Dead Ladies Show Podcast

The Dead Ladies Show is a series of entertaining and inspiring talks about women who achieved amazing things against all odds, presented live in Berlin. This podcast is based on that series. Because women's history is everyone's history. In this episode: FRANKENFRAUEN! Our four-part series of historic women with connections to the iconic gothic novel Frankenstein, in celebration of its centenary in 2018. Part Three: Bard College Berlin's Laura Scuriatti presents the amazing Ada Lovelace. Daughter of Shelley-pal Lord Byron, Ada Lovelace was a brilliant mathematician who is considered the first computer programmer. See images of Ada and the computer-precursors she worked with in our show notes: deadladiesshow.com/2018/12/12/podcast-17-ada-lovelace/ Check out the rest of our FRANKENFRAUEN series: Mary Wollstonecraft (philosopher and proto-feminist, also Mary Shelley’s mom), Frankenstein author Mary Shelley, and Elsa Lanchester (bohemian performer and character actor who knew everyone and appears as the Bride of Frankenstein in the 1935 film of the same name). Follow us on social media @deadladiesshow and please share, rate, and review the show as it helps others to find our feminist women's history podcast The Dead Ladies Show was founded by Florian Duijsens and Katy Derbyshire. The podcast is created, produced, edited, and presented by Susan Stone. We now have a Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/deadladiesshowpodcast

This episode was recorded at the second-ever PodFest Berlin, a local two-day event full of workshops, networking, free ice cream, and live tapings from podcasts in various languages, including one from us.

Dead Ladies Show co-founder Katy Derbyshire and podcast producer/host Susan Stone were there for a mini DLS, and took turns hosting and presenting bilingually in German and English in front of a small but perfectly formed audience.

In this episode, we hear Susan tell the story of Virginia Andrews. Better known as V.C. Andrews, this blockbusting American author probably launched the sexual curiosities of generations of teens and pre-teens — for better or worse. Her psychological horror/romance books, starting with 1979’s best-selling Flowers in the Attic, were banned in school districts and libraries, but earned millions internationally. The tale of children held captive by an evil grandmother was sadly somewhat mirrored in Virginia’s own reclusive, highly controlled life.

Though she was disabled by a medical condition from her teen years on, Virginia supported her family through her artwork and writing. After her death, a prolific ghostwriter was appointed to continue books under her name, but her legacy really endures on the strength of her original seven bestsellers, which merged classic fairy tale themes with contemporary issues of trauma and abuse.

Find out more about Virginia Andrews and her work on our show notes page here: https://deadladiesshow.com/2022/07/23/podcast-55-virginia-andrews/

Our theme music is “Little Lily Swing” by Tri-Tachyon.

Thanks for listening! We’ll be back with a new episode next month.

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The Dead Ladies Show is a series of entertaining and inspiring talks about women who achieved amazing things against all odds, presented live in Berlin and beyond. This podcast is based on that series. Because women's history is everyone's history.

The Dead Ladies Show was founded by Florian Duijsens and Katy Derbyshire.

The podcast is created, produced, edited, and presented by Susan Stone.

Don’t forget, we have a Patreon! Thanks to all of our current supporters! Please consider supporting our transcripts project and our ongoing work: www.patreon.com/deadladiesshowpodcast

If you prefer to make a one-time donation, here’s the link: paypal.me/dlspodcast

In this episode, translator Laura Radosh introduces us to the fascinating and troubled writer Djuna Barnes. The journalist, novelist, and artist mixed with everyone from James Joyce to Peggy Guggenheim, and was at the center of Bohemian life in 1920s New York and Paris, though perhaps not quite as much as she would like. Best known (if at all) for her modernist novel “Nightwood,” Djuna once called herself ''the most famous unknown in the world.''

DLS co-founder Florian Duijsens joins producer/host Susan Stone to muse about Djuna and her circle of modernist Dead Ladies.

