If you’re gonna do GOSSIP GIRL, you gotta reveal the gossip girl herself: Cecily von Ziegasar.

In her FIRST podcast interview ever (XOXO!!!) Cecily tells IWAW what it was like to write for teens back when no one else was writing for teens. In addition to many personally inspiring experiences, Cecily shares the classic novel that helped her write GOSSIP GIRL. And guess what? That 1920 novel features a fallen woman!

In Season 5, we’ve gone from MUCH ADO, in which Hero finds her virginal reputation ruined by gossip, to GOSSIP GIRL, in which characters swim in gossip. Amidst the constantly changing currents, the girls rise, sink, and swim to the surface again. Does GOSSIP GIRL demonstrate female resilience? Does it mean the fallen woman trope has died? Or does it mean fallen women are society’s main spectacle?

This discussion mostly focuses on the book series from the early 2000’s, but we do touch on the television series at several points. And, yes, we do talk about Chuck Bass…because, well, he’s Chuck Bass.

Along the way, Sonja shares a Christmas tradition, and Vanessa & Cecily are rather surprised.

You know you love us! XOXO, the IWAW Girls

Sharon is–deservedly so–America’s Government Teacher. She joins us today to talk about her eloquent and beautifully-illustrated children’s book, WE ARE MIGHTY.

Join Sonja and Vanessa in finding out how Sharon adapted her work for a younger audience, her own experience in high school history class, finding her writing voice, how to find untold stories to tell, and why she dropped pre-med as her major…in a surprisingly eerie story.

Along the way, Sharon shares her love of pigeons and feeds Sonja and Vanessa some baby carrots.

REFERENCES:

To learn more about Emma Lazarus, the poet Sharon mentions, click here.

To learn more about the American Exchange Project that Sonja is involved in, go to the American Exchange Project website.

For more details on Sharon McMahon’s banned commencement address, check out this Newsweek article from April 2026.

To read the address that Sharon had prepared to give: Sharon McMahon: My Message to the Class of 2026

Hallie Rubenhold’s THE FIVE sheds light on the lives of the 5 women who were murdered by Jack the Ripper in London in 1888. So much of history has focused on these women’s final hours, their deaths, the macabre nature of their wounds, and the assumption that they were all bad women who put themselves in harm’s way. In other words, since they were seen as fallen women, they were in essence blamed for their own murders.

Sonja and Vanessa offer a brief bio of each woman, and an overview of Rubenhold’s carefully reasoned and meticulously-researched argument for seeing these women as 3 dimensional people who deserve to be remembered and their loss mourned. And while no one would claim that Victorian England was a fair playing field, we’ll explain how Rubenhold’s research reveals how Victorian society was astonishingly stacked against women, specifically.

Along the way, there are honestly not a lot of bright spots, but a “jolly bonnet” and an unlikely tattoo can be made out under the gas lamp lights of this grim historical time and place for women.

REFERENCES:

Please, please, please treat yourself to reading Hallie Rubenhold's The Five. She writes a compelling narrative for each woman, and you’ll come away with a breathtakingly detailed impression of the complicated world these women were doing their best to survive. The writing is fresh, and the amount of literal digging Rubenhold must have done to get past all the false narratives to actual truth is stunning. It’s historical narrative at its best, and the final chapter is an impassioned, moving assessment of how laws, religion, social mores, journalists, and historians have all failed these women. THE FIVE is a tour de force, and we could not recommend it more highly.

Please note that this episode deals with a historical account of sexual assault.

Spoiler note: there are a couple of spoilers about the historical events involved, but even if you are aware of the outcome of this case, Sweet's recounting of the story and the context he uncovers and explains is fascinating and so, so worth your time.

If you pick up a copy of John Wood Sweet’s 2022 study, THE SEWING GIRL'S TALE: A STORY OF CRIME AND CONSEQUENCES IN REVOLUTIONARY AMERICA, you will see award stamps for not one, not two, but SIX awards bestowed up this absorbing masterpiece of narrative history.

We did not know about THE SEWING GIRL'S TALE when we planned our Fallen Women season, but when we came across it, we knew we had to include it because it is a thrilling read. Add to the joy of reading it that the stars aligned for us to interview John Wood Sweet himself.

Join Sonja and Vanessa as Sweet explains why this trial could only have happened in the 1790s, why it was the first rape case to be covered in newspapers, and how New York rippled in reaction to the verdict.

To say that Sweet researched deeply to create this work would be an understatement, and when you consider it’s page-turning quality, it really is a must read for anyone who loves history, finding women otherwise lost to history, and seeing a shift in public sentiment towards the assumption that women are to blame for their own undoing.

Along the way, Sonja nerds out about New York, and Vanessa fangirls on five paragraphs about a piece of jewelry.

IWAW loves a great mystery/thriller, and if you do, too, you should treat yourself to reading Laurie Dove’s 2025 novel, MASK OF THE DEER WOMAN There will be NO spoilers in this show! Sonja and Vanessa visit with Dove about the compelling issues underpinning this gripping story.

