How Women Can Shake Empires | TMT 176

Summary

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Too Many Tabs with Pearlmania500

Ep. 176: How Women Can Shake Empires

Released: May 10, 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode dives into the fascinating, under-discussed history and real-world tactics of women spies—"lady spies"—and the ways women have wielded secrecy, subtlety, and social intelligence to upend empires, evade oppressive forces, and protect their communities. The hosts—a husband and wife duo—take listeners on a whip-smart, irreverent journey from contemporary examples of women outsmarting ICE agents to the unknown heroines of World War I espionage, highlighting repeated historical patterns: women can keep secrets, men can’t shut up, and a well-placed “honeypot” has always been an effective weapon.

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Key Discussion Points

1. The Modern Honeypot: Tinder vs. ICE in Minneapolis

(Start: 02:20)

• Lady spies, modern edition: Minneapolis women uncover ICE agents on Tinder and use flirtation to gather operational details—locations, future raids, even videos—then share intel with advocacy groups.

• Men’s inability to keep secrets: The hosts state that, unlike male spies who need to boast (see: James Bond/Bourne), these ICE agents immediately brag about their real-life “missions” to any woman showing interest.

• Key quote:

  “These dumbasses could not keep their mouth shut at all... They even sent videos of themselves doing raids, strategies, and more. And I’m assuming also sent dick pics in between all this.” —Mrs. P [06:42]

• Social media as operational risk: It falls apart when a man, Will Stancil, brags online about the operation, exposing the women and ending the ruse ("He basically blew the entire op... because he wanted Internet likes." —Co-host [12:58]).

• The pattern: Men, even on the "good side," can't resist taking credit or getting attention—often at the expense of the mission.

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2. Historical Precedents: Why Women Make the Best Spies

(Start: 21:12)

• MI5’s Boy Scout debacle (WWI): British intelligence tries using Boy Scouts as child spies; it fails because the boys can’t keep secrets and crave attention.
• Switch to Girl Guides:

  “Boy Scouts were found to be ineffective, overly boisterous, and too talkative.” —Mrs. P [23:10] "Girls can be trusted better than boys not to talk." —MI5, quoting Robert Baden-Powell [24:03]

• The Girl Guides excel: Trusted with memorizing classified messages, delivering intel by hand, and not blabbing (unlike their male counterparts who get fired en masse for “feckless and noisy” behavior).

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3. Badass Women of Espionage

A. Louise Marie de Bettignies—"The Queen of Spies"

(Start: 30:15)

• WWI, French-British spy: Ingeniously used lemon juice invisible ink on petticoats to smuggle messages.
• Led The Alice Network: Orchestrated a 100-person intel ring saving thousands of soldiers’ lives ("Network saved more than a thousand British soldiers…" [33:54]).
• Foiled German plans repeatedly: Provided maps for bombing hidden artillery, reported on Kaiser's visits, and sowed chaos among German forces (“She had a 40 kilometer radius of hell. She was one lady.” —Commentator [36:36]).
• Tragic end: Arrested, forced into labor, and died in captivity; later awarded top honors posthumously.

B. Gabrielle Petit—Catholic Spy and Martyr

(Start: 40:37)

• From working-class Belgian roots: Volunteered for Red Cross, then became a spy.
• Direct action: Helped move soldiers, passed info, spread illegal newspapers, and ran an underground mail service.
• Captured, kept her silence:

  “Gabrielle refused to reveal the identities of her fellow agents, despite repeated offers for amnesty.” —Mrs. P [43:04]

• Executed by firing squad after defiant last words:

  “I will show them that a Belgian woman knows how to die. Long live the King of Belgium.” —Gabrielle Petit [44:28]

• Legacy: First statue of a working-class woman in Brussels.

C. Mata Hari—Icon, Performer, Scapegoat

(Start: 47:34)

• Dutch dancer, self-mythologizer: Reinvented herself as “exotic” (falsely claimed Hindu descent) and rose to fame in Paris.
• Courtesan and socialite: Networked with politicians, generals, and royalty across Europe; by WWI, her cross-border freedom attracted intelligence services.
• Spy games: French agents recruited her, believing she’d seduce the German Crown Prince. Instead, she provided little of value and became a convenient scapegoat.
• Set up and executed: Germans deliberately leaked her identity; French used her as a scapegoat for military losses, mounting a show trial.

  “Having one German spy, AKA the Mata Hari, to blame for everything that went wrong in the war was convenient for the French government.” —Mrs. P [74:19]

• Final moment: Mata Hari refused a blindfold, blew a kiss at her firing squad [79:06].

  “She did live.” —Mrs. P [79:14]

• Posthumous doubt: MI5’s released documents reveal she likely wasn't the master spy portrayed.

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4. Gender, Secrets & Societal Dynamics

(Throughout, esp. 02:04, 23:32, 24:38)

• Men vs. Women in Espionage:

  • Men’s need for validation leads to leaks, blunders, or seeking credit.
  • Women more adept at "doing the work, getting the result, but not seeking the glory" (see: Girl Guides, ICE Tinder sting, historic spies).

• Notable quote:

  “It’s interpersonal versus intrapersonal. The community, the household over yourself—the same way of thinking about the nation over your own glory.” —Co-host [24:38]

• Scapegoating and patriarchy: Societies repeatedly blame women for systemic failures (see Mata Hari, Eve/apple, modern politics).

  “We blame Eve for the apple. We don't blame Adam for biting it.” —Co-host [77:23]

• Online parallels:

  • Women still conduct secret ops ("honeytraps")—tech just scales it up.
  • Men still can’t resist attention, praise, and end up spilling secrets (ICE agents, Will Stancil).
  • Gendered patterns persist into digital age.

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5. Humor, Meta-Commentary, and Self-Reflection

(Woven throughout)

• Hosts openly highlight their own banter, bemoan the podcast microphone phenomenon among men, and riff on their own quirks [03:05, 18:06, 18:15].
• Sidetracks on Grindr, the "Gay Tech Mafia," and the cultural context of “exoticism” in Western history (esp. in the Mata Hari segment).
• Merch/dad jokes: “All these different things” could be a catchphrase.
• Repeated meta-notes about how men need to be reviewed (“find somebody in your life to review your posts before you hit send” —Guest [14:19]).
• Hilarious segment on modern romantic scams and dads being susceptible, leading to the poignant:

  "I've straight up looked my parents in the face and I told my dad that he's not allowed to outlive my mom." —Co-host [09:21]

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Notable Quotes & Key Timestamps

• [03:05] “We should take all the podcast microphones away from men.” —Co-host
• [06:13] “They doxed ICE by just asking how your day was.” —Co-host
• [24:03] “Girls can be trusted better than boys not to talk.” —Robert Baden-Powell (via Mrs. P)
• [36:36] “She had a 40 kilometer radius of hell. She was one lady.” —Guest
• [44:28] “I will show them that a Belgian woman knows how to die. Long live the King of Belgium.” —Gabrielle Petit (via Mrs. P)
• [79:06] “She defiantly blew a kiss at the firing squad before they shot her.” —Mrs. P (on Mata Hari)
• [77:23] “We blame Eve for the apple. We don’t blame Adam for biting it.” —Co-host

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Structural Outline with Timestamps

• [00:59–02:04] Opening banter; framing of men vs. women in espionage
• [03:00–07:47] ICE agent Tinder stings in Minneapolis
• [09:00–16:31] Discussion of how men can’t keep secrets—historic and present
• [21:12–29:15] Historic pivot: Boy Scouts ousted for Girl Guides in MI5
• [30:15–39:46] The Queen of Spies: Louise Marie de Bettignies and The Alice Network
• [40:37–45:56] Gabrielle Petit: Catholic department store girl turned spy-hero
• [47:34–80:55] The Mata Hari Myth: Origins, career, set-up, execution, and posthumous reappraisal
• [81:04–82:28] Conclusions on gender and espionage; lessons and modern parallels

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Tone & Style Notes

• Smart, irreverent, rolling banter: Hosts poke fun at themselves, each other, and their subjects ("Shut up, men" as a refrain).
• Historically grounded but accessible: They present little-known facts alongside laugh-out-loud contemporary asides.
• Empathetic, sometimes poignant: Keen awareness of gendered injustice and patterns of scapegoating throughout history and today.
• Real talk for the modern listener: Frequent connects to current U.S. events, social media, and internet culture.

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For New Listeners

If you haven’t heard the episode, this is a wild ride through history, busting open secret societies, daring real-life exploits, and pattern-spotting the perennial gap between genders when it comes to keeping secrets, wielding power, and shaping (or shaking) empires. The tales of Alice, Gabrielle Petit, and Mata Hari offer both entertainment and a cautionary tale about who gets remembered, who gets blamed, and who really gets things done.

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Want more ad-free content and bonus episodes?
Check out Pearlmania500’s Patreon for behind-the-scenes, live show updates, and a supportive community of Too Many Tabs fans.

(“Remember to smile.”)

Transcript

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[Mrs. P]

Wayfair Every style, every home.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Lady spies. We don't really talk about them a lot. You know why? Because they can keep secrets. Men spies, they need to boast. James Bond, Jason Bourne, Dunn. Done. But what about lady spies? The ones who know how to hold a secret close and to make sure that they can keep the operation going? Well, we found the one woman on earth who is willing to talk about lady spies, and she sits right next to me. It's Mrs. Bromany.

[Guest or additional male commentator]

On today's episode of Too Many Times.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Remember to smile. Welcome to Too Many Tabs, a podcast where a husband and wife duo sit next to each other at a table. You did that with me.

[Mrs. P]

It's one table.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

It is one table.

[Mrs. P]

Glued it together.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah. Ignore the fact that you can separate it.

[Mrs. P]

Glued it together.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Okay, so today. Today we have a very special episode because I've been in the corner slowly disassociating while seeing things like, I don't know, a billion dollar ballroom.

[Mrs. P]

And you have been doing a job at opening the taps.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Oh, yeah. And what are the tabs about this week, my dear?

[Mrs. P]

The tabs are about lady spies and the men that ruin everything.

[Guest or additional male commentator]

Oh, okay.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Okay. I can already feel it. I can already feel it. So this is about lady spies.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah. And the men that ruin it.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Okay. Lady spies.

[Mrs. P]

The men that ruin it.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Okay, all right. Okay. I'm going to do a Hashtag not

[Mrs. P]

all men that ruin it, don't you?

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Hashtag damn.

[Mrs. P]

I thought I could try it because I think. Here's the thing, okay. The boys be talking. I need to shut it.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

You know what? It's so crazy because I remember. So when I was a kid in middle school. You went to a Catholic school.

[Mrs. P]

Yes.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

You did not have TVs in your classrooms, right?

[Mrs. P]

Yeah, we did.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

No, they had to wheel them in, though.

[Mrs. P]

We had both.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Oh, you had the ones up on the wall.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Okay. Because we had the ones up on the wall, too. And I remember this one kid brought in a remote one day. He got a universal remote. He figured out exactly what they were all like, Mitsubishi TVs.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

So he figured out, like, the code for Mitsubishi and then he would, like, turn it on during stuff.

[Guest or additional male commentator]

And.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

And the thing is, he's got away with it for, like, almost a full day.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

But then he started telling people because he couldn't. And that's the thing. Men can't.

