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Civics & Coffee: A History Podcast - Victoria Woodhull: Eden Collinsworth on a Most Improbable Life
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Victoria Woodhull: Eden Collinsworth on a Most Improbable Life

Civics & Coffee: A History Podcast

10/28/25

40m

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She was a child clairvoyant, the first woman to own a Wall Street brokerage firm—and in 1872, she became the first woman to run for president of the United States. Join me as I sit down with author Eden Collinsworth to unpack the astonishing, unconventional, and often-overlooked life of Victoria Woodhull. Drawing from her new book The Improbable Victoria Woodhull, Collinsworth shares insights into Woodhull’s rise from spiritualist and outsider to a figure who challenged nearly every social and political norm of her time.

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Previous Episode

What kind of epidemic could turn a thriving American city into a ghost town almost overnight?

Join me as I explore the chilling story of the 1878 yellow fever epidemic—a public health disaster that decimated Memphis and echoed far beyond the Mississippi River Valley. While yellow fever had haunted the U.S. since the slave trade, it was the post–Civil War era—with its railroads, riverboats, and lack of national infrastructure—that turned an outbreak into a catastrophe. The fever emptied cities, bankrupted local governments, and revealed just how unprepared the nation was. But in the aftermath came something surprising: a rare moment of national unity and the first federal steps toward epidemic response. This is a haunting chapter of U.S. history, where disease reshaped the map, the economy, and the legacy of Reconstruction.

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Next Episode

The Insurrection Act has stood at the crossroads of law, power, and public order for over two centuries. This episode traces its roots from the Militia Acts of 1792 and 1795 to its modern interpretations in moments of national crisis. Discover how this rarely invoked law has shaped presidential authority, balanced federal and state power, and influenced some of the most turbulent chapters in American history. A civics deep dive into how one statute continues to test the boundaries of democracy and governance.

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