Infinite Women

Nancy Bernhard, author of The Double Standard Sporting House, joins us to discuss “fallen” women in the U.S. in the 19th century and women’s health and medical treatments. Get the book: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Double-Standard-Sporting-House/Nancy-Bernhard/9798896360520Read the transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Nancy-Bernhard-on-fallen-women-and-womens-health-in-1800s-New-York-transcript.pdf

Nancy Hudgins joins us to discuss the subject of her middle-grade biography, Books Good Enough For You: The Storied Life of Ursula Nordstrom, Editor of Extraordinary Children’s Books. Get the book: https://nancyhudgins.com/books/books-good-enough-for-you/Transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Nancy-Hudgins-on-Ursula-Nordstrom-transcript.pdf

Dr Nina Baker tells us about the women in her book, “Supposed Killed or Drowned by Enemy Action at Sea,” about Scottish merchant navy women who died as a result of enemy action in the First and Second World Wars. Transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Nina-Baker-on-Merchant-Navy-seawomen-transcript.pdfGet the book: https://cramptonmoorhousepublishing.blogspot.com/2026/04/new-book-just-out-supposed-killed-or.html

Dr Lorana Bartels is a Professor of Criminology at the Australian National University and Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Canberra and University of Tasmania. We discuss links between victimization and criminality, meaning the ways in which being victimized can make women more likely to commit crimes themselves. Read the transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Dr-Lorana-Bartels-on-victimization-and-criminality-transcript.pdf

Historian Pamela Toler introduces us to Sigrid Schultz, the subject of her biography The Dragon From Chicago: The Untold Story of an American Reporter in Nazi Germany.Get the book: https://bookshop.org/a/115788/9780807019603Read the transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Pamela-Toler-on-Sigrid-Schultz-transcript.pdf

Regular listeners may recognize Dr. Beth Hubble, professor of Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies at the University of Montana, from previous episodes about transgender histories, the French medieval writer Marie de France, Italian-French feminist writer Christine de Pizan, and the 17th-century Ethiopian nun Walatta Petros. Now she’s back to tell us about someone quite a bit more recent: Moroccan feminist writer and sociologist Fatma Mernissi. Transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Dr-Beth-Hubble-on-Fatima-Mernissi-transcript.pdf

Biographer Sheila Isenberg joins us to discuss the subject of her book, Muriel's War: An American Heiress in the Nazi Resistance. Get the book: https://sheilaisenberg.com/muriels-warRead the transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Sheila-Isenberg-on-Muriel-Gardiner-transcript.pdf

Dr. Alison Parker, Richards Professor of American History at the University of Delaware, tells us about her research into the life and work of Civil Rights activist Mary Hamilton. Regular listeners may recall Dr. Parker from her previous episode about “unceasing militant” Mary Church Terrell: https://www.infinite-women.com/women/mary-church-terrell/Transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Dr-Alison-Parker-on-Mary-Hamilton-transcript.pdf

Lydia Reeder, author of The Cure for Women: Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi and The Challenge to Victorian Medicine that Changed Women's Lives Forever returns to discuss another part of her book, Charlotte Perkins Gilman and the rest cure. Get the book: https://lydiareeder.com/the-cure-for-women-overview/Transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Lydia-Reeder-on-Charlotte-Perkins-Gilman-transcript.pdf

Dr Suzanne Leonard, Professor of Race, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Simmons University, is the author of the upcoming book, A Feminist Guide to Marriage, as well as Wife, Inc.: The Business of Marriage in the Twenty-First Century and Fatal Attraction and co-editor of Imagining We in the Age of I: Romance and Social Bonding in Contemporary Culture. Get the book: https://www.gold.ac.uk/goldsmiths-press/publications/a-feminist-guide-to-marriage/Transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Dr-Suzanne-Leonard-on-feminist-marriage-transcript.pdf

Dr. Beth Hubble, professor of Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies at the University of Montana, returns to tell us about 17th-century Ethiopian noblewoman turned nun Walatta Petros.Transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Dr-Beth-Hubble-on-Walatta-Petros-transcript.pdf

Madeleine Thompson, Site Administrator for the Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum in Washington D.C., tells us about the life and legacy of the founder of the American Red Cross.Read the transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Madeleine-Thompson-on-Clara-Barton-transcript.pdf

Dr Jessica Scott, an associate professor of gender studies at West Virginia Wesleyan College, joins us to discuss her book Home Is Where Your Politics Are: Queer Activism in the U.S. South and South Africa.Get the book: https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/home-is-where-your-politics-are/9781978836075/Transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Dr-Jessica-Scott-on-queer-activism-in-the-US-South-and-South-Africa-transcript.pdf

