504 - Eyeball Territory

On today’s episode, Karen covers Mary Shelley and the gloomy summer vacation that led to Frankenstein. For our sources, please visit https://www.myfavoritemurder.com/episodes. Support this podcast by shopping our latest sponsor deals and promotions at this link: https://bit.ly/3UFCn1g. Head to social media to share your favorite moments from this episode. Instagram: instagram.com/myfavoritemurder http://instagram.com/myfavoritemurder Facebook: facebook.com/myfavoritemurder http://facebook.com/myfavoritemurder TikTok: tiktok.com/@my_favorite_murder http://tiktok.com/@my_favorite_murder Watch full episodes of My Favorite Murder on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@my_favorite_murder Send your hometown stories to [email protected] mailto:[email protected]. Join the Fan Cult to access ad-free episodes of My Favorite Murder. Members also receive merch store discounts, exclusive audio and video content and more! Visit www.fancult.supercast.com http://www.fancult.supercast.com/ to join. Shop for My Favorite Murder and other Exactly Right merchandise here: www.exactlyrightstore.com http://www.exactlyrightstore.com/. Rate, review and follow My Favorite Murder on the iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you like to listen. See omnystudio.com/listener https://omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:01Karen Kilgariff?

  This is exactly right.

• 0:06Speaker 01

  Cash Flow Crunch. OnDeck's small business line of credit gives your business immediate access to funds, up to $200,000, right when you need it. Cover seasonal dips, manage payroll, restock inventory, or tackle unexpected expenses without missing a beat. With flexible draws, transparent pricing, and control over repayment, get funded quickly and confidently. Apply today at ondeck.com. Funds could be available as soon as tomorrow. Depending on certain loan attributes, your business loan may be issued by OnDeck or Celtic Bank. OnDeck does not lend in North Dakota. All loans and amounts subject to lender approval.

• 0:36Speaker 02

  The Hulu original series Phony is now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+ Plus. Sonny's life is pretty great until he wakes up from a car accident to a world that looks exactly like his, with one exception, his mom.

• 0:48Karen Kilgariff?

  Starring five-time Emmy nominee Connie Britton and Sam Nivola, this small town is hiding the mother of all mysteries just beneath the surface.

• 0:56Speaker 02

  Watch the Hulu original series, Phony.

• 0:58Karen Kilgariff?

  Now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+ for bundle subscribers. Terms apply.

• 1:02Speaker 02

  Goodbye. Everyone loves the idea of spending an afternoon curled up with a good book.

• 1:07Karen Kilgariff?

  Well, grow up, because it's almost impossible.

• 1:09Speaker 02

  Luckily, you can take your next great story with you on Audible.

• 1:13Karen Kilgariff?

  Audible has a massive selection of titles to choose from, including This American Life, new books by Michael Connelly, along with classics from Magath the Christie, and so much more.

• 1:22Speaker 02

  Whether you want a mystery, a true crime story, or something completely different, there's always something new to listen to.

• 1:27Karen Kilgariff?

  New members can start listening with a 30-day free trial at audible.com/mfm.

• 1:32Speaker 02

  Audible, stories that speak to you. Goodbye. You know a favorite M-word? Magnesium.

• 1:38Karen Kilgariff?

  Like the kind that's in Dr. Teal's Magnesium Spray.

• 1:41Speaker 02

  Made from a proprietary blend of topical minerals, it's designed to relax and prepare you for a night of rest.

• 1:46Karen Kilgariff?

  If you need a reset after your day, make Dr. Teal's Magnesium Spray part of your nighttime routine.

• 1:51Speaker 02

  Generously sprays each foot before bed, and you'll be all set. I've actually started doing this, and I'm obsessed with magnesium. It does everything.

• 1:58Karen Kilgariff?

  Something like this is just like, it's simple, it's easy, and it actually works.

• 2:01Speaker 02

  Totally. For wellness you can feel, find Dr. Teal's Magnesium Spray online or in your local bath aisle. Goodbye.

• 2:08Karen Kilgariff?

  Well, we're so excited to be sharing the trailer for our brand new show, Brief Recession: A Legal Podcast, with Michael Foot and Melissa Malbranche.

• 2:16Speaker 02

  You may know Michael as the immigration lawyer from TikTok who gives an insider's perspective on the legal system, usually with way more humor than it deserves.

• 2:23Georgia Hardstark?

  And Melissa has spent her career as a nonprofit leader, a writer, and most importantly, Michael's best friend.

• 2:29Karen Kilgariff?

  And together, they discuss real life legal issues that affect us all. It's smart, hilarious, and it makes the law accessible in a time when we all need to know what's going on.

• 2:37Georgia Hardstark?

  So stick around after this episode of My Favorite Murder to hear the trailer for Brief Recession, premiering Thursday, November 13.

• 2:44Karen Kilgariff?

  And you can follow Brief Recession now on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

• 2:49Georgia Hardstark?

  Goodbye.

• 3:07Karen Kilgariff?

  Hello. And welcome.

• 3:11Georgia Hardstark?

  To My Favorite Murder.

• 3:12Karen Kilgariff?

  That's Georgia Hardstark.

• 3:13Georgia Hardstark?

  That's Karen Kilgariff.

• 3:14Karen Kilgariff?

  And we're back for a moment from the road.

• 3:18Georgia Hardstark?

  We are in the midst of our tour. Let's see, when this goes up, we'll only have two cities left. Can you believe that? We're just on LA, which is insane.

• 3:27Karen Kilgariff?

  Yeah, it feels like it was just a gleam in our eye, and now it's almost over.

• 3:31Georgia Hardstark?

  What's your favorite moment? I know what your favorite gift is from the road.

• 3:34Karen Kilgariff?

  You do?

• 3:35Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah, we haven't talked about this yet for some reason.

• 3:37Karen Kilgariff?

  Favorite moment? I did enjoy kicking that stuffed animal back out into the audience after they threw it at us.

• 3:43Georgia Hardstark?

  That's right. Someone threw up like a big plushy, and it rolled on to the stage like a grenade.

• 3:48Karen Kilgariff?

  It was very scary.

• 3:49Georgia Hardstark?

  It was a very surreal, quiet moment, but we just stared at it, and we didn't know what to do. And then Karen just took two steps and punted it back into the audience.

• 3:58Karen Kilgariff?

  I mean, one of my proudest moments. What about yours?

• 4:00Georgia Hardstark?

  Well, I was gonna say to you, do you remember when someone in the meet and greet very early on was a dentist and brought you the little scrubby toothbrush, toothpaste thing from after you got your teeth cleaned?

• 4:13Karen Kilgariff?

  It was the most meaningful gift. Like, what, you know, the real gift is people actually hearing you when you say things.

• 4:20Georgia Hardstark?

  Right.

• 4:21Karen Kilgariff?

  He came up and he's like, I'm a dentist. So I brought you the gift that only I can give you, or whatever, you know, his little speech was.

• 4:27Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah, but you asked for an episode like 200 something.

• 4:30Karen Kilgariff?

  Yeah, where the story of me asking my own childhood dentist that when I was like 10 years old and he just started laughing. He's like, what are you talking about? And then he was like, I'm a dentist and I got it for you.

• 4:40Georgia Hardstark?

  He gave you a baggie like full of dental scrubs.

• 4:44Karen Kilgariff?

  Of the scrubbiest tooth polish that I can't really use at home. I don't have a polisher, but oh, I'm so glad you reminded me of that.

• 4:52Georgia Hardstark?

  That was so incredible.

