Best Kim Hester Podcasts (2025)

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🔒 Luck Be A Lady: Amy Gets an "Honorific" 13:41

1d ago13:41

13:41

Subscriber-only episode Send us a text Having been gifted a parcel of land on a Scottish estate, Amy was recently granted the title of “Lady Amy of Blairadam.” Kim joins her in this week’s bonus episode to “bend the knee” and to discuss the fine-print details of this development courtesy of a company called Scotland Titles. Together, they ponder he…

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Frances Wright — A Few Days in Athens with Tristra Yeager and Eleanor Rust 41:16

8d ago41:16

41:16

Send us a text How do you engage with others in a polarized society? Early 19-century writer and freethinker Frances “Fanny” Wright offers an ostensible how-to manual in the witty didactic novel she penned at age 19, A Few Days in Athens. Wright’s radical ideas garnered her the praise of Thomas Jefferson, the Marquis de Lafayette and Walt Whitman, …

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🔒 Marianne Faithfull’s “Lady of Shalott” and Other Doomed Noblewomen 13:03

16d ago13:03

13:03

Subscriber-only episode Send us a text One of the last projects recorded by singer/actress Marianne Faithfull (who passed away in January) was a 2021 spoken word album of English Romantic poetry, including a hauntingly beautiful 12-minute recitation of Tennyson’s “Lady of Shalott.” After exploring Faithfull’s passion for (and family connections to)…

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Katharine S. White — Shaping The New Yorker, with Amy Reading 47:46

23d ago47:46

47:46

Send us a text One hundred years ago this week, The New Yorker published its first issue. A few months later, the magazine’s first (and for decades, only) female editor joined the staff. Katharine S. White spent the better part of the next 50 years wielding her pen and her editorial influence there, carefully tending to an ever-growing stable of ta…

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🔒 Dorothy Parker's Last Wish: The NAACP and a Lost Urn 12:00

30d ago12:00

12:00

Subscriber-only episode Send us a text How did Martin Luther King Jr. (and eventually, the NAACP) end up the stewards of Dorothy Parker’s literary estate? A life of bold activism prompted the witty writer to quietly bequeath her body of work to advocates for racial justice. But what happened to her actual body (or rather, her ashes) is another stor…

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Literary Jewelry with Leigh Batnick Plessner 38:05

1M ago38:05

38:05

Send us a text January was dismal, but we’re distracting ourselves with something shiny in this first new full-length episode of the year. Catbird Chief Creative Officer Leigh Batnick Plessner joins us to explore three works by women writers, each of whom used jewelry as a powerful storytelling device. Louise de Vilmorin, Maria Edgeworth and Doroth…

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🔒 Bibliomasochism and "Pieces o' Eight" 10:56

1M ago10:56

10:56

Subscriber-only episode Send us a text Octavia E. Butler’s prescient dystopian novel Parable of the Sower may or may not be the perfect book to kick off 2025, as Amy discusses in this week’s bonus episode. On the other hand, if it’s escapism you’re after, consider the cutlass-wielding scalawags of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic Treasure Island an…

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Margaret Oliphant — Hester with Perri Klass 45:00

2M ago45:00

45:00

Send us a text If you’re drawn to the hefty tomes of Victorian authors Anthony Trollope and George Eliot, we can pretty much guarantee you’ll enjoy this week’s novel, Hester, as much as we did. Margaret Oliphant is said to have been one of Queen Victoria’s favorite novelists, and she counted J.M. Barrie and Robert Louis Stevenson among her many fan…

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🔒 Adventures in Highgate Cemetery 14:06

2M ago14:06

14:06

Subscriber-only episode Send us a text This week’s episode was born out of Amy’s recent visit to London’s Highgate Cemetery, where fortuitous timing (or, perhaps, the graveside spirit of Christina Rossetti?) revealed a bit of juicy family drama. Find out why the tragic death (and later exhumation) of a pre-Raphaelite muse left another family member…

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Hiatus Replay: Ukrainian Poet Lesya Ukrainka’s The Forest Song 16:25

2M ago16:25

16:25

Send us a text In this week's hiatus replay, we’re focusing on one of Ukraine’s best-known poets and playwrights, Laryssa Kosach, who wrote under the pen name Lesya Ukrainka. Her play The Forest Song is a masterpiece of Ukrainian drama. Discussed in this episode: The Forest Song by Lesya Ukrainka Looking for Trouble by Virginia Cowles Lost Ladies o…

