Betwixt The Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society
By History Hit
Why did kings and queens have spectators on their wedding night? Who had the very first boob job? And did our ancestors have their unmentionables pierced?
Join historian, Kate Lister, Betwixt the Sheets as she unashamedly roots around the topics which seem to have been skipped in history class.
Everything from landmark LGBTQ+ court cases, to political scandal, to downright bizarre medieval cures for impotence. The etymology of swear words, gender bias in medicine, and satanic panic and cults - there’s nothing off limits.
She'll be bed-hopping around different time periods; from ancient civilisations, to the middle ages, to renaissance and early modern...right up to now.
You’ll laugh, you’ll wince, and you’ll ask yourself how much has actually changed.
So join Kate Betwixt the Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society - a podcast from History Hit.
Latest episode
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History of Grief: Sky Burials & Victorian Death Photos
Why did the Victorians dress up their dead relatives for photo shoots?What are the origins of embalming? And why do most of us have such a separated relationship with death?Helping Ka… -
Flagellation Brothels: Georgian Spanking Houses
18th century London was a haven for kinky connoisseurs, and flagellation houses were at the heart of it.Whatever your preference to be spanked by - birches, whips, paddles - they had you covered. -
Incest & Royalty: House of the Dragon & Beyond
With the House of the Dragon featuring *that* incest scene, we thought we'd look into the real history of sexual relations within families.Has it always been taboo? How have the necessary degrees of separation be… -
Gaslighting to Woke: Origins of Modern Buzzwords
What does it mean to be 'woke'? What did the bluesman Leadbelly mean when he coined the phrase? And what does a story set in Victorian London have to do with the term gaslighting?Joining Kate today is Robbie Morg… -
Surprising History of Redheads: From Prehistoric Gingers to Ed Sheeran
Boudica. Elizabeth I. Ed Sheeran. The history of the redhead goes back thousands of years, and it fluctuates from prejudice in medieval Europe, to the height of fashion in Protestant England.2% of the global popu… -
Queer London & The Post-War Moral Panic
In the wake of the Second World War, a moral panic swept through Britain around a rise in homosexuality.London was the heart of this scare because of how thriving and vibrant the gay scene was. -
Emperors & Scandals in Ancient Rome with Mary Beard
What happens at a Roman emperor's dinner party? Why would you be lucky to get out alive? And how are emperors even chosen?Joining Kate today is the one, the only Mary Beard, to take us back to Ancient Rome and he… -
Sex & Scandal in UK Politics
With the UK election a mere few days away (at time of release), what better time to look back at some of the biggest scandals in our political history?In this episode, Kate's exploring the notorious Profumo affai… -
Origins of the Patriarchy
Whose idea was the patriarchy? How long has it been a part of our lives? And how do we even define it?For something that's so prevalent in most of our lives, it can sometimes feel like there's an inevitability to… -
Incest in Ancient Egypt
From recent research we know that the great boy king Tutankhamun was a result of incest.How did it effect him? And was incest in Ancient Egypt mostly for symbolic reasons of retaining power, or did it go further …