What'sHerName

Carolyn Cassady was an artist, costume designer, writer, and critical influence on the members of the Beat Generation. Her marriage to Neal Cassady and her friendships with Jack Kerouac and other prominent members of the Beats have long overshadowed her own life and accomplishments, but with the recent publication of new manuscripts discovered after her death that is finally beginning to change. An astonishingly talented and prolific creative force, Carolyn Cassady’s legacy of determination, strength, and uniquely creative work is finally being recognized as she emerges from the shadow of “the guys.” Our guests are Cathy Cassady, eldest daughter of Carolyn and Neal Cassady and editor of Carolyn’s posthumously-published book Travel Tips for the Timid, and Josette Lorig, PhD candidate at the University of Colorado Boulder.

[Correction: in this episode Olivia mistakenly says that Carolyn Cassady discovered Neal, Luanne Henderson and Jack Kerouac in bed together. It was actually Allen Ginsberg, not Kerouac.]

Guest Cathy Cassady was born in San Francisco and spent her childhood in the South Bay Area in Monte Sereno, CA. After high school, Cathy spent twenty years working as a medical assistant/transcriber before returning to college. Having spent most of her working years sitting down, she realized it was not a healthy way for folks to spend their working days. She thus earned a B.S. in Exercise Physiology, and an M.S. in Worksite Wellness Management. She spent the rest of her career as a health educator, helping employees stay healthy and fit. She is currently retired, writing, and living with her husband, George, and their loveable Labradoodle, Tula near their three kids and six grandchildren in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in Northern California.

Guest Josette Lorig is a PhD candidate in English, Instructor, and the manager of the Laboratory for Race & Popular Culture at the University of Colorado Boulder. Her research focuses on mid-twentieth century literature and culture, popular novels, women’s life-writing, and gender sexuality studies.

Music featured in this episode included works by Mary Lou Williams, “I Can’t See You” written and performed by Jeff Cuno, and “Evening Glow” written by Daniel Henderson and performed by his Big Band.

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What if you had a vision for your life, but absolutely everyone around you told you it was impossible? Edmonia Lewis lived a life so improbable, that if we didn’t have the actual evidence that she really existed, we’d never believe it! The orphaned daughter of a Native American mother and Caribbean father in mid 19th century America, she set out on the most unlikely path: to become a famed classical sculptor in Rome, all while people of her race were literally enslaved in her homeland. Her journey to gain the education that was denied her, to buy her own boat fare, and make her impossible way in the world, defied the expectations of everyone, and still does.

Guest Dr Charmaine Nelson is the author of The Color of Stone and Professor of Art History at McGill University in Montreal. Her ground-breaking scholarship, and her website Black Canadian Studies, examine Canadian, American, European, and Caribbean art and visual culture. She has made enormous contributions to the fields of the Visual Culture of Slavery, Race and Representation, and African Canadian Art History, and is the author of seven books. 

Music featured in this episode includes: “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child” performed by Julia Griffin, Johnny Mae Medlock and Clifford Reed at Raiford Penitentiary, selected songs from Songs For Paris by Dana Boulé, and “My Country Tis of Thee” performed by Arthur Middleton and His Orchestra.

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Ruth Rowland Nichols was a pioneer of early aviation, the only woman yet to hold simultaneous world records for speed, altitude, and distance, the first woman to attempt a solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean, the founder of the Relief Wings branch of the Civil Air Patrol and one of the most famous pilots of the 1930’s (even more famous than her friend and rival Amelia Earhart). Her courage and daring made her a national icon, but she is barely remembered now by the country that once praised her as its most famous “fly girl.”

A full transcript of this episode is available here.

Thanks to Highbridge Audio for generously allowing us to use excerpts from the Fly Girls audiobook, read by Erin Bennett.

Our guest, New York Times Bestselling author Keith O’Brien, is a former reporter for the Boston Globe and a frequent contributor to National Public Radio. His work has appeared on shows such as All Things Considered, Morning Edition, and This American Life. He has also written for the New York Times Magazine, Politico, and Slate, and is the author of Outside Shot: Big Dreams, Hard Times, and One County’s Quest for Basketball Greatness. He lives in New Hampshire.

Music for this episode was generously provided by Amanda Setlik Wilson, Jeremy Dittus, Jeff Cuno, The Melody Weavers, and the New Hot 5.