[Guest or additional male commentator]

Shut the fuck up.

[Mrs. P]

Shut up.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

It's.

[Mrs. P]

They all have podcasts.

[Guest or additional male commentator]

100%.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

We should take all the podcast microphones away from men.

[Mrs. P]

You can have one just because I'm here.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

That's a hunt. That's.

[Mrs. P]

You're my co host.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

It's literally the reason why this podcast does well is because you're sitting to the side telling me to be quiet about specific topics all the time.

[Mrs. P]

Okay. So recently in Minneapolis.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Minneapolis.

[Mrs. P]

This is allegedly because you're not going to catch me. Me saying anything that could get my gals in trouble.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Okay, got it.

[Mrs. P]

Some very smart and incredible women have. Were secretly banded together to use Tinder as a honey trap for ICE agents that are terrorizing their families, friends and neighbors.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Wait, so when ice. And they still are there. Yeah, but ice, the Immigration Custom Enforcement. Those masks. Buffoons.

[Mrs. P]

Yes.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Were running around literally slipping on ice. And we'll put in a video of a fall down. Yeah. Women were on Tinder.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Just like, like, like reaching out to them.

[Mrs. P]

Okay, so we got 4,000 some stir crazy Proud Boys. I'm sorry, ICE agents.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

ICE agents. Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

Who, when they got to Minneapolis, decided to log into their Tinder accounts or activate their Tinder accounts to meet local gals. And this, to me, is an incredibly nutso like concept because these dudes are out in the streets committing hate crimes, kidnapping children, murdering people. Murdering people in the street. And then they get back to their hotel room at night and they're like, I'm.

[Guest or additional male commentator]

There's a loneliness epidemic in men.

[Mrs. P]

It's because their faults.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Okay, but if you mock the male loneliness epidemic, you're just gonna make the men into Nazi fascists.

[Mrs. P]

They're already Nazi fascists.

[Guest or additional male commentator]

Okay, but don't use your woman logic, okay?

[Mrs. P]

Woman logic? Is this whole episode.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Oh, no.

[Mrs. P]

And also men ruining it.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Oh, no. But, babe, how are we ever gonna get sponsored by bluechew now?

[Mrs. P]

We're not.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Oh, my dream. The boyhood dream.

[Mrs. P]

Because a no is a no forever.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah, I know.

[Mrs. P]

So listen, they're lonely in their hotel rooms.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Who's they?

[Mrs. P]

The ice agents.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Ice agents.

[Mrs. P]

They're lonely in their hotel rooms. And of course, there's people outside with horns, honking horns, not letting them sleep, which is incredible.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

There was a video of ice agents, like, people being outside, honking horns. And the ice agents moon them.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

And I was like, you're literally showing your ass.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

That's crazy.

[Mrs. P]

Gross.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

I know. Okay, so these guys are. I mean, I've been on the road, I've been on tours. I'm on a tour right now. Crashing out tour.com. find out more information. But what I'm saying, though, is. So they're just sitting there, they're alone, they're like, I wonder if any ladies want to see pictures of me holding a big fish.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah, no, but literally that. Literally that. And so here's what's happening. A bunch of local ladies noticed on their Tinders that a bunch of guy douchebags from out of town with fish pictures are like, oh, we're in town for business. And, like, some of their pictures would have, like, a Punisher sticker or some of that shit.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

You know, the shit that would be a thin line. I'm apolitical, not really into politics.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And so they used context clues because women are fucking smart. And they decided to start matching with them and stringing them along in conversations to get intel to share with advocacy groups across Minneapolis.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

They doxed ice by just asking how your day was.

[Mrs. P]

Literally? Yes. Literally, yes.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Some guy's sitting there and he's just like, fuck, dude. They don't get Spike TV on this channels anymore.

[Guest or additional male commentator]

Is Spike TV still.

[Mrs. P]

I don't know. I don't use TVs.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

I know we don't have cable, but I'm just sitting there just like, ugh. Damn it.

[Guest or additional male commentator]

There's no new episode until Rogan.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Oh, this lady asked how my day was. Pretty good. Just ruined a family and terrorized the neighborhood.

[Guest or additional male commentator]

What's up with you?

[Mrs. P]

Yeah, no. Okay, so here's the shocking part. That's not shocking. These dumbasses could not keep their mouth shut at all. And they immediately started bragging about what they were doing all day. They gave up all the information about what hotels they were staying in, the raids that they were doing. They even sent videos of themselves doing raids, plans about future raids. They openly confessed to bad acts, strategies, and more. And I'm assuming also sent dick pics in between all this.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

So the ICE agents are just straight up dropping oppo research files on themselves?

[Mrs. P]

Yes, because any type of attention from a woman, they're like, okay, well, you know what? I do?

[Hershey's Advertiser]

I'm cool. I'm.

[Mrs. P]

I'm strong and brave.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Okay.

[Mrs. P]

And then these women are pretending to be interested in being like, oh, my God, that's so cool.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

The other part of it.

[Mrs. P]

Tell me about your.

[Guest or additional male commentator]

Oh, my God.

[Mrs. P]

Wait, what? I am so pro ICE these illegal immigrants. You should send me. What else is going on? Are you okay? You're so brave. And then they, of course, just lay it out all the line. Because they're idiots.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah, sure. Here's my. So here's my whole Social Security number, too.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

This is how, like, literally every scam works. This is incredible.

[Mrs. P]

This is why strippers are rich. No, I'm really interested in you.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah. Yeah. High five. The. I am. So none of this, like, none of this is shocking, but the fact that an app brought it to scale.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Because this is, like, historically a thing that people do.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah, we're going to get into that.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Okay, we'll get it.

[Mrs. P]

We'll get into that. Yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Because this. But back in the day, it was pillow talk.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

You had to at least, like, have dinner with them.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

They're not even having dinner.

[Mrs. P]

They're not getting the meal.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

In theory, you could do this with AI. You could do this with fake.

[Mrs. P]

That's happening right now.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

No, there is. There's a guy. Did you hear about the. The guy from India?

[Mrs. P]

No.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

There's a guy from India. He made two different accounts.

[Mrs. P]

Okay.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

He made a big titty blonde woman who wears, like, American flag bikinis.

[Mrs. P]

Sure.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Blonde hair, MAGA hat.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

And he just started scamming people on Facebook for sure. But then he tried to make one that was left coded.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Right. That was, like, more aimed at, like, Democrats and stuff like that. Nobody fell for it. He was like, they don't. They don't fall for it.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

They leave their house. Well, and that was, like, kind of where it was. He was like. But the MAGA ones, they're like, oh, thank you so much, young lady.

[Mrs. P]

Older Boomer Guys will fall for a Facebook scam. Easy.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah. They're like, oh, my God, you're a Christian. I need to salute you with my Venmo.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah. Oh, no, you need a train ticket to come visit me. Oh, no, your train ticket got canceled and now you need a plane ticket. Oh, no, the Spirit Airlines ticket. You and does is invaluable anymore because

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Spirit Airlines went under and you can't

[Mrs. P]

do another thousand dollars. Can I tell you cryptocurrency?

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah. So I used to work at a bank. This is such a common story for like sad old men. I've straight up looked my parents in the face and I told my dad that he's not allowed to outlive my mom.

[Mrs. P]

No, he's going to fall for it.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

I'm like, you'll fall for it instantly. He doesn't like being alone. And the same thing with these. Not to compare my dad to an ICE agent, but when you're alone, when you're a dude and you're alone, you're like, I'm lonely. You just start reaching out to.

[Guest or additional male commentator]

I texted a friend I hadn't Talked

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

to in 10 years the other day. You know why? Because I was in New York doing a sold out show. And afterwards I was like, well, it's like 11 o'. Clock. But I guess on the, on the west coast it's like, do math. Yeah, I can text them. It's still early enough.

[Guest or additional male commentator]

So I reached out to somebody and talked to. In 10 years.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Guest or additional male commentator]

Yeah. They're like, oh, how am I?

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Do you have kids now?

[Guest or additional male commentator]

Like, yeah. And we share pictures of our kids.

[Mrs. P]

That's nice.

[Guest or additional male commentator]

I hope it's the same number. What if they change their number?

[Mrs. P]

Stranger.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

I just doxed myself completely. That's just funny that you can do.

[Mrs. P]

So these ICE agents expose a ton of operational information. They give it to any woman who'd pretend to be impressed. Any woman.

[Guest or additional male commentator]

No. I really like your gator. I really like the mask you wear and I really you.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Wraparound shades. They're so cool.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah. No, I don't think your hairline is receding.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

No, I think you.

[Mrs. P]

I think you look good for you. You don't have to pull off bald.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

You don't have to go to Turkey. Everyone else does.

[Mrs. P]

As a final act, 5, 3 is huge. 4 inches is huge. As a final act, some of the women allegedly again, because I'm never going to say anything that would get my girlies in trouble. These women allegedly found track the men that they were finding on these apps down on their like, Facebook pages and Instagram and then sent their wives back home in, like, fucking Texas and Arizona. Screenshots of the message history showing them that their husbands turned on Tinder while they were out of state and that they were talking to girly pops and sending dick pics.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Can I tell you the best part is, like, this is these guys view it as like, I was deployed.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

I was deployed to the battlefield of St. Paul, Minneapolis, St. Paul, the Twin Cities.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

I had to go out there and go against these invaders. And they pretend like they're World War II soldiers.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

And there's like. There's a long history of soldiers going over different places and all of this type of stuff happening and worse. But before, someone would have to write a letter.

[Guest or additional male commentator]

Yeah, they don't have to write a letter.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

They just go, well, I use the same fucking profile name. Jesus Christ. All right, let me just do Google image search.

[Guest or additional male commentator]

That's it. You use the same profile pic.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Guest or additional male commentator]

As your Instagram.

[Mrs. P]

It's literally their wedding picture. But they cut their wife out. And the only picture they have, the only good picture. That's why men don't have friends. They don't take pictures, and they don't

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

have wives that will look at them and say, no, we should go get new professional pictures done because you look different than you did 10 years ago.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

This is literally one of the reasons, like, I wouldn't have new headshots done.

[Mrs. P]

So we have these awesome women who are using the tools they have in front of them to find a hidden way to gather intel to help the cause and advocate for their community. And this could have gone on forever.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

And this could have spread to other cities where this is happening. And fingers crossed, subtly. Fingers crossed subtly. It's still happening. We, you know, I assume that this is happening, but of course, it got fucked up because guess what? A man got involved.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

A man got involved.

[Mrs. P]

And not ICE Agent man, a Democrat man got involved in what these women were doing. And here's what he did. He decided he was going to take credit for what they were doing. What a shock. What a fucking shock. He's going to take credit for their work, of course, and then he's going to actually ruin it by talking too much and not shutting the fuck up.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Okay, so he basically blew the entire op. Yeah, he just. Because he wanted. He wanted Internet likes, I'm guessing.

[Mrs. P]

No, but literally.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Literally.

[Mrs. P]

Former Democratic candidate Will Stancel.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Okay, shut the fuck up. No, no, no, no. Oh, my God. Will fucking Stancel.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Okay, give me a second.