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🔒 Simona Kossak, Forest Queen 16:02

2M ago16:02

16:02

Subscriber-only episode Send us a text Once upon a time, a young woman escaped to a primeval forest, befriended the animals there (including a lynx, raven and wild boar) and met her handsome prince. Sounds like a fairy tale, but in this week’s episode Amy discusses the enchanting true story of Simona Kossak, a Polish scientist who wrote about her d…

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Alba de Céspedes — Forbidden Notebook with Joy Castro 49:02

3M ago49:02

49:02

Send us a text Novelist and university professor Joy Castro returns to the show to discuss the 1952 novel Forbidden Notebook by Cuban-Italian writer Alba de Cespedes. In a New York Times review of a 1958 English edition of this novel, de Céspedes was called “one of the few distinguished women writers since Colette to grapple effectively with what i…

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🔒 Literary Rx — Books to Beat the Doldrums 24:25

3M ago24:25

24:25

Subscriber-only episode Send us a text Books are a time-tested cure-all, so in this week’s bonus episode Amy weighs a few of the titles that have helped her forget life's latest troubles and doubts … (sort of). She leaves no stone unturned in her quest for distraction, from Proust’s meandering sentences to a behind-the-scenes memoir about a beloved…

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Zitkála-Šá — "The School Days of an Indian Girl" with Jessi Haley and Erin Marie Lynch 42:48

3M ago42:48

42:48

Send us a text At the age of eight, Gertrude Simmons Bonnin (later known by her pen name Zitkála-Šá) left her Yankton Dakota reservation to attend a missionary boarding school for Native Americans, a harsh and abusive experience about which she eventually wrote a series of articles published in The Atlantic Monthly. Jessi Haley, editorial director …

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🔒 A Christmas Tale From Christina Rossetti’s Speaking Likenesses 20:14

3M ago20:14

20:14

Subscriber-only episode Send us a text Forget your troubles, get cozy, grab a cup of tea and curl up to this week’s “storytime” bonus episode as Amy reads the third tale from Christina Rossetti’s Speaking Likenesses. Follow Rossetti’s indefatigable heroine, Maggie, who trudges wearily through a snowy forest at Christmas-time, encountering along the…

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Christina Rossetti — Speaking Likenesses with Bond & Grace's Ayana Christie 38:42

4M ago38:42

38:42

Send us a text Charmed by her friend Lewis Carroll’s children’s book Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Victorian poet Christina Rossetti followed suit nearly a decade later with her own children’s book — one that alludes to the “Alice” tale while also offering a more clear-eyed view of girls’ duties, even in topsy-turvy dream worlds. Ayana Christie…

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🔒 Virginia Woolf, Fashion Icon 18:06

4M ago18:06

18:06

Subscriber-only episode Send us a text When it comes to this year’s fall fashion, Virginia Woolf is having a moment. A number of designers and brands including Anna Sui, Clare Waight Keller, Miu Miu, Burberry and Tod’s have found their inspiration in the iconic Bloomsbury author. In this week’s bonus episode, Amy dives into this sartorial vibe, rea…

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Margaret Drabble — The Millstone with Carrie Mullins 36:50

4M ago36:50

36:50

Send us a text Margaret Drabble’s 1965 novel The Millstone offers a nuanced portrayal of single motherhood in 1960s London. Author Carrie Mullins, whose 2024 nonfiction work The Book of Mothers explores literary depictions of motherhood, joins us to discuss Drabble’s fearless protagonist, Rosamund. Together, we explore how The Millstone captures th…

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🔒 Wicked Little Letters — The Film and Crime That Inspired It 14:01

4M ago14:01

14:01

Subscriber-only episode Send us a text In this week’s bonus episode Amy discusses the black comedy mystery film Wicked Little Letters starring Olivia Coleman and Jessie Buckley, then hones in on the real-life "poison-pen letter" incident the film is based on. Mentioned in this episode: British Airways in-flight safety film Wicked Little Letters tra…

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Elizabeth Garver Jordan — The Case of Lizzie Borden & Other Writings with Jane Carr and Lori Harrison-Kahan 41:27

5M ago41:27

41:27

Send us a text Elizabeth Garver Jordan’s riveting coverage of the Lizzie Borden trial for The New York World captivated true-crime junkies of the late 19th-century, and her lengthy career as a journalist, fiction writer and literary editor still resonates today. Lori Harrison-Kahan and Jane Carr, editors of a brand new collection of Garver Jordan’s…

