Super Special: A Chat With Flora Fraser (author of Pretty Young Rebel: The Life of Flora MacDonald)

This week, I’m sharing my chat with author Flora Fraser about her newest historical biography: Pretty Young Rebel: The Life of Flora Macdonald.

Flora Macdonald was a Scottish woman who lived in the 18th century, and kind of accidentally became a heroine of the Jacobite rebellion. As Flora Fraser discovered in her research, Macdonald’s life also included involvement in the American Revolution, and she and her family passed through parts of Atlantic Canada before she wound back up in Scotland.

Learn more about Flora Fraser and her work at florafraser.com 

“Pretty Young Rebel” is available everywhere, including through bookshop.org. Click here to buy a copy using the Vulgar History affiliate link.

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Get merch at http://vulgarhistory.store – use code TITSOUT for free U.S. shipping or TITSOUT10 for 10% off your order

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Introducing Thanks For Coming In

This week, we would like to introduce you to Thanks For Coming In, another podcast distributed by Realm.

Jamie McShane talks “Wednesday”, acting for the long haul, and that time a casting director didn’t mean to call him in!

About Jamie:

Jamie McShane stars in Tim Burton’s smash-hit Netflix series Wednesday. The show spins off the iconic Addams Family series, following Wednesday Addams (played by Jenna Ortega) and is written by Al Gough & Miles Millar. Jamie plays Sheriff Galpin, who has a vendetta against the Addams family.

Jamie is often recognized for his role as Eric O’Bannon in Netflix thriller Bloodline (from Damages creators Glenn Kessler, Daniel Zelman & Todd A. Kessler), starring alongside Ben Mendelsohn, Kyle Chandler and Sissy Spacek. He played the long-time friend and partner-in-crime of “Danny” (Mendelsohn).

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Super Special: A Chat With Joanna Hickson (author of The Queen’s Lady)

This week I got to talk with Joanna Hickson, author of seven books (so far!) about 15th-century English women, mostly from the Tudor era.

The occasion for our chat is the paperback release of her latest book, The Queen’s Lady, which is about a very interesting Tudor-era woman I’d never heard of before named Joan Vaux.

Keep up with Joanna and her books at twitter.com/joannahickson and facebook.com/joannahickson

You can buy a copy of The Queen’s Lady (or any of Joanna’s other books) at any bookseller near you, and/or by using the Vulgar History link at bookshop.org bookshop.org/a/1419/9780008305659

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Support Vulgar History on Patreon

Get merch at http://vulgarhistory.store – use code TITSOUT for free U.S. shipping or TITSOUT10 for 10% off your order

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Vulgar History is an affiliate of Bookshop.org, which means that a small percentage of any books you click through and purchase will come back to Vulgar History as a commission. Use this link to shop there and support Vulgar History.

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Super Special: So This Asshole: Charles Dickens

A special treat for you! This episode of used to only live behind the paywall on Patreon, but Charles Dickens was simply too much of a dirtbag to keep the story from you all.

** Note that this was originally recorded in December 2021, for Patreon, so some of the chit-chat is that of a younger me, so long ago, so bear that in mind. **

If you’d like to hear me talk about more terrible men from history, you can subscribe to my Patreon at the $5/month level! You can join up here: patreon.com/annfosterwriter

And you can learn more about Catherine Hogarth Dickens in the book The Other Dickens by Lillian Nayder

Vulgar History is an affiliate of Bookshop.org, which means that a small percentage of any books you click through and purchase will come back to Vulgar History as a commission. Use this link to shop there and support Vulgar History.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tits Out Festive Holiday Spectacular: Doña Gracia Nasi

Doña Gracia Nasi was born in Portugal to Spanish parents, then because of the whole Reconquista and Inquisition scenarios, wound up in Antwerp, Venice, and then Istanbul. She ran a wildly impressive banking company, inherited a pepper empire, and used her connections to help save other Jewish people from persecution. Along the way, she crossed paths with a truly impressive number of previous Vulgar History heroines.

Discussion of antisemitism 5:27 – 18:03

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Podcasts to learn more about Gracia and about Jewish history:

A Deeper Conversation: The Podcast for Jewish Women

The Jewish Story

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Support Vulgar History on Patreon

Get merch at http://vulgarhistory.store – use code TITSOUT for free U.S. shipping or TITSOUT10 for 10% off your order

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References:

https://jewishmuseum.org.uk/2019/01/31/jews-money-myth/

https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/nasi-dona-gracia

https://mjhnyc.org/blog/a-righteous-woman-dona-gracia-mendes-nasi/

https://headstuff.org/culture/history/terrible-people-from-history/gracia-mendes-nasi-renaissance-businesswoman/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gracia_Mendes_Nasi

https://www.etzion.org.il/en/halakha/pogroms-1391-spain

https://aish.com/dona-gracia-nasi-the-spanish-inquisitions-underground-railroad/

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Vulgar History is an affiliate of Bookshop.org, which means that a small percentage of any books you click through and purchase will come back to Vulgar History as a commission. Use this link to shop there and support Vulgar History.

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39: Zheng Yi Sao (aka Shi Yang aka Ching Shih)

It’s the internationale season finale and we’re going out with a PIRATE STORY!!! Zheng Yi Sao aka Shi Yang aka Ching Shih was the most successful pirate of all time. Not just the most successful lady pirate: The Most Successful Pirate Of All Time (All Gender). Hers is a story of success after success and honestly that’s refreshing after all that some of the other women this season had to put up with.

Recommended podcasts to learn more about Asian history:

With Chinese Characteristics podcast hosted by Natalie and Cherrie

Asian American History 101 podcast hosted by Gen and Ted

References:

You’re Dead To Me podcast featuring Professor Ronald C. Po

Pirate Women: the princesses, prostitutes, and privateers who ruled the seven seas by Laura Sook Duncombe

Pirates and Privateers article by Tanner Price

Atlas obscure article by Urvida Banerji

Article on Sixth Tone by Xueting Christine Ni

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Support Vulgar History on Patreon

Get merch at http://vulgarhistory.store – use code TITSOUT for free U.S. shipping or TITSOUT10 for 10% off your order

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Vulgar History is an affiliate of Bookshop.org, which means that a small percentage of any books you click through and purchase will come back to Vulgar History as a commission. Use this link to shop there and support Vulgar History.

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38: Empress Dowager Cixi, part two

After part one laid a lot of track, part two is just all engines go as we look at the subsequent forty-seven years. There were two cult-based rebellions! Three emperors, all chosen by her! A marble boat! A person named Wild Fox Kang! Poisonings! Illnesses! Fleeing in a mule cart! She kept trying to retire but they kept sucking her back in! Also please note: PANTS.

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Recommended podcasts to learn more about Asian history:

Asian American History 101

With Chinese Characteristics

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Support Vulgar History on Patreon

Get merch at http://vulgarhistory.store – use code TITSOUT for free U.S. shipping or TITSOUT10 for 10% off your order

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References:

Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern China by Jung Chang

Women In World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia

Vulgar History is an affiliate of Bookshop.org, which means that a small percentage of any books you click through and purchase will come back to Vulgar History as a commission. Use this link to shop there and support Vulgar History.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices