Show Notes
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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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They're usually billed as piracy's most famous female double act. But how did Anne Bonny and Mary Read find their way from obscurity and scandal to become the 17th century's biggest "open secret" - and how did they really feel about their lives, their shipmates, and each other?
350 years ago in Paris, Marie-Catherine d'Aulnoy retired from espionage and formed a Fairy Tale Resistance. Her team of women wrote over 70 fairy tales, each with hidden critiques of patriarchy and gender roles. We now know their stories as Rapunzel, Beauty and the Beast and more. But in their original versions, strong women saved themselves.
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When 18-year-old Clare fled her family to become the world's first Franciscan nun, she committed to a lifetime of poverty, austerity, and caring for the poor. But when a powerful man tried to rewrite all the rules, Clare was faced with an impossible choice - defy the Pope or deny her own conscience. Then when Princess-turned-Abbess Agnes of Bohemia learned of Clare's struggle, she too joined the fray - two nuns against the patriarchy in the fight of their lives.