ILL REPUTE! with Sovereign Syre & Ela Darling artwork

ILL REPUTE! with Sovereign Syre & Ela Darling

75 episodes - English - Latest episode: 4 days ago - ★★★★★ - 40 ratings

Writer and comedian Sovereign Syre teams up with VR innovator and former librarian Ela Darling to chronicle the lives of women and gender nonconformists that got a bad rap. Whether they were pioneers in male dominated fields, criminal masterminds, or just epic sl*ts, we here at ILL REPUTE! support women's rights, but more importantly we support women's wrongs.

History Society & Culture society comedy culturalcriticism eladarling feminism history popculture sociology sovereignsyre truecrime
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Episodes

Misery Lit | 1: Memoir Meets Marketing

March 25, 2024 13:15 - 1 hour - 105 MB

Misery Literature is a genre of memoir that details the real-life struggles and adversities of individuals, focusing particularly on themes of abuse, poverty, addiction, and survival against the odds. They are usually harrowing stories of the author's survival through complex trauma, usually told from the first person perspective, which generally end in, if not a happy conclusion, at least a ray of hope as the abuse cycle is broken...but when Tragedy becomes profitable, charlatans reach for ...

The Witch Hunts 2| The Black Death and The Hammer of Witches

March 18, 2024 04:01 - 1 hour - 120 MB

The plague led to a drastic reduction in population, labor shortages, and social upheaval. Entire villages and towns were depopulated, and some regions saw a collapse of agricultural and economic systems. People in the 14th century had little understanding of the causes of the plague, and various responses were attempted, including quarantine measures, flagellant movements, and persecution of minority groups, such as Jews and lepers. None of these measures were effective in halting the sprea...

The Witch Hunts 1 | From Feudalism to Capitalism

March 11, 2024 04:01 - 1 hour - 96.3 MB

The European Witch Craze, also known as the Witch Hunts or the Witch Trials, was a period of intense persecution of individuals accused of witchcraft in Europe from the late 15th century to the 18th century.Thousands of people, primarily women, were accused, arrested, tried, and often executed as witches during this time.  The witch hunts were rooted in the belief that certain individuals, known as witches, had made pacts with the devil or evil spirits. They were believed to possess supern...

Ethnic Identity Fraud: In Conversation with Dr. Kim Tallbear

March 04, 2024 05:00 - 1 hour - 127 MB

This week on ILL REPUTE! Sovereign Syre and Ela Darling welcome their very first guest! Dr. Kim Tallbear is a Native scholar who literally wrote the book on Native American DNA, and has become the defacto expert on self-indigenization, more commonly known as race shifting, ethnic fraud, or pretendianism. We talk with Dr. Tallbear about what indigenous ethnic fraud is, why it's perpetrated so easily and frequently, what the fraudsters get out of it, and what we can do to disrupt it.  Find D...

Buffy Sainte Marie | 2 The Big Ones Get Away

February 26, 2024 09:03 - 2 hours - 177 MB

In 2022, PBS released the documentary “Carry It On” about Buffy Sainte Marie’s life. A Native journalist sat down to watch it, and found herself uneasy as the documentary progressed. Something about Buffy’s adoption story didn’t add up; Buffy had never found her real parents. So she started digging and found what she considered damning evidence that Buffy Sainte-Marie had fabricated her identity for the last sixty years: a birth certificate.  Support Us:  http://patreon.com/illrepute C...

Buffy Sainte Marie | 1 It's My Way!

February 19, 2024 08:28 - 1 hour - 121 MB

Buffy Sainte-Marie burst onto the folk music scene in the early sixties, playing in the coffee houses of Manhattan and Toronto with the likes of Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young and Leonard Cohen. She quickly caught the attention of music critics with her warbling delivery, and her unapologetically political songs about Native American issues. Playing the guitar, piano, and mouth bow, her talent was undeniable, and her image was just as intriguing to audiences. With her long black hair, ...

