Let Genius Burn
Louisa May Alcott may be best known for the beloved book Little Women, but her story doesn’t begin or end with her famous novel. On Let Genius Burn, we separate the layers of Louisa’s life to learn more about who she really was--and all the ways her legacy continues to resonate today. We’ll explore the traumatic year of her childhood spent in an experimental utopian community, her service as a Civil War nurse, her final years of wealth and celebrity as a children’s author--and more intimate details and little-known stories of Louisa’s life. Instead of a retelling of Louisa May Alcott’s biography, each episode in the 8-part series examines Louisa's life through a different lens--Louisa as a celebrity, writer, activist, daughter, and more-- highlighting her complexity as a person, woman, and historical figure. Ahead of her time, Louisa railed against the limitations of her gender and fought for women’s suffrage. She craved literary greatness, but was weighed down by the financial needs of her family. Through writing scandalous Gothic thrillers, she found a way to voice her own inner turmoil. In the end, she achieved extraordinary financial success, but creative fulfillment remained elusive.We’ll examine all of this and more on Let Genius Burn. Find more on Instagram and Facebook @letgeniusburn or at letgeniusburn.com.
Let Genius Burn
Latest Episodes
Alcott in Our Own Time
In this episode, where the title nods to a seminal Alcott text, Alcott in Her Own Time, edited by Daniel Shealy, Jamie and Jill reconnect about what has changed since they first began making Let Genius Burn in the winter of 2019-2020. ...
Little Women Reimagined
In this conversation with authors Linda Epstein, Ally Malinenko, and Liz Parker, we discuss the authors' individual relationships to Little Women and how it influenced their writing of The Other March Sisters. We also discuss:How th...
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Louisa and Lydia
Lydia Olsson (1874-1958) was the daughter of Swedish immigrants, born in Kansas in the late nineteenth century. She moved to Illinois and attended Augustana College, where she kept diaries the documented her experience as a young woman coming o...
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Alcott & Ecotherapy
Through Alcott’s upbringing amidst the Transcendentalists, ideas about the healing power of nature found their way into her life and her written work. Much of what humans have long known about the connection to nature is now being grounded in s...
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