Memories of Madison County

The final episode of Season Two is Women Who Run With the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Ph.D. The book uses fairy tales to teach women more about how they're made and what they might've come here to do. 

It stresses the importance of using intuition, finding your pack and letting go of the ways society has taught us how to act. This podcast doesn't cover every aspect or story in the book but does give a general overview. However, it should be required reading for women everywhere who want to reconnect with their own wild nature. 

In our latest episode, Kitty tells the story of Fannie Lou Hamer, a voting rights activist and community organizer, from the award- winning biography, This Little Light of Mine by Kay Mills. 

Her story begins in Mississippi and takes plenty of twists and turns but also terrible moments where she faced police brutality and was beaten in a jail cell. She risked her health and safety to change a system that suppressed Black voters with poll taxes, exams and other impediments. For years, Hamer served as a role model for her community despite threats, physical harm and harassment.

Her speaking and singing abilities drew crowds and rallied communities to action. She ran for a seat in the U.S. Senate and later co-founded the National Women's Political Caucus whose aim was to recruit and train women to run for political office. 

We were utterly inspired by Fannie Lou Hamer's story and hope you are, too. 

Sister Rosetta Tharpe was born in Cotton Plant, Ark., to a ukelele playing mother who sang in the Pentecostal church. By the time Rosetta was 5 years old, she was playing guitar and singing in front of the congregation. The church influenced her deft playing style and she would grow up and share her talents across the globe. This oft-overlooked singer and electric guitarist influenced artists from Johnny Cash to Eric Clapton to Little Richard and the Rolling Stones. She truly is the godmother of rock and roll.

This podcast episode is based on the biography by Gayle Wald and tells Rosetta's story. 

In the midst of protests, coronavirus, and whatever else 2020 plans to throw in the mix, we are discussing Becoming, the autobiography of Michelle Obama in this week's episode.

This is the most current biography topic we've tried on the podcast, and we like the way it turned out. If you haven't already read it, Michelle's book is beautifully written, authentic and one thousand percent inspiring.

We learned about her home life, her mother, the death of her father, how she felt about law school, how she met Barack and the road to becoming first lady. We hope you love it as much as we did.

This week, Kitty and Ellie continue their break from reading books and talk about some things that have happened in quarantine with MARRIAGE, the north nodes in astrology, diving into the self-help side of YouTube with “parts work” and other important life events.

Fun fact: They both cry a lil bit in this one.

It’s a more informal type of podcast episode, and we hope you like it.

Religion and the quest for something to believe in is the topic of this episode. We discuss the book, Post-Traumatic Church Syndrome by Reba Riley and her journey to “experience 30 religions before you turn 30.” As someone raised with strict beliefs, she felt burdened by her religious past while at the same time suffering from physical ailments with no diagnosed medical cause. Frustrated and confused, she decided to experience all that religion had to offer from the Amish to the Quaker.

Kitty and Ellie were raised in similarly religious households and found some solace in Riley’s quest. Kitty set up an interview with Riley but unforeseen circumstances prevented that from happening. However, Kitty and Ellie had plenty to say about the topic of religion as well as updates from quarantine life.

We hope you enjoy this episode!

The famous Nellie Bly was known primarily as a journalist, but in the novel, Nellie Bly: Daredevil. Reporter. Feminist, by Brooke Kroeger, we learn she was also an industrialist, world traveler, and a woman of many “firsts.” Her story began in 1864 in Pennsylvania and continued to writing for the Pittsburgh Dispatch, the New York World, for Joseph Pulitzer, and more. At a time when hardly any reporter had a byline, she was frequently on the front page with her name in the actual headline. 

Most well known for her undercover stint in a “madhouse” or lunatic asylum, she was also known for traversing the globe in under 80 days, and her many interviews with important figures in history, such as Susan B. Anthony and Emma Goldman. She was doing gonzo journalism long before Hunter S. Thompson.

She also took over her husband’s manufacturing company after his death and became the first woman to design, manufacture and market the first successful steel barrel in the U.S.

She frequently championed the underprivileged, especially if they were women or orphaned children. She had her flaws, but she commanded attention everywhere she went and became a pivotal figure in history in the early 1900s.

The Bridges of Madison County was an iconic story written by Robert Waller, however, few people know about the woman behind the story, Jana St. James. She could be the woman behind it. Maybe. Or she could be a woman who had a brief affair with Waller and wanted to capitalize on his fame. You decide. 

In the story, St. James is a naive college student who meets Waller in the Student Union and starts taking guitar lessons from him. She has feelings but later discovers he is married. She details their short-lived affair in her book Memories of Madison County. Is this book total fluff? Yes, but we enjoyed picking it apart just the same. 

So, this episode is a departure from the normal biography podcast, however, trauma is a topic that affects everyone, and some might argue, a disproportionate number of women. 

The book is "The Body Keeps the Score" by Bessel Van Der Kolk. And we discuss some of the interesting ways the body and mind respond to trauma. Why can you talk about trauma either very dispassionately or not at all? The brain has the answer. The body can re-experience trauma, too. 

This book also goes into the long term effects of domestic violence, the 9/11 attacks and the PTSD suffered by war veterans and others. We also throw in some thoughts on handling vulnerability from Brene Brown. 

This episode is different from others. In early February, Kitty's mother passed away and her funeral was held on Valentine's Day. In this podcast, we talk about Kitty's mom, how it feels to lose a parent (or two) and lots of other things like funeral food, disappointing eulogies and childhood trauma (more on that in the next episode).

If you have thoughts on grief or losing a parent or general well wishes, feel free to leave them on our social media. Also, visit our website for a lovely "eulogy" Kitty wrote about her mother. These words could have been said at her funeral, and though they weren't, those who knew her felt all of this and more in their hearts.