Audrey Farley
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Articles by Audrey Farley
Zohran Mamdani’s Moral Revolution
On Election Day, Democrats across the country racked up a slew of impressive victories at the polls, with New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani seeming to garner the greatest excitement on cable news that night. “Did you see his speech?” a friend texted early Wednesday morning. “It was fire.” Having since watched said speech, the word that comes to mind is prophetic. To a room full of supporters, Mamdani essentially announced that the hour of the poor had arrived.
Zohran Mamdani's Moral Revolution
And this is where I worry that Mamdani may ultimately come up short. On the one hand, he is willing to sit down with his critics, even to change his mind about matters, such as the prudence of the slogan "Globalize the Intifada," which many Jews hear as a call to violence, even though it means something different to many pro-Palestinian activists. On the other, he seems to conceive of the "soul of a nation" too narrowly-too materially.
The Radical Family Experiment Designed to Save the World From Racism
In 1970, a charming, big-dreaming lawyer believed that he could solve the problem of racism in America. Bob Guterl and his wife would create a family like Noah’s Ark. They’d adopt “two of every race” and show the world that skin color didn’t matter. If at first this Biblically-inspired venture seemed swell, the picturesque family behind the white picket fence soon began to unravel.
Ready to Pitch Your Book? Don’t Sleep on Academic Presses
I was recently enjoying Timothy C. Baker’s Reading My Mother Back: A Memoir in Childhood Animal Stories, a spellbinding meditation on grief and narrative, when I flipped to the back cover and saw the book had been published by MIT Press in 2022. I was surprised because I had no idea that academic presses like MIT published memoirs. I first became familiar with university presses when I was a graduate student in English several moons ago.
‘Leaving is Never So Simple as Stepping Over a Line’ - A Conversation with the Author of ‘Rift,’ a New Memoir on Christian Patriarchy
Cait West’s insights could not be more urgent. At a time when conservative lawmakers and influencers idealize “tradwives” and vilify “childless cat ladies,” West draws from her experience as a survivor of the Christian patriarchy movement to expose the mythologies that sustain and reinforce it.
Right-Wing Influencers Are Fighting Over What It Means to Be White Original
The very-online trolls of the American right have made a habit of turning innocuous things into messages of hate. The “OK” hand gesture was ruined thus, as was a cartoon green frog. Now respectable Christians might think twice before saying aloud a simple tenet of their religion: “Christ is king.” They can blame Candace Owens.
✏️🛠️ How to Build Momentum and Suspense in Nonfiction Storytelling
Today’s special StoryCraft post is from Audrey Clare Farley, acclaimed nonfiction author and instructor of the upcoming Narratively Academy class, The Art of Writing a Nonfiction Book That Reads Like a Novel. (Just 4 seats left — sign up now!) In his craft book, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, the acclaimed novelist and short story writer offers this advice: “Always be escalating.” He goes on, “That’s all a story is, really: a continual system of escalation.
The Curious Case of the Socialite Who Sterilized Her Daughter
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Mike Johnson Is Not Your Run-of-the-Mill Christian Zionist
On October 28, in his first public appearance since being elected House speaker, Representative Mike Johnson told a crowd of Jewish Republicans, “God is not done with Israel.” He boasted that his first act as speaker was passing a pro-Israel resolution in spite of “no” votes from Representatives Rashida Tlaib, Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, and Ilhan Omar—which he chalked up to an “alarming trend of antisemitism” enabled by “academia and the mainstream media, and fringe government figures.” As...
Audiobook Review: ‘The Ghost Club,’ by Kate Winkler Dawson
Book Review|Audiobook of the Week: ‘The Ghost Club’ https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/18/books/review/kate-winkler-dawson-the-ghost-club.html Deciding what audiobook to listen to requires its own special calculus, related to but distinct from the factors we consider when picking a book off a shelf. From the Book Review’s own endless listening, we will select and review a different title each week, from a range of genres, to help you decide. See you next Friday. THE GHOST CLUB, by Kate Winkler Dawson.
