at Troubadour Studios in Lansing, MI (now in Traverse City, MI!)

Audio Engineer Corey DeRushia

Edited by Rie Daisies at Nighttime Girlfriend Studio

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Have some feedback? Praise? General thoughts? Want to be on the show? Know how to pronounce something? Are you a religious scholar? We'd love to hear from you. Leave a message right from your phone or computer by clicking here. Recordings may be used in future episodes.  

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A late October check in bonus episode with a spooky theme. Well, that is if you thinking chit chatting with the dead is spooky. Lots of Victorian people thought it wasn't spooky but important. Serious. There was a huge surge of interest in spiritualism in the 19th century. We thought maybe we should see if any of our Victorian feminists that we've been reading were also into the occult.  It has opened up a can of worms.  

Won't you join us?

Discussed in this episode:

Ms Magazine - excerpt of WAKING THE WITCH: Reflections on Women, Magic and Power by Pam Grossman
https://msmagazine.com/2019/10/29/waking-the-witch-the-feminist-history-of-spiritualism/

The Burned Over District
https://nyheritage.org/exhibits/two-hundred-years-erie-canal/burned-over-district

Religion and Reform in the "Burned Over District"
https://youtu.be/fKxEOmAZCd8?si=2KMMGF_Y8p6baMHV

The rise and fall of Harmonia, a Spiritualist utopia and home to Sojourner Truth  https://www.battlecreekenquirer.com/story/life/2019/01/16/rise-and-fall-harmonia-battle-creeks-spiritualist-utopia/2214809002/

Victoria Woodhull, the Original ‘Nasty Woman’
https://www.villagepreservation.org/2018/04/02/victoria-woodhull-the-original-nasty-woman/

Lilydale Spiritualist Community
https://www.lilydaleassembly.org/community 

Anne Braude https://www.hds.harvard.edu/people/ann-d-braude

The First Woman to Run For President Was a Spiritualist, Wall Street Broker, and Free-Love Advocate https://www.mentalfloss.com/history/first-woman-run-president-was-clairvoyant-free-love-advocate

This episode recorded remotely at Bob's Basement Studio

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Send us Fan Mail

Credits

Season Two Recorded at Bob's Basement Studios, Michigan

Produced and edited by Sara Kaye Larson

Intro/Outro Music: ‘Shifting pt. 2 (instrumental)’  by Rie Daisies

Executive Producer Kate ML Rogers

Season One Recorded at Troubadour Studios in Lansing, MI (now in Traverse City, MI!)

Audio Engineer Corey DeRushia

Edited by Rie Daisies at Nighttime Girlfriend Studio

Leave us a voice mail

Have some feedback? Praise? General thoughts? Want to be on the show? Know how to pronounce something? Are you a religious scholar? We'd love to hear from you. Leave a message right from your phone or computer by clicking here. Recordings may be used in future episodes.  

Website

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The gods of our fathers are our devils.   That's what the victorian feminists say an ancient Arabic proverb says. Knowing how much the people of the 19th century liked to embellish the mystical and such, we're not sure if that's actually a thing but it's a thing now because MJG said it.  In this episode we tackle Peter and John’s epistles, then flip the script on Revelation with Matilda Joslyn Gage, reading it through symbols, numbers, and stars to uncover a fiercely feminist core. We push back on literalism, call out control, and dream of a world full of Jezebels.

Some highlights:
• subjection verses in Peter and John, Stanton’s rebuttal to wealth and “weaker vessels”
• apostles and patronage, “elect ladies,” class and comfort
• contested authorship of Revelation, the 9,200-word “letter”
• astrology, numerology, Kabbalah as interpretive keys
• the woman, the dragon, twelve stars: feminine principle vs material power
• literalism as a tool of control, symbolism as a path to agency
• speech, censorship, and why we refuse to quiet down
• closing the book proper; next up, Stanton’s appendix and letters

Join us. Join us. We must rebel. And that starts with a podcast of course. 

This episode recorded in Bob's Basement Studios.

