Show Notes
Content Note: This episode discusses war, physical trauma and injury, PTSD, and suicide, as portrayed in the novel and in the historical record. Please take care while listening, and feel free to skip or pause as needed.
IWAW Welcomes Guest Reader, Carmen Caffey RN:
This episode takes a closer look at Kristin Hannah's #1 bestselling novel THE WOMEN (St. Martin's Press, 2024), the story of Frances "Frankie" McGrath, a young nurse who serves with the U.S. Army Nurse Corps during the Vietnam War and returns home to a country that isn't ready to see her.
Joining us is guest reader Carmen Caffey, a nurse who specializes in burn trauma care and is also a cancer survivor. Carmen brings a clinician's eye to the novel, weighing in on the medical realities of trauma nursing.
Sonja rounds out the conversation with historical research into how Vietnam veterans were received upon returning home, the long fight to recognize the women who served as nurses, oral history projects that have preserved their stories, and the progress made over the decades to honor them.
If you've read THE WOMEN, this episode is a chance to get a medical and historical perspective on the events in the novel.
Thank you for listening. If this episode brought up anything difficult, please reach out to someone you trust, or to a crisis or veterans' support line in your area.
REFERENCES:
Echoes of the War podcast
Myth of the spat-on Vietnam veteran
The Spitting Image: Myth, Memory, and the Legacy of Vietnam by Jerry Lembcke Argues that contrary to popular myth, relations between veterans and antiwar activists were mutually empathetic and supportive for the most part
Diane Carlson Evan’s book: Healing Wounds
Diane Carlson Evans: “The memorial was established not only to honor those women who served, but also for the families who lost loved ones in the war, so they would know about the women who provided comfort, care, and a human touch for those who were suffering and dying.” VVMF.org
Remember, if you'd like a chance to be a guest reader and pick a book and visit with us on the show, there is a chance in February 2027. We are proud faculty of Bishop Seabury Academy, and if you get in touch at [email protected], we'll get you set up to bid on the chance. You can do this from literally anywhere in the world! We'd love to have you suggest a new read to us, and we'd love to hear your thoughts on it in 2027--and you'd be supporting a wonderful independent school in Lawrence, Kansas.
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Clay Wirestone, award-winning opinion editor at the Kansas Reflector, was so generous to join us in studio for a great interview about his new book, Opinionated: Kansas Journalists Who Proved Why Commentary Matters — Then and Now, published by the University Press of Kansas. In his impressive tour of Kansas journalism from the 1920s to the 1970s, Clay honors some truly remarkable women who helped build and sustain their communities through their writing. Clay shares wonderful details about Mamie Boyd of Mankato, Zula Bennington Greene of Topeka, Donna Burough Opat of Lindsborg, and Lucile Bluford, who edited the Kansas City Call. We talk about a time when newspapers were truly local, and the people writing them were deeply woven into the lives of their towns. These women wrote about their neighbors, their politics, and their daily lives, and much of that writing has been lost, buried in the archives of small towns, some of which are nearly ghost towns today. Clay's book brings their words back into the light. Kansas is remarkable for so many reasons, and its legacy of fearless local opinion writing is one of them. As an opinion writer himself, Clay isn't studying the craft from the outside. He explores these columnists with the insight of someone who knows exactly what it takes to put your opinions in print, week after week, for the community you call home.
You know the story: Eve came from Adam's rib--a variation on a theme. Science has believed some version of that for centuries, treating the female body as simply a lesser version of the male body.