Helene Stöcker with Lydia Moland

In this episode, Juliette Marchant is joined by Lydia Moland, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Professor of Philosophy at Colby College, to uncover the extraordinary—and often forgotten—story of Helene Stöcker, a trailblazer of early 20th-century feminism.

Stöcker championed sexual reform, reproductive freedom, and radical pacifism, and pushed for a “new ethic” she believed could reshape society from the inside out. Moland walks us through Stöcker’s bold readings of Nietzsche, her fight for gender equality and social justice, and her fierce resistance to rising nationalism and militarism before World War II. It’s a conversation about a visionary thinker whose ideas feel strikingly urgent today.

Texts Referenced in the episode:

Lydia Maria Child : A Radical American Life - Lydia Moland

The Oxford Handbook of American and British Women Philosophers in the Nineteenth Century - Edited by Lydia Moland and Alison Stone

The Oxford Handbook of Nineteenth-Century Women Philosophers in the German Tradition - Edited by Kristin Gjesdal and Dalia Nassar