Historical Drama with The Boston Sisters

Episode 73 is the 2025 Page to Screen podcast where The Boston Sisters talk about 5 books related to historical drama series and films for summer reading.

This year we highlight stories or provide a deeper dive into the films and series featured in the 4th podcast season (2024 - 2025). The authors of three 2025 summer reads were guests on the podcast.*

• ​The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen* (2015) | Ep. 58
• ​The Piano Lesson by Aug...

In Episode 72, we talk with filmmaker Darren Haruo Rae about NISEI (2023). NISEI , written and directed by Rae, is the first historical drama short film featured on the podcast. The film shines a light on an all-Japanese-American troop of soldiers who fought in World War II for a country imprisoning them and their families in internment camps because of their ancestry. The film is inspired by Rae’s Japanese American grandfather’s e...

NISEI, a short film written and directed by Darren Haruo Rae, (our guest for Ep. 72), shines a light on an all-Japanese-American troop of soldiers who fought in World War II for a country imprisoning them and their families because of their ancestry. The story is inspired by the filmmaker's Japanese American grandfather's WWII experiences in the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. In the preview, Darren Haruo Rae talks about unco...

In episode 71 we talk with Gill Hornby, author of the best-selling novel Miss Austen which has been adapted for a 4-part series premiering on MASTERPIECE on PBS May 4, 2025 (check local listings). MISS AUSTEN seeks to unravel the historic literary mystery by reimanging Cassandra Austen’s act of sisterly love in burning the letters of her famous author sister Jane Austen after Jane’s death in 1817.  

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Episode 71 preview:

In episode 71 we talk with Gill Hornby, author of the best-selling novel Miss Austen which has been adapted for a 4-part series premiering on MASTERPIECE on PBS May 4, 2025 (check local listings).

The complete podcast (Episode 71) featuring this conversation with Gill Hornby will be published Tuesday, April 29. 

MISS AUSTEN seeks to unravel the historic literary mystery by reimanging Cassandra Austen’s act of sis...

In episode 70, we go behind the scenes of CALL THE MIDWIFE with Jenny Agutter who portrays Sister Julienne in the series. Jenny Agutter has been with CALL THE MIDWIFE since the series premiere in 2012. CALL THE MIDWIFE is enjoying its 14th season on PBS.

Created and written by Heidi Thomas, CALL THE MIDWIFE is based on the trilogy of memoirs by Jennifer Worth about her experiences as a midwife nurse in London’s East End during the 1...

In episode 70, we go behind the scenes of the drama series CALL THE MIDWIFE with Jenny Agutter who portrays Sister Julienne. Jenny Agutter has been with CALL THE MIDWIFE since the series's premiere in 2012. CALL THE MIDWIFE is enjoying its 14th season on PBS.

Created and written by Heidi Thomas, CALL THE MIDWIFE is based on the trilogy of memoirs by Jennifer Worth about her experiences as a midwife nurse in London’s East End dur...

In episode 69 we spotlight the PBS Masterpiece series WOLF HALL: THE MIRROR AND THE LIGHT with a behind-the-scenes visit to the Folger Shakespeare Library exhibition, “How to Be a Power Player: Tudor Edition” with the curator Dr. Heather Wolfe Curator of Manuscripts for the Folger (in Washington, DC), which holds the world’s largest Shakespeare collection. 

WOLF HALL: THE MIRROR AND THE LIGHT traces the final four years of Thomas Cr...

March has been a busy month for the Boston Sisters. This is an extended trailer for Episode 69.

The complete podcast will be available for download Thursday, March 27th where we spotlight  the PBS MASTERPIECE series WOLF HALL: THE MIRROR AND THE LIGHT and our visit to the Folger Shakespeare Library in DC for the exhibit "How to Be a Power Player: Tudor Edition."

Our guest for Episode 69 is Dr. Heather Wolfe, curator of man...

In episode 68 we explore themes of time, place, race and identity in BLITZ , the 2024 World War II drama written and directed by Academy and BAFTA-Award-winning filmmaker Steve McQueen. BLITZ is told from the unique perspective and epic journey of a 9-year-old biracial boy named George (played by newcomer Elliott Heffernan) whose mother sends him from London to safety in the English countryside. But George doesn’t want to go to the...

In episode 68 of “Historical Drama with The Boston Sisters” we explore World War II from the unique perspective and journey of a 9-year-old biracial boy named George (played by newcomer Elliott Heffernan) in the 2024 film BLITZ. BLITZ is written and directed by Academy and BAFTA  Award- winning filmmaker Steve McQueen. Our guest, is Tré Ventour-Griffiths, a multiply-disabled historian, creative writer, and sociologist based in Nort...

Boycotts have been a strategy and tactic for advancing social and economic justice, especially when laws, courts, or government are not on the people's side as they were for Black citizens in 1955. In Ep. 67 Michon and Taquiena (aka The Boston Sisters) talk about why they highly recommend the 2001 HBO film BOYCOTT.

Directed by Clark Johnsonand based on the book Daybreak of Freedom by Stewart Burns BOYCOTT chronicles the 1955 Mo...

The Boston Sisters (Michon and Taquiena) end the month of February -- Black History Month -- with a conversation about an historical drama selected from their watch list: the 2001 HBO film BOYCOTT. 

BOYCOTT chronicles the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott, where a 26-year old minister named Martin Luther King Junior (Jeffrey Wright) was called by the community to lead a local movement that ended segregation on public transportation in Mon...

In Episode 66, we dive into the feature filmTHE SIX TRIPLE EIGHT withBrenda L. Moore, associate professor of Sociology at the University at Buffalo College of Arts and Sciences, and author of “To Serve My Country, To Serve My Race: The Story of the Only African American WACS Stationed Overseas During World War II" (New York University Press). 

THE SIX TRIPLE EIGHT film and Professor Moore’s book tell the story of the 6888th...

Enjoy this preview of our podcast spotlighting the 2024 filmTHE SIX TRIPLE EIGHTwritten and directed by Tyler Perry and featuring Kerry Washington as Major Charity Adams about the first and only Women's Army Corps (WAC) unit of color to serve overseas during WWII.

The preview features podcast guest, Brenda L. Moore -- professor of Sociology at the University at Buffalo College of Arts and Sciences, and author of “To Serve My Cou...

In part two of our conversation about A COMPLETE UNKNOWN, The Boston Sisters (Michon and Taquiena) talk with award winning poet, literary activist and author E. Ethelbert Miller about bringing Bob Dylan's writing into the classroom, and the artist as a witness to history.

A COMPLETE UKNOWN is the recent Academy Award-nominated biopic about musician, songwriter Bob Dylan, based on the book by Elijah Wald “Dylan Goes Electric: Ne...

In episode 64, The Boston Sisters (Michon and Taquiena) talk about A COMPLETE UNKNOWN, the biopic about musician/songwriter Bob Dylan (portrayed by Timothée Chalamet) inspired by the book “Dylan Goes Electric!: Newport, Seeger, Dylan, and the Night That Split the Sixties” by Elijah Wald, with award-winning and Grammy-nominated poet, literary activist, and author E. Ethelbert Miller . 

The conversation focuses on Miller’s personal co...

Preview The Boston Sisters's (Michon & Taquiena) conversation with award winning and Grammy-nominated poet, literary activist, and author E. Ethelbert Miller about A COMPLETE UNKNOWN, the Bob Dylan biopic featuring Timothée Chalamet and inspired by the book, “Dylan Goes Electric!: Newport, Seeger, Dylan, and the Night That Split the Sixties" by Elijah Wald.

The 2-part conversation is available:

• January 14, 2025 (Ep. 64 ...