Listen free for 30 days
-
Headstrong
- 52 Women Who Changed Science-and the World
- Narrated by: Lauren Fortgang
- Length: 7 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged Audiobook
- Categories: Biographies & Memoirs, Professionals & Academics
Add to basket failed.
Add to wishlist failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Listen with a free trial
Buy Now for £22.99
No valid payment method on file.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Ten Women Who Changed Science and the World
- By: Catherine Whitlock, Rhodri Evans
- Narrated by: Lisa Coleman
- Length: 10 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With a foreword by Athene Donald, Professor of Experimental Physics, University of Cambridge and Master of Churchill College. Ten Women Who Changed Science tells the moving stories of the physicists, biologists, chemists, astronomers and doctors who helped to shape our world with their extraordinary breakthroughs and inventions, and outlines their remarkable achievements. These scientists overcame significant obstacles, often simply because they were women. Their science and their lives were driven by personal tragedies and shaped by seismic world events.
-
The English and Their History
- By: Robert Tombs
- Narrated by: Stephen Thorne
- Length: 45 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The English and their History, the first full-length account to appear in one volume for many decades, Robert Tombs gives us the history of the English people and of how the stories they have told about themselves have shaped them, from the prehistoric 'dreamtime' through to the present day.
-
-
Unbalanced and Biased
- By Michael Gleeson on 17-07-19
-
The Royal Art of Poison
- Fatal Cosmetics, Deadly Medicines and Murder Most Foul
- By: Eleanor Herman
- Narrated by: Joan Walker
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For centuries, royal families have feared the gut-roiling, vomit-inducing agony of a little something added to their food or wine by an enemy. To avoid poison, they depended on tasters, unicorn horns and antidotes tested on condemned prisoners. The Royal Art of Poison is a hugely entertaining work of popular history that traces the use of poison as a political - and cosmetic - tool in the royal courts of Western Europe from the Middle Ages to the Kremlin today.
-
-
A really great book!
- By James Moynihan on 20-06-20
-
The Wind in the Willows
- By: Kenneth Grahame, Dina Gregory
- Narrated by: Cush Jumbo, Harriet Walter, Aimee Lou Wood, and others
- Length: 7 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Meet Lady Toad, Mistress Badger, Miss Water Rat and Mrs Mole as they go about their adventures, messing around on the river, gallivanting in Lady Toad’s shiny new toy and fighting valiantly to save Toad Hall from unruly squatters. In this retelling by Dina Gregory, The Wind in the Willows becomes a story about a group of female animals to be admired for their close sisterhood and fierce independence. Featuring original music and songs by Rosabella Gregory and sound effects captured on location, put your headphones on, sit back and lose yourself in the British countryside.
-
-
Why Bother?
- By swampedbybunnies on 08-12-20
-
Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World
- By: Jack Weatherford
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis, Jack Weatherford
- Length: 14 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Mongol army led by Genghis Khan subjugated more lands and people in 25 years than the Romans did in 400. In nearly every country the Mongols conquered, they brought an unprecedented rise in cultural communication, expanded trade, and a blossoming of civilization.
-
-
An enjoyable hagiography(?)
- By Nik Jewell on 16-05-18
-
SPQR
- A History of Ancient Rome
- By: Mary Beard
- Narrated by: Phyllida Nash
- Length: 18 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ancient Rome matters. Its history of empire, conquest, cruelty and excess is something against which we still judge ourselves. Its myths and stories - from Romulus and Remus to the Rape of Lucretia - still strike a chord with us. And its debates about citizenship, security and the rights of the individual still influence our own debates on civil liberty today. SPQR is a new look at Roman history from one of the world's foremost classicists.
-
-
Boring
- By Louise on 01-01-22
-
Ten Women Who Changed Science and the World
- By: Catherine Whitlock, Rhodri Evans
- Narrated by: Lisa Coleman
- Length: 10 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With a foreword by Athene Donald, Professor of Experimental Physics, University of Cambridge and Master of Churchill College. Ten Women Who Changed Science tells the moving stories of the physicists, biologists, chemists, astronomers and doctors who helped to shape our world with their extraordinary breakthroughs and inventions, and outlines their remarkable achievements. These scientists overcame significant obstacles, often simply because they were women. Their science and their lives were driven by personal tragedies and shaped by seismic world events.
-
The English and Their History
- By: Robert Tombs
- Narrated by: Stephen Thorne
- Length: 45 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The English and their History, the first full-length account to appear in one volume for many decades, Robert Tombs gives us the history of the English people and of how the stories they have told about themselves have shaped them, from the prehistoric 'dreamtime' through to the present day.