ADHD: The Gender of Diagnosis

February 12, 2024 08:00 - 1 hour - 112 MB

In this episode of gender bias in medical diagnosis, Ela Darling and Sovereign Syre tackle ADHD. What is it? Why are so many women denied a diagnosis despite suffering from the same symptoms as their male cohorts?  Support Us:  http://patreon.com/illrepute Contact Us:  [email protected] Follow Us:  ILL REPUTE! links: http://linktr.ee/illreputepod Sovereing Syre’s links: http://linktr.ee/sovereignsyre Ela Darling’s links: http://zez.am/eladarling Merch:  http://import...

The Most Beautiful Suicide

February 05, 2024 08:00 - 1 hour - 131 MB

This week on the podcast Sovereign Syre and Ela Darling examine three different iconic depictions of female suicide and talk about their impact on the culture, and what they can teach us about how we view female suffering. They analyze the painting "Ophelia" by John Everett Millais and the later suicide of the woman who posed for it, Elizabeth Siddal,  Art's first supermodel. Then they look at the mass produced death mask of The Unknown woman of the Seine, an unidentified teenage girl who ...

Phyllis Diller |3 Comedy Cums From Tragedy

January 30, 2024 02:00 - 1 hour - 102 MB

This week, Sovereign Syre and Ela Darling conclude their series on Phyllis Diller.  “As a child I had very strong passions and aspirations, and I’ve lived to realize them all. I’ve had a family, I’ve known great romance, clothes are coming out of my ears, God only knows the friends I have, and although I didn’t foresee all the travel, it has been just incredible. I was the kid who never had a room or a birthday party. All I had to play with were boxes, but I loved my boxes. The glass, you ...

Phyllis Diller |2 Not Another Pretty Face

January 22, 2024 05:01 - 1 hour - 109 MB

This week on the pod, Sovereign Syre tells Ela Darling about Phyllis Diller's whirlwind rise to fame, making her the first female stand up comedian to become a household name. While her star was on the rise however, her turbulent homelife was about to implode. Phyllis found herself in new territory, navigating the Hollywood system, being cast over and over again as the "ugly woman," an image she had herself cultivated, but which started to eat away at her self esteem.  Support Us:  http:...

Phyllis Diller |1 The Unhappy Homemaker

January 15, 2024 05:01 - 54 minutes - 77.5 MB

This week on the podcast Sovereign Syre tells Ela Darling about Phyllis Diller. During her career she became the first female stand up to become a household name, but Phyllis Diller started at the very bottom, a mother of five children married to charismatic loser that was at turns dismissive and abusive. In the 1950s. In her late thirties. Welcome to the first part in our series on one of the most resilient and fascinating women in entertainment.  Support:  http://patreon.com/illrepute ...

Sharbat Gula: The Making Of A National Geographic Supermodel

January 08, 2024 05:01 - 1 hour - 92 MB

Greetings and welcome to SEASON TWO of ILL REPUTE! In 1984, an ambitious photojournalist snuck into Afghanistan to document the refugee crisis there. When he came across a beautiful young Afghan girl with blazing green eyes, he knew he had to get a photo of her...and seventeen years later, would go on a highly publicized search to locate the girl, now a grown woman.  This week Sovereign Syre tells Ela Darling about how one of the most recognizable photographs ever to appear in National G...

Calamity Jane |5 Calamity's Last Ride

January 01, 2024 05:01 - 1 hour - 130 MB

SOV ACCIDENTALLY UPLOADED THE WRONG FILE! It's fixed now, but if you started playing and it was episdoe four, it's the correct file now, so just redownload.   In the conclusion of our series on Calamity Jane, Sovereign Syre teaches Ela Darling about modernity and how it failed the frontier, or something like that. Enjoy the final installment in our series on Calamity Jane, and get ready for Season 2 starting next week. Lots of fun things planned for you guys to enjoy.  HAPPY NEW YEAR! ...

Calamity Jane |4 From Outlaw to Mother to National Monument

December 25, 2023 05:01 - 1 hour - 118 MB

Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays! Or if you don't believe, Happy Monday! In part four of our series on Calamity Jane, we follow the Dime Store Novel Heroine as she navigates motherhood and celelebrity with all the drinking and fu*king she's used too. Enjoy!    Watch:  http://youtube.com/@ill_repute Sources:  Calamity Jane: The Woman and the Legend by James D. McLaird http://legendsofthewest.com http://newspapers.com The Autobiography of Calamity Jane by Herself Lowdown on Ca...

