34 Circe Salon -- Make Matriarchy Great Again -- Disrupting History

Join us as Dawn "Sam" Alden regales us about the colorful and incredibly exciting life of Mary Ann Evans, the woman known in India as "Fearless Nadia."  A pioneer of women's action films, this British woman slipped through the conventions of colonial Anglo-Indian culture to become one of the most beloved stars of Indian cinema.  Remembered best as the masked, whip-wielding star of Hunterwali (in which she did her own stunts) Nadia was a star for decades working well into her sixties-- becoming a fitness guru after her film retirement in her seventies!  A life that spanned most of the 20th Century with all its contradictions and triumphs, this is a woman whose story you should know! 

Could matriarchy provide an alternative to the predatory corporatism that defines the global economy? Join us as we bring bring back our third member of the Make Matriarchy Great Again team, Vicki Noble, to discuss the Gift Economy with special guest Genevieve Vaughan.  Genevieve Vaughan is a scholar of semiotics, a peace activist and a feminist who has championed the concept of the "Gift Economy," a means of exchange where goods are given among people rather than bought and sold.  The Gift Economy uses the matriarchal mother-child paradigm as a key basis of its structure.  Given the current painful state of economic affairs in the world, is it finally time for a matriarchal solution?

Returning to chat with us again is Professor Ping Yao of Cal State Los Angeles.  A specialist on gender and religion in Premodern China, Dr. Yao joins us to do a deeper survey into the important aspects of gender systems and gender practices throughout Chinese history, from the earliest period to the modern era.

Sean Marlon Newcombe and Dawn "Sam" Alden co-host.

Madeline Miller's beautiful and lyrical novel, "Circe," Is one part mythology, one part biography and one part half-remembered dream.  It is a work that explores Greek myth from the perspective of a female character-- and does so with insight and poetry.  Join Sean Marlon Newcombe and Dawn "Sam" Alden as they discuss this marvelous book. 

Sex and war.  Magic and death.  These are the realms of the great Goddess Freyja.  Seemingly rising from the chthonic myst of power in the matriarchal past, Freyja is both unknowable and all-encompassing.  Join Sean Marlon Newcombe and Dawn "Sam" Alden as they extol the great Lady of battlefield and bedroom.  (*Recorded during the eclipse of the blood moon.)

The Goddess Timeline is a chronological record of archaeological images of women and goddesses on a uniform time scale from 30,000 BCE to the present.  Join us as we talk to Constance Tippett about her creation of the timeline, its historical significance and its relevance to the matriarchy movement today. We are joined by Make Matriarchy Great Again member and inspiration Vicki Noble.

Sean Marlon Newcombe and Dawn "Sam" Alden co-host. 

We chat with filmmakers Matia Karrell and Hilary Prentice about their documentary on the American female military aviators of World War II, the WASPs.  Overlooked then erased from history, these women brave aviation trailblazers who served a crucial role in the war effort.  It would take decades, but they would eventually be acknowledged and honored for their service.

Sean Marlon Newcombe and Dawn "Sam" Alden co-host.

Ellen Snortland is a writer, director and producer who has been a women's self-defense advocate and instructor for most of her career. Her seminal work, "Beauty Bites Beast" has gone from book to film and chronicles not only her own journey in self-defense, but the journeys of women across the world who have developed a powerful sense of confidence and self-esteem as they have developed their potent ability to physically defend themselves. 

Sean Marlon Newcombe and Dawn "Sam" Alden co-host.

In describing the punishment that Zeus would levy upon the world for the "transgression" of man using fire, Hesiod wrote, "At once he made an affliction for mankind..."  What was that "affliction," you ask?  Women.  And so begins our journey into the world of Hesiod, a man whose writing shaped the Greek view of the world in such a way that misogyny was considered the norm-- a norm that would echo down through the ages and affect the world that we live in today. 

Elaine Pagels is one the most celebrated scholars of early Christianity in the world.  She is the author of such popular works as "The Gnostic Gospels," "Adam, Eve and the Serpent" and "Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas."  Dr. Pagels talks with Sean Marlon Newcombe and Dawn "Sam" Alden about the role and identity of women in early Christianity including the radical early movement known as "Gnosticism."