How Audrey Clare Farley Rewrote the Story of the Genain Quadruplets
From the day they were born in Lansing, Michigan in 1930, the Morlok quadruplets belonged to other people. No sooner were their births announced in the Lansing State Journal than crowds began to gather outside the hospital, demanding to see them. Thousands wrote to the newspaper to suggest names. Their mother Sadie wanted to call them Jean, Jane, June, and Joan, but the nurses urged that the public should have their say.
Book World: What a set of identical quadruplets can teach us about mental illness
- - - In 1930, a family in Michigan experienced the unimaginable: A mother conceived and gave birth to identical quadruplets, all girls. As the Morlok sisters grew up, the outside world avidly watched. The quads appeared often in newspapers and newsreels, represented as sources of sweetness and light at a time when Shirley Temple was at her most famous and little kids were working overtime in popular culture to distract Americans from the dire consequences of the Great Depression.
NIMH’s It-girls: The Genain Quadruplets and the Whiteness of Psychiatry
Their picture graces countless textbooks, a haunting image of madness multiplied. Writing for Mad in America in 2019, Patrick Hahn called their case “a sad and sordid tale,” but also “the most celebrated” one in psychiatric genetics. The Genain quadruplets were a set of identical sisters diagnosed with schizophrenia in their twenties in the 1950s, catching the attention of researchers at the newly formed National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).
Girls and Their Monsters: The Genain Quadruplets and the Making of Madness in America
FORMAT Hardcover$29.00$26.97(English) Buy new or used from an indie through our partner Biblio: Price Condition Seller Description For readers of Hidden Valley Road and Patient H.M., an "intimate and compassionate portrait" (Grace M. Cho) of the Genain quadruplets, the harrowing violence they experienced, and its psychological and political consequences, from the author of The Unfit Heiress.
The Far Right’s Dangerous Fertility Myths
These days, it takes a lot for a right-wing influencer to break the internet with his misogyny. But podcaster Steven Crowder has pulled it off, dominating social media for over a week. The storm was provoked by Crowder’s announcement that his wife, Hilary, is divorcing him against his will. “In the state of Texas, that is completely permitted,” he vented on his Louder With Crowder channel, which boasts nearly six million subscribers.
Girls and Their Monsters: The Genain Quadruplets and the Making of Madness in America
Girls and Their Monsters: The Genain Quadruplets and the Making of Madness in America Farley (The Unfit Heiress), a history professor at Mount St. Mary’s University, skillfully recounts the tragic tale of the Morlok quadruplets, four siblings born in 1930 who largely lived in the public spotlight and privately battled severe mental health issues.
Ron DeSantis and His Christian Crusaders Are Stealing Trump’s Religious Thunder
“Donald Trump has to go,” conservative evangelical Everett Piper wrote for The Washington Times in November. “If he’s our nominee in 2024, we will get destroyed.” Some of her peers evidently agree.
The Anti-Abortion Movement Is More Conspiracy-Addled Than Ever
The “pro-life” movement has gone full groomer. Scroll the Twitter feed of the movement’s darling, Live Action founder Lila Rose, and you’ll find as many recent posts about the sexualization of children as you will see missives that are singularly about abortion.
Girls and Their Monsters: The Genain Quadruplets and the Making of Madness in America|Hardcover
English 1538724472 For readers of Hidden Valley Road and Patient H.M., a harrowing exploration of violence against children and its psychological and political consequences, from the author of The Unfit Heiress. In 1954, researchers at the newly formed National Institute of Mental Health set out to study the genetics of schizophrenia.
The Racist Roots of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Sex Scandal “Apocalypse”
“Apocalypse.” “A reality far more evil and systematic than I imagined it could be.” “The scale of malfeasance is truly shocking.” “The largest crisis of institutional religion in the United States.” “Bombshell.” These are just a few of the words that have been used to describe the recent revelations that the Southern Baptist Convention, or SBC—America’s largest Protestant denomination and a predominantly white one—is not only chock full of sexual abusers, but its leaders have systematically...
How the Southern Baptist Sex Abuse Revelations are Rooted in the Denomination's Racism
SOURCE: The New Republic 5/30/2022 Historians in the News tags: racism, sex abuse, evangelicals, Baptists, Southern Baptist Convention by Audrey Clare Farley Audrey Clare Farley is the author of the forthcoming book The Unfit Heiress: The Tragic Life and Scandalous Sterilization of Ann Cooper Hewitt.
