Women make up half the population, but only about 28% of Congress. What would change if more women held office? At In Walks a Woman, we believe stories shape reality, and if we change the stories, we can change who gets a voice. This episode asks what happens when we rewrite one of the biggest stories of all: who represents us.

Our guests are Lauren Reinhold, the Democratic candidate for Kansas’s 1st Congressional District, and Matt Beat, better known to his millions of viewers as Mr. Beat, a former social studies teacher turned YouTube educator focused on history, government, and politics. Together they take us inside “the Big First,” the sprawling district that stretches from the Colorado border all the way to Lawrence, near the far eastern edge of Kansas. We also get into the big structural questions about how Congress works, and why it so often doesn’t.

Lauren brings deep experience in how federal services actually reach people, and a belief that Kansans have far more in common than our politics suggest. If elected, she would join a long tradition of Kansas women who have offered the state vision and leadership. Matt brings the history, the numbers, and some genuinely innovative ideas for opening the doors of government to more ordinary people, including women, and he explains the growing movement to Uncap the House.

Voting is one of the most powerful ways we have to change the story. Our own co-host, Sonja Czarnecki, serves as president of the Douglas County, Kansas, chapter of the League of Women Voters, and we can’t say it enough: register, check your registration, and make a plan to vote on November 3.

A note on “care privilege”: this term comes from economist Misty Heggeness’s Swiftynomics. It means having someone else handle the kids, meals, and household, freeing you for things like running for office. Hear Misty explain it on our live Kansas Book Festival episode!

References and Resources

• Lauren Reinhold for Congress: laurenforcongress.com

• Mr. Beat on YouTube: youtube.com/@iammrbeat

• Mr. Beat’s website: iammrbeat.com

• Uncap the House: on his website, Matt points listeners to the No Cap Fund, nocapfund.org, to learn more about the movement to expand the House

• Swiftynomics by Misty Heggeness: amazon.com/dp/0520403118

• League of Women Voters of Douglas County, Kansas: LWV Lawrence-Douglas County

• Center for American Women and Politics (data on women in office): cawp.rutgers.edu

Our guests today have just released two eye-opening books! In Swiftynomics: How Women Mastermind and Redefine Our Economy, economist Misty Heggeness uses the stories of trailblazers like Taylor Swift to reveal how everyday American women shape the economy, often in ways the numbers never capture. In A Gun of Her Own: The Everyday Lives of Women Who Shoot, sociologist Margaret S. Kelley shows that for many women, a gun is about more than protection; it's a symbol of independence and control over their own lives.

Heggeness and Kelley are both working to fill huge gaps in research on women's contributions to the economy and on women as gun owners.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Whether politics and gun ownership align for women

• Why Taylor Swift has changed our understanding of women in business

• Who cooked for Adam Smith, and why that invisible hand is the most important of all, even if Smith didn't know it

• What "care privilege" is, and why male economists ignore it

• What "vigilance of care" means for women gun owners

• How gun marketing has changed, and how that affects women

• Why, if women are more at risk, they don't own more guns than men

This is IWAW's first show recorded outside the studio, taped live at the 2026 Kansas Book Festival, hosted by Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas. Join us!

Content note: This episode discusses sexual violence, which is depicted in the Netflix series. Please make sure this episode is a good fit for you.

In a spoiler-filled review of Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan's eight-part series MONSTER: THE LIZZIE BORDEN STORY, ax expert Rachel McCarthy James joins us in the studio to discuss how closely the show follows the historical record.

• Were Lizzie and her maid, Bridget, in a sexual relationship?

• Was Lizzie obsessed with doves?

• How similar is the house in the show to the actual Borden house?

• Did Mr. Borden really have a closet full of axes with women's names?

• How did Lizzie clean up a double ax murder in thirty minutes?

• Did she even commit the crime?

  
  

And, perhaps most importantly, we tackle the pressing question of whether cherry trees can bloom and bear ripe cherries at the same time, from April to June.

If you don't plan to watch the show (and no one would think less of you), this is still a great episode for learning the true story of Lizzie Borden from Rachel McCarthy James, author of WHACK JOB: A HISTORY OF AXE MURDER, and for a look at how men tell women's stories. For starters, the series throws in nearly every woman ever linked to murder: Aileen Wuornos, Elizabeth Báthory, and Bertha Manchester all somehow make an appearance.

Created by Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan, written by Brennan, and with six of its eight episodes directed by Max Winkler, the series may end up being a revealing window into how men think about women in 2026. Rather than shedding light on Lizzie Borden, it tells us more about what men think they understand about female relationships, psychology, and rage.

Along the way, Sonja does her Beavis and Butt-Head impression, Vanessa asks about imperforate hymens, and Rachel recommends a good "beginner murder weapon."

REFERENCES:

Rachel McCarthy James's 2025 book, WHACK JOB: A HISTORY OF AXE MURDER, is a far more reliable source on Lizzie and all things axe-related. Plus, it's a fascinating read!

We also recommend THE MAN FROM THE TRAIN: THE SOLVING OF A CENTURY-OLD SERIAL KILLER MYSTERY, co-authored by Rachel McCarthy James and her father, baseball statistician Bill James. It's a great read!

If you, too, missed the wild song about vaginas in THE LIZZIE BORDEN STORY, check out Episode 2 and fast-forward to the scene where the rotten oyster soup is made.

Clay Wirestone, award-winning opinion editor at the Kansas Reflector, was so generous to join us in studio for a great interview about his new book, Opinionated: Kansas Journalists Who Proved Why Commentary Matters — Then and Now, published by the University Press of Kansas.