[Mrs. P]

Go ahead.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

I got to. Just give me a second. I'm giving it to you, folks, if you've never heard the name Will Stancil, you're doing great. You're doing amazing. Will Stancil is an, at this point, basically an Internet personality who has fought with virtually everyone on Twitter to the point where he then moved over to Blue Sky. This was the post from Blue Sky.

[Mrs. P]

I believe it was on Blue Sky.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

God damn it. Anyway, Will Stancil has had moments of where he's one of those guys where it's like 80% of the time you're like, okay, dude, whatever. But then as he starts arguing with people, he just won't shut the fuck up. I think this dude posts, like, I want to say, like, 50 times a day.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

He's just. There's so many people online, I realize, like, the Will stance of the world,

[Guest or additional male commentator]

even like, Hasan Piker.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

I like Hasan Piker for the most part.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Guest or additional male commentator]

But I'm like, eight hours a day, six days a week on Twitch.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

That's too much content, dude. Fudgeing.

[Guest or additional male commentator]

Have somebody in your life who goes, you know what? You know what?

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Maybe that. Maybe that genius idea stays. Stays in the draft.

[Mrs. P]

Lock it up.

[Guest or additional male commentator]

Find somebody in your life who maybe reviews the post before you hit send. Because you.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

You write something that you think is aimed at one group, but a different group reads it completely differently.

[Guest or additional male commentator]

That's what you need. So at least.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

At least one.

[Guest or additional male commentator]

Do you think this is not the

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

only woman in my what Life that I run content past. I'm like, no.

[Mrs. P]

Team of us.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

There's a team of women.

[Mrs. P]

Team of women.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

There's a team of women that I'm like, what do you think about this one? They're like, oh, Jesus, delete that.

[Mrs. P]

That's going to read me for having to read it.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah. Is your next comedy special going to be called Triggered? Like, no. And this is why I'll never be on Netflix. But the Will stencil is. He is just fucking annoying.

[Mrs. P]

So he gets on the Internet and he starts talking about this amazing work, that quote he was a part of and outed the entire honeypot operation again, putting all of these women at risk, talking about what they were doing behind the scenes.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

I just want to say a straight man like Will Stancil is not part of a honey pot. No, he can't be. He doesn't know how to talk to someone in a way that actually would engage them enough to want to keep talking to him. The most times when I see Will Stancil, And I see his name. It's because people, like, shut the fuck up. And it's from, like, all sides. It's from all sides. And, like, there's times where I'm like, okay, well, that point makes sense. I blocked him and unblocked him repeatedly. Because during all of this stuff with Ice.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

There was moments where he was out in the street.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah. He was, like, following them around in a car.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

He was chasing around. He was blowing whistles. He was a part of this because he lives in Minneapolis, St. Paul area. He's in Minnesota. There are parts of that. And that should be lauded to a degree. But this is just fucking dumb. And this is part of the problem with the Internet and.

[Guest or additional male commentator]

Exactly. We were saying earlier, this is the remote with the TV all over again.

[Mrs. P]

So then, you know what I was thinking is that, like, if there were men to get involved in this situation, in this honeypot situation, it would be to use the same idea on Grindr. Like, here's the thing. We all know that Grindr crashes at the RNC and Turning Point events every fudgeing year.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

And yet we never hear about it. So now I'm like, are these men my allies? Because the girly pops are out here taking one for the team. Are. But how come we never hear from the boys on Grindr about what's going on?

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

There was an article, actually about the tech gay Mafia.

[Mrs. P]

Oh, okay.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah, I didn't read it. I just remember seeing. I didn't read it.

[Mrs. P]

That's so Internet. I saw the headline.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

I. No, no, no.

[Guest or additional male commentator]

I saw something.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

I saw the COVID Oh, the COVID is crazy. Actually, you know what? I'm going to break the fourth wall here, and I'm going to pull it up. Let me get my keyboard.

[Mrs. P]

No, my keyboard.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

I got to get the keyboard.

[Mrs. P]

He's got to get his keyboard. There's five mice on the table. And by that, I mean computer mice.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah. There's too many. Because that's how you get Gay Mafia cover.

[Mrs. P]

Okay, okay. Google brings up.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Let's go. It's. It's right here. Look at this. Oh, look at that.

[Guest or additional male commentator]

Yeah, that's a crazy.

[Mrs. P]

Came to our house.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah. Did it?

[Mrs. P]

Yeah. We get Wired magazine.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

We used to.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

I switched bank accounts and I didn't know how to fix it. I couldn't find my login. So, yeah, this. This cover, which, for the audio listeners, it says Wired. It says members only. The sub headline is Inside the Gay Tech Mafia. And then it's clearly two white men

[Mrs. P]

at the belt line shaking hands. But the hands are coming out of the fly zipper. So it looks like penises.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah, it looks like penises. Give it a shake.

[Mrs. P]

Wearing an Apple watch with a gay pride flag.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

100%. But, yeah, this is inside the gay tech mafia, because there is, like, a subsect in there of, like, Peter Thiel is gay.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

And he was part of the PayPal mafia.

[Mrs. P]

Yep.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

And there's. There's all of this type of setting with it. I keep catching myself on one of my two podcasts.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

This one we're crashing out. Somebody pointed out I said all these different things a lot.

[Mrs. P]

Say it a lot. Yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Do I say it a lot?

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

You've never called me out on it. I mean, somebody said in the comments, and now I can't. I keep catching myself about to say it.

[Mrs. P]

Just say it. Who cares?

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

I don't know.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

I refuse. Why?

[Mrs. P]

It's like your little catchphrase.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

I didn't want. I didn't know I had a catchphrase.

[Mrs. P]

Oh, okay.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah. All these different things.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah. It's like a way that you elaborate many things.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

If I had a catchphrase this entire time.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Why didn't you make it into merch?

[Mrs. P]

Because it doesn't really make sense.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Okay.

[Mrs. P]

Not yet. It'll come.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

It'll come around.

[Mrs. P]

So listen.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

Anyway, if the boys are over on Grindr and they're doing this, I'll keep a secret. I'm going to assume they're doing it right.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Maybe there's been a whole thing, though, about outing people.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Guest or additional male commentator]

You don't.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

That's the whole thing in the Grinder.

[Mrs. P]

Except for Lindsey Graham, apparently, which no one will.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

No one officially has ever been like, here's a picture of him doing it. You know what I mean?

[Mrs. P]

Do it, guys.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

No, I know, but it's like Lindsey Graham.

[Mrs. P]

So men can keep secrets when it's about Lindsey Graham's ladybug butt, but nothing else.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Apparently, that's the only thing that they can keep secret. Even though he's walking around Disney carrying a mermaid bubble wand.

[Mrs. P]

Okay, here's the thing.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

And they can also keep secrets about the other South Carolina senator.

[Mrs. P]

Men can't. Men and boys cannot keep secrets. They always are Blabbermouths, apparently, Because we're

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

boastful and got a boast.

[Mrs. P]

And I did a lot of research about it, because once I started opening tabs about why men can't shut the fuck up, I got. I got deep in some historical lore, and when we come back from breaking, we're going to talk about it.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Okay? So let me not shut the fuck up about this sponsor. Why are you paying so much for your phone? Do you hate money? If not, Mint Mobile is for you. Same coverage and speed you're used to. Unlimited talk, text and data all on the nation's largest 5G network. Mint Mobile plans start at just 15 bucks a month for three months.

[Mrs. P]

And we love it.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

We do.

[Mrs. P]

We switched over. We save all the money. And then our family switched over and they saved all the money. Yes, it's great.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

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[Mrs. P]

I would never keep that secret. I would tell everybody.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

We do every episode.

[Mrs. P]

I know. Good.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

We always call the call to action.

[Mrs. P]

Here's the problem.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Okay.

[Mrs. P]

We've called the men to action and they can't shut the fuck up.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

That's true.

[Mrs. P]

Okay. Literally. So this has been a huge problem for militaries across time about men. Just saying whatever.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Mrs. P]

Not being able to be quiet to the point where MI5 had to hire young girls and women to be spies.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

MI5? Wait, that's the British intelligence.

[Mrs. P]

Yes.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

And I know that because MI6 is James Bond.

[Mrs. P]

Yes.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

So that's James Bond.

[Mrs. P]

Idris Elba.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Idris Elba. And MI6 actually in the last bunch of decades, I think has actually been run by a woman in the. In the show.

[Mrs. P]

I like that.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Mrs. P]

Is it Gillian Anderson?

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Is it Dame Judi Dench? I think it's Dame Judi Dench.

[Mrs. P]

Know who it is? I was just saying hot women in charge okay. So at the beginning of the First World War, MI5 decided to employ Boy Scouts as spies in World War I. Yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Okay, got it.

[Mrs. P]

So they're like, we have all these Boy Scouts that are trained in outdoor activities.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

They know how to make a fire,

[Mrs. P]

they know how to do stuff. And they were given duties like delivering counter espionage, espionage messages and intelligence gathering.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Okay, right.

[Mrs. P]

So we have these trained Boy Scouts, these young men, and they're like, you know, Boy Scouts have a little bit of military focus. They're in uniform.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

They're literally a paramilitary. You know, they got their little shorts. Yeah, they're like, they got the little shorts on there. And yeah, the Boy Scouts also, I believe the Boy Scouts started in Britain because.

[Mrs. P]

So it didn't take long for them all to get fired. Every single one of them.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

They fired all the boys.

[Mrs. P]

They followed every single one of the boys. Because problems arose with their work, including bringing unreliable reports, telling people about their top secret jobs, which they were not supposed to do.

[Guest or additional male commentator]

Hello, Governor. I'm here to Skip to trick the juries into thinking that we're gonna invade at Verdun, but in reality we're going to be going through this forest right over there. But they all trust me because I'm the tip top boy scout.

[Mrs. P]

Boy Scouts were found to be ineffective, overly boisterous and too talkative.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah. Because they're. They're boys in puberty who need to feel important.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

That's the thing. And we're stuck. This is. There is a tweet that went out a while ago. It might have actually been a Blue Sky Skeet, but just about pointing out that the reason why everything sucks right now is because everyone's 12. It's really the boys. All the boys think. All the boys think they're 12. Oh, you want to have a UFC fight on the White House lawn? Of course you do.

[Mrs. P]

You're 12 year old.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

That's what 12 year old would think is cool. Yeah, like there's so many different things. Oh, oh, you're going to win a war by killing the supreme leader of Iran. Yeah. That's what someone who doesn't know what

[Mrs. P]

the straight of Hormuz is know about fertilizer.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

So ultimately MI5 made the decision to fire all the Boy Scouts in September of 1915. All of them. The agency then pivoted and hired who they would call Girl Guides.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Girl Guides. Their version of Girl Scouts.

[Mrs. P]

Their version of Girl Scouts. But these are trained specifically through my five called Girl Guides.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Girl Guides.

[Mrs. P]

And they believe these would be these Women would be a much better option. And they were right. Robert Baden Powell, the founder of the Boy scouts, agreed with MI5 decision stating, quote, girls can be trusted better than boys not to talk. If the character of a girl is developed, she will discipline herself not to blab and will play the game not for herself or her own glorification or. But for the interests of her side. Yeah, that's what I'm fucking saying.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

It's interpersonal versus intrapersonal. Yes. Like all those things, the community that. The thinking about the household over yourself is the same way of thinking about the nation over your own glory.