There are so many positive reviews of the novel, so here’s just a sample: “A beautifully written tale about the Indigenous girls who disappear twice, once in life and once in the news. Clever, elegant and utterly compelling, MASK OF THE DEER WOMAN is a brilliant exploration of identity and the struggle of being separated from one’s culture. Hypnotic and beguiling, I was hooked from the first sentence.”—Christina McDonald, USA Today bestselling author of These Still Black Waters.

In our interview, Dove talks about what sparked her desire to write MASK OF THE DEER WOMAN, why she felt compelled to turn to fiction, and how she understands the role of storytelling. Plus, this is only the first of the Carrie Starr novels, and Dove lets us in on when we can expect the next installment.

Along the way, Sonja defends The Book of Kells, and Vanessa wishes she could be in a book club with Starr.

In his famous 1841 essay, “Self Reliance,” Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “To be great is to be misunderstood.” Emerson was a great writer, but to think he accomplished that all by himself would be a significant misunderstanding of how self reliant he really was.

In his brilliant study of five female Transcendentalist thinkers, BRIGHT CIRCLE, Dr. Randall Fuller pulls back the curtain to show that behind Emerson was his aunt, Mary Moody Emerson, who served as mentor and a role model for thinking boldly and writing with a unique voice.

Dr. Fuller helps us explore all the questions this revelation naturally prompts: Did Emerson plagiarize his aunt? Did she see it as a collaboration? Did he owe her more credit? And who were the other women in the Transcendentalist movement? One was married to Emerson and the other to Nathaniel Hawthorne, so why don’t we know more about them? Or is that precisely why we don’t know more about them? Why is Concord Massachusetts considered the epicenter of this movement when Margaret Fuller’s weekly conversation circles, attended primarily by women, were held in a bookstore in Boston?

Join Sonja and Vanessa as they learn from Dr. Fuller why we probably need to rewrite the story of American Transcendentalism to foreground women like Mary Moody Emerson, Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, Sophia Peabody Hawthorne, Lydia Jackson Emerson, and Margaret Fuller.

Along the way, Sonja vaguely hints at her feelings for Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Vanessa fails a few quizzes.

REFERENCES:

Check out all of Randall Fuller’s books–you’ll love them!

From Battlefields Rising: How The Civil War Transformed American Literature, The Book That Changed America: How Darwin's Theory of Evolution Ignited a Nation, Emerson's Ghosts: Literature, Politics, and the Making of Americanists, Bright Circle: Five Remarkable Women in the Age of Transcendentalism.

Mary Roach has created a nonfiction writing lane all her own, and in her 8th book, she embarks on a world-wide tour of the scientific quest to replace pretty much every part of the human body.

Her book, ⁠REPLACEABLE YOU⁠⁠, came out this month--April 2026--and it's already a bestseller. While she was visiting Lawrence, Kansas, on a trip sponsored by the Lawrence Public Library, Mary sat down with Sonja and Vanessa for an interview about her new book, her writing journey, and Mary shares an exclusive scoop on her plans for her next project!

Mary recounts some of her research and travel adventures from writing Replaceable You. Important questions are answered: Should you spontaneously volunteer your body for scientific experimentation? How do you cold call someone about spending a night in their iron lung? Where should you take a urologist to dinner?

IWAW also explores how Mary Roach became, well, MARY ROACH. For example, if you assumed Mary was a STEM major, you’d be wrong. What did determine her academic course? How did she get into writing? What writers did she love? How does she know what’s funny enough to make it into a “Mary Roach” book?

Along the way, Sonja segues via a blind lemon, Vanessa auditions to be Mary's audiobook laugh track, and Mary finds out there are way fewer than 6 degrees of separation between herself and Sonja.

REFERENCES:

Here is a link to the 1992 Susan Orlean story in the New Yorker that Mary mentions.

If you keep losing, what if the game is to blame? If women keep falling, could it be that society itself is at fault?

That, in itself, is a subversive question in 2026--but even more so in late 19th century England. In his 1891 novel, TESS OF THE D'URBERVILLES, Thomas Hardy makes it abundantly clear that religion and society’s complete absorption of religious ideas of virginity is 100% to blame.

Sonja and Vanessa give you a lively plot summary of this 400+ page novel. Therefore, SPOILERS ahoy! During the plot and after, enjoy some insightful analysis.

After half a dozen examples of “fallen women” novels this season, how does TESS OF THE D'URBERVILLES put an original spin on the question of the fallen woman? Why was this novel censored? Is it a feminist text? In Hardy’s estimation, is the Christian god all that different from the Greek gods who enjoyed playing with human lives? Within this system of assumptions about men and (especially) about women, can a good man be good? Does a “pure” woman stand a chance? And how do impaled horses, dripping udders, and ripe strawberries fit into all this?

Along the way, Sonja finds a way to–again–bring up Heated Rivalry, and Vanessa makes a film pitch for Emerald Fennell.

REFERENCES:

Michael Millgate’s biography of Thomas Hardy was our source for life information on Hardy, but keep in mind, there are many, many takes on Hardy’s life. See this partial list of Thomas Hardy biographies.

The mention to “Mina Harker” is to the main female character in Bram Stoker’s Dracula which we covered in S4E5.