Joanna of Naples (Ann’s Version)

April 2, 2025

Joanna of Naples (1326-1382) was Queen of Naples, Jerusalem, and Sicily for thirty action-packed and highly scandilicious years. This story has it all: kidnappings! Revenge murders! Evil popes! Evil husbands! Being trapped in an iron cage for fourteen years! The black plague!

References:

Queens of Infamy: Joanna of Naples by Anne Theriault on Longreads

The Lady Queen: The Notorious Reign of Joanna I, Queen of Naples, Jerusalem, and Sicily by Nancy Goldstone

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Canadian Heritage Minute(s): Anahareo aka Gertrude Bernard

March 28, 2025

Anahareo, also known as Gertrude Bernard, was a Canadian writer, animal rights activist and conservationist of Algonquin and Mohawk ancestry. She also invented having a bob with bangs.

Canadians: get info on strategic voting for the federal election at SmartVoting.ca

Buy a copy of Anahareo’s book Devil in Deerskins: My Life With Grey Owl

Info on Grey Owl’s cabin in Prince Albert National Park in Saskatchewan

References:

Anahareo, by Alison Wick

Anahareo (Wikipedia)

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Anne, Queen of Great Britain (Ann’s Version)

March 26, 2025

Anne I (1665 – 1714), best known as the main character of the movie The Favourite, was Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland and then of Great Britain and Ireland for twelve years. Her life story is a gossip buffet of rivalry, death, and resiliency. But how will she score on the scandilicious scale??

References:

Queen Anne: Politics and Passion by Anne Somerset

The Favourite: The Life of Sarah Churchill and the History Behind the Major Motion Picture by Ophelia Field

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Canadian Heritage Minute(s): Mona Parsons

March 21, 2025

I’m back and as Canadian as ever, ready to share the nonstop twists and turns of the story of Mona Parsons! Featuring: my hometown, and maybe my ancestor? And also, hard launching What’shisface, my boyfriend! Elbows up, y’all.

Learn more about Mona Parsons at monaparsons.ca

Get a copy of Mona Parsons: From Privilege to Prison, From Nova Scotia to Nazi Europe by Andria Hill-Lehr

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Eugénie of France, the Rebel Empress (with Nancy Goldstone)

March 19, 2025

Eugénie of France was one of the most influential and glamorous women in nineteenth-century Europe. Nancy Goldstone’s new book Rebel Empresses explores Eugénie’s efforts to rule amid the scandal, intrigue, tragedy, and violence of their era.

Order a copy of Nancy Goldstone’s book The Rebel Empresses: Elisabeth of Austria and Eugénie of France, Power and Glamour in the Struggle for Europe.

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Canadian Heritage Minutes: Viola Desmond

March 13, 2025

Time to learn about Canadian history! In this first Canadian Heritage Minute(s) we learn about:

Why Canada has united in rage-patriotism
What “elbows up” means
And, most importantly, the story of iconic Canadian heroine Viola Desmond!

References:

Canadian History Ehx episode about Viola Desmond

‘Elbows up’ rallying cry evokes memories of Mr. Hockey by Alastair Steele, CBC

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What’s The Real Story of Malinalli? (with Veronica Chapa)

March 12, 2025

A real-life historical figure, the woman known as Malinalli, Malintzin, La Malinche and Doña Marina is best known as the Nahua interpreter who helped Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés communicate with the native people of Mexico. But she was a whole person long before he arrived.

Mexican-American author Veronica Chapa has retold her story in the new novel Malinalli, and joins us to talk about the real history that inspired her book.

Buy a copy of Malinalli by Veronica Chapa.

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Fagin the Thief: Live from Minneapolis with Allison Epstein!

March 10, 2025

Here’s a recording of the event that I did last week in Minneapolis at Magers & Quinn booksellers with Allison Epstein! You may recognize a familiar voice from the audience, which is Minneapolis local and Vulgar History icon Lana Wood Johnson! Yes, this is the event where Lana, Allison and I all met each other in person for the FIRST TIME in front of twenty other people!

Buy a copy of Fagin the Thief here!

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Juana of Castile (Ann’s Version)

March 5, 2025

Juana I of Castile (1479-1555) was the third child of Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon. She’s remembered now for being “Juana La Loca/Juana The Mad” but, in fact, that reputation was just part of a larger scheme that found her caught between her ambitious and terrible husband and her ambitious and terrible father.

References:

Sister Queens: The Noble, Tragic Lives of Katherine of Aragon and Juana, Queen of Castile by Julia Fox

Juana I: Legitimacy and Conflict in Sixteenth-Century Castile by Gillian B. Fleming

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Introducing: Fear Daily

February 28, 2025

Greetings Vulgar History listeners! We’re thrilled to bring you an episode of another show we hope you’ll enjoy: Fear Daily!

Fear Daily takes you into the shadows of the past, unearthing the 1990’s most terrifying tales of monsters, madness, and life after death. Join us as we explore the ghost stories and supernatural encounters left on an old online bulletin board that continues to operate somewhere in an unknown part of the Pennsylvania Rust Belt – a time capsule of society’s greatest fears.

Written by Brennan Storr, creator of The Ghost Story Guys, and hosted by Brandon Schexnayder, creator of Southern Gothic… Fear Daily is guaranteed to be the stuff of nightmares.

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