Wilder

Wilder

Jack Kerouac but make it a girl with braids. Carrie Bradshaw, but without the sex, and also braids. An American Icon. An American Odyssey. American propaganda. Violently so, in some cases. Laura Ingalls Wilder is evergreen. For better or worse. Since the first Little House book was published in 1932, generations of readers have flocked to Laura’s cozy stories of the Ingalls family settling the Western frontier. The series inspired a TV show, pageants, and entire fashion lines. Behind this franchise is a woman who experienced almost a full century of American history. She’d made her first trips in a covered wagon, and eventually flew on a jet plane. Laura Ingalls Wilder’s life and legacy remain as powerful, mesmerizing, controversial, and violent as the America she represents. In a country currently at odds with itself and its history could there be a better time for an exploration of this woman?

Episodes

A Little House 50th Anniversary Special!

August 29, 2024 • 41 mins
We’re back for a very special episode! It’s been a year since you last heard from us and so much happened. Thousands of people have listened to the show and continue to keep the dialogue about Laura’s life and legacy alive. Glynnis and Jo published books. But perhaps most importantly, the Little House on the Prairie TV show turned 50! To prepare for this momentous anniversary in early September (and Glynnis’ 50th birthday), Glynnis...
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BONUS: "Oh, that Nellie Oleson!" with Alison Anrgrim

October 20, 2023 • 45 mins
Surprise! We’re back to share our extended interview with Alison Arngrim, aka everyone’s favorite mean girl: Nellie Oleson. She’s a powerhouse when it comes to keeping the Little House legacy alive, from her marathon re-read of the books on Facebook Live during the pandemic, to attending events at the Laura Ingalls Wilder homes and fan conventions across the country, to using her celebrity for meaningful activism. Beyond all that, ...
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10. “It can never be a long time ago.”

August 31, 2023 • 61 mins
As we talked about in our very first episode, the last line of Big Woods reads, “Now is now, it can never be a long time ago.” That line might be the most accurate description there is of the Little House series. Little House on the Prairie might be about another time, but Laura’s stories are very much alive in our time. We can't seem to let her go. But of course, some of the ways in which Laura is relevant are painful to consider....
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BONUS: Caroline Fraser’s Prairie Fires

August 17, 2023 • 45 mins
In all of our research for this show, one of the scholars who has most influenced our thinking on Laura and her work is Caroline Fraser, author of the Pulitzer Prize winning biography, Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder. Laura obsessives know that Prairie Fires is the motherload when it comes to understanding Laura’s life. It provides a detailed historical account of her childhood and takes a holistic look a...
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BONUS: A chat with Melissa Gilbert

August 10, 2023 • 56 mins
We’re nearing the end of our series, but before we go we have a surprise for you. Is it tin cups and peppermint sticks? A pig’s bladder? No! It’s our extended interview with the one and only Melissa Gilbert! No one knows what it’s like to shoulder the legacy of Laura Ingalls Wilder quite like Melissa. 50 years ago, she was cast as Laura Ingalls on the Little House TV show at just 9 years old, which means Melissa has spent close to ...
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9. The Business of Laura

August 3, 2023 • 39 mins
Laura Ingalls Wilder probably couldn’t have imagined the multi-million dollar media empire that would emerge from her books. From the television show to prairie chic dresses to dolls to tin cups bearing her name, Laura is a brand, a business and, dare we say it, an influencer. Her stories have spawned industries large and small, both directly and indirectly for nearly a century. How exactly did the simple prairie life get sold to m...
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8. Little Landon on the Prairie

July 27, 2023 • 64 mins
This week, Little House goes to Hollywood. In the 1970s, the TV show Little House on the Prairie gave Laura’s books a whole new life. Tens of millions of people tuned in every week to spend time with the Ingalls family. And then, a decade later, every Gen X latchkey kid came home to Laura and Nellie and Ma and Pa. Thanks to endless reruns and streaming platforms, Little House is still airing somewhere right now. Perhaps you, yourse...
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7. The Problem of Laura

July 20, 2023 • 58 mins
What is our responsibility to the things we loved the most? One answer is to be brutally honest about who and what we love. That’s what we’re doing in this episode. We’re going to take a long, hard look at the worst parts of Laura: the racism, the violence, and xenophobia present in the Little House series. There’s more than you might think. Even Glynnis, a person who thought she knew Laura all the way through, was surprised and so...
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6. Outside the Little Houses

July 13, 2023 • 46 mins
At her best, Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House on the Prairie books offer a door for readers to walk through to get the full picture of the world the Ingalls were  living in. She may not tell you everything in the books (and in some cases, she tells you very little), but ideally she leaves you wanting more. For instance: Who were the Native Americans living alongside the Ingalls? What were buffalo wolves? Do they still exist? In ...
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5. This American Life

July 6, 2023 • 63 mins
One of the reasons the Little House books are so compelling is because Laura Ingalls was a real person. She lived the experiences she wrote about. These things actually happened. But also? She’s a real person, with serious flaws, problematic family members (oh hey, Pa) and traumas she simply couldn’t face in her writing. This week, we’re fact checking the books. What is actually true? What is made up? And what is left out entirely?...
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4. Daughter Dearest pt. 2: Politics and Rose

June 29, 2023 • 47 mins
Who actually wrote the Little House books? For decades this question has loomed over the series. Was it Laura, a 65-year-old farm wife? Or her daughter Rose, one of the country's most successful freelance writers? But that's not the only conspiracy theory these heartwarming, cozy books have spawned. Many people also believe they are a Libertarian fantasy masquerading as tales for children. In this episode we tackle the question: ho...
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3. Daughter Dearest pt. 1: The Hurricane

June 22, 2023 • 47 mins
Behind the cozy wholesome sweetness of the Little House books, is a raging mother and daughter relationship that is the stuff of soap operas and tabloid talk shows. Laura Ingalls Wilder and her husband Almanzo had one living child named Rose. That child would go on to be Rose Wilder Lane – one of the most successful, and controversial, freelance writers in the early 20th century. Without her, the Little House books would never have...
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2. Heroine with a Thousand Faces

June 15, 2023 • 43 mins
How do you convey how much you loved the things you loved as a child? For lots of people, that thing is the Little House books. For better or worse, the books have shaped children’s lives and influenced how we understand American history. But to truly understand what we love and why we love it, we have to know where it comes from. The books didn’t just spring fully formed from Laura’s mind. There were many people, places, and insti...
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1. "Now is Now"

June 8, 2023 • 42 mins
Host Glynnis MacNicol has loved Laura Ingalls Wilder and her Little House books since she was a kid. She’s not alone in this, a lot of people have a strong devotion to Laura. Some travel miles to visit her houses and attend pageants dedicated to Laura and her books. But over the years, Laura, her work, and her legacy have become increasingly controversial. How do we reckon with the things we loved as a child? The stuff that made us...
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Introducing "Wilder"

June 1, 2023 • 2 mins
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Glynnis MacNicol

Glynnis MacNicol

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