Vulgar History
A feminist women's history comedy podcast hosted by Ann Foster. How do you solve a problem like Marie Antoinette?
Episodes
April 11, 2025 • 29 mins
Esther Brandeau was a Jewish teen from France who (in true Catalina/Antonio de Erauso style) dressed in boy's clothes, chose a very fun pseudonym, and got a variety of jobs on ships. This is how they became the first Jewish person to set foot in Canada (though they didn't stay long).
Image is from the cover of Sharon E. McKay's novel Esther (artist unknown).
References:
Dictionary of Canadian Biography
Wikipedia
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April 9, 2025 • 58 mins
Belle Elmore was born in a Brooklyn tenement and became a star on London's music hall scene. She devoted herself to fundraising for the Music Hall Ladies Guild and formed close friendships with her fellow performers. And then she was murdered by her husband.
Author Hallie Rubenhold explores Belle's life and death in her new book Story of a Murder: The Wives, the Mistress, and Dr. Crippen. Hallie joins us on the podcast to share Be...
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April 5, 2025 • 38 mins
Françoise-Marie Jacquelin, Madame La Tour, was a French woman in the 17th century remembered for her heroic deeds after she moved to the French colony in modern-day New Brunswick, Canada.
Learn more about Place Fort La Tour in modern-day New Brunswick.
Canadian voters: get info on strategic voting in your riding at https://smartvoting.ca/
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April 2, 2025 • 77 mins
Joanna of Naples (1326-1382) was Queen of Naples, Jerusalem, and Sicily for thirty action-packed and highly scandilicious years. This story has it all: kidnappings! Revenge murders! Evil popes! Evil husbands! Being trapped in an iron cage for fourteen years! The black plague!
References:
Queens of Infamy: Joanna of Naples by Anne Theriault on Longreads
The Lady Queen: The Notorious Reign of Joanna I, Queen of Naples, Jerusalem, a...
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March 28, 2025 • 41 mins
Anahareo, also known as Gertrude Bernard, was a Canadian writer, animal rights activist and conservationist of Algonquin and Mohawk ancestry. She also invented having a bob with bangs.
Canadians: get info on strategic voting for the federal election at SmartVoting.ca
Buy a copy of Anahareo's book Devil in Deerskins: My Life With Grey Owl
Info on Grey Owl's cabin in Prince Albert National Park in Saskatchewan
References:
Anahar...
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March 26, 2025 • 67 mins
Anne I (1665 – 1714), best known as the main character of the movie The Favourite, was Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland and then of Great Britain and Ireland for twelve years. Her life story is a gossip buffet of rivalry, death, and resiliency. But how will she score on the scandilicious scale??
References:
Queen Anne: Politics and Passion by Anne Somerset
The Favourite: The Life of Sarah Churchill and the History Behind the...
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March 21, 2025 • 55 mins
I'm back and as Canadian as ever, ready to share the nonstop twists and turns of the story of Mona Parsons! Featuring: my hometown, and maybe my ancestor? And also, hard launching What'shisface, my boyfriend! Elbows up, y'all.
Learn more about Mona Parsons at monaparsons.ca
Get a copy of Mona Parsons: From Privilege to Prison, From Nova Scotia to Nazi Europe by Andria Hill-Lehr
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March 19, 2025 • 99 mins
Eugénie of France was one of the most influential and glamorous women in nineteenth-century Europe. Nancy Goldstone's new book Rebel Empresses explores Eugénie's efforts to rule amid the scandal, intrigue, tragedy, and violence of their era.
Order a copy of Nancy Goldstone's book The Rebel Empresses: Elisabeth of Austria and Eugénie of France, Power and Glamour in the Struggle for Europe.
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March 13, 2025 • 26 mins
Time to learn about Canadian history! In this first Canadian Heritage Minute(s) we learn about:
Why Canada has united in rage-patriotism
What "elbows up" means
And, most importantly, the story of iconic Canadian heroine Viola Desmond!
References:
Canadian History Ehx episode about Viola Desmond
'Elbows up' rallying cry evokes memories of Mr. Hockey by Alastair Steele, CBC
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March 12, 2025 • 93 mins
A real-life historical figure, the woman known as Malinalli, Malintzin, La Malinche and Doña Marina is best known as the Nahua interpreter who helped Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés communicate with the native people of Mexico. But she was a whole person long before he arrived.
