Frisky History

Hosted by Lacey Gonzalez and Robyn Schmitz, Frisky History combines comedy with feminist approaches to history. It offers a way to connect subjects often treated as private—sex, reproduction and family—to institutions and public decisions.

Two routes into the archive

Episode 88, “Supreme Court injustices,” discusses the history and importance of the Indian Child Welfare Act and the risk posed by a possible Supreme Court reversal at the time. The topic connects family to state power: who decides where children belong, and which families receive protection? A reproductive-justice reading asks about the conditions of raising children, alongside the ability to have them.

Episode 86, “Consperiodcy theories,” takes up period-tracking apps. This provides a route into questions about bodily knowledge and information: a tool presented as convenient self-management can also generate records that institutions may use. Access to knowledge about a body and control over its data are distinct questions.

What can humor do?

An informal conversation can make historical subjects easier to approach and create room for experiences surrounded by shame. Humor does not replace evidence, however. Claims about historical figures, law and medicine remain worth following into further reading.

The episodes also belong to specific moments. Discussion of courts, legislation or apps should not be carried forward as current legal or technical guidance. The more durable question concerns how historical stories change what listeners understand as normal, natural or merely private—and who acquires the authority to make those judgments. Listening can begin with a particular topic, then continue toward the institutions and assumptions that make it politically consequential.