Let Genius Burn

Jamie Burgess & Jill Fuller
  • 5.0 (36)
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  • WEEKLY SERIES

Louisa May Alcott may be best known for the beloved book Little Women, but her story doesn’t begin or end with her famous novel. On Let Genius Burn, we separate the layers of Louisa’s life to learn more about who she really was--and all the ways her legacy continues to resonate today. We’ll explore the traumatic year of her childhood spent in an experimental utopian community, her service as a Civil War nurse, her final years of wealth and celebrity as a children’s author--and more intimate details and little-known stories of Louisa’s life. Instead of a retelling of Louisa May Alcott’s biography, each episode in the 8-part series examines Louisa's life through a different lens--Louisa as a celebrity, writer, activist, daughter, and more-- highlighting her complexity as a person, woman, and historical figure. Ahead of her time, Louisa railed against the limitations of her gender and fought for women’s suffrage. She craved literary greatness, but was weighed down by the financial needs of her family. Through writing scandalous Gothic thrillers, she found a way to voice her own inner turmoil. In the end, she achieved extraordinary financial success, but creative fulfillment remained elusive.We’ll examine all of this and more on Let Genius Burn. Find more on Instagram and Facebook @letgeniusburn or at letgeniusburn.com. 

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  1. Alcott in Our Own Time

    EPISODE 1

    Alcott in Our Own Time

    In this episode, where the title nods to a seminal Alcott text, Alcott in Her Own Time, edited by Daniel Shealy, Jamie and Jill reconnect about what has changed since they first began making Let Genius Burn in the winter of 2019-2020. We discuss what we are currently reading and thinking about in regards to Alcott. For Jamie, that's thinking about the paths for women, including connections to the novel Dream Count by Chimamanda Adichie and Spinster by Kate Bolick. She relates these questions to Taylor Swift's recent engagement, about which she is feeling conflicted. She also speaks about trauma and neurodivergence, particularly in relation to Karyn Valerius's work: "'Is the Young Lady Mad?' Psychiatric Disability in Louisa May Alcott's Fiction," wondering if Alcott's lifelong struggle with "moodiness" would be seen differently by today's standards. Jill talks about books she has recently been reading, including Little Women at 150, The Afterlife of Little Women by Beverly Lyon Clark, and Alcotts: Biography of a Family by Madelon Bedell. She gives an in-depth look at an article entitled "Family and Fortune: Louisa May Alcott, Inheritance, and the Legacy of Aunts" by Susan S. Williams, talking about economics and aunthood. Jill is excited about the idea of chosen family and an expansive definition of family that puts our ideas of Little Women as a typical-nuclear-family story through a different lens. We wrap up by talking about Wild Girls: How the Outdoors Shaped the Women Who Challenged a Nation, a recent favorite of both hosts, by author and scholar Tiya Miles. The book focuses on women in the outdoors, and it brings into focus athleticism, outdoors(wo)manship, and connections to nature, classifying Alcott as a nature-writer. Bibliography: Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi. Dream Count: A Novel. United States, Knopf Canada, 2025. Bolick, Kate. Spinster: Making a Life of One's Own. United States, Crown Publishers, 2015. Miles, Tiya. Wild Girls: How the Outdoors Shaped the Women Who Challenged a Nation. United States, W. W. Norton, 2023. Little Women at 150. Ed. Daniel Shealy. United States, University Press of Mississippi, 2022. Valerius, Karyn. "'Is the Young Lady Mad?': Psychiatric Disability in Louisa May Alcott's Fiction." Literatures of Madness: Disability Studies and Mental Health. Switzerland, Springer International Publishing, 2019. Williams, Susan S. "Family and fortune: Louisa May Alcott, inheritance, and the legacy of aunts." The New England Quarterly 93.1 (2020): 48-73.

