BitchStory - Stories of badass women that history "forgot"

Kelly McClain and Smarty Pants Lisa
  • 4.6 (11)
  • History
  • Updated Biweekly

Welcome to Bitchstory! We are uncovering history's forgotten heroines and badasses. Most of the women covered on this show have been left out of the history books for reasons you can guess. Some are names you know, some are women that history has completely snubbed. We are revising history to be fun, inclusive, entertaining, and of course, feminist as f*ck! Email us at "Heybitches@bitchstory.net". Always check the show notes for our sources and other important information.

  1. 5d ago

    Ep 111 - Queer in Code - this fascinating life of Anne Lister

    Happy Pride Month! On this episode of Bitchstory, we’re spending time with Anne Lister — a Queer Englishwoman of the 1800s. She is the woman behind a wild code that she used her entire life, to document every detail of her life. She was many things, a wife, the landowner, the original “Gentleman Jack” (which would have been considered a slur). We get into the diaries, the relationships, the texture of her daily life, and what it meant to live as fully and unapologetically as she did in Regency-era England. We have thoughts. We have feelings. We have theories. We have a lot of gratitude for Helena Whitbread, who gave us this gift by deciding the diaries. We even looked at Anne’s astrology, and to say “heavy Aries” is an understatement! Whoa! Come for the history. Stay for the part where we lose our minds a little bit! 🎧 We are on all major platforms- Listen wherever you get your podcasts We made the “Top 80 Badass Female Podcasts”! We are number 30, in fact! Woot woot! Thank you listeners! Check out the list here THE BLOG: kellymcclain.blogspot.com PATREON: Patreon.com/Bitchscopes INSTAGRAM: @bitchstory.pod @apothe.kelly @kellymcbitch THE EMAIL: heybitches@bitchstory.net CONTRIBUTE: 💲We insert zero ads and have no subscription fees. If you'd like to contribute to our work here at Bitchstory, we'd be thrilled to receive your financial support so we can keep going and maybe actually not be in the red. Our venmo is @bitchstory

    1h 26m

  2. May 17

    Ep 110- Crimes of Fashion

    You know the perfume. You don’t know the woman. By the end of this episode you’re going to be furious that the only thing most people associate with her name is a bottle on a department store counter. We don’t usually think about fashion and war crimes at the same time. Today’s episode forces us to. This story is about 2 MAJOR fashion houses and the very different roles they played in Nazi occupation in Europe. Trigger warnings apply. Please listen with care as this episode discusses concentration camps, rape, and torture (nothing detailed). I would call this episode adult content only. 🎧 We are on all major platforms- Listen wherever you get your podcasts, THE BLOG: kellymcclain.blogspot.com PATREON: Patreon.com/Bitchscopes INSTAGRAM: @bitchstory.pod @apothe.kelly @kellymcbitch THE EMAIL: heybitches@bitchstory.net CONTRIBUTE: 💲We insert zero ads and have no subscription fees. If you'd like to contribute to our work here at Bitchstory, we'd be thrilled to receive your financial support so we can keep going and maybe actually not be in the red. Our venmo is @bitchstory THANKS FOR LISTENING! We 🩷you!

    54 min

  3. Apr 27

    Ep 109 -The Dorothy Kilgallen mystery/conspiracy

    This week we have a true crime story for you. I don’t want to give away too much here in the notes. But Dorothy Kilgallen was the Oprah or Barbara Walters of her time (the 40s, 50s & 60s)…and most of us have never heard of her. She was erased. Why? Dun-dun-dun… This story is wild! 🎧 We are on all major platforms- Listen wherever you get your podcasts, THE BLOG: kellymcclain.blogspot.com PATREON: Patreon.com/Bitchscopes INSTAGRAM: @bitchstory.pod @apothe.kelly @kellymcbitch THE EMAIL: heybitches@bitchstory.net CONTRIBUTE: 💲We insert zero ads and have no subscription fees. If you'd like to contribute to our work here at Bitchstory, we'd be thrilled to receive your financial support so we can keep going and maybe actually not be in the red. Our venmo is @bitchstory THANKS FOR LISTENING! We 🩷you!

    1h 10m

  4. Mar 9

    Ep 108 - Inventions by Black Women

    This week on Bitchstory, Kelly and Lisa uncover the Black women who invented parts of everyday life — and then got ignored for it. From laundry tech and menstrual products to home security systems and space-saving furniture, these innovators made modern life easier while battling racism, sexism, and a patent system that rarely worked in their favor. Some lost their fortunes, some had their inventions rejected, and one even signed her patent with an X. Turns out the world we live in was built by women whose names most of us never learned. 🎧 We are on all major platforms- Listen wherever you get your podcasts, THE BLOG: kellymcclain.blogspot.com INSTAGRAM: @bitchstory.pod @apothe.kelly @kellymcbitch THE EMAIL: heybitches@bitchstory.net BITCHSCOPES: Patreon.com/bitchscopes CONTRIBUTE: 💲We insert zero ads and have no subscription fees. If you'd like to contribute to our work here at Bitchstory, we'd be thrilled to receive your financial support so we can keep going and maybe actually not be in the red. Our venmo is @bitchstory THANKS FOR LISTENING! We 🩷you!

