The informal, first person tale:
I am was a columnist for the Kansas City Star, a freelance writer, one half of The History Chicks podcast and website team, and host of A Slice From The Middle podcast. My cute but small house, where I jostle for space with my husband and three children, is in a rural suburb of Kansas City (Missouri). Whenever I can escape the Midwest I flee to the New England seashore where I was raised and where, mysteriously, I become a mermaid.
Ish.
The three phases on my life: Connecticut raised, Southern Educated and Midwest transplanted. In my former versions I held so many part-time jobs that I I lost track, was a Special Events Planner, and managed portrait studios. I ditched the cushy (hahahahano) corporate world for a cushy (again…no) Stay-at-home Mom gig when my first child was born. When I tired of writing only PE excuses and grocery lists, I began blogging in 2009 for both myself (first blog home) and a now defunct website- mom2momKC. (I didn’t break it, I swear!) I got down to business a couple years later with both the beginning of my column and the podcast with Beckett Graham.
In my free time (I can’t even type that with a straight face) I obsessively garden, read and binge chick-flicks and Doctor Who with my teenage daughter. I can frequently be seen cheering for my sporty sons although I know little about the rules of their sports. Bragging rights include: baking damn fine cakes, tastefully working lawn flamingos into landscape design, successfully avoiding PTO meetings for 13 years (and counting), turning a cocktail into a meal, and striking-up awkward small talk with anyone. Any. One.
The formal, third-person version:
Susan is currently a columnist for the Kansas City Star, a freelance writer and one half of The History Chicks podcast and website team. She received her bachelors degree in Communications from Loyola University, New Orleans, and has had careers as both a Special Event Planner and in Photography Studio Management.
A lifelong reader and hobby writer, Susan began blogging for herself, and on a parenting website and community –Mom2Momkc.com– in 2009. Within two years she began her slice-of-life column in The Kansas City Star as well as co-hosting and co-writing The History Chicks Podcast with Beckett Graham. The positively reviewed podcast has been described as, “historically based girl talk” but is more formally recognized as the #1 Women’s History podcast available. It has been a finalist for five consecutive Podcast Awards and has a world-wide listenership.
Born and raised in New England, Susan now lives in a sweet, small Midwestern town outside of Kansas City, Missouri with her husband, three children and no pets. At all. Because of this Susan and her husband have earned the title, Meanest Parents Ever. She enjoys gardening and baking as well as teaching her kids to cook and set a proper table although they eat on TV trays half the time.
Susan is available to talk writing and podcasting to local organizations and classrooms from grade school to wine levels.
Contact: AMiddleSlicePodcast@GMAIL.COM
Slice From the Middle: Susan Vollenweider 
I miss your column and the entire 816 section of the KC Star. Is the 816 section no longer being printed? Was out of town for 3 weeks and it was gone when I returned.
The 816 still exists, maybe it’s your carrier? It’s in the Wednesday paper. Although I do (usually) link each article up on this site under the COLUMNS tab. Usually. 🙂
Love hearing you on the History Chicks Susan! My favourite podcast at the moment 🙂 I feel like I’m there in the living room having a laugh and interesting chat with you ladies. Keep it up! Jess x
Thank you, Jess! To be honest, we feel like you guys are there with us too…just being reeeaaallly quiet. 🙂
Love hearing you on the History Chicks Susan! My favourite podcast at the moment 🙂 I feel like I’m there in the living room having a laugh and interesting chat with you ladies. Keep it up! Jess x
I love your podcasts and I’ve been meaning to suggest a book for you and Beckett: the wonderful “Age of Magnificence: Memoirs of the Duc de Saint Simon, abridged and edited by his descendant, Sanche de Graumont ( pub. 1964). (Graumont later became the American citizen and writer Ted Morgan.) I used to have a paperback copy. For a mind-boggling visit to the courts of Louis XIV & Louis XV — the pettiness, the filth, the glimpses of royalty as real human beings, the manners that could ruin or win favor for a courtier, this is the book! Think of getting through a doorway in one of those wide panniers, for instance: double doors were only opened for women of high rank, so lesser ladies had to squeeze through sideways (and while walking backwards if leaving the presence of the king….) From enemies to enemas, the Duc describes it all! It’s not about one single individual — although many women you have or will podcast about make appearances — but as background (with lots of shocking and amusing moments, it’s history that’s fun to read.)
I discovered your podcast yesterday. I find it delightful and interesting. However, not being a chick, I feel awkward….sort of intruding. Specially when you start your adds about foods and bra..sizes…give me a break!
Can you suggest a more rooster oriented site (where the discussion would be bra content) ….in short, do you want me to stick around and listen to you in plain sight or do it in hiding
I’m glad that you found the show and enjoy the content. Our audience is not entirely made of women, 1:8 are men (who mostly do so not in hiding) and many parents listen with their children– both girls and boys. While I can understand a small twinge of uncomfortableness when we present an undergarment company advertisement (see: How I feel when watching any sporting event with Viagra or Cialis ads) food is a universally consumed product. Further, if you haven’t gotten far into our back catalog (we’ve been producing the show for almost seven years) you will find that we talk about many women’s personal issues that may also cause that feeling including menstruation, child birth, sexual assault and historical, legally necessitated dependence on, and control by men.
Our show is free to listen to but expensive to produce. Our kind advertisers help keep the show going and we obviously would really love and appreciate it if our listeners supported the companies that support us. While there are no women’s history podcasts that I’m aware of that are hosted by men (nor would I recommend one that focuses on bra content) I can introduce you to the SKIP function on most podcast players that allows you to fast forward 10 or 30 seconds. Skipping two minutes of ads still leaves you with (usually) an hour of content focused on understanding the history and point of view of about the half the population. Thanks for listening!
Hi Susan. Just came across yours and Beckett’s podcast here in Australia. Bit of a history nut. It’s nice to hear from a different perspective. I especially enjoyed the series on the Tudors.
Please keep up the good work. Dave
Hi Dave! Thanks a lot! Glad you found the show (and me over here, that’s very flattering!)
I loved your lunchbox article in the Olathe News. My daughter is going off to college in the fall, and I am sad I will no longer make her lunch. My husband rolls his eyes, but my daughter loves it.
Thank you for your article in today’s 913 magazine. I have had all holiday dinners, birthdays, parties, etc. for decades (I have been married for 55 years) and, like you, started cooking when I was little. I also started ironing when I was 8 (and still iron to this date). I can really relate to your situation. Keep writing!!