Frances Wright’s public speaking caused riots, raised hackles, and won over fans across the country. We’d call it going viral: reaching a level of fame that gets everyone talking, whether they react with revulsion or adoration. 

In this episode, we ask Ashley Rattner (Jacksonville State University) to dig into the American media landscape in the 1830s: how could someone go viral for giving public lectures? Why was it so provocative to have a woman speak her mind that way, and how did people respond?

Then Lori Ginzberg (Pennsylvania State University) traces what happens to radical voices when their ideas are dismissed as “unthinkable,” and how Wright’s contemporary reformers reacted to her notoriety. How does Wright’s meteoric rise to prominence and the backlash it sparked reflect dynamics still in play today? In an age of online abuse campaigns toward women thinkers and “cancel culture,” what can we learn from past outspoken women like Wright, and the strategies opponents used to silence them? 

This is a podcast about Frances Wright, reformer, philosopher, writer, activist, abolitionist before it was cool. Feminist long before the word existed. 

Want to go deeper? Find shownotes with links to resources and rabbit holes here on our substack site⁠. There’s even more to read on our Bookshop.org lists here!

Frances Wright: America’s Forgotten Radical is a co-production of Newyear Media and Her Reputation for Accomplishment, written and hosted by Eleanor Rust and Tristra Yeager. Made possible by a grant from the Working Men's Institute, New Harmony, Indiana, and by the generosity of the Efroymson Family Fund. Thanks also to the Bloomington Area Arts Council for supporting this podcast.

Frances Wright is voiced by Emily McGee, and the anonymous hater from the pages of the Advocate of Moral Reform is read by Shannon Gayk. Music by Eleanor Dubinsky. Editing and audio support by Josh Perez.