The Dead Ladies Show

January 15, 2025January 15, 2025

Dead Ladies Show #38: Boudica, Hannah Höch & Dorothy Thompson!

This February 16th, the Dead Ladies Show returns to Berlin, and this time we’re doing it on a SUNDAY – so it’s starting an hour earlier, at 7 pm. Other than that, you’ll get exactly what you know and cherish about the show: three talks on ladies you’ll love to learn about, one in German and two in English, a charming audience, and a warm and entertaining atmosphere. Your beloved co-hosts FLORIAN DUIJSENS and KATY DERBYSHIRE will both be presenting, joined by a very special guest, the writer and blog producer MIKU SOPHIE KÜHMEL.

The Dead Ladies Show no longer has funding, so the non-reduced price is €10, but reduced tickets still cost €4. You can pre-order all tickets here. Doors open 6:30 pm – come on time to get a good seat!

Who are the ladies this time? Well…

We start way back in about the year 60 CE, with BOUDICA of the British Iceni tribe, who led a rebellion against the occupying Romans. We don’t know a whole lot about her, since the victorious Romans wrote the history books, so she became a bit of a blank slate for imperialist projections – most of which spell her name wrong. But the suffragettes also adopted her as a mascot, and hey, Enya wrote a song about her.

Our next dead lady lived closer to home: you can visit her house in Berlin-Heiligensee. HANNAH HÖCH was an artist in the Dada movement, creating collages from 1916 on and often addressing gender roles and expectations. The Nazis labelled her work “degenerate art” and made survival hard for her, but she managed to preserve numerous Dada artworks and documents from destruction. After the war she exhibited internationally again and gave lectures on women and art.

DOROTHY THOMPSON was a foreign correspondent and the first US journalist to be expelled from Nazi Germany, a pretty good sign. In Vienna and Berlin, she’d hung out with all the cool kids – maybe even Hannah. Back in the States, she provided commentary and analysis on Europe for newspapers, magazines, and NBC radio, warning urgently against the Nazis and advocating on behalf of Jewish refugees. Katharine Hepburn played a journalist loosely based on Thompson in a 1942 romcom, which Louis B. Mayer had rewritten to be less feminist.

Miku Sophie Kühmel hat Literatur- und Medienwissenschaften in New York und Berlin studiert. Seit 2017 produziert sie freiberuflich Podcasts für u.a Süddeutsche Zeitung, Deutschlandfunk, Wondery, Audible und andere. Dabei ist sie auch als Dramaturgin und Autorin tätig. Nach Veröffentlichungen in Anthologien und Magazinen folgte 2019 der Debütroman Kintsugi, der einen Platz auf der Shortlist des Deutschen Buchpreises einbrachte, sowie den Jürgen-Ponto- Preis und den aspekte Literaturpreis des ZDF. 2022 erschien bei S.Fischer der zweite Roman Triskele, der im Folgejahr für den Clemens-Brentano-Preis nominiert war. Im Mai 2024 erschien die erste literarisch-essayistische Anthologie BRÜSTE, die sie zusammen mit Linus Giese beim Tropen Verlag heraus gab, Beitragende sind u.a. Antje Ravík Strubel, Daniela Dröscher und Audrey Naline. Zur Zeit arbeitet Miku im Deutschen Theater Berlin als Atelierautor*in an einem Stück, das im Juni 2025 im Rahmen der Autor*innentheatertage aufgeführt wird. Im Juli 2025 erscheint ihr neuer Roman.

Katy Derbyshire is a literary translator and part-time publisher, co-host and co-founder of the Dead Ladies Show.

Florian Duijsens edits, teaches, translates, travels, and is the co-host and co-founder of the Dead Ladies Show.

We would like to point out that the lift in the building is unfortunately not working at the moment. For this reason, access is currently restricted. We would like to apologise for this.

December 27, 2024January 15, 2025

DLS NYC #32

Join us on Thursday, January 16, 7–9pm at the Red Room at KGB Bar (85 E 4th St, New York, NY 10003, Third Floor).