Biographer Amy Reading tells us about the subject of her book, The World She Edited: Katharine S. White at the New Yorker, which was a finalist for a Pulitzer and the National Book Critics Circle Award.Get the book: https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-world-she-edited-amy-readingTranscript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Amy-Reading-on-Katharine-S.-White-transcript.pdf

Drs Wendy E. Chmielewski and Jill Norgren, co-creators of the digital history project Her Hat Was In The Ring (https://herhat.historyit.com/) and authors of a forthcoming book of the same name. The project traces 6,000 women who campaigned for elective office before 1920 and ratification of the 19th Amendment in the United States. Transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Drs-Wendy-E.-Chmielewski-and-Jill-Norgren-on-women-running-for-offices-in-the-US-before-1920-transcript.pdf

Jane Eisner, author of the new book Carole King: She Made the Earth Move, joins us to talk about the life and work of the iconic singer-songwriter.Get the book: https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300259469/carole-king/Transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Jane-Eisner-on-Carole-King-transcript.pdf

Bethany Mannon, Assistant Professor of English at Appalachian State University and author of I Grew Up in the Church: How Evangelical Women Tell Their Stories, discusses contemporary Evangelical Christian women writers.Get the book: https://www.baylorpress.com/9781481318938/i-grew-up-in-the-church/Read the transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Dr-Bethany-Mannon-on-Evangelical-Christian-women-writers-transcript.pdf

Dr. Beth Hubble, professor of Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies at the University of Montana, tells us about 14th century Italian-French writer, philosopher and feminist Christine de Pizan.Transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Dr-Beth-Hubble-on-Christine-de-Pizan-transcript.pdf

Dr Kate Culkin, author of Emerson’s Daughters: Ellen Tucker Emerson, Edith Emerson Forbes, and Their Family Legacy, introduces us to the sisters and their mother, Lidian Jackson Emerson.Read the transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Kate-Culkin-on-the-Emerson-women-transcript.pdf

Magda Keaney, Head Curator of International Art at the National Gallery of Australia, and former Senior Curator Photographs at the National Portrait Gallery London, joins us to discuss the work of photographer Francesca Woodman. The NGA recently purchased a work by Woodman called Blueprints for a Temple (II) that is on display now through the end of January 2027. https://nga.gov.au/exhibitions/blueprints-for-temples/Read the transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Magda-Keaney-on-Francesca-Woodman-transcript.pdf

Melissa Chim, a librarian from Excelsior University, tells us about Hannah Cullwick, an 1800s maid of all work in the UK and how her unconventional marriage highlights the era's power dynamics and other realities life for working class women of the time. Transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Melissa-Chim-on-Hannah-Cullwick-transcript.pdf

Lucy Haigh, a PhD student in history at the University of Sheffield, tells us about Alexandra of Denmark - Danish princess, British queen, fashion icon and multiply disabled woman.Transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Lucy-Haigh-on-Alexandra-of-Denmark-transcript.pdf

Dr. Whitney Dirks, author of Monstrosity, Bodies, and Knowledge in Early Modern England, tells us about 1600s Englishwoman Mary Herring and her conjoined twin daughters, Aquila and Priscilla.Get the book: https://www.aup.nl/en/book/9789462986671/monstrosity-bodies-and-knowledge-in-early-modern-englandRead the transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Dr.-Whitney-Dirks-on-Mary-Herring-and-her-daughters-transcript.pdf

Author Gigi Berardi's latest novel, Bianca’s Cure, reimagines the story of Renaissance Italian noblewoman Bianca Capello. We discuss fact vs fiction and the lines between alchemy and science.Read the transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Gigi-Berardi-on-Bianca-Capello-transcript-.pdf

Dr Jill Inderstrodt, a Research Scientist at Regenstrief Institute, joins us to talk about the intersections of technology and maternal health.Read the transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Dr-Jill-Inderstrodt-on-maternal-health-and-data-science-transcript.pdf

Dr Jill Hasday, a distinguished professor at the University of Minnesota Law School, joins us to discuss her book We the Men: How Forgetting Women's Struggles for Equality Perpetuates Inequality.Get the book: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/we-the-men-9780197800805Read the transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Dr-Jill-Hasday-on-how-forgetting-womens-struggles-for-equality-perpetuates-inequality-transcript.pdf

