Her Half of History

Her Half of History turns 5 years old this month! In celebration, I'm taking questions from listeners and they range from the oldest account of childbirth to the reason I started a podcast in the first place.

In this episode you will can hear the voices of some of my fellow history podcasters. Please check out their shows for more great history:

Civics and Coffee

The History Fix Podcast


It's a History Podcast

Visit the ⁠⁠⁠website⁠⁠⁠ (herhalfofhistory.com) for sources, transcripts, and pictures.

This show survives on the on the support of listeners like you. Support the show on my ⁠⁠⁠⁠Patreon page⁠⁠ (https://www.patreon.com/user?u=83998235) for ad-free episodes, bonus episodes, and polls. Or make a one-time donation on ⁠⁠⁠⁠Buy⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠Me a Coffee⁠. Your support helps me keep bring the stories of past women into the present.

Join ⁠⁠Into History⁠⁠ for a community of ad-free history podcasts plus bonus content.

Visit ⁠⁠Evergreen Podcasts⁠⁠ to listen to more great shows.

Follow me on ⁠⁠Threads⁠⁠ as Her Half of History.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Early anthropologists and archaeologists told us that in foraging societies, women gathered and men hunted. More recent research suggests that women did hunt, but the debate will go on about how much.

Visit the ⁠⁠⁠website⁠⁠⁠ (herhalfofhistory.com) for sources, transcripts, and pictures.

This show survives on the on the support of listeners like you. Support the show on my ⁠⁠⁠⁠Patreon page⁠⁠ (https://www.patreon.com/user?u=83998235) for ad-free episodes, bonus episodes, and polls. Or make a one-time donation on ⁠⁠⁠⁠Buy⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠Me a Coffee⁠. Your support helps me keep bring the stories of past women into the present.

Join ⁠⁠Into History⁠⁠ for a community of ad-free history podcasts plus bonus content.

Visit ⁠⁠Evergreen Podcasts⁠⁠ to listen to more great shows.

Follow me on ⁠⁠Threads⁠⁠ as Her Half of History.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Please send me your questions for the Q&A episode to celebrate my 5-year podcast anniversary! There's a spot to do it on
the ⁠⁠⁠⁠website⁠⁠⁠⁠ (herhalfofhistory.com). If you include contact details, there's a drawing for some free swag for you.

Also, the votes are in, and the topic of Series 15 is: The First Woman Who. That will start in January.

Visit the ⁠⁠⁠website⁠⁠⁠ (herhalfofhistory.com) for sources, transcripts, and pictures.

This show survives on the on the support of listeners like you. Support the show on my ⁠⁠⁠⁠Patreon page⁠⁠ (https://www.patreon.com/user?u=83998235) for ad-free episodes, bonus episodes, and polls. Or make a one-time donation on ⁠⁠⁠⁠Buy⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠Me a Coffee⁠. Your support helps me keep bring the stories of past women into the present.

Join ⁠⁠Into History⁠⁠ for a community of ad-free history podcasts plus bonus content.

Visit ⁠⁠Evergreen Podcasts⁠⁠ to listen to more great shows.

Follow me on ⁠⁠Threads⁠⁠ as Her Half of History.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

They say necessity is the mother of invention, but I'm not convinced. Throughout this series on inventions, I noticed that almost all of the inventions I covered clustered in the second half of the 19th century, in a time period known as the Second Industrial Revolution. This episode is a retrospective on some of the factors that made that time period see the invention of more society-changing inventions than any other.

Visit the ⁠⁠⁠website⁠⁠⁠ (herhalfofhistory.com) for sources, transcripts, and pictures.

This show survives on the on the support of listeners like you. Support the show on my ⁠⁠⁠⁠Patreon page⁠⁠ (https://www.patreon.com/user?u=83998235) for ad-free episodes, bonus episodes, and polls. Or make a one-time donation on ⁠⁠⁠⁠Buy⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠Me a Coffee⁠. Your support helps me keep bring the stories of past women into the present.

Join ⁠⁠Into History⁠⁠ for a community of ad-free history podcasts plus bonus content.

Visit ⁠⁠Evergreen Podcasts⁠⁠ to listen to more great shows.

Follow me on ⁠⁠Threads⁠⁠ as Her Half of History.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sewing is at least 45,000 years ago, and it was known in nearly every culture on earth, but for millennia it was all done by hand. There are multiple claimants for the inventor of the first sewing machine, but the one who emerged with the US patent was Elias Howe. Unfortunately, his machine didn't really work. This episode tells the story of how that got fixed and how it impacted women.

Visit the ⁠⁠website⁠⁠ (herhalfofhistory.com) for sources, transcripts, and pictures.

This show survives on the on the support of listeners like you. Support the show on my ⁠⁠⁠Patreon page⁠ (https://www.patreon.com/user?u=83998235) for ad-free episodes, bonus episodes, and polls. Or make a one-time donation on ⁠⁠⁠Buy⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Me a Coffee. Your support helps me keep bring the stories of past women into the present.

Join ⁠Into History⁠ for a community of ad-free history podcasts plus bonus content.

Visit ⁠Evergreen Podcasts⁠ to listen to more great shows.

Follow me on ⁠Threads⁠ as Her Half of History.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices