Watch Her Cook

By Cassie Yahnian and Danielle LaRockSociety & Culture

Watch Her Cook episodes

October 01, 2025Julia Child: Stirring Up America’s Appetite
Before food TV came to be, one woman taught America how to cook with joy… and lots of butter. From writing to working for the CIA, Julia Child’s path led her to Paris, where she discovered French cuisine and forever changed how America eats.

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Sources:
The history of chocolate | alimentarium

The French Chef - SNL

French Onion Soup | The French Chef Season 1 | Julia Child

Excerpt from 'A Covert Affair: Julia Child and Paul Child in the OSS' » PopMatters

The Passionate, Progressive Politics of Julia Child | The New Yorker

Paul Child, Artist, Dies at 92 - The New York Times

JULIA CHILD / 1912-2004 - Los Angeles Times

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47 min
September 24, 2025Violet Jessop: The Titanic Survivor Who Lived To Tell 3 Tales
She is known as “Miss Unsinkable.” Between the years 1908 and 1950, Violet Jessop worked as a stewardess and nurse aboard some of the most famous ships in history. Incredibly, she survived not one, not two, but three maritime disasters- including the Titanic itself.

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Sources:
The Stunning Survival Story of Ernest Shackleton and His Endurance Crew | HISTORY

Titanic survivor : the memoirs of Violet Jessop, stewardess

https://web.archive.org/web/20120117003457/http://www.biography.com/people/violet-jessop-283646

Violet Constance Jessop : Titanic Stewardess (Survivor)

The Woman Who Survived All Three Disasters Aboard the Sister Ships: the Titanic, Britannic, and Olympic

Unsinkable Violet Jessop: Survivor of the Titanic and two other ship disasters | Sky HISTORY TV Channel

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42 min
September 17, 2025The Black Angels: When Death Loomed Over NYC
In the early decades of the twentieth century, tuberculosis was a shadow that loomed over New York City. Amid segregation and discrimination in American health care, a group of black nurses at New York’s Sea View Hospital rose to the occasion.

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Sources:
The Underground Railroad | Short History Of... | Noiser History Podcasts

Tuberculosis

Virginia Allen, one of the last surviving “Black Angels”, is Graduation Keynote Speaker | NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing

The ‘Black Angels’ who helped cure tuberculosis - The Emancipator

(The Black Angels: The Untold Story of the Nurses Who Helped Cure Tuberculosis by Maria Smilios)

The Heroic Black Nurses Who Helped Cure Tuberculosis | Scientific American

"Racial and Religious Democracy": Identity and Equality in Midcentury Courts by Elizabeth D. Katz :: SSRN

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45 min
September 10, 2025Chevalière d’Éon: The Transgender Spy
In 18th-century France, Chevalière d’Éon became famous as a brilliant spy and diplomat- and one of the first openly transgender figures in European history. Throughout their life, it was unknown if they were a man or a woman, living boldly between identities and loyalties, carrying out secret missions for both France and England.

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Sources:
She went to the field : women soldiers of the Civil War : Tsui, Bonnie : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

The Incredible Chevalier d'Eon, Who Left France as a Male Spy and Returned as a Christian Woman - Atlas Obscura

D'Eon de Beaumont, his life and times; : Homberg, Octave, 1876-1941 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Lettres, mémoires et négociations particuliéres du chevalier d'Éon : Misitre Plemipotentiaire aupres du Roi de la Grande-Bretagne; avec M.M. les Ducs de Praslin, de Nivernois, de Sainte-Foy, & Regnier de Guerchy, Ambassad. Extr. &c.&c.&c. : Eon de Beaumont, Charles Geneviève Louis Auguste André Timothée d', 1728-1810 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

The Chevalière d'Eon, Transgender Autobiography and Identity - Morris - 2019 - Gender & History - Wiley Online Library

The French Diplomat Who Lived as Both a Man and a Woman | HISTORY

Charles, chevalier d’Éon de Beaumont | French secret agent, Eonism | Britannica

French Revolution: Timeline, Causes & Dates | HISTORY

Louis XIV | Palace of Versailles

BBC - History - King Louis XV

Le Secret du roi ou l'histoire d'une sottise on JSTOR

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44 min
September 03, 2025Mina Crandon and Rose Mackenberg: Exposing Fraudulent Mediums
During the height of spiritualism in the 1920s, Boston medium Mina "Margery" Crandon became a sensation with her dramatic séances and claims of spiritual contact. But not everyone was convinced. Rose Mackenberg, an investigator who worked alongside Houdini, went undercover to expose fraudulent mediums across the country - including mediums like Mina.