-
-
Unbalanced and Biased
- By Michael Gleeson on 17-07-19
-
The Royal Art of Poison
- Fatal Cosmetics, Deadly Medicines and Murder Most Foul
- By: Eleanor Herman
- Narrated by: Joan Walker
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For centuries, royal families have feared the gut-roiling, vomit-inducing agony of a little something added to their food or wine by an enemy. To avoid poison, they depended on tasters, unicorn horns and antidotes tested on condemned prisoners. The Royal Art of Poison is a hugely entertaining work of popular history that traces the use of poison as a political - and cosmetic - tool in the royal courts of Western Europe from the Middle Ages to the Kremlin today.
-
-
A really great book!
- By James Moynihan on 20-06-20
-
The Wind in the Willows
- By: Kenneth Grahame, Dina Gregory
- Narrated by: Cush Jumbo, Harriet Walter, Aimee Lou Wood, and others
- Length: 7 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Meet Lady Toad, Mistress Badger, Miss Water Rat and Mrs Mole as they go about their adventures, messing around on the river, gallivanting in Lady Toad’s shiny new toy and fighting valiantly to save Toad Hall from unruly squatters. In this retelling by Dina Gregory, The Wind in the Willows becomes a story about a group of female animals to be admired for their close sisterhood and fierce independence. Featuring original music and songs by Rosabella Gregory and sound effects captured on location, put your headphones on, sit back and lose yourself in the British countryside.
-
-
Why Bother?
- By swampedbybunnies on 08-12-20
-
Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World
- By: Jack Weatherford
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis, Jack Weatherford
- Length: 14 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Mongol army led by Genghis Khan subjugated more lands and people in 25 years than the Romans did in 400. In nearly every country the Mongols conquered, they brought an unprecedented rise in cultural communication, expanded trade, and a blossoming of civilization.
-
-
An enjoyable hagiography(?)
- By Nik Jewell on 16-05-18
-
SPQR
- A History of Ancient Rome
- By: Mary Beard
- Narrated by: Phyllida Nash
- Length: 18 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ancient Rome matters. Its history of empire, conquest, cruelty and excess is something against which we still judge ourselves. Its myths and stories - from Romulus and Remus to the Rape of Lucretia - still strike a chord with us. And its debates about citizenship, security and the rights of the individual still influence our own debates on civil liberty today. SPQR is a new look at Roman history from one of the world's foremost classicists.
-
-
Boring
- By Louise on 01-01-22
-
Inferior
- How Science Got Women Wrong - and the New Research That's Rewriting the Story
- By: Angela Saini
- Narrated by: Tania Rodrigues
- Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From intelligence to emotion, for centuries science has told us that men and women are fundamentally different. But this is not the whole story. Shedding light on controversial research and investigating the ferocious gender wars in biology, psychology and anthropology, Angela Saini takes listeners on an eye-opening journey to uncover how women are being rediscovered. She explores what these revelations mean for us as individuals and as a society, revealing an alternative view of science in which women are included rather than excluded.
-
-
Essential reading.
- By Daisy Day on 25-08-18
-
Unravelling the Double Helix
- The Lost Heroes of DNA
- By: Gareth Williams
- Narrated by: Matt Addis
- Length: 15 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Unravelling the Double Helix covers the most colourful period in the history of DNA, from the discovery of 'nuclein' in the late 1860s to the publication of Watson's The Double Helix in 1968. This is a saga packed with awful mistakes as well as brilliant science, with a wonderful cast of heroes and villains. Surprisingly, much of it is unfamiliar because the early history is largely neglected by books which focus on the episode of the double helix.
-
-
Keeps you gripped from start to finish
- By DR ALUN GRIFFITH on 17-12-19
-
The Radium Girls
- They Paid with Their Lives. Their Final Fight Was for Justice.
- By: Kate Moore
- Narrated by: Kate Moore
- Length: 15 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1917, as a war raged across the world, young American women flocked to work, painting watches, clocks, and military dials with a special luminous substance made from radium. It was a fun job, lucrative and glamorous - the girls themselves shone brightly in the dark, covered head to toe in the dust from the paint. They were the radium girls. As the years passed, the women began to suffer from mysterious and crippling illnesses. The very thing that had made them feel alive was in fact killing them.
