About Feel Familiar? Emotionally Intelligent History
"Feel Familiar? Emotionally Intelligent History" explores important but sometimes overlooked events from the past to gain a clearer understanding of the present day. It connects broad, macro-level developments in politics and society to relatable, individual feelings and thoughts.
Discount Debutantes: How Clementine Miller Rescued New York’s Elite Daughters
It wasn't just men who needed help with weddings and such. In the 1950s and 1960s, Clementine Miller staged elaborate balls for Manhattan debutantes who hadn't yet found Mr. Good-Enough. Meanwhile, Joshua shares an exchange he had with Don Lemon (who may, or may not, have compared himself to Jesus), and Stephen and I recount how the 1970s TV show Eight is Enough destroyed our understanding of economics. Guest: Stephen Robinson. Voice Actors: Mary Birdsong, Katty Biscone, and ...
2 Oct 2026
Draggin’ for Dixie: How the United Daughters of the Confederacy Gave Womanless Weddings Their Big Start
Full disclosure: We had wanted to title this episode "Dixie Chicks With D*cks," but then thought the better of it. Did you know that no less a conservative stalwart than the United Daughters of the Confederacy gave Womanless Weddings their start? Yup, men dragged-up to raise money for all those stone statues of men on horseback with swingin' swords and swell hair. Plus, we consider what someone has to do to get a dessert named after them, and I almost certainly mispronounce "Chilhowie, Virgin...
25 Sept 2026
Parlor Games, Journeymen, and Jilted Brides (and Seances!): The Roots of Womanless Weddings
No one's really sure where Womanless Weddings came from. They seem to have sprung into existence in the mid-1910s in the South. But other amusements, from rowdy Medieval rituals, to vaudeville songs about cheating spouses, to peculiar goings-on in American parlors in the mid-1800s—including seances and charades—paved the way. Also, Stephen talks about seeing David Byrne in concert. And Joshua recounts hosting a concert by punk-rockabilly-folk artist Johnny Dowd in his living room. (Joshua's l...
17 Sept 2026
Elks, Freemasons, and Knights of Pythias: Womanless Weddings and the Golden Age of Fraternal Orders
There was a time when millions of men across America joined frats for (kind-of) grownups: Elks, Knights of Pythias, and scores of others. What helped them bond with and bromance one another? You guessed it: impersonating women. Lodges totally embraced Womanless Weddings and other drag artistry. What better way to keep icky, yucky girls away?! Plus, Stephen will talk about reviewing The Crying Game when he was in college. Guest: Stephen Robinson. Voice Actors: Mary Birdsong, Katty Biscon...
10 Sept 2026
Varsity Athletes and War Heroes: Drag on Campus and in the Trenches in the Time of World War One
Starting in the 1890s, American college students formed all-male clubs to put on elaborate drag plays and musicals. Harvard had Hasty Pudding, the University of Michigan had the Mimes, and the University of Pennsylvania, Mask & Wig. Luminaries from Teddy Roosevelt to Jimmy Stewart were members of these much-admired organizations. None-too-woke college professors and deans worried it might turn college men queer. But students and alumni cheered them on. Then, during the First World War, Am...
4 Sept 2026
Thank You, God, We’ll Take it From Here: How Doctors and Scientists Put Themselves in Charge of Sex and Gender, and What it Meant for Drag
Beginning in the 1800s, doctors, researchers, and men of science decided sex and gender was suddenly in their wheelhouse, not the church's. Now if you were queer or cross-dressed, you weren't a sinner, just sick or "inverted." Havelock Ellis, Richard von Krafft-Ebing, Sigmund Freud, and others brought sexuality into the modern age. That had some serious repercussions for men who dressed like ladies for a living. But real men weren't about to give up drag. In fact, it all set the stage for wha...
28 Aug 2026
Dames, Wenches, and “High Yallers”: From Camp Queens to the Minstrel Show’s Tragic Divas
With women playing women onstage, female impersonation took a turn for the comical, the campy, and the cartoonish. Legendary "dames" like Dan Leno and Bert Savoy pioneered the art of "false disguise." During the late 1800s, that most troublingly American entertainment genre, the blackface minstrel show, reinvigorated heartfelt, illusionistic drag and set the stage for the return of men in "beautiful" and compelling female roles. Speaking of camp, we'll also talk about Andy's longtime fear of ...
20 Aug 2026
Shakespeare, the Restoration, and the Rise of the Actress: Men Insisting They Make Better Women Than Women
Juliet, Ophelia, and Lady Macbeth were all originally written for and played by men. Then women broke onto the scene and, for a time, theatre bros around London argued that drag artists were better than actual women onstage. We also talk about M*A*S*H, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and drag at Andy's all-boys summer camp. Theme Music: Kelly Dwyer. Logo Design: Mary Birdsong. Producer/Editor: Joshua Dudley.