• 4:54Karen Kilgariff?

  That was really good.

• 4:55Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah. Well, thanks everyone for coming to the show so far. They've been just absolutely incredible to come back. Just having not done that in six years, I forgot what it was like to walk on stage with people screaming at you. And it is just like unlike any feeling you'll ever have. I'm assuming with giving birth is like that. I don't know. I'll never know.

• 5:16Karen Kilgariff?

  I think it's a lot louder than giving birth, although who am I to say?

• 5:20Georgia Hardstark?

  A lot more fun.

• 5:21Karen Kilgariff?

  So good. So like, I do think it's that electricity that you can only get in that situation. It's easy to go like, oh yeah, I remember and whatever. But it's like, once you're doing it, I don't know, I find it addictive. I love it.

• 5:35Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah. I'm worried I'll be like chasing that high for the rest of my life. Once this in 20 years when this all ends. All right. What do you got?

• 5:42Karen Kilgariff?

  Well, let's see. Oh, can I read you this email? That's from a listener from a story I told about pulling up behind somebody that actually had an SSD GM bumper sticker. So I got to see it in real life and it was his first time. Well, someone wrote in and it, the subject line is Karen honked at me. And it says, let's get into it. It was a weird day. I was rushing home from work because I got a call that my wife was in a bike accident. And then it says she's okay, banged up and bruised, but okay. I was just focused on getting to her at the urgent care off Pass Avenue. I exited the 134 pass.

• 6:16Georgia Hardstark?

  Oh, my God.

• 6:17Karen Kilgariff?

  And was letting my mind go to dark places when honk honk. Huh. That was weird. Who's honking? I look in my rearview mirror and the woman behind me is waving. Okay, weird. The light turns green and I'm making my left turn and honk honk honk. Now said woman has her window rolled down and she's waving emphatically. She's smiling, so she must not be pissed at me for something I've done. In my confusion, I waved back because it's the polite thing to do.

• 6:41Georgia Hardstark?

  Oh my God. This person is having an actual emergency and you were like, you were concerned as to why they weren't paying attention to you, but they were literally having an emergency.

• 6:50Karen Kilgariff?

  I demand that you talk to me about my podcast, no matter what's happening in your family. Okay, it says, I turned left into the parking lot and she kept going. I figured I'd never know what the hell that was about.

• 7:02Georgia Hardstark?

  Oh, did you even know it was you? Oh my God.

• 7:05Karen Kilgariff?

  No, that's, this is hilarious. So, cut to a few weeks later and I get a frantic text from my friend Anne. And then it says, quotes, was this you? And then she sent me an Instagram post where Karen describes her version of this encounter. I wish I'd realized it was Karen, even though I was in the middle of a weird damn life sucks sometimes moment. It would have lifted my spirits even for just a passing moment. Oh, that's nice. Karen, if you see me again and you honk, I promise to be as joyful and excited as you looked last time.

• 7:32Georgia Hardstark?

  Oh, oh my God. I can't believe we're getting the other side of this story.

• 7:36Karen Kilgariff?

  Hilarious. And then it says, my friend Amber and I will see you ladies in Pasadena. Can't wait. We'll be the ones waving in the middle section. XOXO, cat see.

• 7:45Georgia Hardstark?

  We gotta wave at them.

• 7:46Karen Kilgariff?

  We gotta say hi to them. That is the sweetest. I mean, what a horrible, and yet thank God it wasn't, you know, it turned out okay.

• 7:54Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah.

• 7:55Karen Kilgariff?

  Man.

• 7:56Georgia Hardstark?

  But just to have that happen while you're having a panic attack essentially. Oh my God.

• 8:01Karen Kilgariff?

  It's a real act out of you never know what other people are going through. And it's like honk, honk, honk. Hey, honk, honk, honk. Are you all right? Honk, honk.

• 8:10Georgia Hardstark?

  Oh, that's, that's amazing.

• 8:12Karen Kilgariff?

  All right. Should we do some highlights?

• 8:14Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah, we have a podcast network called, what's it called? Exactly Right Media.

• 8:18Karen Kilgariff?

  That's right.

• 8:19Georgia Hardstark?

  I'm so tired. Here are some highlights.

• 8:24Karen Kilgariff?

  Okay, so tomorrow, Buried Bones will have a very special bonus episode from the high seas, live from the Virgin Voyages Crime Cruise. Paul and Kate take on one of their most requested cases ever, the Black Dahlia.

• 8:36Georgia Hardstark?

  Whoa.

• 8:37Karen Kilgariff?

  Yeah. You can watch the full episode on the Exactly Right YouTube channel, youtube.com/ExaclyRightMedia, or you can listen to the audio wherever you get your podcasts.

• 8:45Georgia Hardstark?

  Wow, what a show. Speaking of YouTube, a brand new Halloween episode of MFM Animated premiered yesterday. Head over to the Exactly Right YouTube channel, again, youtube.com/ExaclyRightMedia to watch Child Devil out now.

• 9:01Karen Kilgariff?

  We got to see Nick Tary in Seattle. He's the greatest.

• 9:04Georgia Hardstark?

  He is.

• 9:05Karen Kilgariff?

  And episode five of our newest series, Hell in Heaven, produced with Blanchard House and iHeart Podcasts, is out today. It is a hit podcast. It's so exciting. This thing shot up the charts, and you should listen. One gunshot, one body, and a mystery that only gets stranger. From there, it's Hell in Heaven.

• 9:24Georgia Hardstark?

  And in honor of this week's episode of Rewind, we're re-releasing our classic Triflers Need Not Applied merch design from 2017. You can preorder a ladies' boxy tee, which you guys seem to love, a unisex tee, or a hat, now until November 4th at ExactlyRightStore.com. You guys love that design, so we're bringing it back.

• 9:45Speaker 04

  OnDeck is built to back small businesses like yours. Whether you're buying equipment, expanding your team, or bridging cash flow gaps, OnDeck's loans up to $400,000 make it happen fast. Rated A+ by the Better Business Bureau and earning thousands of five-star TrustPilot reviews, OnDeck delivers funding you can count on. Apply in minutes at ondeck.com. Depending on certain loan attributes, your business loan may be issued by OnDeck or Celtic Bank. OnDeck does not lend in North Dakota. All loans and amounts subject to lender approval.

• 10:12Karen Kilgariff?

  We've all had moments where dealing with healthcare or insurance feels completely overwhelming.

• 10:17Georgia Hardstark?

  You're sick, worried about someone you love, trying to understand what comes next, and suddenly you're spending hours on hold, filling out paperwork, and trying to figure out who to call.

• 10:25Karen Kilgariff?

  Research shows patients spend the equivalent of an eight-hour workday every month coordinating their own care.

• 10:31Georgia Hardstark?

  Nobody hands you a roadmap when you're dealing with a

• 10:34Speaker 02

  Diagnosis or ongoing health issues. That's why there's Solace Health. Solace provides personal healthcare advocates who average 16 years of healthcare experience and can help you get answers fast. Think of them as someone in your corner who understands the healthcare system and can handle the logistics while you focus on your health. They can help with appointments, insurance denials, medical bills, treatment options, and understanding doctor recommendations. Research shows 92% of patients report a positive impact on their care from working with an advocate. Advocacy improves outcomes and Solace advocates are covered by insurance nationwide. Eligibility varies by insurance plan. Advocates do not provide medical or legal advice or services, must be 18 years or older. Go to solacehealth.com/murder to see if you qualify. It takes about two minutes and it's covered by insurance.