[Mrs. P]

Exactly, exactly.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Thinking about all of the people that are being attacked by ICE and not being Will Stancil.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah, these are.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Jesus Christ. As real quick, real fast, she's going back to that. By the way, you can still do the Tinder Honey pot thing.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah, no, but don't tell honey.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

But I know. Don't tell anybody because. Because just give it enough time and every. The next ICE agent will go, nah, this one's different.

[Guest or additional male commentator]

Yeah, that's the thing.

[Mrs. P]

She's different.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

You can tell them because this is the loose. That, that whole thing, the Honey pot scan thing is the same as like, I remember when I was a kid when I'd watch Looney Tunes or like old Disney cartoons, they would always have World War I stuff in there and they always have like loose lips.

[Guest or additional male commentator]

Sink ships.

[Mrs. P]

True.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Because they would be like.

[Mrs. P]

Because they got 500 sailors won't shut the fuck up on that boat because

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

the second they got off they're like,

[Guest or additional male commentator]

hey, we're going to stop by an

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

island so you guys can like stretch your legs or whatever. And like, oh, there are ladies here. And they instantly would just walk up to any woman they saw and they're like, hi, we're building nuclear weapons. Instantly.

[Mrs. P]

Do you want to kiss?

[Guest or additional male commentator]

So former director then used to get kisses for secrets.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Now they just get a thumbs up emoji.

[Mrs. P]

No, they get the exclamation point one.

[Guest or additional male commentator]

Oh, my God. You're not even getting thumbs up.

[Mrs. P]

Not even a thumbs up.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

You're not even getting thumbs up. I'm so glad I met my wife before. Before online dating took off.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah. Because I give them thumbs down.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah, she does. She.

[Guest or additional male commentator]

She hits me in the group chat

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

in front of the fam.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah, of course.

[Guest or additional male commentator]

I'm like, oh, my God, look what we did today.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

And then she's just, boo.

[Mrs. P]

Gotta keep you humble.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

So as former Director General of MI5, Jonathan Evans, except explained the Boy Scouts proved, quote, feckless and noisy. And the Girl Guides were more reliable.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

That's incredible.

[Mrs. P]

I just need to know that calling the Boy Scouts feckless and noisy is so funny.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Feckless is we got to bring back feckless.

[Mrs. P]

I say it all the time about the Democrats.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

You do, you do. You're like, you feckless losers, go sit in the corner in your chair.

[Mrs. P]

Literally.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

You know who isn't feckless?

[Mrs. P]

Who?

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Louise Lucas.

[Mrs. P]

Who's that?

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

She was the state senator. She is the current state senator. I think she's the President Pro Tem of the Virginia State Senate. And she's real mean via Twitter.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah, I know who she is. I just wanted you to say.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

I know, I know. She did straight up tell two sitting Virginia senators, you guys sit over there in your chairs and we'll handle everything down here in Richmond. She is 82 years old and she loves gummies. Yeah. I mean, honestly, we got to get her into clouds, you know, for sure. She needs a sponsor.

[Mrs. P]

Girl Guides between the ages of 14 and 16, who were of good size, outstanding, quick, cheerful and willing, were hired by MI5. Their parents and troop leader had to agree and sign off. Roughly 90 young ladies worked in this capacity. Those who were successful were brought to one of the three houses used by MI5 during the war. So they had to, like, live in community together.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Mrs. P]

The Girl Guide's primary job with MI5 was as messengers. They were carrying highly classified documents. They had to swear to not read them. And they would also do the physical messages. They were also asked to deliver messages from memory. So they would be dictated to and they couldn't write it down. They had to memorize what the person was saying.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

And then go and just say it. Because they were some like, they were afraid that people would steal documents.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Gotcha. Gotcha.

[Mrs. P]

And they could be trusted to do that.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah. And they would. They also. Yeah. They worried that somebody would grab the bag and then. Yeah, just write it down.

[Mrs. P]

The Girl Guides were compensated with payments of 10 shillings a week.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

I don't know how much that is.

[Mrs. P]

Me neither. But I like that they were making shillings.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

Feels old timey.

[Guest or additional male commentator]

A tuppence by guess.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

I do love. I just love this. It's so great. The Boy Scouts are feckless. Can you remember a three sentence message? Yeah. Can you not tell anyone? Wait, is that the job?

[Guest or additional male commentator]

Was that what they couldn't do?

[Mrs. P]

Yeah, Literally.

[Guest or additional male commentator]

The boys are like, hello, everyone. I'm being trusted with secret information. I have to tell everyone. I'm the most important boy in The Village.

[Mrs. P]

You'll never guess what the Germans are doing.

[Guest or additional male commentator]

Oh, well, don't let the Kaiser know that me, Billy Porter over here, is definitely the one.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

I can't believe I chose Billy Porter as the name.

[Mrs. P]

Wow.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

I know.

[Mrs. P]

What a choice. So, yeah, that's all about the girl guts. So here's what happens. Now I'm opening tabs about Girl Guides, okay? And now I'm in World War I. You know how it goes. Suddenly you got a lot of tabs about World War I open.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

And I found out about the Queen of Spies. Okay, and when we come back from this break, I want to tell you all about the Queen of Spies.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Ooh. We just finished a sold out show here in New York City. And it was. The energy was amazing. Phil, it was great. You had a chant going. It got weird, it got fun, it got crazy. But we have more coming because we're going to be doing live shows in Seattle, Portland, Boston, Philly, San Francisco, Phoenix, Denver, Atlanta, Chicago, St. Paul, D.C. and Pittsburgh. Crashing out toward dot com. Get your tickets now or check the link in both of our bios. Oh, wow. That was a really great sponsor for this week's episode. And that guy sounded really handsome. And he was there with his very good friend Phil DeFranco just telling everybody about it.

[Mrs. P]

They were having a really good time.

[Guest or additional male commentator]

It seemed like everybody who came out

[Mrs. P]

to the show, people in the audience were having a good time.

[Guest or additional male commentator]

Really, really, really good time.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

And they could jo on that tour.

[Mrs. P]

But I heard there was Kesha involved.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

I. There was. You know what? It's going down. It's going timber. But speaking of things that didn't go down, The Queen of Spies.

[Mrs. P]

The Queen of Spies. Well, she did. Anyway, let's get down to this. Her name. And I'm going to pronounce this wrong because it's French. Louise Marie Gian Henriette Day Begginess. I don't know.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Let me, let me try, Let me try. Let me see.

[Mrs. P]

It's a lot of names.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

This is.

[Mrs. P]

I'm gonna call her Luis.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Okay. No, you should call it Louis Marie. Louis Marie Louis Louise Marie Jean. Jean Gian Louise. Oh, is it Louise or is it Louis?

[Mrs. P]

I don't know. Louise for boys. I know they do gendered stuff.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

No, they do. It's. That's one of the things. All right. Louise Marie Jean Henriette de Betignant.

[Guest or additional male commentator]

Yeah, great.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

I'm going to go with that.

[Mrs. P]

Louise Marie.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Why the French not have that many names?

[Mrs. P]

They got a lot of names.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

They got a lot of names. What happened to just. What happened to just Jessica.

[Mrs. P]

No. So Jessica. Okay.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

It works on toddlers. It's crazy.

[Mrs. P]

Does work.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Your toddler screaming, Just turn, look towards the doorway, go, Jessica, come here. And the toddler's like, who I have. I haven't tested other names. I only saw Jessica on TikTok.

[Mrs. P]

So she's a French secret agent who spied on the Germans during World War I.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Okay.

[Mrs. P]

Now, after German. After the German army invaded Lila. France. It's part of France.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Okay.

[Mrs. P]

And let me just show you a picture of this map. So this is where Leela is.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Belgium.

[Mrs. P]

No, see it right there.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Oh, okay. So it's, like, on the Belgian French border near the English Channel. It's a very important area.

[Mrs. P]

This is an incredibly important area.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

Okay. So this is where she's from. And.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

And the Germans are coming across Belgium.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

They're like, crush the Belgians.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah. As one does.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

So the Germans have invaded that area of France. Louise begins carrying messages from people who were trapped there to their relatives across the border.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Okay.

[Mrs. P]

She did this by writing the messages in lemon juice on a petticoat. And then she put the petticoat on under her skirts. Once she got to her destination, she would take it off and iron the petticoat. And the heat would make the messages visible. She would then cut them apart into little, like, pieces of fabric paper for the deliveries.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Let me tell you something. This lemon juice shit. Yeah, I remember I used to watch PBS shows as a kid to be

[Guest or additional male commentator]

like, you want to be a secret spy?

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

I think even, like, Velma did it on episode of Scooby Doo.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

That lemon juice shit, that's hers, dude. This is why I was her move.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

That's crazy.

[Mrs. P]

Impressed by her clever back.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Lemon juice buying.

[Mrs. P]

Impressed by her cleverness and her language skills, Officers from both the French and. And English intelligence agencies tried to recruit her. Oh, because they're hearing through the grapevine about this lady spy who's getting messages across.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

And they didn't automatically hear about how she was doing, but they knew that she was successful. And so they. Both of them are trying to recruit her. She, even though she's French, decides to work with the British, who gave her the pseudonym Alice Dubois. So we're going to call her Alice now.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Okay. Alice.

[Mrs. P]

What an easier name for me to pronounce.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

An incredibly easier name to pronounce.

[Guest or additional male commentator]

And we. And we accept people appreciate that.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

And when people change their names, we accept it.

[Mrs. P]

Absolutely. That's 100% what we do, Alice. They. They help her set up an intelligence network of 100 people. It's called the Alice network.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Okay.

[Mrs. P]

And they provided important information to the British by way of occupied Belgium and the Netherlands. It is estimated that her network saved the lives of more than a thousand British soldiers during the nine months of its full operation.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Oh, wow.

[Mrs. P]

When it was completely in full operation, it was highly effective.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Got it.

[Mrs. P]

The network was so effective that she was nicknamed by her English superiors the Queen of Spies. Alice smuggled men to England, provided valuable information to the intelligence committee, and prepared her superiors in London's a grid map of the region of Lille when the German army installed a new battery of artillery. And the intelligence that she provided allowed their camouflage. I'm sorry, camouflaged position to be bombed by the Royal Flying Corps within eight days.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

That's crazy. That's the thing you guys need to understand, really need to understand about this when she. Because you might be picturing now about how things get bombed, right? You're picturing, like, Iran or what's going on in the Middle east or anything else when they're talking about this. Bombing from an air corps in World War I meant that a guy had to look out the plane and drop it. Yeah. Like, this is like. They're not. The guided bombs is all right. So when you get about here, let go, and it'll kind of arc. Yeah, they were dropping them.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah. The guided bomb was a guy named Richard.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah, it was a guy named Richard. And he was just dropping grenades from his plane.

[Mrs. P]

And they had a map in the plane.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

Trying to figure out where they were on the map.