-
-
Outstanding and well researched book
- By Janis Uk on 14-02-19
-
The Girl Who Drank the Moon
- By: Kelly Barnhill
- Narrated by: Christina Moore
- Length: 9 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Every year, the people of the Protectorate leave a baby as an offering to the witch who lives in the forest. But Xan is in fact a good witch who rescues the children. One year, Xan accidentally feeds a baby moonlight instead of starlight, filling the ordinary child with extraordinary magic.
-
-
one of the gratest storytellers
- By Marianne Halvorsen on 03-03-22
-
Sapiens
- By: Yuval Noah Harari
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 15 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Earth is 4.5 billion years old. In just a fraction of that time, one species among countless others has conquered it. Us. We are the most advanced and most destructive animals ever to have lived. What makes us brilliant? What makes us deadly? What makes us sapiens? In this bold and provocative audiobook, Yuval Noah Harari explores who we are, how we got here, and where we're going.
-
-
Simplistic nonsense
- By RTx on 14-07-19
-
Storm in a Teacup
- The Physics of Everyday Life
- By: Helen Czerski
- Narrated by: Chloe Massey
- Length: 10 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What is it that helps both scorpions and cyclists to survive? What do raw eggs and gyroscopes have in common? And why does it matter? In an age of string theory, fluid dynamics and biophysics, it can seem as if the science of our world is for only specialists and academics. Not so, insists Helen Czerski - and in this sparkling new audiobook she explores the patterns and connections that illustrate the grandest theories in the smallest everyday objects and experiences.
-
-
Not such a big storm
- By Viv on 05-02-17
-
Jonas Salk
- A Life
- By: Charlotte DeCroes Jacobs
- Narrated by: Pam Ward
- Length: 20 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When a waiting world learned on April 12, 1955, that Jonas Salk had successfully created a vaccine to prevent poliomyelitis, he became a hero overnight. Born in a New York tenement, humble in manner, Salk had all the makings of a 20th-century icon - a knight in a white coat. In the wake of his achievement, he received a staggering number of awards and honors; for years his name ranked with Gandhi and Churchill on lists of the most revered people.
-
Madness and Memory
- The Discovery of Prions - A New Biological Principle of Disease
- By: Stanley B. Prusiner
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 10 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this book, Prusiner tells the remarkable story of his discovery of prions - infectious proteins that replicate and cause disease but surprisingly contain no genetic material - and reveals how superb and meticulous science is actually practiced with talented teams of researchers who persevere. He recounts the frustrations and rewards of years of research and offers fascinating portraits of his peers as they raced to discover the causes of fatal brain diseases.
-
-
excellent and riveting story.
- By Amazon Customer on 10-04-22
-
A Brief History of Creation
- Science and the Search for the Origin of Life
- By: Bill Mesler, H. James Cleaves II
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 10 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How did life begin? It is perhaps the most important question science has ever asked. Over the centuries, the search for an answer has been entwined with some of science's most revolutionary advances, including van Leeuwenhoek's microscope, Darwin's theory of evolution, and Crick and Watson's unveiling of DNA.
-
-
Fantastic History Book
- By Andrew Golightly on 05-09-21
-
Experiment Eleven
- Deceit and Betrayal in the Discovery of the Cure for Tuberculosis
- By: Peter Pringle
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 9 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1943, Albert Schatz, a young Rutgers College Ph.D. student, worked on a wartime project in microbiology professor Selman Waksman's lab, searching for an antibiotic to fight infections on the front lines and at home. In his 11th experiment on a common bacterium found in farmyard soil, Schatz discovered streptomycin, the first effective cure for tuberculosis, one of the world's deadliest diseases.
-
Inventology
- How We Dream Up Things That Change the World
- By: Pagan Kennedy
- Narrated by: Jennifer Vuletic, Pagan Kennedy
- Length: 7 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A businessman struggles with his luggage at an airport and pioneers the wheeled suitcase. An engineer watches people using walkie-talkies and dreams up the mobile phone. A printer is frustrated by his unpredictable inks and creates the Pantone colour system. Why were these particular people able to identify problems, and how did they discover the solutions that everyone else missed? Where exactly did their great ideas come from, and how did they go about making them into reality?
-
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
- By: Rebecca Skloot
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 12 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer whose cancer cells – taken without her knowledge – became one of the most important tools in medicine
-
-
Great Read!
- By Linda on 16-04-11
Summary
Fifty-two inspiring and insightful profiles of history's brightest female scientists.
