Zeynab Pasha was one of the most influential voices during several crises of 19th century Iranian history. From the Bread Crisis to the Tobacco Protests and the lead up to Iran's Constitutional Revolution, she led the way in taking back the power of the people. She was legendary, and then she disappeared - literally and figuratively.

Author Afarin Bellisario helps us rediscover the life of this incredible woman.

Music featured in this episode provided by Farya Faraji and selections from the Women's Worlds in Qajar Iran collection at Harvard University.

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If you knew the recipe for an undetectable poison, would you use it? What about giving it to women with abusive husbands? Giulia Tofana's legendary poison Aqua Tofana (brilliantly disguised as holy ointment) was famed and feared in 17th-century Rome. But just how many terrible husbands can drop dead, before the Pope gets suspicious?

In this year's Halloween Special, our guests are Gaia Aloisi and Ted Blackburn, the creators of Aqua Tofana, a new electronic opera about the life of Giulia Tofana.

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Find out more about Aqua Tofana the opera (and watch the Act 1 Preview) HERE

Connect with the Aqua Tofana team on Instagram @AquaTofanaOpera

The Black Widows of the Eternal City by Craig Monson is HERE from Indie booksellers

You may also enjoy reading Mike Dash's history of Aqua Tofana - a lively summary of the Magical Underworld of Rome, though lacking the primary sources of the trial

Other music featured: Halloween Midnight by Roman Cano; Ghost Story and Ghost Processional by Kevin MacLeod

Episode cover image is from The Love Potion by Evelyn De Morgan, 1903

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When Sigrid Schultz was offered a job as a reporter in Berlin, Germany in 1919, she had no idea how her life was about to change - or how her work would change the world.

Returning guest Pamela Toler introduces us to this indomitable woman, who was one of the first to raise the alarm about the Nazis, one of the last to leave as WWII made reporting impossible, and the first woman in history to head an American News Bureau.

Music in this episode provided by Andy Reiner, Peak Duo, Amanda Setlik Wilson, Jeff Cuno, Esther Abrami, Sir Cubworth, The New Hot 5, and Emmit Fenn.

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Whenever Teresa Lim asked about a striking woman she saw in old family photos, she was told 'That's Aunt Fanny; she was unfortunate.' So naturally, Teresa Lim spent years excavating Aunt Fanny's life in 1920s Singapore. It's a story of three devoted sisters, ghost husbands, working-class Chinese feminists, and sworn spinsters.

Turns out, Fanny was very fortunate indeed...until History arrived at her front door.

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You can buy Teresa Lim's The Interpreter's Daughter and benefit a local indie bookshop HERE

Music in this episode was by:

The Butterfly Lovers Concerto for violin performed by Takako Nishizaki

Doug Maxwell: Honky Tonkin'; Lao Tsu Erhu

Gene Kardos' Orchestra: My Extraordinary Gal, 1932

Yao Lie: Rose Rose I Love You

Kevin MacLeod: Medusa; March of the Mind; Despair and Triumph

Jesse Gallagher: Thin Places

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Throughout the 1920s, three sisters dominated the Australian film scene. The phenomenal filmmaking team of Isabel, Phyllis, and Paulette McDonagh reigned supreme as the undisputed Queens of Silent Cinema... until the talkies arrived to turn everything upside down.

Award-winning author Mandy Sayer tells Olivia all about Those Dashing McDonagh Sisters, whose lives were every bit as dramatic (and as complicated) as any Hollywood film.

Music featured in this episode provided by Amanda Setlik Wilson, Aaron Kenny, and E's Jammy Jams.

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Aleksandra Samusenko commanded a unit of Soviet tanks through some of the most brutal battles in human history. The Soviet Union never told her story. But an American paratrooper who'd escaped a Nazi POW camp never forgot her. In the final months of World War II, he joined her unit, and together they made the final push to Berlin.

Guest Hayley Noble shares the story of THE TANK COMMANDER Aleksandra Samusenko.

Haley Noble's website on Soviet Women in Combat is HERE, with social media links HERE.

Soviet WWII Music used in this episode can be found HERE. The Russian State History page on Samusenko (with lots of photos and documents) is HERE.

Additional music was composed by Exra Lipp, Amulets, Jimena Contreras, Wayne Jones, Esther Abrami, and Quincas Moreira.

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For decades, her remarkable achievements as United States First Lady have been overshadowed by her husband's big mistakes. Returning guest Heath Hardage Lee is back to help change that! Olivia introduces us to the remarkable and unfairly forgotten Pat Nixon.

Music in this episode provided by The Westerlies, Aaron Kenny, Josh Lippi and the Overtimers, The Mini Vandals, Cooper Cannell, Doug Maxwell, Quincas Moereira, and the US Marine Corps Band.

