Wilder

We’re back for a very special episode! It’s been a year since you last heard from us and so much happened. Thousands of people have listened to the show and continue to keep the dialogue about Laura’s life and legacy alive. Glynnis and Jo published books. But perhaps most importantly, the Little House on the Prairie TV show turned 50! To prepare for this momentous anniversary in early September (and Glynnis’ 50th birthday), Glynnis and our producer Emily got together to share memories from the road and reflect on the lessons we learned from making this show that we still think about every day. Plus, they share never before heard clips from the road trip that started it all and from interviews with some of the most beloved Little House actors who still play a huge role in keeping Laura’s legacy alive. 

Buy Glynnis' book, I'm Mostly Here to Enjoy Myself, and Jo's book, The Sicilian Inheritance!

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Surprise! We’re back to share our extended interview with Alison Arngrim, aka everyone’s favorite mean girl: Nellie Oleson. She’s a powerhouse when it comes to keeping the Little House legacy alive, from her marathon re-read of the books on Facebook Live during the pandemic, to attending events at the Laura Ingalls Wilder homes and fan conventions across the country, to using her celebrity for meaningful activism. Beyond all that, she’s simply a delight and we hope you enjoy the interview!

Read Alison Arngrim’s memoir, Confessions of a Prairie Bitch

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As we talked about in our very first episode, the last line of Big Woods reads, “Now is now, it can never be a long time ago.” That line might be the most accurate description there is of the Little House series. Little House on the Prairie might be about another time, but Laura’s stories are very much alive in our time. We can't seem to let her go. But of course, some of the ways in which Laura is relevant are painful to consider. The story she tells is narrow, contributing to a long held mythology of the American West that prioritizes white narratives. For a final look at Laura’s impact, Glynnis and Wilder producer Emily drive further west, beyond Laura’s homesteads, to understand what we’re missing when we hold on too tightly to one narrative. Could it be time to let Laura go?

Go deeper: 
More on Mount Rushmore and the Black Hills
More on the Gordon Stockade 
More on the Battle of the Little Bighorn
More on Buffalo Calf Road Woman
More on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women 

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In all of our research for this show, one of the scholars who has most influenced our thinking on Laura and her work is Caroline Fraser, author of the Pulitzer Prize winning biography, Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder. Laura obsessives know that Prairie Fires is the motherload when it comes to understanding Laura’s life. It provides a detailed historical account of her childhood and takes a holistic look at the fraught personal and working relationship that Laura had with her daughter, Rose Wilder Lane. As we put together our final episode, we’ve been revisiting Caroline’s book and the amazing interview we did with her. Today, we wanted to share the extended interview with you, as a deeper dive into Laura’s life, and to help set the scene before Glynnis comes to some big conclusions in our series finale.

Go deeper: 
Caroline Fraser’s Prairie Fires

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We want to hear from you! If listening to Wilder has changed your thinking on Laura Ingalls Wilder and the Little House books, send a voice memo to [email protected]. You might be featured in our final episode ;) 

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We’re nearing the end of our series, but before we go we have a surprise for you. Is it tin cups and peppermint sticks? A pig’s bladder? No! It’s our extended interview with the one and only Melissa Gilbert! No one knows what it’s like to shoulder the legacy of Laura Ingalls Wilder quite like Melissa. 50 years ago, she was cast as Laura Ingalls on the Little House TV show at just 9 years old, which means Melissa has spent close to a lifetime with Laura and all of her complications. She talked to us about that experience, as well as what it was like working on the TV show, finding agency as a young actor, her business Modern Prairie, her activism, and even her thoughts on Rose. We hope you enjoy this interview as much as we did!

Go deeper: 
Melissa Gilbert’s memoirs Prairie Tale and Back to the Prairie
Modern Prairie

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We want to hear from you! If listening to Wilder has changed your thinking on Laura Ingalls Wilder and the Little House books, send a voice memo to [email protected]. You might be featured in our final episode ;) 

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Laura Ingalls Wilder probably couldn’t have imagined the multi-million dollar media empire that would emerge from her books. From the television show to prairie chic dresses to dolls to tin cups bearing her name, Laura is a brand, a business and, dare we say it, an influencer. Her stories have spawned industries large and small, both directly and indirectly for nearly a century. How exactly did the simple prairie life get sold to millions around the world?