• 11:18Speaker 02

  That's S-O-L-A-C-E health.com/murder. Goodbye. You know a favorite M-word? Magnesium. Like the kind that's in Dr. Teal's magnesium spray. Made from a proprietary blend of topical minerals powered by pure Epsom salt and natural Dead Sea salt, it's designed to help you relax and get in the right state of mind for a good night's rest. If you need a reset after a crazy day, make Dr. Teal's magnesium spray part of your nighttime routine. It's an effortless way to get a boost of topical magnesium that can help you relax your body and mind before bedtime. Dr. Teal's magnesium spray comes in a lightweight, fast drying formula. Just shake it up and generously spritz onto the soles of your feet and massage until absorbed. I was kind of blown away the first time I used this spray because I do have

• 12:02Speaker 02

  problems sleeping and when there's something this simple, you just sprayed on your feet and suddenly you're asleep and the next morning you're like, wait, what happened? Did my problem just get solved? Like, it actually is that easy. And your stinky feet now smell like lavender. Like, what more do you want? How dare you call my feet stinky? For wellness you can feel, find Dr. Teal's magnesium spray online or in your local bath aisle. Goodbye.

• 12:25Karen Kilgariff?

  Sometimes being a little salty is completely justified.

• 12:29Speaker 02

  Pair your salty side with something sweet with the new salted caramel flavor from Kachava.

• 12:34Karen Kilgariff?

  Kachava is a whole body shake with plant-based protein, fiber, greens, and other nutrients to help fill nutritional gaps.

• 12:41Speaker 02

  Just two scoops provide complete nutrition your body craves with protein, fiber, greens, and so much more.

• 12:47Karen Kilgariff?

  Their new salty caramel flavor combines sweet caramel with a little salt, so you get that salty-sweet balance along with the nutrition Kachava is known for.

• 12:55Speaker 02

  When the day demands your salty side, fuel it with plant-based protein that actually tastes delicious.

• 13:00Karen Kilgariff?

  I really do love Kachava, and I really do think it does taste delicious for getting you through the morning, filling in the gap if you just need some protein and you need some vitamins. It's such a nice little treat.

• 13:11Speaker 02

  It's such an easy way to get everything you need, and it tastes good, too, which is just a huge bonus.

• 13:15Karen Kilgariff?

  So embrace your salty side.

• 13:17Speaker 02

  Go to kachava.com and use code MFM for 15% off your first order.

• 13:21Karen Kilgariff?

  That's Kachava, K-A-C-H-A-V-A dot com, code MFM. Goodbye.

• 13:29Karen Kilgariff?

  All right, Karen, you're up and only up and only? I'm the only one up. You're sitting up with me. So, thank you for that, and thank you for everyone else doing it, too. I'm going to tell you guys a little story in honor of Halloween tomorrow. It takes place in Lake Geneva, Switzerland, in 1918. And that summer is remembered for two big things. One, gray skies and very little sunshine. And two, the birthday of a very, very famous monster. The real story of his creation is fittingly Gothic. There's death, disaster, a lot of drama, and a handful of bohemian literary heavyweights huddled in a room,

• 14:10Karen Kilgariff?

  drunk and fawning all over each other while thunder and lightning rages outside. And among those bohemians is our famous monster's true creator, and she is only a teenager. This is the story of Mary Shelley and that gloomy summer vacation when she created Frankenstein. Holy shit. Okay, so the main sources that Maren used in this story today are works of several Mary Shelley biographers, including Charlotte Gordon, Fiona Sampson, and Miranda Seymour. And the rest of the sources are in our show notes. So truly, to really set the scene, the story starts in 1815 in Indonesia on the island of Sumbawa. And that is where the volcano Mount Tambora erupts in a deadly

• 14:55Karen Kilgariff?

  series of blasts.

• 14:57Georgia Hardstark?

  There is a book, I was just gonna tell you, that I am obsessed with called The Year Without Summer, 1816, and the volcano that darkened the world and changed history, and her story, she's in it, Mary Shelley, like.

• 15:11Karen Kilgariff?

  Yes, yes.

• 15:12Georgia Hardstark?

  This is it. It's by William Clingman and Nicholas Clingman. It's so fucking good.

• 15:16Karen Kilgariff?

  I'm about to retell you this story that you, that you know.

• 15:20Georgia Hardstark?

  No, but I'm like, no, but I had never heard of it before. And like, people don't know, and it.

• 15:24Karen Kilgariff?

  Me either.

• 15:25Georgia Hardstark?

  Changed history.

• 15:26Karen Kilgariff?

  And it's such a big, like, the kickoff disaster event is such a gigantic disaster. It's like, beyond belief.

• 15:33Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah, the volcano, but the thing is, that's cool, too, is that nobody knew why everything changed, that it was a volcano, until the future, because they didn't have just like weathermen telling you what was going on.

• 15:44Karen Kilgariff?

  Oh, yeah, yeah, that makes sense.

• 15:45Georgia Hardstark?

  A mystery.

• 15:46Karen Kilgariff?

  So they're just like, it's rainy, it's just summertime, but it's thunderstorms and craziness.

• 15:51Georgia Hardstark?

  Not only that, it's like, none of the crops are growing. Why is this happening? No one knew. Okay. Oh, my God, I'm so excited. This is so.

• 15:58Karen Kilgariff?

  Widespread famine.

• 15:58Georgia Hardstark?

  I feel very dorky about loving this book, and now I'm so excited to hear this.

• 16:03Karen Kilgariff?

  No, it's so good. Okay. So then tell me and jump in when you know stuff, please. If there's like details or whatever. So it's Mount Tambora erupting in a series of deadly blasts. The final explosion happens on April 10, and it is particularly catastrophic. To put it into perspective, it's considered the most destructive explosion in recorded history. It is 100 times more powerful than Mount St. Ellen's eruption in 1980.

• 16:28Georgia Hardstark?

  100 times.

• 16:30Karen Kilgariff?

  100 times. And if you want to know how powerful that eruption was, you can go to episode 370, Necessary Yelling, and I will tell you all about it. Okay, so some reports say that the blast could be heard more than 2,000 miles away. So that would mean if you're in Los Angeles, you can hear an explosion in Atlanta, Georgia.

• 16:49Karen Kilgariff?

  It blows more than 4,000 feet off the mountaintop, and eyewitnesses say that it looks like Mount Tambora has been, quote, "consumed by liquid fire, a fountain of ash, water, and molten rock, shooting in every direction."

• 17:02Karen Kilgariff?

  So this explosion creates fiery hot, extremely powerful gusts of wind that flatten homes, uproot trees, and toss human beings around like rag dolls. Pumice stones the size of grapefruits are falling from the sky.

• 17:15Georgia Hardstark?

  Whoa, pre pumice stones.

• 17:17Karen Kilgariff?

  Right, just grab one for your heels and get indoors, please. But it won't matter if you're indoors because 15-foot tall tsunamis hit land and destroy everything that is still standing. Heavy ash falls from the skies, burying everything within 20 miles of the volcano and most lethally scorching 1,000-degree debris shoots down the side of Mount Tambora at 100 miles an hour in what look like fiery avalanches that incinerate everything in their paths, vegetation, homes, and of course, the people. It's estimated 10,000 people die instantly in this explosion. But then, as you were saying, in the months that follow, the nearby villages reel from

• 18:01Karen Kilgariff?

  destruction of crops and all the ash that's still in the air and no clean water. And then the death toll in Indonesia grows eventually to 90,000. According to Scientific American, quote, "No other volcanic explosion in history has come close to wreaking disaster of that magnitude."