Lydia Reeder, who regular listeners may recall from our episode on the revolutionary Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi, returns to tell us about the women from her first book, Dust Bowl Girls: The Inspiring Story of the Team That Barnstormed Its Way to Basketball Glory.Get the book: https://lydiareeder.com/dust-bowl-girls-overview/Transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Lydia-Reeder-on-Dust-Bowl-Girls-transcript.pdf

Dr Rebecca Wilkin and Dr Angela Hunter, have recently reconstructed Louise Dupin's Work on Women, which is now available in English for the first time thanks to their efforts and “presents an in-depth feminist treatise of the French Enlightenment, featuring an original claim about the modernity of gender inequality that informed the work of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Dupin's secretary.” Get the book: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/louise-dupins-work-on-women-9780190090104Read the transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Dr-Rebecca-Wilkin-and-Dr-Angela-Hunter-on-Louise-Dupins-Work-on-Women-transcript.pdf

Dr Mary Spongberg, Senior Deputy Vice Chancellor of Research at Southern Cross University, discusses how to fight entrenched biases in institutional settings, with a focus on on sexism in research, and how gender shapes who is studying what and how.Read the transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Dr-Mary-Spongberg-on-gender-bias-in-research-transcript.pdf

Dr Courtney Jarrett tells us about sharing the stories of incredible women from history and today through her children's book, Muncie Women A-Z.Read the transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Dr-Courtney-Jarrett-on-sharing-local-history-with-children-transcript.pdf

Cleo O'Callaghan Yeoman and Kate Ferrier, PhD candidates in English Literature at the University of Edinburgh, tell us about Scottish author Susan Edmonstone Ferrier. Kate is also a distant relative of Susan’s.Transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Cleo-OCallaghan-Yeoman-and-Kate-Ferrier-on-Susan-Edmonstone-Ferrier-transcript.pdf

Dr Vanessa R. Corcoran, a medieval historian and an advising dean at Georgetown University, joins us to discuss depictions of the Virgin Mary and how they reflect medieval society.Transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Dr-Vanessa-R.-Corcoran-on-the-Virgin-Mary-in-medieval-art-transcript.pdf

Dr Zoë Burgess, Senior Research Fellow at the University of West London’s London School of Film, Media and Design and Film Curator at Wessex Film & Sound Archive. She tells us about her research into gender and class in the WFSA’s Amateur Film Collection, focusing on the early years of film from 1895 to 1950. Read the transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Dr-Zoe-Burgess-on-mid-century-amateur-filmmakers-transcript.pdf

Dr Shaune Lakin, Senior Curator of Photography at the National Gallery of Australia, joins us to discuss Australian modernist photographer Olive Cotton. The exhibition "Olive Cotton and Her Contemporaries" (https://nga.gov.au/exhibitions/making-it-modern-olive-cotton-and-her-contemporaries/) will be at the Gippsland Art Gallery in Victoria through 22 February, then at Cowra Regional Art Gallery in New South Wales from 14 March to 10 May. Cotton’s work is also currently on display at the NGA as part of the "Women Photographers 1853–2018" (https://nga.gov.au/exhibitions/women-photographers/) collection display that will be up until 1 March 2026. Read the transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Dr-Shaune-Lakin-on-Olive-Cotton-transcript.pdf

Dr Lisa Baer-Tsarfati joins us to discuss linguistic bias in artificial intelligence.Read the transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Dr-Lisa-Baer-Tsarfati-on-linguistic-gender-bias-in-AI-transcript.pdf

Dr. Beth Hubble, Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies professor at the University of Montana, is back for round two! Regular listeners may recall that Beth previously joined us to talk about transgender histories, but her first love is French medieval literature. If you have listened to her first episode, she mentioned that she has a tattoo of a quote in old French - which she reads, and that is quite possibly the biggest nerd flex I’ve ever heard, and I talk to a lot of nerds. So she’s here to regale us with a more in-depth conversation about 12th-century poet Marie de France, the first named poet in old French, originator of her tattoo quote and the reason Beth has a crocheted werewolf wearing trans pants on her desk. Read the transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Dr-Beth-Hubble-on-Marie-de-France-transcript-.pdf

Melissa Chim is the Scholarly Communications Librarian at Excelsior University in New York and co-author of the book Living Archives: A History of the Center for Christian Spirituality. She joins us to discuss influential priest Margaret Guenther and women's contributions to the Episcopal Church.Read the transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Melissa-Chim-on-Margaret-Guenther-and-the-Episcopalian-Church-transcript.pdf

