Latest Heroines Podcast Episodes
Alice in April
These Books Made Me - May 05, 2022 12:00 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 15 ratingsSend us a Text Message. In this episode we are diving into one of the books in the comprehensive Alice series (25 books!) by children's literature paragon Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. Alice in April covers one very dramatic month in the life of Alice McKinley. Journey with us and Alice through the ...
Ramona
These Books Made Me - April 21, 2022 12:00 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 15 ratingsSend us a Text Message. Beverly Cleary's many books for young readers have endured the decades with her boisterous heroine Ramona Quimby remaining a perennial favorite for both parents and children. In this episode we examine the original bookends of the Ramona books, beginning with Beezus and ...
Bonus Episode: Bill Wasik and Monica Murphy talk Rabies
These Books Made Me - April 14, 2022 12:00 - 40 minutes ★★★★★ - 15 ratingsSend us a Text Message. Many of us vividly remembered Their Eyes Were Watching God as the book where a person gets rabies and is shot. Tea Cake's demise left us with so many questions so Hannah consulted experts Bill Wasik and Monica Murphy, the authors of Rabid: A Cultural History of the World...
Their Eyes Were Watching God
These Books Made Me - April 07, 2022 12:00 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 15 ratingsSend us a Text Message. Zora Neale Hurston may have been unappreciated as an author during her lifetime, but Their Eyes Were Watching God was eventually rediscovered and has endured as a classic for the past several decades. We explore the life and loves of Janie Crawford and her impact as a he...
Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret.
These Books Made Me - March 24, 2022 11:00 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 15 ratingsSend us a Text Message. Judy Blume didn't intend to write one of the most frequently challenged and banned books of all time when she penned Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret. She just wanted to write a book that captured the trials and tribulations of adolescence, complete with girl talk ab...
The House on Mango Street
These Books Made Me - March 10, 2022 13:00 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 15 ratingsSend us a Text Message. We're spending time with Esperanza Cordero, her family, friends, and neighbors from 1984's groundbreaking novel, The House on Mango Street. This paragon of the Chicano/a literary canon challenges us to define it - is it a novel, a novella, an epic poem - and has itself b...
Episode 68 Junior Vasquez
Free Range Texan - March 01, 2022 22:41 - 41 minutes ★★★★★ - 1 ratingA visit with singer, songwriter, entertainer Junior Vasquez, and we walk to Michael Shawn's Campfire were we discuss the magnificent sky in our Great State of Texas.
Alanna: The First Adventure
These Books Made Me - February 24, 2022 14:00 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 15 ratingsSend us a Text Message. Noted Sagittarius and author Tamora Pierce brought us the groundbreaking, gender norm defying Alanna: The First Adventure in 1983. The book ended up being a formative text and gateway sword-and-sorcery fantasy work for many of us. Alanna was a Strong Female Protagonist f...
Episode 67 Gary Pratt
Free Range Texan - February 02, 2022 00:22 - 43 minutes ★★★★★ - 1 ratingOn Episode 67 of the Free Range Texan Podcast we introduce Gary Pratt and his music. Then at Michael Shawn's Campfire we tell the true native American tale of Chief Black Kettle and his Cheyenne nation.
Episode 66 Savannah Rae
Free Range Texan - January 01, 2022 15:35 - 37 minutes ★★★★★ - 1 ratingMichael Shawn interviews up and coming recording artist Savannah Rae, and afterwards we spend time at Michael Shawn’s campfire with a tale of Marie Laveau.
Manga Edition: Sailor Moon, Part 2
These Books Made Me - December 23, 2021 13:00 - 52 minutes ★★★★★ - 15 ratingsSend us a Text Message. We are back with part 2 of our foray into the world of Sailor Moon. In this episode we will discuss romanticism, Usagi's leadership style, the male gaze in Sailor Moon, and how much of a downer it would be to outlive everyone you love. These Books Made Me is a podcast ...
Manga Edition: Sailor Moon, Part 1
These Books Made Me - December 09, 2021 13:00 - 52 minutes ★★★★★ - 15 ratingsSend us a Text Message. Moon prism power, make up! This week we have both new and familiar voices transporting us to the world of Usagi Tsukino as we dive into manga for the first time with Sailor Moon. The iconic series by Naoko Takeuchi is perhaps the most widely beloved example of shojo mang...
EP 65 Chris Mitchell
Free Range Texan - December 02, 2021 00:35 - 59 minutes ★★★★★ - 1 ratingMichael Shawn interviews an honest cop, and finds out what it's like in the age of defunding police. Plus there’s a trip down to Michael Shawn’s campfire.
Bonus Episode: American Girl Cafe Field Trip
These Books Made Me - November 26, 2021 13:00 - 46 minutes ★★★★★ - 15 ratingsSend us a Text Message. It's a store! It's a bistro for dolls! It's a rose-colored fever dream! It's our field trip to the American Girl Cafe at Tysons Corner! Journey with us through the strange world of the American Girl Cafe. Only in the AG Cafe can you simultaneously feel like a small chil...
