Vulgar History - Tits Out Brigade Qs and As, part one

00:00:00.000 Hello and welcome to Vulgar History, a feminist women's history comedy podcast. My name is 0.73

00:00:19.480 Anne Foster, and this is a super special episode. Today I'm going to be answering questions

00:00:24.080 were submitted by you the tits of brigade via patreon twitter and instagram and the reason

00:00:31.020 i'm doing this episode this week is for a couple reasons it all coincided in a really good way

00:00:36.140 firstly depending on how you count episode like what's an episode of this show versus what's a

00:00:42.140 super special of this episode this may or we may or may not have just had our 50th episode maybe

00:00:48.960 so that's worth celebrating as well so just a week or so ago this podcast that I record

00:00:58.420 sitting at my kitchen table by myself with no production team other than me just reached one

00:01:05.140 million listens worldwide which is huge and wild and really exciting and makes me really happy

00:01:13.180 so that's worth celebrating as well and I feel like there's another thing we're celebrating

00:01:18.720 too but oh no the other thing is not worth celebrating the other thing is just like I got

00:01:23.640 behind in my research because of life-related reasons and this international season which I'm

00:01:28.380 having I'm sure you can tell like the greatest time learning about all these places uh learning

00:01:33.360 just from books and podcasts but also talking to people and tits out brigade and learning about

00:01:38.060 stuff um but it's just more work than when it was just like 1600s England which is a place I know I

00:01:47.160 don't need to be like okay what's the language how do you pronounce things who's the king what's

00:01:50.920 the history of it so anyway I got a little behind in my research and so I just need a bit more time

00:01:56.460 before we get into that's the other thing yeah so we're halfway through the season this is a season

00:02:01.020 of I think what I have planned is 20 episodes and we've done 10 I think so it just felt like a nice

00:02:06.120 time to for all those reasons just to pause reflect and answer some questions so I'm just

00:02:12.960 going to kind of go through these in a very chaotic and random way and do my best to answer

00:02:17.580 as many questions as I can. So the first question I see is from Abby and she asks, if you could have

00:02:25.520 a conversation with any of the women you've talked about, who would your top four be and why? And so

00:02:31.940 there's other questions. They're all a bit different, but a lot of them have to do with me

00:02:37.040 choosing from among the people I've talked about on the podcast and thinking about various tasks

00:02:41.660 or activities to do with them i like that this one starts off asking with four because then i

00:02:46.620 don't have to choose just one which is tricky but i'm going to answer them as long as it's like a

00:02:52.640 different scenario i'm going to answer as many of these as i can so if i could have a conversation

00:02:55.780 with any of the women i've talked about who would my top four be and why so i am uh referring to

00:03:03.080 the scandalous scale document in front of me because while i know a lot of people have uh

00:03:08.220 recently binged a whole bunch of episodes in a row to me some of these are like two years ago

00:03:12.980 and i like don't entirely remember who everyone was and what they did but so the first person who

00:03:21.100 so just have a conversation this is like who would be interesting to just like talk with

00:03:25.220 i think the first person i would choose would be melanzine because she um just was i would like to

00:03:33.760 see what she's like speaking um so much of her story is how persuasive she was and how charming

00:03:38.780 she was and how she's able to really ingratiate herself to all kinds of different people which

00:03:43.720 i think sounds like a very pleasant sort of conversation to have with somebody and also

00:03:49.400 she well this is an imaginary situation but also i feel like she could quickly learn how to speak

00:03:54.540 english because she was so good at learning languages i would also like to talk to

00:03:59.600 hmm catherine willoughby who was the one who she's married to charles brandon when she was like

00:04:06.840 his teenage ward growth awful but then he died and then she married did she marry peregrine

00:04:12.420 bertie or that was her son anyway she just she was part of the renaissance reformation girl squad

00:04:18.160 and just seems like a really smart interesting person like again i'm just thinking who would i

00:04:21.780 have cool conversations with like who seems like a cool person you know like you know i'm not

00:04:27.140 choosing is Catalina de Arraso yeah there's other activities maybe I don't want to do with her but

00:04:32.140 like to sit and talk with her I feel like that's not that wouldn't be fun for her or for me let's

00:04:38.260 see who else sounds like they'd be good to talk to I'm just literally browsing this list I think

00:04:45.260 I know you're waiting for me to be like Francis Howard Fred again but I'm like but is that

00:04:48.960 do I want to talk with them or do I want to like go for drinks with them you know like I'm just

00:04:53.580 thinking oh Mary Shelley I think she'd be great to have a conversation with I think she's also very

00:04:58.700 interesting um and had a lot of thoughts that I think would be cool to talk to her and learn

00:05:07.180 about from her and the fourth person I'm gonna choose would be

00:05:12.620 I think Queen Margot because she I'm choosing a lot of people who sort of like

00:05:21.380 hosted salons of like thinkers in their rooms and that's they're just people who i feel like

00:05:28.040 would hold their own in a conversation and like listen but also like have interesting stuff to

00:05:33.120 say and like have a really engaging conversation so those are my four that's who i choose uh let's

00:05:38.620 see the next question is katie says would love to hear your fave historical fiction book

00:05:46.340 recommendations and if you can recommend anything similar to a net for small fishes by lucy jago

00:05:51.600 the francis howard book um in terms of a historical content and b writing style so for this one i did

00:05:59.460 like i've been collecting the questions for a couple days and as they come in i've just been

00:06:02.840 sort of like perusing them thinking about it and this one i um needed to prepare because i wanted

00:06:10.020 to have a really good answer just not off the top of my head it's always hard like to be like what's

00:06:13.620 a good book I'm like oh I don't know and I can't remember any book I've ever read so I also

00:06:17.960 consulted with friend of the podcast Alison Epstein who as you know wrote and writes historical

00:06:23.880 fiction so Alison's first book a tip for the hangman I think always a recommendation just to

00:06:29.280 I think it's a great example of historical fiction that's not like I think what Katie's

00:06:34.560 asking here and this is what I like in historical fiction also it's not I don't love a book where

00:06:38.620 It's like pages of just like, I'm going to mention like Outlander, for instance, which is a beloved book by many people, beloved TV series.