The Life Coaches Fueling the “Ex-Evangelical” Movement
When Micah Murray was a teenager, he took a vow of purity and wore a ring to commemorate his pledge. Like millions of evangelical youth, he believed that if he remained chaste until his wedding day, God would bless him in marriage with out-of-this-world sex and much more. As a teenage “soldier for Christ,” he just as fervently opposed homosexuality and feminism. It wasn’t until he reached adulthood that he began to question if these religious beliefs were doing more harm than good in the world.
How Western Books About the Muslim World Fuel War and Retribution
Skip Navigation TNR_brand monogram_blackCritical Mass_wordmark_blackCritical Mass_wordmark alternate_black It didn’t take long after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan for nonfiction about captive or oppressed Muslim women to begin trending on Goodreads, nor for social media users to recommend such bestsellers as Betty Mahmoody’s Not Without My Daughter, Azar Nafisi’s Reading Lolita in Tehran, and Jean Sasson’s Princess trilogy for “insight into what’s happening in Afghanistan,” in the words...
Journalism Needs a Wider Scope on Religion
Ed Simon is co-editor of the anthology The God Beat: What Journalism Says about Faith and Why It Matters, which explores the New Religion Journalism movement—an offshoot of the New Journalism genre of the 1960s and ’70s that fused news writing with the storytelling techniques of novelists, memoirists, and poets. He discussed his book with Audrey Clare Farley, author of The Unfit Heiress: The Tragic Life and Scandalous Sterilization of Ann Cooper Hewitt.
The Exorcists Who Are Battling Black Lives Matter
In Elysburg, Pennsylvania, there is a Vatican-trained exorcist and professed expert on spiritual warfare, who lectures and tweets about the “demonic” forces of our times. It might surprise you to learn what these latter-day Regan MacNeils bedeviling our safe suburban homes are: Black Lives Matter, Marxism, critical race theory, intersectionality, and wokeness. And this cleric is not the only exorcist very publicly conflating the Evil One with the left, real and imagined.
The Eugenics Roots of Evangelical Family Values
Beth Moore is still making waves. On April 7, soon after announcing her departure from the Southern Baptist Convention, she took to Twitter to proclaim complementarianism “a doctrine of MAN” and to beg forgiveness for supporting the theology of male headship. “I could not see it for what it was until 2016,” she wrote.
How the Sinister Study of Eugenics Legitimized Forced Sterilization in the United States
In 1883, English intellectual Francis Galton coined the term eugenics (meaning “wellborn”) to advocate a selective breeding program among humans. Galton had long been bothered that his country was becoming overrun by wretched people who depended upon the charity of affluent families like his. After reading his cousin Charles Darwin’s book On the Origin of the Species, Galton determined to influence the evolution of human beings.
The Tragic Life and Scandalous Sterilization of Ann Cooper Hewitt
What does it mean to be “unfit” for motherhood? In the battle for reproductive rights, can we forgive the women who side against us? And can we forgive our mothers if they are the ones who inflict the deepest wounds? In 1934, aided by a California eugenics law, the socialite Maryon Cooper Hewitt had her “promiscuous” daughter declared feeble-minded and sterilized without her knowledge.
Eugenics, racism and the forced sterilization of heiress Ann Cooper Hewitt
White people can be collateral victims of white supremacy, as this notorious 1936 case over an inheritance shows Preparatory to their filing a $500,000 damage suit against the girl's mother, Mrs. Maryon Hewitt McCarter, two California physicians, and a psychiatrist, Miss Ann Cooper Hewitt, (right), and her attorney, Russel P. Tyler, are shown making final depositions. The charges claimed her mother and the doctors conspired to perform an operation rendering her sterile.
How One Woman’s Forced Sterilization Led to a Mayhem Charge and Exposed a Secret World of Medical Atrocities
In January 1936, twenty-one-year-old Ann Cooper Hewitt, the well-known San Francisco heiress, called a press conference alongside her attorney and announced that she was suing her mother, Maryon Cooper Hewitt. Ann claimed that she had been secretly sterilized at the behest of her mother, who paid two doctors to perform the procedure in order to prevent her from claiming an inheritance under her father’s estate.
