Significant Others

Team Coco

Did you know that the novel "Lolita" would not exist if Vladimir Nabokov’s wife hadn’t stopped her husband from burning the manuscript? Or that Gandhi learned his legendary method of passive resistance from his wife? Or that the person responsible for Maya Angelou’s genre-defining memoir was her good friend James Baldwin? Significant Others is a narrated, nonfiction podcast about folks just beyond the spotlight of history. Each episode tells the story of a talented, difficult and little-known individual who altered the destiny of their better-known partner, child, sibling, or friend, and impacted the world they left behind. Narrated and written by Liza Powel O’Brien and featuring the voices of Megan Mullally, Nick Offerman, Jameela Jamil, Rita Wilson, Timothy Olyphant, Lisa Kudrow and many more.

10 Listeners

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Top 10 Significant Others Episodes

Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best Significant Others episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to Significant Others for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite Significant Others episode by adding your comments to the episode page.

Esther Perel on The Tolstoys

Significant Others

07/21/22 • 22 min

World-renowned psychotherapist Esther Perel joins Liza to discuss the dynamic between Leo and Sophia Tolstoy and whether the issues Sophia faced were a product of the times she lived in.

This bonus episode is a discussion of Episode 1 of Significant Others, "Countess Sophia Tolstoy." Listen to it here.

6 Listeners

Kasturba Gandhi

Significant Others

07/27/22 • 50 min

Mohandas Gandhi helped India win independence from Britain through nonviolent resistance but little know that he credits the inspiration for his tactics to his wife, Kasturba. So, who was the wife of this renowned saint?

Starring Dipika Guha as Kasturba Gandhi and Samrat Chakrabarti as Mohandas Gandhi.

Source List:

The Woman Beside Gandhi: A Biography of Kasturba, Wife of the Mahatma, by Sita Kapadia

Gandhi on Women, by Madhu Kishwar, Economic and Political Weekly, vol. 20, no. 41

Why Mahatma Gandhi Said Kasturba Stood Above Him, Prabhash K Dutta, New Delhi, October 2, 2018

The Truth About Gandhi, The Harvard Crimson

Petty, Bad-Tempered Kasturba - What Gandhi Said While Courting Sarladevi and Esther Faerling, B.M. Bhalla, March 19, 2020

The Story of My Experiments With Truth, by Mohandas Karamchad Gandhi

MAHATMA, In Eight Volumes, by D.G. Tendulkar

Kasturba: A Biography, By B.M. Bhalla

Gandhi Was a Racist Who Forced Young Girls to Sleep in Bed With Him, by Mayukh Sen, December 3, 2015, Vice

Kasturba Gandhi, The Feisty Woman Whose Patience Inspired Gandhi's Call For Satyagraha, by Simrin Sirur, April 11, 2019, The Print

3 Listeners

Dipika Guha on the Gandhis

Significant Others

07/28/22 • 18 min

Playwright Dipika Guha joins Liza to give insight into the complicated relationship between her home country of India and Gandhi's legacy in this time of call-out culture.

3 Listeners

Countess Sophia Tolstoy

Significant Others

07/20/22 • 45 min

Leo Tolstoy is widely regarded as one of the greatest authors of all time. Yet, without his wife, Sophia Tolstoy, would the world have been gifted with such literary classics as War and Peace and Anna Karenina? Starring Megan Mullally as Countess Sophia Tolstoy and Nick Offerman as Leo Tolstoy.
Source List:
Tolstoy, A Biography by A.N. Wilson, 1988 WW Norton & Co
Song Without Words: The Photographs & Diaries of Countess Sophia Tolstoy by Leah Bendavid-Val, National Geographic Society
Leo Tolstoy, Diaries, Faber, Ed. R.F. Christian
Tolstoy, Woman and Death by David Holbrook, Farleigh Dickinson University Press
The Diaries of Sophia Tolstoy, Cathy Porter, Harper Collins

3 Listeners

Véra Nabokov

Significant Others

08/10/22 • 37 min

Vladimir Nabokov is best known for writing the highly controversial yet critically revered novel, Lolita. But the book might never have made it onto the shelves were it not for the other Nabokov—Vladimir's enigmatic and elusive wife, Véra.

Starring: D’Arcy Carden as Véra Nabokov and Dan Bucatinsky as Vladimir Nabokov

Source list:

Véra by Stacy Schiff

Letters to Véra by Vladimir Nabokov, Ed: Olga Voronina and Brian Boyd

Vladimir Nabokov, The Russian Years by Brian Boyd

Vladimir Nabokov, The American Years by Brian Boyd

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

Lectures on Literature by Vladimir Nabokov, Ed: Fredson Bowers

2 Listeners

Gala Dalí

Significant Others

03/27/24 • 44 min

Lover and muse to multiple artists, Gala notoriously spit on people she didn’t like—or worse. Her marriage to the renowned artist Salvador Dalí was as surreal as his paintings, which he signed with both of their names even though she never held a brush.

