Audrey Hepburn Had a Pet Deer

Erin B. | Friday, May 8, 2015

This week would have marked Audrey Hepburn’s 86th birthday, and moviegoers still mourn the death of the actress. But did you know that the doe-like Hepburn had a doe of her very own? The...

The Roman Fart That Sparked a Deadly Riot

Josh H. | Wednesday, May 6, 2015

In Monty Python and the Holy Grail, one of the French soldiers who is tasked with guarding a castle tells King Arthur, “I fart in your general direction.” Though this humorous gag is mere...

She Did Pioneering Work in Genetics—But Her Husband Got the Nobel Prize

Erin B. | Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Brilliant scientist marries brilliant scientist. And they all lived happily ever after…except that part where the husband was given a Nobel Prize despite his wife’s contributions. The sto...

Are We Losing Strong Science to Stronger Ideologies?

Emma M. | Friday, May 1, 2015

This hour on the Modern Notion Daily podcast, we talk to Alice Dreger, author of Galileo’s Middle Finger: Heretics, Activists, and the Search for Justice in Science (Penguin Press, March...

The Sad Truth About Degas's 'Little Dancer'

Kristen M. | Friday, May 1, 2015

To make it as a professional ballerina it takes an incredible amount of hard work, a lot of luck and a considerable number of resources; like money, access to the right teachers, a ridicu...

Victorian Women Were Not, Not Opposed to the Nipple Piercings

Emma B. | Thursday, Apr 30, 2015

We know that Victorian women had a fondness for tattoos, but getting a nipple piercing is a line you wouldn’t imagine a Victorian lady would cross, or even come close to touching. Certain...

This Woman Convinced the World She Was Grand Duchess Anastasia

Erin B. | Friday, Apr 24, 2015

There’s power in wishful thinking. That’s a truth learned (and exploited) by one Anna Anderson, a woman who convinced the world she was really Grand Duchess Anastasia in a time before DNA...

Mythical Viking Sunstones Aren't a Myth After All

Jes G. | Tuesday, Apr 14, 2015

Scientists and historians have long puzzled over how Vikings navigated the mysteries of the Atlantic Ocean without compasses. The Vikings, according to their sagas, simply used magical st...

How Audrey Hepburn Helped Fight the Nazis

Jes G. | Thursday, Apr 9, 2015

In 1939, Audrey Hepburn’s mother decided to relocate their family from England to her father’s home in the Netherlands, believing the Nazis would pass over the neutral country. However, w...

The Seating Kerfuffle That Gave Birth to the Women's Rights Movement

Erin B. | Sunday, Mar 29, 2015

Today, Elizabeth Cady Stanton is seen as one of the giants of women’s suffrage. But in 1840, she was a young woman on the verge of marriage—a woman who had no idea that a quibble about se...

Belle Gunness and Her Midwest Murder Farm

Dara K. | Tuesday, Mar 17, 2015

In the early hours of April 28, 1908, Joe Maxson awoke as a fire blazed through the La Porte, Indiana farmhouse he worked at as farm hand. He tried to wake the owner of the farm, Belle Gu...

The Story of Japan's Deadly All-Female Ninja Squad

Josh H. | Tuesday, Mar 17, 2015

After her husband died in the Battle of Kawanakajima in 1561, Mochizuki Chiyome, a Japanese noblewoman, was approached by Takeda Shingen, a powerful feudal lord, to create an all-female n...