Demons and Dames

"Day and night my imagination carried me to the fields of battle, and my ears rang with the groans of my wounded brethren. The spirit of sacrifice took possession of me. My country called me. An irresistible force from within pulled me." So said Maria Bochkareva in her 1917 memoirs, recounting the passionate impulse that compelled her to join the Russian Army at the outbreak of war in 1914. In just six short years she would become Commander of the inaugural Women's Battalion of Death, prove a short-lived democratic government's staunchest ally, and be the proud recipient of a rather garish golden pistol. Maria Bochkareva propelled women onto the frontline of combat with a passionate ass-kicking bravado rarely seen before - or since. BIBLIOGRAPHY: Botchkareva, Mariya Leontievna, and Isac Don Levine. Yashka: My life as Peasant, Exile and Soldier (1919). Print. Fell, Alison S., and Ingrid. Sharp. The Women's Movement in Wartime: International Perspectivess, 1914-1919 (2007). Print. Stoff, Laurie. They Fought for the Motherland: Russia's Women Soldiers in World War I and the Revolution (2006). Print. Stockdale, Melissa K. “‘My Death for the Motherland Is Happiness’: Women, Patriotism, and Soldiering in Russia's Great War, 1914-1917.” The American Historical Review, vol. 109, no. 1, 2004, pp. 78–116. The Russian Film Battalion directed by Dmitriy Meshiev and released to cinemas in February 2015 

“Emile, for god’s sake do not send my letters to papa. It will be an open to rupture. I will leave the house. I will die...” So wrote Madeleine Smith to her erstwhile and soon-to-be-deceased lover Emile L’Angelier in 1857. But just what drove this delicately-raised upper middle-class belle (a lover of dances, romantic intrigue and sentimental poetry) to an act of murder? Why did Victorian society have no choice but to let her get away with it? BIBLIOGRAPHY: Flanders, J. (2011). The Invention of Murder: How the Victorians Revelled in Death and Detection and Created Modern Crime. Thomas Dunne Books. House, J. (1961). Square Mile of Murder. W. & R. Chambers.

"He was succeeded on the throne by his wife Teuta [who] gave letters of marque to privateers to pillage any ships they met, and collected a fleet and force of troops as large as the former one and sent it out, ordering the commanders to treat all countries alike as belonging to their enemies." So began the reign of Queen Τεύτα, who ruled Illyria from 231 to 227 BC. During this time, she would bring the Greek states to their knees with her buccaneering ways and get right up Ancient Rome’s aquiline nose. No wonder contemporaneous(-ish) chroniclers would do their best to relegate her to the footnote of history.  In this minisode, ancient historians Polybius and Appian hold a misogyny-off. And Sarah proves her cool credentials by claiming various classical figures as her ‘home boys’. BIBLIOGRAPHY: Appianus, White, Horace, and Denniston, J. D. Roman History (1912). Print. Dell, H. (1967). The Origin and Nature of Illyrian Piracy. Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte, Bd. 16, H. 3 (Jul., 1967), pp. 344-358. Derow, P. (1973). Kleemporos. The Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 58, Parts 1 and 2 (1968), pp. 1-21. De Souza, P. (1999). Piracy in the Graeco-Roman world. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Macurdy, G. (1937). Vassal-queens and some contemporary women in the Roman Empire (Johns Hopkins University studies in archaeology 22). Baltimore : London: Johns Hopkins University Press ; Oxford University Press, H. Milford. Polybius, & Paton, W. R. (1954). The Histories (Repr. ed., Loeb Classical Library). Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

“Any girl can look glamorous. All you have to do is stand there and look stupid.“ But what if you’re not stupid? What if you are, in fact, a formidable inventor who also, just happens, to be the Most Beautiful Woman In The World? It’s not easy to be more than one thing. And Hedy Lamarr found out the hard way.  In this episode, Sarah delves into the inner life of the renowned starlet, who brought marvellous inventions into the world but was known only for her beauty. Along the way, she sashays through her daring flit from a Nazi arms dealer, shoots down some withering words from Charlie Chaplin, rails against the rejection of her blueprints for a communications device by the US Navy, and finally leaves Ms Lamarr somewhere in Florida - plasticated, but still Hedy. BIBLIOGRAPHY Lamarr, H. (1967). Ecstasy and me : My life as a woman. Mayflower Books. Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story. Dir Alexandra Dean. Zeitgeist Films. 2017. Film.  Bush, E. (2018). Hedy Lamarr's Double Life: Hollywood Legend and Brilliant Inventor by Laurie Wallmark. Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, 72(4), 185. Commissariat, Tushna. (2018). Reviews : A tale of two lives. Physics World, 31(8), Pp43-44.

