Episodes

  • Buck v. Bell

    Buck v. Bell
    Aug 20 2025
    Buck v. Bell is the 1927 SCOTUS decision that upheld the constitutionality of laws allowing involuntary sterilization of people deemed to be “unfit.” Most of these laws have been repealed, but Buck v. Bell has never been directly overturned. Research: "Buck v. Bell." Gale Encyclopedia of American Law, edited by Michael J. Tyrkus and Carol A. Schwartz, 4th ed., vol. 2, Gale, 2022, pp. 174-177. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints, link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX8276200650/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=84626437. Accessed 5 Aug. 2025.“BUCK v. BELL, Superintendent of State Colony Epileptics and Feeble Minded.” https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/274/200Brosnahan, Cori. “Finding Carrie Buck.” American Experience. 11/2/2018. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/eugenics-finding-carrie-buck/Circuit Court of Amherst County. "Judgment Against Carrie Buck (April 13, 1925)" Encyclopedia Virginia. Virginia Humanities, (07 Dec. 2020). Web. 06 Aug. 2025 https://encyclopediavirginia.org/primary-documents/judgment-against-carrie-buck-april-13-1925/Derrig, Collin. “Buck v. Bell in the Aftermath of Dobbs v. Jackson: The Supreme Court’s Opportunity to Correct a Hundred-Year-Old Injustice.” University of Cincinnati Law Review Blog. 6/17/2025. https://uclawreview.org/2025/06/17/buck-v-bell-in-the-aftermath-of-dobbs-v-jackson-the-supreme-courts-opportunity-to-correct-a-hundred-year-old-injustice/Disability Justice. “The Right to Self-Determination: Freedom from Involuntary Sterilization.” https://disabilityjustice.org/right-to-self-determination-freedom-from-involuntary-sterilization/Dobbs, J.T.. "Petition to Commit Carrie Buck (January 23, 1924)" Encyclopedia Virginia. Virginia Humanities, (07 Dec. 2020). Web. 06 Aug. 2025 https://encyclopediavirginia.org/primary-documents/petition-to-commit-carrie-buck-january-23-1924/Fair, Alexandra. “The Sterilization of Carrie Buck.” OSU.edu. https://origins.osu.edu/read/sterilization-carrie-buckGeneral Assembly. "An ACT to define feeble-mindedness (1916)" Encyclopedia Virginia. Virginia Humanities, (07 Dec. 2020). Web. 06 Aug. 2025. https://encyclopediavirginia.org/primary-documents/an-act-to-define-feeble-mindedness-1916/General Assembly. "Chapter 46B of the Code of Virginia § 1095h–m (1924)" Encyclopedia Virginia. Virginia Humanities, (07 Dec. 2020). Web. 06 Aug. 2025. https://encyclopediavirginia.org/primary-documents/chapter-46b-of-the-code-of-virginia-%c2%a7-1095h-m-1924/Harris, Jasmine E. “Why Buck v. Bell Still Matters.” The Petrie-Flom Center. 10/14/2020. https://petrieflom.law.harvard.edu/2020/10/14/why-buck-v-bell-still-matters/Larson, Edward J. “Putting Buck v. Bell in Scientific and Historical Context: A Response to Victoria Nourse.” Pepperdine University. 12/15/2011. https://digitalcommons.pepperdine.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1353&context=plrLombardo, Paul A. "Facing Carrie Buck. (essay)." The Hastings Center Report, vol. 33, no. 2, Mar.-Apr. 2003, pp. 14+. Gale OneFile: Business, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A101259980/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=46aca03c. Accessed 5 Aug. 2025.Lombardo, Paul A. "Involuntary sterilization in Virginia: from Buck v. Bell to Poe v. Lynchburg." Developments in Mental Health Law, vol. 3, no. 3, July-Sept. 1983, pp. 13+. Gale Academic OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A235104880/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=aad8cdbf. Accessed 5 Aug. 2025.Lombardo, Paul. “In the Letters of an ‘Imbecile,’ the Sham, and Shame, of Eugenics.’ Undark. 10/4/2017. https://undark.org/2017/10/04/carrie-buck-letters-eugenics/Oberman, Michelle. “Thirteen Ways of Looking at Buck v. Bell: Thoughts Occasioned by Paul Lombardo’s Three Generations, No Imbeciles.” Journal of Legal Education, Volume 59, Number 3 (February 2010). https://jle.aals.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1268&context=homeSmith, J., and Dictionary of Virginia Biography. "Carrie Buck (1906–1983)" Encyclopedia Virginia. Virginia Humanities, (07 Dec. 2020). Web. 06 Aug. 2025. https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/buck-carrie-1906-1983/Thompson, Philip. “Silent Protest: A Catholic Justice Dissents in Buck v. Bell.” The Catholic Lawyer. Vol. 43, No. 1, spring 2004. https://scholarship.law.stjohns.edu/tcl/vol43/iss1/Wolfe, Brendan. "Buck v. Bell (1927)" Encyclopedia Virginia. Virginia Humanities, (12 Feb. 2021). Web. 06 Aug. 2025 https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/buck-v-bell-1927/Lombardo, Paul A. “Carrie Buck’s Pedigree.” J Lab Clin Med 2001;138:278-82. doi:10.1067/mlc.2001.118091Lombardo, Paul A. “Three Generations, No Imbeciles.” Johns Hopkins University Press. 2008.Gould, Stephen J. “Carrie Buck's Daughter.” Constitutional Commentary. 1015. 1985. https://scholarship.law.umn.edu/concomm/1015See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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    44 mins
  • Estevanico, aka Mustapha al-Azemmour

