Wicked Women: The Podcast

Grace Beattie
  • 4.4 (26)
  • History
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They were adulterers, murderers, mistresses, religious zealots, thieves, and traitors. They were queens, wives, mothers, young, and old. What binds the women together in this podcast is their legacies. These are women who were known during their lifetimes or reinvented after their deaths as wicked women. The lenses of history are often gendered, damning women for some of the same actions that men have been lauded for. The nuances surrounding the women in this podcast were removed in exchange for a one-sided portrayal. Within Wicked Women: The Podcast, I do not attempt to excuse or condone the wrongs committed by these women, instead, the podcast looks at their overarching story and examines the origin of their negative legacy. Alongside a brief biographical overview of the woman, I will be incorporating interviews I have held with experts on the subject to provide multiple and diverse perspectives. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  1. 1d ago

    The Women Who Created Fairy Tales

    When we think of fairy tales, we tend to think of the Brothers Grimm, Charles Perrault, Hans Christian Andersen and, of course, Walt Disney. But what if some of the most important names in fairy-tale history have been missing from the story? In seventeenth-century France, a remarkable group of women gathered in literary salons to write, debate, and reinvent stories filled with clever heroines, powerful fairies, dangerous marriages, and women determined to make their own choices. Their tales were enormously popular. They were published, performed, and read across Europe. They even helped establish the literary genre we now call the fairy tale. And then, over generations, many of their names disappeared from the story. Today on Wicked Women, I’m joined by author Jane Harrington to discuss the women who helped shape the fairy-tale tradition, the extraordinary lives behind their stories, and how literary history came to remember the men while forgetting so many of the women. We’ll talk about rebellious princesses, seventeenth-century literary salons, censorship, scandal, and the painstaking detective work involved in recovering women whose stories have been scattered across archives for centuries. Because sometimes the most fascinating part of a familiar story is discovering who was written out of it. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  2. Sep 25

    Beyond Camelot; Isolde's Story

    Myths and legends are filled with women who have been reduced to a single label: the beautiful one, the unfaithful wife, the dangerous temptress, or simply the woman standing beside a celebrated hero. But behind those labels are far more complicated stories. Today, I’m joined by Phoenicia Rogerson, author of Herc, Aphrodite, and her latest novel, Isolde. Together, we explore how she takes figures we think we know and uncovers the quieter, stranger, and deeply human moments that traditional legends often leave behind. We discuss the many conflicting versions of Arthurian legend of Tristan and Isolde, the tension between fate and free will, and how Isolde navigates her competing identities as a princess, healer, daughter, queen, and woman in love. But this conversation is also about how these stories are created. Phoenicia takes us inside her writing process, from following research rabbit holes and drawing details from different traditions to plotting scenes with Post-it notes across her dining-room table. She shares how writing unpublished “secret chapters” helps her understand characters such as Merlin and Hera, why historical context matters when judging morally complicated choices, and how she balances an accessible contemporary voice with the unfamiliar worlds of myth and legend. Why do these ancient stories continue to captivate us? Perhaps it is because every generation, and every writer, can uncover something new within them. Today, Phoenicia Rogerson invites us to look beyond the legend of Isolde and discover the complicated woman at its heart. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  3. Sep 8

    The Other Boleyn Legacy

    Mary Boleyn has long existed in the shadow of her more famous sister. When she is remembered at all, she is often reduced to a mistress, a scandal, or “the other Boleyn girl.” Her reputation has been shaped by centuries of gossip, speculation, and sexual judgment but very little attention has been paid to the woman herself. Yet Mary’s story did not end with Henry VIII. She walked away from the Tudor court, defied her powerful family to marry for love, and became the mother of Catherine Carey. Possibly fathered by Henry VIII and raised in the aftermath of Anne Boleyn’s execution, Catherine returned to the Tudor court and formed a close, enduring relationship with Elizabeth I. She witnessed some of the most dangerous years of the Tudor dynasty, yet her own role has remained largely hidden. Today, I’m joined by Wendy J. Dunn, a multi-award-winning Australian author whose work gives voice to the women of Tudor history. Wendy is the author of several works of historical fiction, as well as the nonfiction book Henry VIII’s True Daughter: Catherine Carey. Her latest novel, Shades of Yellow, connects the life of a modern woman with that of Amy Dudley, the often-overlooked wife of Robert Dudley. Together, we explore Mary Boleyn’s contested reputation, Catherine Carey’s possible royal parentage, the powerful women surrounding Elizabeth I, and how historical fiction can bring us closer to the women who lived behind the closed doors of the Tudor court. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  4. Aug 22