• 18:19Georgia Hardstark?

  Wow.

• 18:20Karen Kilgariff?

  So it's obviously humongous and then has all these repercussions because once that debris is in the atmosphere, it forms a massive cloud of volcanic, you know, junk, and it envelops the entire planet in two months. And that causes bizarre, unprecedented weather systems all around the world. So some places see strange sudden frosts, some see unending rain, others suffer horrible droughts. And it all causes the following year, 1816, to go down in history as, quote, "The Year Without a Summer."

• 18:52Georgia Hardstark?

  So crazy. And if you look at paintings from that time, landscape paintings, the sky is a different color in all those paintings because the sky was literally different color for years.

• 19:01Karen Kilgariff?

  It's insane.

• 19:02Georgia Hardstark?

  Like ashy, ashy gray.

• 19:04Karen Kilgariff?

  Reddish, weird, yeah, ashy.

• 19:07Georgia Hardstark?

  Oh, yeah.

• 19:08Karen Kilgariff?

  Like when it's sunset, but there's been a fire and it turns those crazy colors.

• 19:13Georgia Hardstark?

  We know that here in LA too well.

• 19:15Karen Kilgariff?

  Yeah, but that's not the end of the devastation. The eruption sends more than 35 cubic miles of ash, gas and debris into the skies. Wired magazine will say it was enough to quote bury all the playing surface of Fenway Park in Boston, 81,544 miles deep in ash.

• 19:35Georgia Hardstark?

  What? I can't even wrap my head around that.

• 19:37Karen Kilgariff?

  I know, because we're not baseball people. But it's basically like from here to that far into space essentially is so much.

• 19:44Georgia Hardstark?

  That's how much.

• 19:45Karen Kilgariff?

  So much shit was in the air. As far away as the southern United States, snowfall is reported in both June and July, with one Virginian note that quote, "On July 4th, water froze in Cisterns and snow fell again, with Independence Day celebrants moving inside churches where hearth fires warmed things a mite," end quote. Of course, that all makes for very bad harvests, meaning food supplies around the world are much smaller than normal, the prices for basics skyrocket, and that leads to a widespread famine. A writer named Gillan Darcy Wood notes that quote, "Villagers in Vermont survived on groundhogs and boiled nettles."

• 20:25Georgia Hardstark?

  Oh dear.

• 20:26Karen Kilgariff?

  "While the peasants of Yunnan in China sucked on white clay."

• 20:31Georgia Hardstark?

  Wow.

• 20:31Karen Kilgariff?

  "Summer tourists traveling in France mistook beggars crowding the roads for armies on the march." So it's horrible and it's horrible everywhere. Hunger, cold temperatures and social chaos is all around, making it hard for the average person to fend off disease. Europe sees a brutal outbreak of typhus that kills 40,000 people and the first deadly global cholera pandemic begins soon after that in 1817. There's not an exact global death toll that we can attribute to the Mount Tambora eruption, but but writer Gillan Darcy Wood estimates that it's somewhere in the tens of millions.

• 21:07Georgia Hardstark?

  That's because of the cumulative issues that cause more and more death. It's so, it reminds me of the Spanish flu of 1919, which I love reading about, where it's just this kind of mystery of where it came from. But the devastation it did is just so fascinating and widespread. And like, it doesn't discriminate. Like, everyone's fucked, essentially.

• 21:29Karen Kilgariff?

  Right. Okay, so it's a terrifying, disorienting time to be alive. Death and desperation permeates everything all around. And this is what's happening in the world when we meet our hero, Mary Walston-Craft Godwin in London, England. Mary is a quietly intense redhead who comes from a famously radical family. Her father is a well-known writer and anarchist named William Godwin, and he is also credited with publishing the first English detective novel called Caleb Williams.

• 21:58Georgia Hardstark?

  Wow, I had no idea.

• 21:59Karen Kilgariff?

  I know, right? Such a good title for a detective novel.

• 22:02Georgia Hardstark?

  Say it again?

• 22:03Karen Kilgariff?

  Caleb Williams. It's not... It sounds like a seventh grader at a local junior high. And her mother is Mary Walston-Craft, who is a trailblazing feminist writer and philosopher whose fierce devotions to women's rights inspire the men of her time to dismiss her as, quote, "a hyena in petticoat."

• 22:21Georgia Hardstark?

  Oof.

• 22:23Karen Kilgariff?

  So she must have been good.

• 22:24Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah, yeah, totally.

• 22:25Karen Kilgariff?

  But the sad thing is Mary never knew her mother because in 1797, days after giving birth to Mary, Mary Walston-Craft dies of infection because the doctors removed her placenta with dirty, unwashed hands.

• 22:39Georgia Hardstark?

  Ugh, guys.

• 22:41Karen Kilgariff?

  I mean, it's so horrifying. Mary carries the burden of her mother's death from a very young age. She spends a lot of time in the cemetery where her mother's buried. It's said that Mary learns to write by tracing the letters on her mother's headstone. And when she's a bit older, she spends hours sitting on her mother's grave reading her mother's feminist works.

• 23:02Georgia Hardstark?

  Oh, my god. Heartbreaking.

• 23:04Karen Kilgariff?

  She's like a little Edward Gory character, like, playing in the cemetery. So then her father remarries. And sadly, her stepmother, Mary Jane Claremont, is a jealous, controlling woman who openly favors her own children, especially her daughter Claire. It's a tense, crowded living situation. Mary feels completely cast aside. And she spends even more time at the cemetery to escape from her increasingly fraught home life. And then it gets worse. As she grows into a teenager, Mary starts to look exactly like her mother, which seems to be more than her stepmother can handle. So, under the guise of a health treatment, Mary is sent off to Scotland to live with family friends.

• 23:45Karen Kilgariff?

  So at the time, Scotland has a huge arts and literary scene and there's tons of inspiring revolutionary thinkers.

• 23:54Georgia Hardstark?

  So her stepmom kind of did her a favor by kicking her out.

• 23:57Karen Kilgariff?

  Yeah, getting her out of there and suddenly it's like, ooh, best case scenario.

• 24:01Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah, the world opens up.

• 24:02Karen Kilgariff?

  Yeah. So one of Mary's biographers, Charlotte Gordon, describes it as, quote, "Like going to San Francisco during Hay Day Ashbury."

• 24:09Georgia Hardstark?

  Ooh.

• 24:10Karen Kilgariff?

  And it's here, while in exile from her own home, that Mary really starts developing her creative voice and her interest in writing. So from time to time, Mary travels back to London to visit her beloved father. And it's on one of these visits that she first meets a poet named Percy Bysshe Shelley. He's five years her senior. He is now famous for his sonnet, "Ozymandias." But when they meet in the 1810s, he's not a famous poet. He's actually an authority-bucking young bohemian from a filthy rich family who spends a lot of time with Mary's father, trying to learn about his philosophical takes on anarchy. Percy also has some notoriety after being kicked out of Oxford for refusing to admit

• 24:53Karen Kilgariff?

  that he'd circulated a pamphlet entitled "The Necessity of Atheism." Percy is also a married father, though he's sometimes said to be estranged from his wife, Harriet Shelley. It seems safe to say Percy is not a particularly present husband to his wife, and he has actually adopted a non-monogamous ethos that Mary will struggle with from here on out, as will Harriet, of course.

• 25:16Georgia Hardstark?

  Yikes.

• 25:17Karen Kilgariff?

