The Dead Ladies Show

April 23, 2024

Dead Ladies Show #36: Anna Göldi, Ester Krumbachová & Miriam Rothschild!

It’s us again! Back to our three-talk format but only in English again, unfortunately, due to our continuing funding woes. We’re treating you to talks by your beloved co-hosts Katy Derbyshire and Florian Duijsens, plus the curator, writer, and film producer Rachel Pronger. Learn all about three impressive women who faced tough times, pushed boundaries, and gave the world lasting treasures. The aim of the show is to raise money for more podcasts, so we’ve adjusted the non-reduced price to €10, but reduced tickets still cost €4. Get your tickets here. Doors open 7.30 pm – come on time to get a good seat!

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ANNA GÖLDI was the last woman to be legally executed after being accused of witchcraft in Switzerland, in 1782 – that’s just seven years before the French Revolution. She worked as a maid, looking after a young girl who allegedly began spitting up needles. Her wealthy employers accused her of witchcraft, and she was tortured until she admitted being in league with the devil. She was sentenced to death by decapitation for poisoning, even though the girl had not died. Her case was acknowledged as a miscarriage of justice in 2007.

ESTER KRUMBACHOVÁ was a Czech screen writer, costume and stage designer, author, and film director. She had a defining influence on Czech New Wave cinema, collaborating on more than twenty movies from the early 1960s on. Her involvement in the satire A Report on the Party and Guests meant she was blacklisted from working in film by the Czechoslovakian communist party during much of the 1980s. She worked under pseudonyms, painted and made jewelry, returning to the film industry in the 1990s.

Dame MIRIAM ROTHSCHILD was a British zoologist, entomologist, and botanist. From a wealthy family with an active interest in nature, she started collecting ladybirds and caterpillars and taking a tame quail to bed with her at the age of four. During a spell of WWII codebreaking at Bletchley Park, she pressured the British government to take in more Jewish refugees, providing housing for 49 children in her own (stately) home. She then became a leading authority on fleas, with side-lines in other parasites, butterflies, and meadow restoration.

April 11, 2024April 11, 2024

Podcast #70: Phoolan Devi

*** NOTE: This episode’s Dead Lady had a very challenging existence, particularly when she was younger, and her story is marked by multiple incidents of violence and sexual abuse. Please use caution when listening ***

In this episode, we join forces with the Ms Informed podcast to bring you the story of Phoolan Devi.

Known as India’s “Bandit Queen,” Phoolan Devi overcame a life of poverty, illiteracy, and abuse, first as a child bride, and later enduring after being kidnapped by bandits and rising to lead the gang. She eventually became a politician, campaigning for women’s causes and the poor. Even today, Phoolan is a symbol for the anger, vengeance and injustice against women in India, as well as an inspiration for the lower classes.

Madhvi Ramani and Rina Grob told her story at a recent live DLS show in Berlin.

DLS co-founder Katy Derbyshire joins host/producer Susan Stone to introduce this episode.

Discover the Ms Informed podcast wherever you like to listen, and here. As mentioned, Katy and Susan have done an interview with them which will appear on Ms Informed Episode 165. You can also follow them on Instagram.

Show notes:

Phoolan and others before surrendering to the police in 1983

To learn more about Phoolan Devi, check out her autobiography I, Phoolan Devi: The Autobiography of India’s Bandit Queen and Malan Sen’s India’s Bandit Queen: The True Story of Phoolan Devi, and on Phoolan’s legacy, read The Furies: Three Women and their Fight for Justice by journalist and writer Elizabeth Flock. As for Shekhar Kapur’s film Bandit Queen, you’re better off reading Arundhati Roy’s essay on the film.

Also mentioned was the Mann Deshi Foundation, a woman-founded charity that set up the first rural bank for women in India and helps women and girls in rural areas in India so that they are given a chance in life and help their communities.