    1h 12m
  2. Little Women Reimagined

    EPISODE 2

    Little Women Reimagined

    In this conversation with authors Linda Epstein, Ally Malinenko, and Liz Parker, we discuss the authors' individual relationships to Little Women and how it influenced their writing of The Other March Sisters. We also discuss: How the authors made editorial choices and conducted research to include relevant information both about the March sisters and their historical Alcott counterpartsThe authors cowriting process and how they collaborated to weave the stories togetherThe inclusion of queer characters and storylines in The Other March SistersWhat led the authors to ultimately leave so much of Jo March out of the book, and why telling individual stories matters so muchLinda Epstein is a literary agent at Emerald City Literary Agency, freelance editor, and author whose novels include Repairing the World and The Other March Sisters. She lives in upstate New York with her ridiculous designer mutt, Gertie Gertstein. You can find her online at lindaepsteinauthor.com and @lindaepsteinauthor on Instagram. Ally Malinenko is a poet, librarian, and author whose novels include the Junior Library Guild selection and Bram Stoker finalist This Appearing House, Ghost Girl, and the collaborative historical novel The Other March Sisters. She lives in Brooklyn, NY, where she works and writes in the early hours of the morning before going to work at the Brooklyn Public Library. She can be found online at allymalinenko.com and @allymalinenko on Instagram. Liz Parker is an herbalist, witch, and the author whose works include In the Shadow Garden and the collaborative novel The Other March Sisters. She grew up in Tennessee and Nevada, but now lives in California with her husband, dog, and too many houseplants to name. She can be found online at LizParkerWrites.com and on most social media platforms at @LizParkerWrites.

    1h 8m
  3. Louisa and Lydia

    EPISODE 3

    Louisa and Lydia

    Lydia Olsson (1874-1958) was the daughter of Swedish immigrants, born in Kansas in the late nineteenth century. She moved to Illinois and attended Augustana College, where she kept diaries the documented her experience as a young woman coming of age in an exciting time, one where education and access was opening to women. During this time, Olsson turned to one book in particular for comfort and direction: Little Women. As she navigated relationships, college, friendship, sisterhood, grief, she saw her own experiences reflected in Alcott's seminal work. Today, we can read Lydia's diaries as a time capsule of the 1890s, but we also see they have extraordinary resonance with our own experience as readers of Little Women. In this episode, we discuss: Lydia Olsson's relationship to Little Women and Louisa May Alcott and the passages she chose to capture in her diariesHow Little Women played a role in one immigrant-family's experience of assimilating into American culture and understanding what it meant to be American in the late 19th centuryMarriage, spinsterhood, queerness, female friendships, and emotional fulfillment in relationships, and how these were evolving and changing in Lydia's timeThe power of fiction in the lives of women across centuriesMore about Rebecca: https://rebeccahopman.com/ More about Lydia: https://lydiaolsson.wordpress.com/ Rebecca Hopman is an archivist and historian who specializes in women’s history and life writing, American culture, and the history of entertainment. Currently, she serves as the Genealogy Services Librarian at the Wisconsin Historical Society, where she helps people discover their family stories. Prior to her work as a genealogy librarian, she specialized in topics as varied as the history of physics (at the American Institute of Physics); the art, science, and technology of glass (at the Corning Museum of Glass); and the groundbreaking career of Barbara Walters (at Sarah Lawrence College). She has a BA in History, English, and German from Augustana College (IL), an MLIS in Archives & Records Management from the University of Maryland, College Park, and an MA in Women’s History from Sarah Lawrence College.

    1h 27m
  4. Alcott & Ecotherapy

    EPISODE 4

    Alcott & Ecotherapy

    Through Alcott’s upbringing amidst the Transcendentalists, ideas about the healing power of nature found their way into her life and her written work. Much of what humans have long known about the connection to nature is now being grounded in scientific research. In this episode, we are joined by Dr. Heidi Lawrence, a scholar who studies the intersections of children’s literature with ecopsychology and ecotherapy.  Dr. Lawrence considers the ways in which such readings allow audiences to re-imagine their connections to the nonhuman world, leading to increased well-being. She has a monograph with Routledge on Madeleine L’Engle and ecopsychology, as well as articles and a book chapter on L.M. Montgomery and a book chapter on Louisa May Alcott. She holds a PhD in English Literature from University of Glasgow, MA degrees in English from Brigham Young University and Medieval Studies from University of Leeds and an MPhil in English Literature from University of York. She works at Brigham Young University (Provo, Utah). We were first introduced to Heidi’s writing and research when we served on a panel with her at the Thoreau Society Gathering with her in 2023. In today’s episode, we get to take a closer look at the ways in which ecotherapy shows up in many of Alcott’s writings, and in particular her juvenile novels. In this episode, we focus on Heidi's book chapter: "Cozy Corners" and "Pebbly Beaches": Resolving Emotional Distress Through Nature Connectedness in Eight Cousins, Rose in Bloom, and Jack and Jill. If you haven't yet had a chance to read beyond Little Women, you'll be inspired by these references to Alcott's lesser-known works, which feature lovable characters and memorable scenes. Find Heidi's book chapter here: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-80537-0_9

