THE ROUND-THE-WORLD CYCLIST Annie Londonderry

In 1895, Annie Cohen embarked on a quest to become the first woman ever to cycle around the world. Did she make it? Yes! Were the newspapers engrossed in her story? Yes! Did she actually… um, cycle? Sometimes! By sheer grit, Annie made her life into something (literally) unbelievable. Peter Zheutlin, author of two books about Annie, tells Katie the tale of a woman who “didn’t run away to join the circus; she became the circus.” 

Newsreel and newspaper footage performed by James Henderson, Marc Nelson, and Sam Henderson.

Guest Peter Zheutlin is a freelance journalist and author whose work has appeared in The Boston Globe, Christian Science Monitor, Los Angeles Times, Parade Magazine, AARP Magazine and numerous other publications. He’s the author of the New York Times best-seller, Rescue Road: One Man, Thirty Thousand Dogs, and a Million Miles on the Last Hope Highway and Rescued: What Second-Chance Dogs Teach Us About Living With Purpose, Loving With Abandon, and Finding Joy in the Little Things and The Dog Went Over the Mountain: Travels with Albie: An American Journey. He previously practiced law and taught legal research and writing at the Northwestern University School of Law and the University of Virginia Law School.

Music featured in this episode included: “Just Like a Rainbow” by the Columbians, “The Royal Vagabond” by Jockers Dance Orchestra, "The Entertainer," "Pine Apple Rag," and "Frog Legs Roll" by Scott Joplin, “Kletzklachka," “Tsigane,” “Polish Jokes are Funny,” and “Drunk in Paris” by Harry Fishpye and the Brown Sound, "Maple Leaf Rag" by Vess Ossman, and “Awen” by The Mind Orchestra.

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