00:06:47.740 But when you get to the book, there's like, I don't even know, I always have like 12 pages where it's like, let me explain to you the history of herbal medicine.

00:06:54.220 And it's just like, I get it.

00:06:55.940 Like when I do these episodes, like I find some neat tangents and I want to talk about it.

00:06:59.620 But like when I'm reading a fictional novel, I just want to get the people and the action and just only as much context as I need to understand the story.

00:07:09.360 Anyway, so that is what I'm looking for in these recommendations.

00:07:12.560 So a tip for The Hangman by Alison Epstein.

00:07:15.140 Always recommend.

00:07:16.380 I'm going to also recommend a book called The Empress by Laura Bell Martinez.

00:07:20.760 So this is a book that was originally written in Spanish and then was translated into English.

00:07:24.840 it is set in 1863 in mexico and it follows empress carlotta who is aka i think princess charlotte

00:07:33.660 so this was during an era when the history of mexico is a thing i don't know super a lot about

00:07:39.240 but this book explains that in a non-outlander way so this is during a time when like the austrian

00:07:46.120 royal family were sent to rule mexico um and so carlotta was the wife of the king so she's known

00:07:52.980 as empress carlotta and so this book is not about like boring political things it is in fact about

00:07:58.060 her having a secret sexy affair so there's you know royal court scheming and stuff but also like

00:08:03.060 it's out of mexico it's written by i believe a mexican author so you get that sort of understanding

00:08:09.500 of things from that point of view another book i recommend is called vienna nocturne by vivian

00:08:14.840 shotwell who vivian shotwell herself is an opera singer and this is a novel about an opera singer

00:08:20.420 during the time of Mozart. So it's a woman called Anna Storacci, who was Mozart's muse.

00:08:27.340 And so she's much more than that. But that's kind of like the hook to be like, who is she?

00:08:30.960 So it's just kind of, you know, like a young girl, and then she's married to a horrible man.

00:08:34.340 And then she meets Mozart and like pursuing her dreams. It's interesting and good.

00:08:38.680 I yeah, so one of Alison Epstein's recommendations was Matrix by Lauren Groff,

00:08:44.180 which is a book I was like, oh, yeah, when I was reading, I haven't read this,

00:08:47.420 but Alison recommends it. So this is about a woman who I forget when it is. I'm going to say

00:08:53.380 1600s. I don't know. Renaissance era. So she's cast out of royal court for being too coarse and

00:09:00.520 like unruly, which is like, okay. She's like descended from a line of warriors or something 0.65

00:09:06.300 like, sounds good. And so she's sent off to be, to run a convent. And it's kind of the story of 1.00

00:09:11.180 like women and power and what kind of power do you have when you're a woman running a convent?

00:09:14.800 so it's all women characters sounds like or mostly anyway matrix by lauren groff sounds really good

00:09:20.240 there's also so um kate quinn is a very very successful and famous and talented historical

00:09:26.820 fiction author she's known for writing uh the alice network the rose code lately she's been

00:09:31.560 doing a lot of like world war ii based spy books which are great i'm more looking just in terms of

00:09:37.060 answering this question at books that are more oldie timey but god if you want to read world

00:09:41.600 two lady spy books like can't do better than kate quinn at this point before that though kate quinn

00:09:46.520 wrote oldie timey books like the oldest of oldie times so she has a series called the mistress of

00:09:52.160 rome which is set in like ancient rome and so it's like a series in the first one she's an

00:09:57.940 enslaved woman and then by like as the books go on she becomes the mistress of the emperor

00:10:02.540 kate quinn also wrote a book or a series about the borgias famous italian family and she also

00:10:09.080 has a book about Boudica the warrior queen we talked about on the podcast so those are great

00:10:14.520 Kate Quinn always like a go-to author for historical fiction the next one is a recommendation not for

00:10:19.560 this question but just I first heard about it from my mother who's like a big reader the biggest

00:10:23.960 reader and she at one point suggested to me to read this book called in the company of the

00:10:29.420 courtesan by Sarah Dunant so this is a story it's also in like renaissance era so it's about a

00:10:36.620 courtesan who flees the sack of rome in the 16th century so she's in rome and then she like flees

00:10:42.960 so she's like a successful courtesan like the sort of person who is like in the context where

00:10:46.740 she was like raised from a young age to like know how to do this job she's accompanied by and the

00:10:51.620 book is narrated by her bff who is a man called buccino who is a dwarf and so they go to rome or

00:10:58.620 sorry they go from rome to venice to start over using the various skills so it's a lot of you

00:11:03.520 know it's a good like grifting schemey oldie time but about sort of like people marginalized from

00:11:08.840 society and what was their experience like there's also so vanessa riley is a great author too she

00:11:14.980 writes sort of like um well she writes romance novels but they're more on like the rom-com

00:11:20.480 scale of romance novels and she also writes these historical books so coming out in july 2022

00:11:27.900 as i record this in may so two months from now she has a book called sister mother warrior

00:11:32.540 which sounds great it's about the haitian revolution and it has two women main characters

00:11:37.880 one of them is the first empress of haiti marie claire bonner and the other character is gran

00:11:42.680 toya a west african-born warrior who helped lead the rebellion to um the haitian revolution

00:11:49.260 vanessa reilly already so that's coming in july she has a previous book called island queen which

00:11:54.580 is a true story but it's a novel of dorothy curwin thomas a free woman of color who rose from slavery

00:12:00.920 to become one of the wealthiest and most powerful landowners in the colonial West Indies.

00:12:05.420 So these, I love Vanessa Riley's books because like she is a black author and she's writing

00:12:09.320 about black characters mostly.

00:12:12.100 And again, you know, it's like lesser known figures from history, but a figure who we

00:12:18.120 all know.

00:12:18.560 If you are listening to this episode, I assume you've listened to a lot of my other episodes

00:12:22.600 and you know who Mary Toft is, the, um, who had the rabbit situation.