Summary and Reviews of The Unfit Heiress by Audrey Farley
About This Book Summary Excerpt Book Summary For readers of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and The Phantom of Fifth Avenue, a page-turning drama of fortunes, eugenics and women's reproductive rights framed by the sordid court battle between Ann Cooper Hewitt and her socialite mother. At the turn of the twentieth century, American women began to reject Victorian propriety in favor of passion and livelihood outside the home.
Review | NetGalley
Review by Richard P, Reviewer Last updated on 15 Nov 2020 "The Unfit Heiress: The Tragic Life and Scandalous Sterilization of Ann Cooper Hewitt" is, at least for the first first half to two-thirds of its pages, an immersive and intriguingly written work of creative nonfiction that explores eugenics and women's reproductive rights framed by the then sordid court battle between heiress Ann Cooper Hewitt and her socialite mother.
Inside the Shocking 1930s Trial of Socialite Ann Cooper Hewitt Original
Bulbs flashed as the socialite, sporting rouge and fur, took her seat alongside her attorney, who had called a press conference in his San Francisco office. The image of the solemn-faced, perfectly coiffed twenty-one-year-old would appear in newspapers across the country. Some, like the New York Times, would print nearly 50 stories detailing the woman’s private life—her childhood, romantic relationships, spending habits, even the lingerie she was wearing.
April’s Best Nonfiction Crime Books
CrimeReads editors select the month’s best new nonfiction crime books. * The Twelve Lives of Alfred Hitchcock: An Anatomy of the Master of Suspense By Edward White (W.W. Norton & Co.) White’s study of Hitchcock is an endlessly engaging and insightful read, breaking down the Master of Suspense’s life into twelve aspects, each illuminated with clever analysis of the director’s work.
How America’s ‘Bootstraps’ Myth Hurts Farmers - And All of Us
On March 25, the Biden Administration announced plans to redress systemic racism within the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which is known to many Black farmers as “the last plantation” for its discriminatory lending and regulatory practices and high incidence of civil rights violations. Tom Vilsack, the agency’s secretary, vowed to reverse the century-long pattern that has contributed to the number of Black-owned farms dwindling from about one million in 1920 to approximately 40,000 today.
The Post-Trump Crack-Up of the Evangelical Community
In 2017, beloved Bible teacher and evangelical personality Beth Moore had the chance to meet a theologian she’d long admired. As she later recounted on her blog, she was eager to share a meal with the iconic figure, left unnamed in her recounting, and talk about scripture. That encounter proved to be memorable, though not for the reasons that Moore, often called a “Southern belle,” imagined.
How Christian Schools and Homeschooling Teach Supremacist Conspiracies
The Christian schooling and homeschooling environment is an established breeding ground for the far-right white supremacist conspiracies undergirding QAnon. QAnon and other conspiracy theories are gaining ground.
The right wing's animosity towards the Black church is revealed in Kelly Loeffler's seedy campaign: historian
Despite their professed commitments to religious freedom, Republicans often find themselves attacking people whose faith doesn't conform to the dominant views in the white evangelical community. This tendency has been on display in the campaign against Rev. Raphael Warnock, who is trying to unseat incumbent Sen. Kelly Loeffler in one of two U.S. Senate runoffs in Georgia.
The Conservative War Against the Black Church
On December 12, two days before the electoral college confirmed President-elect Joe Biden’s win, Trump supporters gathered in Washington for a “Jericho March,” a prayer walk inspired by the Old Testament Israelites.
When Cops Kill White People, Black Lives Still Matter
On August 10, 2016, Tony Timpa, a 32-year-old white businessman, called the police, claiming he needed help. As Timpa told the dispatcher, he had recently stopped taking his medication for schizophrenia and depression, had consumed drugs, and was afraid for his safety. Officers arrived on the scene outside a Dallas porn shop, where a private security guard had already handcuffed Timpa. While Timpa never threatened officers on the scene or resisted arrest, he acted erratically.