Calamity Jane |3 From Deadwood to Deadwood Dick

December 18, 2023 05:01 - 1 hour - 114 MB

In the third installment in our series on Calamity Jane, Sovereign Syre tells Ela Darling about the birth of Deadwood. Initially a settlement of a few storefronts and tents, in a period of a few months the town nestled in the Black Hills attracted close to ten thousand citizens. Far from a bustling metropolis, the town was full of outlaws with murders happening in the streets daily. Leaving town wasn't much easier; the recent victory at Little Big Horn had empowered the Native folks who were...

Botox: Is Anti-Aging Anti-Feminist?

December 11, 2023 05:01 - 1 hour - 93 MB

(No. It's not.) It’s 1983 and our heroine, an ophthalmologist, is treating a patient with a condition called blepharospasm, a painful neurological disorder that causes involuntary muscle spasms and contractions of the eyelid. After administering a neuromodulator to the affected muscles, a procedure she had performed with her patient many times before, her patient was unhappy. Angry, in fact: the doctor had neglected to treat the area between her eyebrows.  Apologizing, our doctor explain...

Calamity Jane |2 From Rolling Scum to Army Scout

December 04, 2023 05:01 - 1 hour - 91.6 MB

In her lifetime Calamity Jane was the most famous woman in the world, and her name still evokes the spirit of the WIld West. She has been a character in countless dime novels, television shows, and feature films, and yet all of them were largely fabricated bearing no resemblence to her actual life. In this series on Calamity Jane, we hope to rectify that. In the following episodes we will profile her REAL life, and find that truth is far wilder than fiction.  In part two of our series, we ...

Calamity Jane |1 Born To Run

November 27, 2023 06:00 - 58 minutes - 81.9 MB

In her lifetime Calamity Jane was the most famous woman in the world, and her name still evokes the spirit of the WIld West. She has been a character in countless dime novels, television shows, and feature films, and yet all of them were largely fabricated bearing no resemblence to her actual life. In this series on Calamity Jane, we hope to rectify that. In the following episodes we will profile her REAL life, and find that truth is far wilder than fiction.  In part one of our series, we ...

Hedy Lamarr |4 Mother of Invention

November 20, 2023 05:00 - 1 hour - 133 MB

In the final installment in our series on Hedy Lamarr, Sovereign Syre and Ela Darling discuss Hedy Lamarr's most famous invention, frequency hopping, and how the US government f*cked her in the deal to the tune of 30 billion dollars. How is it possible that the inventor that brought us WiFi, GPS and Bluetooth never saw a dime? Because she happened to be a dime herself, of course.  Sources:  Beautiful: The Life of Hedy Lamarr, by Stephen Michael Shearer Hedy's Folly: The Life and Breakt...

Borderline Personality Disorder: The Gender of Diagnosis

November 13, 2023 14:47 - 1 hour - 97.3 MB

This week on the pod Sovereign Syre and Ela Darling discuss Borderline Personality Disorder. Why? Because 75% of those diagnosed with BPD are women, and it is the most stigmatized mental illness out there...and according to the literature, the most painful. People who suffer from BPD live twenty years less than their counterparts, and the rate of suicidality is markedly increased. This is an illness attacking women in large numbers, and it has a body count.  So let's intervene and disrupt ...

Hedy Lamarr |3 A Gilded Cage

November 06, 2023 08:43 - 59 minutes - 82.4 MB

This week on ILL REPUTE! Ela Darling and Sovereign Syre discuss Hedy Lamarr's Gilded Cage of a marriage to the richest man in Austria. Plus, we take some side journies to debate the merits of sugaring versus escorting. Which is very important to consider, when considering Hedy's life.  Sources:  http://www.kusd.edu/indiantrailpulse/?p=10438 Shearer, Stephen Michael (2010). Beautiful: The Life of Hedy Lamarr. Thomas Dunne Books. ISBN 978-0-312-55098-1. (Hoopla- Austin Public Library) ...