00:12:28.980 there's a novel by dexter palmer about her called mary toft or the rabbit queen which retells the

00:12:35.440 story of mary toft it's um a lot of it's from the point of view of like the men who are in the

00:12:39.940 situation but it's like various like different narrators sort of exploring like it's such a wild

00:12:45.800 story that book came out around the same time i did the podcast episode so i was like wow

00:12:49.560 mary toft is in the wind right now then another recommendation from allison is i don't know how

00:12:56.180 to pronounce this so i'll try um kai kei by vashnavi patel it's spelled k-a-i-k-e-y-i so

00:13:04.620 this is a historical fiction book uh retelling of the life of the uh queen from the ramayana

00:13:10.820 an indian epic poem so you know how there's so many like there's those super popular books right

00:13:15.080 now about like greek mythology women's like circe um by madeline miller she also did the song of

00:13:22.420 achilles uh the trojan women series by pat barker ariadne by jennifer saint like these are having a

00:13:27.740 moment like women of mythology and so kikei is a similar sort of thing but like from an indian

00:13:35.840 point of view which sounds super interesting um and there's also asexual representation in this

00:13:41.640 story which intrigues me i haven't read it myself but allison recommends it and i also recommend

00:13:45.900 outlawed by anna north this is a book from i think last year it was one of the reese witherspoon book

00:13:50.540 club picks it's really interesting so it's historical fiction but like slight um fantasy

00:13:58.720 or like alternate history like a bit so the main character it takes place in the wild west of the

00:14:04.900 u.s during the like wild west era and the main character is a woman who like is married but then

00:14:10.100 she didn't have a baby and then she's sort of stigmatized by her society for that and she ends

00:14:14.600 up joining the hole in the wall gang which is like a real gang that existed and in this book

00:14:19.720 they reimagine instead of billy the kid as leader it's just a gender non-binary character who's super

00:14:25.900 cool who's called the kid so outlawed is my last suggestion there i had a whole document prepared

00:14:31.960 because i saw that question was coming and i was like i need to answer this thoroughly um i love

00:14:36.340 recommending books and yeah so let's see what's next nicholas says this is such a basic question

00:14:44.160 but i always am curious of the answer did you love history when you were in school who was the first

00:14:48.820 badass lady boss in history that got you into it most and least cringe historical dramas in your

00:14:53.720 opinion three questions in one but i'll allow it the first one is did you love history when you

00:14:58.800 were in school answer yes so i'm from okay i've left history since forever like not just like

00:15:05.180 school-based reasons like i'm from nova scotia which is on the east coast of canada and it's a

00:15:15.020 city with in terms of like canada based history it's like one of the oldest cities in canada

00:15:20.300 because um the colonization started in canada and like well i guess sort of 1600s ish anyway

00:15:27.220 halifax is an old city there's like if you watch like the oak island treasure hunters tv show

00:15:31.720 that's been on for a thousand years and they never find anything like that's near there so

00:15:35.540 it's like um and also there's lots of old architecture old buildings it's like you know

00:15:39.640 these used to be warehouses like privateers and pirates came here but now it's like shops for

00:15:44.460 tourists or whatever so like the history is everywhere um so I loved growing up with these

00:15:49.260 old fortresses and stuff around I loved going on um trips to to see these still standing like or

00:15:55.920 recreations of historical sites like the French were there the British were there it's anyway so

00:16:01.740 that was like in my bones just the sort of like history is all around me growing up in a city

00:16:05.420 like that but then also I remember as a kid vividly I don't know why um there's you know

00:16:11.260 those I can read books I read the one it was like Pompeii buried alive I remember like I created

00:16:16.660 like a play out of that featuring like my barbies and made my family watch it um so I was into you

00:16:22.340 know there's these historical things that like keep coming around that a lot of people are into

00:16:27.280 as kids like um Pompeii and like ancient Egypt pyramids and like um knights and chivalry and I

00:16:36.640 don't know I liked you know Camelot and things so I was always into history just like as a thing

00:16:41.780 and then I got into history as like a discipline I guess I had this amazing grade 10 high school

00:16:49.920 teacher Mrs. McPherson she was fantastic and so up till high school in school in Canada you learn

00:16:59.360 mostly Canadian history but then when I got to high school it was suddenly like okay let's learn

00:17:04.120 like world history and like Canadian history is interesting and important but world history like

00:17:09.820 I'm doing with the international season now it's just like eye-opening to learn about all these

00:17:13.200 different places so I remember learning from her about like the Phoenicians like Hammurabi's code

00:17:19.480 like she really made history so fun and so interesting I had so much fun in that class

00:17:24.040 like I still remember some of the assignments I did and I just loved it I was like oh I like

00:17:28.820 history. Okay. So then when it got to be time to choose what to do in university, when I was doing

00:17:34.180 an undergraduate degree, I was like, do I want to do English degree or a history degree? And I chose

00:17:38.860 a history degree. And then that got me, I had a really, really great, I had lots of really good

00:17:44.660 professors. Um, I went to St. Mary's university in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Uh, Dr. Lyndon Warner

00:17:49.820 was one of my teachers and she specializes in, um, especially or at that time, like the history of

00:17:56.660 a family so I took classes from her she's a sort of teacher where it's like anytime she teaches a

00:18:01.160 class I'm like well whatever she's teaching I will take her class because I just know she's such a

00:18:04.400 good teacher but yeah so I took a class from her that was about the history of the family and that

00:18:08.500 was where I was whatever I don't know 21 years old and I learned that like the nuclear family was

00:18:12.980 not it's not like that's what the family's always been like through all of human history it's like

00:18:17.340 that was invented in the 1950s by like Coca-Cola or whatever I was just like what is happening

00:18:22.060 like it was so eye-opening to learn a lot of that stuff from her I took a history degree just for

00:18:26.880 the sake of like because I had to choose something and like I love history stories obviously but I

00:18:31.180 never planned to be like a historian and part of that was because a lot of what seemed to me like

00:18:38.120 history was so um about men and wars and politics and things that were interesting to me and I didn't

00:18:45.940 know or I didn't realize that you can be into history and like not that I consider myself a

00:18:52.420 historian I am a podcast host slash history enthusiast but like you can specialize in

00:18:58.640 people like Fern Riddell or Lucy Worsley like a lot of I don't know why it's British people but

00:19:04.020 who are looking at women in history social history there's great books about like labor

00:19:07.760 unions in history like that stuff is just one doesn't encounter that um or you didn't at the

00:19:14.380 time i was in university as much as you do now and not without really looking for it so in terms

