Difficult women, messy histories, sharp company.
The gist
Deviant Women traces women whose lives or stories sat outside the approved script, from Forough Farrokhzad and Daphne du Maurier to Mary Shelley, Mary de Morgan, and Marie Laveau. It pairs biographical detail with loose, funny conversation that can move from publishing questions to goth language without losing the thread.
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About Deviant Women
Deviant Women is feminist biography with a taste for the unruly edge of culture. Its subjects come from history, myth, literature, and the contemporary world, but the show is less interested in tidy monuments than in women whose lives have been made messy by reputation, power, art, sex, family, belief, or scandal. The excerpts include Forough Farrokhzad, Daphne du Maurier, Mary Shelley, Mary de Morgan, Marie Laveau, and The Valiant Ladies of Potosi. That range matters. It lets the show move from Persian poetry to gothic fiction, from fairy tales to mythology, and from literary circles to the blurred border between history and myth. The register is conversational and sharp. It is not a museum label. A discussion of Farrokhzad can pause over how modernist form itself became controversial, while a discussion of du Maurier can hold marriage, publishing caution, risque fiction, and Rebecca in the same frame. Mary Shelley arrives through October, goth language, Geneva, Byron, Claire, Percy, John Polidori, and the crowded emotional weather around Frankenstein. Mary de Morgan brings family hardship, artistic lodgings, oral storytelling, and pre-Raphaelite circles into view. The show often cares about how women made work under pressure. It also cares about who got called improper for doing it. There are jokes, digressions, pop-culture callbacks, and unvarnished reactions, but the conversation keeps returning to the same core question: what happens when a woman refuses, or is refused, the expected shape of a life? That makes the show useful for listeners who want biography with texture rather than reverence. It is funny without flattening its subjects. It is serious without becoming solemn. Its best moments make history feel inhabited: crowded rooms, risky manuscripts, grieving families, strange reputations, artistic friendships, and women becoming legible on their own difficult terms.
Made for: Suits a listener who wants feminist cultural history with biography, literature, mythology, and irreverent conversation in the mix. It also suits someone comfortable with messy lives rather than polished hero stories.
What sets it apart: The show’s strength is its refusal to separate research from personality: literary and historical context sits beside jokes, pop-culture detours, and frank reactions. Similar shows may profile notable women; this one lingers on reputation, scandal, creative pressure, and the social rules around the subject.
In their own words
Each fortnight, hosts Lauren and Alicia delve into a ‘deviant’ woman from history, fiction, mythology and the contemporary world: those who aren’t afraid to break the rules, to subvert the system, to explore, to seek and to challenge the status quo. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Episodes
- 1
Lipp Selects: My Girlfriend Dolly
Hidden gemJessa and Heidi spend the episode mining Dolly magazine's July 2002 issue, which puts Kirsten Dunst on the cover and promises a 16-page "Spill It A Secret" special.
Nov 26, 2020·51m·3 clips - 2
Forough Farrokhzad
Hidden gemLauren and Alicia end season four of Deviant Women with Forough Farrokhzad, the Tehran-born Iranian poet whose work they describe as influential and controversial.
Nov 5, 2020·1h 18m·5 clips - 3
Daphne du Maurier
Hidden gemDeviant Women's Daphne du Maurier episode follows the writer from her 1907 London birth to the Egypt backstory that fed Rebecca.
Oct 22, 2020·1h 18m·5 clips - 4
Mary Shelley
Hidden gem["Deviant Women frames Mary Shelley as the \"queen of goths,\" the \"mother of horror,\" and the author of Frankenstein while Lauren and Alicia connect her to the female Gothic.", "The episode traces Mary Wollstonecraft's 1792 A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, William Godwin's anti-monarchy politics, and the way Mary Shelley grew up with her mother's portrait and books.", "It follows Mary and Percy Bysshe Shelley's secret meetings at St.
Oct 8, 2020·1h 29m·5 clips - 5
Mary de Morgan
Hidden gemDeviant Women opens by pausing on Ruth Bader Ginsburg's death, then pivots to Mary de Morgan instead of trying to chase the news cycle.
