Podcast – The Dead Ladies Show

September 25, 2026

Podcast #92: Hannah Cullwick

In this episode, DLS co-founder Katy Derbyshire introduces us to a woman from the past who probably would have been overlooked if she hadn’t documented her life in such a painstaking fashion — on request. As a domestic servant in Victorian England, Hannah Cullwick should have led a rather ordinary existence for her time. But her involvement in a very unconventional relationship means that we know quite a lot about her work and life, and much, much more.

Presenter Katy Derbyshire is not just our co-founder, she’s also a notable translator, publisher, and book enthusiast. Katy’s imprint, V&Q Books, has a brand new book out that she compiled and edited. It’s called Berlin Babel, and it’s a collection of short stories about the city from a rich array of international voices. Do check it out at this link if you like!

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August 21, 2026August 22, 2026

Podcast #91: Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky

Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky, reclining in a chair

In this episode, DLSP host Susan Stone brings us the story of Austrian architect Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky, famous for inventing the Frankfurt Kitchen, which modernized one of the most important rooms in the home. Driven by her aesthetic mission and her politics, Schütte-Lihotzky designed humanitarian housing, kindergartens, schools, and more during her over 100 years of life, which included stints in the Soviet Union and a Gestapo prison.

DLS co-founder Katy Derbyshire is on hand to help with the introducing duties.

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June 20, 2026June 20, 2026

Podcast #90: Victoria Woodhull

In this episode, DLS co-founder Florian Duijsens introduces us to a woman of many lives, many careers, and many misadventures. Victoria Woodhull worked a clairvoyant and faith healer, she opened a financial firm on Wall Street, she started a newspaper, campaigned for women’s and worker’s rights, and ran for President — all in late 1800s USA.

DLS co-founder Katy Derbyshire joins host/producer Susan Stone to introduce our new season.

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May 27, 2026

Podcast #89: Alice Guy

In this episode, we meet Alice Guy, a woman of filmmaking firsts. She was truly inspired by the moving image in its earliest form, and her innovations changed film and entertainment forever. She became the first filmmaker to incorporate narrative, certainly the first woman director, and probably the only one until 1906. After moving to the US, she was then the first woman to own a studio, in the pre-Hollywood moviemaking hub of Flushing, New York. Few of her films have survived, but her legacy is lasting.

Berlin-based, Australian-born writer and editor Alina Hoyne tells Alice’s story, while DLS-cofounder Katy Derbyshire and host/producer/host Susan Stone are on hand to do the introducing.

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April 21, 2026May 27, 2026

Podcast #88: Una Marson

In this episode, we meet Una Marson, a Jamaican writer, journalist, and radio producer, who shared her talents and voice in poetry, plays, and on the BBC, after her ambition took her to London in the 1930s. She described as the first Black feminist to speak out against racism and sexism in Britain. We know little about her life post-1945, when she returned to Jamaica and continued writing poetry and fighting discrimination – but a recent rediscovery in the UK has led to a TV documentary and a library named in her honor.

DLS co-founder Katy Derbyshire tells Una’s story, and joins host/producer Susan Stone to set the scene.

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March 27, 2026March 27, 2026

Podcast #87: F. Tennyson Jesse

We kick off Season Nine of the podcast by meeting a woman who could be called the godmother of true crime.

Producer/host Susan Stone tells the story of F. Tennyson Jesse, an English journalist, criminologist, and writer. The daughter of a vicar who dragged the family around the British empire, she trained as a painter before moving to London in 1911. Journalism beckoned, but she was not put off by losing the use of her right hand in a plane accident, learning to type left-handed. Known as Fryn to her friends, she reported from the ground during World War I and published fiction, before moving into criminology and true crime writing. Her 1924 book Murder and its Motives set out six basic motivations for killing, a very influential theory, and she wrote about several of the most notorious crimes in the first half of the 20th century. Fryn also had a rather dramatic private life thanks to her doctor-turned-playwright husband Tottie, who kept their marriage secret for several years.

DLS co-founder Katy Derbyshire joins Susan to introduce our new season.

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December 22, 2025

Podcast #86: Eileen Agar

It’s our last episode of 2025, and the final episode of Season 8! Susan, Katy and Florian meet up to toast the end of another season, and of course to clink glasses in honor of our featured Dead Lady, Eileen Agar.

Eileen Agar was the sort of artist who looked at a hat and thought, What if it grew feathers, sprouted seashells, and started whispering secrets to strangers? Born in Buenos Aires and raised in Britain, Agar was a painter, collagist and sculptor with a delicious taste for the absurd. She danced on the edges of Surrealism—sometimes elbowing her way in, sometimes pirouetting just out of reach—and exhibited alongside the likes of Dalí and Ernst, though she never let their mustaches overshadow her own wildly imaginative vision. DLS co-founder Florian Duijsens brings us her story.

December 3, 2025December 4, 2025

Podcast #85: Carla Capponi

This time around we head back to New York to hear about Italian antifascist Carla Capponi. Professor Suzanne Cope, author of WOMEN OF WAR: The Italian Assassins, Spies and Couriers Who Fought the Nazis brings us Carla’s lively tale, which is full of bombs, intrigue, and bravery. DLS co-founder Florian Duijsens joins host/producer Susan Stone to introduce the talk.

Find out more about Suzanne Cope here: https://www.suzannecope.com/

October 24, 2025

Podcast #84: Betty Mae Tiger Jumper

Betty Mae Tiger Jumper in a pink flowy top, behind a microphone

We’re back with a delightful episode about Betty Mae Tiger Jumper, the first female chief of the Seminole Tribe of Florida. Host Susan Stone dives deep into the history of the Seminole Indians and Betty Mae’s unusual life and times, via a talk recorded in front of a live audience in Berlin. As a mixed-race child, Betty was ‘born a crime’ according to Seminole medicine men, but she endured to lead her community as a nurse, journalist, leader, and a storyteller.

DLS co-founder Katy Derbyshire joins host/producer Susan Stone to introduce the talk.

Also available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Pocket Casts.

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June 23, 2025August 6, 2025

Podcast #82: Caroline of Brunswick

Caroline in a red velvet dress and hat, celebrating sculpture

In this episode, we hear a bit of our lovely 10th anniversary show in Berlin, and DLS co-founder Katy Derbyshire gives us the rundown on Caroline of Brunswick, who was officially queen of the United Kingdom and Hanover for three whole weeks before she died in 1821, long-estranged from her horrible husband, her cousin King George IV. They had separated shortly after the birth of their only child, and Caroline’s access to her daughter was restricted. She later moved to Italy, celebrated the right to bare arms, and lived with a handsome secretary, prompting huge amounts of gossip and countless caricatures. When George ascended to the throne, Caroline tried to cash in on her popularity and become queen, but she was literally locked out of the coronation.

Recorded live at Lettrétage by Betty Kapun.

Also available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Pocket Casts.

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