00:19:20.560 of who was the first badass lady who really got me excited about history i mean i loved

00:19:27.700 i entered my interest in british history not because i grew up in like a british colony but

00:19:35.000 because i went on a trip to the united kingdom when i was young and i saw the just seeing the

00:19:42.940 castles and stuff like as like a history nerd i was just like paradise this is amazing i loved

00:19:46.660 like madame tussaud's wax museum my favorite and so i got into the six wives of henry the eighth

00:19:51.760 like so many people do i took a class in university that was i was so excited one year they offered it

00:19:56.340 it was tutor and steward history i was like what tutor steward history and then the first day we

00:20:01.000 went around it was just like a seminar class with like 15 people and the teacher's like why are you

00:20:04.900 here and we were all like i'm interested in henry the eighth i'm interested in henry the eighth and 0.87

00:20:08.520 he was like what is it about this fucking guy he basically said i realized now i was not interested 0.90

00:20:12.520 in Henry VIII and I never have been, but I am interested in his wives. Like I remember when we 0.99

00:20:17.840 came back from that trip, I just picked up at all the gift shops, little like pamphlet books that I

00:20:21.520 still own actually about him and the wives and Elizabeth and Mary Queen of Scots. And I wanted

00:20:26.240 to learn everything about it. And at that point, the only movies in existence were like a silent

00:20:32.180 movie from like the thirties or whatever. So I remember going to the like video store, like

00:20:36.180 Blockbuster or whatever, being like, do you have this movie from the thirties? And they were like,

00:20:39.140 totally no anyway so the six wives of henry the eighth were kind of like the first

00:20:45.620 badass lady bosses in history who i was into and i'm i'm saying them as a collective but i guess

00:20:51.020 what i really mean is anne boleyn who's kind of like the most baddest assist of them all i read

00:20:55.880 the david starkey biography of them real pretty early like i want to say like junior high high

00:21:01.860 school age me and that's where i learned about them in more depth um and yeah so that's what

00:21:09.260 got me into it most and least cringe historical dramas in my opinion best historical drama of all

00:21:13.780 time the tv show rain i will not be accepting any further questions on that point because i am

00:21:19.800 correct i fucking love that show and why i love that show is because it takes a part of history

00:21:26.180 that was like not super written about like mary queen of scots and what she got up to when she 0.96

00:21:30.660 was in france before she went to scotland there's not a lot there like it was a brilliant decision

00:21:35.280 to set the show there because they had so much free reign to figure stuff out but then they also

00:21:39.140 had some actual historical context to play around with in like the second or third episode i think

00:21:45.040 there's a scene where it's like the illegitimate prince of portugal comes and like he's gonna

00:21:50.980 marry mary queen of scots and i was like what are they doing you can't just be like mary queen of 0.90

00:21:54.760 scots is gonna marry the prince of portugal but it turns out he's a dirtbag he's like scheming or

00:21:58.760 something and at the end they're like you know what no one will ever know you did this history

00:22:02.500 will remove you like no one will ever know you even existed which was genius because he didn't

00:22:08.320 exist there was like not an illegitimate prince of portugal at that time the show just has so much

00:22:12.640 fun with it and i love people mock the um the aesthetics of it like the anthropology level

00:22:19.480 dresses that they sometimes wear and that sort of stuff but what they were doing and it was on

00:22:24.840 purpose and the costume designer was inspired by the costume designer from queen margot great film

00:22:30.560 also one of the best ones of all time who was taking instead of like i have respect for everything

00:22:36.260 like anyone who works on a tv or movie like kudos especially costume designers i know there's someone

00:22:40.880 i forget your name but in the tits of brigade who like does costumes and tv i'm so excited that's

00:22:45.340 your job dream job anyway i love the way that you can interpret stuff so you know when people are

00:22:50.700 like oh in this movie like whatever it's like that's not the kind of plates they would have

00:22:54.040 had then or like that doorknob isn't accurate or when people like talk about the costumes like i

00:23:00.240 like to a thing like rain how they have like a flavor of the era but then it looks cool to modern

00:23:07.000 times because if you had mary queen of scotts was like she was from france when she went to scotland 0.99

00:23:10.820 she stood out she didn't fit in because she dressed much more fashionably and you can say 0.91

00:23:15.400 that but then when you have somebody dressed in like whatever 1500s clothes like i wouldn't know 0.92

00:23:22.280 like oh that's actually like much more fashionable than that other person also in like a rough collar

00:23:26.980 or whatever but they have her dressing like we see like very fashion forward very um like fashion

00:23:33.780 girl like and we get that we get that that's what she's like and like a movie inherently is never

00:23:39.940 realistic or a tv show like it can't be it's like there's lighting people are standing in certain

00:23:45.000 ways like they're saying lines that were memorized so the fact that some people get really hung up

00:23:50.080 on like oh but that's not the right sort of corset or whatever it's like yeah and if someone's trying

00:23:54.680 to do that i guess you can critique it like robert eggers does he just had that viking movie he did

00:23:59.560 the witch he's like wildly a stickler for historical accuracy and if that's what you're

00:24:04.280 doing then like lean into it good for you but if you're not just like let people have fun um and

00:24:09.760 that is why i love that show um magnificent century also the best um the turkish show that

00:24:17.980 tells the story of harem sultan similar aesthetic um it's really shot in this like very melodramatic

00:24:23.580 soap opera ish way i love it like history like the shows like that like they make it fun and

00:24:28.860 interesting which is like what i do with this podcast or what i hope i do with this podcast

00:24:32.540 because so much of history it's like we have to be serious about it and treat these people like 0.93

00:24:36.720 they're gods or whatever where it's like no they're just assholes grifting and trying to do the best 0.82

00:24:41.440 they can um and i i love things that lean into that the most cringe historical dramas i have 0.89

00:24:48.600 concerns about there's a new on stars they have a tv series coming up soon maybe now i don't know

00:24:54.460 um about queen elizabeth the first um as a teen so like cool young teen elizabeth the first so

00:25:00.780 i'm like is this gonna be like rain cool and elizabeth the first if so into it and i hope

00:25:05.420 and trust that the trailer is just being kind of like titillating on purpose but they show her with

00:25:10.000 thomas howard who's like the adult man who like groomed and sexually assaulted her in kind of a