Men, Women and Chainsaws: The Theory of the Final Girl

October 30, 2023 08:32 - 1 hour - 123 MB

This week on ILL REPUTE! the podcast, Ela Darling and Sovereign Syre discuss the book Men, Women and Chainsaws by Carol J. Clover and what the Final Girl trope in slasher films tells us about how we feel about men, women, and violence.  Sources: Men, Women and Chainsaws by Carol J. Clover Credits: Script by Sovereign Syre Hosted by Sovereign Syre & Ela Darling Produced by Joshua Anderson Contact: [email protected] Follow: Twitter: @illreputepod @sovereignsyre @ElaDar...

A Quick And Dirty History Of Horror Films: From Nosferatu to The Final Girl

October 23, 2023 07:00 - 1 hour - 143 MB

For the next two weeks ILL REPUTE! takes a break from Hedy Lamarr to celebrate Spooky Season. This week Ela Darling and Sovereign Syre deliver a quick and dirty history of horror films....and Ela celebrates her 14th porniversary. From Nosferaturu to the Final Girl, we plot out the trajectory of one of the most popular and enduring genres in American popular culture.  Credits: Written by Sovereign Syre Hosted by Sovereign Syre and Ela Darling Produced by Joshua Anderson Contact: i...

Hedy Lamarr |2 Avant-Garde Darling

October 16, 2023 10:30 - 1 hour - 102 MB

This week, Ela Darling continues to teach Sovereign Syre about Hedy Lamarr. It's the early thirties and the precocious teenager is a rising star in Austrian cinema. After convincing her parents to let her run off to Prague by herself, she is given the starring role in Ecstasy, an erotic masterpiece about a young, sexually repressed wife who finds release in the arms of a lover much younger than her husband. The film set the world ablaze with it's unfettered depiction of the female form and p...

Hedy Lamarr |1 “The Most Beautiful Girl In The World”

October 09, 2023 07:03 - 1 hour - 133 MB

In 1933, an unknown actress starred in one of the most controversial films every made. Ecstasy was a Czech erotic romantic drams directed by Gustav Machaty that went on to be banned in multiple countries for the nude scenes featuring a then 17 year old Hedy Lamarr and it's frank depictions of female pleasure. Listen this week as Ela Darling tells Sovereign Syre about the life of Hedwig Kiesler.  Sources:  http://www.kusd.edu/indiantrailpulse/?p=10438 Shearer, Stephen Michael (2010). Be...

Sarah Baartman |2 The African Queen

October 02, 2023 16:00 - 1 hour - 103 MB

In 1809, Sarah Baartman, an indentured servant from South Africa, was smuggled into England. She was put on display as the "Hottentot Venus" in Picadilly Square. Dressed in an elaborate costume of next to nothing, she sang and danced, while European onlookers gawked. Abolitionists at the time, saw her treatment as nothing more than trafficking and slavery, which had recently been outlawed in Britain and it's colonies. Sarah Baartman became the first test case of the new laws, and her celebri...

Sarah Baartman |1 From Camdeboo to Capetown

September 25, 2023 16:00 - 1 hour - 91.2 MB

Before Nicki Minaj, before Kim Kardashian, before Marilyn Monroe, there was a South African woman whose voluptuous physique captured the European imagination. In 1809, Sarah Baartman an indentured servant to a free Black family in Capetown, caught the attention of a British surgeon. The industrious doctor envisioned a theatrical production to end them all, and make him, Sarah, and her employer rich. In part one of this two part series, we talk about where Sarah came from, and how she went fr...

Olive Oatman |2 The Girl With The Blue Tattoo

September 18, 2023 16:00 - 1 hour - 144 MB

In 1854 Olive Oatman, a white settler, was found living among the Mohave. She had been living among the natives for five years. She was forced to leave her adoptive family and return to settler society, where she was set upon by a Methodist preacher who wanted to exploit her story for profit. Today we conclude the incredible story of Olive Oatman, the woman with the blue tattoo.  Sources: The Blue Tattoo by Margot Mifflin Captivity of the Oatman Girls by Royal Byron Stratton, Lorenzo ...