Buy tickets here!

Our 32nd show in NYC will feature an infamous English muse, an American (not Canadian!) spy, and a Senegalese women’s rights activist.

Your presenters include a very local history buff and two (2) humorists of pen and stage! All held together by Sheila and Molly, per usual! We can’t wait to see your shining faces.

P.S. We are charging a cover to defray costs of the event—if this presents any issue, please contact us and we can absolutely work something out. Tickets purchased online are $10 plus fees; tickets at the door will be $15.

Get those tickets early!

*************************************************************************************************************

Your Ladies:

EFFIE GRAY (1828-1897) was the woman at the center of the most shocking love triangle of the Victorian era. Caught between John Ruskin – the art critic who championed the Pre-Raphaelite painters – and John Everett Millais – Ruskin’s protégé and one of the leading pre-Raphaelites, her bold challenge to Victorian sexual hypocrisies led Queen Victoria to ban her from court. Nearly two centuries later, those hypocrisies have lost much of their institutional power – but her story nevertheless resonates powerfully for women as they navigate their complex, often contradictory desires to be muse, mother, and master of their own fate.

VIRGINIA HALL (1906–1982), a.k.a., “The Limping Lady” of Baltimore who f*cked with Nazis, was one of the most daring and effective spies of World War II. Undeterred by losing a leg at age 27, she joined the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) and later the U.S. Office of Strategic Services (OSS), infiltrating Nazi-occupied France, organizing resistance networks, and orchestrating sabotage missions. Hall evaded capture despite being relentlessly pursued by the Gestapo, who called her that “Canadian b*tch.” (She was neither Canadian, nor a b*tch. Stupid Nazis.)

MARIAMA BÂ (1929–1981) was an influential Senegalese author and women’s rights activist in Senegal. Born and raised in a Muslim family, her novels critiqued inequalities between men and women, religious beliefs, and polygamy. She won the Noma Award for Publishing in Africa for her first book Une Si Longue Lettre (“So Long a Letter”), and gave a speech at the 1980 Frankfurt Book Fair. She died a year later of cancer, right before the publication of her second novel Un Chant écarlate (“Scarlet Song”). A school was named after her in Dakar.

**********************************************************************************************************

Your Presenters:

NANCY RITTER lives in the East Village and needs more neighborhood friends, so come say hi after the show!

JULIE KLING is a humor, health, and parenting writer based in (a very boring suburb of) New York City. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, McSweeney’s, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Scary Mommy, and on-stage at the Upright Citizens Brigade. Sign up for her free and sporadic newsletter Mom Rage(r): Turning Your Mom Rage Into Raging Fun @ juliekling.com

STEVEN MOITY works for The New York Times as a News assistant in New York City. Born and raised in France, he moved to New York 12 years ago. In his spare time, he can be seen performing improv sketches across various comedy clubs.

December 14, 2024December 14, 2024

Podcast #78: Paula Fox

It’s our last episode of Season Seven, and our last episode of 2024, which means it’s Rotkäppchen time! Join us as we toast to Dead Ladies with German fizzy wine, and hear the story of another fabulous woman.

DLS cofounders Katy Derbyshire and Florian Duijsens join the party as we get ready to hear the story of writer Paula Fox. As Florian explains, this talented author’s personal plot twists and turns include a stint as foreign correspondent, receiving a baby alligator in the mail, writing award-winning children’s books and a novel adapted for a film starring Shirley MacLaine, oh—also being Courtney Love’s grandmother (but not knowing that for decades).

Want to hear our end of year review and our Dead Lady gift list chat? This time it’s exclusive on Patreon, but you can join up starting at only $2 or 2€ and get access to all our special content past, present, and future. You can also gift (or request) a subscription to the Dead Ladies Show by following this link.

We can tell you this already: we will be live in Berlin on February 16th and May 13th, when we celebrate our 10th anniversary of the Dead Ladies Show in Berlin! Save the date, dears!

If you’re in NYC, go see our pals Dead Ladies Show NYC on January 16 at the KGB Bar Red Room. Find out more from them on Instagram @deadladiesnyc or join up for their newsletter if you like here.