Daughters of Destiny, available on Netflix, follows five girls from the Dalit class, who enter Shanti Bhavan, a school that educates the poorest children

If you are interested in attending the upcoming Dead Ladies Show at the Droste Festival in Muenster, get more details on the event here. And if you’d like to come see us in Berlin May 16th, consider subscribing to our newsletter to receive updates. Fans of the New York show can get their newsletter here.

Want to see the CBS News feature about us? You can find it linked to on our About page and pinned on our Instagram feed.

Our theme music is “Little Lily Swing” by Tri-Tachyon.

Don’t forget, we have a Patreon! Thanks to all of our current supporters! Please consider supporting our transcripts project and our ongoing work.

Drop us a line info@deadladiesshow.com or find us on social media @deadladiesshow

Thanks for listening! We’ll be back with a new episode next month.

March 8, 2024March 18, 2024

Podcast #69: Sister Mary Ignatius Davies

In this episode, we bring you…the woman known as the “Mother Theresa of Reggae!

Sister Mary Ignatius, a white Jamaican Catholic nun dedicated her life to the Alpha Boys’ School in Kingston, where she taught football, cricket, boxing, table tennis and dominoes – but most importantly, music. A lover of jazz and blues, she inspired hundreds of “wayward boys” to become professional musicians, including future Skatalites Tommy McCook and Don Drummond, trombonist Rico Rodriguez and the conductor Leslie Thompson. Without Sister Mary Ignatius, who died at the age of 81 in 2003, we might never have had reggae.

DLS co-founder Katy Derbyshire tells the story of the woman known to her young charges as “Sister Iggy.” And she joins host/producer Susan Stone to introduce this episode, the first of Season Seven of the Dead Ladies Show Podcast, and to wish you all a happy International Women’s Day on March 8th!

Also available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, RadioPublic, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, and Acast.

And you can download our transcript, prepared by Susan Stone, here.

If you’re in New York by any chance, put Tuesday, March 19 in your diary for Dead Ladies Show NYC. More details here!

Show notes:

March 6, 2024April 23, 2024

Dead Ladies Show NYC #27

It was wonderful seeing so many of your shining faces at the last DLS NYC in January! We are pleased to announce that we’ll be back in the Red Room on TUESDAY, March 19 from 7–9pm.

TLDR: TUESDAY, March 19, 7–9pm at the Red Room at KGB Bar! (85 E 4th St, New York, NY 10003, Third Floor.)

BUY TICKETS HERE!

We are charging a $10 cover to defray costs of the event—if this presents any issue, please contact us and we can absolutely work something out.

At this, our twenty-seventh show, be regaled with the tales of a long-lashed puppeteer televangelist; fashion and media maven who helped build a publishing empire; and a Black American activist who spent her life fighting for racial justice. Presented by three women with a deep love for literature, with a smattering of commentary by your devoted hosts.

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TAMMY FAYE BAKKER (1942-2007) was an entertainer, puppeteer, and activist best known for building a televangelism empire and theme park alongside her husband, Jim Bakker, in the 1980s. At four feet eleven, Tammy became known for her heavy makeup and emotive televised appeals, which helped to fund the Bakkers’ lavish spending. After a series of sex and money scandals capsized the ministry, Bakker divorced Jim, battled a drug addiction, and became an unlikely gay icon whose advocacy for AIDS patients broke from Americans’ and conservative Christians’ attitudes of the time.

EUNICE W. JOHNSON (1916-2010) was an African American publisher and fashion icon. Along with her husband, she founded Ebony and Jet magazines. She started the Ebony Fashion Fair fundraiser as a favor for a friend, and then grew it into a traveling fashion show, showcasing black designers as well as haute couture. The Ebony Fashion Fair launched the careers of famous models like Pat Cleveland, and led to the creation of the Fashion Fair cosmetics line, the first makeup line for women of color to be carried in department stores.