Susan Abernethy is the author of Charles II's Portuguese Queen: The Legacy of Catherine of Braganza.Get the book: https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/Charles-IIs-Portuguese-Queen-by-Susan-Abernethy/9781036121648Read the transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Susan-Abernethy-on-Catherine-of-Braganza-transcript.pdf

DeAnne Blanton is the co-author of They Fought Like Demons: Women Soldiers in the American Civil War. DeAnne is also a retired reference archivist from the National Archives and Records Administration, where she worked for over 30 years and specialized in the Civil War and 19th century women’s history. Read the transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/DeAnne-Blanton-on-women-in-the-US-Civil-War-transcript.pdf

Dr Victoria Wolcott, Professor of History and Director of the Gender Institute at the University at Buffalo. Dr. Wolcott is currently working on The Embodied Resistance of Eroseanna Robinson: Athleticism and Activism in the Cold War Era.Read the transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Dr-Victoria-Wolcott-on-Eroseanna-Robinson-transcript.pdf

Kristen Lopez is a journalist and author of the new book Popcorn Disabilities: The Highs and Lows of Disabled Representation in the Movies. Transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Kristen-Lopez-on-disability-in-film.pdf

Terese Svoboda, author of the new book Hitler and My Mother-in-Law, shares the story of groundbreaking reporter, arts advocate and Svoboda's own mother-in-law, Patricia Hartwell.Get the book: https://orbooks.com/catalog/hitler-and-my-mother-in-law/Transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Terese-Svoboda.pdf

Patricia Owens, Professor of International Relations at the University of Oxford and author of the new book, Erased: A History of International Thought Without Men, tells us about the women erased from the scholarship of international relations.Read the transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Dr-Patricia-Owens-on-the-erased-women-of-international-thought-transcript.pdf

Grace Beattie, creator, host and producer of Wicked Women: The Podcast, discusses how we perceive and depict famous women in real time and in retrospect.Read the transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Grace-Beattie-on-Wicked-Women-transcript.pdf

Biographer Lorissa Rinehart tells us about the U.S.’s first Congresswoman and the subject of her new book, Winning the Earthquake: How Jeannette Rankin Defied All Odds to Become the First Woman in Congress. Get the book: https://www.panmacmillan.com.au/9781250353047/Read the transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Lorissa-Rinehart-on-Jeannette-Rankin-transcript.pdf

Dr. Doris Gutsmiedl-Schümann, co-Investigator for AktArcha, a project researching early female archaeologists from German-speaking areas, tells us about such women’s careers in archaeology, including as antiquarians, collectors, excavators, or museum workers.More about the project and various women's stories: https://aktarcha.hypotheses.org/Read the transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Dr.-Doris-Gutsmiedl-Schumann-on-early-German-speaking-archaeologists-transcript.pdf

Dr Kimberly Voss, a professor of journalism at the Nicholson School of Communication and Media at the University of Central Florida. Her books include The Food Section: Newspaper Women and the Culinary Community, Politicking Politely: Well-Behaved Women Making a Difference in the 1960s and 1970s, Re-Evaluating Women’s Page Journalism in the Post-World War II Era: Celebrating Soft News, and Vivian Castleberry: Challenging the Traditions of Women’s Roles, Newspaper Content, and Community Politics.Read the transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Dr-Kimberly-Voss-on-women-in-US-journalism-in-the-1950s-and-60s-transcript.pdf

Dorina Pojani is an Associate Professor of urban planning at The University of Queensland and co-author of Early Planning Utopias: A Feminist Critique, which is available now from Anthem Press: https://anthempress.com/early-planning-utopias-pbRead the transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Dr-Dorina-Pojani-on-the-gender-divide-in-urban-planning-transcript.pdf

Maggie Hennefeld is a Professor of Cultural Studies & Comparative Literature at the University of Minnesota and author of Death by Laughter: Female Hysteria & Early Cinema. Maggie is also affiliated with the Women Film Pioneers Project (read about her Cinema's First Nasty Women project), and joins us to discuss women's laughter and film, and how the archives of feminist film comedy can help inspire creativity and resistance in our political culture today. Read the transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Dr-Maggie-Hennefeld-on-womens-comedy-and-laughter-in-film-and-activism-transcript.pdf

Mayukh Sen, author of Love, Queenie: Merle Oberon, Hollywood's First South Asian Star, tells us about the life, career and complex legacy of this too-often-overlooked icon.Get the book: https://wwnorton.com/books/9781324050827Read the transcript: https://www.infinite-women.com/wp-content/uploads/Mayukh-Sen-on-Merle-Oberon-transcript.pdf