Historical Drama with The Boston Sisters
— a podcast where we talk about historical drama series and films. Biopics, Adaptations, and Costume Dramas—stories that give us a window to the past, and a mirror of the present. Makers, writers and other guests join us in the conversation about what’s new in historical drama and what’s worth watching. Hosted by real-life sisters Michon and Taquiena Boston who binge on historical drama.
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Michon is a writer (New York Times, Washington Post Magazine, Washington CityPaper) and media impact producer who works with documentary and narrative films to raise awareness and inspire action on the critical concerns of our times. She is also a cultural historian, and walking tour guide who brings the history of DC’s jazz age and literary history to life. Michon is the author of “Iola’s Letter: The Memphis Crusade of Ida B. Wells,” a play about the anti-lynching newspaper woman and activist, Ida B. Wells. She is writing a play inspired by “The Three Musketeers” author Alexandre Dumas’s food writings. While a student at Oberlin College she received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to research the history of Black women who attended Oberlin in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Meet The Boston Sisters
Michon and Taquiena Boston are real-life sisters who grew up surrounded by history in Washington, DC, where their parents introduced them to movies and took them to museums as entertainment.
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Taquiena Boston, a culture change strategist and coach, has earned theater degrees from Howard University and the University of Michigan. In addition to streaming and binge watching historical drama, Taquiena enjoys travel -- especially by train -- museums, fashion, reading food history and cookbooks, and cooking. Her interests and adventures are influenced by watching films about history and historical dramas, including a train ride she made from Paris to Venice on the refurbished Orient Express. She saved for the trip as a special birthday gift after seeing the film, “Murder on the Orient Express.”
Ep. 52 - A GENTLEMAN IN MOSCOW: A Room of One’s Own, A Heart Full of Others
We welcome back Ben Vanstone (ALL CREATURES GREAT & SMALL), showrunner and executive producer for the much-anticipate drama series, A GENTLEMAN IN MOSCOW an adaptation of author Amor Towles’s internationally best-selling novel of the same name. The series features Ewan McGregor as Count Alexandre Rostov, an aristocrat who, in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution, finds that his gilded past has placed him on the wrong side of history.
Ep. 50 - THE GREAT GATSBY (1974) at 50: Love, Lies and the Illusion of the American Dream
It’s the 50th anniversary of the release of the 1974 film adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’sTHE GREAT GATSBY. Author and scholar Emily Bernard from our PASSING conversation is back to explore the overlapping themes in this classic film directed by Jack Clayton, as well as the 2013 reimagining by Baz Luhrmann. THE GREAT GATSBY features Robert Redford as Jay Gatsby, Mia Farrow as Daisy Buchanan, and Sam Waterston as Nick Carraway. The film is a window into the roaring 1920s and also a mirror on American social constructs for wealth, class, and illusion, as well as the destructive power to recapture the past.
Ep. 44 - A Culinary Journey with JULIA and Janet Cam
JULIA, based on the life of the "French Chef" star and cookbook author Julia Child, is back for a 2nd season on Max. Also back on the podcast is wine expert and restaurant strategist Janet Cam, co-founder of Washington, DC's storied Le Pavillon restaurant, the first nouvelle cuisine restaurant of its kind in the U.S. We talk about the challenges for Julia Child to recreate classic French dishes in the U.S., women in the culinary industry, and Julia and Janet's journeys and adventures through wine and food in the domestically and abroad.
Ep. 16 - Mystery’s Moral Compass in MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS
It’s been said that murder mysteries satisfy our need to feel that there is justice in the world and a moral order, which is expressed in the character of Agatha Christie’s genius detective Hercule Poirot. But does solving the murder really close the case especially for Poirot’s conscience? In episode 16 The Boston Sisters talk about three film/tv movie adaptations of Agatha Christie’s 1934 novel MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS.
