Historical Friction

This week, we've got anachronistic leather daddies, siege-based penetration imagery, big old snake holes, and Tony Curtis in tiny hotpants - it's got to be a Viking episode!

Historical Friction is a podcast about storytelling, pop culture, the past, and why we reenact it.

Nobody asked for this! Bad Film Expert and friend of the show Dr Melissa L Gustin came back, and we watched the third Dan Brown film, Inferno. This time there's maybe going to be a plague caused by a eugenicist tech bro, kind of inspired by Dante's Divine Comedy? And Robert Langdon the "Symbologist" has to stop it? It's not good. We also got mad about the geography of Florence, museum security, and the many, many wasted opportunities in this film. Nature is very much not healing.

Historical Friction is a podcast about storytelling, pop culture, the past, and why we reenact it. 

Find Melissa on Twitter @hosmeriana, and Alice @aaprocter

Support the show on Patreon at patreon.com/historicalfriction

Follow the show on Twitter @historyfriction

This week, Abigail, Helen and Sara are your favourite exposition crones, as we take a wild ride through The 13th Warrior (1999) - a film that probably would have made a better amusement park ride. Based on Michael Crichton's 1976 novel, The Eaters of the Dead, 13th Warrior tells the story of Arab ambassador, Ahmad Ibn Fadlan (Antonio Banderas) who joins forces with a band of Viking warriors to defeat an ancient, mysterious evil. As part of our ongoing series on Viking adaptations, we talk about Beowulf and its legacy, 90s 'post-racial' weirdness, cultural appropriation, and how exactly the Venus of Willendorf fits into all this.

In this week's episode, Alice and Helen discuss 2008 film Affinity, an adaptation of the Sarah Waters novel of the same name from 1999. Affinity is an atmospheric tale of Victorian crime and spiritualism, in which Margaret Prior (Anna Madeley), a wealthy 'lady visitor' to Millbank Prison becomes fascinated by inmate Selina Dawes (Zoe Tapper), a disgraced spiritual medium. In this installment of our Murder Girls series, we talk about historical fiction's fascination with queer women criminals, modern depictions of unjust historical prison systems, the problems of adapting huge Neo-Victorian novels, the material underpinnings of the spiritualist movement - and whether the metaphysical realm belongs to the girls and the gays.

In today's episode Alice, Abigail, Helen, and Sara discuss the 2020 Netflix film 'Enola Holmes,' starring Millie Bobby Brown and Henry Cavill. The film follows the adventures of Sherlock Holmes' younger sister, Enola, as she traipses through London looking for her missing mother and attempting to save the life of a naïve marquis. We examine how the film reflects our contemporary ideas of Victorian culture -- for better or for worse -- and we have an especial focus on fashion, traditional gender roles, and the ways this film questions and plays with gender. This episode is a loose companion piece to last week's episode on 'A Study in Terror,' but the two episodes are standalone and can be listened to in any order. 

Historical Friction is a podcast about storytelling, pop culture, the past, and why we reenact it.

Follow the podcast on Twitter at @HistoryFriction

Support the podcast on Patreon at patreon.com/historicalfriction

This week Alice, Helen, Sara and Abigail all got together for our third Ripper Watch episode, a recurring feature discussing the representation of the Whitechapel Murders and "Jack the Ripper" in pop culture. We watched A Study In Terror, a truly unhinged Sherlock Holmes x Jack the Ripper mishmash, featuring baby Judi Dench's beehive and Barbara Windsor. If nothing else you should listen to this episode for Abigail's cockney voice.

This episode discusses murder, assault, and violence against women.

Historical Friction is a podcast about storytelling, pop culture, the past, and why we reenact it.

Support the show on Patreon at patreon.com/historicalfriction

Follow the show on Twitter @historyfriction

After watching coverage from the Met Gala last week, Alice, Abigail, Sara, and Helen convened an emergency podcast session to discuss the three-alarm historical fashion fire on display on the Met Gala red carpet. They discuss their personal favourite and least favourite looks and, of course, weigh in on the Kim Kardashian/Marilyn Monroe dress controversy. This year's Met Gala was held on May 2, 2022, and had the theme 'Gilded Glamour.' 

Historical Friction is a podcast about storytelling, pop culture, the past, and why we reenact it.

Support the show on Patreon at patreon.com/historicalfriction

Follow the show on Twitter at @historyfriction

This week, Abigail, Alice, and Helen watched Yorgos Lanthimos' The Favourite (2018), a gorgeous period piece set circa 1711 that explores the relationship between Queen Anne, Sarah Churchill, and Abigail Masham. We talk about adaptation, visual coherence, and the way that playing with anachronism while having a strong sense of tone is maybe the best way to make a movie set in the past.

Historical Friction is a podcast about storytelling, pop culture, the past, and why we reenact it. 

Support the show on Patreon at patreon.com/historicalfriction

Follow the show on Twitter at @historyfriction

Follow Alice on Twitter at @aaprocter

Follow Abigail on Twitter @onceuponafine

Follow Helen on Twitter @HelenVMurray

It's time! We finally surrendered! Here is a giant episode about Bridgerton! Alice, Abigail, Helen and Sara got together to try and understand the world's straightest show. We discussed teen girl friendships, bees, sibling dynamics, and how Shonda Rhimes invented human cloning. 

Historical Friction is a podcast about storytelling, pop culture, the past, and why we reenact it.

Support the show on Patreon at patreon.com/historicalfriction

Follow the show on Twitter @historyfriction

This week, Alice and returning guest Nicole Cochrane watched That Hamilton Woman, a weird Second World War propaganda film dressed up as romantic biography of Emma Hamilton. We talked about trying to make Nelson sexy, Stalin (?!), and the Maligned Women of the (17)90s. Vivien Leigh is so pretty.

Historical Friction is a podcast about storytelling, pop culture, the past, and why we reenact it.

Support the show on Patreon at patreon.com/historicalfriction

Follow the show on Twitter @historyfriction

Find Nicole on Twitter @tinyhistorian

Follow Alice on Twitter @aaprocter