    1h 5m
  5. Concord in Context

    EPISODE 5

    Concord in Context

    In today’s episode, we welcome Jen Turner, the Executive Director of the Robbins House Museum in Concord, Massachusetts. This historical house museum, situated today at the Minuteman National Park, is the hub of Concord’s African-American history. Through our conversation with Jen, we expand our understanding of Concord’s past and the experience of slavery survivors and free Black people who were part of the Alcotts’ world. The Robbins House is a Concord-based nonprofit organization focused on raising awareness of Concord’s African, African American, and antislavery history from the 17th through the 19th centuries. Their mission is to reveal the little known African American history of Concord and its regional and national importance. Their vision is to inspire conversation, expand understanding and contribute to a better society. Jen takes us on a deep dive into the lives of the family who owned this house and the work the museum does to remember them, giving us a richer, more complete picture of the Concord that the Alcotts knew. Learn more: https://www.robbinshouse.org/ Give: https://www.robbinshouse.org/donate/

    1h 9m
  6. Alcott for the Future

    EPISODE 6

    Alcott for the Future

    For over twenty years, the Louisa May Alcott Society has brought together Alcott scholars from around the world to discuss the work and relevance of Louisa May Alcott’s writing. The Society hosts panels and events at literature conferences and has been the center of Alcott study and scholarship, where ideas about her life and work are nurtured and grown. In this episode, we are joined by former and current Presidents of the Louisa May Alcott Society: Anne Phillips, Gregory Eiselen, and Marlowe Daly-Galeano, who will share with us the many ways in which the Louisa May Alcott Society preserves and promotes Alcott scholarship. Anne Phillips is Professor of English at Kansas State University. One of the founding members of the Alcott Society, she has served as Secretary and President of the organization. Along the way, with cherished colleagues, she has edited multiple books and special issues of journals devoted to the work and life of Louisa May Alcott. A highlight of her Alcott service was the opportunity during the Society's 10th anniversary to knock on the front door of Orchard House, be welcomed in by Louisa herself (Jan Turnquist), and take "Louisa's" guided tour of the Alcott home. Greg Eiselein is Professor of English and University Distinguished Teaching Scholar at Kansas State University, where he also serves as the Director of the Program in Cultural Studies. The author or editor of seven books, his research focuses on nineteenth-century U.S. literature and culture. He currently serves as Past President of the Louisa May Alcott Society. Marlowe Daly-Galeano is the director of the Center for Teaching and Learning at Lewis Clark State College. She also teaches American literature, writing, and interdisciplinary classes and serves as the faculty advisor for the Ambassador Honor Society. Her research interests include 19th-century American literature, inclusive pedagogy, book and print history, and the Alcott family. She is the current president of the Louisa May Alcott Society.

    1h 11m
See All Season 4 (6)

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About

Louisa May Alcott may be best known for the beloved book Little Women, but her story doesn’t begin or end with her famous novel. On Let Genius Burn, we separate the layers of Louisa’s life to learn more about who she really was--and all the ways her legacy continues to resonate today. We’ll explore the traumatic year of her childhood spent in an experimental utopian community, her service as a Civil War nurse, her final years of wealth and celebrity as a children’s author--and more intimate details and little-known stories of Louisa’s life. Instead of a retelling of Louisa May Alcott’s biography, each episode in the 8-part series examines Louisa's life through a different lens--Louisa as a celebrity, writer, activist, daughter, and more-- highlighting her complexity as a person, woman, and historical figure. Ahead of her time, Louisa railed against the limitations of her gender and fought for women’s suffrage. She craved literary greatness, but was weighed down by the financial needs of her family. Through writing scandalous Gothic thrillers, she found a way to voice her own inner turmoil. In the end, she achieved extraordinary financial success, but creative fulfillment remained elusive.We’ll examine all of this and more on Let Genius Burn. Find more on Instagram and Facebook @letgeniusburn or at letgeniusburn.com. 

Information

  • Creator
    Jamie Burgess & Jill Fuller
  • Episodes
    35
  • Seasons
    4
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2025 Let Genius Burn
  • Show Website
    Let Genius Burn