Starring Laura Ramoso as Gala Dalí and José Arroyo as Salvador Dalí

Also featuring Stephen K. Amos, Nigel Daly, Neve O’Brien, and Tavis Doucette

Source List:

Biography.com, The Surreal Romance of Salvador and Gala Dalí

The Paris Review, When Your Muse is Also a Demonic Dominatrix

The Art Story, Gala Dalí: Russian-Spanish Art Patron and Muse

Wikipedia, Gala Dalí

Fahrenheit Magazine, Anna María and Salvador Dalí, Different Paths for the Same Blood

The Dalí Org, Gala Dalí

Poetry Foundation, Paul Éluard

The Art Story, Salvador Dalí

Briannica, Salvador Dalí

El País, Dalí and Lorca’s Games of Seduction

Gazette du Bon Ton, The Surreal Life of Salvador Dalí

Art Hive, Love Story in Pictures: Salvador Dalí and Gala

Time, Salvador Dalí

The New York Times, Gala Dalí’s Life Wasn’t Quite Surreal, but It Was Pretty Strange

Yang Gallery, Dalí & Gala: The Love Story

2 Listeners

Mary Lincoln

Significant Others

08/03/22 • 39 min

Mary Lincoln is the First Lady everyone loves to hate. But without her, would Abe Lincoln even have been president in the first place? Theirs is a love story that contains many tragedies—and a key to how America became the country it is today.
Starring: Rita Wilson as Mary Lincoln and Timothy Olyphant as Abraham Lincoln. Also featuring Matt Gourley and Mike Sweeney.

Source List:

Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, by Doris Kearns Goodwin

Miller Center, The University of Virginia, www.millercenter.org

The Lincolns: Portrait of a Marriage, by Daniel Mark Epstein

Mary Todd Lincoln: A Biography, by Jean H. Baker

“Lincoln’s Looks Never Hindered His Approach to Life or Politics,” by Susan Bell, USC News

“Mary Todd Lincoln, Patient at Bellevue Place, Batavia.” by Rodney A. Ross., Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society

“Acts of Remembrance: Mary Todd Lincoln and Her Husband’s Memory.” by Jennifer L. Bach, Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association

“New Mary Lincoln Letter Discovered.” by Jason Emerson, Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society

2 Listeners

Bayard Rustin

Significant Others

02/21/24 • 48 min

The architect of the March on Washington and co-author of Dr. King’s memoir was a mentor to the great civil rights martyr. But he was nearly hidden from history—largely by choice.

Starring: J. Holtham as Bayard Rustin and Anthony Obi as Martin Luther King, Jr.

Also featuring: Miles Grose, Matt Gourley, and Jesse Thorn.

Source List:

The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute, Bayard Rustin, To Bayard Rustin, Glenn E. Smiley, From Bayard Rustin, Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., Address at NAACP Mass Rally for Civil Rights

Facing History & Ourselves, Brother Outsider: Remembering Gay Civil Rights Leader Bayard Rustin

Lambda Legal, 67 Years Later, Bayard Rustin’s California Arrest and Jail Time Have Been Pardoned

Jewish News Syndicate, Bayard Rustin (1912-1987)

Bill of Rights Institute, Bayard Rustin, Nonviolence vs. Jim Crow, 1942

PBS.org., Who Designed the March on Washington?

The Weekly Challenger, The FBI Plot to Bring Down the Gay Man Behind the March on Washington

Making Gay History, Bayard Rustin

Washington Blade, Looking Back: 50 Years of the Blade

The Washington Post, Bayard Rustin, Organizer of the March on Washington, Was Crucial to the Movement, In ‘I Must Resist,’ Bayard Rustin Lived a Life with No Apologies

Montgomery Advertiser, 21, 22, 23, & 24 February 1956

Cross Country Solidarity, The Montgomery Bus Boycott: The Full Story

LA Times, Glenn Smiley; Advised King on Nonviolence

The Guardian, When Martin Luther King Gave Up His Guns

Why a Gay, Black Civil Rights Hero Opposed Affirmative Action

Malcolm X and Bayard Rustin Debate on WBAI

CivilRights.org, Bayard Rustin and the Presidential Medal of Freedom: A Perfect Fit

Yale Law Schoo...

1 Listener

Eileen Blair

Significant Others

03/20/24 • 37 min

George Orwell has never been accused of being a feminist. And yet his wife Eileen left her mark on his most important works.

Starring Sally Drexler as Eileen Blair and Nigel Daly as George Orwell

Also featuring: Ben Partridge, Luke Millington-Drake, Thom Wickes, Amelia Chappelow, and Colin Anderson.

Source List:

The Guardian, Looking for Eileen: how George Orwell wrote his wife out of his story

The New York Times, One Biography Questions Orwell’s Image, and Another Brings His First Wife Into Focus

New Humanist, Eric, Eileen and Norah

The American Scholar, Down and Out

The Guardian, Orwell by DJ Taylor Review - A Very English Socialist

The Orwell Foundation, Remembering Eileen: An Interview with George Orwell’s Son, Richard Blair

The New York Times, How ‘Orwellian’ Became an All-Purpose Insult

Online Etymology Dictionary, Orwellian

The Sydney Morning Herald, The Mysterious Absence of George Orwell’s First Wife

The Guardian, Another Piece of the Puzzle

The Orwell Society, Eileen - and Orwell’s Shifting Attitudes on Gender Issues

The New Yorker, Honest, Decent, Wrong

The Article, In Defense of George Orwell

1 Listener

Peggy Shippen

Significant Others

02/14/24 • 54 min

Benedict Arnold is famous for betraying his country–but it was his wife who made the treason possible.

Starring: Susan Yeagley as Peggy Shippen and Andy Richter as Benedict Arnold. Also featuring: Luke Millington-Drake, Jim O’Heir, Matt Gourley, and Roman Mars.

Show notes:

John Andre sketch of Peggy Shippen

Source List:

American Battlefield Trust, Peggy Shippen, 10 Facts: Benedict Arnold and Peggy Shippen, Benedict Arnold

History.com, Benedict Arnold

New York Historical Society, Life Story: Margaret “Peggy” Shippen Arnold

National Endowment for the Humanities, Love and the Revolution

Massachusetts Historical Society, Letters from John Adams to Abigail Adams

NPS.gov, Benedict Arnold

History.com, Why Benedict Arnold Tried to Capture Quebec

The George Washington Presidential Library, Joseph Reed

Medium.com, The Highest-paid Spy in the American Revolution