14 Aug 2026
Ancient Greece, the Roman Empire… and Sweet Home Alabama: How Men Use Drag to Show Their Power
You thought drag and female impersonation was something subversive and perverse? Think again! In Golden Age Greece 2,500 years ago, then later in Roman times, men dressed up as women onstage to enjoy power and prestige, and to show what a woman ought to look like. Cut to our day: the Alabama legislature might have banned drag, but at least one of those lawmakers dressed-up as a fetching lady for "Womanless Wedding," a decades-long tradition among prominent men in Dixie whose origins and meani...
9 Aug 2026
Season Two: Trailer
Welcome to Season Two of "Feel Familiar? Emotionally Intelligent History." We're looking at how drag has served men, boys, dudes, patriarchs, generals, politicians, and businessmen very nicely from olden days to the twentieth century. Our guest is journalist and podcaster Stephen Robinson (ThePlayTyperGuy.com). You'll also hear voice acting from Mary Birdsong, Katty Biscone, and John Rincon. We hope you'll love Season Two: "'Womanless': How Drag and the Manosphere Have Been Bros, from A...
21 Feb 2026
BONUS: A Conversation with Hannah Smith
Join us to explore feelings, thoughts, culty mobs, angry people, and how our brain can deceive us, while our reflective mind can save us. Featured guest is therapist, author, and mental health educator Hannah Smith, MA, LMHC, CGP, founder of Potential-Finders Network and its education branch, The Village Education & Growth Collective. Hannah is also the author Lasting Change: Overcoming the Grip of Anxiety, Depression, & Trauma with "User-Friendly" Neuroscience. Theme Music: Kel...
14 Nov 2025
The Day(s) After: Finger-Pointing, the Blame Game, and the Official Story
The day after what was already being called "The Massacre Place" riots, people in New York City were mad as hell and nervous as hell. City elites and authorities convened juries and extracted verdicts with lightning speed. It seemed like civil war would break out in Manhattan. All this, plus: Mary does some great imitations, while Andy does a cringe-tastic take on Butt-Head. Join us as we do the aftermath of the deadly Astor Place Theatre Riot of 1849. To sign up for Andrew L. Erdman's newsle...
7 Nov 2025
"Fire Low."
Talked into continuing his run of the Scottish Play by kid-gloved New Yorkers, William Charles Macready and his fellow thespians manage a remarkable rendering of Shakespeare—sometimes in mime—as rowdies loyal to Ned Forrest try to shut the whole damn thing down. Things get ugly. Then they get uglier. Then the army decides it's time to enter the fray. When has this ever worked out well? To sign up for Andrew L. Erdman's newsletter, nERDism, click here. For a list of sources click here. Th...
31 Oct 2025
Macready Wonders: Should I Stay or Should I Go?!
British actor William Charles Macready inks a deal to do Macbeth at the Astor Place Opera House. It gets off to a rocky, smelly start. He's not sure what to do. Meanwhile, a buncha Bowery B'Hoys try to lay their mitts on some muskets, while Washington Irving undertakes verily to crush "the mob." And gee, book titles were so very loooooooooooong back then. To sign up for Andrew L. Erdman's newsletter, nERDism, click here. For a list of sources click here. Theme Music: Kelly Dwyer....
24 Oct 2025
Ned Forrest Gets His Grudge On
Edwin "Ned" Forrest came from humble beginnings to become a megastar of the American stage by the 1820s. Heroic, demonstrative, and patriotic, he is the darling of Bowery B'hoys' subculture. Over time, Forrest grows to resent William Charles Macready, a British actor who rises to eminence for a naturalistic style. New York's wealthier classes love Macready. Forrest imagines the Brit is conspiring against him. Charges are made! Hisses are hissed! Sheep carcasses are thrown! To sign up fo...
14 Oct 2025
New York, 1849: The “Upper Ten” & The Bowery B’hoys
New York City in the 1840s is a vital, bustling, and deeply divided place. Cultural and political beliefs related to race, gender, and class animate different groups to hate certain celebrities and worship others. The nativist Bowery B'hoys love an actor named Edwin "Ned" Forrest, while the kid-gloved "Upper Ten" worship British tragedian William Charles Macready. Neither group is as noble as it would like to believe it is: both are racist, reactive, and possessed of strong, if divergent, not...
14 Oct 2025
Season One: Trailer
"Feel Familiar? Emotionally Intelligent History" explores crucial, though sometimes overlooked, people and events from the past to gain a better understanding of current events. It links macro-level developments in politics and society to relatable, individual feelings and thoughts. Season One focuses on the Astor Place Theatre Riot of 1849 in which two groups—those supporting "patriotic" American-born actor Edwin Forrest and fans of British stage legend William Charles Macready, respectively...
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