We’d also be pleased as punch if you follow us on social media @deadladiesshow where we share pictures and info about all of the wonderful Dead Ladies we’ve covered so far. You can also drop us a line via info@deadladiesshow.com and we’re on BlueSky too!

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

Show notes:

Paula’s great-granddaughter Frances Bean Cobain in and ex utero

Paula Fox’s gorgeous, terrible parents, Elsie de Sola and Paul Hervey Fox

Paula and her beloved Uncle Elwood Corning

Paula’s first movie star, Lilyan Tashman

Posters for the worst movie Graham Greene ever saw

Paula’s marvelous memoirs of her childhood and her time as a journalist in war-torn Europe

The movie that bought Paula her brownstone

The only biography of Paula’s so far is in German

Our theme music is “Little Lily Swing” by Tri-Tachyon. Thanks for listening! We’ll be back with a new episode next year.

November 14, 2024November 29, 2024

Podcast #77: Anna Göldi

In this episode we hear a story that feels sadly relevant—a miscarriage of justice. Anna Göldi was the last woman to be legally executed after being accused of witchcraft in Switzerland, in 1782; just seven years before the French Revolution, and a century after witch trials were rampant in Europe (as well as infamously in Salem, Massachusetts). Anna came from a poor family, and worked as a maid in various households, but she was also an independent and freethinking woman. In 1781 she was looking after a young girl who allegedly began spitting up pins and nails.

Her wealthy employers accused her of witchcraft, and she was tortured until she admitted being in league with the devil. Anna Göldi was sentenced to death by decapitation for poisoning, even though the girl had not died. Not until 2007 was her case reevaluated and her name cleared. There’s now a museum, several podcasts, films and books that cover Anna’s life and story. DLS co-founder Katy Derbyshire tells it for us, and host/producer Susan Stone and our other co-founder Florian Duijsens come along to set things up.

Also available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Pocket Casts. You can find the transcript, created by Susan, here.

Show notes:

Wedding party looks like fun; the subsequent trial and penalty less so.

A woman operating a mechanical loom, in development during 1780s

Dr Tschudi’s house in Glarus, now the Anna Göldi Museum

The pins as illustrated in the new media

Cornelia Kempers in Gertrud Pinkus’s Anna Göldi feature film

Two German books about Anna: the novel (left) by Eveline Hasler and one of several excellent non-fiction books by Walter Hauser, who campaigned for her rehabilitation.

Our theme music is “Little Lily Swing” by Tri-Tachyon. Thanks for listening! We’ll be back with a new episode next month.

****

The Dead Ladies Show is a series of entertaining and inspiring talks about women who achieved amazing things against all odds, presented live in Berlin and beyond. This podcast is based on that series. Because women’s history is everyone’s history.

The Dead Ladies Show was founded by Florian Duijsens and Katy Derbyshire.

The podcast is created, produced, edited, and presented by Susan Stone.

November 9, 2024November 9, 2024

Dead Ladies Show #37: Flora Tristan, Helen Duncan & Mary MacLane!

Come Saturday, 30 November, we’re back at last to our bilingual format! Our podcast producer Susan Stone and your beloved co-host Florian Duijsens will be joined by the fantastic Magda Birkmann, an expert on almost-forgotten women’s writing. And it’s all held together by your other beloved co-host Katy Derbyshire. This is your chance to learn about three extraordinary women who certainly did not do as they were told. Put on your glad rags and join us for an inspiring and informative evening. 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!

We would like to point out that the lift in the building is unfortunately not working at the moment. For this reason, access is currently restricted. We would like to apologise for this.

Please arrive at least 10 minutes before the start of the event, otherwise your seats may be released if there is a large crowd.