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🔒 Blame it on the Bob (Haircut) 15:13

5M ago15:13

15:13

Subscriber-only episode Send us a text The bob haircut shocked and appalled when it was popularized in the 1920s. A bob devotee herself, Amy has a laugh in this week’s bonus episode as she reads newspaper reports from the era which blame the hair trend for a wide array of societal ills including economic collapse, bigamy and unwanted facial hair. S…

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Sanora Babb — Whose Names Are Unknown with Iris Jamahl Dunkle 43:56

5M ago43:56

43:56

Send us a text Growing up on the Great Plains and witnessing the struggles of migrant workers in California made Sanora Babb uniquely qualified to write the story of the Dust Bowl. Her novel Whose Names Are Unknown was slated for publication by Random House in 1939 until The Grapes of Wrath beat her book to the punch. John Steinbeck actually used B…

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🔒 How a "Lady of Lit" Inspired the Band Green Day 9:22

5M ago9:22

9:22

Subscriber-only episode Send us a text Look closely enough, and you can find “lost ladies of lit” almost anywhere — including at a rock concert! In this week’s bonus episode, Amy explains how a Saturday night spent attempting to sing along with Green Day on their world tour concert stop in Los Angeles started her down a lyrical rabbit hole that led…

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Eliza Haywood — The Female Spectator and Betsy Thoughtless with Kelly J. Plante 34:44

5M ago34:44

34:44

Send us a text Details of Eliza Haywood’s life may be murky today, but in the early 18th century, she was a literary force—writing plays and bestselling novels, editing periodicals, and ruffling the feathers of male contemporaries like Alexander Pope. Academic Kelly J. Plante joins us this week to discuss Haywood’s anonymous wartime writing for The…

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🔒 The Journal of Marie Bashkirtseff 19:08

6M ago19:08

19:08

Subscriber-only episode Send us a text Amy springboards off our discussion of last week’s “lost lady,” Mary MacLane, to further investigate the woman whose diary inspired her. From the age of 12 until her death at 25, Russian-born painter Marie Bashkirtseff detailed her daily life, frustrations, flirtations and family drama. First published in 1887…

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Mary MacLane — I Await the Devil's Coming with Cathryn Halverson 33:13

6M ago33:13

33:13

Send us a text Long before 'Brat Summer,' America was taken with Mary MacLane, a defiant and wildly egotistical 19-year-old resident of Butte, Montana, whose confessional diary implored the “kind devil” to deliver her from a life of bourgeois boredom. Professor Cathryn Halverson from Sweden’s Södertörn University joins us for this episode to discus…

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HIATUS ENCORE: M.F.K. Fisher — How to Cook a Wolf with Anne Zimmerman 40:56

6M ago40:56

40:56

Send us a text HIATUS ENCORE: Anne Zimmerman, author of the 2011 biography An Extravagant Hunger: The Passionate Years of M.F.K. Fisher, joins us to discuss Fisher and her World War II-era book How to Cook a Wolf, which was an attempt to teach people how to eat well and be well amidst personal and collective chaos. Discussed in this episode: An Ext…

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Sigrid Schultz — “The Dragon from Chicago” with Pamela Toler 44:48

6M ago44:48

44:48

Send us a text As Berlin bureau chief for The Chicago Tribune from 1925-1941, Sigrid Schultz deflected both sexism and danger to report the truth and speak truth to power. The Nazis dubbed her “that dragon from Chicago,” and her importance as an indomitable “newspaperman” (her term) telling Americans about the Third Reich's agenda can’t be understa…

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HIATUS ENCORE: Jane and Anna Maria Porter with Devoney Looser 44:31

7M ago44:31

44:31

Send us a text HIATUS ENCORE: Sisters Jane and Anna Maria Porters’ books took Regency-era England by storm just a few years ahead of Jane Austen, and their lives were chock-full of fascinating (and insufferable) characters, intriguing romantic escapades, event-filled interludes at the homes of wealthy acquaintances and desperate gambits to stay one…

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🔒 Caedmon Records — Lost Ladies of the Audiobook Industry 8:22

7M ago8:22

8:22

Subscriber-only episode Send us a text Amy discusses the good and bad of audiobook narration in this week’s bonus episode, then dives into the origins of the commercial audiobook industry. Founded in 1952, Caedmon Records was the brainchild of two young women who achieved their smash debut success by convincing Dylan Thomas to record himself readin…