[Guest or additional male commentator]

Oh, Jeff. Jimmy. Jimmy. Make sure that when we say, bank a hard left up here. And then. Okay, that clump of trees that's supposed to be it.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Drop away. And they don't have satellites. No, they don't have any of these different things. So not only does she have to have the information, she has to be able to get the map made to give them the exact location with longitude and latitude, all those different things, to then have that translate to somebody who is seeing it from the sky. She's not seeing her from the sky. No, she's not in a balloon network, because that was the other way they used to be able to do these things. They literally set hot air balloons up to look down and go, okay, well, that's what it would look like from above. Yeah, that's crazy.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah. Another opportunity allowed her to report the date and time of a passage of the Imperial Train carrying the Kaiser on a secret visit to the front line of Lillay during Their approach to Lillay. Two British aircraft bomb the train but miss the target. They didn't get the Kaiser but they

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

still bombed the train.

[Mrs. P]

The train.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

That's crazy.

[Mrs. P]

German command could not figure out or understand this unique situation of the 40km of what they called the Cursed front. Once they got to Lilly, they were like, it's fucking cursed. We don't know what's going on over there, but we cannot get near it. We always give our asses handed to us over here.

[Guest or additional male commentator]

She had a 40 kilometer radius of hell. She was one lady.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah. So cool. Go ask Alice.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Indeed. Oh my God. Meanwhile, Will Stancil will be like, no, it's Alice is doing it all.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah. Somebody should network a lady's name, Alice that are fucking over here at the German border.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

That's so crazy. I love the idea of the Germans

[Guest or additional male commentator]

being like, on where are we routing the Kaiser? He's going to go with the spike on his head and go talk to the troops at the machine gun nest. He's going to go by L. Holy. Are you insane? There is a demon that lives there.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

It's just a lady named Alice going, hello.

[Mrs. P]

I have a lot of ironing her skirts.

[Guest or additional male commentator]

She just has a lot of.

[Mrs. P]

She smells like lemons.

[Guest or additional male commentator]

She just has a lot of lemons.

[Mrs. P]

She smells like lemons.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Oh my God.

[Mrs. P]

She's in her garden growing lemon trees. So one of her last messages.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

When life gives you lemons, become a spy.

[Mrs. P]

Oh. So one of her last messages announced the preparation of a massive German attack on verdun in early 1916.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

I was joking about that. I was made a joke about that earlier. Now here we are.

[Mrs. P]

The information was relayed to the French commander but he refused to believe it.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah, because he's a fucking idiot.

[Mrs. P]

Because he's idiot.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Because he's a stupid man with his dumb penis.

[Mrs. P]

The German attack on Verdun set off a brutal 10 month struggle. Because of the intense resistance on both sides and heavy counterattacks, the casualties on both sides were considered catastrophic.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

And this all could have been avoided if they would have just listened to her.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

And what a shot. Verdun and the entirety of World War I. But Verdun was actually so horrific and left such a shock to the French psyche that it's basically the reason why the French rolled over. One of. One of many reasons. But it's a huge chunk of. Of why the French rolled over in World War II.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

So they just listened to Alice. They just listened to Alice.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Quentin Tarantino would have had one less movie.

[Mrs. P]

Okay. Oh God.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

I know.

[Mrs. P]

She was arrested by the Germans on October 20, 1915.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Boo.

[Mrs. P]

She was sentenced to death.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Of course she was.

[Mrs. P]

Her sentence was commuted.

[Guest or additional male commentator]

Hey.

[Mrs. P]

Forced labor. And after being held for three years, she did die in 1918.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Damn.

[Mrs. P]

Her body was repatriated. Repatriated.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Repatriated.

[Mrs. P]

In February of 1920, a funeral was held in Lillay in which she was posthumously awarded the Cross of Legion of Honor and the Quad de Guerre with palm. And so then I was like, what does with palm mean? And so the quad de Guerre. I'm so sorry for mispronouncing. Whatever I'm mispronouncing.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Quad de Grier.

[Mrs. P]

Sure. Was awarded to either an individual. An individual or a unit of soldiers who distinguish themselves by acts of heroism involving combat with the enemy. The medal is awarded to those who have, quote, been mentioned in dispatches, meaning their heroic deeds or deeds were performed, meriting a citation from individuals in headquarters. The unit award, which is the. With palm, was issued to military units whose members performed heroic deeds in combat and were subsequently recognized by headquarters. So this honor was bestowed upon her for running the Alice network.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Got it.

[Mrs. P]

That's what with palm means.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Got it. Yeah. Because the whole network. The Alice network is the unit.

[Mrs. P]

Yes, exactly. That's because she ran her own unit.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

So the British. She also was awarded a British Military Medal and was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire posthumously.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah. When she was dead.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah. But she. She's the queen of spies.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah, she's the queen of spies.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

That's fucking incredible. It sucks that. That sucks that she got taken down.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

That sucks. But. But it's good that. It's good that she got the recognition afterwards.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

But it also just shows that, like, I love the fact that the Germans just didn't know because they never thought that a woman would do it.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

They just never thought that it was just a woman being like, write that down.

[Mrs. P]

Write that down.

[Guest or additional male commentator]

That's it.

[Mrs. P]

Women don't listen with their ears.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

No, no, it's just a cleaning lady.

[Mrs. P]

They don't listen.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

That's it. Like, that's literally what they. They don't say that shit.

[Mrs. P]

Okay, so listen, I want to cover one more spy before we go to break, okay? Okay. So I found a Catholic spy. A Catholic, Catholic lady spy. I opened a lot of tabs, okay? Her name's Gabrielle Petit. Petit was born of working class parents and she was raised in a Catholic boarding school. Following her mother's early death at the outbreak of the First World War. She was living in Brussels and was working as a saleswoman.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Okay.

[Mrs. P]

She immediately volunteers to work at the Belgian Red Cross. So she's a woman who's giving back to her community immediately.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Mrs. P]

Okay.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah. World War I breaks out and she becomes. She's wearing the Red Cross. Was a nurse or something.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah, yeah, She's a volunteer.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

Gabrielle. Her espionage activities begin in 1914 when she helped her wounded soldier fiance Morris cross the border into neutral Netherlands to reunite with his regiment.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Okay.

[Mrs. P]

She passed along to British intelligence information about the Imperial German army during the trip. So they, like, met up and she was just like, verbally telling them things that she had seen her notice.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah. I drove by and I saw some. They had these new tank things over here. I saw a gun emplacement over there. The guys seem to moving this way. They seem to be not. They didn't have enough boots.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah. So the British immediately hired her. They gave her a very brief training and sent her out to spy on the enemy. She proceeded to collect information about enemy troop movements by using a number of false identities. She also was an extremely active distributor of a secret newspaper called the Libre Belgique and assisted in an underground mail service. And this is separate from what she's doing with the British.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Okay, so she's spying and she's also blogging.

[Mrs. P]

Yes.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

And she's also basically a DM service.

[Mrs. P]

Yes.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

the same time. Okay.

[Mrs. P]

Busy.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

She also helps several young men cross the Dutch border. So at the same time, she's getting people across the border.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

Gabrielle was ultimately befriended and exposed by a German agent named Colonel Walter Nikolai. She was arrested by the German military police in 1916, and she was in prison, tried and convicted of espionage in wartime under German military law and sentenced to death. They be. They be sentenced in the gal.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

But that's what. Yeah. It's a war and they're. They're doing the espionage stuff. So that is what that goes. Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

Woof. During her trial, Gabrielle refused to reveal the identities of her fellow agents.

[Guest or additional male commentator]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

Despite repeated offers for amnesty. Okay. So they're. They're really. They're like, will they see Will let you free.

[Guest or additional male commentator]

You're just a lady. We'll let you go. You can go flowers.

[Mrs. P]

You can go work in a labor camp. You don't have to be death penalty.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

And she's like, no.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

And she's like, long.

[Mrs. P]

I'm saying, shit.

[Guest or additional male commentator]

Long live Belgium.

[Mrs. P]

Hold that thought.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Oh, really?

[Mrs. P]

Hold that thought. Among such agents, there was a lady who has a very long name, Jermaine Gabrielle Anna Scarrion, who is 23, and she was the daughter of a local magistrate and a close friend of Petit. She was arrested on similar charges. Charges imprisoned, but didn't get. They didn't have enough evidence against her to actually prosecute her because Gabrielle refused to divulge anything about her.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Oh.

[Mrs. P]

And so, like, they really wanted to nail down this magistrate's daughter for doing espionage stuff, but Gabrielle refused to say

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

anything because they were trying to lean on the local government.

[Mrs. P]

Exactly. Yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

Now, a devout Catholic before dying, Gabrielle made her confession, went and received communion, and on the way to her death, recited the rosary. On April 1, 1916, Gabrielle Petit was, at the insistence of the German military, shot by a firing squad.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Whoa.

[Mrs. P]

Her alleged last words were, quote, I will show them that a Belgian woman knows how to die. Long live the King of Belgium. And then they shot her.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Wow, bro. Wow, bro. That's. Yeah, I'll show you.

[Mrs. P]

I know how to die.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

That's crazy.

[Mrs. P]

Damn. So the. The story of her life actually wasn't, like, broadly known about. It wasn't till really after the war ended that it really came to light about what she had done and, like, her espionage, because again, there's. There's so much going on.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah. But also it's. It's post the story of occupation that you then start to look for people like this. Because when you're. When your nation is occupied there, there's People just have to make do and they're trying to get through the day.

[Instacart/Wayfair Advertiser]

Yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

How do you get to the end of each and every single day? And she was like, I'll show you how we get to the end of fucking occupation. That's crazy.

[Mrs. P]

A statue of Gabrielle Petit was erected in Brussels and it was said to be the first statue of a working class woman.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Really?

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

The first working class woman.

[Mrs. P]

Because usually it's nobles.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Mrs. P]

And so she was born working class.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

Grew up in basically a Catholic orphanage.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

But it's a much nicer statue than statues of that bastard monster, King Leopold ii.

[Mrs. P]

Absolutely.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah. He's a. He's a horrible, horrible person.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah. Unlike my girl Gabrielle.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Unlike our girl Gabrielle.

[Mrs. P]

Now, listen, we're gonna take a break, okay? And when we come back, I want to talk to you about the Mahdi Hari

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One crunchy bite of a Hershey's cookies and cream bar, and I'm taken right back to college. Move in. Day, I was a little overwhelmed by the newness of it all. Boxes were everywhere. I needed a break from unpacking. But just as I was able to take a breath and open my Hershey's cookies and cream bar, my new roommate, Rachel walked in. I offered her a piece, but she said no. Then after a beat, she said, actually, those are my favorite ones. We left, the ice was broken, and we've been friends ever since.

[Mrs. P]

Hershey's, it's your happy place.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

I'm noticing a theme.

[Mrs. P]

Yes.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

That all of these are more or less World War I women.

[Mrs. P]

I started opening tabs about World War I, and then I just get really

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

kept going with, yeah, because there was so many women.

[Mrs. P]

And I was like, look at all these lady spies. I love a lady spy.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Love a lady spy.

[Mrs. P]

Can you see how that, like, German commander couldn't shut the fuck up?

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Mrs. P]

See that?

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah, yeah.

[Mrs. P]

They be doing that.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

They be. Do be doing that.

[Mrs. P]

Shut up.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

So this is the first one I've actually heard. Heard of, but I don't really know her story that well.

[Mrs. P]

So here's the thing. The Mahari Matahari. Mahari. We gotta close this episode with Mahari. And I did a little bit of extra deep dive in her because she's very interested.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Okay.

