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In Walks a Woman

In Walks a Woman

By: Books History Culture Woman's POV
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 We explore ideas from a woman's point of view. Think of us as the critical-thinking crossroads of literature, popular fiction, storytelling, history, feminism, anthropology, and pop culture. At the center of it all are these 2 questions: do we create stories, or do stories create us? Either way, since stories influence us, can we change stories that cause harm? Sonja and Vanessa, experienced teachers of history and literature, make the pod educational, engaging, and relatable. Support us on Patreon: patreon.com/InWalksaWoman and follow us on Instagram @inwalksawomanBooks, History, Culture, Woman's POV Art Literary History & Criticism
Episodes
  • Look How Happy I'm Making You with Polly Rosenwaike

    Look How Happy I'm Making You with Polly Rosenwaike
    Jan 9 2026

    Please Note: The internet was not playing nice on the day we interviewed Polly, and though we tried several strategies, we could not totally resolve some technical difficulties. That being said, as you listen, you’ll hear that Polly’s warm authenticity and her lovely personality just totally outshine the tech issues.

    No woman totally escapes the fact that she lives in a body made for making other humans. Whether she wants to have kids or not, her body and the society she lives have agendas. Polly Rosenwaike’s moving collection, LOOK HOW HAPPY I’M MAKING YOU, explores the challenges of deciding whether to become a mother, the obstacles to becoming a mother, and the the learning curve of adapting to motherhood.


    Named one of the Best Books of 2019 by Kirkus Review, Glamour, and an Editor’s Pick on Amazon, Rosenwaike’s empathetic and beautifully-written collection offers a window into the lives of a dozen women who couldn’t know what awaited them, from trying to get pregnant and stay pregnant, to the hard-earned lessons of what day-to-day mothering involves for each of them.

    Join Sonja and Vanessa as they ask Polly about her creative process, how she came up with the concept of the collection, the nitty gritty of working with an editor, what she thinks of first when she writes, how she chose the collection’s clever title, and her literary influences. As we do with all our visiting writers, we ask Polly about a story that shaped her, and we just loved what she shared–you won’t want to miss it!

    Along the way, Sonja and Vanessa cast themselves back into the misty past, reminiscing about pregnancy and shiny-new motherhood, and Vanessa confesses that she sucked at breastfeeding.


    REFERENCES:
    If you do not have a favorite local bookstore, remember that you can always order online from Lawrence Kansas’s beloved bookseller, The Raven Bookstore. Here is a link to Polly Rosenwaike’s LOOK HOW HAPPY I'M MAKING YOU.

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    43 mins
  • S4 E12: Season Finale of the Gothic with Special Guest, Dr. Gisele Anatol, Exploring Stephenie Meyer’s TWILIGHT & Its Power to Penetrate Readers’ Reality