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Hiatus Encore: The Letters of Zora Neale Hurston with Melissa Kiguwa 42:38

7M ago42:38

42:38

Send us a text HIATUS ENCORE: Zora Neale Hurston’s 1937 novel Their Eyes Were Watching God is widely considered to be a masterpiece, yet were it not for a renewed push by author Alice Walker in the 1970s, Hurston and her legacy might well have been lost. We have Melissa Kiguwa, host of The Idealists podcast, joining us to discuss Zora Neale Hurston…

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🔒 Hedy Lamarr, Star Inventor 18:37

7M ago18:37

18:37

Subscriber-only episode Send us a text She was called “the most beautiful woman in the world,” but silver screen siren Hedy Lamarr was much more than just a pretty face. Looking to help combat German U-boats during WWII, she pioneered technology that today serves as the basis for wireless innovations like Bluetooth, GPS and Wifi. Lamar received sca…

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HIATUS ENCORE: Noel Streatfeild — Ballet Shoes and The Whicharts with Wendy-Marie Chabot 44:31

8M ago44:31

44:31

Send us a text Did you know that Noel Streatfeild’s 1936 children’s book Ballet Shoes is based on her earlier novel The Whicharts, a tawdrier and not-for-children “shadow twin” that was published five years prior? Find out why it’s our favorite of the two in this week’s episode with our guest, author and bookstagrammer Wendy-Marie Chabot. Discussed…

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🔒 The Secret Poetry of Austria's Empress "Sisi" 20:30

8M ago20:30

20:30

Subscriber-only episode Send us a text Long before an insatiable press laid siege to Catherine, Princess of Wales, Princess Diana, Meghan Markle and in-law to America’s “royal family,” Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, Empress Elizabeth of Austria was the beautiful royal everyone wanted a piece of. Feeling like a prisoner in a gilded cage, “Sisi” managed h…

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Ann Schlee (Rhine Journey) with Sam Johnson-Schlee and Lucy Scholes 34:01

8M ago34:01

34:01

Send us a text Pack your steamer trunks! We’re traveling to 19th-century Bavaria this week by way of Ann Schlee’s 1980 historical novel Rhine Journey, newly republished by McNally Editions. This Booker-Prize nominated travel tale features vivid period details, sultry psychological thrills and a protagonist on the brink of a personal revolution, all…

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🔒 A Bicentennial Backward Glance 21:15

8M ago21:15

21:15

Subscriber-only episode Send us a text Reflecting back on four years of literary “lost ladies,” Amy celebrates our 200th episode with a quirky list of yearbook superlatives to help jog your memory about some of our favorite titles, including the books “Most Likely to Make You Eat Your Vegetables,” “Most Likely to Up Your Selfie Game,” and “Most Lik…

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Miles Franklin (My Brilliant Career) 34:04

9M ago34:04

34:04

Send us a text An Australian author — and the 1979 film adaptation of her work — capture Kim and Amy’s fancy this week on the show. Published in 1901 and written when author Miles Franklin was only eighteen years old, My Brilliant Career became an instant classic of Australian literature and still delights readers with its feisty heroine, Sybylla M…

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🔒 Lost Ladies Meet AI 16:22

9M ago16:22

16:22

Subscriber-only episode Send us a text Things get weird on the show this week as Amy and Kim commune with some ladies of literature from beyond the veil… with a little bit of help from ChatGPT. Check out our “interview” with Restoration-era author and playwright Aphra Behn, then find out what happens when we play around with prompts for Virginia Wo…

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Helen Tracy Lowe-Porter, Lost Lady of Translation — with Jo Salas 32:12

9M ago32:12

32:12

Send us a text You may think you’ve never read anything by Helen Tracy Lowe-Porter, but if you’ve read any Thomas Mann, there’s a good chance you’ve seen her handiwork. Lowe-Porter was a writer and translator whose greatest (but largely unsung) success came in the form of translating 22 monumental works by the German literary giant. Her English tra…

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🔒 7 Middagh Street — The House of Literary Misfits 12:49

9M ago12:49

12:49

Subscriber-only episode Send us a text Writers Carson McCullers and W.H. Auden, literary editor George Davis, composer Benjamin Britten and burlesque star Gypsy Rose Lee... once upon a time they all lived together in a house in Brooklyn Heights, an early 1940s version of the sitcom "Friends," only this one populated by an ever-changing mix of creat…