Olive Oatman |1 On The Road To Utopia

September 11, 2023 16:00 - 1 hour - 114 MB

In 1849, Olive Oatman's father sold everything he owned and started out west with his wife and children. He was following a twenty-one year old Mormon prophet in search of Utopia, which he said was located in the middle of the desert somewhere in Arizona. As spiritual tensions broke up the wagon train, and the perils of the journey widdled away at their animals and supplies, the family found themselves on their own, stranded in a war zone.  Sources: The Blue Tattoo by Margot Mifflin C...

J.Z. Knight |3 What The Bleep Do We Know about Virginia Woolf?

September 04, 2023 16:03 - 1 hour - 96.1 MB

"In one statement from “Ramtha”, the spirit declares that the person behind QAnon “is divine intelligence.” In the final installment in our series on J.Z. Knight we document the second rise of Ramtha with the release of the pseudodocumentary "What The Bleep Do We Know?" and her precipitous fall from grace, but not from opulant wealth, as she enters her villain era.  Sources:  J. Z. Knight - Wikipedia Ramtha Riled | Southern Poverty Law Center Shocking allegations from former JZ K...

J.Z. Knight |2 Ramtha's School Of Enlightenment

September 04, 2023 16:02 - 49 minutes - 69.8 MB

"It only takes one thought to give a man a hard-on!" In part two of our series on J.Z. Knight we follow the progress of a middle-class housewife as she encounters an interdimensional entity named Ramtha, learns to channel him, and lands a spot on the Merv Griffen show. What follows is completely normal, hob nobbing with celebrities, lawsuits, marrying a gay man, starting a cult, making millions, and getting caught up in Arabian horse fraud. Who hasn't had an expose about their highschool s...

J.Z. Knight |1 From Roswell to Ramtha

September 04, 2023 04:01 - 1 hour - 165 MB

Judith Darlene Hampton was born March 16, 1946, which makes her a Pisces and a boomer. In the first part of our series on JZ Knight, we follow her from her humble beginnings in rural New Mexico, the daughter of itenerant cotton pickers to her ascent into comfortable upper middle class existance and the malaise the got her caught up in Pyramid Power. Enjoy this deep dive into the origins of one of the most successful (alleged) cult leaders living today.  Sources:  J. Z. Knight - Wikipedia...

The Trotula: Wandering Wombs and Humours

June 27, 2020 03:44 - 1 hour - 150 MB

This week Sov and Siouxsie Q discuss the first medical manual written by a woman, The Trotula!  With special guest Dr. Ryan Byrne!    

Tara Nephthys Binah: Radical Rest for Black Women

June 19, 2020 04:00 - 1 hour - 159 MB

This week Siousxie Q and Sovereign sit with guest Tara Nephthys Binah to talk about radical rest for Black women, holistic healing and reclaiming feminine energy during a time of great social unrest and chaotic duress.  

The Magdalene Laundries: Social Welfare or Womens' Prisons?

June 17, 2020 04:00 - 2 hours - 183 MB

This week Siouxsie Q and Sovereign take a look at Magdalene Laundries, workhouses set up by the Catholic church to look after extraneous women; those who fell pregnant, were indigent, in debt or mentally ill at the turn of the twentieth century.  These house came into the spotlight at the turn of the twenty first century when mass graves were discovered under many of them....

Dorothea Dix: The child genius that became a world famous activist!

May 29, 2020 16:00 - 1 hour - 144 MB

This week Sovereign Syre and Souixsie Q talk about Dorothea Dix, an early advocate and activist for the treatment of the mentally ill.  Dix escaped a troubled home as a child, displayed all the hallmarks of genius by her teens, and went on to live a life that oversaw the change of the treatment of the mentally ill from America, to Europe, to the Middle East and even in Japan.  Join us as we talk about how the daughter of a religious zealot and drunk managed to live an extraordinary life dedi...

Anne Lister: Gentleman Jack

May 22, 2020 16:00 - 54 minutes - 75.5 MB

This week Souixsie Q and Sovereign Syre talk about Victorian lesbian, landowner, and bon vivant Anne Lister! 

