Hello. Hello.

And welcome to Shorthand.

I have a very distinct memory of coming across this lady in deepest darkest lockdown.

In my old bedroom, in my house share, just around the corner from the eunuchmaker.

Oh, yes.

And I thought she could be a red-handed episode.

I was wrong.

We didn't have shorthand back then, so she didn't have anywhere to live, but I'm glad that we found her.

Absolutely, that's what this show's for. And we love here at Red Handed and at Shorthand,

a badass vintage lady smashing down the patriarchy and getting shit done, and that's absolutely what this lady done did.

Today, we're stepping into the lace-up boots of Nellie Bly,

the woman who barged her way into the Boys Club of Victorian journalism

and came out on top.

With her own unique flavour in investigative journalism,

Nellie became an international star for her daring feats of bravery and tenacity,

including infiltrating an asylum,

smashing records for circumnavigating the globe, and becoming one of the first ever

female war correspondents. And those are just a few of her greatest hits.

A trailblazing reporter paving the way for female writers, Nellie Bly changed journalism forever and paved the way

for this whole podcast and all of our other ones. Hot off the press, this is the shorthand.

The woman who would become the unstoppable Nellie Bly was born Elizabeth Jane Cochran on the 15th of May 1864 in

Cochran's Mills, Pennsylvania. And yep, that's right, the town was literally named after her dad.

...