BETTY SHABAZZ (1936-1997) was an American educator and civil rights advocate. She is perhaps best known as the wife of the slain Black nationalist leader Malcolm X. Shabazz grew up in Detroit, Michigan, where her foster parents provided shelter from racism. After attending the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, she moved to New York City, becoming a nurse. There, she met Malcolm X and joined the Nation of Islam in 1956. Following Malcolm X’s assassination in 1965, Shabazz raised their six daughters as a widow, pursued higher education, and worked at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn, New York.

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Your presenters:

KATELYN BEATY is a book editor who has written for several outlets about religion and gender. She lives in Fort Greene and enjoys birdwatching and karaoke.

CANDACE MUNROE is a retail industry veteran (and looking for a new job, if you have any leads!) She loves food, fashion, and Formula 1, and can be found creating content around all three as @thesinglepantry on TikTok and Instagram.

AMANDA GARRETT is a Brooklyn resident who loves baking, exercise sometimes, and reality TV. She’s currently in a reading era so any book recs are welcomed.

February 26, 2024March 26, 2024

Dead Ladies Show #35: Phoolan Devi & Therese Giehse!

We’re back! (And welcome to our new newsletter platform! We’ve taken the liberty of keeping you on our mailing list – but let us know or unsubscribe if you’d like to leave the party.) Can this really be our 35th live show in Berlin? That’s crazy! To mark the occasion, we’re teaming up with the very-much-alive presenters of Ms Informed – “the podcast for smart but lazy people” covering feminist news and culture straight from (you guessed it) Berlin.

Our funding woes continue, alas, so both talks will be in English – by your beloved co-host KATY DERBYSHIRE, plus a joint presentation by Ms Informed’s RINA GROB and MADHVI RAMANI, more on whom below! All held together by our passionate podcast producer SUSAN STONE. Learn all about two impressive women who overcame obstacles, pushed boundaries and inspired generations. The aim of the show is to raise money for more podcasts, so we’ve adjusted the non-reduced price to €10, but reduced tickets still cost €4, get them here. Doors open 7.30 pm – come on time to get a good seat!

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PHOOLAN DEVI was an Indian politician and former dacoit, a Robin Hood figure revered as the “Bandit Queen”. Her childhood in late-1960s rural Uttar Pradesh was a time of poverty, caste discrimination and sexualized violence, which continued during her bandit years from the age of 15. Living in ravines, her gang robbed cars and looted higher caste villages, sometimes disguising themselves in police uniforms. Devi became popular among lower castes; there was even a doll made in her image. After a massacre based on gang rivalry, Devi was charged with 48 crimes; she went on the run for two years but eventually surrendered and spent ten years on remand. But the charges against her were dropped and she joined the socialist Samajwadi Party, becoming an MP in 1996 and campaigning for women’s causes and the poor. Understandably, many people have told her fascinating story, including a disputed film of her life, but she dictated her autobiography (Devi was illiterate) to regain control of the narrative. Phoolan Devi was assassinated outside her New-Delhi home in 2001, aged 37. Various attempts to install statues of her have been blocked by the authorities. Her life has inspired folk singers, opera writers, filmmakers and novelists, as well as millions of others.

THERESE GIEHSE acted in movies with Vivien Leigh and Romy Schneider, founded an anti-Nazi cabaret with her lover Erika Mann, was photographed by Annemarie Schwarzenbach, and embodied several of Bertolt Brecht’s best-known characters on stage. Born in Munich in 1898, she went against her liberal Jewish family’s expectations to train as an actor, cast as older characters even as a young woman. The Pfeffermühle cabaret started up in 1933, swiftly moving to Zürich to escape the Nazis. With Erika and Klaus Mann, Giehse toured the political show around Europe, never mentioning any names but using parables and storytelling to rip the piss out of Hitler and his henchmen. She returned to Zürich in 1937, where she joined the outstanding cast at the Schauspielhaus theatre, many of them also emigrants like her. During the war, she performed in the premiere staging of Brecht’s anti-war play Mother Courage, defining the title role in what some directors have called the greatest play of the 20th century. She went on working with Brecht and other key playwrights and directors after 1945, in Munich, Zürich and East Berlin. Therese Giehse maintained her pacifist stance throughout her life, criticising the Vietnam War at public events. She died in 1975 and is buried with her sister in Zürich.

