Podcasts · History · Society & Culture
The History Chicks : A Women's History Podcast
The History Chicks | AIRWAVE
300 episodes
Two women. Half the population. Several thousand years of history. About an hour. Join us on an award-winning journey through herstory! The History Chicks celebrates the lives of remarkable women from ancient times to the modern day, exploring women’s history in engaging episodes full of deep research, pop culture references, and the occasional tumble down a rabbit hole.
Episodes page 1 of 6
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LOIRE VALLEY 2026 TRAVELOGUE
We just got back from a brand new field trip that we have nicknamed “Helleaux Chateaux!” Along with dozens of friends, we went on an excursion across the Loire Valley where we visited castle after castle… and met many…
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Gertrude Jekyll
Gertrude Jekyll could turn her hand to anything; deeply involved with the Arts and Crafts movement, she mastered dozens of specialties in her quest to explore the relationship between human lives and their…
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Annie Londonderry, 2026
In this revisit from 2019, we wonder: was Annie Londonderry a flim-flam artist or a true pioneer? Maybe both? Her trip around the world on a bicycle may have been controversial - but she was always up for both an…
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Virginia Hall
Virginia Hall wanted to be a diplomat, but the State Department kept shutting doors in her face …and then she lost her leg in a hunting accident, which seemed like she’d reached a dead end. Never one to accept defeat,…
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Rosa Bonheur
Rosa Bonheur was a wild, animal‑obsessed kid who drew before she could read, and knew she was meant for the world of art from an extremely young age. She didn’t set out to shock anyone; she simply refused to be…
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Mercy Otis Warren
Mercy Otis Warren’s life is one long argument for the idea that political courage isn’t just found on battlefields or in legislatures; it’s found in writing, in conversations, in friendships, and in the willingness to…
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Wonder Woman, 2026: Mega Episode
This is one of our favorite subjects ever! In this, we've combined both parts that originally ran in 2020 to revisit Wonder Woman, mega-episode style! She was forged in the fires of the suffragist movement, and…
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Chicago Travelogue 2026
Fifty-six travelers met in the Windy City to visit some of the subjects we've covered over the years: Bertha Palmer, Frances Glessner Lee, Anne Frank, Georgia O'Keeffe, Jane Addams, and so many more. We took a good…
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Bertha Palmer
Bertha Palmer wore a lot of labels; Chicago socialite, patron of the arts, real-estate magnate, and all-around Gilded Age powerhouse. Her leadership at the Women's Building of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition drew…
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Audrey Hepburn, Mega Episode
Every once in a while, we like to revisit a subject near and dear to our hearts, and Audrey has always had a place in both of ours. We’ve combined both parts of our 2019 coverage into this one mega episode. Audrey was…
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A little audio note from us
Hi Friend! This isn't this week's episode, it's just a couple of travel opportunities we wanted you to know about. For more information and to register for either of these Field Trips, please visit Like Minds Travel!…
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Queen Anne
Queen Anne spent her whole life in the violent storms of other people’s ambitions - her family, politicians, and yes, one very dramatic friend who made sure her reputation took a beating for centuries. But behind all…
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Laura Ingalls Wilder: The Do-over, Part Three
At last, at last! We have arrived at the part of her story that Laura Ingalls Wilder is most famous for; her series of eight (not yet nine!) books which tell decades of readers the romanticized story of young Laura's…
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Laura Ingalls Wilder: The Do-over, Part Two
Laura Ingalls Wilder's books inspired us as children with a fascination for history. And her story has been with us since the beginning of the podcast, all of those years ago. She has deserved a second look from us for…
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Laura Ingalls Wilder: The Do-over, Part One
Once upon a time, back in 2011, we shared the story of Laura Ingalls Wilder, beloved author of the Little House series and chronicler of life on the US prairie in the late 1800s. Now, 15 years later, we thought it was…
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Boudica
Boudica (formerly known as Boadicea ) was a first‑century Celtic queen of the Iceni tribe in what’s now eastern England. After the Roman Empire seized her late husband’s kingdom and brutalized her family, she rallied a…
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Bonus: History Chicks History
To celebrate International Women's Day on March 8th, and Women's History Month during all of March, we have a short message for you all. We couldn't possibly narrow down one or even 31 women to honor this month, so…
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Dovey Johnson Roundtree
Dovey Johnson Roundtree grew up in the Jim Crow era South and carried her grandmother’s philosophy of "find a way or make one” as her armor into every challenge she faced. She became one of the first Black women in the…
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Odetta
Odetta was one of the defining voices of American folk music. Though she had been trained in classical music, she was drawn to spirituals, work songs, traditional ballads, and blues. These songs told the stories of…
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Grandma Moses
Grandma Moses spent most of her life living on family farms in upstate New York, raising a large family and running a household. She was known in her neighborhood for her award-winning preserves and pickles... not her…
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Ona Judge, 2026
Ona Judge defied one of the most revered historical figures in America in order to escape the institution of slavery. Though she spent the rest of her life as a fugitive, she managed to direct her own existence on her…
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Mother Jones
Mother Jones lived one of the most dramatic second acts in American history. Though her early life was shaped by poverty, immigration, and repeated personal tragedies, she reinvented herself in middle age as a warrior…
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Martha Gellhorn
Martha Gellhorn was one of the most influential war correspondents of the 20th century. Over the course of a 60-year career, she reported from nearly every major global conflict - the Spanish Civil War, World War II,…
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Martha Washington, 2025
As a tie-in to our coverage of Betsy Ambler and Ken Burns' American Revolution documentary we decided to revisit Martha. Some called her The Mother of the Country, some curtseyed and called her "Lady Washington," but…
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Sarah Rector