  But all this is to say, when Percy and Mary first meet, sparks fly. She will bring him to her mother's grave. That's where they'll first say, "I love you." They end up running off together not long after. And pretty soon after that, Mary gets pregnant. She is 16 at the time.

• 25:36Georgia Hardstark?

  Oh, shit.

• 25:37Karen Kilgariff?

  Uh huh. And Percy's 21. So that's a huge scandal. So to escape the dirty looks and the gossip, they leave England and they just start traveling around Europe. Mary's stepsister, Claire, the one that the stepmother favored, she dabbles in writing and speaks several languages. So she joins them and acts as kind of a local translator. And Mary is actually very close with her stepsister, even though she doesn't like her mother. They're like a year apart in age. So as the three move throughout the continent, Percy encourages Mary to write, but she's so exhausted from her pregnancy, she feels constantly sick and weak. Her lack of energy is only intensified by the fact that they are constantly traveling.

• 26:19Karen Kilgariff?

  And then she tries to start projects and then she can't finish them. And it's all, she's just all kind of exhausted all the time. So

• 26:25Georgia Hardstark?

  I sometimes travel and I'm not pregnant and I can't fucking imagine.

• 26:28Karen Kilgariff?

  I know.

• 26:30Georgia Hardstark?

  Writing a goddamn novel.

• 26:31Karen Kilgariff?

  And not being able to take like vitamins or something that it, you're just kind of like on a train for four hours.

• 26:38Georgia Hardstark?

  Oh, God. Okay.

• 26:40Karen Kilgariff?

  So in February of 1815, Mary goes into premature labor and they lose the baby. She's overcome with grief and just one week after losing her child, she writes in her diary, quote, "Dreamt that my little baby came to life again, that it had been cold and that we rubbed it before the fire and it lived. Awake and fine, no baby. I think about the little thing all day, not in good spirits."

• 27:02Georgia Hardstark?

  Oh.

• 27:04Karen Kilgariff?

  So sad. But it is a significant moment for more reasons than one. So it's two months after this tragedy that Mount Tambora erupts. And it is a fitting reflection of her grief, the way the skies all darken and the sun never comes out. Everything turns to unending gray. Before long, Mary's pregnant again. And in January of 1816, as that volcanic ash circles the earth, 19 year old Mary gives birth to a boy named William.

• 27:34Speaker 04

  OnDeck is built to back small businesses like yours. Whether you're buying equipment, expanding your team, or bridging cash flow gaps, OnDeck's loans up to $400,000 make it happen fast. Rated A+ by the Better Business Bureau and earning thousands of 5-star TrustPilot reviews, OnDeck delivers funding you can count on. Apply in minutes at ondeck.com. Depending on certain loan attributes, your business loan may be issued by OnDeck or Celtic Bank. OnDeck does not lend in North Dakota. All loans and amounts subject to lender approval.

• 28:01Speaker 02

  We've all had moments where dealing with healthcare or insurance feels completely overwhelming. You're sick, worried about someone you love, trying to understand what comes next, and suddenly you're spending hours on hold, filling out paperwork, and trying to figure out who to call. Research shows patients spend the equivalent of an eight-hour workday every month coordinating their own care. Nobody hands you a roadmap when you're dealing with a diagnosis or ongoing health issues. That's why there's Solace Health. Solace provides personal healthcare advocates who average 16 years of healthcare experience and can help you get answers fast. Think of them as someone in your corner who understands the healthcare system and can handle the logistics while you focus on your health. They can help with appointments, insurance denials, medical bills, treatment options, and understanding doctor recommendations.

• 28:45Speaker 02

  Research shows 92% of patients report a positive impact on their care from working with an advocate. Advocacy improves outcomes, and Solace advocates are covered by insurance nationwide. Eligibility varies by insurance plan. Advocates do not provide medical or legal advice or services, must be 18 years or older. Go to solacehealth.com/murder to see if you qualify. It takes about two minutes and it's covered by insurance. That's S-O-L-A-C-E health.com/murder. Goodbye. You know a favorite M-word? Magnesium. Like the kind that's in Dr. Teal's magnesium spray. Made from a proprietary blend of topical minerals powered by pure Epsom salt and natural Dead Sea salt, it's designed to help you relax and get in the right state of mind for a good night's rest.

• 29:28Speaker 02

  If you need a reset after a crazy day, make Dr. Teal's magnesium spray part of your nighttime routine. It's an effortless way to get a boost of topical magnesium that can help you relax your body and mind before bedtime. Dr. Teal's magnesium spray comes in a lightweight, fast-drying formula. Just shake it up and generously spritz onto the soles of your feet and massage until absorbed.

• 29:47Karen Kilgariff?

  I was kind of blown away the first time I used this spray because I do have problems sleeping. And when there's something this simple, you just spray it on your feet and suddenly you're asleep and the next morning you're like, wait, what happened? Did my problem just get solved? Like, it actually is that easy.

• 30:02Speaker 02

  And your stinky feet now smell like lavender. Like, what more do you want?

• 30:05Karen Kilgariff?

  How dare you call my feet stinky.

• 30:08Speaker 02

  For wellness, you can feel find Dr. Teal's magnesium spray online or in your local bath aisle.

• 30:13Karen Kilgariff?

  Goodbye. There are plenty of things that keep you up at night. Your sleep tracker shouldn't be one of them.

• 30:18Speaker 02

  Hatch Sleep Clock does it differently.

• 30:20Karen Kilgariff?

  It tracks your sleep from your nightstand. No ring, wristband, or judgmental score waiting for you in the morning.

• 30:26Speaker 02

  Instead, you'll get personalized insights to understand your sleep and recommendations to build a routine you'll love night after night.

• 30:32Karen Kilgariff?

  Hatch Sleep Clock.

• 30:33Speaker 02

  The sleep tracker designed to get you to sleep. Available now on hatch.co.

• 30:37Karen Kilgariff?

  Goodbye.

• 30:41Karen Kilgariff?

  So now it's May of 1816, and it's the beginning of the so-called volcanic winter. Mary, Percy, and the baby are cushioned from the worst of it. When their funds dry up, they just get money from Percy's father, who bails them out. So they always have food, they always have shelter. But the world outside is very bleak for a lot of people, and there's just a sense of dread everywhere. So it's at this point that Mary and Percy decide that they're going to go to Geneva, Switzerland. And Claire is the one who actually suggests this idea, but she does have an agenda. Claire actually knows that 28-year-old poet Lord Byron is going to be in Geneva, Switzerland.

• 31:22Speaker 02

  Mmm. She's like, he's totally gonna be there, and I've gotta meet him.

• 31:26Karen Kilgariff?

  Yes. Well, no, she'd already been having a bit of an affair with him.

• 31:29Speaker 02

  I've been fucking him, and I've gotta see him.

• 31:31Karen Kilgariff?

  Exactly. She is kind of obsessed. She's been writing him witty flirtatious letters and basically propositioning him. He takes her up on the offer, but then she kind of won't leave him alone. And he's, Lord Byron is infamous for being really awful to his exes. So he's just like a love him and leave him type of guy. He is also the titan of the Romantic movement, but unlike Percy Bysshe Shelley, Byron is a massive celebrity at this point. Charlotte Gordon likens him to Mick Jagger at the height of his fame.

• 32:00Speaker 02

  Wow.

• 32:00Karen Kilgariff?

  So one of Lord Byron's most famous literary works, which is called Child, with an E at the end, Child Harold's Pilgrimage.

• 32:09Karen Kilgariff?