Find out more about Djuna and her work, and see her polka-dot portrait here: https://deadladiesshow.com/2023/05/11/podcast-63-djuna-barnes

Djuna Barnes intersects with a great number of our previously presented Dead Ladies, including:

photographer Berenice Abbott (who took the above mentioned portrait): https://deadladiesshow.com/2023/01/20/podcast-59-berenice-abbott/

and

dadaist Elsa von Freytag Loringhoven: https://deadladiesshow.com/2021/10/16/podcast-47-elsa-von-freytag-loringhoven/

Here’s the documentary Laura cited where you can see Natalie Barney’s Parisian home and garden with its Temple of Friendship: https://youtu.be/ihzoLrUkNoc

The documentary we mentioned is “Paris Was a Woman” by Greta Schiller

https://jezebelproductions.org/paris-was-a-woman/

And Will Self’s radio segment on “Nightwood” can be found here: https://youtu.be/5cy3-uOTTfE

Our theme music is “Little Lily Swing” by Tri-Tachyon.

Want to suggest a Dead Lady for us? Drop us a line to [email protected] or tell us on social media @deadladiesshow

If you’d like to get advance tickets for our May show in Berlin they are here:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/dead-ladies-show-34-tickets-632679640837

DLS NYC tickets can be purchased here:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/dead-ladies-show-nyc-no-23-tickets-628717840987

Thanks for listening! We’ll be back with a new episode next month.

****

The Dead Ladies Show is a series of entertaining and inspiring talks about women who achieved amazing things against all odds, presented live in Berlin and beyond. This podcast is based on that series. Because women's history is everyone's history.

The Dead Ladies Show was founded by Florian Duijsens and Katy Derbyshire.

The podcast is created, produced, edited, and presented by Susan Stone.

Don’t forget, we have a Patreon! Thanks to all of our current supporters! Please consider supporting our transcripts project and our ongoing work: www.patreon.com/deadladiesshowpodcast

Episode 29 presents a giant of the Harlem Renaissance: writer, anthropologist and zombie finder Zora Neale Hurston! Zora may be best known for her 1937 novel “Their Eyes Were Watching God,” but her love of adventure and willingness to re-write her own biography are sure to delight fans old and new. Writer and scholar Fatin Abbas tells Zora’s tale from the stage in ACUD, and Dead Ladies Show co-founder Katy Derbyshire joins podcast producer & presenter Susan Stone to put things in motion. We’ll have photos and links so you can learn more about this African American great at our website: https://deadladiesshow.com/2020/01/15/podcast-28-zora-neale-hurston Follow us on social media @deadladiesshow and please share, rate, and review the show as it helps others to find our feminist women's history podcast! **** The Dead Ladies Show is a series of entertaining and inspiring talks about women who achieved amazing things against all odds, presented live in Berlin and beyond. This podcast is based on that series. Because women's history is everyone's history. The Dead Ladies Show was founded by Florian Duijsens and Katy Derbyshire. The podcast is created, produced, edited, and presented by Susan Stone. We now have a Patreon! Please consider supporting our transcripts project and our ongoing work: www.patreon.com/deadladiesshowpodcast If you prefer to make a one-time donation, here’s the link: paypal.me/dlspodcast

On Episode 27, we meet a Dead Lady Lepidopterist! Dead Ladies Show co-founder Florian Duijsens introduces us to Margaret Fountaine, an English explorer and naturalist who collected butterflies and loved love. Her exciting scientific life and world travels were well-known, but her romantic adventures were only revealed when Margaret’s copious diaries were read in 1978, 100 years after she first started them at age 15.

Dead Ladies Show co-founder Katy Derbyshire joins podcast producer & presenter Susan Stone to revel in Margaret’s lovely and at times heart-breaking tale, and to discuss how diaries open doors to the lives of women from the past.

Find photos of Margaret Fountaine and some lovely butterflies and more on our website: deadladiesshow.com/2019/11/14/podcast-27-margaret-fountaine

Follow us on social media @deadladiesshow and please share, rate, and review the show as it helps others to find our feminist women's history podcast!

****

The Dead Ladies Show is a series of entertaining and inspiring talks about women who achieved amazing things against all odds, presented live in Berlin and beyond. This podcast is based on that series. Because women's history is everyone's history.

The Dead Ladies Show was founded by Florian Duijsens and Katy Derbyshire. The podcast is created, produced, edited, and presented by Susan Stone.

We now have a Patreon! Please consider supporting our transcripts project and our ongoing work: www.patreon.com/deadladiesshowpodcast

If you prefer to make a one-time donation, here’s the link: paypal.me/dlspodcast