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History For Weirdos

Episode 152: The Absolutely Wild Life of Nellie Bly

12 May 2025

Transcription

Chapter 1: Who are the hosts of History for Weirdos and what is this podcast about?

5.08 - 8.063 Andrew

Hello and welcome to History for Weirdos.

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8.343 - 18.133 Stephanie

We're your hosts, Andrew and Stephanie, and we're going to take you on a journey into the strange, obscure, and relentlessly entertaining corners of human history.

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18.413 - 21.596 Andrew

Now listen up, friends, because it's about to get weird.

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35.563 - 45.631 Stephanie

Weirdos, welcome back to another episode of History for Weirdos with your hosts, Stephanie and Andrew at West Coast Creative Studio in Hollywood, California.

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45.651 - 52.797 Andrew

That's why our background looks so nice and cozy and professional and there's no Pericles chewing toys anywhere.

53.377 - 54.778 Stephanie

It's so much better, I swear.

54.798 - 56.839 Andrew

This feels so nice. I'm so glad to be here.

57.039 - 60.501 Stephanie

I know. I mean, it's always good to be in studio.

60.841 - 61.702 Andrew

Get out of the apartment.

Chapter 2: What book recommendations do the hosts share before the episode?

101.557 - 102.438 Andrew

We do have merch.

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102.618 - 104.381 Stephanie

We do have merch. It will be in our show notes.

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105.222 - 113.988 Andrew

It's really fun. You can get several designs on like a dozen different products on Redbubble, but it's a little tricky to navigate. So do you mind explaining it?

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114.048 - 129.297 Stephanie

Yes. So the link that I'll give you, it goes, it will show you all the designs. And so based off the designs you like, you can click that and then it'll show you like bucket hats, sweatshirts, just like normal hats, coffee mugs even.

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129.577 - 130.118 Andrew

Notebooks.

130.238 - 130.818 Stephanie

Notebooks.

131.058 - 132.159 Andrew

Tote bags. Yes.

132.539 - 133.3 Stephanie

All of the above.

133.32 - 133.72 Andrew

Mm-hmm.

Chapter 3: Who is Nellie Bly and why is she a highly requested subject?

258.28 - 262.824 Andrew

I read one book like every couple of years. But for you, that's really rare.

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263.024 - 291.469 Stephanie

yeah I usually don't reread and the reason why is because like a like I think the time period is fascinating and be I mean he does pull from a bunch of like primary sources and kind of weaves together a really good story and especially like this it's such an interesting time in its own right but it's often overshadowed by the late late Roman Republic right of course you have like the civil wars between the first triumvirate and then you have of course the rise of Augustus and the end of the Republic itself yeah

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291.889 - 296.73 Stephanie

So obviously it's going to overshadow the earlier portion, but it shouldn't.

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297.35 - 301.111 Andrew

Can you tell the weirdos what about the book is kind of like spooky?

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301.131 - 303.632 Stephanie

Oh, yeah.

303.652 - 306.312 Andrew

So you don't have to go off too much. I'm not going to go off too much.

306.353 - 317.575 Stephanie

I'll give you there's just a lot of parallels between what's happening today and what happened then. And it's a little terrifying, but it's like watching a train wreck. You can't not stop watching.

317.715 - 320.736 Andrew

Yeah, that could be its own podcast. Probably.

321.004 - 322.225 Stephanie

I know I really should do.

Chapter 4: What was Nellie Bly's early life like and what challenges did she face?

324.586 - 326.007 Stephanie

Yeah. That would be like a special.

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326.527 - 327.288 Andrew

You and Mike Duncan.

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327.808 - 329.209 Stephanie

Oh my God. That'd be so cool.

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329.309 - 330.149 Andrew

Let's manifest it.

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330.429 - 333.584 Stephanie

Manifesting. Okay. Well, without further ado.

333.644 - 335.286 Andrew

No, I wanted to give the weirdos an update.

335.326 - 336.427 Stephanie

Oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead.

336.747 - 341.272 Andrew

We won, you guys. We got Andrew to watch Pride and Prejudice.

342.213 - 343.474 Stephanie

That's right. I forgot about this.

Chapter 5: How did Nellie Bly begin her journalism career and what obstacles did she overcome?

453.285 - 458.651 Stephanie

And now without further ado, Stephanie, what story do you have for us this week?

