Feb 5, 2015
A baker's dozen in, we feature our first bit of bike touring history. Set your wayback machine over 100 years to the 1890s as we learn about the amazing Annie "Londonderry" Kopchovsky, one of the pioneering women of bike touring. Next time you're struggling in granny gear up a big climb think about what it would feel like on a 42 pound fixie... just one of the challenges Annie faced on her amazing adventures.
Shownotes are at pedalshift.net/013.
The Journal
Special thanks to our guest, Gillian Klempner Willman the Producer/Director of the amazing documentary The New Woman: Annie 'Londonderry' Kopchovsky.
The New Woman is the directorial debut for Washington, DC filmmaker Gillian K. Willman and has been a seven-year long labor of love. In addition to producing this independent documentary, Gillian is also Producer / Writer at Cortina Productions, a multimedia production company, where she has written, directed, and produced video and interactive content for more than a dozen cultural institutions, including presentations in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, The Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum, The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum, the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library and Museum, the Virginia Museum of Natural History, the Museum of Tolerance, the Capitol Visitor Center, the Sports Museum of America, and the Lincoln Cottage Visitor Education Center.
Gillian has played a key role in the research and production of several long and short form documentary projects, including Peter Jennings Reporting: Guantanamo, Trade Secrets: A Moyers Report, and Discovery Education’s “The Science of Plants.” She is a graduate of Cornell University and lives in Washington, DC with her husband, Ben, daughter, Leila, and cats, Lucy and Oscar.
Learn more about Gillian at spokeswomanproductions.com.
More Annie
- Around the World on Two Wheels: Annie Londonderry's Extraordinary Ride by Peter Zheutlin - more on the book at annielondonderry.com.
- Wiki on Annie
- Cool infographic style version of Annie's ride
- Hat tip to @FeministPics for the inspiration to learn about this remarkable woman!
Music
The Pedalshift Project theme is America courtesy of Jason Kent off his self-titled solo album. Check out his band Sunfields' new release, Habitat, wherever cool music resides. And hey, new video for Ghost!