“As long as I live I will have control over my being” So wrote bold Baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi, who took control of her life and her art, breaking the norms of society both in gaining renown for her painting and in taking her rapist to court at a time when few women were able to do either. Ash gets deep into the fetishisation of women killing men in Baroque painting, touches on why 17th century ‘it girls’ opted to hold spikes in their portraits, and establishes that the only thing to wear when beheading an enemy general is Damascus pearls. *also, the one in which Sarah has fallen down the stairs BIBLIOGRAPHY: Garrard, Mary D. Artemisia Gentileschi : The Image of the Female Hero in Italian Baroque Art (1989). Print. Marjorie Och, "Violence and Virtue: Artemisia Gentileschi’s ‘Judith Slaying Holofernes,’ Art Institute of Chicago, October 17, 2013-January 9, 2014," catalogue by Eve Straussman-Pflanzer, The Woman’s Art Journal 35/2 (2014): 63-64. "It's True It's True It's True" preformed by Breach Theatre at the Underbelly, Cowgate, Edinburgh 2018

In 1604 Anne Gunter, under extreme pressure from her father, did "feign and counterfeit herself to be bewitched”. Join Ash & Sarah as they explore this fascinating and well documented case of Demonic Possession in which a slip of a girl hoodwinked the leading London doctors, the Oxford Dons, and even the King. Explore what motivated Anne's Demonic possession and the socio-cultural nature of medical diagnostics in the early 17th century that spanned the natural world and the demonic. (also Ash makes fun of Sarah for falling down the stairs ...again) Bibliography: J. Sharpe, The bewitching of Anne Gunter: a horrible and true story of deception, witchcraft, murder and the king (1999) Walker, D. (1981). Unclean Spirits : Possession and Exorcism in France and England in the Late Sixteenth and Early Seventeenth Centuries. Ewen, C. (1938). Witchcraft in the Star Chamber. Sharpe, J. (1997). Instruments of Darkness : Witchcraft in England 1550-1750. Jorden, E. (1603). A Briefe Discourse of a Disease Called the Suffocation of the Mother: Written Uppon Occasion Which Hath Beene of Late Taken Thereby, to Suspect Possession of an Evill Spirit, or Some Such like Supernaturall Power. Wherein Is Declared That Divers Strange Actions and Passions of the Body of Man, Which ... Are Imputed to the Divell, Have Their True Naturall Causes, and Do Accompanie This Disease .

“There is something I wish you to take into consideration. It is that MH and Madame Zelle Macleod are two completely different women... That which is permitted to Mata Hari - dancer - is certainly not permitted to Madame Zelle Macleod.”  So wrote Mata Hari from prison, shortly before her execution by firing squad in October 1917. The formerly-feted ‘exotic dancer’ was, her prosecutor claimed, ‘the type of woman born to be a spy.’ She certainly met all the femme fatale touchpoints for a nation seeking a scapegoat. But was she a spy at all? In this episode, Ash explores what happens when the license of peacetime clashes with the moralising dogma of war, the power and vulnerability of adhering to an alter ego, the Western fascination with ‘oriental’ dance, and almost inspires Sarah to launch a lesbian fete. BIBILIOGRAPHY: Craig, W.M. (2017). Mata Hari: Dancer, Courtesan, Spy. The History Press Shipman, P. (2008). Femme Fatale: Love, Lies & The Unknown Life of Mata Hari. Harper Perennial Wheelwright, J. (1992). The Fatal Lover: Mata Hari & The Myth of Women In Espionage. Collins & Brown. Coulson, T. Maj. (1930). Mata Hari, Courtesan & Spy. Harper & Brothers

"May I never be deprived of this purple robe, and may I never see the day when those who meet me do not call me empress." So spoke Theodora, Empress of Rome. Born into the lowest class of society, Theodora rose to the pinnacle of the Byzantine Empire. But like many women who demand and receive power, her journey was a contentious one. Join Ash and Sarah as they explore the life of this controversial figure who was sanctified by one part of the Christian Church while being crowned the succubus of hell by others. There are also quite a few sexy bits - even involving geese. Bibliography Browning, R. (1987). Justinian and Theodora (Rev. ed.). London: Thames and Hudson. Evans, J. (2002). The Empress Theodora : Partner of Justinian. Austin, Tex.: University of Texas Press. Procopius, and Atwater, Richard. Secret History (1961). Print. Theis, L., Mullett, M., Grünbart, M., Fingarova, G., & Savage, M. (2014). Female founders in Byzantium and beyond (Wiener Jahrbuch für Kunstgeschichte ; Bd. 60/61). Köln ; Weimar ; Wien. Cesaretti, P. (2004). Theodora : Empress of Byzantium. New York: Vendome Press. Andrews, R. (2004). Theodora: Empress of Byzantium. Library Journal, 129(10), 148.

