• Become a patron and enjoy exclusive bonus episodes, including the video version of this conversation and special episodes you won't find anywhere else
• Grab a book at the Exploress Bookshop
• Buy some merch and art available at the Exploress shop
• Check out Kate's novels, NIGHTBIRDS and FYREBIRDS

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

• Become a patron and enjoy exclusive bonus episodes, including the video version of this conversation and special episodes you won't find anywhere else
• Grab a book by Elizabeth, or read the current Exploress Book Club pick, at the Exploress Bookshop
• Buy some merch and art available at the Exploress shop
• Check out Kate's novels, NIGHTBIRDS and FYREBIRDS

• "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.

• Become a patron and enjoy exclusive bonus episodes, including the video version of this conversation and special episodes you won't find anywhere else
• Grab a book by Elizabeth, or read the current Exploress Book Club pick, at the Exploress Bookshop
• Buy some merch and art available at the Exploress shop
• Check out Kate's novels, NIGHTBIRDS and FYREBIRDS

Ways to support The Exploress:

• Become a patron and enjoy exclusive bonus episodes, including the video version of this conversation and special episodes you won't find anywhere else
• Grab a book by Elizabeth, or read the current Exploress Book Club pick, at the Exploress Bookshop
• Buy some merch and art available at the Exploress shop
• Check out Kate's novels, NIGHTBIRDS and FYREBIRDS

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.

Ways to support The Exploress:

• Become a patron and enjoy exclusive bonus episodes, including several Halloween specials you won't find anywhere else
• Grab a book by one of our guests, or read the current Exploress Book Club pick, at the Exploress Bookshop
• Buy some merch and art available at the Exploress shop
• Check out Kate's novels, NIGHTBIRDS and its sequel FYREBIRDS

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.

Ways to support The Exploress:

• Become a patron and enjoy exclusive bonus episodes
• Grab a book by one of our guests, or read the current Exploress Book Club pick, at the Exploress Bookshop
• Buy some merch and art available at the Exploress shop
• Check out Kate's novel, NIGHTBIRDS, and its sequel FYREBIRDS

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.

Ways to support The Exploress:

• Become a patron and enjoy exclusive bonus episodes, including the full episode with Ruby Lal and more
• Grab a book by one of our guests, or read the current Exploress Book Club pick, at the Exploress Bookshop
• Buy some merch and art available at the Exploress shop
• Check out Kate's novels, NIGHTBIRDS and its sequel FYREBIRDS

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.

Season 6, Episode 11. Welcome back to Exploress Book Club! Join me in talking to Victoria Christopher Murray, author of the historical fiction novel Harlem Rhapsody, as she talks about the unsung heroine of the 1920s Harlem Renaissance, Jessie Redmon Faucet. In this conversation, Victoria dives into what life was like for Black women in 1920s Harlem. She'll tell us more about the women of the Harlem Renaissance, especially the part Jessie played in the artistic movement that championed Black lives and voices (and the ways in which the men around her sidelined her incredible work).

To find out more about Victoria's many excellent books, check out her website. You can watch the video version of our chat over on Patreon for the rest of August 2025.

Ways to support The Exploress:

• Become a patron and enjoy exclusive bonus episodes
• Grab a book by one of our guests, or read the current Exploress Book Club pick, at the Exploress Bookshop
• Buy some merch and art available at the Exploress shop
• Check out Kate's novel, NIGHTBIRDS, and its sequel FYREBIRDS

Season 6, Episode 10. In this series, we're exploring what life was like for women in the Viking (Norse) Age. In this episode, we're exploring one of our favorite Viking archetypes - the shield maiden, or shield maid. Were there really axe-weilding, braid rocking warriors who went on raids alongside the men? We'll examine the Norse myth about the Valkyries, then dive into what archaeologists have to tell us about the fighting women of the Viking age. We'll also talk about the mysterious sorceresses known as volva, and the power these religious practioners wielded in Viking society.

Our experts for this series are Eleanor Barraclough, a broadcaster and author whose latest book studies the physical remains the Vikings left us, and Nancy Marie Brown, who has been writing about Vikings, and particularly warrior women, for decades.

Ways to support The Exploress:

• Become a patron and enjoy exclusive bonus episodes, including the full episodes with both our Viking experts and some extra Viking content
• Grab a book by one of our guests, or read the current Exploress Book Club pick, at the Exploress Bookshop
• Buy some merch and art available at the Exploress shop
• Check out Kate's novels, NIGHTBIRDS and its sequel FYREBIRDS