Unstoppable: Mary Beatrice Davidson Kenner

Discovery

BBC

Science, Technology

4.3 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 17 June 2024

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Dr Julia Ravey and Dr Ella Hubber both have a love of science, but it turns out there’s a lot they don’t know about some of the leading women at the front of the inventing game. In Unstoppable, Dr Julia and Dr Ella tell each other the hidden, world-shaping stories of the engineers, innovators and inventors they wish they’d known about when they were starting out as scientists. This week, the inventor whose incredible capacity to solve problems inspired today’s most popular period products.

Mary Beatrice Davidson Kenner – known as Beatrice – grew up in a family of inventors, creating her first invention at just six years old. And she didn’t stop there – she continued to invent throughout her adult life, including a new and improved sanitary pad in a time when there was still a big taboo around periods.

However, as an African American woman during a time of racial segregation, Beatrice faced injustice and discrimination when trying to get her inventions patented. But if anything, this spurred Beatrice on, and at one point in time she held the most patents of any African American woman.

Dr Julia and Dr Ella are joined by Professor Sharra Vostral and Ashleigh Coren as they tell Beatrice’s remarkable story.

Presenters: Dr Ella Hubber and Dr Julia Ravey Producers: Ella Hubber and Julia Ravey Assistant Producer: Sophie Ormiston Production Coordinator: Elisabeth Tuohy Editor: Holly Squire

Transcript

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0:00.0	You don't need us to tell you there's a general election coming.
0:04.6	So what does it mean for you?
0:06.4	Every day on newscast we dissect the big talking points,
0:10.1	the ones that you want to know more about.
0:12.3	With our book of contacts, we talk directly to the people you want to hear from.
0:16.8	And with help from some of the best BBC journalists,
0:19.4	we'll untangle the stories that matter to you.
0:23.0	Join me, Laura Kunsberg, Adam Fleming, Chris Mason and Patty O'Connell for our daily
0:28.3	podcast.
0:29.3	Newscast, listen on BBC Sounds.
0:40.0	On a quiet Sunday morning, a young woman excitedly watches a car pull up to her house in Washington, D.C. Two representatives from the healthcare company Sonnap Pac are here to buy her revolutionary idea.
0:47.0	As they walk up the path, her mind is racing.
0:50.0	She's dreaming of the castles and cars she can buy with the money from signing this contract.
0:55.0	She pulls the door open and sees the men's eyes widen in shock.
1:00.0	And it dawns on her in that moment that they didn't realize she was African American.
1:06.0	I'm Ella Hubbard and I'm Julia Ravi.
1:10.0	We both make science radio programs for the BBC, but before that we were scientists and these
1:15.8	are some of the stories that we wish we'd known.
1:19.2	This is unstoppable for discovery on the BBC World Service.
1:23.4	This week, Julia, I have a story for you all about period products
1:27.9	and how some of the most common products in the world today
1:30.6	were inspired by one African American woman and her incredible capacity to solve
	...

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