Back in the 1970s, when women were still told they needed a husband or father to sign for a loan, a group of bold Denver women said no more. They founded The Women’s Bank of Denver to claim not just access to money—but power. In this episode, we unpack how they built a bank from scratch in 1978, how they rewrote the rules of finance for women, and what their legacy means for us today. Expect feminist fire, financial clarity, and a blueprint for breaking ceilings made of glass and dollars. (Plus a surprise appearance from mini McBitch)
🎧 Listen wherever you get your podcasts.
THE BLOG: kellymcclain.blogspot.com
THE EMAIL: heybitches@bitchstory.net
BITCHSCOPES: Patreon.com/bitchstory
CONTRIBUTE: 💲We insert zero ads and have no subscription fees. If you'd like to contribute to our work here at Bitchstory, we'd be thrilled to receive your financial support so we can keep going and maybe actually not be in the red.
Our venmo is @bitchstory
This week, we’re keeping it short and spectral with Violet Paget — better known by her pen name, Vernon Lee. A 19th century brainiac queer Victorian writer, art critic, and master of the uncanny, Violet blurred the lines between intellect and imagination long before it was fashionable.
🎧 Listen wherever you get your podcasts.
THE BLOG: kellymcclain.blogspot.com
THE EMAIL: heybitches@bitchstory.net
BITCHSCOPES: Patreon.com/bitchstory
CONTRIBUTE: 💲We insert zero ads and have no subscription fees. If you'd like to contribute to our work here at Bitchstory, we'd be thrilled to receive your financial support so we can keep going and maybe actually not be in the red.
Our venmo is @bitchstory
Grab your beret and hold onto your typewriter, darlings — it’s our hundredth episode! And what better way to celebrate than with the woman who made single, working, independent life look not just possible, but fabulous: Mary Tyler Moore.
This week, Kelly and Lisa take a …shallow to medium-ish dive into The Mary Tyler Moore Show — the groundbreaking sitcom that tossed its hat (and the patriarchy) into the air. We talk about Mary Richards as the proto-modern woman, Rhoda as the feminist best friend we all need, and Phyllis and Sue Ann as hilarious caricatures of mid-century womanhood.
And because it’s our 100th, Kelly was in rare form — slipping into Tallulah Bankhead impersonations,, hollering about the political BS, and generally treating broadcast feminism like a cabaret act.
So tune in, toss your hat in the air, and join us in celebrating 100 episodes of Bitchstory — where women’s stories stay center stage, and the laugh track always comes with a side of revolution.
🎧 Listen wherever you get your podcasts.
THE BLOG: kellymcclain.blogspot.com
THE EMAIL: heybitches@bitchstory.net
Jimmy Kimmel got headlines when he was suspended — but what about the women who’ve been silenced for speaking truth on TV? From Hazel Scott’s jazz-and-justice to Bea Arthur’s Maude, from trailblazing journalists to feminist comedians, women who dared to push boundaries have been canceled faster than Trump changes subjects .
In this episode of Bitchstory, Kelly and Lisa dig into the women who risked everything for free speech, feminism, and civil liberties — and paid the price. From blacklists and advertiser boycotts to Twitter mobs and corporate fear, the tactics change but the punishment stays the same.
The First Amendment protects against government censorship, but not against networks, sponsors, or platforms pulling the plug. From the Red Scare to cancel culture hashtags, women who speak truth are still paying a higher price than men.
Because well-behaved women seldom make
history — but the canceled ones definitely do.
What happens when women refuse to stay quiet? This week, we’re telling the stories of badass whistleblowers who risked everything to speak the truth—about corruption, violence, and patriarchy’s dirty little secrets. Spoiler: honesty didn’t exactly win them any popularity contests.
From smear campaigns to erasure, we’ll unpack the gendered double standards of whistleblowing and celebrate the women who still delivered the message, no matter the cost.
CW: some discussion of rape and SA
💥 For more inspiration and bonus content, check out kellymcclain.blogspot.com.
📧Email: heybitches@bitchstory.net
💲We insert zero ads and have no subscription fees. If you'd like to contribute to our work here at Bitchstory, we'd be thrilled to receive your financial support so we can keep going and maybe actually not be in the red.