00:25:16.200 scene that looks kind of sexy and i'm like oh no like please don't do that so like the most cringe

00:25:20.720 things to me are when something that you know i'm okay taking changing things in history to make

00:25:27.760 something be a story you have to do that for fiction but when you take something and reframe

00:25:32.560 it as like not gross or not awful like when you take something awful and just okay here's a great

00:25:38.080 example there's a movie called jefferson in paris which is from like the 90s it stars nick nolte

00:25:42.980 as thomas jefferson um tandyway newton plays sally hemmings the like teenage enslaved girl

00:25:49.640 who he forced into sexual slavery and that movie is like what if that was a love story like that's

00:25:55.440 cringe to me like taking something that is like objectively awful and making it be less so i also

00:26:01.520 of concerns about um slash excitement but bez lerman has this new elvis presley movie coming

00:26:08.320 out and like elvis presley married priscilla or they started dating when she's like 14 years old

00:26:13.960 or something and the actress they have playing priscilla looks like in her 20s and it's like

00:26:20.120 well this was actually elvis presley took a child bride like can we like anyway so i don't know so

00:26:26.720 things when especially when um historical power imbalances are kind of danced over that's what i

00:26:34.060 find most cringe in historical dramas um let's see what other questions we have i'm gonna

00:26:41.080 i don't want to do these i'm gonna like go back and forth so i answered this question let's see

00:26:47.780 when did you start liking history stuff answer um when i emerged from the womb who is your favorite

00:26:52.920 this is from victor victor's crumb who is your favorite historical baddie to study when you were

00:26:58.600 in uni and so when i was in university um i was just saying all that stuff about like i there

00:27:05.260 wasn't really people you know it wasn't like exciting people who i was studying about it was

00:27:09.940 more kind of like societal concepts it was like this woman was a washerwoman and here's what she

00:27:14.020 did like i don't remember in university specifically i wish getting to like write a paper about some 0.99

00:27:18.960 sort of like badass women what I do remember is I took a class about women and the family

00:27:23.540 and as our final assignment we had to take a piece of literature written I forgot the assignment

00:27:31.300 even was it was a history class not an English class but what I did was and my teacher was like

00:27:36.120 you know what you're the only one who got this assignment and I was like yeah I was um what I

00:27:40.320 did was I took the book Dangerous Liaisons or Les Liaisons Dangerous which is my favorite book of

00:27:46.460 all time colon oldie time book a great movie um with glenn close and john malkovich there's also

00:27:52.980 the movie valmont does the same story colin firth and annette benning uh cruel intentions is a

00:27:58.140 version you probably know or maybe with sarah michelle geller and ryan philippi anyway it's

00:28:02.480 about two dangerous liaisons itself it's about um these two like evil sexy aristocrats in france

00:28:08.620 and how they like make a bet of like who can seduce who and then they destroy everyone's

00:28:12.980 lives around them it's like the best story i've ever read the book itself is so good because it's

00:28:17.080 like written like a real diary or real letters like how dracula is but it was published and

00:28:22.480 people are like they all thought it was like real letters and like who are these really about

00:28:25.660 it was so scandalous and exciting anyway and i wrote my history like my final paper

00:28:30.040 was about the women in dangerous liaisons and how they represent the different kinds of womanhood

00:28:36.540 that there were um just the concepts of womanhood in france in the like 18th century 0.99

00:28:42.240 because the main character um um my toy she's like a widow but she's like sexy and kind of evil and

00:28:49.460 then there's you know like the pious young wife and then there's like the teenage girl and then

00:28:53.240 anyway so my favorite historical baddie i read about in literally history degree was my toy from

00:28:59.960 the novel dangerous liaisons the immaculate witch said asks person you encountered in all your

00:29:06.040 research that you hated the most now um to those of you who are members of the patreon you'll know

00:29:12.620 that last month i did an episode about thomas jefferson and i was so mad about it i was so

00:29:18.060 mad to have to read about american history because it's so talked about and there's so many novels

00:29:24.340 about it and i'm just like i don't know so i was upset about it but i didn't hate okay thomas

00:29:32.940 Jefferson obviously dirtbag I'm not being like he's great but like who did I I hated doing that

00:29:37.820 research but not because of him just because of the whole context of it a person in history who

00:29:42.040 I just like hated Hernan Cortez is the person who the person doing my research who I hated the most

00:29:47.300 he was the worst person so sort of like we talk about like with Catalina de Arraso where it's

00:29:55.500 like the spanish conquistadors were just like the worst people doing awful things and beyond that

00:30:05.120 hernan cortez stood out as being especially bad where it's like he was like everything he did 0.98

00:30:10.100 was awful like the fact that he i did a so this asshole episode about him for the patrons but 0.77

00:30:15.320 just to briefly recap to the people who didn't hear that so i just don't know he like just went 0.76

00:30:20.300 rogue he wasn't even supposed to be conquering anything he was just sent to like make maps

00:30:24.300 in mexico and he just started like taking over things um and then so he wouldn't get in trouble

00:30:29.800 he wrote in his memoirs like yeah i just went to the city and they totally just gave up to me

00:30:33.180 because it was illegal or whatever for him to just start conquering things but he but if they 0.94

00:30:37.580 give it to him then it's okay like he was just like fucking nightmare like the worst person i 0.93

00:30:42.560 think i've ever read about her name cortez let's see would you ever this is from abc boulder would 0.96

00:30:48.580 you ever do a tour of where the women in your stories lived if so where to oh my god abc boulder

00:30:54.560 i hope i can do that one day especially this season as you're probably noticing if you follow

00:30:59.980 me on instagram like just to get the context of all the places i've been following the like the

00:31:04.860 tags and the hashtags for all the like cities and countries that we've been talking about it's like

00:31:08.720 cashmere portugal everywhere the catalina went and i'm just like everywhere looks beautiful

00:31:13.460 and it was such wanderlust because i've been like basically stuck in my apartment for what

00:31:17.900 two and a half years because of covid related reasons i want to visit all of these places

00:31:23.980 what i think would be fun to do if i'm like one day a millionaire is to like just do a catalina

00:31:30.820 de arosa memorial tour of like starting in san sebastian and go to all the places where she went