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Ursula Bloom wrote over 560 books, earning her a place in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s most prolific female writer. Her memories of childhood Christmases at the turn of the 20th century recall parties at Warwick Castle, caroling, feasts and ghosts.

Ursula Bloom’s charming memoirs are read for us by Professor Judy Elsley. 

Music featured in this episode by Fiddlesticks and the Georgia Boy Choir.

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On land, Sophie Blanchard was a timid, anxious woman who could hardly stand the noise and commotion of 18th century Paris. But after her first flight in a hot-air balloon, she was hooked, and would spend the rest of her life chasing the peace and freedom she found hundreds of feet in the air. The first woman in the world to fly solo in a hot-air balloon, she became so famous for her skill and daring in the sky that even Napoleon took notice, and tried to recruit her for a particularly unusual military maneuver. Her death in 1819 shook the continent, but her life story has been revived by Sharon Wright in her new book, Balloonomania Belles: Daredevil Divas who First Took to the Sky.

Guest Sharon Wright is a British author, journalist and playwright. She was born in Yorkshire and lives in South West London. She has worked as a writer, editor and columnist for leading magazines, newspapers and websites including the BBC, The Guardian, Daily Express, Disney, Glamour and Red. She is also the author of critically acclaimed plays performed in Yorkshire and London. Her first book Balloonomania Belles: Daredevil Divas Who First Took To The Sky was serialized in the Mail on Sunday and received widespread coverage, including on BBC Woman’s Hour and in the New York Post. Her new book on the Brontës will be published in summer 2019.

Music featured in this episode performed by Amanda Setlik Wilson and Nico de Napoli.

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Nur Jahan was the only Empress in the history of the Mughal Empire. Reigning as an equal with her husband Jahangir, she was the only woman to issue executive orders, mint coins, or lead an army — and her tiger-hunting skills were legendary. Though she was one of the most influential leaders in 17th century Asia, for centuries her legacy has been reduced to a love story that ends where her real adventure began–at her marriage to Emperor Jahangir. With our guest Dr. Ruby Lal, author of the new book Empress: The Astonishing Reign of Nur Jahan, we discover the incredible life of this enigmatic and influential ruler.

Guest Ruby Lal is Professor of South Asian Studies at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. She holds a D.Phil. in Modern History from the University of Oxford, UK, and an M.Phil in History from the University of Delhi, India. Her narrative history Empress: The Astonishing Reign of Nur Jahan, was published in 2018. Her first two books were Domesticity and Power in the Early Mughal World and Coming of Age in Nineteenth Century India: The Girl-Child and the Art of Playfulness, both from Cambridge University Press. Olivia’s interview with Ruby Lal was recorded on location at the 2018 Jaipur Literature Festival at the Boulder Public Library.

Music featured in this episode provided by Navatman Music Collective, Ashok Pathak, and Vinod Prasanna, Okey Szoke & Pompey.

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November 11, 2018 is the 100th Anniversary of the end of World War I. To mark this day, we bring you the story of one fearless woman and her ambulance. Maud Fitch, a cowgirl from the desert between Nevada and Utah, wanted to join up when America entered WWI. Unable to enlist as a soldier (she was a woman, after all!) she purchased an ambulance and shipped it at her own expense to France, where she reassembled it and drove it through the heart of the war zone. Cars had only recently been invented, but Maud Fitch drove and maintained the truck by herself, delivering the wounded to hospitals. For her courage and gallantry during one harrowing event, she was awarded the French Cross.

Guest Valerie Jacobson is Project Manager for the Utah Centennial World War I Commission. She earned her BA/BS in History/Geography from Weber State University and her MA in History from Utah State University. Her lesson plan on “World War I: Utahns at the Front” featuring Maud Fitch’s story is available from the Department of Heritage and Arts, and more lesson plans for teaching WWI can be found at the National History Day website.

Here you can join in the national fundraiser to build a WWI memorial in D.C.

Music featured in this episode provided by The Antique Phonograph Collection, Ars Sonor, and Parvus Decree.

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Our 2018 Halloween Special brings back four of our most popular guests with four new stories of hauntings, mysterious deaths, witch hunts, and seances to bring you many spooky returns of the season! [remastered 2025]

In 1612, ten people were hanged as witches in Lancashire, England, sentenced to death because of the testimony of a 9 year old girl. The eight women and two men Jennet Device accused included her mother, grandmother, sister and brother, and the trial of Old Demdike and her “coven” would become infamous around the world. Guest Mary Sharratt retold the story of the Pendle Witches in her novel Daughters of the Witching Hill. Thomas Potts voiced by Thaddeus Weiland.