Our venmo is @bitchstory
THANK YOU FOR LISTENING! <3
We have an admitted fixation on women who are spies. This episode focuses on women in WW2 who put it all on the line to fight fascism…and defeat Nazis. Not all of these women were spies, but some were. Some of these women are decorated heroines. Some were executed. Some had to keep their achievements a secret for many years. Some were very young. All of them were absolute badasses!
Ever heard of Ravensbrück? It was one of the largest women’s concentration camps and neither of us had ever heard of it!! Well now we have and so have you!
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/ravensbrueck
**(CW: this episode briefly discusses rape as a weapon of war)
Below are the other episodes where we discuss women who were mostly non military that furthered the cause via spying, tricking, and dangerous things having pockets… be inspired ;)
Ep 20 - Spies Like Us
https://open.spotify.com/episode/4ZzV5EfTuBIbpBVUZyF9MW
Ep 26 - Spy Bitches of the Revolution
https://open.spotify.com/episode/5jyo0DubkDKCF1Ss6aRLub
Ep 50 - Civil War Lady Spies
https://open.spotify.com/episode/5PWDqYDkqpF9gUMNul67YG
Ep 70 - The Hidden Women of the Revolutionary War
https://open.spotify.com/episode/0Hqq6syGSlNThDawnw972v
Ep 71 - Women of the French Revolution - they weren’t just at home making cheese, Pierre!
https://open.spotify.com/episode/4RDIiwR85fm6xzrTk1zk0P
Ep 88 - the Real Housewives of the Revolution
https://open.spotify.com/episode/46AK34dMhC8RvW5fzLy3JR
Ep 95 - the Ladies Behind the Plot that Tricked Hitler
https://open.spotify.com/episode/13ftY6LstQXmnBIxe1cxPP
++++++++++
Blog:
https://kellymcclain.blogspot.com/2025/08/women-who-kicked-nazi-ass-nancy-wake.html
Email: heybitches@bitchstory.net
We insert zero ads and have no subscription fees. If you'd like to contribute to our work here at Bitchstory, we'd be thrilled to receive your financial support so we can keep going and maybe actually not be in the red.
Our venmo is @bitchstory
THANK YOU FOR LISTENING! <3
This might be one of my favorite episodes. I had not really given much thought to the concept of “water equality” until Lisa suggested this topic. It’s not that I never think of drought stricken parts of the world or Gaza’s ongoing fight for survival. It’s just that when you can walk into the next room and turn a handle, the notion of “gendered burden” and “the geopolitics of water” isn’t top of mind. Even though I live in an ongoing drought in California…But I am thinking about it NOW.
To no one’s surprise, women shoulder (literally) the burden of water collection and now they are also spearheading the fight for water equality around the world.
You can donate to the cause at WATER.ORG.
You can also use AI responsibly, vote wisely, conserve water, and listen to this show for inspiration and ideas
Also, Gen Z and millennials - let’s tap into your out of the box thinking! We’d love to hear your ideas, or ya know if you make it into the news, give us Bitches a shout!
Heybitches@bitchstory.net
In WW2, women filled all sorts of important roles, from secretaries to spies. Many of these stories have been buried in HIStory, but in this current wave of feminism, it isn’t hard to find a good story about a badass woman in a war.
“Operation Mincemeat” was a British MI5 plot devised to fool Hitler into pulling back his troops from Sicily, thereby allowing the allies to secure it and turn the war hard in their favor.
There were a number of women who were essential to the success of this ruse, and in this episode we cover a few of them.
Here’s a link to the photo that deceived Hitler, and my blog about her:
https://kellymcclain.blogspot.com/2025/07/operation-mincemeat-women-behind-plot.html
If you'd like to contribute to our work here at Bitchstory, we'd be thrilled to receive your financial support so we can keep going and maybe actually not be in the red.
Our venmo is @bitchstory
Thanks for listening! <3
We had an absolute blast talking to Karen Wang Diggs, author of the book “Awesome Asian Women”! Karen was a freakin’ delight! She’s the real deal-a true intersectional feminist and a gifted storyteller with a passion for lifting women up. Her book contains inspiring stories of over 120 women, from Empress Wu Zetian to Congresswoman Tammy Duckworth (who was just on Stephen Colbert and we love!)
