Long may she reign

China has had many influential and ambitious Empresses in its history, such as Empress Wu, but Zhao Feiyan certainly gives them all a run for their money. Zhao Feiyan was born into a relatively poor family, but due to her talent as a dancer, she was able to get the attention of the emperor, and from there, hijinx ensued. Join me on today’s episode to learn about China’s most un

As a hardcore Swiftie, I was elated when I found out that Taylor Swift had a new song named after Clara Bow, and I thought, what better time to help people who may not know her story get to know her better? Clara was born desperately poor in early 1900s New York and suffered from a bad home life with an alcoholic father and a mentally ill mother. However, by the time she was a teen

If you have not heard of Arsinoe II, you are missing out on a great story. Arsinoe started out as the daughter of the first Ptolemaic pharaoh of Egypt and, through her own grit, determination and political savvy, managed to survive the disastrous political consequences of her first husband's death and come back to her home country as its queen. Join me in learning about the women w

Killers of the Flower Moon has brought the world's attention to one of the most vile murder cases in American history, and at the center of it all was Mollie Kyle-Burkhart. Mollie would have grown up in the traditional way of her Osage ancestors, but by the time she was an adult, her family was wealthy, and she lived in a big home with white servants and with a white husband. M

If I had an award to give out for the messiest Queen of England, I’m sure Isabella of Angoulême would be in the running. Isabella started out as a young child heiress in France and had the unfortunate experience of being married to bad King John. It gets worse from there. Come join me this week to hear her crazy story. Bibliography Rebecca Starr Brown. “A Legacy of Destructi

Welcome to the second special episode of black history month, where we will be discussing one of the South's wealthiest black women, Amanda America Dickson. Amanda, like many mixed people in the South before the Civil War, was a product of an assault, but unlike most mixed-race children, she was raised in white society. She would go on to inherit her father's vast estate and become

Happy Black History Month everybody. To kick off this month I wanted to start with a story of one of my favourite African queens Yaa Asantewaa. Yaa Asantewaa was not born to be a leader but when her brother appointed her to the important position of queen mother it thrusted her into a world of complicated politics and a war against the British. Today she’s remembered in the moder

Very recently, I’ve become obsessed with the HBO TV show the Gilded Age and it has led me to a new appreciation for this time. And what a better way to explore it, then to talk about the queen bee of the Gilded Age Caroline Astor. Caroline set the standard for gilded age New York society and she had to be petty to keep society the way she thought it ought to run. Join me on my se

Malinche’s name is synonymous with betrayal. She has been called all sorts of names throughout history, but does she really deserve such a bad reputation? Malinche was a slave girl sold to the Spanish as they arrived in Mexico, and when they realized she had a talent for languages, she was an instrumental tool in the takedown of the Aztec empire. Malinche was lucky to have a dece

Many of you know my deep love for my birthday twin Queen Claude of France but have you heard of Claude’s little sister Renee? Renee had a turbulent life from almost the second she was born from the death of her parents to her disinheritance at a young age. Renee also lived at the height of the religious wars in France and was a princess caught between worlds and it almost cost he