    Estevanico, aka Mustapha al-Azemmour
    Aug 18 2025

    Estevanico was a translator and guide, and was probably the first person of any race from outside the Americas to enter what’s now Arizona and New Mexico – which happened in 1539.

    Research:

    • Birzer, Dedra McDonald and J.M.H. Clark. “Esteban Dorantes.” Peoples of the Historical Slave Trade. Journal of Slavery and Data Preservation. https://enslaved.org/fullStory/16-23-92882/
    • Birzer, Dedra McDonald. "Esteban." Oxford African American Studies Center. May 31, 2013. Oxford University Press. Date of access 30 Jul. 2025, https://oxfordaasc.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195301731.001.0001/acref-9780195301731-e-34375
    • Chipman, Donald E. and Robert S. Wedd. “How Historical Myths Are Born...... And Why They Seldom Die.” The Southwestern Historical Quarterly , January, 2013. https://www.jstor.org/stable/24388345
    • Clark, J.M.H. "Esteban the African ‘Estebanico’." Oxford African American Studies Center. May 31, 2017. Oxford University Press. Date of access 30 Jul. 2025, https://oxfordaasc.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195301731.001.0001/acref-9780195301731-e-73900
    • Docter, Mary. “Enriched by Otherness: The Transformational Journey of Cabeza de Vaca.” Christianity and Literature , Autumn 2008, Vol. 58, No. 1. Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/44313875
    • "Estevanico (1500-1539)." Encyclopedia of World Biography, Gale, 1998. Gale Academic OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A148426031/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=41f83344. Accessed 28 July 2025.
    • Flint, Richard. “Dorantes, Esteban de.” New Mexico Office of the State Historian. Via archive.org. https://web.archive.org/web/20110728080635/http://www.newmexicohistory.org/filedetails.php?fileID=464
    • Gordon, Richard A. “Following Estevanico: The Influential Presence of an African Slave in Sixteenth-century New World Historiography.” Colonial Latin American Review Vol. 15, No. 2, December 2006.
    • Gordon-Reed, Annette. “Estebanico’ s America.” The Atlantic. June 2021.
    • Herrick, Dennis. “Esteban.” University of New Mexico Press. 2018. Project MUSE. https://muse.jhu.edu/book/60233.
    • Ilahiane, Hsain. “Estevan de Dorantes, Estevanico: The First Moroccan and African Explorer of the American Southwest.” Southwest Center. Via YouTube. 2/21/2024. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLm0BsFDfvk
    • Ilahiane, Hsain. “Estevan De Dorantes, the Moor or the Slave? The other Moroccan explorer of New Spain.” The Journal of North African Studies, 5:3, 1-14, DOI: 10.1080/13629380008718401
    • Ladd, Edmund J. “Zuni on the Day the Men in Metal Arrived.” From The Coronado Expedition to Tierra Nueva. Shirley Cushing Flint and Richard Flint, eds. University Press of Colorado. 2004. https://muse.jhu.edu/book/3827
    • Logan, Rayford. “Estevanico, Negro Discoverer of the Southwest: A Critical Reexamination.” Phylon (1940-1956), Vol. 1, No. 4 (4th Qtr., 1940). Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/272298
    • Sando, Joe S. “Pueblo nations: eight centuries of Pueblo Indian history.” Santa Fe, N.M. : Clear Light. 1992.
    • Shields, E. Thomson. "Esteban." Oxford African American Studies Center. December 01, 2006. Oxford University Press. Date of access 30 Jul. 2025, https://oxfordaasc-com.proxy.bostonathenaeum.org/view/10.1093/acref/9780195301731.001.0001/acref-9780195301731-e-17021
    • Simour, Lhoussain. “(De)slaving history: Mostafa al-Azemmouri, the sixteenth-century Moroccan captive in the tale of conquest.” European Review of History—Revue europe´enne d’histoire, 2013 Vol. 20, No. 3. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13507486.2012.745830
    • Smith, Cassander L. “Beyond the Mediation: Esteban, Cabeza de Vaca's ‘Relación’ , and a Narrative Negotiation.” Early American Literature , 2012, Vol. 47, No. 2. Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41705661

