In Part 2 of our Mother’s Day Special, Larkin tells Kate the story of not-so-good mom Leonarda Cianciulli, the Soap Maker of Correggio.

We don’t want to call her a “bad” mom, because she was doing everything she could to protect her child. But the methods she used move her out of “good mom” territory pretty fast.

Leonarda had been told by a fortune teller that she would outlive all of her children. So when she found out her oldest son was planning to enlist in WWII, she went to extremes to keep him safe. Transferring her cooking and soap-making skills into witchcraft, she set about casting a spell of protection for her precious boy. But to save a life she had to sacrifice a life. Or- as it turned out- three.

This is a great episode to put on while you’re in the bath, but we don’t recommend snacking on tea cakes (or anything else) while you listen.

If you want a deeper dive into the Cianciulli case, the fantastic true crime podcast RedHanded did a two-parter on it (episodes 186 and 187). You can find it on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts.

TW: Graphic Violence, Sexual Assault, Suicide

References:

https://mail.murderpedia.org/female.C/c/cianciulli-leonarda.htm

https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-27257822

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You can also follow Kate and Larkin! Kate is on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. Larkin is on TikTok and Instagram.

In honor of Mother’s Day, we decided to do our first two-part episode! Kate and Larkin will be doing a story swap, with Kate covering a good mom from history and Larkin covering a… not-so-good mom. Even though it’s not a traditional Now It’s Ruined, both episodes are deeply dark and depressing, so don’t worry: Mother’s Day will still be ruined.

In our first episode, Kate shares the incredible story of Sojourner Truth and her fight to free her son from slavery. Truth is famous for her participation in the abolitionist and women’s suffrage movements. But long before she was hanging out with the likes of Frederick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony, she bravely walked into a courthouse and asked a grand jury to help her get her son back from an illegal sale to Alabama. The case made legal history, which is why Kate (who’s technically still a lawyer) was so enthusiastic to nerd out about it.

Despite being our good mom story, it is still a rough one. We recommend having tissues nearby.

Look out for part two tomorrow, when we'll take our first foray into the world of true crime as Larkin tells us about Leonarda Cianciulli, the Soap Maker of Coreggio.

TW: Violence against children

https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/sojourner-truth

https://www.google.com/books/edition/Narrative_of_Sojourner_Truth/i3HhAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PR6&printsec=frontcover

https://www.thesojournertruthproject.com/the-readings

https://www.npr.org/2020/02/27/809723362/in-the-1700s-an-enslaved-massachusetts-woman-sued-for-her-freedom-and-won

https://freedomcenter.org/voice/henrietta-wood/

https://rep.club/products/sojourner-truth-a-life-a-symbol?srsltid=AfmBOopEbv9dOdn6x7N2QY5M_x-G0-FGrcfA2zpRz4taWbymmp3hcJlG

https://apnews.com/article/new-york-education-slavery-kingston-government-and-politics-3b0d38ed6e556d77ba074f58dfb3c131

If you know something we can ruin, send the topic and a brief hint at how it's ruined to nowitsruined@gmail.com. Let us know if you'd like us to credit you if we choose your topic!

Follow us on Patreon for updates, video episodes, and lots of fun bonus content (even for unpaid members). You can also follow us on YouTube and Instagram.

You can also follow Kate and Larkin! Kate is on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. Larkin is on TikTok and Instagram.

Malaria has plagued humans for centuries. It was written about by the ancient Mesopotamians, Greeks, Romans, Hindus, and Chinese. The cure was waiting quietly in the bark of a tree in South America- A place malaria never touched until European colonizers brought it there.

What does this have to do with gin and tonics, you ask? Give a listen to find out.

References

https://www.britannica.com/plant/juniper

https://www.craftginclub.co.uk/ginnedmagazine/what-is-gin-made-from-and-how-is-it-made

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9714995/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK555962/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK215638/

https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-hccc-worldcivilization/chapter/the-indo-aryan-migration-and-the-vedic-period/#:~:text=The%20Vedic%20Period%20refers%20to,with%20them%20specific%20religious%20traditions.

https://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/S0025-6196(12)65320-8/fulltext

https://www.britannica.com/plant/Cinchona

https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20200527-the-tree-that-changed-the-world-map

https://daily.jstor.org/cinchona-a-legacy-of-extraction-and-extirpation/

https://www.britannica.com/topic/East-India-Company

If you know something we can ruin, send the topic and a brief hint at how it's ruined to nowitsruined@gmail.com. Let us know if you'd like us to credit you if we choose your topic!

Follow us on Patreon for updates, video episodes, and lots of fun bonus content (even for unpaid members). You can also follow us on YouTube and Instagram.

You can also follow Kate and Larkin! Kate is on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. Larkin is on TikTok and Instagram.