Gals Guide

Gal‘s Guide To The Galaxy

About

Women‘s history told by your best gal pals.

Available on

Community

348 episodes

Kate O'Brien - Jackie's Irish Gal Pick

Did you think Ireland Month was over?! Well, we found a pot of gold on this April Fools Day! Gal’s Guide just happens to be so lucky because we know Jackie. Jackie is a native Hoosier who now calls Ireland home. She also runs the Castlelyons Library, which is supported and sponsored by Gal’s Guide. So for this bonus episode, Jackie Donegan tells us about the amazing Irish author Kate O'Brien! 

31m
Apr 01, 2024
Queen Medb - Riwo's Irish Gal Pick

Riwo's pick is pre-Christian times in Ireland. Her pick is also part historical but also part myth and legend. She’s a complex woman. Queen Medb (also spelled Maeve, Mave, Meave) her name is connected to alcohol -  you know meade-woman -  she starts a war over who has a prettier bull, and it takes 30 men in a night to satisfy her sexually. She’s a lot and she's not apologizing for any of it. 

30m
Mar 28, 2024
Sinéad O'Connor - Lori's Irish Gal Pick

Lori continues Ireland Month by talking about singer, songwriter, and activist Sinéad O'Connor. The Pope and Prince tie into this episode as we learn about the many albums, struggles, and talents of this Dublin musician. 

21m
Mar 18, 2024
Bernadette Devlin - Katie's Irish Gal Pick

Katie continues Ireland Month with a campaigner for social justice, elected to Parliament at age 21, served prison time, wounded in an assassination attempt, and sometimes called "Ireland's Joan of Arc", Bernadette Devlin.

22m
Mar 12, 2024
Lilian Bland - Bonnie's Irish Gal Pick

It's the start of Ireland Month! Bonnie's pick is an all-around adventurer. Lilian Bland is an aviator, horseback rider, lumberjack, painter, and car salesman. And when we say aviator we mean, she's the first woman to build her own plane 'cause it's 1910.  And when we say car salesman, we mean the idea of cars is new. 

18m
Mar 06, 2024
Mariama Ba - Katie's African Gal Pick

Katie finishes up African Gals Month by sharing about Senegalese author, Mariama Ba. So Long a Letter https://www.librarycat.org/lib/GalsGuidetotheGalaxy/item/199067218 is a novel expressing the fate and the frustration of African women. Mariama received the Noma Award, a major book award in Africa.

25m
Feb 26, 2024
Agojie - Leah's African Gals Pick

Gal's Guide Film Club is discussing the Viola Davis movie The Women King. Leah wanted to dig deeper into the real-life all-female military regiment in the Kingdom of Dahomey known as the Agojie. If you are wondering if they are what the Dorje Milaje of Black Panther is based on - you are correct my friend.

27m
Feb 21, 2024
Professor Nox Makunga - Josh's African Gal Pick

Josh returns to the podcast to talk about the medicinal plant biologist, Nokwanda Pearl Makunga. Professor Nox is a researcher in Biotechnology at Stellenbosch University. Her work is fascinating if you have a green thumb and even if you don't! 

23m
Feb 14, 2024
Huda Sha'arawi - Bonnie's African Gal Pick

It's a new month and Bonnie starts African Gal month with a trailblazer of the Egyptian Feminist movement, Huda Sha'arawi. Learn about this amazing suffragette. 

19m
Feb 08, 2024
Sister Elizabeth Kenny - Leah's Australian Gal Pick

Leah closes out Australian Gals Month with her pick. Sister Elizabeth Kenny (who was a military sister, not a religious sister) was an Australian Bush nurse who basically created physical therapy. At the time her methods of treating polio patients were unconventional but one day there was some help from the Mayo Clinic in the United States. Learn more about this amazing woman. 

23m
Jan 31, 2024
Mary Reibey - Katie's Australian Gal Pick

Katie's Australian Gal is a legendary businesswoman who started as a convict.  Learn about Mary Reibey, an incredible woman who is on the money and became a role model for many. 

23m
Jan 23, 2024
Edith Cowan - Barb’s Australian Gal Pick

Australian Gals Month continues! Barb's pick is a social reformer who was the first woman to serve as a member of Parliament. 

23m
Jan 15, 2024
Julia Gillard - Bonnie’s Australian Gal Pick

It is a new season of the Gal’s Guide Podcast! Can you believe it, it’s season 7! We’ve got a slightly new spin on all of 2024’s episodes. We’ll be learning about women around the world with a new region each month. This month, it’s Australia! Bonnie starts us off with the first female Prime Minister of Australia, Julia Gillard. 