Warning: this episode deals with in detail incest and sexual abuse. If you know this will be triggering for you, please go listen to the minisode on Queen Τεύτα - it will make you smile. I promise. “Violette Noziere was immediately labeled “monster” because she represented something incomprehensible: a cold-blooded parricide driven by greed who was the product of a civilised urban environment and a vice-free family.” - Sarah Maza from her book, Violette Noziere : A story of murder in 1930s Paris In this episode, Sarah explores a murder that captivated 1930s France - so much so that during the Nuremberg rally, the left-wing daily L’Oeuvre published a cartoon in which a peeved Nazi officer waved a newspaper at Hitler over a caption that read: “That Violette! It’s all about her!”. Join Sarah and her guest, the wonderful Sophie, as they explore why this crime and its perpetrator so gripped a nation that was coming to terms with modernity and social change while the spectre of WWII loomed. BIBILIOGRAPHY: Crimes that Made History (TV Serries), Season 1, Episode 5 Maza, S. (2011). Violette Noziere : A story of murder in 1930s Paris. Berkeley, Calif. ; London: University of California Press.

"Thus this month ends with great sadness upon the publick, through the greatness of the plague every where through the kingdom almost. Every day sadder and sadder news of its encrease. In the City died this week 7,496 and of them 6,102 of the plague. But it is feared that the true number of the dead, this week is near 10,000; partly from the poor that cannot be taken notice of, through the greatness of the number, and partly from the Quakers and others that will not have any bell ring for them." So wrote Samuel Peyps in his diary on Thursday 31 August 1665 while in London during The Great Plague. Join Ash and Sarah in this bonus episode in which they discuss how their quarantines are going and reflect on what history can teach us on hygiene, quarantine etiquette and what it was really like in London in the 17th century when facing yet another outburst of the Bubonic plague. Bibliography: Newman, Kira L. S. “Shutt Up: Bubonic Plague and Quarantine in Early Modern England.” Journal of Social History, vol. 45, no. 3, 2012, pp. 809–834., www.jstor.org/stable/41678910. Accessed 6 Apr. 2020. Slack, Paul. “The Disappearance of Plague: An Alternative View.” The Economic History Review, vol. 34, no. 3, 1981, pp. 469–476. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/2595884. Accessed 6 Apr. 2020. Totaro, Rebecca C.N. “Plague's Messengers: Communicating Hope and Despair in England 1550-1750.” Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences, vol. 89, no. 1/2, 2003, pp. 87–95. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/24531515. Accessed 6 Apr. 2020. Hammill, Graham. “MIRACLES AND PLAGUES: Plague Discourse as Political Thought.” Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies, vol. 10, no. 2, 2010, pp. 85–104. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/23242142. Accessed 6 Apr. 2020. Theilmann, John, and Frances Cate. “A Plague of Plagues: The Problem of Plague Diagnosis in Medieval England.” The Journal of Interdisciplinary History, vol. 37, no. 3, 2007, pp. 371–393. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/4139605. Accessed 6 Apr. 2020. MUNRO, IAN. “The City and Its Double: Plague Time in Early Modern London.” English Literary Renaissance, vol. 30, no. 2, 2000, pp. 241–261. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/43447603. Accessed 6 Apr. 2020. HINES, KATHLEEN. “Contagious Metaphors: Liturgies of Early Modern Plague.” The Comparatist, vol. 42, 2018, pp. 318–330. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/26533661. Accessed 6 Apr. 2020.

Join us for this exciting bonus episode in which Sarah interviews Sophie Dodds and Willa Bews from the band Storm the Palace. Sophie and Willa talk about two of their favorite musicians - Dory Previn and Carol Kaye - as well as their own music and what inspires them as song writers. The episode ends with Sarah's favorite Storm the Palace song, 'Fractal Pterodactyl' for your listening pleasure. You may be familiar with Storm the Palace's song, 'Lovely White Sofa' which is Demons & Dame's theme music. You can check out more of their music at https://stormthepalace.bandcamp.com/ (https://stormthepalace.bandcamp.com/)