FLORA TRISTAN (Flore Célestine Thérèse Henriette Tristán y Moscoso) was a French-Peruvian socialist activist and feminist theorist. Born in 1803 into a military family, she experienced deprivation first-hand when her father died and her uncle nabbed the inheritance. Her writing organized the fragmented ideas on women’s equality arising from the French Revolution, laying the foundations for 19th-century feminism. She was the first to say that the proletariat must unite as a class and free itself, an idea that Marx would later incorporate in his work. Her publications included Peregrinations of a Pariah (1839), Promenades in London (1840), and the booklet The Workers’ Union (1843).

HELEN DUNCAN was a Scottish medium and the last person to be imprisoned under the Witchcraft Act of 1735 for fraudulent claims. She used her “paranormal talents” to make ends meet (and because it was better than working in a bleach factory). Her crude methods were quickly exposed by flash photography but she continued nonetheless. The British Navy took an interest in her after she leaked the sinking of a ship at a séance in 1941. She was arrested mid-performance in 1944, shrouded in a white sheet, and sentenced to nine months’ imprisonment. A sample of her “ectoplasm” is held at Cambridge University Library.

MARY MACLANE was an American writer whose memoirs started scandals and helped introduce the confessional style of autobiographical writing. A bisexual feminist, she wrote her first book at the age of 20 in 1901. Her publisher rejected its original title of I Await the Devil’s Coming, but the book was still a massive hit, especially with other young women. Following two more experimental memoirs, she wrote and starred in an autobiographical silent movie in 1917, entitled Men Who Have Made Love to Me. It was the earliest recorded on-screen breaking of the fourth wall outside of comedy cinema, with MacLane addressing the camera while smoking cigarettes between vignettes of failed love affairs, although sadly the film is considered lost.

November 1, 2024January 15, 2025

DLS NYC #31

Join us on Wednesday, November 13, 7–9pm at the Red Room at KGB Bar (85 E 4th St, New York, NY 10003, Third Floor). Same bat time, same bat channel.

Buy tickets here!

At this, our 31st show, learn about an cutting-edge industrial designer, a mom who knows just when it’s clobberin’ time, and a Sister/resister. Brought to you by an industrious designer, a repeat presenter with a particular love for overlooked stories, and a man who loves his cat. Sheila and Molly will be there as well, steering the good ship DLS NYC as is our passion.

*************************************************************************************************************

Your Ladies:

HELEN HUGHES DULANY (1885–1968), was an Industrial Design pioneer who made significant contributions to stainless steel, commercial china, kitchen ranges, and dining car equipment for railroads. Although Dulany had a short lived career, lasting about seven years, she made significant contributions to American modernist design. Dulany’s innovative work is found within major museum collections such as the Art Institute of Chicago, The Met Museum, and the Brooklyn Museum.

KATHERINE MCHALE SLAUGHTERBACK (1893–1969) was a farmer from the rugged plains of Colorado who earned the nickname “Rattlesnake Kate” when she and her young son found themselves under attack near a den of snakes; she single-handedly clobbered 140 of them to death. She later turned their skins into a flapper style dress with matching accessories and collected venom for scientific research. Her feat captured the imaginations of Americans, earned her the amorous interest of a cowboy poet and is the subject of a solo album by Neyla Pekarek, a former singer with the Lumineers.

SISTER MEGAN RICE (1930–2021) was a Roman Catholic sister of the Society of the Holy Child Jesus and disarmament activist from Morningside Heights in New York. Beginning life as a school teacher and missionary, Rice later became involved with multiple anti-war activist groups resulting in multiple run-ins with the law. As a result of her involvement with the Transform Now Plowshares group, she spent three years in prison for her protest of the nuclear industrial complex.

**********************************************************************************************************

Your Presenters:

SAM BARONE is currently pursuing a BFA in Interior Design at Parsons School of Design. With a passion for both modern and historical design, Sam is working at Weinberg Modern, Apartment 48, and CvH Gallery.

AMY PADNANI is a senior staff editor on the Obituaries desk at The New York Times and the creator of Overlooked, a series that tells the stories of remarkable women, people of color and others who never got a Times obit.