00:31:37.360 and then go to south america and go to all the places where she went and just see everything

00:31:40.800 it just catalina's whole story had so much travel in it that was exciting to me but like honestly

00:31:44.960 everywhere everywhere that i've been reading about i would love to take like i don't even know how

00:31:50.160 long it would be i don't know but i also want to go to like england and like scotland and ireland

00:31:56.020 and like see all the france and like i want to see all the places where all the people were so

00:32:00.720 this is where i have an open invitation to all of you tits out brigade if you're from anywhere

00:32:05.940 anywhere that i talk about in any of the episodes uh or you visit one of those places like please 0.69

00:32:11.000 like just send me pictures like i need the arm trail travel experience you can just like dm them

00:32:15.500 to me vulgar history pod or you can send them to vulgar history pod at gmail.com i'm literally

00:32:19.840 serious please show me pictures of the things you've seen especially if it's places we talked

00:32:23.960 about on the podcast i'm gagging to see fredigan's grave i would what a pilgrimage that would be i

00:32:30.540 want to see anjinga's statue in angola like i want to just visit all the places so that's my like

00:32:36.040 one day when I win the lottery and I'm retired I want to visit all the places uh here's a great

00:32:41.280 question from Sarah who says what would you do if you woke up tomorrow and suddenly you were in

00:32:47.180 charge of 200,000 llamas and this is you know Catalina was in charge of 12,000 llamas which is

00:32:54.280 a lot of llamas 200,000 is so many llamas if I woke up and I was in charge of that many llamas

00:32:59.580 i would hmm they're so cute i like now because of catalina's episode i'm like following various

00:33:06.660 like llama accounts on instagram now too but hmm first i'd like to just like go and like look at

00:33:12.580 them and just like assess and be like oh my god they're so cute but it's like so many of them i

00:33:17.160 need to make a plan for what to do with the llamas i think what you do it or is it just alpacas or is

00:33:22.240 it i don't know llamas like what can you what do they produce do they produce milk do they produce

00:33:25.940 like wool like I think I need to um I'm picturing like I wake up and there's literally 20,000 lambs

00:33:31.980 outside my door but I think it might be more like here's the 20,000 lambs there throughout the world

00:33:36.900 and I would need to like make a plan so some of them would be used for like milk yeah I don't

00:33:40.520 know making llama cheats some of them though the wool you know they'd be sheared we could make like

00:33:46.320 a good sort of like self-sufficient like wool yarn company and then all the profits that I make

00:33:53.420 from all my llama businesses i don't know what else llamas can do like maybe someone could be

00:33:58.400 like little baby llama as a petting zoo like i would just like divide them into groups and have

00:34:02.100 different little businesses for each them and all the proceeds would all go to help various charities

00:34:10.080 and save the world through my llamas through my llama business so if you this is from adventuring

00:34:15.980 with lamb who asks if you could have lunch with anyone discussed on the pod who would it be this

00:34:21.720 is what I mean with like okay so specific who would I want to have lunch with now I'm picturing

00:34:29.460 lunch like I'm picturing I'm on a patio maybe like leisurely like there's conversation but there's

00:34:34.960 also food you know and I'm gonna just to help figure this out I'll think about like imagining

00:34:41.620 that I'm going to their country and we're eating the food of their nation or are they offering me

00:34:47.940 lunch in which case like my immediate thought was ronnie dida because when i was working the

00:34:56.140 episode i started ordering kashmiri food from a restaurant in my city and i've discovered i

00:35:00.580 fucking love kashmiri food it's so good it's like i don't know how representative this restaurant is

00:35:06.880 like clearly it is of these the people who run it who are from that region but i don't know in the 0.93

00:35:12.980 country what the food is like anyway i love it i love the mixture of spices i love the dishes i

00:35:17.820 love these little dumplings they make I love the like Kashmiri chai tea to die for you know what

00:35:23.120 so I'm gonna say that I'm gonna say Rani Ditta I want to have lunch with Rani Ditta so I can eat

00:35:26.820 delicious Kashmiri food with her and also I think she would put up a nice a nice spread of lunch

00:35:33.240 that we could um also I feel like Njinga would also I'm not as familiar with Angolan food I'm

00:35:39.200 sure it's delicious and also just feel like Njinga her love of ceremony and like making things

00:35:44.960 and experience like i'm sure she would offer me like an amazing lunch in her palace which of

00:35:51.180 henry the eighth's wives is your favorite and why that's from babovich babovich now i did say that i

00:35:58.440 first got into history in a way through henry the eighth's wives when i saw the figures at madame

00:36:04.120 tussauds also a mega fan of the musical six which if you haven't experienced it it's like on broadway

00:36:11.640 um maybe in chicago as well in the u.s it's always performing somewhere in the uk including london

00:36:17.500 so like the pop musical of like the wives of henry the eighth and that musical just really

00:36:22.040 cemented for me that my favorite of henry the eighth's wives is absolutely katherine howard

00:36:25.840 who is not um as discussed or celebrated as a lot of the others like i love the katherine of

00:36:33.500 aragon like i love that the spanish princess came out to sort of like help myth bust the fact that

00:36:38.540 Catherine Aragon was like born old and shrill but she was like young and the daughter of Isabella 1.00

00:36:44.460 and Ferdinand and she was like fucking amazing um Henry VIII treated her like garbage. Anne Boleyn 1.00

00:36:49.620 is great I love the story of Anne Boleyn but I'm choosing Catherine Howard the same way that I

00:36:55.020 choose when I choose like my favorite member of a band I always try and find the one who's like

00:36:59.060 I don't want to always choose the one that everyone else likes I want to like give attention

00:37:01.900 to one who's like less celebrated. Catherine Howard her story is so tragic and so interesting

00:37:07.720 her whole deal was like she was a teenager she was i forget she's like the youngest of

00:37:13.240 17 children or something and they didn't have any money to raise her so they send her off 0.98

00:37:17.020 she was raised basically feral in this boarding school where evan was just fucking all the time 0.98

00:37:20.800 uh she was um various adult men um abused her sexually and then she wound up at royal court 1.00

00:37:29.820 like she was howard like the same howard family from tits out francis howard um so she got there