Mexican-American author Veronica Chapa has retold her story in the new novel Malinalli, and joins us to talk about the real history that inspired her bo...
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March 10, 2025 • 69 mins
Here's a recording of the event that I did last week in Minneapolis at Magers & Quinn booksellers with Allison Epstein! You may recognize a familiar voice from the audience, which is Minneapolis local and Vulgar History icon Lana Wood Johnson! Yes, this is the event where Lana, Allison and I all met each other in person for the FIRST TIME in front of twenty other people!
Buy a copy of Fagin the Thief here!
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March 5, 2025 • 65 mins
Juana I of Castile (1479-1555) was the third child of Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon. She's remembered now for being "Juana La Loca/Juana The Mad" but, in fact, that reputation was just part of a larger scheme that found her caught between her ambitious and terrible husband and her ambitious and terrible father.
References:
Sister Queens: The Noble, Tragic Lives of Katherine of Aragon and Juana, Queen of Castile by Ju...
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February 28, 2025 • 26 mins
Greetings Vulgar History listeners! We're thrilled to bring you an episode of another show we hope you'll enjoy: Fear Daily!
Fear Daily takes you into the shadows of the past, unearthing the 1990's most terrifying tales of monsters, madness, and life after death. Join us as we explore the ghost stories and supernatural encounters left on an old online bulletin board that continues to operate somewhere in an unknown part of the Pen...
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February 26, 2025 • 77 mins
Isabella I of Castile was one of the most significant figures in world history in some of the worst possible ways. in this throwback episode from 2020, we follow her journey from little girl trapped in a ghost castle to teenage war mediator to PR stunt inventor to genocidal dictator! This is a heavy one, so get ready.
References:
Isabella of Castile: Europe's First Great Queen by Giles Tremlett
Isabella: The Warrior Queen by Kirst...
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February 19, 2025 • 127 mins
Fredericka "Marm" Mandelbaum was a Jewish mother of four, a gracious society hostess, a beloved member of her community—and the first widely renowned crime boss in America. Friend of the podcast Allison Epstein joins us to discuss this historical icon. Plus: BIG NEWS!!
Order a copy of Allison's new book, Fagin the Thief.
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February 12, 2025 • 75 mins
Empress Matilda (1102 - 1167) was the daughter, wife, and mother of Kings. She also should have been England's first crowned female monarch, but the patriarchy got in the way. She also once escaped by camouflaging herself in white cloaks in the snow!! A true legend.
References:
Matilda: Empress, Warrior, Queen by Catherine Hanley
She-Wolves by Helen Castor
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February 5, 2025 • 60 mins
Before the American Civil War, Black opera singer Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield reigned supreme on Northern stages—even performing at Buckingham Palace. Novelist Tiffany L. Warren joins us this week to talk about the Beyoncé of the Antebellum, who features as the star of Tiffany's new novel The Unexpected Diva.
Buy a copy of The Unexpected Diva by Tiffany L. Warren.
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January 29, 2025 • 66 mins
In an age when corporations increasingly see people as obstacles to profits, Surekha Davies's book Humans: A Monstrous History traces the long, volatile history of monster-making to chart a better path for the future. The result is a profound, effervescent, empowering retelling of the history of the world for anyone who wants to reverse rising inequality and polarization. This is not a history of monsters, but a history through mon...
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January 22, 2025 • 53 mins
Breasts, clitoris, hymen, and womb. Across history, these body parts have told women who they are and what they should do. Although knowledge of each part has changed through time, none of them tells a simple story. Author Helen King is here to tell all, as we discuss her new book Immaculate Forms: A History of the Female Body in Four Parts.
Buy a copy of Immaculate Forms by Helen King.
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January 15, 2025 • 54 mins
Black British history reaches all the way back to the Roman age, so why do many people assume it began with the 20th-century Windrush generation? Author Elle Machray joins us to discuss the real Black British history that inspired their 18th-century historical novel Remember, Remember.
Order a copy of Elle's book Remember, Remember.
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