Bonus Episode: Professor Margaret Polizos Peterson, University of Maryland
These Books Made Me - November 10, 2021 19:00 - 24 minutes ★★★★★ - 15 ratingsSend us a Text Message. Earlier this season we discussed the Roald Dahl classic “Matilda.” The episode’s expert interview, Maggie Peterson from the College of Education at the University of Maryland, was too delightful not to be heard in full. Dr. Peterson speaks on her experience as an educato...
EP 64 Louise Cappi
Free Range Texan - November 01, 2021 21:34 - 49 minutes ★★★★★ - 1 ratingMichael Shawn interviews legendary jazz artist Louise Cappi and later takes us to his Campfire with a true tale about wild horses.
These Books Scar(r)ed Me: Spooky Special
These Books Made Me - October 27, 2021 01:00 - 52 minutes ★★★★★ - 15 ratingsSend us a Text Message. These Books Made Me... scared? This week's bonus episode explores the scary side of literature. From Goosebumps to fairy tales to straight up horror, we take a look at the books that haunt us. We discuss horror as a genre and try to identify why it often appeals to women...
American Girl - Josefina
These Books Made Me - October 21, 2021 12:00 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 15 ratingsSend us a Text Message. This episode marks our final foray into the American Girliverse and our season 1 finale. We delve into the world of Josefina Montoya, our most introverted girl to date, but possibly the most resourceful. There is a piano disaster (and subsequent miraculous piano healing...
American Girl - Addy
These Books Made Me - October 07, 2021 12:00 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 15 ratingsSend us a Text Message. On we trek through the American Girls canon as we journey through Addy Walker's world. We explore the formation of the Addy advisory committee, Connie Porter's writing style, and the way the series presents slavery and the Civil War time period to children. We discuss ho...
EP 63 Stan Troy's Miracle
Free Range Texan - October 01, 2021 23:08 - 54 minutes ★★★★★ - 1 ratingStan Troy explains miraculous events in his life and Michael Shawn's Campfire details a lonesome Wyoming outpost.
American Girl - Felicity
These Books Made Me - September 23, 2021 12:00 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 15 ratingsSend us a Text Message. We are diving back into the American Girl canon with Felicity Merriman. Felicity was a second wave American Girl and infamous horse thief. We learn about the author of the original six Felicity books (as well as several of our previous AG books), Valerie Tripp, and wonde...
Matilda
These Books Made Me - September 08, 2021 18:00 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 15 ratingsSend us a Text Message. We take a break from the American Girls (in more ways than one!) this week to discuss a British childhood classic of both page and screen, Roald Dahl's "Matilda". Matilda is a quintessential bookworm who uses her unmatched smarts and special powers to triumph over her le...
Episode 61 Ed Roman
Free Range Texan - September 01, 2021 15:21 - 52 minutes ★★★★★ - 1 ratingMichael Shawn shares the music and personality of Canadian-born artist Ed Roman, while Michael Shawn’s Campfire revisits what is told as a true tale of the early days of a remote Texas fort known as Fort Davis.
American Girl - Molly
These Books Made Me - August 26, 2021 12:00 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 15 ratingsSend us a Text Message. We delve ever deeper into the OG American Girl canon as we explore the pranktastic world of Molly McIntire. We try to decipher the strange recurring chronologies of American Girl books and discuss the highs and lows of the first six Molly books. In this episode we examin...
American Girl - Samantha
These Books Made Me - August 12, 2021 18:00 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 15 ratingsSend us a Text Message. We continue our journey through the American Girl book series with Samantha Parkington. Samantha was one of the AG OGs and was released as one of the original three characters in the Pleasant Company catalog. We learn a bit about doll manufacturing and discuss Samantha's...
Episode 60 Shimmer Johnson
Free Range Texan - August 02, 2021 14:33 - 47 minutes ★★★★★ - 1 ratingShimmer Johnson discusses working the music business in the modern age. She sings some of her great music, and we take a walk down to Michael Shawn's campfire.
American Girl - Kirsten
These Books Made Me - July 28, 2021 00:00 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 15 ratingsSend us a Text Message. We begin our first foray into the world of juvenile chapter series and the American Girls specifically with the young Swedish immigrant Kirsten Larson. Kirsten was one of the original three dolls released by Pleasant Company, the company that first created American Girl,...
Bonus Episode: Sandra Johnson, St. Mark's Church Historian
These Books Made Me - July 22, 2021 20:00 - 26 minutes ★★★★★ - 15 ratingsSend us a Text Message. We had such a good conversation with this second community expert for our last episode, we had to release it as a separate episode. Ella (of Ella's Ephemera fame) chats with St. Mark's Church Historian Sandra Johnson about sharecropping and other related topics in Prince...
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
These Books Made Me - July 15, 2021 14:00 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 15 ratingsSend us a Text Message. Mildred Taylor originally did not set out to write a children's book when she wrote "Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry," yet it quickly became a children's classic and classroom staple for young readers. We'll reexamine this iconic work that unflinchingly examines racism as th...
BANU GOSHASP
Vanguard of the Viragoes - July 09, 2021 21:49 - 57 minutesThings We Referenced: The Bronze Age “Ecofacts” and material culture Dr. Beeler’s talk on “Representing Race in the Ancient Mediterranean” at The Archaeological Institute of America's Iowa Society presentation “Capital Terrorists Take Inspiration from Ancient World”, visual & material cultu...
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