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    43 mins
  • SYMHC Classics: Prison Breaks

    SYMHC Classics: Prison Breaks
    Aug 16 2025

    This 2022 episode covers six highly ingenious and low-violence prison breaks from history.

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    36 mins
  • Behind the Scenes Minis: Learned Women and Sharkey

    Behind the Scenes Minis: Learned Women and Sharkey
    Aug 15 2025

    Tracy shares a funny confusion about Unitarians and the University of Utrecht she kept having during research. Holly talks about how often escape stories to claim the escaper was never heard from again, even if that's not true.

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    18 mins
  • William J. Sharkey’s Not-so-great Escape

    William J. Sharkey’s Not-so-great Escape
    Aug 13 2025

    William J. Sharkey was a pickpocket, a con man, a politician, and a murderer, though whether or not that murder was an accident became the question at the center of a case that gripped New York for months. And then, he vanished. Sort of.

    Research:

    • “An Assassin’s Career.” New York Times. March 22, 1875. https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1875/03/22/91671169.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
    • Asbury, Herbert. “The Escape of William J. Sharkey.” The New Yorker. Feb. 27, 1931. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1931/03/07/and the-escape-of-william-j-sharkey
    • “Criminal’s Chances.” New-York Tribune. Nov. 20, 1873. https://www.newspapers.com/image/85393879/?match=1&terms=William%20J.%20Sharkey
    • “The Death Penalty.” The New York Times. July 4, 1873. https://www.newspapers.com/image/20559978/?match=1&terms=William%20J.%20Sharkey
    • The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. "Boss Tweed". Encyclopedia Britannica, 31 May. 2025, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Boss-Tweed
    • “The Escaped Murderer.” The Sun. Feb. 24, 1875. https://www.newspapers.com/image/51905732/?match=1&terms=maggie%20jourdan
    • “Found Guilty.” New York Times. June 22, 1873. https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1873/06/22/90527758.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
    • “Last Days of the Tombs.” New-York Tribune. May 23, 1897. https://www.newspapers.com/image/78349840/?match=1&terms=%22william%20j.%20sharkey%22
    • “Maggie Jourdan Bailed.” New York Daily Herald. Jan. 4, 1874.
    • “The Murder Record: The Dunn Murder.” New York Times. June 20, 1873. https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1873/06/20/90526851.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
    • “Scanlan, the Actor, Dead.” The Sun. Feb. 20, 1898. https://www.newspapers.com/image/79111299/?match=1&terms=%22william%20j.%20sharkey%22
    • “The Sharkey Case.” The New York Times. July 25, 1873. https://www.newspapers.com/image/20561956/?match=1&terms=William%20J.%20Sharkey%20%22writ%20of%20error%22
    • “Sharkey Is Still Alive.” The Evening World. March 6, 1900. https://www.newspapers.com/image/50555426/?match=1&terms=%22william%20j.%20sharkey%22
    • “Sharkey’s Escape.” New York Times. Nov. 20, 1873. https://www.newspapers.com/image/20503882/?match=1&terms=maggie%20jourdan
    • “Trial of William J. Sharkey … “ New York Daily Herald. June 21, 1873. https://www.newspapers.com/image/329612596/?match=1&terms=William%20J.%20Sharkey
    • “Why Is the Manhattan House of Detention Called the Tombs?” The New York Historical. https://www.nyhistory.org/community/manhattan-house-of-detention
    • “Wm. J. Sharkey’s Escape.” The Sun. June 23, 1879. https://www.newspapers.com/image/78200292/?match=1&terms=maggie%20jourdan

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    33 mins
  • Anna Maria van Schurman, Star of Utrecht

    Anna Maria van Schurman, Star of Utrecht
    Aug 11 2025

    Polymath Anna Maria van Schurman was a very well-educated woman in the 17th century, making her exceptional. She’s described as the most learned woman of her time, and she basically became a celebrity because of it.

