Women's History Month Podcast Recommendations

It's Women's History Month and all of us here at the Niels Bohr Library & Archives love podcasts. We recently compiled our favorite podcast episodes featuring women in science in a tweet thread and thought we would share it with our Ex Libris Universum readers! Here are our podcast recommendations for your enjoyment.

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In honor of Women’s History Month and listening to podcasts to drown out the sound of your own thoughts, here are some podcasts on women in the physical sciences that we think are pretty rad #WHM #WomensHistoryMonth (1/24)

— Niels Bohr Library & Archives (@AIP_Library) March 23, 2022

Celebrate mathematician Emmy Noether’s birthday today by listening to this episode of BBC’s In our Time and learn about her important contributions to physics and mathematics! @BBCInOurTimehttps://t.co/FSj2I8RzZa (2/24)

— Niels Bohr Library & Archives (@AIP_Library) March 23, 2022

The Smithsonian’s podcast @SidedoorPod explores the history of the suits made for walking on the moon, and how important seamstresses that worked for Playtex were for the construction and design https://t.co/tVUnqapr8n (3/24)

— Niels Bohr Library & Archives (@AIP_Library) March 23, 2022

@ladyxscience discusses the history of domestic engineering and the science of the household https://t.co/T0bKqCtXbK which is a great companion for @Physhist’s piece from 2017 https://t.co/40O8BPPjuO (4/24)

— Niels Bohr Library & Archives (@AIP_Library) March 23, 2022

A conversation on Caroline (and William) Herschel from @BBCInOurTime, a fascinating dive into an 18th century woman astronomer’s life https://t.co/2yaD1Nk7sH (5/24)

— Niels Bohr Library & Archives (@AIP_Library) March 23, 2022

You’ve probably heard of Robert Boyle, but have you heard of his sister and partner in science, Lady Ranelagh? This episode of Distillations from the @SciHistoryOrg shares her story and why she was almost lost to history. https://t.co/vs58VSt3lB (6/24)

— Niels Bohr Library & Archives (@AIP_Library) March 23, 2022

Mary Somerville was the first scientist. Or, more accurately, the first to be called a “scientist”. Learn why in this BBC Sounds episode. https://t.co/iamSeWrEHf (7/24)

— Niels Bohr Library & Archives (@AIP_Library) March 23, 2022

A fascinating interview with Ellen Ochoa, a former astronaut and former director of the Johnson Space Center. She was the first Hispanic woman to go to space and discusses her life and career with @guyraz on Wisdom from the Top. https://t.co/KRiTjRlPnf (8/24)

— Niels Bohr Library & Archives (@AIP_Library) March 23, 2022

Before GoFundMe, there were journalists who asked for money. Marie Curie reluctantly benefited from such efforts. Learn more in this Distillations episode from @SciHistoryOrg: https://t.co/TpvRFkNTat (9/24)

— Niels Bohr Library & Archives (@AIP_Library) March 23, 2022

Physicist, activist, and author of The Disordered Cosmos, Chanda Prescod-Weinstein is interviewed in this Cite Black Women episode. @citeblackwomen https://t.co/TJhfeQrfv1 (10/24)

— Niels Bohr Library & Archives (@AIP_Library) March 23, 2022

Irène Joliot-Curie continued in her parents footsteps, conducting groundbreaking radioactive research. Listen to this episode of Babes of Science to learn her story! @babescience https://t.co/ocNfrKHFKk (11/24)

— Niels Bohr Library & Archives (@AIP_Library) March 23, 2022

Unexplainable’s first episode was on Vera Rubin and her discovery of dark matter https://t.co/mbsM2PyE1y You can dive even further into Vera Rubin’s life with one of our oral histories https://t.co/8OZtv4csDn (12/24)

— Niels Bohr Library & Archives (@AIP_Library) March 23, 2022

This episode of STEM Fatale details the short but astounding life of x-ray crystallographer Rosalind Franklin, honorable mention for best alternate title of an episode: Our Dark Lady of DNA @STEMFatalePod https://t.co/Ur5ZC95pUp (13/24)

— Niels Bohr Library & Archives (@AIP_Library) March 23, 2022

The Harvard Computers were a team of women, including Williamina Fleming, Annie Jump Cannon, and others, whose calculations made remarkable discoveries in astronomy. This episode of @TheMemoryPalace tells how their story began. https://t.co/bNTruDntc4 (14/24)

— Niels Bohr Library & Archives (@AIP_Library) March 23, 2022

Marguerite Perey worked her way up at Marie Curie's lab, discovering the element francium. Her dedication to cancer research led to her own bone cancer. Babes of Science @babescience tells her story. https://t.co/siqu3q6L0D (15/24)

— Niels Bohr Library & Archives (@AIP_Library) March 23, 2022

Rosalyn Sussman Yalow earned the Nobel for her work on radioimmunoassay. Babes of Science @babescience tells the story of her career and the obstacles in her way. https://t.co/PYGVmN5tKd (16/24)

— Niels Bohr Library & Archives (@AIP_Library) March 23, 2022

@STEMFatalePod discusses the life of Katherine Johnson, whose NASA work was famously immortalized in Hidden Figures. Less well known: she helped integrate West Virginia University in 1939 https://t.co/b6SjyhaN87 (17/24)

— Niels Bohr Library & Archives (@AIP_Library) March 23, 2022

When Octavia Butler was growing up in the 50s and 60s, almost all science fiction authors were white men. Listen to @throughlineNPR’s podcast to hear how she carved a space for herself and wrote such impactful and innovative stories in this genre. https://t.co/nwwvizgGOo (18/24)

— Niels Bohr Library & Archives (@AIP_Library) March 23, 2022

This episode of @wmnmedia’s Womanica podcast, guest hosted by Agnes Mar of @shechatpodcast, details the life and experiences of Mary G. Ross (born in 1908): mathematician, aeronautical engineer, satellite designer, & member of the Cherokee Nation:https://t.co/55yxoBeWIS
(19/24)

— Niels Bohr Library & Archives (@AIP_Library) March 23, 2022

Another @babescience podcast recommendation? Of course! Listen to this episode on Hedy Lamarr to find out how the Vienna-born actor worked to develop (and received a patent for) a new frequency-jamming radio system during World War II. https://t.co/njpMf3E2Md (20/24)

— Niels Bohr Library & Archives (@AIP_Library) March 23, 2022

This episode of @BBCInOurTime is about French mathematician & natural philosopher Emilie du Châtelet who translated Newton’s Principia into French & wrote Institutions de Physique. She worked in a world of ideas that was nearly exclusively male: https://t.co/CntrLV33jl (21/24)

— Niels Bohr Library & Archives (@AIP_Library) March 23, 2022

In this @SenecaWomen 100 Women to Hear episode, Dr. Shirley Jackson discusses her groundbreaking experiences as a physicist, from becoming the first Black woman to obtain a Ph.D at MIT, to serving as President of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. https://t.co/P9FuNa2v66 (22/24)

— Niels Bohr Library & Archives (@AIP_Library) March 23, 2022

It seems only fair to end with a final @babescience podcast! Not only was Maria Mitchell one of the first women to discover a comet, she was also a professor, a researcher of star movement, and a women’s education advocate. https://t.co/WkaINJBJNa (23/24)

— Niels Bohr Library & Archives (@AIP_Library) March 23, 2022

There are some great podcast episodes about women in physics! But these are just some of our faves, what’s yours? And stay tuned for the launch of our very own podcast this summer! Give a shout if there’s anyone or thing in physics history you want to know more about #WHM (24/24)

— Niels Bohr Library & Archives (@AIP_Library) March 23, 2022