To snowy Ontario, Canada for our 2026 Christmas Special!

Living out the dream of countless exhausted women, Laura Lee Davidson retreated to an island in the middle of a lake, and lived there alone through a long Canadian winter.

But she wasn't really alone. Wild creatures became her friends, and she was constantly the recipient of neighborly kindness from folks on the mainland.

Laura Lee's 1922 book about her winter on the island is now considered a classic of Canadian literature, and a vivid portrait of time gone by.

Katie reads some of her favorite excerpts from the book, and we all tag along with Laura Lee Davidson, retreating into a remote winter solitude, and marveling at the wonders of nature.

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Find Laura Lee Davidson's A Winter of Content HERE, or read a digital copy HERE. The What'sHerName SHOP is open, and check out our TOURS to join us on our next women's history adventure!

Music in this episode:

Deck the Halls, Air Prelude, It Came Upon a Midnight Clear, and Angels We Have Heard on High by Kevin MacLeod; The First Noel by Quincas Moreira; I Saw Three Ships by Audionautix; The Friendly Beasts by Marc Nelson; Unrequited by Asher Fulero; In the Bleak Midwinter by The Whalens; Growing Up by Nate Blaze; Auld Lang Syne by DJ Williams; The Anunnaki Return by Jesse Gallagher; When We Found the Horizon by Late Night Feeler.

With additional sounds from freesound.org including "St Marys River Dawn Chorus" and "Midnight Nature On The St. Marys River" by Ambient-X; and "Canadian loons" by Chance Media.

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At the recent Voices of Women Festival, we invited folks to pop into our ad-hoc recording box to record the 60-second story of their favorite historical woman. The results are a delight - and include some cast and crew members from Broadway's SUFFS! 

The Voices of Women Festival was held in Salt Lake City, UT, in tandem with Broadway's SUFFS on tour. Thanks to Victor Hamburger and the Utah Women's History Initiative for making this happen!

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The What'sHerName SHOP is open! Also check out our TOURS to join us on upcoming women's history adventures.

Music in this episode: "Please" by Wayne Jones; "Yoga Style" and "Western Spaghetti" by Chris Haugen; "Cowboy Sting" by Kevin MacLeod; "Lao Tzu Erhu" by Doug Maxwell.

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Queen Mother Audley Moore was one of the most respected, most influential, longest-lasting influences on the US Black Nationalist movement, the Pan-African movement, the movement for Reparations, and the Black American organizing community in general across almost the entire 20th century.

So why have most of us never even heard her name?

Returning guest Ashley Farmer introduces Olivia to the incredible, unexpected force that was Queen Mother Audley Moore.

Music featured in this episode provided by Daniel Henderson and his Big Band, The New Hot 5, Cynthia Meng and Kim Onah, TrackTribe, Kevin Macleod, and Emmit Fenn.

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In 1917, Katharine Gibbs rebounded from personal tragedy in an unusual way: she decided to train a subversive, feminist army. Nearly broke and with just a high school education, Gibbs trained women as executive secretaries, building a famous school in just a few years.

"Gibbs Girls" were so intelligent, competent, and polite, that no one could justify the dusty old notions that women belonged at home. The American workplace was changed forever.

Our guest is Vanda Krefft, author of Expect Great Things! How the Katharine Gibbs School Revolutionized the American Workplace for Women.

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Check out our upcoming TOURS: witness women's history with What'sHerName and find your people!

Music in this episode: Irving Aaronson & His Commanders, "If I Had You" and "All By Yourself in the Moonlight"; Nat Shikret & The Victor Orchestra, "The Things That Were Made for Love"; Johnny Marvin, "True Blue Lou"; Arden & Ohman, "We'll Be the Same"; Paul Whiteman Orchestra, "Love Me"; Fred Rich & His Orchestra, "Nobody But You"; Leo Reisman & His Orchestra, "I Kiss Your Hand Madame"; Amulets, "Resolver"; JVNA, "Athena".

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Catherine Crowe was a wildly acclaimed Victorian novelist, playwright, social critic and …ghost hunter? Her novels were as popular as Charles Dickens,’ and Ralph Waldo Emerson, Harriet Martineau, and George Eliot were her ardent fans. And her pioneering catalog of ghosts and the supernatural, The Night Side of Nature, was one of the first and most influential works to be adopted by the up-and-coming Spiritualist movement. So how did this incredibly talented, incredibly famous woman disappear from our collective memory? The answer involves a few misbehaving spirits, a little bit of nudity, and a whole lot of mean-spirited gossip by one very famous frenemy. 

For this year’s Halloween Special, Professor Ruth Heholt helps Olivia resurrect the wildly famous, wildly fascinating, wildly under-appreciated Catherine Crowe.

Selections from Catherine Crowe’s works read for us by Matthew Meikle and Emma Porter.

Music featured in this episode provided by Amanda Setlik Wilson, Kevin MacLeod, Doug Maxwell, Myuu, Brian Bolger, Jesse Gallagher, and the Weber State University Choirs and Orchestra.