    Research:

    • Aldersey-Williams, Hugh. “’A Truer and Deeper Knowledge’: Anna Maria van Schurman’s The Learned Maid (1659).” Public Domain Review. https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/the-learned-maid/
    • "Anna Maria van Schurman." Encyclopedia of World Biography Online, vol. 31, Gale, 2011. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints, link.gale.com/apps/doc/K1631009647/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=cdba4228. Accessed 21 July 2025.
    • “Anna Maria van Schurman: an academic multitalent.” Utrecht University. https://www.uu.nl/en/background/anna-maria-van-schurman-an-academic-multitalent
    • Clarke, Desmond M. “Anna Maria Van Schurman and Women’s Education.” Revue Philosophique de la France et de l'Étranger. No. 3. July-September 2013. Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/42773326
    • de Baar, Mirjam. “Elisabeth of Bohemia’s Lifelong Friendship with Anna Maria van Schurman (1607–1678).” From Elisabeth of Bohemia (1618–1680): A Philosopher in her Historical Context, Women in the History of Philosophy and Sciences 9. S. Ebbersmeyer and S. Hutton (eds.). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-71527-4_2
    • de Baar, Mirjam. “SCHURMAN, Anna Maria van.” Online Dictionary of Dutch Women. https://resources.huygens.knaw.nl/vrouwenlexicon/lemmata/data/Schurman,%20Anna%20Maria%20van/en 1/13/2014.
    • Dekker, Maryse. “Anna Maria van Schurman: Brains, Arts and Feminist avant la letter.” Art Herstory. 2/23/2021. https://artherstory.net/anna-maria-van-schurman-artist-scholar-and-woman-of-letters/
    • Larsen, Anne R. “A Women's Republic of Letters: Anna Maria van Schurman, Marie de Gournay, and Female Self-Representation in Relation to the Public Sphere.” Early Modern Women, Fall 2008, Vol. 3 (Fall 2008). Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/23541520
    • Larsen, Anne R. “Religious Alterity.” French Forum, FALL 2018, Vol. 43, No. 2. Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/26762079
    • National Museum of Women in the Arts. “Anna Maria van Schurman.” https://nmwa.org/art/artists/anna-maria-van-schurman/
    • National Museum of Women in the Arts. “Anna Maria van Schurman: Self-Portrait.” https://nmwa.org/art/collection/schurman-self-portrait/
    • Pal, Carol. “Chapter 2 - Anna Maria van Schurman: the birth of an intellectual network.” From Republic of Women: Rethinking the Republic of Letters in the Seventeenth Century.” Cambridge University Press. 2012. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139087490.005
    • Project Vox. “Van Schurman (1607-1678).” https://projectvox.org/van-schurman-1607-1678/
    • Sint Nicolaas, Samantha. “The Correspondence of Anna Maria van Schurman.” Early Modern Letters Online. http://emlo-portal.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/collections/?catalogue=anna-maria-van-schurman
    • The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. "Jean de Labadie". Encyclopedia Britannica, 9 Feb. 2025, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jean-de-Labadie. Accessed 25 July 2025.
    • Van Beek, Pieta. “The first female university student: Anna Maria van Schurman (1636).” Igitur. Utrecht Publishing & Archiving Services. 2010.
    • Van der Stighelen, Katlijne. “Chapter Title: Anna Francisca de Bruyns (1604/5–1656), Artist, Wife and Mother: a Contextual Approach to Her Forgotten Artistic Career.” From Women and Gender in the Early Modern Low Countries. Via JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1163/j.ctvrxk3hp.12
    • Weststeijn, Thijs. “Anna Maria Van Schurman’s Chinese Calligraphy.” Early Modern Low Countries 7 (2023) 1, pp. 1-25 - eISSN: 2543-1587.

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    43 mins
  • SYMHC Classics: Sappho

    SYMHC Classics: Sappho
    Aug 9 2025

    This 2019 episode covers Sappho, often described as the greatest female poet of ancient Greece. Her reputation as a poet has persisted for more than 2500 years, but the overwhelming majority of her work has not.

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    32 mins
  • Behind the Scenes Minis: Fitz Hugh and Sleepytime

    Behind the Scenes Minis: Fitz Hugh and Sleepytime
    Aug 8 2025

    Holly talks about gaining compassion for Fitz Hugh Ludlow through reading his work. Tracy discusses her training in massage school.

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    28 mins