00:37:36.040 henry the eighth like the family sort of helped but you know henry the eighth just really liked

00:37:40.980 her like teenage spirit or whatever she was literally a teenager and then like what she

00:37:45.220 got in trouble for was he found out like why you like fucked other people before me where it's like

00:37:49.020 yeah when she was like 12 because she was like a victim of assault and then he's like oh no and he 1.00

00:37:53.940 made a rule where it's like queens have to share their sex history or whatever like and then she

00:37:58.100 was beheaded and at all i love her a lot and oh yeah and so she was there um people who knew about

00:38:04.660 her past started like applying to her for jobs and stuff um and they're like if you don't give

00:38:09.420 me a job then i'll tell who you are so there's this whole blackmail side of things like it's a

00:38:13.140 really sad slash interesting story and i wrote a young adult novel based on it if anyone out there

00:38:18.980 is an editor or an agent who wants to buy that um vulgarhistorypod at gmail.com anyway she's my

00:38:25.360 favorite kaya asks are there going to be any queer people with relationships this is a question that 0.71

00:38:32.420 really made me think when i saw it come in because we're just tippy-toeing into some sort of queer

00:38:37.760 history stuff like we had mary shelley had her like friends who she helped sneak over to france

00:38:44.040 and then and jinga had her like um group of concubines of various genders and then catalina 0.81

00:38:50.940 was like we don't know um but like clearly had gender stuff maybe lesbian stuff the next two 1.00

00:38:59.000 episodes are going to also or two people we talk about each of them is probably going to be two

00:39:03.300 episodes are going to be like there's more queer history in those but neither of them one of them

00:39:07.940 kind of has a relationship i don't know the answer to that is i don't know slash i hope i'm trying to

00:39:15.560 like consciously be mindful of who i'm choosing for the show in terms of like queer identity like

00:39:23.120 what country they're from what religion they're from all that sort of stuff within that there's

00:39:27.800 not that many comparatively like queer stories out there compared to like non-queer stories so 0.93

00:39:34.800 i would love to have one with a relationship i would love to have like our flag me is death

00:39:38.660 but like titso women um which i guess exists that's like what is it and what is it mary bonnie 1.00

00:39:45.760 anyway those two lesbian lady pirates i would love to do that and i hope i will encounter a 1.00

00:39:50.360 story like that soon comma i'm choosing the stories based um off of the scandalousness of

00:39:57.380 the person and what they got up to and some of them are in relationships and some of them are not

00:40:01.640 and i hope that some of them will be in relationships because we've had a couple

00:40:07.260 honestly though until this season have we had any functional heterosexual relationships i would say

00:40:13.120 potentially not um until we got to like inez and pedro and then harem and her husband like

00:40:22.580 the sultan those are the first like functional relationships we've had in any episode to date

00:40:28.260 pretty much ever like most of them have just been like garbage awful relationships with like 0.91

00:40:32.040 terrible men so um i hope we get some queer relationships too and yeah like in terms of 0.53

00:40:40.160 planning too like i have when i'm looking for people to talk about on the podcast like i learn

00:40:45.060 the story as i go you know it's not like oh i know the story let's do a podcast about it it's

00:40:48.880 like i i'm in it i start researching it and then as i'm researching it i learned stuff along the

00:40:52.840 way so i'm as surprised as you are sometimes uh question do you this is from rosie who says do

00:41:00.460 you have a theory about the princess in the tower so that's sorry if you don't know it's like during

00:41:07.020 the wars of the roses era um the elizabeth woodville's sons she had with hot edward

00:41:14.620 they were like what was it richard the third was like is it richard the third um or the second

00:41:21.860 the third so like batty he was like can i just like take my nephews and like i'll totally look

00:41:28.120 out for them it's like sort of and jenga vibes like can we just come to this wedding i'll kill 0.94

00:41:32.500 everybody so he the sons were like taken for like quote safekeeping and then they like were never

00:41:37.480 seen again like they were clearly killed um i think bones were found at some point in contemporaneous

00:41:43.680 history so the question is like who killed them and I think the answer is like uh clearly Richard

00:41:48.720 III or he got somebody to do it there's theories that like Margaret Beaufort maybe did it maybe

00:41:55.240 she did Margaret Beaufort definitely I'm gonna do a podcast about her in the future she's my girl I

00:42:00.360 love her so much yeah I don't know I think it's like you know it's like with like the Jack the

00:42:04.700 Ripper quote mystery where people like what happened and it's like why why do we need to

00:42:09.060 know it's like the Oak Island it's like I don't know maybe there's gold there but like can we just

00:42:13.200 like move on. Okay. Ali says, if you had a meal named after you, what would it be? My answer

00:42:21.280 would be grilled cheese sandwich on white bread, like just with cheddar cheese, like no extras in

00:42:26.920 it. And a bowl of like really good tomato soup with like, but like lots of pepper in it. Like

00:42:33.020 really like a flavorful tomato soup. It's my favorite meal, grilled cheese sandwich and

00:42:38.100 tomato soup. Um, yeah. If I was, you know how like famous people have like a sandwich named

00:42:42.220 after them or whatever like the ann foster would be like that would be that that's like i would eat

00:42:46.040 that happily every day for the rest of my life um she has a supplemental question also from ali

00:42:50.580 if i could go back in time to see one historical event take place what would i want to see

00:42:57.620 hmm that's a great one i'm like for all these questions about like things in history i'm not

00:43:04.280 thinking about like the pantheon of like all of history i'm just thinking about like stuff

00:43:09.680 that we talked about in the podcast and I think what I would like to see in history I'd like to

00:43:16.100 go back to when Fred again disguised the army as trees I want to see what that looked like I want

00:43:21.140 to see the army disguised as trees they're like people jangling bells to pretend that they're like

00:43:25.540 cows in the field I would like to see that happen because that's an iconic moment

00:43:29.920 question from Aaron who asks why is my cat named Hepburn so Hepburn is my cat she is

00:43:38.880 17 years old I adopted her 14 years ago so when I first moved here to the city where I live

00:43:46.080 I really wanted a cat and it worked out luckily that one of the first friends I made was a person

00:43:51.440 going to the vet school program here and he let me know that there were some cats who were at the

00:43:56.440 university who had been used for an experiment and now were ready to be adopted I never learned

