Sep 10, 2026 · 1 hr 25 min · 31 segments
On today’s episode, we’re reviewing the psychological, historical fiction novel: The Mad Wife by Meagan Church. Tune in to hear us discuss Lulu’s struggle with depression, the twist that will have you…
all right so megan church is a new york times and usa today best-selling author who writes emotionally charged thought-provoking empathy-inducing stories that explore the complexity of human nature.
It really does.
But I pulled that from her website bio.
Or story graph it was before.
Yeah.
I was like, oh, that's actually word salad.
Her historical fiction chronicles the plight and fight of unheard voices of the past.
She holds a BA in English from Indiana University, which is where my boss went, and is an adjunct for Drexel University's MFA and creative writing program.
She is a Midwesterner by birth.
She now lives in North Carolina with her high school sweetheart, three children, and a plethora of pets.
Love that.
So I had found this interview she did about The Mad Wife.
And the interviewer had asked Megan what inspired her to write it.
So I have a little blurb about what she wrote.
She said, honestly, the idea began with failure or at least rejection.
I had pitched two other concepts to my editor and she kindly passed on both.
As I regrouped and tried to pivot, I stumbled across a psychiatric training film from the 1960s on YouTube.
In it, a woman dressed like Laura Pietrangelo Petri? Petri? Don't know.
From the Dick Van Dyke Show, sits on a therapist's couch smoking, legs crossed, and says she doesn't like it when it's quiet.
What follows is a monologue about her childhood trauma, her failing marriage, and her belief that it's all her fault because she just needs to get her nerves in order.
I watched that clip several times, wondering what she wasn't saying, what she couldn't say.
That led me down a rabbit hole into the history of hysteria and women's mental health.
And then back to rereading The Bell Jar, I started to imagine a version of that story written for the modern reader, one that explored how easily women's pain can be misunderstood, dismissed, or silenced.
And that became The Mad Wife.
all right so megan church is a new york times and usa today best-selling author who writes emotionally charged thought-provoking empathy-inducing stories that explore the complexity of human nature.
It really does.
But I pulled that from her website bio.
Or story graph it was before.
Yeah.
I was like, oh, that's actually word salad.
Her historical fiction chronicles the plight and fight of unheard voices of the past.
She holds a BA in English from Indiana University, which is where my boss went, and is an adjunct for Drexel University's MFA and creative writing program.
She is a Midwesterner by birth.
She now lives in North Carolina with her high school sweetheart, three children, and a plethora of pets.
Love that.
So I had found this interview she did about The Mad Wife.
And the interviewer had asked Megan what inspired her to write it.
So I have a little blurb about what she wrote.
She said, honestly, the idea began with failure or at least rejection.
I had pitched two other concepts to my editor and she kindly passed on both.
As I regrouped and tried to pivot, I stumbled across a psychiatric training film from the 1960s on YouTube.
In it, a woman dressed like Laura Pietrangelo Petri? Petri? Don't know.
From the Dick Van Dyke Show, sits on a therapist's couch smoking, legs crossed, and says she doesn't like it when it's quiet.
What follows is a monologue about her childhood trauma, her failing marriage, and her belief that it's all her fault because she just needs to get her nerves in order.
I watched that clip several times, wondering what she wasn't saying, what she couldn't say.
That led me down a rabbit hole into the history of hysteria and women's mental health.
And then back to rereading The Bell Jar, I started to imagine a version of that story written for the modern reader, one that explored how easily women's pain can be misunderstood, dismissed, or silenced.
And that became The Mad Wife.
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