Women of Controversy: Pearl Curran
Womanica
Acast Creative Studios
4.3 • 920 Ratings
🗓️ 28 November 2024
⏱️ 9 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Pearl Curran (1883-1937) was an author. She claimed to serve as the medium for “Patience Worth,” a spirit she first contacted via a ouija board. The phenomenon spawned great public interest and later backlash, as a range of psychologists, journalists, and general readers speculated about Patience and Pearl. As Pearl’s commercial success as an author dwindled, she supported herself with traveling ouija board demonstrations.
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This month we're talking about women who found themselves at the center of controversy -- whether deserved or not.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey y'all. I'm Ashanti Golar, host of the Brown Girl's Guide to Politics. |
| 0:05.2 | The BGG is the one-stop shop for women of color who want to talk and shape the world of politics. |
| 0:13.0 | This season, we're getting deep into the details of Project 2025. |
| 0:18.7 | In 900-plus pages, it's proposing dramatic conservative changes to education, |
| 0:24.3 | health care, and foreign affairs. But underpinning it all is an entirely new vision for how |
| 0:31.1 | the government operates. And that could change everything. Thank you so much to our friends |
| 0:37.3 | at Way to Win for supporting us |
| 0:39.1 | and making this season possible. Listen to the Brown Girls Guide to Politics wherever you get your |
| 0:45.0 | podcast. Hello, from Wonder Media Network, I'm Jenny Kaplan, and this is Womanica. This month we're talking |
| 0:57.6 | about women who found themselves at the center of controversy, whether deserved or not. |
| 1:02.8 | Today, she brought a whole new meaning to the term ghostwriter. As the medium for patience, |
| 1:09.3 | a spirit from another century, she shared stories that garnered |
| 1:12.6 | literary fame, fandom, and the interest of more than a few psychoanalysts. |
| 1:17.6 | Let's see what you think of Pearl Curran. |
| 1:23.6 | Pearl Curran was born Pearl Pollard in Mound City, Illinois in 1883. |
| 1:32.3 | Pearl's father, George, worked for a railroad company, so her family moved around a lot. |
| 1:38.3 | This upset Pearl's mother, Mary. |
| 1:40.3 | She eventually broke down over the constant moves, and Pearl, then four years old, moved in with her grandmother in St. Louis, Missouri. |
| 1:48.9 | Pearl was a deeply creative child, telling stories to entertain her friends and family, and she was a gifted singer and piano player. |
| 1:57.1 | Her family wasn't wealthy, but they still supported Pearl's burgeoning talents with music and |
| 2:01.3 | voice lessons. When she was 13 years old, though, the chaos of her childhood, moving, |
| 2:07.6 | her mother's breakdown and being sent to live with her grandma, caught up with Little Pearl. |
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