00:44:01.300 what the experiment was my first thought was like laser eyes but anyway so I adopted Hepburn

00:44:07.300 out of that situation and she is a tortoiseshell cat and i never got to name a pet before because

00:44:14.940 i have siblings and i'm the youngest and when i was a kid and we got um cats i my votes were

00:44:20.120 overruled so i was just like this is a huge thing for me to like name like you know i love names i

00:44:26.700 love names and at the time that i adopted hepburn i was really into i still am but at that point

00:44:34.000 my main interest was like classic Hollywood but then slash also I read a book and I started

00:44:41.080 from the name of it and I forget what it is but I read a book when I was a kid about a really cool

00:44:45.780 girl who adopted cats and she named all the cats after the different counties in Maine because she

00:44:50.660 lived in Maine and I always thought that was so cool to name a pet after the place where you live

00:44:54.960 so I had moved to Saskatchewan I was really interested in like the movies of classic

00:45:00.280 Hollywood and then I learned that there's a town here called Hepburn and I thought well that's

00:45:04.400 perfect I'll call my cat Hepburn so it's like an ode to like Audrey Hepburn slash Catherine Hepburn

00:45:08.900 and also the fact that she's like a Saskatchewan cat so Hepburn is her name and then later when I

00:45:14.920 got more into history and stuff again I learned that like Mary Queen of Scots um third husband

00:45:20.520 Bothwell was um Lord Hepburn so there's like historical context to it as well nobody asked

00:45:27.980 me this but i'll say if i were i to get to name a pet now i would name that pet fredigant obviously

00:45:35.500 can you hear that that was as happens happy per she's happy i'm done recording so yeah i thought

00:45:49.680 this was going to be one episode but it's going to be two episodes and honestly that gives me a

00:45:53.880 really good buffer to literally finish the research for the second half of the season so

00:45:58.500 there's way more interesting questions next week coming up including me talking for a really long

00:46:03.960 time about some figures from Canadian history so thank you all for listening thank you for 0.91

00:46:09.320 thank you for being the tits out brigade I love I love you the tits out brigade like

00:46:15.500 I'm happy to have this episode just answering your questions and kind of like connecting with you 0.55

00:46:20.060 in this way so all the regular reminders etc so i'm 100 serious if you live in a place that i've

00:46:28.760 talked about in literally any episode or if you visit one of those places send me pictures

00:46:32.200 uh you can dm on instagram vulgar history pod you can email vulgar history pod at gmail.com

00:46:38.560 and also vulgar history.com there's a little form there where you can suggest people you want me to

00:46:43.740 cover you can also suggest those on instagram or also on twitter or on twitter at vulgar history

00:46:48.400 although most of the action is truly instagram and stories the patreon patreon.com and foster

00:46:54.520 writer if you want to support and um get some bonus episodes if you want to hear me screaming

00:47:01.260 about hernan cortez thomas jefferson that's where that all happens and then also the vulgar history

00:47:08.220 store which is vulgar history dot store remember to use code tits out for free u.s shipping or

00:47:14.320 tits out 10 for 10% off all of our merch which now includes some really cute new summer sort of 0.63

00:47:20.800 like Barbie inspired design it says tits out it looks very like 1970s Malibu Barbie-esque there's

00:47:26.000 like slides like shoes like shower shoes t-shirt stickers all kinds of cute stuff so you can just 0.96

00:47:31.460 like rep being a tits out person out in the world next week more answers to more questions 1.00

00:47:36.340 and until then keep your mask on and your tits out 0.99

00:47:44.320 The war is over and both sides lost. 0.99

00:47:59.900 Kingdoms were reduced to cinders and armies scattered like bones in the dust.

00:48:04.900 Now the survivors claw to what's left of a broken world,

00:48:09.540 praying the darkness chooses someone else tonight.

00:48:12.400 But in the shadow dark, the darkness always wins.

00:48:17.140 This is old school adventuring at its most cruel.

00:48:20.580 Your torch ticks down in real time.

00:48:22.960 And when that flame dies, something else rises to finish the job.

00:48:26.520 This is a brutal rules light nightmare with a story that emerges organically based on the decisions that the characters make.

00:48:34.080 This is what it felt like to play RPGs in the 80s.

00:48:36.540 And man, it is so good to be back.

00:48:38.700 Join the Glass Cannon podcast as we plunge into the shadow dark.

00:48:41.780 every Thursday night at 8 p.m. Eastern

00:48:43.840 on youtube.com slash the glass cannon

00:48:46.120 with the podcast version dropping the next day.

00:48:49.500 See what everybody's talking about

00:48:50.800 and join us in the dark.

00:48:56.200 Do you ever watch a TV show set in a historical time period

00:48:59.740 and think, how accurate is this really?

00:49:02.480 But also, does it matter if it's accurate or not?

00:49:05.760 NeferTV is a new podcast about shows set in ancient times.

00:49:11.780 This season, we're recapping every episode of the show, Spartacus, Blood and Sand.

00:49:16.960 I'm Anne Foster, and I have never seen this show before.

00:49:20.680 And I'm Gina Berry, and I have watched this show maybe too many times.

00:49:25.100 Join us every other Monday on the NeferTV podcast as we discuss the real history behind Spartacus, Blood and Sand.

00:49:32.240 Follow NeferTV, that's N-E-F-E-R-T-V, wherever you get your podcasts.

00:49:38.840 you've watched them from the outside your whole life on tv on stage on the cover the success that

00:49:47.360 always looks like it happened to someone on a different planet but what if it didn't i'm evelyn

00:49:53.200 and i've spent over 25 years in entertainment producing for some of the biggest names in

00:49:57.720 hollywood and here's what i learned the distance between you and them it's a lot shorter than

00:50:03.140 anyone's letting on on my podcast reppin i sit down with the people you've been watching

00:50:08.300 And I asked them who they actually are, not the brand, the person, where they started,

00:50:14.440 what it costs them, what almost broke them, their grit, their courage, their resilience,

00:50:20.780 and the lessons they've learned.

00:50:22.220 It's all yours for the taking.

00:50:25.220 Reppin, wherever you listen.

Vulgar History - May 18, 2022

Tits Out Brigade Qs and As, part one

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