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Elaine May — Miss May Does Not Exist with Carrie Courogen 45:55

10M ago45:55

45:55

Send us a text Guest Carrie Courogen, author of the acclaimed new bio "Miss May Does Not Exist," joins us to discuss comic genius Elaine May. Known for her groundbreaking work in comedy, screenwriting, directing, and acting, May rose to fame as part of the iconic comedy duo Nichols and May. Despite her significant contributions to films like "Toots…

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🔒 A Urinal, a "Punk" Baroness and a Dinner Party 16:33

10M ago16:33

16:33

Subscriber-only episode Send us a text Marcel Duchamp created one of the most influential works of art in the 20th century. Or did he? There are some who theorize that a woman — “proto-punk” poet and Dada-ist Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven — is the true genius behind the groundbreaking “Fountain” urinal sculpture that rocked the art world in 1917. Le…

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Kim and Amy Catch Their Book Breath 22:17

10M ago22:17

22:17

Send us a text In this special catch-up episode, we take a breather to share updates and insights from our recent reads, including works by Sylvia Townsend Warner and Radclyffe Hall. Amy introduces a quirky new business idea inspired by silent disco and Shakespeare, and we invite listeners to text feedback using a new ‘text us’ feature. Plus, we te…

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🔒 Lost Ladies and Their Pet Monkeys 16:53

10M ago16:53

16:53

Subscriber-only episode Send us a text Inspired by Barbara Comyns, who lived with an unusual assortment of pets over the years, this bonus episode explores female authors who owned pet monkeys. Amy discusses Virginia Woolf and her Nazi-disarming marmoset Mitz, Nellie Bly’s fez-wearing travel companion, McGinty, and other primates who captured the h…

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Barbara Comyns — Our Spoons Came From Woolworths and The Vet’s Daughter with Avril Horner 42:28

10M ago42:28

42:28

Send us a text Barbara Comyns was recently called, “the best English novelist you’ve never heard of” and her unsettling gothic novels are equal parts enchanting and horrific. Joining us is Avril Horner, author of "Barbara Comyns: A Savage Innocence," who offers insight into Comyns' unique blend of dark humor and her empathetic portrayals of vulnera…

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🔒 Ina Eloise Young, Lost Lady of Sports Reporting 20:25

11M ago20:25

20:25

Subscriber-only episode Send us a text Inspired by watching Caitlin Clark play in this year’s NCAA tournament, Amy is feeling uncharacteristically “sporty” in this week’s bonus episode. She’ll dive into the history of Ina Eloise Young, America’s first female sports editor at a daily newspaper whose coverage of the 1908 World Series so impressed oth…

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Enayat al-Zayyat — Love and Silence with Iman Mersal 35:54

11M ago35:54

35:54

Send us a text Dying by suicide shortly after her novel, Love and Silence, was rejected for publication in 1963, Egyptian writer Enayat al-Zayyat gained brief recognition when the book was finally published four years after her death. Discovering the novel in a Cairo market some 30 years later launched acclaimed Egyptian writer Iman Mersal on a dec…

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🔒 The "Ex-pat" Life with Anne Boyd Rioux 21:34

11M ago21:34

21:34

Subscriber-only episode Send us a text Have you ever wanted to hit the “pause” button on your life and simply start over? In 2022, Anne Boyd Rioux did just that, making the bold and audacious decision to leave her job as a tenured English professor, sell all her earthly possessions and embark on a European adventure. In this episode, Anne talks to …

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Kay Boyle — Fifty Stories with Anne Boyd Rioux 44:36

11M ago44:36

44:36

Send us a text An eyewitness to monumental moments in the 20th century, author Kay Boyle hung out with Left Bank artists and literary giants, chronicled the ravages of WWII, was blacklisted in the 1950s and was jailed for her Haight-Ashbury activism in the late 1960s. An intrepid modernist committed to a “Revolution of the Word,” this two-time O. H…

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🔒 The Viennese Waltz — Dance Revolution! 11:30

12M ago11:30

11:30

Subscriber-only episode Send us a text In this episode Amy explores the history of the 19th-century dance craze that made political leaders nervous, religious leaders aghast, dance instructors insecure and the masses primed for revolt! From Johann Strauss Jr.'s "pop star" status to popular representations in film, we're covering everything you ever…

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