Eva Ekeblad - Riwo's Scandinavian Gal Pick

·22 min·2 clips

Swedish royalty Eva Ekeblad saved her country with alcohol by popularizing potato vodka during famines.

The episode begins with host Riwo introducing the final month of the Gals Guide Passport Program, focusing on Scandinavian women after covering regions like Australia, Africa, and Japan. Riwo shares her personal Scandinavian ancestry and a Swedish proverb about seeing the forest for the trees, relating it to the podcast's 300th episode. Guests Katie Young and Cassie Simcox are introduced, with Cassie recounting her involvement with Gals Guide through writing classes and a previous spooky season podcast. Bonnie Fillenworth joins later, discussing her new 'childless cat ladies' art piece inspired by Taylor Swift and available on Etsy. Riwo presents her pick: Eva Ekeblad, born in 1724 into a noble Swedish family. Eva married at 16 and had seven children, but pursued science as an agriculturalist. She focused on potatoes, introduced to Sweden in 1658 but limited to nobles, discovering uses like potato flour and potato vodka. This helped during famines by providing food and alcohol, reducing grain use. Eva published her findings in an essay titled 'attempts at producing bread, spirit, starch, and powder from potatoes' and was elected to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences at age 24, though some sources label her an honorary member due to gender barriers. She later published on bleaching cotton and yarn, possibly to improve hygiene and prevent disease. Eva also promoted potato flour in makeup to replace arsenic, enhancing safety. It took 200 years for another woman to join the Academy. Eva died at 61 and was honored with a Google Doodle in 2017. The discussion touches on vodka history, including Polish and Russian origins, and Absolute vodka's Swedish roots. The episode concludes with a call to try different vodkas and learn more women's history through the Gals Guide library.

As heard by us

A countess, a potato, and a kitchen experiment that makes Scandinavian history feel practical.

Gals Guide uses its Scandinavian stop to make the featured woman feel immediate: a countess with a political family, a marriage at 16, seven children, and a mind that kept circling back to what potatoes could do.

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Why you'd press play

Potatoes, potato flour, vodka, and one determined Scandinavian countess.

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