And now for our guest presenters from Ms Informed:

Photo © Dominika Diandini

Madhvi Ramani writes articles, essays, plays and prose. Her most recent children’s book Whisper, Shout, Let it Out (Macmillan, 2023) encourages children to experiment with their voices. Her work has been published in Asia Literary Review, The New York Times and The Washington Post. Her collaboration with the sound artist Lutz Gallmeister, Water Stories, was performed at ACUD Berlin and at the Hamburg Floating Transmissions Festival.

Rina Grob was born in Munich and grew up between Germany and the USA. After a time in film and theatre in London und New York, she now works in Berlin as a producer and podcaster, focusing on the nexus between feminism and pop culture.

January 16, 2024March 26, 2024

Dead Ladies Show NYC #26

Happy New Year! We’re so excited for you to join us as we embark on SIX YEARS of the Dead Ladies Show NYC. We so appreciate your continued support that makes the whole labor of love worth it!

DEETS: Wednesday, January 31, 7–9pm at the Red Room at KGB Bar! (85 E 4th St, New York, NY 10003, Third Floor.)

We will start the New Year with a FREE show! (although we will pass the hat for those who want to keep Dead Ladies going!) Join Molly and Sheila as we learn about why the caged bird sings, of a legendary American actress, and of the woman who built the Brooklyn Bridge.

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EMILY WARREN ROEBLING (1843-1903) was a society wife with no formal training in engineering. But when her father-in-law was killed and her husband permanently disabled while trying to build the Brooklyn Bridge, Emily stepped in to finish the job, leading the project to build the longest suspension bridge the world had ever seen. This is the story of a woman who navigated Tammany Hall corruption and enormous engineering challenges to build a New York City icon dubbed the Eighth Wonder of the World, a symbol of the Big Apple that stands proud today. The Brooklyn Bridge exists thanks to the stubborn perseverance of Mrs. Roebling.

SARAH BERNHARDT (1844-1923) was widely regarded as the greatest actress of the nineteenth century, She rose from anonymity as the unclaimed daughter of a Parisienne courtesan to performing for enraptured audiences around the world, even those who didn’t know a word of French. Passionate and eccentric, her list of lovers reads like a syllabus for a 19th-century literature class and her hobbies ranged from sculpting to tending pet goats and alligators to sleeping in a coffin. In the words of Mark Twain, “There are five kinds of actresses. Bad actresses, fair actresses, good actresses, great actresses, and then there is Sarah Bernhardt.”

MAYA ANGELOU (1928 – 2014) was an American author, poet, cook, dancer, traveler and wise soul who always had something to teach people, whether it was the general public, presidents, or celebrities. Her books tackle difficult life topics with poetic ease and passion. As she said, “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” Our presenter will tell you the untold story that has lived inside of her since she discovered Angelou’s work.

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BOB SOROKANICH is a writer and editor who mostly focuses on the car industry and transportation. He lives in Park Slope with his fiancee and their elderly dog Rory.

NANCY RITTER is a writer in New York City. She sits on the board of Saving Grace, the nonprofit dedicated to preserving the architecture of Grace Church — that big gothic beauty on Broadway just a few blocks down from the Strand. She lives in the East Village and needs more neighborhood friends, so come say hi after the show.

SYEDA ZAIDI is a Brooklyn resident who loves to travel to different countries when she can, collecting little pieces of art and jewelry. Like the lady she is presenting, “her mission in life is not to merely survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.”

October 22, 2023November 8, 2023

Podcast #68: June Tarpé Mills

In this episode, the last of Season Six, we bring you a show live from PodFest Berlin! DLS-ers Susan Stone and Katy Derbyshire joined the city’s fine and friendly podcasters at the yearly event in front of a small but perfectly formed audience.