[Mrs. P]

Okay. So her real name is Margaretha Gertruda Zell Gertruda. I swear to God. G E E R T R U I D A.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Is she Dutch?

[Mrs. P]

She was born in the Netherlands.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Okay. Yep. Because the way that's spelled is crazy. Yeah, that is spelled. It's G E E R like that. E the gear.

[Mrs. P]

Gear. Trudeau.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

If you ever see Dutch written out, it sounds like somebody is mocking you.

[Mrs. P]

So she was born August 7, 1876, which means she's a Leo in a town of the northern part of the Netherlands.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Okay. You said 1876.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah, 1876.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Okay.

[Mrs. P]

Her father went bankrupt in 1889. She grew up pretty, like wealthy, upper. Upper middle class. Okay, okay.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Like Stephen Miller.

[Mrs. P]

Okay, well, yeah. So after this bankruptcy, her parents get divorced. Her mother dies in 1891. Her family falls apart, basically, and she is sent to live with her godfather. She was studying to be a kindergarten teacher, but the headmaster began to flirt with her conspicuously. She was removed from school by her godfather, and a few months later, she fled her uncle's home. Okay, so.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

So there's some mess. There's some mess happening here.

[Mrs. P]

There's a lot of implications of mess.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

There's a lot of mess.

[Mrs. P]

A young woman alone with these men.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

Calls in a ruckus and she runs away.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

Fair enough.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yep. Got it.

[Mrs. P]

Get out, girl.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah. We can only imagine at 18. Zell, she wasn't even 18 until that.

[Mrs. P]

No, she wasn't 18.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Got it. Because you were, like you said, young. I couldn't put an age around it.

[Mrs. P]

All right, so at 18, Zell answers in an advertisement in a Dutch newspaper placed by a Dutch colonel, Army Captain Rudolph MacLeod. McLeod. McLeod. Rudolph McLeod, who was living in the Dutch East Indies, which is now Indonesia. Okay. And was. He was looking for a wife. And so she answers this newspaper ad and marries him. This marriage enabled her to move into the Dutch upper class and placed her finances on a sound footing.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

So she's definitely marrying for safety and money. Yeah, absolutely fair.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

He's a colonel, right?

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Okay.

[Mrs. P]

He's a colonel in the Dutch army living in Indonesia.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah. So he's a. He's a colonial colonel.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

He probably has a lot of. He's extracting a lot of wealth from the locals in Indonesia. Yeah, I got it.

[Mrs. P]

So she moves with her husband to Malang. Malang. Malang on the. On the island of Java. They have two children.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Okay.

[Mrs. P]

There. I swear to God. This was on the, like, bio page. It said the marriage was a disappointment.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Okay.

[Mrs. P]

Babe, put that on the anniversary card.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

The marriage.

[Mrs. P]

Marriage was a disappointment.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Well, it was. It was via Craigslist, basically.

[Mrs. P]

That happened a lot back then.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

No, I know it did.

[Mrs. P]

People be putting out ads. Well.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

And you would hear about it, especially in America. The American story of it would be these, like, logging towns.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Would be like, we need women move. We can get 20 women to move here. You can get married. And then they'd show up like, Jesus. Oh, no. But that was like. That was a job.

[Mrs. P]

Just ICE agents in their hotels.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

Holiday suites on Tinder.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah. We need. We did women. But this is basically. Yeah, this is.

[Mrs. P]

This is very disappointing ass marriage.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

MacLeod was.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

We couldn't have a real job. He had to be a colonial colonel.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah. McCloy. McCloy. I'm going to go McQuid.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

McCloy was an alcoholic who physically abused her.

[Guest or additional male commentator]

Yep.

[Mrs. P]

And blamed her for his lack of promotions, not his alcoholism, obviously.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Okay, got it. Got.

[Mrs. P]

He openly kept a concubine, which was socially acceptable practice in the Dutch East Indies at the time.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Okay, there's a lot to. There's a lot to unpack there.

[Mrs. P]

I don't want to unpack it.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

I don't want to unpack that. I don't want to unpack that. The way this would be described in the 1870s, even through the 1950s, like, in books they would write, they'd say that word like concubine. But today we would look at it as sex slave.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah, exactly.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

That's basically what that. The. The power imbalance, everything else being involved with that.

[Guest or additional male commentator]

That.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah, it's horrifying.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Okay.

[Mrs. P]

So in 1899, their children fell violently ill from complications relating to the treatment of congenital syphilis. So congenital means born with. So basically, he gave her syphilis, and the children contracted it during birth.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Got it.

[Mrs. P]

Okay. And though the fat. Well, five family. I mean, he. He claimed that it wasn't syphilis. It was that the children were poisoned by an irate servant. The daughter survived, but the. The son, Norman, died. Complications with syphilis.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Got it.

[Mrs. P]

In 1902, they moved back to the Netherlands and get divorced.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Okay.

[Mrs. P]

Love that for her.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

Okay.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

This guy sounds.

[Mrs. P]

This dude sucks.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

This sucks.

[Mrs. P]

I didn't write it down, but I remember that, like, their divorce was super messy. She got custody of the daughter, but then he was. The courts ordered him to pay child support, but he refused to pay child support. And then, like, he had visitation, and one day the daughter went to visit him, and he kept the daughter and refused to let her leave.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Parental kidnapping.

[Mrs. P]

Parental kidnapping. And then she kept trying to sue to get her daughter back, but she actually didn't have enough money because she got money from him from, like, their alimony. So he wasn't actually giving her enough money to sue him. And he had more powerful lawyers, so he couldn't get the daughter back. It was a whole thing. The daughter ended up dying, too, when she turned, like, 21, of complications of syphilis. So this dad. So he so hard, he killed his own kids?

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

Because of his dick.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah.

[Guest or additional male commentator]

Yuck.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

Okay. So in 1903, a year after they moved back to the Netherlands, she needs money, so she moves to Paris, where she begins performing as a circus horse rider using the name Lady McLeod.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Okay.

[Mrs. P]

Which caused a lot of ruckus because there's a whole family of Dutch McLeod's. And they. Their name is being associated with this Paris circus performer.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

And they're pissed off.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

And as we know from Moulin Rouge.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

And from the Greatest Showman, people get weird about circus and performers and all that.

[Mrs. P]

Also, I just love that she pivots and she's like, I know how to ride horses.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

And I can do a circus horse riding. Okay.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah. I'll do a handstand on a horse.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah, sure, I'll.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

That's basically what she's doing.

[Mrs. P]

So she's struggling to earn a living, though, and so she starts posing at an. As an artist nude model as well, for cash.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Oh.

[Mrs. P]

Oh, meow. Okay, so then a year later, she's

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

taking basically any job.

[Mrs. P]

Any job.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

And she's just at that point. But she's using.

[Mrs. P]

She's a pretty girl who's taking any pretty girl job she can get at this.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yes. And she's using the name Lady McCloy, which is giving a little bit extra flash to it.

[Mrs. P]

Exactly.

[Guest or additional male commentator]

Yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

In 1904. So a year later, she changes her name to Mata Hari, and she rises to prominence as an exotic dancer. Okay, so again, Mulan Ruji. She's doing exotic dancing.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah, yeah. And by exotic dancing, you mean that she's literally doing from exotic locations.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah. And also, it's very burlesque.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah, it's burlesque.

[Mrs. P]

We would consider burlesque.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

So it's not Magic City in Atlanta.

[Mrs. P]

Well, what? Buffet time. So thing about her is she is very flirtatious, promiscuous. She openly flaunts her body. She is captivating to her audiences, and she is an overnight success. She becomes a longtime mistress of famous millionaire industrialists. She is literally the entertainer of. Of the era.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

So she's kind of like a Marilyn Monroe figure.

[Mrs. P]

Yes. Now, back then, entertainers of her era commonly invented colorful stories about their origins. Right. You had to have a cool backstory

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

that's gonna fake a bio. Fake a bio.

[Mrs. P]

And she pretended to be of Hindu descent. And having been brought up, she's from Belgium.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

She's Dutch.

[Mrs. P]

She's a Dutch white lady. She's a Dutch white lady.

[Guest or additional male commentator]

Wait, this is like. What's her name?

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Who's the lady?

[Mrs. P]

The teacher.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah. From the naacp.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah, yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

How's her name? Why am I blanking on her? Oh, I. I think about her all the time.

[Mrs. P]

I think about. Hold on, hold on. We gotta Google it.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

We gotta go.

[Mrs. P]

A woman who pretended to be black and Rachel Dolezal.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Rachel Google. He got it before Rachel Dolezal. So she is Rachel Dolezaling.

[Mrs. P]

Yes.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

France.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah. She's pretending to be of Indian descent.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Hindu, specifically.

[Mrs. P]

Hindu specifically, yeah. No, but she says that she grew up immersed in the art of the sacred Indian dance since childhood.

[Hershey's Advertiser]

That's.

[Mrs. P]

This is the story she's telling.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

This is. And this.

[Mrs. P]

That's why she changed her name to Mata Hari.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah, yeah. Do we know what Mata Hari means?

[Mrs. P]

No, I didn't look.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

I didn't look that up. Okay.

[Mrs. P]

She brought a carefree, provocative style to the stage act. Right. So it garnered wide acclaim. It was all over the newspapers. Everybody's talking about it. Her most celebrated segment of her act was her progressively shedding her clothing until she wore nothing but a jeweled breastplate, which is very. I pictured it very. Isabella Rossellini in Death Becomes Her. Yeah, I'm talking about.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

I know what you're talking about. Real fast, though, let's go back. Let's. Let's deep dive a little bit here into the Hindu, Eastern, exotic of it all.

[Mrs. P]

Okay.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

This was during a time when all you had to do to make something impressive to white people in the west was to say it was from the East.

[Mrs. P]

East, yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

There was a lot. A lot. Especially around India because of the British Empire and all these. These places. When you look at this time period, you start to see magicians who are wearing white, magicians who are wearing turbans. You start to see the occult that comes in. All of these ideas that they're pushing are all. They're like, no, it's that the pyramids and. And. And the. The. The. The. What's the one? Yoga. And there was a whole thing with, like, hot yoga and, like, tantric sex and then the.

[Mrs. P]

The.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

What's the book? The book. The sex book that everybody.

[Guest or additional male commentator]

Yeah, yeah.

[Mrs. P]

I don't. I forget the name of it.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Kama Sutra.

[Mrs. P]

There it is.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

The Kama Sutra starts to come up. Because, again, they also are very sexually repressed societies. Because in the Victorian age.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

They're very, very, very sexually repressed. And so the way to get around that go, oh, no, no, baby, this is culture.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah, just culture.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

No, this is. This is just. This is just Hindu culture. And then they could look at the Kama Sutra, they could put up statues of naked people because they go, no, no, no, this is just. I brought this back for my trip. That's not weird. Now, if some dude named Steve was to make a statue of a naked lady, that Steve is a pervert. But if I.

[Mrs. P]

Well, actually, Steve is an artist.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Steve is an Artist. Steve is an artist, but in France.

[Mrs. P]

Honestly.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Not in England, though.

[Mrs. P]

Make a statue. Get off the Internet.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Get off the Internet. And honestly, stop making statues that are hentai. Please.

