The Ballad of Dena & Andrea
“The Ballad of Dena & Andrea” is a podcast featuring original murder ballads and conversations in reaction to the story of Andrea Yates and Dena Schlosser, two women who murdered their children in the early 2000s.
Host Becky Poole was originally drawn to this story when she learned that Dena and Andrea ended up as roommates, briefly, in a North Texas mental institution. She soon discovered that their lives had been heading in the same tragic and preventable direction for years. Poole wrote an album in the style of Appalachian murder ballads and Americana to create empathetic myths about these mothers.
With this podcast, she invites artists, colleagues, and friends to have conversations in reaction to the story - covering topics like religion, mental health, women's health, misogyny, our failing justice and healthcare systems, motherhood, creating work about tragedy, and more. Each episode includes a bit of Dena and Andrea's story, an interview chat, and an original song. Not a classic true crime doc but myth-making by ballad with honest conversations. Please join us to discover what might come up for you.
The Ballad of Dena & Andrea
Extra Bit - Christian Surfers
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Tara Shoe tells me about New Jersey's Christian Surfers and we get into a bit of the Matthew Coleman story. The man (and Christian Surfer) who killed his kids b/c they had serpent's blood.
Thank you for listening. For more about postpartum psychosis, go to Postpartum Support International. For the full album click here . Join the conversation on Instagram.
