61. Women Who Fly- Amelia Earhart

March 23
1h 9m

Episode Description

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My grandma Ena was a pilot and they were her favorite stories to tell. I am sure its no surprise that I grew up with Amelia Earhart as one of my heroes. The woman who flew so that my grandma could fly.

She vanished into the sky—and into one of the greatest mysteries of the modern age.

In this episode, we fly into the world of Amelia Earhart, a woman who refused to stay grounded, refused to stay compliant and traditional in a time when society expected her to. She became record-breaking aviator and one of the most famous women in the world. The first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic. A symbol of independence, grit, and relentless ambition.

But Earhart wasn’t just chasing records—she was chasing the edge of possibility itself.

In 1937, she set out on a daring attempt to circumnavigate the globe, navigating thousands of miles over open ocean with only the tools and technology of her time. Somewhere over the vast Pacific, near a tiny speck called Howland Island… she disappeared.

No confirmed wreckage. No distress call that told the full story. Just silence.

In this episode, we’ll trace her rise from a curious, rebellious girl to one of the most famous pilots in history and then dive headfirst into the theories, investigations, and unanswered questions that have kept her story alive for nearly a century.

And we will take a brief flyover to meet the Night Witches of the USSR's air service.

This episode is to celebrate Women's History month with women who paved a runway for those who would come later!


Rachel Hartigan, Lost: Unsolved Mysteries of Amelia Earhart and the Bermuda Triangle

Susan Butler, East to the Dawn: The Life of Amelia Earhart

Doris L. Rich, Amelia Earhart: A Biography

Mary S. Lovell, The Sound of Wings: The Life of Amelia Earhart

Candace Fleming, Amelia Lost: The Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart

Ric Gillespie, Finding Amelia: The True Story of the Earhart Disappearance

Elgen M. Long and Marie K. Long, Amelia Earhart: The Mystery Solved

Mike Campbell, Amelia Earhart: The Truth at Last

Fred Goerner, The Search for Amelia Earhart

Vincent V. Loomis, Amelia Earhart: The Final Story

Les Kinney, Amelia Earhart: Beyond the Grave

Theodore G. Tharpe, Crash and Sink: The Salvage of the Earhart Electra

National Geographic Society, “Amelia Earhart Biography and Disappearance”

Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, “Amelia Earhart”

Library of Congress, “Amelia Earhart Papers”

FBI Records: The Vault, “Amelia Earhart”

TIGHAR (The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery), “Amelia Earhart Project Research”

U.S. Navy Historical Center, “Earhart Search Operations 1937”

PBS American Experience, Amelia Earhart

History Channel, “Amelia Earhart Disappearance Theories”

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