It is going to be a fixture on the Bitchstory bookshelf!
You can read about the women we discuss on the pod on my blog every week: Kellymcclain.blogspot.com
If you'd like to contribute to our work here at Bitchstory, we'd be thrilled to receive your financial support so we can keep going and maybe actually not be in the red.
Our venmo is @bitchstory
Thanks for listening! <3
Lisa and I had the pleasure of speaking to two very cool women recently. The author and illustrator of “I’m Not Your Muse” and companion deck (so cool!) “More Than Muses”, Lori Zimmer & Maria Krasinski! We discussed at length where this vision and inspiration came from and how they brought it to life. This book feels like it was made for this podcast, and you can bet your ass we’ll be using it often! This book highlights women from all walks of life who created all kinds of art and in the process broke out of society’s boxes. This isn’t their first project together. They are lifelong friends and also collaborated in “Art Hiding in Paris” and “Art Hiding in New York”. My artsy heart really loves this! You can find all of their projects and info at “Arthiding.com” and @arthiding
You can read about the women we discuss on the pod on my blog every week: Kellymcclain.blogspot.com
If you'd like to contribute to our work here at Bitchstory, we'd be thrilled to receive your financial support so we can keep going and maybe actually not be in the red.
Our venmo is @bitchstory
Thanks for listening! <3
Ash from the true crime podcast, “f**k that” joins us to tell us about a huge scientific discovery that was made by a woman but stolen by a man! Rosalind Franklin needs to be added to the history books!!
Check out the revision history on the Wikipedia article!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosalind_Franklin
Google’s if-y search results:
https://www.google.com/search?q=who+discovered+dna+structure&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-us&client=safari
https://time.com/5793551/rosalind-franklin-100-women-of-the-year/
Ash’s podcast:
https://www.fthatpod.com/
https://www.instagram.com/fthat_pod
You can read about the women we discuss on the pod on my blog every week: Kellymcclain.blogspot.com
If you'd like to contribute to our work here at Bitchstory, we'd be thrilled to receive your financial support so we can keep going and maybe actually not be in the red.
Our venmo is @bitchstory
Thanks for listening! <3
We are back on our DEI shit...oh wait, we were never off of it. Ok well anyway, this episode is a nod to Black History, Women's History, and WW2 Military History. Put those all together and you get a story of black women being given the impossible task of unfucking a big mess that a bunch of men thought they were too good for (probably) - We are talking about the "Central Postal Directory Battalion", better known as 6888 Battalion. The 6888 was an all black, all female unit that was handed the "impossible" task of sorting several million pieces of mail in a 6 month period in the middle of WW2 in Europe.
You can watch the Netflix movie "The Six Triple Eight", but first, listen to this podcast :)
SOURCES:
You can read about the women we discuss on the pod on my blog every week: Kellymcclain.blogspot.com
If you'd like to contribute to our work here at Bitchstory, we'd be thrilled to receive your financial support so we can keep going and maybe actually not be in the red.
Our venmo is @bitchstory
Thanks for listening! <3
This week we are highlighting a couple of badass ladies that we plucked out of the 2 books that came to our attention via listeners or followers of the pod - the first black librarian Belle da Costa Greene came from Lori's book, and from Karen's book, astrophysicist Dr. Mazlan Othman!
Lori Zimmer's book: "I'm not your muse" -
From the publisher: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/lori-zimmer/im-not-your-muse/9780762485383/?lens=running-press
From Amazon (she has other books so search her name if you love art!):
Lori's instagram: @thelorizimmer
Karen Wang Diggs' book "Awesome Asian Women"
From independent book seller Book Hampton :
https://www.bookhampton.com/book/9781684817238
From Amazon: https://a.co/d/dwhB94p
Author Website: herstoryinhistory.com
Karen's Instagram: @herstoryinhx
Publisher instagram: @mangopublishing
(we were not paid to link any of the above, btw)
The reliquary triptych we mentioned that is displayed in the Morgan Library is this thing: https://www.themorgan.org/objects/item/93248
You can read about the women we discuss on the pod on my blog every week: Kellymcclain.blogspot.com
If you'd like to contribute to our work here at Bitchstory, we'd be thrilled to receive your financial support so we can keep going and maybe actually not be in the red.