Ep. 15 - BRIDGERTON Season 2: Marriage, Money, and the Sharma Family (Part 2)
Shondaland's Bridgerton (Netflix) presents a Regency Britain where people of diverse colors, races, and cultural backgrounds meet and mate through choreographed matchmaking in grand ballrooms and frollicking country estates of "the ton." Part 2 of our 2-part podcast about season 2 of Bridgerton and the entrance of the Sharma family from Bombay continues with special guest Durba Ghosh, professor of history at Cornell University and author of Sex and Family in Colonial India: The Making of Empire.
Ep. 14 - BRIDGERTON Season 2: Marriage, Sex, and the Sharma Family (Part 1)
Shondaland's Bridgerton (Netflix) presents a Regency Britain where people of diverse colors, races, and cultural backgrounds meet and mate through choreographed matchmaking in grand ballrooms and frollicking country estates of "the ton." Part 1 of our 2-part podcast about season 2 of Bridgerton and the entrance of the Sharma family from Bombay with special guest Durba Ghosh, professor of history at Cornell University and author of Sex and Family in Colonial India: The Making of Empire.
Ep. 13- SANDITON Regency Fiction and Racial History
Historical Drama with The Boston Sisters (ep. 3) Susanne Simpson, Executive Producer of the PBS drama series, MASTERPIECE, shares how this 50-year phenom is changing to bring more diversity to the stories, casts, and creative production of historical dramas, fiction adaptations, and mystery series set in the past with UK partners.
Ep. 12 - What We Love About JULIA
HBO Max's JULIA is inspired by Julia Child's extraordinary life and her long running public television series, The French Chef, which pioneered the modern cooking show. In this podcast, The Boston Sisters riff on impressions of the HBO Max series and Julia Child's impact on American cooks, public television, and our own palates with restaurant consultant and wine expert, Janet Cam, who was the co-owner of America’s first nouvelle cuisine restaurant, Le Pavillon.
Ep. 11 - SANDITON’s Crystal Clarke: Becoming Georgiana Lambe
Historical Drama with The Boston Sisters (ep. 3) Susanne Simpson, Executive Producer of the PBS drama series, MASTERPIECE, shares how this 50-year phenom is changing to bring more diversity to the stories, casts, and creative production of historical dramas, fiction adaptations, and mystery series set in the past with UK partners.
Ep. 10 - The Godfather at 50
It was 50 years ago in March 1972 whenThe Godfather had its world premiere in New York City. We talk with Dan Moldea, an investigative journalist who specializes in organized crime about his work and the cultural impact of The Godfather film on real life and crime movies. And, inspired by one of the film’s most quoted lines, we’ve added a Special Edition: a conversation with Eater DC’s senior associate editor Tierney Plumb on where to find the best cannolis.
Ep. 6 - Mary Poppins, the Disruptor
Mary Poppins, who flew from the London skies into the lives of the Banks family, was the kind of disruption this family needed. We revisit the 1964 Disney film Mary Poppins with coach and speaker Pete Cohen for a conversation on how disruptors like Mary Poppins can be motivational and help us grow.
Ep. 5 - Moving Beyond WEST SIDE STORY
The release of a new film production of West Side Story (directed by Steven Spielberg) sparked this conversation with Felix Sanchez, founder and co-chair of the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts, about representation of Latinos in film and dramatic series.
Ep. 4 - A Charles Dickens CHRISTMAS CAROL Reinvented
In this episode co-hosts Michon and Taquiena talk about Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, based on the 2019 FX reinterpretation of Dickens’ iconic story. And The Man Who Invented Christmas, which was adapted from Les Standiford’s biographical book of the same title.
Ep. 3 - PBS MASTERPIECE: Conversation with Executive Producer Susanne Simpson
Historical Drama with The Boston Sisters (ep. 3) Susanne Simpson, Executive Producer of the PBS drama series, MASTERPIECE, shares how this 50-year phenom is changing to bring more diversity to the stories, casts, and creative production of historical dramas, fiction adaptations, and mystery series set in the past with UK partners.
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Historical Drama with The Boston Sisters is brought to you by the Michon Boston Group Ltd. The views and opinions expressed on Historical Drama with the Boston Sisters are those of the speakers and do not represent the positions or views of the Michon Boston Group, its clients, or affiliates.