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Credits

Season Two Recorded at Bob's Basement Studios, Michigan

Produced and edited by Sara Kaye Larson

Intro/Outro Music: ‘Shifting pt. 2 (instrumental)’  by Rie Daisies

Executive Producer Kate ML Rogers

Season One Recorded at Troubadour Studios in Lansing, MI (now in Traverse City, MI!)

Audio Engineer Corey DeRushia

Edited by Rie Daisies at Nighttime Girlfriend Studio

Leave us a voice mail

Have some feedback? Praise? General thoughts? Want to be on the show? Know how to pronounce something? Are you a religious scholar? We'd love to hear from you. Leave a message right from your phone or computer by clicking here. Recordings may be used in future episodes.  

Website

https://www.bitingalltheapples.com/

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If you like your podcasts with a side of crashout then this episode is for you. If not, this is still the episode for you but you may want to jump to around 18 minutes to get straight to the part where we talk about the book.

You're going to love the victorian feminist takes on the Epistles to the Ephesians, Phillipians, and Timothy. I mean, someone had to respond to all the men-win doctrine and instructions for women in marriage, appearance, and widowhood. 

You'll get to enjoy classic lines such as:  "Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands as unto the Lord"  and hear about how widows aren't supposed to have any fun.  And you'll be terrified or depressed to realize just how much Canon law seeps into civil law especially here in the states.

Whether you're a person of faith questioning traditional interpretations or simply interested in how ancient texts continue to shape modern power dynamics, this episode offers a fascinating look at the roots of gender inequality in Western society. Join us as we advocate for a world where, as Chandler wrote, "the religion of Jesus is a voluntary acceptance of truth," and "motherhood is equally honored with fatherhood in human institutions."

Send us Fan Mail

Credits

Season Two Recorded at Bob's Basement Studios, Michigan

Produced and edited by Sara Kaye Larson

Intro/Outro Music: ‘Shifting pt. 2 (instrumental)’  by Rie Daisies

Executive Producer Kate ML Rogers

Season One Recorded at Troubadour Studios in Lansing, MI (now in Traverse City, MI!)

Audio Engineer Corey DeRushia

Edited by Rie Daisies at Nighttime Girlfriend Studio

Leave us a voice mail

Have some feedback? Praise? General thoughts? Want to be on the show? Know how to pronounce something? Are you a religious scholar? We'd love to hear from you. Leave a message right from your phone or computer by clicking here. Recordings may be used in future episodes.  

Website

https://www.bitingalltheapples.com/

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Not even a back to school headcold could keep us away for too long. In this episode we analyze (in our own analytic fashion and with the help of witty Victorian feminists)) the Apostle Paul's letters (epistles) to the Romans and Corinthians from Elizabeth Cady Stanton's "The Woman's Bible," revealing how biblical passages about women have been weaponized to limit their rights throughout history. We expose the contradictions in Paul's writings, from praising women leaders in Romans to commanding women's silence in Corinthians, and examine how these texts still influence gender inequality today.

Here are some highlights in this episode:

• Paul's letter to the Romans names and praises many women who were integral to early Christianity
• Evidence suggests Priscilla may have founded the Church of Rome, yet women still cannot be priests
• Corinthians contains restrictive marriage instructions with unequal standards for men and women
• Paul's command for women to cover their heads stems from an old Hebrew legend about angels
• The directive for women to "keep silence in the churches" contradicts women's earlier recognized roles
• Only seven of the fourteen letters attributed to Paul were likely written by him
• Elizabeth Cady Stanton and her contributors offer biting critiques of Paul's contradictory positions
• These biblical interpretations continue to impact modern gender roles and women's rights

All that and all of the fun, thrills, and modern insight you can handle. 

Send us Fan Mail

Credits

Season Two Recorded at Bob's Basement Studios, Michigan

Produced and edited by Sara Kaye Larson

Intro/Outro Music: ‘Shifting pt. 2 (instrumental)’  by Rie Daisies

Executive Producer Kate ML Rogers

Season One Recorded at Troubadour Studios in Lansing, MI (now in Traverse City, MI!)