Pearl DeVere was one of the most famous and successful madams in the history of the American West. Her incredible business acumen, as well as her famed beauty and charm, ensured that her legend endures to this day in the historic gold rush town of Cripple Creek, Colorado, but according to museum curator Charlotte Bumgarner, her legend isn’t the only thing that lives on in her house. Recorded on location at the Old Homestead House Museum in Cripple Creek, Colorado.

After her husband Harry Houdini’s death in 1926, Bess Houdini held regular seances to attempt to communicate with his spirit as part of a bargain the two had made while he was alive–he would contact her through a medium and give a secret code word that only the two of them knew to assure that it was really he. After ten years of attempts, she finally “turned out the light” on the Houdini seances, but her tireless efforts to keep his legacy alive assured that he is now the most famous magician in the world–more well-known than he was even in life. Guest Paul Draper shares Bess Houdini’s fascinating and compelling life. Bess Houdini voiced by Dena Brady.

Lily Cove was just 20 years old when she fell to her death during a parachute jump from her hot air balloon on June 11th, 1906. Her short career as a wildly popular aeronaut came to a tragic and mysterious end when she somehow became separated from her parachute and crashed into the field behind Ponden Hall in Haworth, England. Sharon Wright‘s book Balloonomania Belles brings her to life again.

Music featured in this episode included: “Ave Verum Corpus” and “Si le ne Vous” by the Weber State Univ. Chamber Choir, Puccini’s "Manon Lescaut, Intermezzo" by the MIT Symphony Orchestra and Concert Choir, Byrd's "Agnus Dei" by Solis, Choir of the Sun, "I Can't See You"by Jeff Cuno, “A Hot Time in the Old Town” by Daniel Henderson and Amanda Setlik Wilson, "A Hot Time in the Old Town” by Garrick and Anna Dunford Meacham, Elgar's “Salut d’Amor” by Peak Duo, “Aunt Hagar’s Blues” by The New Hot 5, “Goodbye, Liza Jane” by Marc Nelson, "Cripple Creek" by Half Pelican, and “Aquarium” from Saint-Saens’ Carvinal of the Animals performed by Jeremy Dittus.

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Mae Mallory was a radical civil rights activist, Black Power movement leader, school desegregation organizer and strong proponent of Black armed self-defense. Her passionate dedication to “solving Black peoples’ problems” changed the world, but her name is mostly known because of her false arrest and conviction for kidnapping an elderly white couple in 1961. After the verdict was overturned by the North Carolina Supreme Court, Mallory continued to work for freedom, autonomy and security for African Americans and was influential in the early foundations of the African nation of Tanzania.

Guest Dr Ashley Farmer is Assistant Professor of History and African and African-Diaspora Studies at the University of Texas-Austin and author of Remaking Black Power: How Black Women Transformed an Era. Farmer is also a co-editor of New Perspectives on the Black Intellectual Tradition (NUP Press, 2018) and an editor of the Black Power Series published with NYU Press.

Music for this episode provided by Jeff Cuno, Daniel Henderson and His Big Band, and Cynthia Meng & Kim Onah.

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In this episode, a 17th-century tale of true love and extreme patience. Dorothy Osborne and William Temple fell deeply in love, but her family forbade the match. For years, while Dorothy’s creepily overbearing brother presented her with suitor after suitor of his own choosing, Dorothy and William faithfully sent each other secret love letters. Dorothy’s letters survive, and reveal the story of her escape from the clutches of her possessive brother in pursuit of “happily ever after.” Katie interviews Professor Bernard Capp, foremost expert on 17th-century Britain and author of the new book, The Ties That Bind.

A digital archive of Dorothy Osborne’s letters can be found here, and free audio performances of her letters are at Librivox.

After completing his masters and doctorate at the University of Oxford, Guest Bernard Capp went on to teach at the University of Warwick for half a century. He has written books on a wide range of early modern English topics including the family, gender, radical movements in the English Revolution, the impact of puritan rule during the interregnum, astrological almanacs, popular literature, and the Cromwellian navy. 

Music featured in this episode included: “Canarios” by Gaspar San, performed by Marc Nelson, and “Queen Marie’s Dumpe,” “The Nightingale,” “Franklin & Focky,” “Parthenia,” “Gerard’s Mistresse,” and “Fairwell Fair Armidia” by Dr. Phillip Serna.

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