The History Chicks : A Women's History Podcast

Queen Anne spent her whole life in the violent storms of other people’s ambitions - her family, politicians, and yes, one very dramatic friend who made sure her reputation took a beating for centuries. But behind all that noise was a steady, determined ruler who helped shape the early modern British state.

For a long time she was dismissed as weak or dull, mostly because louder personalities wrote her story. Now we’re finally recognizing that Anne wasn’t a footnote - she was the quiet force that gathered a turbulent kingdom together, ready for its future as a world power.

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At last, at last! We have arrived at the part of her story that Laura Ingalls Wilder is most famous for; her series of eight (not yet nine!) books which tell decades of readers the romanticized story of young Laura's childhood during the turbulent time of the American frontier.

If you hadn't heard about her long vertical learning curve to get here, and her history of farm journalism, you might think she was an overnight success at the age of 65 - but we know better!

We'll take you through the creation of her beloved series in this, our final Laura episode in the "do-over", and how she became an American icon.

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Laura Ingalls Wilder's books inspired us as children with a fascination for history. And her story has been with us since the beginning of the podcast, all of those years ago. She has deserved a second look from us for a long time!

In part two of our series, we leave the Laura we are all familiar with from her pioneer stories and head off into a grittier chapter in her life. Tragedy seemed to stalk Laura and Almanzo relentlessly, until at last they found a home in the Ozarks near Mansfield, Missouri. We'll tell you about Laura's writing career BEFORE the one she's famous for, and the struggles that brought her to the precipice of glory.
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Once upon a time, back in 2011, we shared the story of Laura Ingalls Wilder, beloved author of the Little House series and chronicler of life on the US prairie in the late 1800s. Now, 15 years later, we thought it was time to revisit her with our 2026 eyes (and the mountain of information about her that has been revealed since.) Laura wrote her books based on her life, but how much weight is "based on" carrying? Find out in this episode as we tell her story over the same time span that would later be the setting of her books. She lived a very long life; we'll share the rest of her years in Part Two.

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Boudica (formerly known as Boadicea ) was a first‑century Celtic queen of the Iceni tribe in what’s now eastern England. After the Roman Empire seized her late husband’s kingdom and brutalized her family, she rallied a massive coalition of tribes and led one of the most famous uprisings in Roman Britain. Her forces burned several Roman towns, including Londinium, and for a brief moment in history she shook the empire’s confidence. Boudicca’s fame endures as a symbol of resistance, leadership, and fierce defiance against oppression.

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