“I sometimes stare into the blackness and close my eyes. I can still imagine myself as a young girl, up there in my little bomber. And I ask myself, ‘Nadia, how did you do it?’ ” So reminisced Nadezhda Popova, one of the legendary "Nitght Witches" and pilot for the Soviet's 588th Night Bomber Aviation Regiment. The 588th was the only all-female bomber unit to be active throughout WWII and the Night Witches flew 30,000 missions over four years of warfare and dropped 23,000 tons of bombs. They destroyed 17 river crossings, 12 fuel depots, and 176 armored cars. Join Sarah and Ash as they explore the formation and success of this legendary air force unit that so terrorised the Germans that they took on the mantel of the supernatural. BIBLIOGRAPHY: Muller, R. (2009). Flying for Her Country: The American and Soviet Women Pilots of World War II. Journal of American Studies, 43(1), Journal of American Studies, 2009, Vol.43(1). Strebe, A., & Pickering, Mary. (2003). The American Women Airforce Service Pilots and Soviet Airwomen of World War II, ProQuest Dissertations and Theses.  Peniston-Bird, C., & Vickers, E. (2017). Gender and the Second World War : Lessons of war (Gender and history (Palgrave Macmillan (Firm))). London.  Myles, Bruce. Night Witches : The Untold Story of Soviet Women in Combat (1981). Print. Alfonso, Kristal L. M. The Soviet Female Fliers of World War II. Air University Press, 2009, pp. 21–38, Femme Fatale: An Examination of the Role of Women in Combat and the Policy Implications for Future American Military Operations, www.jstor.org/stable/resrep13932.8. Accessed 7 May 2020. TIPPNER, ANJA. “Girls in Combat: Zoia Kosmodem'ianskaia and the Image of Young Soviet Wartime Heroines.” The Russian Review, vol. 73, no. 3, 2014, pp. 371–388., www.jstor.org/stable/43662079. Accessed 7 May 2020. Campbell, D'Ann. “Women in Combat: The World War II Experience in the United States, Great Britain, Germany, and the Soviet Union.” The Journal of Military History, vol. 57, no. 2, 1993, pp. 301–323. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/2944060. Accessed 7 May 2020. Documentary, Nattens Häxor (2008) A Swedish Television production. Produced by Roda Leppar. Directed, written by Gunilla Bresky.

“What the people want is very simple - they want an America as good as its promise.” ― Barbara Jordan Join Sarah & our guest, Dr Tom Packer as they explore the exception life of Barbara Jordan - American lawyer, educator and politician who was a leader at the heart of the Civil Rights Movement. Barbara Jordan is an inspirational politician and orator who could, in her own word, harness "the voice of god" to command attention and sway the nation. Dr Tom Packer is a Fellow at the Institute for the Study of the Americas, University College London. He has also taught previously at Durham University, Warwick, Oxford and LSE. Dr Packer's areas of expertise includes US political history particularly that of the US political right, the US South and the electoral history of the United States and the Western World. His research focuses on American conservatism in the second half of the 20th century. He is currently working on a book exploring the career of Senator Jesse Helms, the leading ultra-conservative Senator, and the political culture of North Carolina. Sarah can't wait to read it.

"Let there be freedom for the Indians, wherever they may be in the American Continent or elsewhere in the world, because while they are alive, a glow of hope will be alive as well as a true concept of life." - Rigoberta Menchú Join Sarah and Dr Linda Westman from the Urban Institute at Sheffield University to discuss the life and accomplishments (thus far) of Rigoberta Menchú. Rigoberta is a renowned Kʼicheʼ Indigenous feminist and human rights activist, politician, and Nobel Peace Prize winner who has spent her life fighting for the lives and rights of indigenous Guatemalans. Dr Linda Westman is a Postdoctoral Research Associate whose work engages with the governance of sustainability and climate change, urban sustainability transformations, and justice. Dr Westman is excited to join Demons and Dames to discus how Rigoberta's work has provided an alternative perspective on the familiar concept of sustainability. Documentaries:  Dawn Gifford Engle. Rigoberta Menchu: Daughter of the Maya (2016). Documentary.  Pamela Yates, Newton Thomas Sigel. When the Mountains Tremble (1983). Documentary.  Pamela Yates. Granito: How to Nail a Dictator (2011), Documentary.  Testimonial Biography:  Menchú, R., & In Burgos-Debray, E. (1984). I, Rigoberta Menchú: An Indian woman in Guatemala

Ashley Mauritzen and Sarah Worley-Hill introduce their Podcast and explain what all the fuss is about. Are you excited? We can hardly contain ourselves. Originally aired November 2019