In 2013, the New York Times published an obituary for Yvonne Brill. It began: "She made a mean beef stroganoff, followed her husband from job to job, and took eight years off from work to raise three children." It wasn't until the second paragraph that readers discovered why the Times had devoted several hundred words to her life: Brill was a brilliant rocket scientist who invented a propulsion system to keep communications satellites in orbit, and had recently been awarded the National Medal of Technology and Innovation. Among the questions the obituary - and consequent outcry - prompted were, Who are the role models for today's female scientists, and where can we find the stories that cast them in their true light?
Headstrong delivers a powerful, global, and engaging response. Covering Nobel Prize winners and major innovators, as well as lesser-known but hugely significant scientists who influence our every day, Rachel Swaby's vibrant profiles span centuries of courageous thinkers and illustrate how each one's ideas developed, from their first moment of scientific engagement through the research and discovery for which they're best known. This fascinating tour reveals these 52 women at their best - while encouraging and inspiring a new generation of girls to put on their lab coats.
Critic reviews
More from the same
Author
What listeners say about Headstrong
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- K. McCormack
- 23-03-17
Perfect Summary
Easy to understand and listen to. Perfect short summaries of amazing woman in our history.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amelia
- 21-07-15
Inspirational
What did you like most about Headstrong?
This book is an inspiration. Any woman in science should read it. It gives that balanced perspective that difficulties are normal even for these brilliant women, but if you love what you do, you'll do it no matter the circumstances.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- mtsuda90
- 25-06-16
Role models for young women
Highly recommended, a much-needed book portraying the lives and works of strong women scientists. Fifty-two excellent role models for young women. I would have liked to see more biographies on women living outside the U.S., Europe, and Russia.
For most of the audible version, the narrator spoke in U.S. English. However, in parts where people from other countries were quoted, she slipped into accents that sounded stereotypical and almost disdainful. I would have liked it better if she spoke those parts without the accents.
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- P.
- 27-05-15
Needed reading for all
These 52 vignettes of women who labored because of their love of science or technology is fascinating and needed reading by anyone interested in history of science or technology and by all teachers
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- V. Heibel
- 14-08-17
Great Content, Annoying Performance
I loved the content! However the performance took away from the message. The mispronunciation of both common and scientific terms was annoying. The accented voices used to read quotes were both inappropriate and distracting.
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- serine
- 10-02-16
Essential history
So many wonderful women in science. I am thankful for Rachel Swaby for bringing them to society's awareness. I have heard better versions of some of these histories, but have never heard them compiled together in a book like this, which really highlights the accomplishments of women, despite all they had to overcome to force their way into education and the sciences. Further, even though I was aware of many women in the book, because I love the history of science, there were still some new biographies for me to enjoy.
I often had to stop reading to reflect on how much they suffered and how hard they worked some that women today could get an education and have an easier time entering science related professions. The story of Mary Taussig was my favorite. Rejected by Harvard and other universities, she persevered only to change the face of medicine. Babies born with heart defects died. There was not a whole lot that could be done. But Taussig changed all that. She is my new hero.
My favorite part of the book was the history of Harvard, thrown into many of the biographies, and how it worked so hard to keep women from entering universities, not just their university, but all universities. The way male experts in a position of power treated intelligent women is without question an important thing to understand and remember.
So many wonderful women. A must read.
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Michiko
- 30-12-17
Inspiring
I love the concept for this book. While each individual woman included is extraordinary, listing 52 female scientists - instead of, say, 10 - drives home the message that any girl, with enough hard work, can become an expert in any field she wants. There are great lessons to be learned here about curiosity, determination and perseverance in the face of any obstacle. I learned new things about already well-known scientists (Florence Nightingale, Sally Ride, Rachel Carson, etc.) and discovered a couple of new favorites as well (Tilly Edinger, Helen Taussig).
The narration was good overall. Fortgang expresses a genuine interest in the material. Unfortunately, her performance is marred by awkward attempts at various European accents. The people who put this audiobook together should have asked her to read quotes in her own voice.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Payton Reynolds
- 26-02-21
Inspiring
As a young female PhD student, this novel radiates and residents. Thank you Rachel Swaby for composing and ensuring the legacy these extraordinary ladies paved for all women in STEM.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Yoli
- 24-01-20
Stories We Need To Know.
Everyone should know about these women! Great read for teens. My high school class read this for book club. We were able to use this for supplemental text for English and Science. Short, interesting, well done!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Barbara Reilly
- 14-09-17
Enjoyed It
Impressive research effort about some very impressive women. Glad I didn't miss it. More coming?
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- KD
- 04-09-17
Disorganized
Too many stories. Not enough depth into any one. Disappointing to never get to "know" the women at all, just there name and accomplishment. Not fun to listen to.