Lady Science Podcast

For Pride Month, the hosts talk about queer physicians Sara Josephine Baker and Louise Pearce and their polyamorous relationship with novelist Ida A. R. Wylie. They also discuss the Heterdoxy, a feminist club in Greenwich Village, and the importance of queer community. For show notes and transcripts, visit www.ladyscience.com/podcast.

This is part one of two of a special Dungeons and Dragons campaign set in a Lady Science world, called Herbarium Heist. Joined by special guests, Stephen McGann from “Call the Mdiwife,” Alexis Pedrick from Distillations Podcast, and Jessica Lynn Parsons from “The Dungeon Run,” your hosts embark on a mission to save London from a cholera epidemic. For credits and transcripts, visit www.ladyscience.com

In this episode, the hosts talk about open source software and how its seemingly liberal ethos can perpetuate some of mainstream tech’s same gender and racial biases. STS and communications scholar Christina Dunbar-Hester joins in to talk about her book Hacking Diversity and how some open source advocates are attempting to make their communities more inclusive. For show notes and transcripts, visit www.ladyscience.com/podcast.

The hosts dive into the long history of the Anatomical Venus, a three-dimensional life-sized dissectable female wax model. They discuss its origins in the Middle Ages and the lasting influence it has had on biological theories about race. Amanda Mahoney, curator of the Dittrick Medical History Center and Museum at at Case Western Reserve University, joins into to talk about the ethical considerations curators need to take into account in today’s museums. For show notes and transcripts, visit www.ladyscience.com/podcast.history-anatomical-venus-wax-anatomy.

00:59:27

Hosts: Anna Reser, Leila McNeill, and Rebecca Ortenberg

Producer: Leila McNeill

Music: Careful! by the Zombie Dandies

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In this episode, the hosts dive into science’s search for differences in male and female brains, attempting to uncover women’s inferiority. And to end the episode on a positive note, in lieu of One Annoying Thing the hosts share One Delightful Thing that is helping them get through the dark times.

Show Notes

Male and Female Brain Differences - Must We Keep Doing This? by Dean Burnett

Sexual Science: The Victorian Construction of Motherhood by Cynthia Eagle Russett

Inferior: How Science Got Women Wrong - and the New Research That’s Rewriting the Story by Angela Saini

Sorry, Feminists, Men Are Better at Scrabble by Heather MacDonald

Blair Braverman

‘Monopoly Man’ returns to Google CEO hearing by Emily Birnbaum

GRITTY

Transcript

Transcribed by Rev.com

Rebecca: Welcome to Episode 15 of the Lady Science podcast. This podcast is a monthly deep dive on topics centered on women and gender in the history and popular culture of science. With you every month are the editors of Lady Science magazine.

Anna: I'm Anna Reser, co-founder and co-editor in chief of Lady Science. I'm a writer, editor, and PhD student studying 20th century American culture and the history of the American space program in the 1960s.

Leila: I'm Leila McNeill, the other founder and editor in chief of Lady Science. I'm a historian of science and freelance writer with words in various places on the internet. I'm currently a regular writer on women in the history of science at Smithsonianmag.com.

Rebecca: And I'm Rebecca Ortenberg, Lady Science's managing editor. When I'm not working with the Lady Science team, I can be found writing about museums and public history around the internet and managing social media for the Science History Institute in Philadelphia. Before we dive into the episode, we’ve got a little bit of housekeeping to do. By the time this episode drops, we will have published the first essay in our blog series about technology, feminism, and libraries. And over the next few weeks, we're going to be sharing three more essays that are all about information technology and the library and all that good stuff. So be sure to check those out, and I hope you all enjoy our little end of year library extravaganza.

Leila: I also want to thank everyone who's been tweeting their support and comments about the show. We don't advertise the show anywhere, so every time you spread the word, you help us get new listeners. So if you do like the show, we want to ask that you please rate and review us on iTunes. That really helps us get bumped up on iTunes, whatever algorithm that they've got going on.

Leila: From now until the January episode, if you review us on iTunes, you'll be entered into a raffle to win a Lady Science tote bag with the logo of your choice. We have the oil lamp logo and the burning bra logo. You can see both of those on our website donation page at ladyscience.com/donate. We'll announce the winner on the January episode. We did this back in the Spring, I think, so we'll do it like that. We'll just announce it on the episode. So you'll actually have to listen in to the January episode to know if you won. But anyway, yes, please, please get to your listening device and subscribe on wherever you get your podcasts and then also review us and rate us on iTunes, please.

Rebecca: Yay! Onto the episode, today we're going to talk about braaaaaiiiiins. Okay. But for real, we're specifically today exploring the study of “male and female brains” — please imagine my air quotes) — and the sexual science that just won't die. So scientists have been studying this idea of male and female brains for centuries. For whatever reason, researchers just keep coming back to it and trying to show once and for all that women are inferior to men.

Anna: So we were interested in ...