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Sources:
Hauntings - Series 1: 1. The Enfield Poltergeist - BBC iPlayer

Enfield Poltergeist | Skeptical Inquirer

Overlooked No More: Rose Mackenberg, Houdini’s Secret ‘Ghost-Buster’ - The New York Times

HOUDINI'S GREATEST NEMESIS — American Hauntings

Houdini's Greatest Trick: Debunking Medium Mina Crandon

“The First Klansman”: Xenophobia, Faith, and Redemption in the Indiana Klan | Invisible Indianapolis

Ghosts, apparitions, and poltergeists : an exploration of the supernatural through history

Article clipped from The Gazette

The New York Times

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46 min
August 27, 2025Frances Glessner Lee: The Mother of Forensic Science
Imagine a dollhouse, but amongst the miniature furniture and doors, you find…a murder scene. Frances Glessner Lee- often referred to as the “Mother of Forensic Science” - created tiny crime scenes known as the Nutshell studies, to revolutionize the way detectives investigated real cases. In this episode, we uncover how a woman from Chicago’s elite society transformed her privilege and passion into a legacy that shaped modern forensic science.

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Sources:
Frances Glessner Lee – Science Technology and Society a Student Led Exploration

Murder Is Her Hobby: Frances Glessner Lee and The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death

The Woman Who Invented Forensics Training with Doll Houses | The New Yorker

Tiny Murder Scenes are the Legacy of N.H. Woman Known as 'The Mother of CSI' | New Hampshire Public Radio

Glessner House

The Story of a House: Frances Glessner Lee and Erle Stanley Gardner

Death in Diorama: The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death | Legacy of Frances Glessner Lee

Frances Glessner Lee: The Mother of Forensic Science - A&E True Crime

The Formation of the Department of Legal Medicine · Corpus Delicti: the Doctor as Detective · OnView

Solon and Croesus

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45 min
August 20, 2025Georgia Frontiere: The First Lady of the NFL
Georgia Frontiere rose from the entertainment world to become one of the most powerful women in professional sports, making history as the first female primary owner of an NFL team. Facing intense public scrutiny, she guided the Los Angeles Rams to a Super Bowl championship and cemented a legacy of resilience, vision, and underestimated leadership in the league.

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Sources:
Former Rams Cornerback Jalen Ramsey Spotted in Los Angeles

Socialite moved Rams to St. Louis - Los Angeles Times

Georgia Frontiere, 80, First Female N.F.L. Owner, Is Dead - The New York Times

End of an Era: The Rise and Fall of Georgia Frontiere

ESPN.com: NFL - L.A. Confidential, Part 1: Retracing the missteps in L.A.

57c. The Equal Rights Amendment

Who Killed the ERA? | Linda Greenhouse | The New York Review of Books

What is your opinion on Georgia Frontiere? : r/LosAngelesRams

From the Archives: Georgia Frontiere is St. Louis' misery, and it can have her - Los Angeles Times

Google newspaper

The Myth of 'Bloody Mary,' England's First Queen

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52 min
August 13, 2025Mary Anning: The Fossil Hunter of the Jurassic Coast
In the early 19th century, most people thought extinction was impossible - if no new creatures appeared, how could any have ever vanished? Mary Anning, a young fossil hunter from Lyme Regis, proved them wrong with discoveries that rewrote Earth’s history. Living on the Jurassic Coast, she became the first to uncover the first complete skeleton of an extinct marine reptile, changing paleontology forever.

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Sources:
Mary Anning: the unsung hero of fossil discovery

Mary Anning: Biography

Mary Anning 1799-1847

Mary Anning- museum of earth

The life of Mary Anning, fossil collector

Smithsonian magazine

The geological society

Mcgill- William Buckland

Sir Henry De La Beche

Rosalind Franklin

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44 min
August 06, 2025Part 2: How Nellie Bly Circumnavigated the Globe
We’re back with Part 2 of our Nellie Bly series!
Last week, we shared how Nellie went undercover in an asylum to expose the abuse and neglect happening behind closed doors. Her reporting shocked the nation and sparked real reform.
This week, we follow her next bold chapter - the story of how she circumnavigated the globe. In 1889, Nellie set off on a solo journey to beat Jules Verne’s fictional Around the World in 80 Days. With just a single satchel, she crossed oceans, continents, and countless cultural boundaries and ended up making history.
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Sources:
Nellie and other 19th-century writers

Life Story: Elizabeth Cochrane Seaman, aka Nellie Bly (1864-1922)

Heinz history center

The route of: Nellie Bly

Remarkable Nellie Bly oil drum

Nellie Bly- LA times

Nellie Bly students guide

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55 min
July 30, 2025 Part 1: Nellie Bly ft. National Park After Dark
You may know us from our other podcast, National Park After Dark (Apple and Spotify).
This week on Watch Her Cook, we will be sharing a National Park After Dark Episode about fearless Journalist, Nellie Bly, in our first 2-part series!
In 1887, Nellie faked insanity to expose the brutal conditions inside Blackwell’s Island Insane Asylum. Her daring undercover investigation not only shocked the nation, but ignited real change in mental health care and journalism.
Join us next week for Part 2 where we follow Nellie on her groundbreaking journey to become the first woman to circumnavigate the globe.
See you then!

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1 hr 9 min

About Watch Her Cook

From the publisher's feed

Watch Her Cook is a podcast about the women who made history—or headlines. Every Wednesday, friends Cassie and Danielle dive into the stories of women who shattered norms, defied expectations, and…