In Walks a Woman

First, if you have not read Emily Hauser's  PENELOPE'S BONES, remedy that immediately. You've never read anything like it. It is revolutionary.

Why? Because we all grew up with the story of Indiana Jones finding treasures he'd read about in ancient texts and then he'd invariably hustle said treasures back home.

But what if generations of male historians and archaeologists had blind spots?

Did they really look at the evidence, or...

SPOILERS:  Go See the Movie FIRST!!!!

When you see a film based on a book, you get the rare opportunity to peek inside the head of a specific reader, namely the director.  Whatever else, we now know how Christopher Nolan reads Homer’s THE ODYSSEY.

So let’s dig in!

This episode will give you some background:  What are “the sea people”?  Did people in the “Bronze Age” know they wer...

What if women are naturally as intelligent as men, but refusing them an education is the reason men know more?  Seems like a no-brainer…and yet, in the late 1700’s, a woman had to point this out to “enlightened” men. 

That woman was Judith Sargent Murray, and to explain why women were just as intelligent as men, she had to address the Eve story. 

Her essay, “On the Equality of the Sexes,&...

Eve as seductress is a cliche. That would make more sense if it were actually in the story about her.  People realizing they are naked does not = having sex like bunnies. Sorry guys (and we do mean guys), but there is no sex in the Genesis story. 

In this episode, we’ll tell you about John Milton, mid-to-late 17th century biblical scholar, who wrote a landmark narrative poem, PARADISE LOST (1667).  It’s mo...

No fruit.  No talking snake.  No woman breaking rules.  

So why is THE TEMPEST in the All About Eve season? 

For starters, in this 1612 play, we do have an old, powerful, white guy in charge of an idyllic island.  His name is Prospero and he happens to be a sorcerer who can control the weather, puts others into magical slumbers, make people bring him firewood, but most of all, he completely controls the ...

Have you read CASSANDRA SPEAKS? If not, run to your local bookstore and get a copy! It will change how you see the worl

In this interview with Elizabeth Lesser, we focus on the Eve story:  what it actually says, what stories have grown out of it, and why. 

Beyond Eve, we discuss what impact it's had on the history of the world when about half the population–women–have been cut out of the storytelling.  Can...

One cannot really understand how stories have shaped women’s lives without taking on the story of Eve in Genesis.

This episode is the start of our All About Eve season, and this one is close to our hearts:  we’ve wanted to explore the Eve story since the genesis of the pod.

Our special guest is medieval scholar, Dr. Jana Byars, and she helps us answer some important questions. What is the original story?  How do...

If you’re gonna do GOSSIP GIRL, you gotta reveal the gossip girl herself:  Cecily von Ziegasar.

In her FIRST podcast interview ever (XOXO!!!) Cecily tells IWAW what it was like to write for teens back when no one else was writing for teens. In addition to many personally inspiring experiences, Cecily shares the classic novel that helped her write GOSSIP GIRL.  And guess what?  That 1920 novel features a fallen w...

Sharon is–deservedly so–America’s Government Teacher.  She joins us today to talk about her eloquent and beautifully-illustrated children’s book, WE ARE MIGHTY. 

Join Sonja and Vanessa in finding out how Sharon adapted her work for a younger audience, her own experience in high school history class, finding her writing voice, how to find untold stories to tell, and why she dropped pre-med as her maj...

Hallie Rubenhold’s THE FIVE sheds light on the lives of the 5 women who were murdered by Jack the Ripper in London in 1888.  So much of history has focused on these women’s final hours, their deaths, the macabre nature of their wounds, and the assumption that they were all bad women who put themselves in harm’s way.  In other words, since they were seen as fallen women, they were in essence blamed for th...

Please note that this episode deals with a historical account of sexual assault.

Spoiler note: there are a couple of spoilers about the historical events involved, but even if you are aware of the outcome of this case, Sweet's recounting of the story and the context he uncovers and explains is fascinating and so, so worth your time.

If you pick up a copy of John Wood Sweet’s 2022 study, THE SEWING GIRL'S TALE: A STORY OF CRIME ...

IWAW loves a great mystery/thriller, and if you do, too, you should treat yourself to reading Laurie Dove’s 2025 novel, MASK OF THE DEER WOMAN There will be NO spoilers in this show!  Sonja and Vanessa visit with Dove about the compelling issues underpinning this gripping story. 

There are so many positive reviews of the novel, so here’s just a sample:  “A beautifully written tale about the Indigenou...

In his famous 1841 essay, “Self Reliance,” Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “To be great is to be misunderstood.”  Emerson was a great writer, but to think he accomplished that all by himself would be a significant misunderstanding of how self reliant he really was.

In his brilliant study of five female Transcendentalist thinkers, BRIGHT CIRCLE, Dr. Randall Fuller pulls back the curtain to show that behind Eme...

Mary Roach has created a nonfiction writing lane all her own, and in her 8th book, she embarks on a world-wide tour of the scientific quest to replace pretty much every part of the human body. 

Her book,  ⁠REPLACEABLE YOU⁠⁠, came out this month--April 2026--and it's already a bestseller. While she was visiting Lawrence, Kansas, on a trip sponsored by the Lawrence Public Library, Mary sat down with Sonja and Vanessa for an...

If you keep losing, what if the game is to blame?  If women keep falling, could it be that society itself is at fault? 

That, in itself, is a subversive question in 2026--but even more so in late 19th century England. In his 1891 novel, TESS OF THE D'URBERVILLES, Thomas Hardy makes it abundantly clear that religion and society’s complete absorption of religious ideas of virginity is 100% to blame.  

Sonja a...

Despite not originally planning this short story for our “Fallen Women” season, in a weird way, it may fit…Spoilers, ahoy!

If you have not read Shirley Jackson’s 1948 short story, “The Lottery,” go treat yourself to a very special reading experience.  It will take you just a few minutes, and it’s one of the greatest short stories EVER.  

Then, join Sonja and Vanessa to learn t...

There will be SPOILERS, so if you’ve gotten this far in life without hearing about the ending to this novel o' novels, don’t push your luck further:  go block off a month to read it, and then hit play!

Sonja and Vanessa are thrilled to welcome their dear friend, Rev. Heather Coates, who fell in love with Russian literature, and was eager (willing?) to re-read Tolstoy’s 1878 (in full book form) novel about a lo...

Spoiler alert!!! Many literary-curious readers have Flaubert’s 1857 debut novel, MADAME BOVARY, in their TBR stack.  If that’s you, circle back to us after you’ve read this landmark of realism. 

This episode offers a concise Flaubert biography, a sense of why this novel is considered important in the context of literary history, and whether or not you might want to read it.  In terms of the fallen-wo...

Sonja and Vanessa have never gone to the movies together.  They made their debut screening Maggie Gyllenhaal’s THE BRIDE! (2026).  This review does contain SPOILERS, so go see the film first.  We discuss this visually stunning movie that is kinda punk, kinda comic book, kinda Bonnie & Clyde, kinda 1930’s musical, kinda Natural Born Killers, kinda Mel Brooks, kinda The Purple Rose of Cairo, kinda&helli...