The feminist who waged war on smallpox

Bess of Hardwick fell out spectacularly with Mary, Queen of Scots and was dumped in the Tower of London by Elizabeth I. Yet nothing could get in the way of this extraordinary social climber. In this episode, Tracy Borman tells Spencer Mizen about a woman who accrued vast wealth, ...  Show more

From Islam’s emergence in the early medieval period, Muslims have been deeply connected with the followers of another faith: Judaism. In conversation with James Osborne, historian Marc David Baer examines the long relationship between these two religions and their communities, tr ...  Show more

She was a pioneering scientist, proto-feminist, and letter writer extraordinaire. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu escaped a marriage to Clotworthy Skeffington to become one of history's most incredible women. Listen this week as William and Anita are joined by Katie Hickman to tell the ...  Show more

The worldwide eradication of smallpox was not Lady Mary Wortley Montagu's only claim to fame; she discarded the life she knew and set out to remake herself, acquiring a reputation for eccentricity, adventures worthy of a modern motion picture, and unwanted literary superstardom. ...  Show more

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu was brought up to believe that it was her face that was her fortune, and her place to be simply decorative. However, her uncommon intelligence, influence among the powerful, and her willingness to accept new ideas about medicine would save lives, help en ...  Show more

Naomi Alderman's Science Story reveals how Lady Mary Wortley Montagu experimented on her own child in a quest to prove that smallpox inoculation works. Born in 1689 in a position of some power and influence, Lady Mary travelled to Constantinople as the wife of the ambassador to T ...  Show more