E280: Nellie Bly (part II)

Fresh Hell Podcast

freshhellpodcast

True Crime

4.8 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 2 May 2025

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In 1887, Nellie Bly got herself committed to one of the most notorious mental institutions in the country — not because she needed help, but because she wanted the truth. In Part 2, we follow Nellie through the gates of Blackwell’s Island, where the food was inedible, the baths were freezing, and silence wasn’t just expected — it was enforced. What she found wasn’t a place for healing. It was a place where sane women were driven to madness, and no one on the outside was asking questions. Until now.

Nellie Bly, Blackwell’s Island, Ten Days in a Madhouse, women’s history, asylum abuse, Victorian era, undercover journalism, 19th century mental health, Pulitzer, Women’s Lunatic Asylum, Bellevue Hospital, feminist history, true crime adjacent, Fresh Hell Podcast, Nellie Bly investigation, mental institutions, New York history, investigative journalism,J oseph Pulitzer, women journalists

Transcript

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0:00.0	You are listening to the Fresh Hell podcast.
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0:29.8	Hi, I'm Annie from Massachusetts, where the winters are long, and the historical grudges are even longer.
0:37.0	I'm Johanna from Austria.
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1:11.8	Exactly.
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2:02.3	Johanna and I watch, what's the right word, docudramas about real life cases. So we've so far done
2:13.1	the series Candy starring Jessica Beale as well as the series Welcome to Chippendales starring
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