On this week’s 51%, we'll hear about two famous cousins in the Roosevelt family who took on public, powerful roles for women at the time; and a woman honors patients who died at a mental institution and a man in Nigeria ditches Barbie dolls for African queens.
Family dynamics can be complicated and intriguing when they include women in the political spotlight. While Eleanor Roosevelt revolutionized the role of First Lady with her outspoken passion for human rights, Alice made the most of her insider connections to influence politics—including doing as much to defeat the League of Nations as anyone in elective office. Hissing Cousins: The Untold Story of Eleanor Roosevelt and Alice Roosevelt Longworth is a double biography of the first cousins whose political perspectives could not be more dissimilar. 51%'s Joe Donahue spoke with the authors Marc Peyser and Timothy Dwyer about the oil-and-water relationship.
That was 51%'s Joe Donahue speaking with Marc Peyser and Timothy Dwyer, who are the authors of Hissing Cousins: The Untold Story of Eleanor Roosevelt and Alice Roosevelt Longworth.
Karen Evans, once a patient of a former mental institution called AMHI, is trying to honor people who died there. Salt Radio's Ursula Chodosh reports from Maine.
When Lagos local Taofick Okoya went gift shopping for his niece he realized there were no dolls she could really identify with because they are all white. So he decided to fight racial stereotypes in his country by producing his own line of Nigerian dolls. Jessie Wingard presents this report from DW Radio Correspondent Stefan Ehlert.
And that’s our show for this week. Thanks to Katie Britton for production assistance. Our executive producer is Dr. Alan Chartock. Our theme music is Glow in the Dark by Kevin Bartlett. This show is a national production of Northeast Public Radio.