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She was one of the key figures of Irish Independence, known in her lifetime as The Irish Joan of Arc. But somehow, history only remembers her as the woman who wouldn't marry WB Yeats. More recently, a BBC headline called her "Ireland's heroine who had sex in her baby's tomb." Both those things are true, but... her real story is even more bonkers - and of course, so much more amazing.

Join us with guest Orna Ross to put Maud Gonne back in her rightful place, among the founders of modern Ireland.

Join the Kickstarter Campaign for a special edition of A Life Before benefitting the movement to memorialize Maud Gonne in Dublin!

Music in this episode was generously shared by Andy Reiner and Jon Sousa from their album Canyon Sunrise. Plus music from E's Jammy Jams, Jesse Gallagher, Doug Maxwell, Wayne Jones, Kevin MacLeod, and Audionautix.

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Artemisia Gentileschi was one of the most famed and respected painters in 17th century Europe, but after she died, her story - and many of her works - were lost, and over the years, Artemisia has become better known for what was done to her than for what she did. Award-winning artist Lindsay Huss helps us try to change that.

(Content warning: discussions of physical and sexual violence)

Music for this episode provided by Marc Nelson, Advent Chamber Orchestra, Catrin Finch, John Harrison, and the Wichita State University Chamber Players

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What'sHerName goes live!

To launch our new book, What's Her Name, A History of the World in 80 Lost Women, former episode guests convene in London from all over the world for a Night of Celebration! In rapid-fire succession, brilliant 3-minute performances of poetry, song, story and dance take us chronologically through the history of the world. The magic is punctuated throughout with short readings by Katie and Olivia from the new book. The packed house at the Vagina Museum, with the most enthusiastic audience, made for a heartwarming night we'll never forget!

Guest Performers in order of appearance:

Introduction and reading by GABBY NEMETH, Senior Editor at Michael O’Mara Books

Musician and composer SAM HENDERSON (our little brother!) performing the world's oldest written song, the Seikolos Epitaph

Chemist and poet KIRK STAPLEY, reading his poem "Naia"

SISTER RITA MINEHAN, Brigidine Sister and founding member of the Solas Bhríde Centre, reading St. Brigid's Lake of Beer Prayer

GABO CEMÉ, founder of Eco Maya Travel and Wild Animal Sanctuary, telling the story of Zazil-Ha

Westminster Abbey's AARON PATERSON, reading the 17th century petitions and receipts of Elizabeth Gregory, Head Carpenter of the Abbey

Award-winning Pakistani singer-songwriter and Bollywood music director ZEB BANGASH performing Roshe, a love poem by 16th century Persian mystic Habba Khatun

Professor WALEED ZIAD of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina, telling the story of 19th century Sufi mystic Dadi Mithan

IAN MORTIMER, bestselling author of more than twenty books on the history of England, reflects on the life of Harriot Mellon

Composer JESSICA WADLEY performing her original song "Mount Florence" about Yosemite adventurer Florence Hutchings

Dancer and choreographer JANET COLLARD performing her interpretation of 1920s cabaret dancer Valeska Gert's infamous "prostitute dance," Canaille.

KIP WILSON reading from her novel-in-verse One Last Shot, about Spanish Civil War photojournalist Gerda Taro

NIKKI DRUCE, host of the Macabre London podcast, recreates the final seance of Helen Duncan, Britain's last convicted witch

Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter NEYLA PEKAREK, formerly of The Lumineers, performs "I Want Everything" from her 2022 musical Rattlesnake Kate

SOPHIE POLDERMANS, author of Seducing and Killing Nazis, telling the story of Truus and Freddie Oversteegen and Hannie Schaft

Composer and musician Erica Glenn, Director of Choral Activities at BYU - Hawaii, performing an Art Song by Ukranian composer Stefania Turkevych

Historian PAM TOLER tells the story of anti-fascist war correspondent Sigrid Schultz, from her forthcoming book The Dragon from Chicago

Art Historian MONICA WALKER, Events Manager at the Old Operating Theater Museum, performs a bellydance in honor of Samia Gamal of Egypt

Artist, designer, and illustrator ELLA KASPEROWICZ, illustrator of our second book A Stinky History of Toilets, whose whimsical illustrations brighten the future of the world

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The story goes that the American Civil Rights movement started when Rosa Parks refused to leave her bus seat in 1955. But 89 years before that, Ellen Garrison refused to leave the waiting room at a Baltimore train station. When she was thrown out, she sued, in one of the first court cases to test African American civil rights. Criss-crossing America to teach former slaves wherever needed, Ellen Garrison devoted her life to lifting those who had been held down.

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