    29 min

  5. Feb 19

    Ep 107 - Lady Librarians Saving Civilization

    During the 19-teens and through the Great Depression, women and particularly black women were holding together literacy in society with their bloody fingertips and blistered feet. In this episode we discuss the Packhorse Librarians of Kentucky, and the black librarians of the Harlem Renaissance. Literacy is power, guys. And Black history is American history. And women’s history is still sadly overlooked, which is why we do this podcast! Kelly’s creative projects of the moment: Goddess justice arc 2026 calendar Well behaved women keychains 🎧 We are on all major platforms- Listen wherever you get your podcasts, THE BLOG: kellymcclain.blogspot.com THE EMAIL: heybitches@bitchstory.net BITCHSCOPES: Patreon.com/bitchscopes CONTRIBUTE: 💲We insert zero ads and have no subscription fees. If you'd like to contribute to our work here at Bitchstory, we'd be thrilled to receive your financial support so we can keep going and maybe actually not be in the red. Our venmo is @bitchstory THANKS FOR LISTENING! We 🩷you!

    45 min

  6. Feb 4

    Ep 106 - GPS Queen - Dr. Gladys West

    Dr. Gladys West is the mathematical genius whose work helped create the GPS you literally use to find coffee, Target, and your emotional support parking spot. Her groundbreaking satellite modeling helped map the Earth with wild precision — and, shockingly, she didn’t get the credit she deserved for decades. This Black History Month, we’re celebrating the Black women who built the future while the world was busy ignoring them. Goddess justice arc 2026 calendar Well behaved women keychains 🎧 Listen wherever you get your podcasts. THE BLOG: kellymcclain.blogspot.com THE EMAIL: heybitches@bitchstory.net BITCHSCOPES: Patreon.com/bitchstory CONTRIBUTE: 💲We insert zero ads and have no subscription fees. If you'd like to contribute to our work here at Bitchstory, we'd be thrilled to receive your financial support so we can keep going and maybe actually not be in the red. Our venmo is @bitchstory

    23 min

  7. Jan 21

    Ep 105 - Question Everything- Hannah Arendt

    Hannah Arendt didn’t write about monsters. She wrote about ordinary people who stop thinking — and what that does to the world. In this episode, we dig into the life of the Jewish philosopher who gave us the phrase “the banality of evil,” fled the Nazis, pissed off half the intellectual world, and refused to make evil feel dramatic or mysterious. This is the story of a woman who believed thinking clearly was a moral act. 🎧 Listen wherever you get your podcasts. THE BLOG: kellymcclain.blogspot.com THE EMAIL: heybitches@bitchstory.net BITCHSCOPES: Patreon.com/bitchscopes CONTRIBUTE: 💲We insert zero ads and have no subscription fees. If you'd like to contribute to our work here at Bitchstory, we'd be thrilled to receive your financial support so we can keep going and maybe actually not be in the red. Our venmo is @bitchstory

    38 min

  8. 12/16/2025

    Ep 104 - The Women Who Built Christmas

    Christmas looks like it belongs to men — Santa, Jesus, the Wise Men, even Frosty — but the holiday itself has always been built, carried, and saved by women. In this episode of Bitchstory, we reclaim Christmas for the girls, the gays, and the theys by telling the stories history tends to forget:the women whose words, labor, courage, and organizing shaped the holiday as we know it. In this episode we'll discuss 4 (of many!) women who have made Christmas into the nostalgic, magical time of year we know it as today. From Victorian England to WWII France to Jim Crow Alabama to the North Pole, this episode reveals a truth hiding in plain sight:Christmas has always run on women’s work. So pour the eggnog, light the candles, put up your feet (you've earned it!!) and join us for a historically accurate, slightly unhinged, feminist retelling of the season. 🎧 Listen wherever you get your podcasts. THE BLOG: kellymcclain.blogspot.com THE EMAIL: heybitches@bitchstory.net BITCHSCOPES: Patreon.com/bitchscopes CONTRIBUTE: 💲We insert zero ads and have no subscription fees. If you'd like to contribute to our work here at Bitchstory, we'd be thrilled to receive your financial support so we can keep going and maybe actually not be in the red. Our venmo is @bitchstory

    38 min
See All (113)

4.6
out of 5
11 Ratings

About

Welcome to Bitchstory! We are uncovering history's forgotten heroines and badasses. Most of the women covered on this show have been left out of the history books for reasons you can guess. Some are names you know, some are women that history has completely snubbed. We are revising history to be fun, inclusive, entertaining, and of course, feminist as f*ck! Email us at "Heybitches@bitchstory.net". Always check the show notes for our sources and other important information.

Information

You Might Also Like