In his impressive tour of Kansas journalism from the 1920s to the 1970s, Clay honors some truly remarkable women who helped build and sustain their communities through their writing. Clay shares wonderful details about Mamie Boyd of Mankato, Zula Bennington Greene of Topeka, Donna Burough Opat of Lindsborg, and Lucile Bluford, who edited the Kansas City Call.

We talk about a time when newspapers were truly local, and the people writing them were deeply woven into the lives of their towns. These women wrote about their neighbors, their politics, and their daily lives, and much of that writing has been lost, buried in the archives of small towns, some of which are nearly ghost towns today. Clay's book brings their words back into the light.

Kansas is remarkable for so many reasons, and its legacy of fearless local opinion writing is one of them. As an opinion writer himself, Clay isn't studying the craft from the outside. He explores these columnists with the insight of someone who knows exactly what it takes to put your opinions in print, week after week, for the community you call home.

Content Note: This episode discusses war, physical trauma and injury, PTSD, and suicide, as portrayed in the novel and in the historical record. Please take care while listening, and feel free to skip or pause as needed.

IWAW Welcomes Guest Reader, Carmen Caffey RN:

This episode takes a closer look at Kristin Hannah's #1 bestselling novel THE WOMEN (St. Martin's Press, 2024), the story of Frances "Frankie" McGrath, a young nurse who serves with the U.S. Army Nurse Corps during the Vietnam War and returns home to a country that isn't ready to see her.

Joining us is guest reader Carmen Caffey, a nurse who specializes in burn trauma care and is also a cancer survivor. Carmen brings a clinician's eye to the novel, weighing in on the medical realities of trauma nursing.

Sonja rounds out the conversation with historical research into how Vietnam veterans were received upon returning home, the long fight to recognize the women who served as nurses, oral history projects that have preserved their stories, and the progress made over the decades to honor them.

If you've read THE WOMEN, this episode is a chance to get a medical and historical perspective on the events in the novel.

Thank you for listening. If this episode brought up anything difficult, please reach out to someone you trust, or to a crisis or veterans' support line in your area.

REFERENCES:

Echoes of the War podcast

Myth of the spat-on Vietnam veteran

The Spitting Image: Myth, Memory, and the Legacy of Vietnam by Jerry Lembcke

• Argues that contrary to popular myth, relations between veterans and antiwar activists were mutually empathetic and supportive for the most part

  
  

Diane Carlson Evan’s book: Healing Wounds

Diane Carlson Evans: “The memorial was established not only to honor those women who served, but also for the families who lost loved ones in the war, so they would know about the women who provided comfort, care, and a human touch for those who were suffering and dying.” VVMF.org

Remember, if you'd like a chance to be a guest reader and pick a book and visit with us on the show, there is a chance in February 2027. We are proud faculty of Bishop Seabury Academy, and if you get in touch at iwawpod@gmail.com, we'll get you set up to bid on the chance. You can do this from literally anywhere in the world! We'd love to have you suggest a new read to us, and we'd love to hear your thoughts on it in 2027--and you'd be supporting a wonderful independent school in Lawrence, Kansas.

You know the story: Eve came from Adam's rib--a variation on a theme. Science has believed some version of that for centuries, treating the female body as simply a lesser version of the male body.

The belief in this story means researchers have long excluded female bodies from studies because hormones make the data "messier”--and besides, the thinking goes, bodies are bodies, regardless of gender. The result is a massive blind spot in medicine, built on the assumption that male-as-default was good enough.

Turns out it's not that simple. It's not even close.

In this episode, Cat Bohannon, author of Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Evolution joins us to explain how the female body evolved as its own ingenious system, not as a variation on the male one.

Cat is gifted at explaining complicated science in a way that anyone can understand, and she makes a compelling case for embracing research into diverse bodies because it will benefit us all.

REFERENCES:

Once again, Kate Manne’s Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny comes up in conversation.

There is also a teen version of Cat Bohannon’s book: Eve (Adapted for Young Adults): How the Female Body Shaped Human Evolution

Here is a link to Cat Bohannon’s appearance on The Daily Show.

In Part 2 of our analysis of John Steinbeck’s EAST OF EDEN, we look at the third and fourth parts of the novel. Adam Trask makes Cathy his Eve. Sadly for Adam, John Steinbeck openly said he made Cathy "Satan."

And yet, regardless of how things started, was Steinbeck able to sustain Satanic Cathy/Kate for 600 pages?

Yes…and no.

If you are wondering how Netflix can build a whole series focusing on Cathy, this is the part of the book that makes it possible, and it's fascinating.

Along the way, Sonja learns how to start a Model T and Vanessa gleefully describes some bloody documents.

REFERENCES:

Here is the trailer/teaser for Netflix's EAST OF EDEN series coming out this fall.

If you are looking for the episode covering the first part of the book, the Spotify link is this: 81. Made in the USA: Steinbeck's EAST OF EDEN It is also available on Apple, Amazon, and Goodpods.

Kate Manne Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny

In this 600+ page, semi-autobiographical epic by John Steinbeck, the Genesis story unfolds a little in Connecticut and a little in the Salinas Valley in California.

Adam (Steinbeck's not subtle) meets a beautiful woman with a complicated but mysterious past...and he instantly makes her into the woman he wants her to be: his Eve.

What could go wrong?

REFERENCES:

Kate Manne Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny

The Kurt Vonnegut story mentioned is “Adam” from his 1968 collection Welcome to the Monkey House