Florence Nightingale: Tenderheart or Iron Lady?

May 15, 2020 16:00 - 1 hour - 83.1 MB

In this week's episode Sovereign Syre and Siouxsie Q James sit down to talk about the complicated legacy of Florence Nightingale.  Once known as the Lady of the Lamp and the mother of modern nursing, there have been more recent discussions of the actual roles she played in either of these narratives and we look at where she made the biggest impact...albeit quietly.  

The Women of the Spanish Flu

May 08, 2020 16:00 - 1 hour - 97 MB

In this episode Siouxsie Q and Sovereign Syre discuss the Spanish Flu Pandemic at the turn of the 20th century and the role of nurses in dealing with the brunt of care and life saving measures at the time.  We talk live over IG during social distancing of the Covid 19 pandemic currently crossing America.  

Typhoid Mary: Killer or Victim?

April 30, 2020 16:00 - 1 hour - 88.4 MB

Sovereign Syre and Siouxsie Q James explore the life and death of Typhoid Mary from the perspective of life in quarantine and the uncertainty of a novel virus.  Exploring themes of social welfare, class, gender, and immigration.

Trump's Accusers: allegedly.

July 25, 2019 02:00 - 1 hour - 82 MB

CONTENT WARNING: THIS EPISODE CONTAINS FRANK DISCUSSIONS ABOUT SEXUAL ASSAULT.  SENSITIVE LISTENERS MAY WISH TO SKIP THIS EPISODE.   This week Sov and SQ catch up on what's been happening in their lives and in the news...ILL REPUTE! is about then past, but it's about current events and the future too. We talk about the #metoo movement, the cultural narratives around rape allegations and the list of accusers against Donald Trump.  

Ivana Trump: The Second Installment, from Divorcee to Icon

May 28, 2019 07:00 - 38 minutes - 52.3 MB

This week Sovereign Syre and Siouxsie Q dissect Donald Trump's first marriage and expound on the virtues and mysteries of American icon Ivana Trump.

Ivana Trump: The first installment; from immigrant to socialite.

May 21, 2019 07:00 - 41 minutes - 57.6 MB

This week Sovereign Syre and Siouxsie Q dissect Donald Trump's first marriage and expound on the virtues and mysteries of American icon Ivana Trump.

Heauxs in Real Time: Catching up with Siouxsie Q and Sovereign Syre

May 07, 2019 07:00 - 1 hour - 86.9 MB

Me and Siouxsie Q catch up on life and plot out the episodes for Season Three of ILL REPUTE! focusing on the women of Trump.

Xica da Silva: The Slave Who Became Queen

April 16, 2019 07:00 - 38 minutes - 53.3 MB

This week @sovereignsyre and @siouxsieqmedia talk about the Brazilian legend of Xica da Silve, the slave who became queen.

Calamity Jane: Drunken History

April 09, 2019 07:00 - 54 minutes - 75.4 MB

This week @sovereignsyre and @siouxsieqmedia talk about Calamity Jane and the mystique of life on the frontier in early America.  

Lizzie Borden Took An Ax: Part One...

April 02, 2019 07:00 - 1 hour - 108 MB

A crime that still captures the American imagination.  Queerphobia, sexism, class struggle, the industrial revolution...it's all ready to be unpacked.  

The Legend of Coco Darling: Every Heaux has her familiar!

March 26, 2019 07:00 - 40 minutes - 56.3 MB

In this episode we pay tribute to my beloved dog Coco, who passed last week after a year long illness. And we're back to an episode each week!

Sada Abe: Lust Killer and Cultural Icon

March 05, 2019 08:00 - 1 hour - 119 MB

This week we discuss Sada Abe, the famous Japanese courtesan who killed her lover and carried around his penis in her pocket. She became a cultural icon after her autobiography was published.

ILL REPUTE! Living History: catching up on porn laws and after AVN!

February 17, 2019 02:13 - 59 minutes - 81.4 MB

This week, Siouxsie Q and Sovereign Syre catch up on porn headlines, the latest in sex laws, and the madness of the AVN awards.  

Books

The Black Dahlia
1 Episode