For centuries, midwives stood at the centre of birth, care, and women’s knowledge of their own bodies. They delivered generations into the world and passing wisdom from woman to woman long before medicine claimed authority over childbirth.

As Europe entered an age of fear and religious control, midwives were accused of crimes that mirrored their expertise, blamed for tragedy, and cast as threats to divine and medical order.

This bonus episode traces how women’s authority over birth was dismantled, how fear replaced trust, and how history rewrote care as crime.

CITATIONS:

• Historians as Demonologists: The Myth of the Midwife-witch, https://academic.oup.com/shm/article-abstract/3/1/1/1689119
• Healers and midwives accused of witchcraft (1563–1736), https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0260691723003209
• The Midwife-Witch on Trial: Historical Fact or Myth?, https://www.cjmrp.com/index.php/cjmrp/article/view/125
• Midwives in Health Sciences as a Sociocultural Phenomenon, https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9502592/
• Midwives and Healers in the European Witch Trials, https://imss.org/2019/12/a-note-from-the-collections-midwives-and-healers-in-the-european-witch-trials/

Anne of Cleves is remembered as Henry VIII’s least wanted wife, mocked for her appearance and dismissed as a mistake. But this episode looks beyond the insult to uncover the woman history misunderstood.

From her quiet upbringing in the Duchy of Cleves to her short and perilous marriage at the Tudor court, Anne navigated power, ego, and danger with extraordinary restraint. While other queens were destroyed, Anne survived, secured her independence, and outlived the king who rejected her.

CITATIONS:

• 
  The Six Wives of Henry VIII, https://archive.org/details/sixwivesofhenryv0000load_x6n7
• The Marrying of Anne of Cleves, https://archive.org/details/marryingofanneof0000warn
• Monarchy and Matrimony: The Courtships of Henry VIII, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1468-229X.00113
• Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the Reign of Henry VIII, https://archive.org/details/letterspapersfor12greauoft
• Anne of Cleves: Sociologically, Psychologically, and Reality, https://retrospectjournal.com/2023/11/19/anne-of-cleves-sociologically-pyschologically-and-reality/

Mileva Marić was once a rising physicist whose brilliance matched the boldest minds of her generation, but history reduced her to a footnote in Albert Einstein’s story.

Today's episode uncovers her early promise, her powerful intellectual partnership with Albert, and the barriers that pushed her out of the scientific world she fought to enter.

Through letters, archival findings, and modern feminist scholarship, we explore how her legacy was erased and why reclaiming her story matters more than ever.
CITATIONS:

• The Matilda Effect in science: Awards and prizes in the US, 1990s and 2000, https://www.awis.org/wp-content/uploads/SSS-matilda-effect.pdf
• Einstein's Wife: The Relative Motion of 'Facts', https://www.pbs.org/ombudsman/2006/12/einsteins_wife_the_relative_motion_of_facts.html
• Handling evidence in history: the case of Einstein’s wife, https://www.martinezwritings.com/m/Maric_files/EvidenceMaric.pdf
• Did Mileva Marić assist Einstein in writing his 1905 path breaking papers? https://arxiv.org/pdf/1204.3551
• The Correspondence of Mileva Marić and Albert Einstein 1897 – 1902, https://www.academia.edu/90636979/The_Correspondence_of_Mileva_Marić_and_Albert_Einstein_1897_1902_Translation_from_Serbian_original_into_English_by_Biljana_Velašević

Fatima al-Fihri founded al-Qarawiyyin, the world’s oldest continuously operating university, yet her story was nearly erased from the historical record.

This episode explores her journey, from a young migrant in Fez to a visionary builder whose dedication to knowledge reshaped generations. We follow the rise of her institution, the quiet forces that pushed her name into the margins, and the modern efforts to reclaim her legacy.

Discover how one woman transformed education and why the world is finally learning her story again.

CITATIONS:

• Fatima Al-Fihri and Al-Qarawiyyin University, https://www.worldhistory.org/article/2662/fatima-al-fihri-and-al-qarawiyyin-university/
• A Study on Al-Qarawiyyin University (859–990), https://www.researchgate.net/publication/352808368_THE_WORLD%27S_OLDEST_UNIVERSITY_AND_ITS_FINANCING_EXPERIENCE_A_STUDY_ON_AL-QARAWIYYIN_UNIVERSITY_859-990
• Fatima Al-Fihri, Founder of the First World University, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/342316228_Fatima_Al-Fihri_Founder_of_the_First_World_University
• Fātimah Al-Fihrīand Religious Fraternity in Al-Qarawiyy in University: A Case Study, irep.iium.edu.my/60386/1/Fātimah%20Al-Fihrīand%20Religious%20Fraternity%20in%20Al-Qarawiyy%20in%20University.pdf
• The First University in the World: Al-Quarawiyine University, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/353485335_The_First_University_in_the_World_Al-Quarawiyine_University