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When a history-making Copper Age burial was unearthed in southern Spain in 2008, the world was stunned by the incredibly beautiful - and utterly unprecedented - artifacts found in the tomb of the so-called 'Ivory Man.' But fifteen years later, the archaeology world would be rocked by an even more astonishing discovery - that 5,000-year-old Ivory Man was actually an Ivory Lady! Archaeologist Marta Cintas Peña helps Olivia dig into this remarkable 'prehistorical mystery.'

Music featured in this episode provided by: Doug Maxwell, Emmet Fenn, I Think I Can Help You, Chris Haugen and the Mini Vandals

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Violeta Parra needs no introduction in Latin America: not only did she record the greatest album in Chilean history, she also collected two thousand folk songs, danced in the Poor Circus, sang in the streets, and --incredibly-- exhibited at the Louvre. Over the years she also broke ...*checks notes*... 48 guitars over people's heads.

Discover the larger than life story of Violeta Parra with our guest Ericka Verba, author of Thanks to Life, A Biography of Violeta Parra.

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Travel with us! What'sHerName TOURS are open for registration. Or check out the What'sHerName SHOP! Every bit helps us make more episodes.

Music featured in this episode:

Violeta Parra recorded by Alan Lomax in 1953 in the Lomax Digital Archive; Puerto Montt is Trembling, and Gracias a la Vida by Violeta Parra; Las Hermanas Parra recored for RCA Victor in 1952; Corazon Maldito and El Guilatun by Desborde; Pink Flamenco by Doug Maxwell; Sus Remedios by Casa Rosa; Cha Cha Chango by Quincas Moreira; Despair and Triumph by Kevin MacLeod; Spirit of Fire by Jesse Gallagher.

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Leonora Sansay lived through the last chaotic years of the Haitian Revolution - but the book she wrote about it would tell an entirely unexpected story.

Join returning guest Dr. Maria Windell as we explore the fascinatingly "messy-complicated" life of novelist Leonora Sansay - and uncover a fascinating link with "almost-Founding Father" (and 21st century Broadway icon) ...Vice President Aaron Burr?

Music featured in this episode provided by The Global Jukebox, the US Marine Band, Aaron Kenny, and Kevin MacLeod.

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135 years ago, Norwegian immigrant Thea Foss lived in a ramshackle driftwood houseboat on the coast of Tacoma Washington. Kind, capable, and hard-working, she was an anchor for hundreds more immigrants during America's Gilded Age. Thea built the largest maritime company west of the Mississippi- but more than that, she was the heart of the community. (Plus there's a boat parade, a catastrophic fire, and a truly delightful cow.)

Join Katie on location in Tacoma Washington as we explore the question of how to build community.

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Fancy a Thea Foss MUG featuring her inspiring motto ALWAYS READY? The What'sHerName SHOP is open!

Join us for our next adventure on a What'sHerName TOUR!

If you're local to Tacoma, check out all the cool stuff Jennifer Trahan and Parks Tacoma are doing!

Music featured in this episode: Lift Up by the Mini Vandals; Density & Time by Travelator; The Royal Vagabond by Jockers Dance Orchestra; Meditation Impromptu 1 by Kevin MacLeod; traditional Norwegian songs in the National Jukebox Collection at the Library of Congress. Sound effects were kindly shared by Kevin Luce and Klankbeeld.

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In the 3rd century, a mysterious queen ruled the Kingdom of Yamatai (modern-day Japan) with a wise and steady hand. Her reign lasted almost 70 years - but what can we really know about her, when her people never wrote anything down? Anthropologist Laura Miller introduces Olivia to this elusive ancient queen.

Read more about Queen Himiko's continuing "rebirth" as a powerful cultural icon in Laura Miller's fascinating articles "Searching for Charisma: Queen Himiko" and "Rebranding Himiko: The Shaman Queen of Ancient History."

Music featured in this episode provided by Sotetsu Tanabe, Shigeo Fujino, Yasuda Shinpu, Gordon Inoue, and Nexus.

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What if we could reopen a primordial spiritual portal, and summon peace on earth? For Eva Palmer Sikelianos in 1920s Greece, world peace wasn't a lofty dream-- it was an achievable goal. The key, Eva believed, was ancient Greek art, returned to Delphi. She had a bold plan, and if she could pull it off, she just might save the world.

Join Katie on location at the Benaki Museum in Athens, with Maria Dimitriadou, Historical Archives Curator.

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Check out our upcoming TOURS and maybe you'll sit in on the next recording!

To read more about Eva, check out A Life in Ruins by Artemis Leontis.

Music featured in this episode includes: Ischia, To Loom is to Love, and Lace Tablecloths by The Mini Vandals; Tomorrow Never Comes, Sad French Accordion, Accordion Dirge, and Rainy Night Accordion by Dana Boule; The Anunaki Return and The Sleeping Prophet by Jesse Gallagher; Alone by Emmit Fenn; Byzantine Chant by RTB45 at free sound.org; Lockers Dance Orchestra, Wedding March, and Melody in F from the Library of Congress National Jukebox.

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