#5. Early Women Scientists: Their History and a Poem for Each

Did you realize there were dozens and dozens of early women scientists? Each one deserves a poem! A conversation and recitations with poet Jessy Randall.

Jessy Randall is curator of special collections at Colorado College and the author of several poetry collections, including Suicide Hotline Hold Music, (which includes her own accompanying comics), There Was an Old Woman, Injecting Dreams into Cows, and A Day in Boyland, which was a finalist for the Colorado Book Award. She has also written a young adult novel The Wandora Unit, about poetry nerds in high school, and a collection of collaborative poems, Interruptions, written with Daniel M. Shapiro. Randall’s most recent book, Mathematics for Ladies: Poems on Women in Science,” empathizes with the challenges these women faced and their complex responses, conveying a mix of reverence and vicarious irreverence, outrage and bemusement, anger and equanimity, pride and cheerful self-effacement.

(Recorded 11/1/22.)

Note: This episode won Second Place in the Podcast Division of the New Mexico Press Women 2023 Communications Contest. (The Delving In interview with Jamie Raskin (Episode #12) won First place.)