GREG LOWE is a transplant from Michigan with a penchant for following his cat around his apartment and coercing people to play trivia despite not being good at it. For a collective list of his works, click here: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0004874/

October 17, 2024November 7, 2024

Podcast #76: Ester Krumbachová

In this episode, Rachel Pronger of the Invisible Women film collective brings us the story of iconoclastic Czech film multi-talent Ester Krumbachová. Ester was a screen writer, costume and stage designer, author, and film director. Her work was quirky, colorful, and political, lashing out at patriarchy and authoritarianism. She had a defining influence on Czech New Wave cinema, collaborating on more than twenty movies from the early 1960s on, including the delightful Daisies and the perplexing Murdering the Devil. 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.

DLS co-founder Katy Derbyshire joins producer/host Susan Stone to set the scene.

Also available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Pocket Casts. You can find the transcript, created by Susan, here.

Show notes:

September 19, 2024November 7, 2024

Podcast #75: Shirley Chisholm

In this episode, we’re live at PodFest Berlin! DLS co-founders Katy Derbyshire and Florian Duijsens do the introducing, while DLSP Producer Susan Stone tells us about the amazing life of Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman elected to the United States Congress (in 1968). Four years later, Shirley was the first Black person and the first woman to run for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination. She was known for her hard work on behalf of equal rights, introducing legislation that helped women and children, workers and the poor. Additionally, she was called the “best dressed woman on Capitol Hill” for her sharp style. Shirley’s legendary campaign slogan was “Unbought and unbossed,” and she kept the philosophy throughout her long political career. Shirley never wanted to be remembered as the “first” this or that, but as someone who fought for change and blazed a path for those like her in politics. Her legacy is undeniable.

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

September 18, 2024November 7, 2024

DLS NYC x Green-Wood Cemetery

We’re deep into spooky season—get ready to get even deeper (by approximately six feet) into the world of dead ladies!

Detail of Charlotte Canda’s Mausoleum. Photo via Green-Wood.com.

The illustrious J.R. Pepper, a recurrent presenter at DLS NYC, is leading a DEAD LADIES-THEMED CEMETERY TOUR. And you should all come.

Presented by Green-Wood Cemetery, the tour (“Fame, Fortune, and The Forgotten: The Untold Stories of Victorian Women”) will include stops at the graves of Charlotte Canda, Lola Montez, and Anna Leah Fox, among others.

Lola Montez, not yet a Dead Lady. Photo via Green-Wood.com.

It will take place 3–5pm (spoooooky golden hour!) on October 27 at Green-Wood.

For more information and to buy tickets, click here. Use code DEADLADIES10 for a $10 discount!

September 6, 2024

PodFest Berlin 2024: Anna Göldi & Shirley Chisholm!

We’re delighted to invite you to our third appearance at PodFest Berlin as we celebrate a first and a last for some notable Dead Ladies!

Florian, Katy, and Susan will be presenting a mini-Dead Ladies Show at the podcast festival on Saturday, September 14th starting at 4pm (doors open 3:30pm) at House of Colour (HOCO), Gneisenaustrasse 66–67, Aufgang E, 1st Floor, 10961 Berlin.

Susan will tell the timely tale of the first Black woman to run for the American presidency, and Katy will reprise the story of the last woman to be legally executed after being accused of witchcraft in Switzerland (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 €11.83 (including booking fees), or you can purchase day passes and event passes from PodFest Berlin that include the many exciting things going on between September 7–15, including workshops, panels, seminars, and other events! Please book in advance here.

See you soon!

SHIRLEY CHISHOLM was the first Black woman elected to the United States Congress, in 1968. Four years later, she was the first Black person and the first woman to run for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination. Once in Congress, she worked to get surplus food into the hands of those who needed it most and tried to implement federal funding for childcare. She did succeed in giving domestic workers the right to minimum wage, and she pointed out to the women’s movement that women of color faced multiple forms of discrimination. After her death in 2005, her vault in Buffalo was inscribed with her legendary campaign slogan: “Unbought and unbossed”.

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. From a poor family, she worked as a maid in various households. In 1781 she was 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. Not until 2007 was her case acknowledged as a miscarriage of justice.