PODCAST · society
twoshrewspodcast's podcast
by Two Shrews
Two Shrews is a podcast by two women, Kitty Kismet and Ellie T, which focuses on influential women. We tell the stories of women from history — both distant and recent — who inspire us and serve as role models for the future. We talk about their struggles, and how they apply to today's world. But it's not all serious. We like to laugh and keep it light. Kitty and Ellie are former roller derby players who live and work in Arkansas.
Episodes
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The Wild Woman Archetype in fairy tales
The final episode of Season Two is Women Who Run With the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Ph.D. The book uses fairy tales to teach women more about how they're made and what they might've come here to do. It stresses the importance of using intuition, finding your pack and letting go of the…
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The Little Light of Fannie Lou Hamer
In our latest episode, Kitty tells the story of Fannie Lou Hamer, a voting rights activist and community organizer, from the award- winning biography, This Little Light of Mine by Kay Mills. Her story begins in Mississippi and takes plenty of twists and turns but also terrible moments where she...
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Ain't no Man Better than Sister Rosetta
Sister Rosetta Tharpe was born in Cotton Plant, Ark., to a ukelele playing mother who sang in the Pentecostal church. By the time Rosetta was 5 years old, she was playing guitar and singing in front of the congregation. The church influenced her deft playing style and she would grow up and share...
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On Becoming Michelle Obama
In the midst of protests, coronavirus, and whatever else 2020 plans to throw in the mix, we are discussing Becoming, the autobiography of Michelle Obama in this week's episode. This is the most current biography topic we've tried on the podcast, and we like the way it turned out. If you haven't...
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Scenes from Quarantines
This week, Kitty and Ellie continue their break from reading books and talk about some things that have happened in quarantine with MARRIAGE, the north nodes in astrology, diving into the self-help side of YouTube with "parts work" and other important life events. Fun fact: They both cry a lil…
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Something to believe in
Religion and the quest for something to believe in is the topic of this episode. We discuss the book, Post-Traumatic Church Syndrome by Reba Riley and her journey to "experience 30 religions before you turn 30." As someone raised with strict beliefs, she felt burdened by her religious past while…
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The Fearless Nellie Bly
The famous Nellie Bly was known primarily as a journalist, but in the novel, Nellie Bly: Daredevil. Reporter. Feminist, by Brooke Kroeger, we learn she was also an industrialist, world traveler, and a woman of many "firsts." Her story began in 1864 in Pennsylvania and continued to writing for the...
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Memories of Madison County
The Bridges of Madison County was an iconic story written by Robert Waller, however, few people know about the woman behind the story, Jana St. James. She could be the woman behind it. Maybe. Or she could be a woman who had a brief affair with Waller and wanted to capitalize on his fame. You...
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Some truths about trauma
So, this episode is a departure from the normal biography podcast, however, trauma is a topic that affects everyone, and some might argue, a disproportionate number of women. The book is "The Body Keeps the Score" by Bessel Van Der Kolk. And we discuss some of the interesting ways the body and…
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Remembering mom
This episode is different from others. In early February, Kitty's mother passed away and her funeral was held on Valentine's Day. In this podcast, we talk about Kitty's mom, how it feels to lose a parent (or two) and lots of other things like funeral food, disappointing eulogies and childhood...
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Meet Virginia Hall
Virginia Hall might be the most badass lady you've never heard of. This episode covers her story as it was told in The Wolves at the Door by Judith Pearson. Hall grew up hunting and farming in the Maryland countryside but dreamed of working in the foreign service. In her 20s, while on a hunting...
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You're so Vain: This episode is about Carly Simon
You're so vain. I bet you think this podcast's about you. Don't you? Well, if you're Carly Simon, it IS about you. This episode covers her autobiography Boys in the Trees and tells about her childhood, her stuttering issues, her marriage to James Taylor and her rise to music stardom. She even...
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The Little Sparrow
At the end of everything, could you honestly say you lived your life with no regrets? Edith Piaf could. The French singer was known for her talent, her passion and her way with men. In this week's episode, we talk about her biography, No Regrets, and her unusual childhood. Piaf was raised by a...
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Sisterhood of Shrews
In this week's episode, we interview two shrews! A few moons ago, two self-named shrews consulted the googles to see if others like them existed, and lo and behold, they came upon our podcast. The shrews are Elizabeth Paulson and Stephanie Higgs of Two Shrews Press. They're two women who left the...