  It was published a few years earlier to serious acclaim, but he's as famous for his private life. He has a reputation for sleeping with anyone he thinks is interesting, men or women, married or single, even his own family members. He actually is rumored to have had an affair with his own half-sister.

• 32:26Georgia Hardstark?

  Jesus. He sounds like a vampire. Is he a vampire?

• 32:30Karen Kilgariff?

  Right. Oh, well, that will come, that will come up. That will come up.

• 32:34Georgia Hardstark?

  Classic vampire moves, right there.

• 32:36Karen Kilgariff?

  Classic. Just being like, there's no boundaries. I'm really open and I love blood. So in 1816 amid accusations that he's engaging in, quote, "sodommy and homosexuality," both illegal in England at the time, he moves to Switzerland. So the problem with Claire's plan is Lord Byron has made it clear he is not into her and he like, doesn't like her, but she can't help herself. So she basically hopes if they go there, Mary and Percy will be the ones that help rekindle the connection because Lord Byron will be like obsessed with them because they're two young writers, you know, doing it all. They're gohemi and they're creative and they're all outrunning scandals. So it's, there's just a lot of, it's very

• 33:20Karen Kilgariff?

  juicy. So in May of 1816, the Shelly's arrive in Lake Geneva and they rent a house there just steps from Lord Byron's lakeside mansion, Villa di O'dotti. Even though it's supposed to be a summer vacation, the weather's brutal. The fallout from Mount Tambora is hitting Europe hard, especially in Switzerland. It rains nearly every single day that summer. It floods Geneva with mud and rotting crops from the soaking wet fields. On June 1st, Mary writes a letter to a family member saying, quote, "An almost perpetual rain confines us principally to the house. One night, we enjoyed a finer storm that I had never before beheld. The lake was lit up, the pines made visible, and all the scene illuminated for

• 34:02Karen Kilgariff?

  an instant when a pitchy blackness succeeded and the thunder came in frightful bursts over our heads amid the blackness."

• 34:09Georgia Hardstark?

  Wow. Moody. So moody.

• 34:12Karen Kilgariff?

  Right. They're like stuck in the beginning of the movie Frankenstein. It's just like constantly that thing. It was a dark and stormy night. So one afternoon amid all this intense gloomy weather, the Shelley household finally crosses paths with Lord Byron and Claire was right. He hits it off with Percy and Mary immediately and he invites them back to his villa. So they meet his fleet of dogs, monkeys, and even a falcon and his 20 year old traveling companion, John Polidori. He serves as Byron's personal physician. Polidori also has literary ambitions and he's being paid by Byron's publisher to keep journals on their travels together and then they plan to publish them as a book.

• 34:55Karen Kilgariff?

  So word of Byron and Shelley camps linking up makes it all the way back to England where they're talked about as a like a scandalized supergroup. Newspapers refer to them as quote, "League of incest." A gaggle of British guests at a nearby Geneva hotel set up a telescope aimed right at the villa, but the thick fog makes it impossible for them to be able to look inside, but they're trying to look inside. If they could see inside, what they'd see is everyone drinking tons of wine and laudanum, which is diluted liquid opium, and then either sleeping with each other or getting into fights with each other or some combination of the two. So even though Lord Byron openly despises Claire by the end of the summer, he's still

• 35:40Karen Kilgariff?

  sleeping with her and so she gets pregnant.

• 35:42Georgia Hardstark?

  I think this is Love Island, UK.

• 35:44Karen Kilgariff?

  It's almost like better. It's like haunted Frankenstein Love Island.

• 35:48Georgia Hardstark?

  Totally. Oh, I'd watch this. I'd watch it.

• 35:51Karen Kilgariff?

  There are some historians who've speculated, but nothing's been proven, that actually this child is Percy Bysshe Shelley's child because he and Claire are suspected of having an affair. And depending on which source you're reading, it's also been said that Polidori is infatuated with either Lord Byron or Mary. Drama aside, it's impossible for these people to enjoy the outdoors. So they basically spend every night by a fire at the villa, reading spooky poems and stories while thunder and lightning rattle the mansion. They're reading from a book named Phantasma Goriana.

• 36:26Karen Kilgariff?

  Which is a collection of German horror stories recently translated into French. It has a bit of everything, ghosts, malevolent spirits, family curses, haunted places, stuff like that. And they are all drunk and high, so these stories hit pretty hard. One night, as Lord Byron is reading, Percy jumps out of his chair and bolts out of the room, and he later says, quote, "He'd seen a terrifying vision of Mary who'd been in the corner nursing their child with staring eyes instead of nipples on her breasts."

• 36:56Georgia Hardstark?

  Ah, dude, take a nap.

• 36:59Karen Kilgariff?

  Freaking out.

• 37:00Georgia Hardstark?

  Go take a nap.

• 37:01Karen Kilgariff?

  Freaking out.

• 37:01Georgia Hardstark?

  Eat some orange slices.

• 37:02Karen Kilgariff?

  Put that laudanum down.

• 37:03Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah.

• 37:04Karen Kilgariff?

  Stop with the opium for one second.

• 37:06Georgia Hardstark?

  Eye nipples, that's fucking a new one.

• 37:09Karen Kilgariff?

  That's not okay.

• 37:10Georgia Hardstark?

  That was not from Haight-Ashbury, I don't think.

• 37:12Karen Kilgariff?

  No, that's not cool. So after a while, Lord Byron switches things up and tasks the group with writing their own horror stories. It's a contest, and whoever creates the most chilling visceral work wins. So by day, they all go to their respective rooms and pull out their ink pens and they write. And at night, they come back together and they share their works in progress and they give each other feedback.

• 37:33Georgia Hardstark?

  I love this. I want to do this with my friends, but without so many drugs and alcohol, but...

• 37:39Karen Kilgariff?

  Without?

• 37:40Georgia Hardstark?

  Well, not as many. I don't want to see eyeballs.

• 37:43Karen Kilgariff?

  Let's not make a rule right now. Let's just like, see what happens.

• 37:46Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah, let's not, let's not. It can go however.

• 37:48Karen Kilgariff?

  We don't want to go into eyeball territory, but yeah, you're right. Well, here's what I think is kind of cool, and I'm giving the credit to Lord Byron, which is everyone's fighting and fucking and doing all this crazy shit. It's like, how about everyone gets creative and puts their work on the paper and just puts their energy that way? And then look what comes out of it. It's wild what comes out of it. So it doesn't seem like Percy, Bisheli, or Claire contribute much to this little writing group, if anything. Instead, they're working on their own projects that have nothing to do with the horror genre. Lord Byron, meanwhile, takes inspiration from stories he's heard while traveling in Eastern Europe of vampires. But those ones are a little different than our modern vampire. Per the folklore that he heard, they were grotesque undead corpses that would

• 38:33Karen Kilgariff?

  rise out of their graves at night like zombies and suck the blood of the living.

• 38:37Georgia Hardstark?

  Okay.

• 38:37Karen Kilgariff?

  Different kind of monster.

• 38:38Georgia Hardstark?

  Sure.

• 38:39Karen Kilgariff?

  Different flavor. More of a Roquefort situation with those ones. So he starts a story that he never ends up finishing, but in it, he takes the concept of a vampire and makes it a little sexier. His vampire is a socially intelligent British aristocrat who also has a thirst for blood, but he is able to blend in with the upper class and he's a romantic.

• 39:00Georgia Hardstark?

  Imagine that. Who are we talking about? And he's so hot. He's so sexy.