Maria Anna Mozart was once celebrated across Europe as a brilliant young musician, but history came to reduce her to a footnote beside her famous brother.
In this episode, we uncover the truth of her remarkable talent, the constraints placed on her as she grew older, and the silence that swallowed her legacy. Through vivid storytelling and careful historical detail, we explore how a prodigy became invisible and why her contributions matter now more than ever.
Step into the world of a woman whose light never should have been dimmed.
CITATIONS:

• Was Mozart’s sister actually the most talented musician in the family? https://www.classicfm.com/composers/mozart/sister-nannerl-most-talented/
• Secrets of the Dead: Mozart’s Sister, https://www.pbs.org/wnet/secrets/preview-mozarts-sister-xjwhq5/8060/
• Maria Anna Mozart: The Family’s First Prodigy, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/maria-anna-mozart-the-familys-first-prodigy-1259016/
• Maria Anna “Nannerl” Mozart, https://classicalmusicguide.com/viewtopic.php?t=28389
• A Reconstruction of Nannerl Mozart's Music Book (Notenbuch), https://www.jstor.org/stable/733504

Step inside the world of Hypatia of Alexandria, a pioneering philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician whose brilliance once lit the heart of a divided city.

This episode uncovers her rise as one of antiquity’s most respected thinkers, the political tensions that positioned her in the crossfire, and the long history of erasure that followed her death. Through narrative storytelling and modern reflection, we reclaim her legacy and honour the light she carried forward despite every effort to silence it.

CITATIONS:

• Socrates Scholasticus, Ecclesiastical History, Book VII, https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/26017.htm
• Damascius, Life of Isidore, https://topostext.org/work/528
• Synesius of Cyrene, Letters, https://topostext.org/work/538
• Hypatia of Alexandria, https://www.perlego.com/paid/book/3104798/hypatia-of-alexandria-pdf
• Hypatia the Highest: Analyzing the Life, Legacy, and Liberties of Hypatia of Alexandria, https://journals.uvic.ca/index.php/corvette/article/view/22477

Mary Magdalene stands at the heart of one of history’s most powerful stories, yet her true role has been buried beneath centuries of distortion.

This episode uncovers the woman behind the legends, tracing her life from first-century Palestine to the moment she became the first witness to the resurrection.

We explore how the early Church reshaped her identity, why her authority threatened those in power, and how modern scholarship restores her voice. Mary Magdalene’s story reveals what happens when women refuse to be erased.

CITATIONS:

• The Resurrection of Mary Magdalene by Jane Schaberg, https://archive.org/details/resurrectionofma0000scha
• The Gospel of Mary of Magdala: Jesus and the First Woman Apostle by Karen L. King, gnosis.study/library/Гнозис/Исследования/ENG/King%20K.L.%20-%20The%20Gospel%20of%20Mary%20of%20Magdala.%20Jesus%20and%20the%20first%20woman%20apostle.pd
• Gospel of Mary, https://earlychristianwritings.com/gospelmary.html
• Mary Magdalene in Art and History, https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search?q=mary+magdalene
• The Oxford Handbook of Mary Magdalene, https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/56842

Artemisia Gentileschi rose from the margins of seventeenth-century Rome to become one of the most powerful painters of the Baroque era. Her story is one of defiance, resilience, and relentless talent in a world determined to silence her.

In this episode, we explore her early struggles, the trial that tried to define her, the masterpieces that reshaped biblical storytelling, and the centuries of erasure that followed. Today, Artemisia’s voice returns with force, proving she was never meant to disappear.

CITATIONS:

• Artemisia Gentileschi, https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/artemisia-gentileschi
• (Re)reading the Masterpieces by Artemisia Gentileschi, https://www.academia.edu/115344622/_Grand_Narratives_and_Personal_Dramas_Re_reading_the_Masterpieces_by_Artemisia_Gentileschi
• Artemisia Gentileschi: Bio, Famous Works, & Legacy, https://www.thecollector.com/artemisia-gentileschi-the-me-too-painter-of-the-renaissance/
• A Fuller Picture of Artemisia Gentileschi, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/10/05/a-fuller-picture-of-artemisia-gentileschi
• Orazio and Artemisia Gentileschi, https://archive.org/stream/OrazioandArtemisiaGentileschi/OrazioandArtemisiaGentileschi_djvu.txt