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Two queens from one island
In this week's episode, we tell the story of Aimee Dubucq de Rivery and Rose Tascher de La Pagerie, two women from the island of Martinique who would become the "power behind the throne" in two of the world's greatest empires. The story by Zia Wesley, starts with The Stolen Girl and one night…
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Monumental works of Niki de Saint Phalle
Niki de Saint Phalle was a French-American painter and sculptor. She suffered from a traumatic childhood and turned to art in her later years to express her pain and to bring joy to others. She is most well-known for her Nanas, large sculptures of animals, monsters or feminine figures. She spent...
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Lauren Bacall me, baby
Famed actress Lauren Bacall was not just another pretty face. She was a founding member of the original rat pack, for God's sake. As an actress and model in the 1940s, she somehow navigated the world of male directors, actors and producers with humor, grace and aplomb. She did that by focusing on...
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The Invisible Women of Saudi Arabia
In this episode, we read the autobiography of doctor Qanta Ahmed, an American-born doctor and Muslim who traveled to Saudi Arabia and tried to make sense of the culture and navigate Sharia law. The book is In the Land of Invisible Women: A Female Doctor's Journey in the Saudi Kingdom. Ahmed's…
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Louise Thaden: Arkansas' Lady Aviator
Have you heard of Louise Thaden? We hadn't either, but she was out here breaking records as a female pilot in the 1920s. Yes, she knew Amelia Earhart. They were friends, but Louise was the first and only pilot to hold the women's records for speed, altitude and solo endurance — all at the same...
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Sarah Caldwell: Opera's impresario
This episode focuses on opera producer Sarah Caldwell, a conductor, impresario and stage director from Arkansas. The book is called Challenges: A Memoir of My Life in Opera, and by Caldwell, with contributions by Rebecca Matlock. The book tells how Caldwell worked to make opera performances come...
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Edna St. Vincent Millay
Our first biography of Season Two focuses on poet Edna St. Vincent Millay. She won the Pulitzer Prize for her poem, "The Ballad of the Harp Weaver" and you might also recognize her famous poem "First Fig," which goes like this: My candle burns at both ends; It will not last the night; But ah, my...
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Season Two Kickoff
Just like when your favorite TV show returns, we start the second season of our podcast by recapping the first. We give some updates on our life, talk about summer break and take a trip down memory lane to review some of our favorite moments from Season 1. We also give some hints about what to...
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Word to Our Mothers
This episode falls neatly between Easter and Mother's Day, and for this one, it gets personal. Yes, we usually talk about notable women, but today we're focusing on the OGs -- original grandmothers -- who shaped us. We're discussing the generations of ladies -- great-grandmothers and aunts and...
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If there's a fork in the road, have some ratatouille
They say the way to a man's heart is through food, but love food is not just for dudes. This week's book, by Elizabeth Bard, combines French food and romance in a such a delicious way, our stomachs went all heart-eyes emoji. The book is Lunch in Paris, A Love Story with Recipes. We work our way...
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The Love Your Body Episode
One normal thing about being human is we all have a body to get us from place to place. But they're all so different. This would be fine if things like body shaming and bullying didn't exist. But unfortunately, they do. Though we all suffer, it seems like it's especially difficult for women to...
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The life and husband times of Allene Tew
woman with an amazing life story that included five husbands and loads of wealth. The book is An American Princess: The Many Lives of Allene Tew. Her story weaves its way through American history with themes of class conflict, love, business savvy, tragedy, divorce, gambling, suicide, and five...
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Women of the White House: Part Two
For part two of the Women of the White House series, we continue to focus on the women behind the men of the presidency with discussions of Jackie Kennedy and Mamie Eisenhower. The book is Upstairs at the White House, written by J. B. West, a White House usher through several presidential...
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All the Presidents' Women
As we head into Presidents' Day, we focus on the women behind the men in our latest episode. The book on tap is Upstairs at the White House, written by J. B. West, a White House usher through several presidential administrations starting with the Roosevelts in 1941. This book had so much great...
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I spy the first female cryptanalyst: Elizebeth Friedman
This episode tells the story of Elizebeth Smith Friedman, one of America's first codebreakers. She and her husband, William Friedman, unwittingly became pioneers in the age of intercepted messages and unraveling the secrets of your enemies. The book, The Woman Who Smashed Codes, by Jason Fagone,...