• 39:06Karen Kilgariff?

  So hot. But essentially, this version of the vampire is actually the one that sticks in our culture from Dracula to Twilight. So that does come from Lord Byron's original idea. So when the rest of the group hears this, they tell Lord Byron, he's on to something, but he doesn't listen and he scraps the story. Basically, he doesn't enjoy writing horror or Gothic horror. But John Polidori takes it and he makes it his own and he eventually releases a novella called The Vampire, P-Y-R-E. And that is said to be the first English-language vampire story ever published.

• 39:41Georgia Hardstark?

  Was Byron pissed that he fucking copied him?

• 39:45Karen Kilgariff?

  He doesn't seem like the type. He seems like he's like, you have a mild idea, whatever. And he's got like a kerchief in his hand at all times. But obviously, the inarguable winner of this writing contest is 19-year-old Mary Shelley, whose entry starts as a short story. It's so compelling that the others urge her to expand it into a novel. And it eventually becomes Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus, which is the full title. I never knew that. The condensed refresher that no one needs, but it will be fun to do, is that Frankenstein's about a young scientist who makes the very risky decision to play God, designing a creature that looks somewhat human and using electricity to jolt it to life. Frankenstein's creature is born with a kind heart, but he's very

• 40:29Karen Kilgariff?

  lonely and he longs for connection. And he's beaten down by people's fear as well as their cruelty toward him. And he's abandoned by his own creator. All the poor treatment hardens the creature until he becomes a monster. Just as Frankenstein's abandonment of the creature turns the scientist into a monster. And if you watch Young Frankenstein, that's exactly what happens.

• 40:51Georgia Hardstark?

  There was a Frankenstein bar that we went to in Edinburgh that was fucking incredible. Edinburgh, Scotland.

• 40:56Karen Kilgariff?

  Ooh, did like, did a thing go up?

• 40:58Georgia Hardstark?

  Every like hour, whatever, the monster would come out, the like, music would go down and like, the crazy ass creepy shit would happen. There was like all these lights. It's a fucking rad bar.

• 41:07Karen Kilgariff?

  Yes, that sounds so good. Okay, so as this group leaves Lake Geneva at the end of the summer, Mary does keep working on the story when she gets back to England, but her writing is sidelined once again by even more tragedy. And I have to tell you, there's so many more things I'm going to tell you that are sad that happened in her life. It's like kind of devastating how much bad shit happens to this woman.

• 41:28Georgia Hardstark?

  Jesus.

• 41:29Karen Kilgariff?

  So, her half sister Fanny, who is a daughter of her mother's from a different relationship, takes her own life. And then weeks after that, Percy's estranged wife Harriet also dies by suicide. So, as horrible as all of that is, it does allow Percy and Mary to finally get married, which they weren't, they had kids together and stuff, but they weren't married. So they finally get married, but Mary is consumed with guilt over Harriet's death. The next year in 1817, she finishes Frankenstein. It's published in January of 1818 on New Year's Day when she's 20 years old.

• 42:03Georgia Hardstark?

  Jesus.

• 42:04Karen Kilgariff?

  It's released anonymously, so her name is not on the book in the beginning. And it's a small publisher, not particularly well-known. There's only about 500 copies that they put out on very cheap paper and with no fanfare, but people still end up buying it. And then the people who buy it and read it talk about it. And so the word spreads that, because it's just that good. And some critics love it, some find it distasteful, but it captivates the public's interest. And nothing like it has ever existed before. Frankenstein is as romantic and philosophical as it is horrifying, and it's often called the first science fiction novel.

• 42:41Georgia Hardstark?

  Cool.

• 42:41Karen Kilgariff?

  And it just keeps growing in popularity, even getting adapted into incredibly popular stage plays. And because the book includes a dedication to Mary's father, William Godwin, and a preface that's written by Percy, rumors swirl that one of these men are the ones that actually wrote this book.

• 42:58Georgia Hardstark?

  Oh.

• 42:59Karen Kilgariff?

  Mary, meanwhile, stays in the shadows. She doesn't make much off of the popularity of her book. It's not clear how much she actually earns from it. We do know that the bulk of the money goes to the publisher. And of course, there's no copyright protections at the time, so the theatrical productions that use her story don't pay her for it.

• 43:18Georgia Hardstark?

  Wow, what a plumber.

• 43:19Karen Kilgariff?

  Yeah. And then in 1818, a year after Frankenstein's published, Mary loses another daughter. One-year-old Clara dies in Mary's arms after contracting dysentery. The year after that, Mary's son, William, dies of malaria. So these losses compound Mary's existing grief. She goes into a deep depression, with Percy writing around this time, quote, "My dearest Mary, wherefore hast thou gone and left me in this dreary world alone?" That's a Percy Bysshe Shelley line.

• 43:48Georgia Hardstark?

  Oh, my God.

• 43:49Karen Kilgariff?

  So sad. But the same year, Mary will give birth again, this time to a son named Percy, and he will be the one child that they have that lives to adulthood.

• 43:59Georgia Hardstark?

  Wow.

• 43:59Karen Kilgariff?

  Yeah. Tragedy seems to follow the whole Villa crew from Lake Geneva. In 1821, John Polidori, the author of The Vampire and Lord Byron's one-time physician, takes his own life. He's only 25 years old. It's been speculated he was suffering from depression and felt buried under the weight of his gambling debts. Then the Shellys continue to cross paths with Lord Byron, though he does refuse to see Claire, Mary's stepsister, Claire, and he treats her with hostility, even though they have a child together.

• 44:30Georgia Hardstark?

  Oh.

• 44:31Karen Kilgariff?

  They have a daughter that Claire named Alba. Lord Byron takes custody of the baby, renames her Allegra, and then cuts Claire off from ever seeing her. It's just like a horrible thing. He takes custody of the baby, but then puts her in foster hu- like rotating foster homes and then in a convent. And when Allegra is five years old, she dies from typhus at the convent. And then Lord Byron dies two years later of a fever. So Claire herself lives to be 80 and of course mourns her daughter for the rest of her life. Then in 1822, three years after their son Percy is born, 29 year old Percy Bichelli drowns in Italy. When his sailboat gets caught in a storm. So Mary's widowed. She's 25 years old. Jesus.

• 45:16Karen Kilgariff?

  And she will live another three decades. She dies when she's 53 of a suspected brain tumor, but she never remarries. The year after Percy's death is when Mary finally reveals that she is the author of Frankenstein. She basically needs money and they're reissuing the novel so she can get some cash. She only receives a small allowance from Percy's family as a widow and she mostly supports herself and her young son by writing and taking on editing work. But the reveal that Mary is the one who wrote Frankenstein is literally unbelievable to some people, AKA men. Critics immediately try to give the credit to her late husband, thinking there's no way a woman could have written something so dark and layered.

• 45:58Karen Kilgariff?

  But Frankenstein is so unmistakably hers. It is about grief, alienation and guilt, things Mary has felt since childhood. And she even lists passages from her own personal journal, particularly dispatches about the wet, stormy weather in Lake Geneva during the year without a summer. Even the premise itself of generating life from something not living echoes the dream Mary had after her first daughter died. Right. Yeah. Oh my God. Dreamt that my little baby came to life again, that it had been cold and that we rubbed it before the fire and it lived. Oh my God. Right. Both Mary and Frankenstein's monster yearn for the type of unconditional love, a motherly love that they've never had.

• 46:39Karen Kilgariff?