Our venmo is @bitchstory
Thanks for listening! <3
April is Scottish Heritage Month, so we are covering an event in Scottish history...ahem...herstory...ahem...bitchstory (trust, they were called Bitches and then some!) ! that changed the educational options and career paths for millions of women that came after it. The Edinburgh Seven were a group of 7 women (there were more than 7 actually) who had to fight for their rights to attend med school. We'll cover who they were and what they had to go through.
This is a cautionary tale for American women, who are having their rights eroded in the 21st century at an alarming rate, while much of the rest of the world is progressing. Fight, bitches!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edinburgh_Seven
If you'd like to contribute to our work here at Bitchstory, we'd be thrilled to receive your Venmo @bitchstory
Thanks for listening! <3
You know the saying…behind every great man…is a woman doing all the work and never getting mentioned. Isn’t that the saying?
Well anyway, we’ve created an imaginary reality show about the wives of the famous men of the Revolution.
Who is gonna be the table tipper? Any guesses?
I’ll upload sources later. I’m already behind on posting this :)
.
This week we have an ancient badass Queen, and a present day badass lady, both have spoken truth to power and stood up against corruption. Lisa covers Queen Amanirenas of 24 BCE, and Kelly covers Texas Representative Jasmine Crockett!m and some of her sassy clapbacks.
Keep calling your representatives- the pressure does make a difference! Use this app!
"5 Calls" App- It's SO easy and cool!!!
https://5calls.org/
SOURCES
https://www.history.com/news/nubian-queen-amanirenas-roman-army
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jasmine_Crockett
EXTRAS
Here’s a video we mentioned of President Zelenskyy THANKING an American WW2 Vet!!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KBofHkLqXZE
This week, we tell the tale of some amazing black women. And in a weird twist, Kelly talks about sports, which is usually a Lisa thing, and Lisa talks about an AIDS activists, which is one of Kelly's passions.
We also discuss ways you can pressure our Representatives and Congress people to do the right thing and stand up to the Tangerine Tyrant and his horny tech-bro boyfriend by using an App called "5 Calls". It's SO easy and cool!!!
sources:
https://espnpressroom.com/us/press-releases/author/shakeemahvsw/page/2/
https://www.prdaily.com/ragan_speakers/chantal-romain/
https://www.agentnicolelynn.com/about
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicole_Lynn
Prudence Nobantu MabeleWikipediahttps://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Prudence_Nobantu_M...
And we will take as much time as it takes to talk about it!!! Trans people have existed and will continue to exist. Documented history notes a “third sex” as far back as 7000BCE. They existed in every culture, just as gay and queer people. They lived alongside many religions and are acknowledged in several.
This ep is quite long. We won’t be recording for about 3 weeks so we hope this will do.
Be well. Stay safe. Get educated. Share information not misinformation.
Support resources:
sources:
Stone maidens
Two spirit people (indigenous America)
Lili elbe
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lili_Elbe
Elebagalus
https://outhistory.org/exhibits/show/tgi-bios/elagabalus
Anastasia the patrician, Anna of Constantinople, Agnes of moncada, apollonaria, athanasia, and others
https://qspirit.net/trans-saints-cross-dressing-monks/
trans person in an 18th c hospital
https://outhistory.org/exhibits/show/an1/dis
Trans children in antebellum America- 5 cases
https://outhistory.org/exhibits/show/transgenderchildrenantebellum
The list of women who have fought for all manner of human and civil rights is so, so, so long. This week we cover just 2 who were instrumental in the fight against segregation and for equality, particularly in the bus boycotts. These ladies were alongside MLK, and yet, we bet you’ve never heard of them-
We give you Jo Ann Robinson & Diane Nash
https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/jo-ann-robinson-heroine-montgomery-bus-boycott
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diane_Nash
Check the companion blog at kellymcclain.blogspot.com
email us at "heybitches@bitchstory.net", and please leave us a review on Apple or Spotify!
Well, here we are at the end of another year. We are really proud of what we've created here and we hope you're enjoying it. In this year end episode, Lisa and I go over our faves from this season and beyond.
We'd love to hear from you: "heybitches@bitchstory.net"
check out the blog at kellymcclain.blogspot.com
Thank you for your support! We'll be back with new episodes after the new year. Happy Holidays to all!