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459.386 - 464.049 Andrew

This week, we have actually a pretty highly requested subject.

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464.45 - 464.71 Stephanie

Yes.

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465.03 - 469.433 Andrew

I feel like from almost the beginning of the podcast, people have been requesting this person.

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469.493 - 474.577 Stephanie

I think the first request for this person came, not an exaggeration, years ago.

474.697 - 479.041 Andrew

Years ago. But I had no idea who she was, so I couldn't speak to her.

479.341 - 480.462 Stephanie

Right. But now you do.

480.482 - 485.365 Andrew

But now I do. So we are going to be discussing the life of Nellie Bly.

485.946 - 487.347 Stephanie

Yes, this is a really good one.

Chapter 6: What were Nellie Bly's experiences as a foreign correspondent in Mexico?

573.458 - 578.401 Stephanie

Not staying in your place. Like don't just I don't know, just not being stuck in the mud.

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578.421 - 578.922 Andrew

Yeah.

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579.182 - 579.882 Stephanie

Of society.

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580.062 - 582.124 Andrew

Exactly. Well, you'll see. That's definitely her.

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582.504 - 584.686 Stephanie

Sounds like she's like kind of an early investigative reporter.

585.433 - 586.654 Andrew

Yes, absolutely.

586.894 - 588.315 Stephanie

Okay, I'm going to be quiet now and I'll let you talk.

588.335 - 612.792 Andrew

We're going to get into it. No, you're good. We're going to start with her early life, of course. She wasn't born Nellie Bly. She was actually born Elizabeth Jane Cochran on May 5th, 1864 in a teeny town called Cochran's Mills, Pennsylvania. And yes, the town was named after her family. Wow. It was actually named after her dad, who was a prominent mill owner slash judge. Oh.

614.304 - 617.587 Andrew

You know, back in the day when you used to be a mill owner and a judge at the same time.

Chapter 7: How did Nellie Bly infiltrate the Blackwell Island asylum and what did she discover?

679.868 - 680.368 Stephanie

Oh, wow.

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680.569 - 681.189 Andrew

Okay.

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681.209 - 682.289 Stephanie

Is that like her favorite color?

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682.789 - 696.974 Andrew

Well, at the time, and you'll see this if you look at sort of like Civil War era movies, a lot of people's clothing is really neutral colors, right? Like a lot of grays, brown, beige, maybe some dark blues.

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698.34 - 727.59 Andrew

very common for the time she was known for standing out because she wore lots of colors lots of bright colors she wore pink which was not common at the time and she got the nickname pink that's so cool i love that i thought that was a cute little anecdote about her so as we can imagine higher education for women was rare careers outside of teaching or nursing even rarer like becoming being a woman and becoming a teacher or becoming a nurse was already like wow that's a lot

728.905 - 737.138 Andrew

You're doing a lot there. But to do anything else, like become a journalist, virtually unthinkable. Okay.

737.379 - 737.94 Unidentified Speaker 3

Wow. Okay.

739.048 - 744.531 Andrew

Elizabeth was the 13th of 15 children. That's a lot of kids.

746.632 - 745.771 Unidentified Speaker 2

15?

Chapter 8: What legacy did Nellie Bly leave as an investigative reporter and pioneer for women?

850.447 - 854.388 Andrew

That's also the plot of the book Siddhartha by Herman Hesse.

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855.329 - 857.17 Stephanie

Oh, I've never read that. That's interesting.

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857.27 - 864.377 Andrew

Oh, it's really good. Yeah, that's a that's a I'm sure there's plenty of weirdos in the good category of weirdos that have that upbringing.

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864.777 - 866.298 Stephanie

Excellent. Yeah. Teddy Roosevelt.

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866.899 - 868.34 Andrew

Teddy Roosevelt. That's a good one.

868.44 - 868.6 Stephanie

Yeah.

868.82 - 871.483 Andrew

We've never done an episode on him, even though you did Alice Roosevelt.

871.803 - 872.424 Unidentified Speaker 2

Yeah. Mm hmm.

873.214 - 889.341 Andrew

OK, so back to Nellie's mom. So her mom, Mary Jane Kennedy Cochran, does get remarried because as a woman slash single mom, she's still got her little kids. She doesn't have options for income. There's nothing she can do. So she has to remarry.

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