    The Mysterious Bianca Cappello

    Bianca Capello led a life of mystery, danger, and love. Born into wealth and surrounded by a family tradition of medicine, she defied convention to rise to the very top of Renaissance Florentine society. Famously beautiful, Bianca is perhaps best remembered as the mistress and eventual wife of Francesco de’ Medici. But her life and legacy extend far beyond her relationship with one of Florence’s most powerful men. In today’s episode, I’m joined by Gigi Berardi, author of Bianca’s Cure, to uncover the woman behind the legend. Together, we explore Bianca’s remarkable life, the hidden histories woven into the streets and buildings of Florence, and the women whose contributions to medicine, science, and intellectual life have too often been left out of the historical record. Music Credit: Renaissance by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  5. Aug 10

    Queens Behaving Badly: Women, Power & the Throne

    Throughout history, women have held extraordinary power but possessing power did not mean they were free to wield it. From Cleopatra and the queens of Tudor England to Catherine the Great, Queen Victoria, and beyond, powerful women have repeatedly been remembered through stories of sexuality, vanity, ambition, and failure. In today’s episode, I’m joined by historian Kate Williams to discuss her latest book, Regina: A New History of Women and Power. We explore what it meant for a woman to rule, how queens crafted their own images, and why the myths surrounding powerful women have proven so difficult to dislodge. What happens when women take the throne and who gets to decide how we remember them? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  6. Jun 22

    Freedom Round the Globe

    As America prepares to celebrate its 250th anniversary, we are going to hear a lot of familiar stories. We will revisit the Founding Fathers, the great battles, and the documents that changed the course of history. But here on Wicked Women, we've always been interested in the people history leaves at the edges of the page. The women, the ordinary people, the overlooked figures who lived through extraordinary moments and whose voices can completely transform how we understand the past. The American Revolution is no exception. What if this story was never just about thirteen colonies? What if the ideas of liberty, happiness, and justice were being debated by women, Indigenous communities, enslaved people, and people across the globe who were also confronting empire and imagining a different future? What if the Revolution was not inevitable, but uncertain, deeply human, and shaped by countless lives we rarely stop to consider? Today's guest, historian Sarah Pearsall, invites us to look at this familiar story from an entirely new angle. As we approach America's 250th birthday, perhaps the most meaningful way to honor the past is not simply to repeat the stories we know, but to recover the ones we have forgotten. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  7. Jun 1

    The Life and Legacy of Anne Stanhope

    Anne Stanhope is a figure in Tudor history who is often either vilified or forgotten. She was the sister-in-law of Henry VIII’s third queen, Jane Seymour, and her husband would become king in all but name during the reign of their nephew, Edward VI. Yet Anne is perhaps best remembered for her supposed feud with her sister-in-law, Katherine Parr, who referred to Anne as “that hell.” But the image of two women feuding over precedence and jewels fails to capture the remarkable life of one of the Tudor court’s rare survivors. In today’s episode, I’m joined by historian Rebecca Batley, author of The Lord Protector and His Wives: Catherine Filliol, Anne Stanhope and Edward Seymour. We discuss Anne’s life, her incredible survival in a dangerous royal world, and the long-standing tendency to pit powerful women against one another. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  8. May 4

    The Surgeon, The Midwife, The Quack

    Today, when we think about medicine in the past, we often imagine something primitive, even dangerous—a world of leeches, superstition, and doctors who didn’t quite know what they were doing. But that version of history leaves out a much bigger story. Long before modern medicine as we know it, women were not just caring for the sick in their homes; they were treating illnesses, delivering babies, experimenting with remedies, and in many cases, providing the majority of medical care in their communities. While some women built reputations as trusted healers, others became something far more controversial—entangled in stories of poison, power, and the fear of what that knowledge could be used for. So today, we’re looking at the real role women played in early modern medicine; how they learned, how they practiced, and why so much of their work has been overlooked. To help us unpack this world, I’m joined by historian Alanna Skuse, author of The Surgeon, The Midwife, The Quack: How to Stay Alive in Renaissance England, whose research reveals just how central (and complex) women’s roles in medicine really were. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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About

They were adulterers, murderers, mistresses, religious zealots, thieves, and traitors. They were queens, wives, mothers, young, and old. What binds the women together in this podcast is their legacies. These are women who were known during their lifetimes or reinvented after their deaths as wicked women. The lenses of history are often gendered, damning women for some of the same actions that men have been lauded for. The nuances surrounding the women in this podcast were removed in exchange for a one-sided portrayal. Within Wicked Women: The Podcast, I do not attempt to excuse or condone the wrongs committed by these women, instead, the podcast looks at their overarching story and examines the origin of their negative legacy. Alongside a brief biographical overview of the woman, I will be incorporating interviews I have held with experts on the subject to provide multiple and diverse perspectives. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Information

  • Creator
    Grace Beattie
  • Years Active
    2022 - 2026
  • Episodes
    63
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2022 All rights reserved.
  • Show Website
    Wicked Women: The Podcast

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