Episode Summary: In our Halloween special, we step into the dark history of women’s mental health in early 20th-century America. Two women — Catherine Ward and Carrie Selvage — entered the asylum system from different directions. One commited a horrific crime. One guilty of nothing. Both lives ended tragically. We explore how fear, misunderstanding, and limited medical knowledge shaped their fates. Themes Included: • Asylums — hope vs. harm • Postpartum mental health • Trauma and “nervo...
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Episode Summary: In our Halloween special, we step into the dark history of women’s mental health in early 20th-century America. Two women — Catherine Ward and Carrie Selvage — entered the asylum system from different directions. One commited a horrific crime. One guilty of nothing. Both lives ended tragically. We explore how fear, misunderstanding, and limited medical knowledge shaped their fates. Themes Included: • Asylums — hope vs. harm • Postpartum mental health • Trauma and “nervo...
In February 1988, a single gunshot shattered the quiet of a Durham, North Carolina, neighborhood. Barbara Stager told police her husband Russ's death was a tragic accident. But as investigators dug deeper, the picture-perfect image of a devoted wife began to crack. In this episode of Hard Times & True Crimes, we step back into the 1980s Durham - a city caught between its tobacco past and high-tech future, where Baptist faith and family values shaped everyday life, and where appearan...
Hard Times and True Crimes
Episode Summary: In our Halloween special, we step into the dark history of women’s mental health in early 20th-century America. Two women — Catherine Ward and Carrie Selvage — entered the asylum system from different directions. One commited a horrific crime. One guilty of nothing. Both lives ended tragically. We explore how fear, misunderstanding, and limited medical knowledge shaped their fates. Themes Included: • Asylums — hope vs. harm • Postpartum mental health • Trauma and “nervo...
