S04E03: The lore of black cats, crows, and ravens.

Us, to literally every black cat or corvid we see: Who’re our good little witches’ familiars? Sweet baby omens of doom? The bestest spooky speakers of truth ever?

Corvids and black cats:

Us: YES YOU ARE!!

Show notes: https://www.bonesandbobbins.com/2023/03/18/season-4-episode-03

S04E02: Beauty entrepreneur and philanthropist Madam C. J. Walker and Boston bicycling trailblazer Kittie Knox.

Fan of a multi-step beauty routine? (Same.) So, as it happens, was Madam C. J. Walker, who built a national beauty empire while providing a path for other Black women to build businesses of their own. Meanwhile, over in Boston, Kittie Knox was riding and racing her bicycle, charming reporters, and challenging the idea that the sport was solely the domain of white men. 

S04E01: Weird pope facts and the bizarro world that is Vatican City/the Vatican/the Holy See.

First: If you’re unfamiliar with the Prince song “Pope,” we highly recommend going down that weird rabbit hole. It’s where we got the title for this episode. We’ll wait…

Okay! Now that you have that cheery bit of mood music under your belt, let us take you on a somewhat questionable trip through the land of papal frippery, where we’ll discover the truth about the pope hammer, stop for a look at the holy tiara, marvel at the the Swiss Guard’s jaunty outfits, and then meet a robot pharmacist that honestly sounds pretty great.  We’ll also talk about the antipopes. Because antipopes are, apparently, a thing.

Fair warning: If you don’t want to hear us yelling about religion, this probably isn’t the episode for you. For obvious reasons.

S03E17: It’s National Native American Heritage Month, so we’re talking about stone cold badass Madame Marie Dorion, and the many ways in which Native and Indigenous Americans have contributed to medicine and public health, from baby bottles, to pain killers, to early syringes!

S03E16: Victorian dress reform, the Rational Dress Society, and the history of bicycles.

For Victorian women, bicycles usher in both a newfound freedom and a new wave in practical, flexible fashion: Pants!

Show notes: https://www.bonesandbobbins.com/2022/10/23/season-3-episode-16

S03E15: Madame Tussaud and her famed museum of lifelike wax figures, and Grand Guignol, a pioneering theater at the forefront of shockingly realistic body horror.

Marie Tussaud’s exceptional talent brought a spark of (kind of creepy) life to the art and craft of creating wax portraiture, inviting the public to mingle with likenesses of the famous. The masterful craftspeople at Grand Guignol, by contrast, brought a truly dramatic spark of death–and an in-house doctor–to audiences looking for a different kind of thrill.

S03E14: Celebration, Florida and Arcosanti, Arizona: Two very different approaches to building a (mostly failed) utopia.

Learning how to almost successfully thrive in the desert, and why we wouldn’t want Disney in charge of our HOAs.

S03E12: The spy gadgets of WWII and a married couple–Jonna and Antonio Mendez–who were very real masters of disguise.

Spy craft meets spy crafts with lipstick compasses, pencil daggers, and a truly ingenious use of foot powder.

Show notes: https://www.bonesandbobbins.com/2022/08/27/season-3-episode-12

S03E11: The history of women in pants and boobs in fashion.

Ah, yes. The perennial drama of possessing cleavage and/or legs.

S03E10: The Brattleboro Retreat Tower, a Victorian structure tucked away amongst the trees and boulders on a hiking trail in Vermont.

Haley goes solo this week with a tour of one of her new hometown's most notorious haunts, the Brattleboro Retreat tower. Note: The Brattleboro Retreat was formerly known as the Vermont Asylum for the Insane, and some historical references use that name.

Show notes: https://www.bonesandbobbins.com/2022/07/31/season-3-episode-10