  Frankenstein has been interpreted by many modern scholars as a feminist text and one that's clearly shaped by Mary's grief and longing for her own mother. I know, right? It's so sad. As biographer Charlotte Gordon puts it, quote, Frankenstein is actually a book about women. I would say it's a dystopian novel about a world without mothers and a world without strong women. Unchecked male ambition, says Mary Shelley, is going to wreak havoc on the world. Wow. And that's the story behind one of the greatest works of Gothic fiction, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Wow. What?

• 47:14Georgia Hardstark?

  A fascinating story that I didn't know I didn't know.

• 47:19Karen Kilgariff?

  Right?

• 47:20Georgia Hardstark?

  Oh, my God. That's incredible.

• 47:22Karen Kilgariff?

  So good. So good.

• 47:23Georgia Hardstark?

  Good job. Good job for Halloween, especially.

• 47:26Karen Kilgariff?

  Thank you. And great job marrying McGlashan once again, just killing it. So good.

• 47:31Georgia Hardstark?

  That was incredible. Great job.

• 47:32Karen Kilgariff?

  Thank you. Well, happy Halloween.

• 47:34Georgia Hardstark?

  Thank you. Happy Halloween. What are you gonna be for Halloween this year? Home?

• 47:38Karen Kilgariff?

  I think this year I'm gonna be a person who's at home. I told somebody what I was gonna be the other day and now I can't remember what it was. What a great joke that I can't remember. What are you gonna be for Halloween?

• 47:50Georgia Hardstark?

  I'm gonna be me in a cute Halloween dress with maybe cat ears on, passing out candy to all the little kids in our neighborhoods. My favorite.

• 47:57Karen Kilgariff?

  Nice. Oh, yeah. You have to go on full on candy duty.

• 48:00Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah, it's the best.

• 48:01Karen Kilgariff?

  Well, enjoy.

• 48:02Georgia Hardstark?

  Thank you. Last year, we counted on a clicker and there was 998 kids before we had to, we ran out of candy and had to turn the lights off. I know.

• 48:13Karen Kilgariff?

  It could have kept going.

• 48:14Georgia Hardstark?

  Yeah, it's fucking insane. I love it.

• 48:16Karen Kilgariff?

  That's so crazy. Well, I hope everybody that's listening is gonna trick or treat their asses off and really enjoy themselves.

• 48:23Georgia Hardstark?

  That's right. Have so much fun, be safe and watch out for spooky and watch out for volcanoes.

• 48:30Karen Kilgariff?

  Yeah, watch out for teenagers trying to egg your house. It's real and stay sexy.

• 48:36Georgia Hardstark?

  And don't get murdered.

• 48:38Karen Kilgariff?

  Goodbye.

• 48:40Georgia Hardstark?

  Elvis, do you want a cookie?

• 48:45Speaker 05

  We come to this legal system for justice.

• 48:47Speaker 06

  But we don't always get it. I'm Melissa Malbranche.

• 48:50Speaker 05

  And I'm Michael Foot. You might know me as everyone's favorite lawyer from TikTok. I'm sick of this whole like, my life is separate from my job. It ain't. I'm a fierce diva in the courtroom as well as at home.

• 49:01Speaker 06

  Every week on our podcast, Brief Recession, we take the legal world out of the courtroom and into real life. Like, can your boss actually fire you for what you post online?

• 49:09Speaker 05

  What happens if ICE knocks on your door?

• 49:11Speaker 06

  Or what should you do if you get arrested at a protest?

• 49:13Speaker 05

  We break down insane headlines, answer real questions from listeners and share wild stories about what really happens in court.

• 49:20Speaker 06

  Friends, please remember while Michael is a lawyer, he is not your lawyer.

• 49:25Speaker 05

  Unless you want to hire me.

• 49:26Speaker 06

  I mean, that's a different.

• 49:27Speaker 05

  I am, everyone has a price and I'm actually pretty cheap.

• 49:30Karen Kilgariff?

  From the Exactly Right Network, Brief Recess premieres on November 13th with new episodes Thursdays. Watch Brief Recess on YouTube.

• 49:37Speaker 05

  Listen to Brief Recess on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

• 49:49Karen Kilgariff?

  This has been an Exactly Right production. Our senior producers are Alejandra Keck and Molly Smith. Our editor is Aristotle Acevedo. This episode was mixed by Leona Scolacci. Our researchers are Maren McGlashan and Ally Elkin.

• 50:01Speaker 02

  Email your hometowns to [email protected].

• 50:04Karen Kilgariff?

  Follow the show on Instagram at MyFavoriteMurder.

• 50:06Speaker 02

  Listen to My Favorite Murder on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

• 50:11Karen Kilgariff?

  And now you can watch us on Exactly Right's YouTube page. While you're there, please like and subscribe.

• 50:16Speaker 02

  Goodbye.

• 50:24Speaker 02

  You know a favorite M-word? Magnesium.

• 50:26Karen Kilgariff?

  Like the kind that's in Dr. Teal's magnesium spray.

• 50:29Speaker 02

  Made from a proprietary blend of topical minerals, it's designed to relax and prepare you for a night of rest.

• 50:34Karen Kilgariff?

  If you need a reset after your day, make Dr. Teal's magnesium spray part of your nighttime routine.

• 50:40Speaker 02

  Generously spritz each foot before bed and you'll be all set. I've actually started doing this and I'm obsessed with magnesium. It does everything.

• 50:47Karen Kilgariff?

  Something like this is just like, it's simple, it's easy, and it actually works.

• 50:50Speaker 02

  Totally. For wellness you can feel, find Dr. Teal's magnesium spray online or in your local bath aisle.

• 50:56Karen Kilgariff?

  Goodbye. Calling all amateur detectives and podcast obsessives.

• 51:00Speaker 02

  Virgin Voyages' second true crime voyage sets sail March 20th, 2027, for a five-night escape to Grand Turk and the Beach Club at Bimini.

• 51:09Karen Kilgariff?

  As part of the On Air at Sea collection, this immersive sailing brings together fan favorite podcasts, including Disgrace Land, Buried Bones, and Wise Crack, for live recordings, behind-the-scenes access, exclusive meet and greets, and crime-themed programming that you won't find anywhere else.

• 51:25Speaker 02

  All aboard our award-winning, kid-free ships.

• 51:28Karen Kilgariff?

  Head over to virginvoyages.com/truecrime to secure your spot.

• 51:32Speaker 02

  Goodbye.

• 51:34Speaker 07

  She's been thinking about this sleepover all week, but I think about her food allergies all the time. Fortunately, her doctor prescribed Zolair, omalizumab. It's proven to significantly reduce allergic reactions if a food allergy accident happens.

• 51:47Speaker 08

  Zolair 150mg is a prescription medication used to treat food allergy in people 1 year of age and older to reduce allergic reactions due to accidental exposure to one or more foods. While taking Zolair, you should continue to avoid all foods to which you are allergic. Don't use if you are allergic to Zolair. Zolair may cause a severe, life-threatening allergic reaction called anaphylaxis. Tell your doctor if you ever had anaphylaxis. Get help right away if you have trouble breathing or if you have swelling of your throat or tongue. Zolair should not be used for the emergency treatment of allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis. Zolair is for maintenance use to reduce allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis, while avoiding food allergens. Serious side effects such as cancer, fever, muscle aches and rash, parasitic infection, or heart and circulation problems have been reported. Please see zolair.com for full prescribing information. Ask an allergist about Zolair. This is an advertisement for Zolair

• 52:31Speaker 08

  paid for by Genentech and Novartis.