Audio Engineer Corey DeRushia

Edited by Rie Daisies at Nighttime Girlfriend Studio

Leave us a voice mail

Have some feedback? Praise? General thoughts? Want to be on the show? Know how to pronounce something? Are you a religious scholar? We'd love to hear from you. Leave a message right from your phone or computer by clicking here. Recordings may be used in future episodes.  

Website

https://www.bitingalltheapples.com/

Find us on YouTube and BlueSky

Uncovering the hidden history of women in the early church, this episode dives deep into the Book of Acts as viewed through Elizabeth Cady Stanton's groundbreaking feminist lens. Sara Kaye and Joanna V reunite to explore what Victorian feminists discovered about women's roles in spreading Christianity – roles that male religious authorities have systematically erased over centuries.

Through stories like Sapphira (who died for obeying her husband's deception), Rhoda (whose truthful words were dismissed by men), and Lydia (a successful businesswoman), we discover that women were far more central to early Christianity than traditional interpretations admit. The hosts examine how these biblical women challenge the narrative of female submission that has dominated religious discourse.

The most explosive revelation comes from Ellen Battelle Dietrick, one of Stanton's collaborators, who argues that many biblical passages subordinating women were likely "bare-faced forgeries" inserted by "unscrupulous bishops" intent on silencing women. She points to a critical "missing link" of 500 years between Old Testament texts and New Testament compilation that calls into question the historical accuracy of how the Bible portrays gender roles.

This episode doesn't just reinterpret ancient stories – it provides a powerful framework for understanding how religious texts have been manipulated to justify women's oppression. As Sara Kaye says, "We are not sliding back. Public discourse has slid back." Join us for this thought-provoking exploration of biblical history that reminds women everywhere: you are sovereign.

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YEAH - What the robot said. This episode rules. It will knock your socks off and shake loose some long-held beliefs. It's good for circulation. 

Here's some more information about topics discussed in this episode:

The Marshall Project
See What Your Local Agency Received from the Department of Defense
https://www.themarshallproject.org/mp-graphics/201412-dod/embed.html

Peter Thiel Churching Links:

Christians in tech drive religious revival in SF
One of America’s most secular cities is experiencing a religious boom with Silicon Valley overtones.https://sfstandard.com/2024/11/09/christians-tech-religion-sf/

‘Wouldn’t It Be Funny if We Tricked a Bunch of People into Going to Church?’
Interview by Kate Lucky
Michelle Stephens of Silicon Valley evangelism organization ACTS 17 talks caviar bumps, Peter Thiel, and Christianity.
https://www.christianitytoday.com/2025/08/michelle-stephens-interview-peter-thiel-silicon-valley-revival-evangelism/

Peter Thiel’s visions of Apocalypse
Is AI the Antichrist?
https://unherd.com/2025/05/peter-thiels-visions-of-apocalypse/

Peter Thiel and the Antichrist
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/26/opinion/peter-thiel-antichrist-ross-douthat.html

Send us Fan Mail

Credits

Season Two Recorded at Bob's Basement Studios, Michigan

Produced and edited by Sara Kaye Larson

Intro/Outro Music: ‘Shifting pt. 2 (instrumental)’  by Rie Daisies

Executive Producer Kate ML Rogers

Season One Recorded at Troubadour Studios in Lansing, MI (now in Traverse City, MI!)

Audio Engineer Corey DeRushia

Edited by Rie Daisies at Nighttime Girlfriend Studio

Leave us a voice mail

Have some feedback? Praise? General thoughts? Want to be on the show? Know how to pronounce something? Are you a religious scholar? We'd love to hear from you. Leave a message right from your phone or computer by clicking here. Recordings may be used in future episodes.  

Website

https://www.bitingalltheapples.com/

Find us on YouTube and BlueSky

We’re pondering the book of John today by golly. And the selections our Victorian Feminists chose to critique cover sizzling hot topics like miracles, mothers, prejudice, and hogsheads to cover.

This is a tidy zippy episode that will reveal deeper questions about the tales we've been told. 

Did you know Jesus only speaks to his mother three times in the entire Bible? Or that Mary Magdalene's devoted presence at the tomb contrasts sharply with the male disciples' absence? 

