Amanda Callan-Spenn and Judo

This week Geoff is talking to the judo historian Amanda Callan-Spenn about the remarkable and racy life of the pioneering female judo practitioner Sarah Mayer in the tenth Sport in History Podcast brought to you by the British Society of Sport History in association with the Institute of Historical Research. Amanda talks about Sarah Mayer's career as a theatre manager before she went on a remarkable journey across the world to become the first British woman to receive a black belt in judo. It was also chaos on the podcast this week! We had helicopters, papers blown away, rowdy wait staff and a cup-smashing pigeon (!) so please forgive the edits. Amanda also talks about her work on an exhibition at the Museum of East Asian Life in Bath which will coincide with the Tokyo Olympics of 2020. Amanda Callan-Spenn is a biographer and historian working mainly in the areas of theatre and martial arts in the early twentieth century. She is particularly interested in archival research and her recently completed PhD thesis was a biographical study of Sarah Mayer, the first western female judo black belt in Japan.