Go deeper: 
Stay at the Prairie House Manor in De Smet, SD
The Queen’s Treasures
Melissa Gilbert’s Modern Prairie
Stephanie McNeal on the Nap Dress
Sara Petersen’s Momfluenced

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We want to hear from you! If listening to Wilder has changed your thinking on Laura Ingalls Wilder and the Little House books, send a voice memo to [email protected]. You might be featured in our final episode ;) 

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This week, Little House goes to Hollywood. In the 1970s, the TV show Little House on the Prairie gave Laura’s books a whole new life. Tens of millions of people tuned in every week to spend time with the Ingalls family. And then, a decade later, every Gen X latchkey kid came home to Laura and Nellie and Ma and Pa. Thanks to endless reruns and streaming platforms, Little House is still airing somewhere right now. Perhaps you, yourself are watching it while you read this. There are a lot of reasons Little House doesn’t quit, but one of the main ones is Michael Landon, the show’s producer, writer, director, and most importantly, Laura’s Pa, Charles Ingalls. As Pa, Landon’s charm and charisma (and hair, and abs, and bare, glowing chest) often eclipsed Laura as the star of the show. And also turned hardcore book fans off. To say the TV show deviated from Laura’s books is an understatement. This was Landon’s prairie. And yet, he still managed to tap into some essential Little House truths, and replicate some of its many problems. But how did this affect Laura Ingalls Wilder’s legacy? What did it mean to put these characters in the hands of a man who would craft their stories into something dramatic and compelling enough to keep people tuning in a half century later? Come home to a simpler time. Come home to Michael Landon crying. 

Go deeper:
Alison Arngrim’s Confessions of a Prairie Bitch
Melissa Gilbert’s Prairie Tale and Back to the Prairie
Karen Grassle’s Bright Lights and Prairie Dust
Charlotte Stewart’s Little House in the Hollywood Hills
Michael Landon on the Tonight Show promoting Little House’s first season
Michael Landon on the Tonight Show addressing cancer diagnosis 

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We want to hear from you! If listening to Wilder has changed your thinking on Laura Ingalls Wilder and the Little House books, send a voice memo to [email protected]. You might be featured in our final episode ;) 

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What is our responsibility to the things we loved the most? One answer is to be brutally honest about who and what we love. That’s what we’re doing in this episode. We’re going to take a long, hard look at the worst parts of Laura: the racism, the violence, and xenophobia present in the Little House series. There’s more than you might think. Even Glynnis, a person who thought she knew Laura all the way through, was surprised and sometimes shocked. We also talk about the harm the books have caused and investigate whether the Little House books should still have a place in our classrooms or even on our shelves. 

Go deeper: 
On Native American History
Mni Sota Makoce: Land of the Dakota by Gwen Westerman and Bruce White
Mean Spirit by Linda Hogan
More on government operated boarding schools for Native children

On Native representation and racism in the Little House books 
Little squatters on the Osage Diminished Reserve by Frances W. Kaye 
Lizzie Skurnick on Little House’s “Myth of White Self-Sufficiency”

On Black prairie narratives
More on Doctor George A. Tann
Era Bell Thompson: A North Dakota Daughter

Alternate children’s book recommendations: 
Prairie Lotus by Linda Sue Park
Birchbark House by Louise Erdrich
Forever Cousins by Laurel Goodluck
More recommendations from Dr. Debbie Reese

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At her best, Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House on the Prairie books offer a door for readers to walk through to get the full picture of the world the Ingalls were  living in. She may not tell you everything in the books (and in some cases, she tells you very little), but ideally she leaves you wanting more. For instance: Who were the Native Americans living alongside the Ingalls? What were buffalo wolves? Do they still exist? In this episode, we’re going to try and paint a bigger picture for you. Imagine you are standing in the doorway of any one of Laura’s Little Houses. You’re looking outside. What might you actually be seeing?

Go Deeper:
More on the buffalo slaughtering of the 19th century
Learn more about the US Dakota War of 1862
Little War on the Prairie (This American Life ep 479), featuring Gwen Westerman
Mni Sota Makoce: Land of the Dakota by Gwen Westerman and Bruce White
Dr. Chris Wells’ work
Dr. Flannery Burke’s work

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One of the reasons the Little House books are so compelling is because Laura Ingalls was a real person. She lived the experiences she wrote about. These things actually happened. But also? She’s a real person, with serious flaws, problematic family members (oh hey, Pa) and traumas she simply couldn’t face in her writing. This week, we’re fact checking the books. What is actually true? What is made up? And what is left out entirely? 

This one’s for you, Jack the dog.  

Go deeper: 
Caroline Fraser’s Prairie Fires
Visit the Laura’s birthplace in Pepin, Wisconsin 
Visit the Laura Ingalls Wilder Park & Museum in Burr Oak, Iowa

Edit 7/10: Dr. Debbie Reese posted about this episode, specifically commenting on Jack the dog and the phrase "happy hunting grounds" in her blog, American Indians in Children's Literature.

Follow us for behind the scenes content! 
@WilderPodcast on TikTok
@Wilder_Podcast on Instagram

We want to hear from you! If listening to Wilder has changed your thinking on Laura Ingalls Wilder and the Little House books, send a voice memo to [email protected]. You might be featured in our final episode ;) 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.