This is an I-Heart podcast.

And we return to our American stories.

And up next, a history story.

And of course, all of our stories about American

history are brought to us by the great folks at Hillsdale College where you can go to learn all

the things that are good in life and all the things that are beautiful in life. If you can't get

to Hillsdale, Hillsdale will come to you with their free and terrific online courses. Go to

hillsdale.edu.

In this story, you're about to meet someone you've probably heard of, but probably don't know.

She set the world record for the fastest trip around the world in the year 1890,

and she did it in just 72 days.

We're talking about Nellie Bly.

She wrote a book about her experiences, but in the life story of Nellie Bly, this was just a chapter in the middle.

Nellie was born as Elizabeth Jane Cochran in Cochran's Mill, Pennsylvania.

Her Irish immigrant family had been successful enough to have the town named after her father. Michael Cochran had ten children

with his first wife, and after she died, he remarried and had five more, including Nellie. When Michael

died, he left no will protecting his second wife, or the then six-year-old Nellie.

The next years were rough.

Nellie's mother married and then divorced an abusive alcoholic.

Nellie went to school to become a teacher but couldn't afford tuition past the first semester.

She spent the next few years working odd jobs around a boarding house,

but her real break came when she read an exchange into Pittsburgh dispatch.

...