Spooky Snob: Nellie Bly | Ten Days Undercover in an Insane Asylum

In 1887, a 23-year-old reporter got herself committed to a women’s insane asylum with one assignment: find out what was happening inside. Getting in was disturbingly easy. Getting out would take more than telling the truth. This week on Spooky Snob, we’re talking about Nellie Bly and the ten days she spent undercover on Blackwell’s Island. From freezing baths and abusive staff to women who were locked away simply because no one understood them, her account exposed conditions the public could no longer ignore. We’re also getting into the woman behind the investigation, whose response to being told what women couldn’t do was to go out and do it anyway. Taking on a newspaper, going undercover, racing around the world in 72 days… Nellie had a lot to get done. But her asylum stay is the part that sticks with you. Because Nellie had people on the outside working to get her home. The women she left behind weren’t all that lucky.