Once upon a time, an eleven-year-old girl named Sarah Rector struck it rich with a discovery that was perfectly timed for the rise of the automobile and the expansion of American manufacturing. After hitting the…
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ITALY TRAVELOGUE - 2025
Viva l'Italia! We took 50 listeners on an epic journey filled with history, architecture, camaraderie and SO MUCH delicious food! From the ancient layers of Rome through the castles and hilltop villages of Tuscany, the…
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BONUS - The American Revolution on PBS - Our interview with co-director Sarah Botstein
The American Revolution changed the way the world worked; the principles of governance in the new country laid the foundation for movements all over the world. On November 16th, Ken Burns and his team premiere their…
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Betsy Ambler - and an interview with Sarah Botstein from the PBS documentary The American Revolution
Life during the Revolutionary War was more than military strategy; there were plenty of battles to be fought at home. Betsy Ambler was a young teenager during the turbulent years, and through her records and letters,…
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Elizabeth Packard
In 1860, Elizabeth Packard was committed to a mental institution by her husband - for YEARS - for the crime of speaking her mind . This practice was completely legal at the time, and she had no mechanism by which to…
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Frida Kahlo, 2025
We're going back to our 2013 coverage of this iconic artist who turned her pain, passion, fear, and unique outlook on life into remarkable and memorable art. Her bold subject and color choices (as well as her bold life…
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Catherine De Medici Part 2
Catherine de Medici lived in a century defined by the the contributions of remarkable women, and she distinguished herself as one of the most remarkable of them all. No longer an apprentice in the art of intrigue, she…
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Catherine de Medici, Part 1
As the last legitimate heir to a powerful family, Catherine de Medici was married at only 14 into one of the most powerful royal houses in Europe. The two halves of her story are VASTLY different, and here in Part 1,…
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Philadelphia 2025 Travelogue
It's field trip time again! We took 50 listeners with us to the cradle of our country - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Over the course of a long weekend, we absorbed the sites and stories we'd learned about in school,…
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Suzanne Valadon
Suzanne Valadon was born on the wrong side of the tracks, and the wrong side of the blanket, but grew up to be one of the It Girls of the Impressionist era. She traveled a unique journey to stardom by parlaying her…
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Alice Paul Part 2
The road to equality has never run smooth - in part 2, Alice Paul and the suffragists finally achieve their goal of a constitutional amendment giving women the vote - but not until a great deal of lobbying, schisms,…
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Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Early Suffragists, 2025
Years before Alice Paul was even born, the women's suffrage movement began with Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Lucretia Mott, and others at the first women's rights convention in the US in 1848. The efforts…
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Alice Paul, Part 1
Alice Paul was one of the most prominent activists of the 20th-century women's rights movement, who believed that moral authority always trumps the letter of the law; injustices must be called out and resisted as a…
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Paris Field Trip Travelogue, 2025
We lived the dream... and traveled to Paris in the springtime! Fifty of our friends joined us in the City Of Light for forays into history, art, wine, architecture, shopping, camaraderie, and SO MUCH FROMAGE! Some of…
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Anne Frank 2025
During our coverage of Miep Gies, we presented the story of the events that were happening in the world at large during WW2, closer in within the city of Amsterdam, and then to a smaller scale within the lives, offices…
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Miep Gies Part 2
Miep Gies risked her life in order to help her Jewish friends hide from the Nazis during World War 2. In Part 2 of her story, we'll take you through the years of struggle and subterfuge, the dark day when the Secret…
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Miep Gies Part 1
In a land fraught with turbulence and oppression, Miep Gies helped to shelter and supply Anne Frank's family (and others) while they were in hiding from the Nazis; an act of civil disobedience that was, though illegal,…
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A Conversation with Anne Sebba: The Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz
To leave you with a bit of lagniappe for Women's History Month, we broke our usual format to sit down for a talk with Anne Sebba, author of the new book The Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz: A Story of Survival. Anne…
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Wallis Simpson, 2025
Puppet? Manipulating social climber? Misunderstood? Deeply in love? However you see her, the fact remains that a king abdicated his throne, defied his family, and lived in exile to marry the twice divorced American…
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Wangari Maathai Part 2
We continue the story of Nobel Prize winning environmentalist Dr Wangari Maathai, who defied convention, financial hurdles, and the violent opposition of her own government to make her Green Belt Movement into an…
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Wangari Maathai Part 1
Wangari Maathai understood the vital connections between living things and the Earth; of local communities and the wider world. It is true that many trees make a mighty forest, and Maathai's Green Belt Movement made it…
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Marie Laveau, 2025
How much of the New Orleans Voodoo Queen's legend is myth? (Hint: A lot) Happy Mardi Gras and, more importantly, Happy Women's History Month! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Sojourner Truth 2025
Sojourner Truth was an enslaved woman, a freewoman, a preacher, a speaker, an abolitionist, and a women's rights advocate in the Civil War-era United States. Like a lot of women's history, Sojourner's truth may have…
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Georgia Gilmore
Georgia Gilmore was one of the unsung heroes of history during the Civil Rights movement in America; a prime example of how one person's contributions can change the course of a country. Her tireless fundraising…
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Josephine Bonaparte and Eugénie Bonaparte
Josephine and Eugénie, related by marriage, and separated by only a generation, both rose from relative obscurity to become the Empress of France during tumultuous times. The paths of these very different women never…
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Fannie Lou Hamer, 2025
In honor of Martin Luther King Day, we are again shining the spotlight on the remarkable life of Fannie Lou Hamer. As a small child, her hard labor was key to her family’s survival. She grew up to become a fiery civil…
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