Sep 24, 2020·1h 14m·5 clips - 6
Bessie Coleman
Sep 10, 2020·1h 10m - 7
Madeleine Blair
Aug 27, 2020·1h 19m - 8
Juana Inés de la Cruz
Aug 13, 2020·1h 2m - 9
Baba Yaga
Jul 30, 2020·1h 18m - 10
Norma Miller
Jul 16, 2020·1h 22m - 11
Lipp Selects: May Contain Traces Of Soy
Jul 7, 2020·29m - 12
Faith Bandler
Jul 2, 2020·1h 14m - 13
Ida B Wells
Jun 18, 2020·1h 21m - 14
Catherine of Sienna
Jun 4, 2020·1h 12m - 15
Jeanne de Clisson
May 21, 2020·1h 7m - 16
Gladys Deacon
May 7, 2020·1h 13m - 17
Hilma af Klint
Apr 23, 2020·1h 14m - 18
Lipp Selects: All Bases Covered
Apr 20, 2020·44m - 19
Rosa May Billinghurst
Apr 9, 2020·1h 10m - 20
Bonus Episode - Deviant Travel Heroines
Mar 30, 2020·1h 16m - 21
Liane de Pougy
Mar 25, 2020·1h 25m - 22
Bessie Smith
Mar 12, 2020·1h 14m - 23
Marie Laveau
Hosts Lauren and Alicia introduce season four of their podcast about deviant women from history, mythology, literature, and the contemporary world, teasing upcoming episodes on Russian and French history.
Feb 27, 2020·1h 24m - 24
Holes in History - The Valiant Ladies of Potosi
Hosts Lauren and Alicia introduce season four of their podcast about deviant women from history, mythology, and literature, discussing their Patreon bonus content on embarrassing 90s selves.
Feb 6, 2020·47m - 25
Christmas 2019
Hosts Lauren and Alicia introduce their Christmas special, discussing their Fringe show and plans for a musical, before transitioning to the holiday theme.
Dec 19, 2019·41m - 26
Queenie St Clair
Dec 5, 2019·1h 13m - 27
Mary Blair
Hosts Lauren and Alicia discuss a 'deviant' woman from history, fiction, mythology, or the contemporary world who challenges the status quo.
Nov 21, 2019·1h - 28
We present: All The S**t I've Learned Abroad
Nov 14, 2019·43m - 29
Possessions of Loundun
The hosts introduce a Halloween episode about a story involving devils, witches, conspiracies, and hysteria.
Oct 31, 2019·1h 11m - 30
Medea
Oct 16, 2019·1h 20m - 31
La Malinche
Hosts Lauren and Alicia introduce an episode about a deviant woman from 16th century Mexico, discussing their fascination with the conquistador era.
Oct 3, 2019·1h 11m - 32
Anita Berber
Sep 19, 2019·1h 13m - 33
Katsura Masako
Sep 5, 2019·1h 1m - 34
Wendy Carlos w/ India Hooi
Aug 21, 2019·55m - 35
We present: Queers
Aug 17, 2019·28m - 36
Carolyn Layton w/ Laura Elizabeth Woollett
Aug 8, 2019·42m - 37
Hedy Lamarr
Jul 25, 2019·1h 7m - 38
Begum Samru
Hosts Lauren and Alicia introduce their podcast about deviant women from history, mythology, and literature, sharing personal anecdotes.
Jul 11, 2019·1h 4m - 39
Marsha P. Johnson
Jun 28, 2019·1h 6m - 40
Pat Maginnis
Jun 13, 2019·1h 13m - 41
Margaret Sanger
Hosts Lauren and Alicia discuss deviant women from history and contemporary issues like reproductive rights.
May 30, 2019·1h 6m - 42
Pamela Colman Smith
May 17, 2019·1h 11m - 43
La Llorona
May 2, 2019·1h - 44
Ranavalona
Apr 18, 2019·1h 1m - 45
Lizzie Siddal
Apr 4, 2019·1h 12m - 46
Vali Myers
Mar 21, 2019·56m - 47
Ching Shih
Mar 7, 2019·59m - 48
Christmas Special 2018
Dec 23, 2018·33m