As Christian nationalism continues to ruin the last bits of anything good in American politics, these 130-year-old feminist perspectives continue to provide crucial context for understanding how religious texts have been wielded to control and limit women's autonomy. 

Join our virtual sewing circle as we unravel these biblical stories with almost fresh eyes, frayed nerves, and sharp wits. 

Subscribe, share with friends, and let us know your thoughts – we're creating independent feminist media when it's needed most.

Send us Fan Mail

Credits

Season Two Recorded at Bob's Basement Studios, Michigan

Produced and edited by Sara Kaye Larson

Intro/Outro Music: ‘Shifting pt. 2 (instrumental)’  by Rie Daisies

Executive Producer Kate ML Rogers

Season One Recorded at Troubadour Studios in Lansing, MI (now in Traverse City, MI!)

Audio Engineer Corey DeRushia

Edited by Rie Daisies at Nighttime Girlfriend Studio

Leave us a voice mail

Have some feedback? Praise? General thoughts? Want to be on the show? Know how to pronounce something? Are you a religious scholar? We'd love to hear from you. Leave a message right from your phone or computer by clicking here. Recordings may be used in future episodes.  

Website

https://www.bitingalltheapples.com/

Find us on YouTube and BlueSky

In this seriously-worth-your-time episode, we explore how Elizabeth Cady Stanton's 1895 "The Women's Bible" called out religious justifications for female subordination that mirror today's Christian nationalist rhetoric.

Here's what you get:

• Examining the books of Mark and Luke, which address marriage, divorce, and women's status in early Christianity
• Stanton reveals how the New Testament made divorce laws even more restrictive for women
• Challenging the prioritization of self-sacrifice over self-development for women
• Ellen Battelle Dietrick uncovers women erased from Christian history like Thecla and Paula
• Documentation of how a woman's crucial role in creating the Latin Bible was deliberately erased
• Connecting Biblical patriarchy to economic systems that benefit from women's unpaid labor
• Identifying religious hypocrisy when rules are selectively applied to control rather than uplift

A great way to resist authoritarianism is visible and enthusiastic support of independent media. Like, comment, subscribe and share this podcast - democracy depends on it.

Send us Fan Mail

Credits

Season Two Recorded at Bob's Basement Studios, Michigan

Produced and edited by Sara Kaye Larson

Intro/Outro Music: ‘Shifting pt. 2 (instrumental)’  by Rie Daisies

Executive Producer Kate ML Rogers

Season One Recorded at Troubadour Studios in Lansing, MI (now in Traverse City, MI!)

Audio Engineer Corey DeRushia

Edited by Rie Daisies at Nighttime Girlfriend Studio

Leave us a voice mail

Have some feedback? Praise? General thoughts? Want to be on the show? Know how to pronounce something? Are you a religious scholar? We'd love to hear from you. Leave a message right from your phone or computer by clicking here. Recordings may be used in future episodes.  

Website

https://www.bitingalltheapples.com/

Find us on YouTube and BlueSky

The battle for reproductive rights and women's autonomy isn't just modern politics—it's a struggle with deep historical roots. In this episode, we dive into the New Testament section of Elizabeth Cady Stanton's revolutionary Woman's Bible, where Victorian-era feminists dissect biblical patriarchy with remarkable insight and surprising humor.

Their analysis strips away supernatural elements while preserving Jesus's moral authority, describing him as a "mountainous man" who perceived truths before others could. As one anonymous contributor boldly states, Jesus "commands far more love and reverence as a true man with human possibilities than as a God superior to all human frailties."

The parallels between past and present are striking. When we discuss modern politicians referring to women as "host bodies," we can't help but connect it to Mary, "the original host body," whose immaculate conception story these Victorian feminists saw as diminishing ordinary motherhood. Their reinterpretation of the parable of the ten virgins is particularly revolutionary—rather than women competing for a bridegroom, they read it as a call for women's self-sufficiency and intellectual independence.

