UNSUNG HISTORY
A podcast about people and events in American history you may not know much about. Yet.
Recent Episodes
Nov. 28, 2022
Single Irish Women & Domestic Service in late 19th Century New York C…
As many as two million Irish people relocated to North America during the Great Hunger in the mid-19th Century. Even after the fa…
Nov. 21, 2022
Keeping Secrets in the 1950s
Americans in the 1950s, yearning to return to normalcy after the Great Depression and World War II, got married, had lots of kids…
Nov. 14, 2022
Gordon Merrick
In 1970, writer Gordon Merrick published The Lord Won’t Mind , advertised as “the first homosexual novel with a happy ending,” hi…
Nov. 7, 2022
Elsie Robinson
As a girl born in 1883 to a family who couldn’t afford to send her to college, Elsie Robinson had limited options. To escape the …
Oct. 31, 2022
The Politics of Reproductive Rights in 1960s & 1970s New York
Prior to the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973, much of the focus of reproductive rights organizing in the US was done in the states, …
Oct. 24, 2022
The 1966 Division Street Uprising & the Puerto Rican community in Chi…
In 1966, Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley declared that the first week of June would be known as “Puerto Rican Week,” culminating i…
Oct. 17, 2022
Bert Corona
Labor leader and immigrant rights activist Bert Corona viewed Mexican Americans and Mexican immigrants in the United States, both…
Oct. 10, 2022
The Effect of the Mexican Revolution on Mexican Immigration to the U.…
The Mexican Revolution in the early 20th Century was a pivotal moment in Mexican history, and it was also a pivotal moment in Uni…
Oct. 3, 2022
Southwest Borderlands in the 19th Century
Through the 19th Century, the US-Mexico border moved repeatedly, and the shifting borderlands were a space of cultural and econom…
Sept. 26, 2022
The Pacific Coast Abortion Ring
In mid-1930s, pregnant women in cities in California, Oregon, and Washington could obtain safe surgical abortions in clean facili…
About the Host
Kelly Therese Pollock
Producer & Host
Kelly has always been the kind of person who asks questions — lots of questions — to anyone who will listen and answer. With a BA in Religious Studies from Northwestern University and an MA in Religious Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara (where she wrote a thesis on feminist witches), Kelly has turned her questioning to politics and history where she digs deep into stories that aren’t getting enough attention.
By day Kelly is an administrator at the University of Chicago, where she has worked since 2004.
Kelly lives on the southside of Chicago with her husband, two kids, and two cats. When she’s not podcasting or working you can find Kelly with knitting needles in her hands. If she could knit and podcast at the same time she would.