    S4 E12: Season Finale of the Gothic with Special Guest, Dr. Gisele Anatol, Exploring Stephenie Meyer’s TWILIGHT & Its Power to Penetrate Readers’ Reality
    Dec 26 2025
    Spoilers…but hey, if you don’t know what TWILIGHT is, come out from the rock you call home and join us for a lively and insightful conversation with our special guest, Dr. Gisele Anatol, editor of the 2011 collection of critical essays, BRINGING LIGHT TO TWILIGHT. Dr. Anatol has provided popular texts and the legacy of the vampire important scholarly attention, and we’re incredibly lucky to have her in the studio to talk about the attraction and cultural influence of the TWILIGHT series. Don’t worry, we’re not cancelling Stephenie Meyer’s TWILIGHT because, dear listener, that’s just not how we roll on IWAW. What Sonja and Vanessa love is exercising intellectual curiosity. And this text brings up so many questions! For starters, can you both love TWILIGHT and be a feminist? How much Jane Eyre is there in Bella Swan? Is Carlisle actually a mother? Is Meyer drawing on works like PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, ROMEO AND JULIET, A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM, and WUTHERING HEIGHTS? Would the sparkling vampire series make a young, modern reader want to go read these classics? What are we to make of the novel linking Native Americans to wolves? Is Bella’s life-threatening pregnancy a commentary on abortion? What role does Meyer’s Mormon faith contribute to the focus on chastity, male power, championing motherhood, the imprinting and immortality of lovers? With the world-wide appeal of the 4-book and 5-movie series, we really have to ask these questions because–as we always say on IWAW–stories shape who we are. Just to point out the obvious, what message does Bella and Edward’s romance, for example, communicate to a young reader about how love works, who to date, and what kind of risks to take? Can a young reader–the target audience of this series–always discern the line between fiction and reality?ALSO, on this episode, we announce the theme of Season 5, the first season of 2026–our second year of the pod!!!Along the way, Sonja bed rots, TWILIGHT-style, and Vanessa, a TWILIGHT fan of old, weathers Sonja’s wordplay about how much the series sucks.REFERENCES:Here is Dr. Gisele Anatol’s biographical information on the University of Kansas English Department website. A link to Dr. Anatol’s 2015 Things that Fly in the NightIf you feel like checking out some of the fascinating articles in Dr. Anatol’s collection, here is a link to purchasing Bringing Light to TwilightHere is a link to purchase Reading the Romance: Women, Patriarchy, and Popular Literature by Janice A. Radway.Once again, we cannot say enough good things about Rachel Fader’s The Darcy Myth, and we also have a great episode on it: Rachel Feder's The Darcy Myth.Check out Hot and Bothered Podcast: Twilight for a take on the movie by the extremely talented Vanessa Zoltan & Hannah McGregor. If you want to know more about the Soucouyant that Dr. Anatol mentions, here is one of many websites with information: The Soucouyant.
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    59 mins
  • S4 E11: Governess, the Monster-Slayer: Virginia Feito’s Victorian Psycho

    S4 E11: Governess, the Monster-Slayer: Virginia Feito’s Victorian Psycho
    Dec 19 2025
    Warning: SPOILERS! SPOILERS!! SPOILERS!!!After you have read VICTORIAN PSYCHO–a novel that made NPR's Books We Love 2025 List for “seriously good writing”--come back and listen to a lively run down of the historical background that Feito weaves into her narrative. There’s so much of it that we can’t begin to cover it all in an hour! Feito brilliantly conjures the Victorian social landscape, and she does it all via the distinct voice of Winifred Notty, a ferociously bright, funny, and totally unhinged narrator. But is Winifred any more unhinged than the world that she inhabits? Indeed, could one argue that Winifred, this psychotic and goal-oriented governess, a product of the moral hypocrisies of an era that felt utterly sure of its own righteousness?Along the way, Sonja and Vanessa enjoy a historic journey replete with chamber pots, tooth decay, arsenic fashion, animal fat hair products, and Christmas cards featuring dead birds and marching lobsters. REFERENCES:To learn more about the author, head to her website, virginiafeito.com.Check out art by James Ensor, the artist after whom Feito names the house in the novel. Doesn’t it hit the right mood?Here is a link to the painting that features in Ensor House’s Dining Decor.For a fun explanation of chamber pots and open drawers, check out Elsie Jean, The Well Dressed Historian's video on You Tube.If you’d like to read more about preparing and eating the delicacy that is the ortelan bunting (the bird the book mentions a diner eating, bones and all), you should check out this informative and entertainingly-written Atlas Obscura Article that includes pics. Here is the interview in which Feito mentions her mother’s reaction to the first draft of the novel.Here is just one of many articles on Victorian Christmas cards, and you can also just google samples of Vic Christmas cards and judge for yourself. This National Library of Medicine article cites statistics about how many deaths in 19th century Britain could be traced back to infectious diseases. Here is the link to The Molly Brown Museum page about deadly Victorian cosmetics and apparel, like arsenic green ballgowns.For a taste of Victorian beauty advice, check out an excerpt from an 1870 Harper's Bazaar.Here is a link to the Wikipedia page that quotes chapters from the Ugly Girl Papers.Here is a link to read about the Victorian Corset Controversy that includes the letter to the editor quoted in this episode.
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    1 hr and 4 mins
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