Wangari Maathai understood the vital connections between living things and the Earth; of local communities and the wider world. It is true that many trees make a mighty forest, and Maathai’s Green Belt Movement made it clear to us all that the most important change for the greater good is one that each individual makes in their own backyard… a philosophy which would earn her the Nobel Peace Prize.
** Come back later for full shownotes **
As is our tradition, we’re sharing our coverage of the life of this unsung hero of the holidays. While the original portion of this was created in 2014 (TEN YEARS? Whoa!) over the years we’ve added to it so no two years are exactly the same! As always, if you have little ears, you may want to preview it so no secrets are spoiled.
This year, we talked a little about this charming ad for Boots stores!
If you would like the links to things talked about in this episode, head back to 2014 via this link: OG Mrs. Claus
Happiest of holidays to you all! Thank you for hanging out with us in 2024! xo Beckett and Susan
They said it couldn’t be done; that the deck, and the odds, were stacked against her, but Trudy Ederle listened only to her heart during her record-breaking swim across the English Channel. She was the first woman to accomplish this feat, and her record would hold for another 24 years, but there was a lot more to her life than one phenomenal swim.
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Emily Roebling stepped in to facilitate the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge after her husband, its chief engineer, fell victim to a mysterious illness. Though her contributions were kept shadowed at the time, later generations have realized how critical she was to the project’s completion (and she did so much more afterward!)
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We wrap up our two-part series on the life of Empress Maria Theresa of Austria! This is an epic tale of war (more than we’ve ever discussed) and family (also more than we’ve ever discussed!) We talk about the many steps she took as Maria Theresa reassembled the empire she had inherited and strategically laid the foundations of cultural reform that changed the course of history.
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