In 1931, a young American aspiring writer set off for what she thought would be a one-year adventure in China. Hoping to gain life experience so she could eventually write the Great American Novel - she would instead become famous as the "Voice of China" to the west, and improve the lives of millions of people in the process. Olivia talks with Helen Foster Snow's great-nephew Adam Foster and her friend and translator Professor An Wei in this unexpected and inspiring episode.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Selma Lagerlöf poetically recorded old Norse fairytales and profoundly influenced Swedish identity. Her work was so brilliant, she was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1909. In old age, she turned her poetic pen to her own life, recalling winters in the 1860s at her beloved Varmland farmhouse, Mårbaka.

For our annual Christmas Special, we bring her poignant memoirs to life, accompanied by an audio feast of traditional Swedish music. God Jul!

Music featured in this episode was generously shared by Blås, Balg & Tagel, Haga Vokalensemble, MrsBean 1987, Kevin MacLeod, Aaron Kenny, DJ Williams, The Westerlies, and Wayne Jones.

You can find a digital copy of Mårbaka and all Selma Lagerlöf's books at Gutenberg Project.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When Alice Roosevelt's dad became President of the United States, her family became the center of attention for the entire country (and the world) - and that was just how she liked it. Whether smoking on the White House roof, racing her bright red motorcar through the streets of Washington DC, or wearing her snake Emily Spinach as jewelry while attending Congressional Balls - Alice scandalized her parents and delighted the nation. But that was just the beginning.

Olivia interviews Shelley Fraser Mickle, author of the new book White House Wild Child: How Alice Roosevelt Broke All the Rules and Won the Heart of America.

Music for this episode provided by Amanda Setlik Wilson, Aaron Kenny, The New Hot 5, Peak Duo, Victor Dance Orchestra, Esther Abrami, The Melody Weavers and the US Marine Corps Band.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Come with us to peak Gilded Age America! We'll watch a charmingly unconventional love story unfold, cure yellow fever, stare at some incredible wallpaper and explore fascinating reasons why women should NOT vote. Katie takes us on location to Ethel Gibson Allen's Boston mansion, now the Gibson House Museum.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Countess Elizabeth Báthory was a monster - a sadistic, murderous, vampire-witch who, in her castle in Hungary in the early 1600s, tortured and murdered over 600 young girls, then bathed in the blood of her victims.

Or did she? Was she truly the supreme supernatural evil of 500 years of legend? Or was she an innocent victim of witch-hunt hysteria and political scheming?

Or was she something else entirely?

Dig into the mysteries of this gruesome, complicated tale with our guest, legal historian Kimberly Craft, in our 2023 Halloween Special.

Music featured in this episode was provided by Kevin Macleod, Doug Maxwell, Esther Abrami, Aaron Kenny, Brian Bolger, Jimena Contreras, Quincas Moreira, Twin Musicom, Myuu and John Patitucci.

Want to help us “make history”? Become a Patron or Donate here!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Without the daughters of Genghis Khan, there would have been no Mongol Empire. Four women ruled over North, South, East, and West, in what would become the largest land empire in the history of the world. It's a story you've never heard, because the sisters were literally cut out of the Mongol records. Join us with eminent Mongol scholar Jack Weatherford, who went searching for the missing story... and found it.

Illustrations by Brooke Smart.

Want to help us “make history”? Become a Patron or Donate here!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Say you join a revolution in the name of liberty and equality. Then someone hands you a crown. Could you do more good, with that power? Or will everything fall apart? Come with us to Haiti and across Europe in the twisty-turny tale of THE QUEEN OF HAITI, Marie-Louise Christophe.

Katie's guest is Vanessa Riley, author of Queen of Exiles.

To learn more about the sound recordings by anthropologist Alan Lomax, check out CulturalEquity.org, and the American Folklife Center. We featured "Valtz Creole" by Musique Creole Group, and a number of voodoo ceremony recordings.

Additional music was composed by ELPHNT, Kevin Macleod, Jimena Contreras, Quincas Moreira, Sir Cubworth, Aaron Kenny, Brian Bolger, Beethoven and Mendelssohn.

Want to help us “make history”? Become a Patron or Donate here!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How did a 25-year-old German Jewish refugee with no formal photography training become 'half of' the most celebrated war photographer in history? Returning guest Kip Wilson takes us right into the heart of the Spanish Civil War to meet Gerda Taro - subject of Wilson's newest novel One Last Shot and the most famous photojournalist you've never heard of.

Music featured in this episode was provided by Trialogo, The Mini Vandals, Sir Cubworth, Doug Maxwell, Aaron Kenny, and Esther Abrami. 

Want to help us “make history”? Become a Patron or Donate here!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How did a lifelong cleaning lady become one of the most beloved painters in French history? In 1905, the voice of the Virgin Mary told orphaned, uneducated maid Seraphine to paint, and she obeyed. Her small French town was on the front line of both world wars, and through it all she painted her kaleidoscopic view. She gave her paintings to everyone in town...who promptly tossed them in the fireplace. She died penniless and unknown, but when a film about her aired on French television a couple years ago, everything changed. Travel with Katie in Senlis for a vivid soundscape of turn-of-the-century France and meet "France's Mona Lisa."

Katie's guest is Alicia Basso Boccabella at the Museums of Senlis.

Music featured in this episode was recorded by Thierry Callen, Kevin MacLeod, and Andrew Huang.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The day "Rattlesnake Kate" Slaughterback (armed with only a rifle, 4 bullets, and a "No Hunting" sign) successfully shot, slashed and smashed her way through hundreds of rattlesnakes to save herself and her son, a legend was born. But that's just the beginning of her story...

Olivia is on location at the Greeley History Museum with Grammy-nominated musician and composer Neyla Pekarek (formerly of The Lumineers), whose musical Rattlesnake Kate premiered in 2022 at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts.

Kate Slaughterback's letters were read by Emma Porter, and "Rattlesnake Kate's Passionate Love" was performed by Mark Henderson.

Music featured in this episode by Neyla Pekarek, Quincas Moreira, Nat Keefe and The Bow Ties, Zachariah Hickman.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices