Land of Laura: the Podcast

Sandra Hume + guests
  • 5.0 (14)
  • HISTORY

Land of Laura is the irreverent yet scholarly podcast about all things Laura Ingalls Wilder. Each episode offers insight from authors, historians, researchers, museum professionals — anyone who has something to contribute to the Laura Ingalls Wilder world. It's a podcast for people who love the Little House books — or are even just interested in them. Every episode brings a new take on something in the Little House world.

  1. 3D AGO

    Whoa, Nelly! Julia Park Tracey's Little House–coded Love Story, with Footnotes

    Some of us are scholars, some of us are creative, and some of us are both. Julia Park Tracey, Writer incorporated her Laura Ingalls Wilder scholarship into her latest book, the adult novel WHOA, NELLY: A LOVE STORY WITH FOOTNOTES. What happens when an introverted librarian boards a train in California to meet up with like-minded fans in De Smet, South Dakota? On episode 19 author, journalist, and poet Julia Park Tracey tells us what we can expect. Whoa, Nelly! A Love Story with Footnotes Find Julia on social media: Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/juliaparktraceywriter Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/juliaparktracey/ Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@juliaparktracey Threads: https://www.threads.com/@juliaparktracey BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/juliaparktracey.bsky.social

    37 min

  2. FEB 12

    A Pistol in Her Lap: Getting to Know Caroline Ingalls with Writer Sarah Miller

    When author Sarah Miller heard the Little House audiobooks as an adult, she began to see Caroline Ingalls in a different way. In 2018 she published CAROLINE, a look at Laura Ingalls Wilder's book LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE from the perspective of the woman who held it all together: her mother, Caroline Ingalls. http://www.sarahmillerbooks.com/

    47 min

  3. FEB 5

    Good Books for Bad Children: Children's Publishing and Laura's Editors: Part 2

    Wendy McClure, author of ⁠The Wilder Life: My Adventures in the Lost World of Little House on the Prairie⁠ (Episode 6), brings her 30 years of experience in children's publishing to another visit to the Land of Laura studio. In an overview over two episodes, she'll orient us to the state of quality children's literature when Laura Ingalls Wilder (and Rose Wilder Lane) came on the scene. (Hint: it didn't exactly exist.) She'll also introduce us to all four of Laura's editors, including badass Ursula Nordstrom. She'll tell us about the ongoing branding and expansion of the Little House series that started in the 1990s and share her opinion on which Little House book is most likely to show up as a horror movie.

    37 min

  4. JAN 29

    Good Books for Bad Children: Children's Publishing and Laura's Editors (Part 1)

    Wendy McClure, author of The Wilder Life: My Adventures in the Lost World of Little House on the Prairie (Episode 6), brings her 30 years of experience in children's publishing to another visit to the Land of Laura studio. In an overview over two thirty-minute episodes, she'll orient us to the state of quality children's literature when Laura Ingalls Wilder (and Rose Wilder Lane) came on the scene. (Hint: it didn't exactly exist.) She'll also introduce us to all four of Laura's editors, including badass Ursula Nordstrom. She'll tell us about the ongoing branding and expansion of the Little House series that started in the 1990s and share her opinion on which Little House book is most likely to show up as a horror movie.

    31 min

  5. JAN 22

    Pamela Smith Hill and Too Good to Be Altogether Lost: Part 2 (The First Four Years)

    For over fifty years, readers of Laura Ingalls Wilder's The First Four Years have found the book ... confusing. Why doesn't it sound like the other Little House books? Does it belong with the rest of the series? Why wasn't it published in Wilder's lifetime? Welcome to part 2 of our interview with Pamela Smith Hill about her book Too Good to Be Altogether Lost: Rediscovering Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House Books. This episode is all about when, and why, The First Four Years might have been written.

    28 min

  6. JAN 15

    Pamela Smith Hill and Too Good to Be Altogether Lost: Part 1

    With the massive project of editing and annotating the unpublished memoir Pioneer Girl behind her, Pamela Smith Hill thought she was done writing about Laura Ingalls Wilder. Alas, she was not. Last year she released Too Good to Be Altogether Lost: Rediscovering Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House Books. The title came directly from the speech Wilder herself gave at the Detroit book Fair in 1937, which we told you all about back in Episode 10. In today’s episode, Pamela talks to Land of Laura about what prompted her to write the book, racism on the prairie, and the enduring legacy of the Little House books as classic American literature.

    44 min

  7. JAN 8

    "Not My Laura": Laura Ingalls Wilder, Girls Literature, and the Stories We Hold Onto

    What exactly is girls’ literature? What do we learn about Laura Ingalls Wilder when we study her work critically? What problems are inherent in being protective of "my" Laura? And what if there's more than one Laura? Today's guest, Dawn Sardella-Ayres, Ph.D, is a scholar in girls' literature who has written extensively about Louisa May Alcott, Lucy Maud Montgomery, and Laura Ingalls Wilder. She was a contributor to the 2019 essay collection ⁠⁠Reconsidering Laura Ingalls Wilder: Little House and Beyond⁠. For the past few years she’s been teaching virtual girls' literature classes through the Newberry Library in Chicago. Her next ⁠class on Laura Ingalls Wilder⁠ starts in March 2026.

    48 min

  8. JAN 1

    Laura Broke My Heart: Dr. Kelly Ferguson, Author of My Life As Laura

    Dr. Kelly Ferguson has been entertaining Laura fans since 2011 with her hilarious book MY LIFE AS LAURA: HOW I SEARCHED FOR LAURA INGALLS WILDER AND FOUND MYSELF. But writing about Laura had a way of breaking her heart, and fifteen years later, she's embraced a new affinity for Rose Wilder Lane. Kelly's substack, Albaniac, details her own travels to Rose's onetime home and shares interviews with the top minds in Rose Wilder Lane scholarship. Today, Land of Laura talks to Kelly about the book, her heartbreak with Laura, and finding her way to Albania.

    43 min
See All (19)

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
14 Ratings

About

Land of Laura is the irreverent yet scholarly podcast about all things Laura Ingalls Wilder. Each episode offers insight from authors, historians, researchers, museum professionals — anyone who has something to contribute to the Laura Ingalls Wilder world. It's a podcast for people who love the Little House books — or are even just interested in them. Every episode brings a new take on something in the Little House world.

Information

  • Creator
    Sandra Hume + guests
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    19
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Sandra Hume + guests
  • Show Website
    Land of Laura: the Podcast

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