When Cops Kill White People, Black Lives Still Matter
On August 10, 2016, Tony Timpa, a 32-year-old white businessman, called the police, claiming he needed help. As Timpa told the dispatcher, he had recently stopped taking his medication for schizophrenia and depression, had consumed drugs, and was afraid for his safety. Officers arrived on the scene outside a Dallas porn shop, where a private security guard had already handcuffed Timpa. While Timpa never threatened officers on the scene or resisted arrest, he acted erratically.
Big Pharma’s Got a Brand New Coronavirus Grift
With each passing day, the federal government’s pathetic response to the coronavirus pandemic becomes more and more outlandish. We have never seriously tried to implement a federal testing and tracing effort that might slow the virus’ rampages. We have forced workers to choose between risking their lives at work and feeding their kids—and for those locked out of that impossible choice, good luck getting unemployment even if you qualify.
Rep. Klunk must not defend the status quo
OPINION Audrey Farley Published 10:10 a.m. ET June 4, 2020 Rep. Kate Klunk, R-Hanover. (Photo: File) On Monday, Rep. Kate Klunk (R-169) joined community leaders at the Hanover YWCA to honor George Floyd, who was brutally murdered by a police officer in Minnesota last week.
The Nonprofit Grifters Who Want a Cut of the Coronavirus Bailout
On April 14, a mask-wearing mother sat in the near-empty gallery of the Minnesota Legislature and prayed. Nicole Smith-Holt was there to advocate for the Alec Smith Emergency Insulin Act, named in honor of her son, who died three years ago at the age of 26 as a result of having to ration the costly medication he needed to live.
The apocalyptic ideas influencing Pence and Pompeo could also power the left
Vice President Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo toast during a reception for Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis at the State Department on Jan. 8. (Cliff Owen/AP) Are doomsday prophesies influencing decisions in the Trump administration - or at least how they get explained? The answer seems to be a clear yes. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, a longtime evangelical, drew upon the Book of Revelations to defend the Trump administration's drone-strike assassination of Iranian Maj. Gen.
How a disinformation campaign wiped out synthetic insulin’s deadly effects
VIALS. Header photo by Novo Nordisk In 1994, eight-year-old Zoe Burbridge went to bed in the town of Northampton, England, and never woke up. In 2002, 15-year-old Selina Trapp, from Derby, also in the United Kingdom, died in her sleep. Two years earlier, an American, 49-year-old Susan Mescher from Lexington, Michigan, had slumped over in the shower, never to regain consciousness. These individuals were just a few of the hundreds of diabetics who suddenly died between 1983 and 2002.
How a disinformation campaign wiped out synthetic insulin’s deadly effects
In 1994, eight-year-old Zoe Burbridge went to bed in the town of Northampton, England, and never woke up. In 2002, 15-year-old Selina Trapp, from Derby, also in the United Kingdom, died in her sleep. Two years earlier, an American, 49-year-old Susan Mescher from Lexington, Michigan, had slumped over in the shower, never to regain consciousness. These individuals were just a few of the hundreds of diabetics who suddenly died between 1983 and 2002.
A âbreakthroughâ and then a nightmare; the introduction of biosynthetic insulin
This article was first published on 14th January 2020 as part of our Disinformation channel. In 1994, eight-year-old Zoe Burbridge went to bed in the town of Northampton, England, and never woke up. In 2002, 15-year-old Selina Trapp, from Derby, also in the United Kingdom, died in her sleep. Two years earlier, an American, 49-year-old Susan Mescher from Lexington, Michigan, had slumped over in the shower, never to regain consciousness.
The Toxic Nationalism of the Pharmaceutical Industry
The Toxic Nationalism of the Pharmaceutical Industry Big Pharma has a long and checkered history deploying racist and xenophobic tropes to protect their profits.
The Toxic Nationalism of the Pharmaceutical Industry
A few years after 9/11, while the United States was at war with Iraq and fears about national security were at a fever pitch, the drug industry embarked on a short-lived literary venture. At the behest of a consultant, executives at the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) commissioned ghostwriters to pen a pulp fiction novel about Islamic terrorists using biological warfare against the American public.
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