Perhaps most powerful is Elizabeth Cady Stanton's critique of women who sacrifice their own education to support men and institutions that exclude them: "Women go to make themselves ladders by which their husbands, brothers, sons climb up into the kingdom of knowledge, while they themselves are shut out from all intellectual companionship." Her rallying cry to women to "light your own damn lamp" resonates just as strongly today as it did in 1895.

Join us for this feminist time-travel adventure that will change how you view both religious history and contemporary gender politics. Whether you're religious, spiritual-but-not-religious, or a committed skeptic, you'll find something thought-provoking in these brilliant women's fearless questioning of patriarchal authority.

Send us Fan Mail

Credits

Season Two Recorded at Bob's Basement Studios, Michigan

Produced and edited by Sara Kaye Larson

Intro/Outro Music: ‘Shifting pt. 2 (instrumental)’  by Rie Daisies

Executive Producer Kate ML Rogers

Season One Recorded at Troubadour Studios in Lansing, MI (now in Traverse City, MI!)

Audio Engineer Corey DeRushia

Edited by Rie Daisies at Nighttime Girlfriend Studio

Leave us a voice mail

Have some feedback? Praise? General thoughts? Want to be on the show? Know how to pronounce something? Are you a religious scholar? We'd love to hear from you. Leave a message right from your phone or computer by clicking here. Recordings may be used in future episodes.  

Website

https://www.bitingalltheapples.com/

Find us on YouTube and BlueSky

What if everything you thought you knew about biblical gender roles was based on deliberate mistranslations? We dive deep into a brilliant 1895 feminist analysis that exposes how religious authorities systematically erased the divine feminine from scripture. Frances Ellen Burr, founder of Connecticut's first Women's Suffrage Association, boldly declared "the Bible is an occult book" while revealing how the ancient Kabbalah actually teaches perfect gender equality in the divine nature. Her commentary in Elizabeth Cady Stanton's groundbreaking Woman's Bible demonstrates that Hebrew words like "Elohim" are actually feminine in origin, and that biblical translators deliberately changed feminine references to masculine ones to support patriarchal power structures.

SPECIAL EPISODE NOTE:  Episode produced in Bob's Basement Studio with Cindy Clawpurrr the feline mastermind, as animal producer. You may hear her - if you are so blessed.

We explore how Victorian feminists used higher criticism methodology to apply scientific rigor to religious texts, discovering that mystical traditions like the Kabbalah taught that humans were originally androgynous beings and that spiritual wholeness requires both masculine and feminine principles in perfect balance. These 19th-century scholars, supported by religious authorities including Westminster Abbey's Canon Farrar, believed they were witnessing the dawn of a new spiritual awakening that would restore women to their rightful place as equal spiritual authorities.

The parallels between Victorian feminist hopes and our current cultural moment are sobering. These pioneering women believed that education and rational analysis would inevitably lead to gender equality and spiritual enlightenment, yet we're still fighting many of the same battles 130 years later. Their work reminds us that the mystical traditions have always recognized what patriarchal institutions tried to hide: that women hold profound spiritual power and that true divinity encompasses both masculine and feminine aspects. Ready to question everything you thought you knew about religion and gender? Subscribe for more revelations that challenge conventional wisdom and support the independent media exposing hidden histories.

Check out this PDF about the Kabbalah and the Tarot: https://archive.org/details/twentytwoarcanaoftarottrans/Arcanum%201_%20%28Transcription%29/page/n1/mode/2up

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Credits

Season Two Recorded at Bob's Basement Studios, Michigan

Produced and edited by Sara Kaye Larson

Intro/Outro Music: ‘Shifting pt. 2 (instrumental)’  by Rie Daisies

Executive Producer Kate ML Rogers

Season One Recorded at Troubadour Studios in Lansing, MI (now in Traverse City, MI!)

Audio Engineer Corey DeRushia

Edited by Rie Daisies at Nighttime Girlfriend Studio

Leave us a voice mail

Have some feedback? Praise? General thoughts? Want to be on the show? Know how to pronounce something? Are you a religious scholar? We'd love to hear from you. Leave a message right from your phone or computer by clicking here. Recordings may be used in future episodes.  

Website

https://www.bitingalltheapples.com/

Find us on YouTube and BlueSky