[Mrs. P]

Wait, I didn't mean that kind of.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Okay, all right.

[Mrs. P]

It's not what those plastic printers are for.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

No, the 3D printers.

[Mrs. P]

3D printers.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

I. I think, honestly, that might be exactly what they're for at this point.

[Mrs. P]

No. Okay. So apparently Mata means mother, and Hari is a word in Sanskrit. That is the pr. It's like. It means something about Vishnu, the deity. Vishnu, the one who takes away.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Got it.

[Mrs. P]

Mother Hari, I think. Let me know in the comments.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Let us know in the comments.

[Mrs. P]

I'm wrong. Let me know in the comments. So that I can be.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

But she basically. She basically would be, like, showing up and saying, oh, I'm from. I'm from the Wyoming. And my character's name is, like, we're not even Wyoming. I'm from America. And my character is mother Buc. Ees.

[Mrs. P]

Yep.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Because I saw that they're into Bucky's.

[Mrs. P]

If you do burlesque and you're listening to this podcast right now, please, please create a character called Mother Bucky's.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah. Or roller derby.

[Mrs. P]

And then you shake your boobs and you have, like, the Bucky's logo.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah. The Bucky Incredible Tassels. The tassels should be the Bucky teeth.

[CVS Advertiser]

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[Hershey's Advertiser]

One crunchy bite of her Hershey's Cookies and Cream bar, and I'm taken right back to college. Move in. Day, I was a little overwhelmed by the newness of it all. Boxes were everywhere. All I needed a break from unpacking. But just as I was able to take a breath and open my Hershey's Cookies and Cream bar, my new roommate Rachel walked in. I offered her a piece, but she said no. Then after a beat, she said, actually, those are my favorite ones.

[Mrs. P]

We left.

[Hershey's Advertiser]

The ice was broken, and we've been

[Mrs. P]

friends ever Since Hershey's, it's your happy place. Okay, so she's Isabella Rossellini all over the place.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

Her act is incredibly successful. And actually, her act alone elevates the status of erotic dance all over Europe.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

And her act is actually referenced in Metropolis.

[Mrs. P]

Yes.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

She posed for provocative photos and mingled in wealthy circles. Since most Europeans at the time were unfamiliar with the Dutch East Indies, Mata Hari was thought of as exotic, and her claims were accepted as true.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

One enthusiastic French journalist wrote in a Paris newspaper that Mata Hari was, quote, so feline, extremely feminine, majestically tragic. The thousand curves and movements of her body trembling in a thousand rhythms.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Okay, this is.

[Mrs. P]

It's like. It's like. Usually it gets gross with the exoticism.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah. But also, she's just doing Gwen Stefani.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah. Oh, that's exactly.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

She's just a culture vulture.

[Mrs. P]

She's literally.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

But she's like, you guys don't know what they do in Indonesia.

[Mrs. P]

And literally, Gwen Stefani put on the bindi. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

No, but. But it's. It's. It's. It's. The other part of it, though, is she brought back some stuff with her from India, and she's like, you guys, not India and Indonesia and everything else in her travels. And she's like, you guys don't know how to get any of this stuff.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

They don't know how to find it in Paris.

[Mrs. P]

Mata Hari's career went into the decline after 1912. In 1915, she performs her last show of her career, but she does a brand pivot. Oh, you got to do a brand pivot. You got to redo yourself. Right. And this is when she becomes a successful courtesan. Hell, yeah, dude.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Okay.

[Mrs. P]

Known more for her sensuality and eroticism than her classical beauty. That's a quote. That's a mean quote to say that she. She was pretty, but she was. But she was sexy, but she knew

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

how to talk to a guy.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

I talk to a fella.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Guest or additional male commentator]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

She said, oh, really? That's so interesting, what you did at work today.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Laugh emoji. Hit him with a. Hit him with a triple bag laugh emoji. All right, that's one up.

[Mrs. P]

Up.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

One cry. Laugh emoji up. One cly. Laugh emoji to the side. One up. Yeah, that. Right, right. Instantly in love with you.

[Mrs. P]

Everything about what I'm doing with ice, apparently.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

Okay, so.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

All right, so our stupid secret government op is heading exactly in this direction, and I am sending this to you from the WI Fi at The Hilton.

[Mrs. P]

She began really having relationships with high ranking military officers real fast.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

I did. I want to make the joke La Quinta end. Because it's funnier. Like, it's funnier to say.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

But the Hilton really did betray people.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Because the Hilton, like got specific. Like the ICE agents got kicked out of the Hilton by the local. By the local owners of that franchise. And then corporate stepped in and was like, absolutely not. We welcome everybody, including the people who don't welcome anybody.

[Hershey's Advertiser]

Yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

So fuck you, Hilton.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah, fuck you, Hilton forever.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Okay.

[Mrs. P]

So she starts having these relationships with high ranking military officers, politicians, and other influential people in many countries.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Okay.

[Mrs. P]

Her relationships and liaisons with powerful men frequently took her across international borders. Before World War I, she was generally viewed as an artist or a free spirited bohemian.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

But as the war approached, she began to be seen by some as a wanton and promiscuous woman or perhaps a dangerous seductress.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah. She also is probably looking for a side. There's a moment where you can. She could be friends to everybody. But when you're in a fight, being friends with everybody means that you are enemies of everyone as well.

[Mrs. P]

Exactly.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Because if the end of the my enemy is my friend, then my enemy's friend is also my enemy. That's how that math works. And the thing is, I want to remember real fast about enemy is my enemy is my friend.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Sometimes you just have two enemies.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Okay. Tucker Carlson, Marjorie Taylor Greene sank from the Young Turks. We're not letting everybody into the tent. All right? I'm tired of this. Oh, but they're different. They changed. No, no.

[Guest or additional male commentator]

Two ops.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

That's two ops I see over there. Oh, they don't like each other. Good. Let them fight. I don't have to help either.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

All right.

[Mrs. P]

As a Dutch subject, she was able to cross borders freely because they were neutral in World War I and she

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

had a Dutch passport.

[Mrs. P]

She had Dutch passport.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Okay, but wouldn't that point out that she's not Hindu?

[Mrs. P]

Babe, do not think that people are asking this question.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

Pretty girl. Trying to. Well, also.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

You know what I mean? You're right, because I'm also like the border guard. That is like a pretty low status symbol, like in that society.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

The border guard's not telling the colonel or the industrialist or like the. The royal.

[Mrs. P]

And she's traveling with like the richest people. Like, she's not crossing borders alone. She's crossing borders in the.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

And the guy's like, well, that's weird.

[Mrs. P]

In the nicest train car.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Mrs. P]

With a rich man by her side. She's a courtesan, she's well dressed, and

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

the guy's just like, all right, cool.

[Mrs. P]

You say so.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Also, this is from a time that. That whole thing about her pretending to be just somebody else wildly and pivoting like this. Again, this is before credit reports, before the Internet, before your wire services at that level. And so it was so much easier to do. This is like a story until 1987. You hear about the guy who goes like two towns over and has a whole new family in life. I know you just can't do that now.

[Mrs. P]

No, it's a bummer.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Now you have to repay. Shit.

[Mrs. P]

So, okay, she's crossing the borders. During the war, she was involved in what was described as a very intense romantic sexual relationship with Captain vadima Slav, a 23 year old Russian staff captain who was in the first special infantry regime serving with the French. So he's a Russian serving with the French. Okay, okay. That used to happen a lot in 1916. He is wounded, losing sight in his left eye. She, the Matahari, asks for permission to visit her wounded lover at the hospital where he was staying near the front. Now, when she makes this request, she, instead of getting like a letter back, French agents show up and they're like, you'll be allowed to visit him if you agree to be a spy for France. Okay. So. Now, before the war, she had performed several times for the Crown Prince. Wilhelm. Wilhelm. Wilhelm, the eldest son of Kaiser Wilhelm II and a senior German general on the Western Front. The French intelligence believed that she could obtain information by seducing the Crown Prince for military secrets.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Okay. Yeah, okay.

[Mrs. P]

See where this is going?

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

I see where this is going. Okay. They're like, hey, go talk him up a little bit. Maybe he'll tell us where the trains are.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah. But the problem is his involvement was minimal.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah, because he's a fucking idiot.

[Mrs. P]

It was German government propaganda that promoted the image of the Crown Prince as a great warrior, the worthy successor to the monarch who had made Prussia strong and powerful.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah, he's basically Don Jr.

[Mrs. P]

They wanted to avoid the fact that he was a known party boy in general. Asshole. Yeah, right. Like he's not doing anything.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

No, this is the same thing they do right now with Baron. Yeah, Baron Trump.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Who? They're always like, oh, he's just like genius and all these other different things. I'm like, no, he's not. No, no, he's not. He's just.

[Guest or additional male commentator]

He's just a little.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

He's a rich kid dumbass who sits over to the side who watches twitch streamers and kick streamers all day, unaware

[Mrs. P]

that the Crown Prince did not have much to do with running the army.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

I love that the French fell for the German propaganda.

[Mrs. P]

French offered her 1 million francs if she could seduce him and provide France with good intelligence about German plans.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

That's a lot of money.

[Mrs. P]

Nice, nice. Get that bag up front.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

That's a lot of money. Meanwhile, Alice is doing all the work virtually for 10 shillings.

[Guest or additional male commentator]

Yeah, when a 10 shillings, ladies in

[Mrs. P]

Minneapolis were doing it for free.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

That's what I'm saying. And this, this lady, though, she gets stolen valor culture vulture over here. A million francs to talk to fucking Don Junior.

[Mrs. P]

I mean, honestly, you would have to

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

pay me a million francs to talk to fucking Don Junior too. But I'm just saying, like, that's crazy.

[Mrs. P]

The fact that the Crown Prince had, before 1914, never commanded a unit larger than a regiment and was now supposedly commanding both an army and an army group simultaneously should have been a clue that his role in the German imperial decision making was mostly nominal. The French didn't understand that. Anyway, she travels to Madrid where she tries to arrange a meeting with the German Crown Prince. Now, during this time, the Germans transmitted a radio message to Berlin describing the helpful activities of a German spy code named H21, whose biography was closely matched to the Mata Hari's and that it was obvious that they were one in the same. The French intercepted the messages and from the information contained with they identified H21 as the Matahari. The messages were in code that German intelligence knew had already been broken by the French, suggesting that the messages were contrived to have her arrested by the French.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Got it. So the Germans sent a message through enemy territory to other Germans, to other Germans, but they wrote it in a

[Mrs. P]

way that we just got this really cool spot.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah, she's so cool.

[Mrs. P]

She used to be a dancer at the Moulin Rouge. And she's Dutch but Indian. Ba ba ba ba. And they were like, wait a minute,

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

wait a second, hold on. And she's totally tricking these French dummies.

[Mrs. P]

Right now she's working for us but pretending to work for the French.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Got it.

[Mrs. P]

Right. So General Walter Nikolai, the chief intelligence officer of the German Imperial army, had grown annoyed that Mata Hari had provided no real intelligence, instead selling the Germans mere Paris gossip about the sex lives of French politicians and generals and decided to terminate her employment by exposing her as a German spy to the French.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

And Doug, there's nowhere I Wouldn't go to help someone customize and save on car insurance with Liberty Mutual. Even if it means sitting front row at a comedy show.