21m
Jan 08, 2024
Susan La Flesche Picotte

For the last episode of Season 6, Barb ends Medicine Woman month with Omaha Medical doctor, Susan La Flesche Picotte. Season 7 begins on January 8, 2024, with Australian Gals.

35m
Nov 27, 2023
Gladys Tantaquidgeon - Leah’s 1 Cool Medicine Woman

Medicine Woman Month continues! Leah tells us about the amazing Gladys Tantaquidgeon who was 3rd generation medicine woman who lived to age 106! 

24m
Nov 13, 2023
Qi-yo Ke-pe - Bonnie’s 1 Cool Medicine Woman

Bonnie stars of Medicine Woman with the Great Healer of the Native Americans, Qi-yo Ke-pe. 

22m
Nov 08, 2023
Baba Yaga - Bonnie’s 1 Cool Folklore Gal

Bonnie finishes up Folklore Month with the Slavic hero/villain the Baba Yaga!

34m
Nov 03, 2023
Kisa Gotami - Leah’s 1 Cool Folklore Gal

Leah shares a Buddhist folktale of Kisa Gotami and the Mustard Seed. 

24m
Oct 25, 2023
Aleshea Harris - Kassie’s 1 Cool Folklore Gal

Kassie talks about the amazing modern playwright who has a folklore twist. Learn and celebrate Aleshea Harris and her play "Is God Is." 

31m
Oct 20, 2023
Lozen - Barb’s 1 Cool Folklore Gal

Barb tells us about Lozen, the Chiricahua Warm Springs Apache who was a skillful warrior and a shield to her people. There is a trigger warning for this episode as we do discuss the capture and the imprisonment of Lozen and her people. 

25m
Oct 12, 2023
Folklore Bonus Episode

October is Folklore Gals Month. To set the tone, Katie Young shares a quick and bonus episode about the lore of Banshees. 

9m
Oct 01, 2023
Ruth Wakefield - Leah’s 1Cool Working Women

Leah finished up Working Women Month with a delicious treat! Learn about Ruth Wakefield, the inventor of the chocolate chip cookie. See if you think she got a tasty deal for her business creation. 

26m
Sep 27, 2023
Reshma Saujani - Barb’s 1 Cool Working Woman

Working Women Month continues! Barb tells us about the founder of Girls Who Code and the best-selling author of multiple books, Reshma Saujani.

34m
Sep 18, 2023
Judith Love Cohen - Katie’s 1 Cool Working Woman

Working Women Month continues! Katie is up next telling us about the fantastic American aerospace engineer, who also happens to be the mom of actor, Jack Black. 

28m
Sep 11, 2023
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire - Bonnie’s Working Women

Bonnie starts off Working Women month with a cautionary tale of the horrors of the workplace. On Saturday, March 25, 1911, a fire broke out in Manhattan. The tall building with unsafe conditions created a deadly industrial disaster. Taking the lives of 146 people, most of them women, inspired protests to create safer work conditions for all. 

20m
Sep 07, 2023
Stewardess Rebellion - Katie’s 1 Cool Thing

The Aviation drink with gin has REALLY KICK IN! Katie wraps up aviation month with the power of the Great Stewardess Rebellion. Inspired by the amazing book of the same name by Nell McShane Wulfhart. We also talked about the window, aisle, or middle seat before we got really upset with the sexism in the airline industry.

29m
Aug 28, 2023
Wally Funk - Leah’s 1 Cool Aviation Gal

Leah's super excited to tell you about one of her favorite Mercury 13 gals who also is the oldest woman to go to space! It's the delightful, Wally Funk! 

20m
Aug 22, 2023
Mama Bird Evelyn Johnson - Barb’s 1 Cool Aviation Gal

Barb continues Aviation gals month with a high flyer who was born just 6 years after the Wright brother's first flight. Learn about Mama Bird the female pilot with the highest number of flying hours in the world. She was a colonel in the Civil Air Patrol and a founding member of the Morristown, Tennessee Civil Air Patrol Squadron

34m
Aug 22, 2023
Sophie Blanchard - Bonnie’s 1 Cool Aviation Gal

Bonnie's pick to start off Aviation Gal's Month hits on her favorite things - her gal has a lot of names, she's the first in a few things, and there is a puppy element. That being said, it's a wild ride learning about Madame Sophie Blanchard, the French woman who was the first female professional balloonist...but she also was the first to....let's say, not land. 

20m
Aug 08, 2023
Jordyn Zimmerman - Katie’s 1 Cool Disabled Gal

Katie wraps up Disability Gals Month by talking about the amazing accessibility enthusiast, Jordyn Zimmerman. 

33m
Jul 31, 2023