From that event, producer Susan brings us the fascinating story of June Tarpé Mills, a comics pioneer and the first woman to create a female superhero, Miss Fury. The alter ego of socialite Marla Drake, Miss Fury wore a cursed black leopard skin and travelled the world fighting evil (mostly Nazis). She was sexy and smart, and a global hit from 1941–1951, during which she appeared in 100 newspapers, millions of comic books, and on the side of several US bombers. Then she, like her creator, largely disappeared. Decades after her death in obscurity, Mills is finally getting the recognition she deserves, from a headstone for her unmarked grave to induction into the Comic Industry Hall of Fame.

We mentioned our wonderful friend Andy Horn, who introduced us to Tarpé Mills. Read more about Andy here.

Also available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, RadioPublic, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, and Acast. You can download the transcript, created by Susan, here.

Show notes:

Miss Fury vs. a familiar-looking “impostor”

Fantomah was created by Fletcher Hanks in 1940

Wonder Woman debuted six months after Miss Fury (and looked very similar)

The 1947 image that caused 37 newspapers to drop Miss Fury

The picture Red took on his last assignment

The gorgeous cover of the 1979 Miss Fury collection

Miss Fury appearing on the cover of 2007’s *Twelve*

The gorgeous 2011/2013 Library of Comics reissues of the original Miss Fury run

Miss Fury watching over the Prada runway in Milan, 2017

To learn more, check out these books, and of course the official June Tarpe Mills website

One last note — If you’d like to support us and get a bit of Dead Lady content before we come back with season seven, please check out our Patreon where we have loads of exclusive content including interviews and book reviews, and even entire Dead Ladies Show presentations that you’ll get to hear before (almost) anyone else. Thanks to everyone who already supports us there, including our new friend Rita Durant!

Our theme music is “Little Lily Swing” by Tri-Tachyon https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Tri-Tachyon/the-kleptotonic-ep/little-lily-swing

You can browse our TeePublic shop at this link: https://www.teepublic.com/user/dead-ladies-show

We are on Instagram and Twitter @deadladiesshow and on BlueSky @deadladiesshow.bsky.social

Thanks for listening! We’ll be back soon with a new season full of fabulous Dead Ladies!

October 5, 2023October 5, 2023

PodFest Berlin 2023: June Tarpé Mills & Käthe Paulus

We’re delighted to invite you to our second appearance at PodFest Berlin!

Florian, Katy, and Susan will be presenting a mini-Dead Ladies Show at the podcast festival on Saturday, October 14th starting at 8:15pm (doors open 8pm) at Noisy Rooms, Revaler Str. 99, 10245 Berlin (inside House of Music at RAW Gelände). Susan will reveal the writer and artist behind Miss Fury, and Katy will reprise the story of Germany’s first female airship pilot (auf Deutsch this time). See below for more information on the two ladies in question, who will, as always, be presented in a messy mixture of English and German.

Tickets are €12, and you get 23% off with our special promo code “DeadLadies23”! Each ticket covers the Dead Ladies Show plus a half-day pass to festival events on Saturday between 5-10:30pm, including workshops and panels, seminars, and other events! Please book in advance here.

You can also purchase day and weekend passes (23% off with our promo code, or even cheaper with a student discount), which will include our event on Saturday and everything else on offer! This is our last show of the year, and we’d love to see you there.

Can’t wait? Why not listen to our past shows as podcasts? Our latest episode comes direct from DLS NYC, as illustrator Nafisa Ferdous introduces us to Amrita Sher-Gil, a queer, feminist, Hungarian-Indian artist, writer, and art critic who left a profound impact on art despite her untimely death.