[Mrs. P]

Hey, everyone, check out this guy and his bird. What is this, your first date?

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Oh, no. We help people customize and save on car insurance with Liberty Mutual together. We're married. Me to a human, him to a bird.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah, the bird looks out of your league.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Anyways, get a [e-mail] or with your local agent.

[Mrs. P]

Liberty. Liberty.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Liberty.

[Mrs. P]

Liberty.

[Hershey's Advertiser]

One crunchy bite of her Hershey's cookies and cream bar, and I'm taking right back to college Move in day, I was a little overwhelmed by the newness of it all. Boxes were everywhere. I needed a break from unpacking. But just as I was able to take a breath and open my Hershey's cookies and cream bar, my new roommate, Rachel walked in. I offered her a piece, but she said no. Then after a beat, she said, actually, those are my favorite ones.

[Mrs. P]

We left.

[Hershey's Advertiser]

The ice was broken, and we've been friends ever since.

[Mrs. P]

Hershey's. It's your happy place,

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

so that's insane.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Also, this is very much. Not to bring it like the Trump administration, but this is very much of, like, hiring a party girl.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

To do a. A very specialized job.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Like, they're like, hey, we want you to be a spy. And she's like, okay.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

And so what do you expect her to give you? She goes to parties.

[Mrs. P]

She's a party girl.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

She's a party girl. Like, she. She wasn't. Again, do you want someone like Alice or somebody who is in the infrastructure or someone who has a connection because they're harder to turn?

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

She's just like, whatever. They're paying me.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah. Also, I don't. Even if she did spread secrets the other direction, I don't. I doubt she knew it. Like, she's just covers. She's drinking champagne, she's having sex, she's going to party. She's just talking. Yeah. I'm sure she doesn't realize who she's talking to and, like, who the secret spies are. Like, I am so sure she's out of her depth in this.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

There's that. And also, like, we also just keep reminding ourselves, too. Her kids died of syphilis because of her awful ex husband. Like, yeah, she's. She's also trying to, like, survive, But I think she went past the level of, like, what she needs to survive and is, like, living a lifestyle that is untenable.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Right. I mean, this is Just. I don't want to make complete excuses for.

[Mrs. P]

No, not at all. In February 1917, Mata Hari was arrested, tried and tried. She had been accused of spying for Germany and consequently causing the deaths of at least 50,000 soldiers.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

So she was arrested by the French.

[Mrs. P]

She was arrested by the French.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

By the French. Okay.

[Mrs. P]

Although the French and British intelligence services suspected her of spying for Germany, neither could produce definite evidence against her. On the contrary, they actually made up up fake evidence against her. Oh, so all the men that hired her built the dossiers to then take her out.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Got it.

[Mrs. P]

Okay. So all this.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

This kind of feels like maybe she also was like, oh, yeah, you're great. And the guy's like, he. She loves me.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Like they all just fell in love with the stripper.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah, I fell in love with the stripper, Bob. And she rolling. Okay.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

But, like, that's what this feels like too, is a bunch of them are just mad. Maybe she's like, said a pithy thing to him and then. And this was like a. This is a. This is a massive revenge plot that also involves the deaths of tens of thousands of men.

[Mrs. P]

Allegedly.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Allegedly.

[Mrs. P]

Having one German spy, AKA the Matahari, to blame for everything that went wrong in the war was convenient for the French government.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yes.

[Mrs. P]

The Mata Hari seemed like the perfect scapegoat. The case against her received maximum publicity by French press and led to the. The. The. Her importance as a spy was greatly exaggerated by the French government and the French press. She was an independent woman, a divorce, a. A citizen of a neutral country, a courtesan and a dancer. She was the perfect scapegoat for the French and their current loss.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yes.

[Mrs. P]

Right.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Because. Because good lil. Again, millions died.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

The French had no idea there was the World War I to. A lot of people don't understand if they don't really look into it was psychologically devastating for everyone involved. It was the first time modern weapons faced modern weapons up until that point. You have people like the British and the French, they were pointing Gatling guns at people with spears and bows.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

And they then took. They did not understand that. Those tactics. We're actually facing that right now with Iran.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

If you look at what's happened with the Iranians using drones across the region, Donald Trump's dumb ass did not pay attention to what's been going on between Ukraine and Russia.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

The way the drone warfare has changed, the way cyber attacks have happened, the nature of the war and warfare has tweaked and changed and evolved over the last 15 years. To a decade.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Everyone who's been involved with it has told everyone that this. Has been involved with it. But the old men that sit and have the fucking epaulettes on and want to blame women for fucking everything, they're over there, they're like, no, no, that's not going to happen. I'm built different. My war is built different. The Ukrainians went to the Pentagon and they're like, hey, we heard you're going to do some weird shit with Iran. Just so you know, we've been fighting their drones.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

For half a decade now.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Here's some tactics we've come up with. And that legit. The Pentagon looked at him, Pete Hegseth, all the other guys said, we're built different. That's a Ukrainian problem. They're Iranian shahed drones. And the same exact thing happened. There were people inside the French military and inside the German military who said between trench warfare, these new plane things we invented tanks, the machine gun nest. You can't just keep sending wave after wave of men over the top. And the French didn't want to have to blame the old men who were sitting in palaces. They didn't want to have to blame the rich people or the newspapers that walked them into this fucking war. So they're gonna blame this one slut.

[Mrs. P]

Hey.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

What?

[Mrs. P]

That's not nice.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

That's how they fucking. That's how they set it up. Yeah, that was. I mean, that's how they're going to. That's the subtext of.

[Mrs. P]

That's the subtext.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

That's the subtext. I'm saying that's what the French are doing and that's what America will do. We've done it about so many different things.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah. Trump always fires women. That's Trump always.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Trump always fires women first. We will believe Trump over any single woman. Hillary and Kamala will blame them for every single sin that ever, ever happened.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

They'll. They'll get hung out for every single sin over the men who were president at the time without having a chance to be able to switch it up in any sort of different way. That's just how we do it. That's just what we blame Eve for the apple. We don't blame Adam for biting it.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Eve was handed the apple and then said, I think this might taste pretty good.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

And then he took a bite and went, you.

[Guest or additional male commentator]

We had. It was a golden age until I

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

tasted this delicious apple.

[Mrs. P]

And that's why they have the apple stuck in their throat. That's why so during her trial, her lover, the Russian guy, Guy Maslov, he became deeply resentful as a result of losing his eye in combat. And he declined to testify on her behalf and told her that he did not care whether she was convicted or not.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

When she learned that he had abandoned her, she fainted because they told her, like, I think at court, that, like, he was refusing to show up.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

And like, she fainted at court.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

He says he doesn't care if you live or die. People don't faint as much.

[Mrs. P]

I know. We need more things.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Well, part of it's because of the corsets. The corsets and the petticoats.

[Mrs. P]

Corset, dude.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah.

[Mrs. P]

Mata Hari maintained her innocence, saying she never spied for the Germans. Okay. She was executed by firing squad.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Jesus.

[Mrs. P]

Consisting of 12 French soldiers just before dawn on October 15, 1917. She was 41 years old. According to eyewitnesses account, she was not bound and she refused a blindfold. And she defiantly blew a kiss at the firing squad before they shot her. Yes.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Wow. Wow. That's crazy.

[Mrs. P]

I love her.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

All of that at 41. Wow.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

What a life.

[Mrs. P]

What a life. She lived, dude. She lived.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

She did live.

[Mrs. P]

Although news reports that followed her execution claimed she had admitted to spying for Germany, Mata Hari never made such a confession. She maintained throughout her ordeal that she was never a German spy. In October of 2001, documents released from the archives of MI5 were used by a Dutch group, the Mata Hari foundation, to ask the French government to exonerate her. As they argued that the MI5 files prove she was not guilty of the charges she was convicted of. A spokesperson from the Mata Hari foundation argued that at most, she was a low level spy who provided no secrets to either side, stating, quote, we believe that there is sufficient doubts concerning the dossier of information that was used to convict her to warrant a reopening of the case. Maybe she wasn't entirely innocent, but it seems clear that she wasn't a master spy whose information sent thousands of soldiers to their deaths.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yep. Yeah. I do like that there's a Matahari Foundation. This is the thing that also happens, though, throughout history.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

When you give it enough time, someone will show up and say, actually that person was innocent. There's a Richard III society. They believe that Richard III from the, you know, from the Shakespeare play. And the famous guy, like, he actually wasn't that bad.

[Mrs. P]

I'm like, but, yeah, but I thought it was crazy that MI5 comes back at the very end.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah. Yeah. There's A full circle, full circle, full circle, full serve.

[Mrs. P]

Taven.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Well, you know, Mrs. P. Yeah. This was very, very interesting.

[Mrs. P]

Thank you.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Thank you so much for this. This quick and quick and different history of women spies and men ruining. And men ruining.

[Mrs. P]

Shut the.

[Guest or additional male commentator]

Because. Yeah, I think.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

I think with the Mata Hari, really what it was, was she flirted too close to the sun. I think. I think as you were going through it, you started describing it. I started thinking about it. The social circles of these generals and colonels and all these other different people that are involved.

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Of like, there's a jealousy, there's a.

[Mrs. P]

Or they just realized that because she was so close to so many powerful people, the Germans were like, she's too powerful. We have to set her up. Because they knew from day one they needed to set her up.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Well, it's also could have been one of those things, too, where they could have paid her too much money. And someone could have been like, what's going on with this lady over here?

[Mrs. P]

Yeah.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Hey, we notice that there's this. There's this.

[Mrs. P]

This.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

There's this line here in the ledger that says we're giving, like, a lot of money we could use for new boots.

[Mrs. P]

New boots.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

New boots. Listen, boots are a big deal in war. Like, that's the thing. They are like, Napoleon famously, like, got his guy's boots, and they're like, we love this dude.

[Mrs. P]

This guy's awesome, dude. Follow him forever.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Trench foot was a huge issue. There's like. Like, logistics wins wars. And the Germans were having logistics issues. And so when people started looking in it and doing audits, and they're like,

[Guest or additional male commentator]

like, what do you mean?

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

A billion dollars for a ballroom? They're like. And so they had to come up quickly with a scapegoat. And so, yeah, I think. I think turning her over and then letting the French are looking for a scapegoat. Yeah, it's kind of just like, again, they're two enemies, but they had a common.

[Mrs. P]

Yep.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

They got a common. So, you know. Yeah, maybe you don't have two, and maybe you don't have.

[Mrs. P]

Anyway, lady spies.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Lady spies.

[Mrs. P]

Lady spies. They can keep secrets.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

They can.

[Mrs. P]

They can cross borders. They can do the damn thing. As long as men can shut the up about.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

Yeah. As long as Will Stanc doesn't have the information, they'll keep going.

[Mrs. P]

Block him on Blue Sky.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

And with that, everybody, this has been a fun episode. We're back every single week, every Sunday at noon. Wherever you get your podcasts, find us at promania5,00.net on Patreon. Mrs. P, any final words?

[Mrs. P]

Have a great week, everybody.

[Co-host (likely the main female host)]

See you soon. Too many frauds and too many scammers that we wish weren't real Too many cons and too many spammers and worst Starting to feel like we've got too many tabs Open it too many times Remember to smile.