Genghis (or Chinggis) Khan is pretty famous for building the largest contiguous land empire the world has ever seen. But he couldn't have done it with his wife, Börte. She was his advisor in all things, bore him MANY children, and ran their expansive horde while he was away. Empress Börte was the Mongols's chief manager, organising seasonal migrations, dealing with herders, and holding meetings with dignitaries and merchants. In other words, when her husband was away, she ran the show. The story of their marriage, and her rise to power, is extraordinary. But her influence wasn't necessarily unique within the Mongol Empire, which respected their ladies and saw them, in many ways, as mens' equal. So let's join Börte as she walks us through life for women in the Mongol Empire.

Our special guests this episode includes Marie Favereau, author of The Horde: How the Mongols Changed the World, and Mongol expert and educator Stephanie Honchell Smith. You can listen to my full interviews with both of them on patreon. Some of the music in this episode comes courtesy of Kevin MacLeod (Spirit of the Girl" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License)

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The music in this episode comes courtesy of Derek and Brandon Fiechter, Keith Zizza, and Michael Levy.

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• "Teller of the Tales" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) is licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
• "Gloria in Excelsis Deo", "Sequence - Victimae Paschali Laudes," "Jubilate Deo," "Credo in Unum Deo", and "Sanctus" by The Tudor Consort is licensed under a Attribution 4.0 International License.

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There is a woman in the Old Quarter who can give you the world for a price. They say her followers gather deep in the bayou after dark. Some say she's got the governor in her pocket. Others say she eats babies, and that she learned her magic in the depths of the African jungle. They say her potions can heal you, and that her charms can kill you. How much of it is true? In this year's Halloween special, we are heading back to the 19th century to meet the infamous Voodoo Queen of New Orleans, Marie Laveau. You'll find a transcript for this episode over on Patreon.

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Season 6, Episode 13. Welcome back to Exploress Book Club! Join me and Adriana Herrera, author of the historical romance novel A Tropical Rebel Gets the Duke, as we time travel back to the 1890s Paris. Adriana will tell us all about putting women of color back into historical romance, women's medicine and reproductive rights in the 19th century, and the pioneering lady doctors who defied convention to offer life-changing care. This was such a fun conversation, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

To find out more about Adriana's many excellent books, including the first two in her Las Leonas series, check out her website. You can watch the video version of our chat for free over on Patreon for the rest of October 2025.

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Season 6, Episode 12. In this series, we're time traveling with three different empresses, exploring their reigns, their worlds, and what it might have been like to be them. First up, we're going to spend some time in the Mughal Empire of India to learn about the adventurous and powerful empress Nur Jahan. From tiger hunting in the Bengali wildness to court life in the imperial harem, this ruling empress rode war elephants and weilded political authority like nobody's business.

We're lucky to have a Mughal expert with us for the journey: Ruby Lal, the author of Empress: The Astonishing Reign of Nur Jahan and, more recently, Tiger Slayer. Find out more about her work at her website.

Some of the music you just enjoyed comes courtesy of Keith Zizza, Rahul Popawala, Arnito, Feslyan Studios. Thanks to the following for their vocal stylings: Sayed Raza.

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EMPRESS. The word comes from Old French, but its roots stretch back to the Latin imperium. It means a command; it means authority, it means power over a realm. But what does it mean, to be a woman with power over so many? What does it look like when an empire allows a woman to rule? In this series, we will travel with three different empresses, exploring their reigns, their worlds, and what it might have been like to be them.