Ovaries And Oddities

They say Europe killed its cats and the Black Death was the consequence. Well that's a myth.

The real history is darker, a 1233 papal document that put the Pope’s seal on cats as literal "agents of the devil", the witch trials, and the women who paid for it. Meanwhile, on a different timeline, the plague was doing its own catastrophic thing.

This episode pulls apart what actually happened to cats in medieval and early modern Europe and why!

See you next week,

Ivanna Brookes

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For centuries, two of history’s most powerful dynasties kept their bloodlines pure by keeping them closed: uncle married niece, brother married sister, cousin married cousin. This episode traces that strategy across two continents, the Habsburgs of Spain and Austria, and the Ptolemies of Egypt. 

A king who couldn’t chew his own food and a dynasty that murdered its way through its own family tree while handing women unprecedented power. 

This is a story about what happens when power decides it would rather collapse than share.

Their jaw bones glowed in the dark. That’s phossy jaw, and it’s just the start of this episode. This week we’re opening up four diseases that didn’t just kill people, they reshaped labor law, colonial policy, religious doctrine, and royal behavior: phossy jaw, smallpox, leprosy, and the sweating sickness that vanished from history without ever being identified. Industrial poison, biological warfare, social exile, and a mystery epidemic that came for kings. Grab your headphones and get comfortable, this one’s a lot.

Let me know what you want to see next!

Until next week,

Ivanna Brookes

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Four women. Four centuries. One question: From Locusta of Gaul, Rome’s poisoner who served an emperor, to Giulia Tofana, whose Aqua Tofana became a quiet lifeline for desperate wives in Renaissance Italy, to Mary Ann Cotton, the Victorian “Angel of Death, and finally Aileen Wuornos breaks the pattern entirely with a gun. This is history’s dark feminine underbelly…Let me know what you want to see nextSee you next Thursday,Ivanna BrookesMore of the podcast:Linktr.ee/ovariesandoddities

This week on Ovaries And Oddities we’re diving into the dark history of the Ouija Board! How it may or may not have killed its inventory and led to dozens of other murders….
What topic should I cover next?
Until next week,
Ivanna Brookes
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In the 1800s, you could have your wife committed with a single signature. All you needed was just a doctor willing to sign a piece of paper.
This episode covers three things: the 4,000-year-old myth that women’s minds were controlled by their wombs, the real documented reasons women were locked away in 19th century asylums, and the horror story of Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in West Virginia… one of the most overcrowded, infamous institutions in American history.
Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and let me know what you want to see next.
See you next week,
Ivanna Brookes
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During World War II, thousands of girls and women across Asia were forced into Japan’s military slavery system. Many were teenagers. For decades, survivors were ignored, silenced, and told their stories didn’t matter.
In this episode of Ovaries & Oddities, we’re discussing the history of the comfort women, the women who survived, and the activists who spent their lives fighting to make sure the world never forgot what happened.
See you next week,
Ivanna Brookes
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#comfortwomen #wwii #worldwar2 #darkhistory #historypodcast #womenshistory

Was Albert Einstein’s wife smarter than him? Did history erase yet another brilliant woman standing beside a famous man?

In this episode of Ovaries and Oddities, we’re diving into the infuriating history of women whose work was ignored, minimized, stolen, or credited to men. From Mileva Marić, Albert Einstein’s first wife and intellectual partner, to Rosalind Franklin’s crucial role in uncovering the structure of DNA, Lise Meitner’s overlooked contribution to nuclear fission, and Margaret Keane’s husband literally pretending to paint her famous artwork. This episode is about the audacity of men and the women history tried to erase.

Until next week,

Ivanna Brookes

In this episode:

Albert Einstein and Mileva Marić

Rosalind Franklin and Photo 51

Lise Meitner and nuclear fission

Margaret Keane and the Big Eyes paintings

The Matilda Effect

Follow Ovaries and Oddities for more dark history, medical horror, and historical true crime.

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Imagine having to undergo surgery in the 1800s. No anesthesia and your survival rate less than 50%.

Between your doctor not sanitizing anything ,including not washing his hands between surgeries, gangrene or other infections, and blood loss. It was an uphill battle. Plus pain medicine may or may not have been a bottle of brandy.

Would you survive the operating table?

See you next week,

Ivanna Brookes

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12 ships docked in Sicily but most of the sailors were dead. Over the next 5 years between 20-50 million people died of this mysterious plague. Waking up with a fever where your skin is burning, your body is shaking, your head feels like it’s splitting open, and then all of your lymph nodes are the size of eggs.

Within days, that lump could turn black. Your fingers, toes, lips, or nose could darken. And in medieval Europe, there was no urgent care or antibiotics.

So today we’re talking about the Black Death

See you next week,

Ivanna Brookes 🖤

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black death, bubonic plague, medieval history, medical horror, dark history, plague doctor, history podcast