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Dreaming with Coretta Scott King
In honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we discuss the book, My Life, My Love, My Legacy: Coretta Scott King. In this book, Coretta tells the story of meeting and falling in love with Martin, feeling called to the Civil Rights Movement, turning from pacifism to non-violence, and her lifetime of...
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A Man Named Angela
But this episode is not about Angela. It's about his wife, Leah Remini, who wrote an autobiography about her life and her time in the Church of Scientology. Along the way, she meets A Man Named Angelo (but we called him Angela on accident and it really stuck) and he eventually is her husband. In...
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Rolling in Baguettes
For this episode, Kitty and Ellie crack open a bottle of bona fide champagne from France to tell the story of Veuve Clicquot. In French, "veuve" means "widow," and Clicquot was the married name of Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin who would become a well-known name in the world of champagne. She was a...
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Swinging to the Beat Poetry of Diane di Prima
In our latest episode, we swing through the New York years with beat poet Diane di Prima. Her life has spanned multiple biographies, and this one focuses on her childhood, college and early adulthood in New York. She was a poet, and from an early age, she knowed it. The book is called…
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Waking up to Racism in America
This week's episode tackles racism and its history in America with Michele Norris' autobiography, The Grace of Silence. She discusses her family's struggles with racism in Alabama and Minnesota, and her quest to find the policeman who shot her father in the leg when he was a young man. Her…
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Zelda Fitzgerald and the Tin Can Shuffle
Some of the titles bestowed upon Zelda Fitzgerald: socialite, flapper, author, crazy wife of Scott Fitzgerald. This week, we pick apart some of those titles as we delve into the life of Zelda. Our main source is Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Anne Fowler. The book is a fictionalized...
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Queen of the Ring: Mildred Burke
This week, Kitty takes us through the life of an original trailblazer, Mildred Burke. She may not be a household name, but she helped pave the way for women in sports. The book that inspired this episode was Jeff Leen's, The Queen of the Ring: Sex, Muscles, Diamonds and the Making of an American...
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G.L.O.W. Up: Interview with Godiva
In this episode, we interview an original G.L.O.W. cast member, Godiva! She talks about being the British Bombshell, the character Britannica is loosely based on. She gives us a little behind-the-scenes take on the show based on her life and discusses being a woman in a male-dominated sport. We...
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Our Hidden Figure
Raye Montague is credited with the first computer-generated rough draft of a U.S. naval ship. She was an engineer and graphics design trailblazer for the U.S. Navy and was a "hidden figure" in science and computing. Her work ultimately saved time and millions of federal tax dollars. She was...
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Octopus Fingers
In our second full-length episode, the book, "I Hear She's a Real Bitch" by Jenn Agg is up for discussion. Her memoir details the issues faced in the culinary world by women. At times irreverent, Ellie and Kitty get to talk food, restaurants, sex and power. Also, the thoughts and opinions in this...
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Know Your Shrews
A quick intro to learn more about us, and the thinking behind the Two Shrews podcast.
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What Should We Call It?
In this episode, we discuss the book, How to be a Woman by Caitlin Moran, and cover such topics as first periods, childbearing, men, what to name your lady parts and more! Not for the faint of heart or dads. This is one of our first episodes, and we hope you like it!
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Two Shrews is a podcast by two women, Kitty Kismet and Ellie T, which focuses on influential women. We tell the stories of women from history — both distant and recent — who inspire us and serve as role models for the future. We talk about their struggles, and how they apply to today's world. But it's not all serious. We like to laugh and keep it light. Kitty and Ellie are former roller derby players who live and work in Arkansas.
HOSTED BY
Two Shrews
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does twoshrewspodcast's podcast have?
twoshrewspodcast's podcast currently has 41 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is twoshrewspodcast's podcast about?
Two Shrews is a podcast by two women, Kitty Kismet and Ellie T, which focuses on influential women. We tell the stories of women from history — both distant and recent — who inspire us and serve as role models for the future. We talk about their struggles, and how they apply to today's world. But...
How often does twoshrewspodcast's podcast release new episodes?
twoshrewspodcast's podcast has 41 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to twoshrewspodcast's podcast?
You can listen to twoshrewspodcast's podcast on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts twoshrewspodcast's podcast?
twoshrewspodcast's podcast is created and hosted by Two Shrews.
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