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JUNE TARPÉ MILLS created the first female comic-book action hero — Miss Fury, the secret identity of socialite Marla Drake. Mills’ fashionable crimefighter appeared 6 months before Wonder Woman, and won fans for her style, noir storylines, and bouts of self-doubt, although Miss Fury’s kinky costumes and proclivity for putting the ‘strip’ in comic strip got the series banned from several newspapers in the 1940s. Writer and artist June Mills created several other male action characters, and had her own alter ego, turning her middle name into a nom de plume, for a mysterious and possibly more masculine identity.

KÄTHE PAULUS was Germany’s first female airship pilot, a professional aerial acrobat, and the inventor of the folding parachute. On meeting a balloonist, she decided to learn how to pilot a hot-air balloon and perform parachute jumps. Having had his baby out of wedlock, she lost him in a ballooning accident and made a living for herself – and her mother, who she lived with throughout her life – flying balloons, airships, and planes, and jumping out of them, starting her own parachute production line during WWI. And yes, they have named a street at BER after her.

September 14, 2023November 8, 2023

Podcast #67: Amrita Sher-Gil

In this episode, we hear once again from our friends at Dead Ladies NYC. Nafisa Ferdous presents Amrita Sher-Gil, a queer, feminist, Hungarian-Indian artist, writer, and art critic who left a profound impact on art despite her untimely death. Sher-Gil was an incredibly charismatic non-conformist whose work reframed discussions on art and feminism, orientalism, and colonialism, while merging European technique and classical Indian aesthetics into something new. DLS co-founder Katy Derbyshire joins producer/host Susan Stone to introduce the story.

Also available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, RadioPublic, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, and Acast. You can download the transcript, created by Susan Stone, here.

Show notes:

September 1, 2023October 12, 2023

Dead Ladies NYC #25

Happy September! We’re celebrating FIVE YEARS of the Dead Ladies Show NYC this month—the first edition took place on September 5, 2018 at the illustrious KGB Bar. It has been an extraordinary ride—fascinating women, incredible presenters, and an audience that makes the whole labor of love worth it! (That’s you.)

And now, by popular demand, the information for our next show!

DEETS: Wednesday, September 27, 7–9pm at the Red Room at KGB Bar! (85 E 4th St, New York, NY 10003, Third Floor.) BUY TICKETS HERE!

(As always, if the cover charge presents any issue, please contact us and we can absolutely work something out.)

Join Molly and Sheila as we learn about an influential mother in Christian theology, a Surrealist painter who became part of the French Resistance, and a speed racer who shattered records and expectations in the automotive world!

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MONICA OF THAGASTE (331–387 AD) was the mother, and a major theological interlocutor, of Saint Augustine, considered one of the most influential figures in early Christianity.

MARY REYNOLDS (1891–1950) was an American-born artist and advocate who became a central figure of the Surrealist movement in Paris. A “relentless bohemian” who counted Man Ray, Alexander Calder, Peggy Guggenheim and Marcel Duchamp as close friends, Mary was renowned for her bookbinding, particularly her surprising and unorthodox use of materials like teacup handles, thermometers, and kid gloves. She refused to leave Paris during the Nazi occupation of France, and became a member of the French Resistance. When she was discovered, she narrowly avoided capture by escaping over the Pyrenees on foot, before returning to Paris after the war.

JESSI COMBS (1980–2019) was an icon in the automotive world. Trained as a mechanic, Combs made her name on TV, one of the first women to host a car-repair TV show. In 2013, she set a women’s record in land-speed racing, achieving 398 mph in a jet-powered car built from an Air Force fighter plane. In 2019, Combs died while attempting to break her own record driving that same jet-powered car.

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Your presenters:

SUSANNAH BLACK ROBERTS is senior editor at the magazines Plough Quarterly and Mere Orthodoxy. She and her husband split their time between the Upper West Side and the West Midlands of England.

GRACE ENRIGHT is a Midwest transplant to New York who works in the grocery industry. She loves all things Art History and, if you’re looking, you can find her rewatching “Moonstruck” starring Cher and Nicolas Cage.

BOB SOROKANICH is an automotive journalist and a former editor at Road & Track Magazine. He lives in Brooklyn, NY.