“From Guildford comes a strange, but well attested piece of News. That a poor Woman who lives at Godalmin, near that Town, who has an Husband and two Children now living with her was about a Month past, deliver'd by John Howard an eminent surgeon and man-midwife living at Guildford of a creature resembling a rabbit.” - 'British Gazeteer', 10th October 1726 Meet Mary Toft, who convinced the Enlightenment medical establishment that she had given birth to rabbits. By doing so, she played to established beliefs in the power of the maternal imagination and monstrous birth - and performed a radical act of protest. WARNING: This episode contains graphic descriptions that may be distressing to those who emotionally project onto rabbits as a species. As well as those invested in the correct pronunciation of 'Goldaming'. BILBLIOGRAPHY: Bondesen, J. (1997). A Cabinet of Medical Curiosities. I.B. Tauris. Lynch, J.T. (2008). Deception & Detection in Eighteenth-Century Britain. Ashgate Publishing Ltd. Todd, D. (1995). Imagining Monsters: Miscreations of the Self in Eighteenth-Century England. University of Chicago Press.

"Day and night my imagination carried me to the fields of battle, and my ears rang with the groans of my wounded brethren. The spirit of sacrifice took possession of me. My country called me. An irresistible force from within pulled me." So said Maria Bochkareva in her 1917 memoirs, recounting the passionate impulse that compelled her to join the Russian Army at the outbreak of war in 1914. In just six short years she would become Commander of the inaugural Women's Battalion of Death, prove a short-lived democratic government's staunchest ally, and be the proud recipient of a rather garish golden pistol. Maria Bochkareva propelled women onto the frontline of combat with a passionate ass-kicking bravado rarely seen before - or since. BIBLIOGRAPHY: Botchkareva, Mariya Leontievna, and Isac Don Levine. Yashka: My life as Peasant, Exile and Soldier (1919). Print. Fell, Alison S., and Ingrid. Sharp. The Women's Movement in Wartime: International Perspectivess, 1914-1919 (2007). Print. Stoff, Laurie. They Fought for the Motherland: Russia's Women Soldiers in World War I and the Revolution (2006). Print. Stockdale, Melissa K. “‘My Death for the Motherland Is Happiness': Women, Patriotism, and Soldiering in Russia's Great War, 1914-1917.” The American Historical Review, vol. 109, no. 1, 2004, pp. 78–116. The Russian Film Battalion directed by Dmitriy Meshiev and released to cinemas in February 2015

“Emile, for god's sake do not send my letters to papa. It will be an open to rupture. I will leave the house. I will die...” So wrote Madeleine Smith to her erstwhile and soon-to-be-deceased lover Emile L'Angelier in 1857. But just what drove this delicately-raised upper middle-class belle (a lover of dances, romantic intrigue and sentimental poetry) to an act of murder? Why did Victorian society have no choice but to let her get away with it? BIBLIOGRAPHY: Flanders, J. (2011). The Invention of Murder: How the Victorians Revelled in Death and Detection and Created Modern Crime. Thomas Dunne Books. House, J. (1961). Square Mile of Murder. W. & R. Chambers.

"Let there be freedom for the Indians, wherever they may be in the American Continent or elsewhere in the world, because while they are alive, a glow of hope will be alive as well as a true concept of life." - Rigoberta Menchú Join Sarah and Dr Linda Westman from the Urban Institute at Sheffield University to discuss the life and accomplishments (thus far) of Rigoberta Menchú. Rigoberta is a renowned Kʼicheʼ Indigenous feminist and human rights activist, politician, and Nobel Peace Prize winner who has spent her life fighting for the lives and rights of indigenous Guatemalans. Dr Linda Westman is a Postdoctoral Research Associate whose work engages with the governance of sustainability and climate change, urban sustainability transformations, and justice. Dr Westman is excited to join Demons and Dames to discus how Rigoberta's work has provided an alternative perspective on the familiar concept of sustainability. Documentaries: Dawn Gifford Engle. Rigoberta Menchu: Daughter of the Maya (2016). Documentary. Pamela Yates, Newton Thomas Sigel. When the Mountains Tremble (1983). Documentary. Pamela Yates. Granito: How to Nail a Dictator (2011), Documentary. Testimonial Biography: Menchú, R., & In Burgos-Debray, E. (1984). I, Rigoberta Menchú: An Indian woman in Guatemala

Sarah and Ash are joined by anthropologist and author Margaret Willson, who shares the story of Thurídur Einarsdóttir. Living in Iceland in the 1800s, Captain Thurídur was a famous female sea captain who stood out for her skill at sea and her fearless outspokeness on land. Margaret Willson brings Thurídur to life after decands of research - and even explains how this notorious women ended up solving crimes.