Betwixt The Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society

From medieval d*ck pics to sex with monks, how did people in medieval times think about sex and sexuality?It was a period that spanned roughly 1,000 years and even though views on sex were largely shaped by the dominant Christian faith, whether this filtered down to every day experiences is another question.Joining Kate today is the legendary sex historian Professor Ruth Karras, author of Sexuality in Mediaeval Europe: Doing Unto Others.Why did people in the middle ages think that women were more highly sexed than men? What did they believe were aphrodisiacs at this time? And what did they think caused STIs?This episode was edited by Matt Peaty and Stuart Beckwith. The producer was Stuart Beckwith. The senior producer was Charlotte Long.All music from Epidemic Sounds/All3 Media.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.You can take part in our listener survey here.Betwixt the Sheets: History of Sex, Scandal & Society is a History Hit podcast.

Cosmetic procedures are a huge part of (most of our) worlds.With new ones seemingly cropping up all the time, the boob job feels like an old classic.What are the origins of the boob job? Who had the first ever one? And how has it changed over time?Today we're revisiting a conversation Kate had with Professor Ruth Holliday and cosmetic surgeon Professor Vikram Devaraj, to find out more about this bumpy history.This episode was edited by Annie Coloe & Tom Delargy. The producer was Sophie Gee. The senior producer was Charlotte Long.All music from Epidemic Sounds/All3 Media.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.  You can take part in our listener survey here.Betwixt the Sheets: History of Sex, Scandal & Society is a History Hit podcast.

Dating back some 30,000 years, sex toys have a long (no pun intended) and fascinating history.What were the earliest sex toys like? How did technology change them? And did Victorian doctors really prescribing them for back pain?In today's episode, we're revisiting an episode where Kate was joined by writer, sex and gender historian Hallie Lieberman to discuss the first dildo, the myth of the vibrator, and more.Find out more about Hallie's book, Buzz: The Stimulating History of the Sex Toy, here.This episode was produced by Charlotte Long and Sophie Gee. Mixed by Seyi Adaobi.All music from Epidemic Sounds/All3 Media.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.  You can take part in our listener survey here.Betwixt the Sheets: History of Sex, Scandal & Society is a History Hit podcast.

Like it or not, there's no escaping Charles Dickens at this time of year.But who was the man behind classics such as A Tale of Two Cities, Oliver Twist and of course, A Christmas Carol?His life is as rich as many of the characters' stories in one of his books, including a brutal Victorian upbringing and rumours of sex and scandal.Joining us in this re-run to explore the controversy of the man is Charles Dickens super-fan Miriam Margolyes - a national treasure in her own right.Having written and starred in the play, Dickens Women, Miriam knows better than most the complicated relationships he had in his life: from his mother who took him out of school to work in a rat-infested blacking factory aged 12, to his wife whom he had a bookcase wall built to separate her from him.This episode was edited and produced by Stuart Beckwith. The senior producer was Charlotte Long.All music from Epidemic Sounds/All3 Media.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.  You can take part in our listener survey here.Betwixt the Sheets: History of Sex, Scandal & Society is a History Hit podcast.

At the time, surely Kateryn Parr had her reservations about being Henry VIII's sixth wife?Aside from being a tyrannical maniac who'd just beheaded his last wife, Catherine Howard, he was getting old, angry and his ulcerous leg was getting smelly.However, Kateryn was smart - she was the first queen to be a published author - and she loved the glitz and glamour of her new position.What was her life like before Henry entered the picture? How did she narrowly escape being sent to the tower for heresy? And why was her marriage after Henry so controversial?In the sixth and final episode of our limited series, Secret Wives of the Six Wives, Kate is joined by Tudor export Nicola Tallis, to help us find out more about the woman who would thrive as a queen and go on to live to survive Henry VIII.This episode was edited and produced by Stuart Beckwith. The senior producer was Charlotte Long.All music from Epidemic Sounds/All3 Media.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.  You can take part in our listener survey here.Betwixt the Sheets: History of Sex, Scandal & Society is a History Hit podcast.

Accessing stories from the past can be difficult, but how do we access smells from the past?In today's episode, Kate is joined by Eleanor Jackson, curator of a new British Library exhibition, Mediaeval Women In Their Own Words, which features original texts about, and by, women from this period.Whether that's Joan of Arc's signature or a welsh poet who wrote “Lovely bush you are blessed by God above” in her 'Poem to the Vagina'.Kate's also joined by Tasha Marks, an artist who creates sensory experiences, who has brought to life smells such as medieval hair perfumes to life as part of the exhibition.This episode was edited by Matt Peaty and produced by Stuart Beckwith. The senior producer was Charlotte Long.All music from Epidemic Sounds/All3 Media.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.You can take part in our listener survey here.Betwixt the Sheets: History of Sex, Scandal & Society is a History Hit podcast.

Henry VIII called her his 'rose without a thorn', but the teenage Catherine Howard was to fall out of favour less than 18 months after becoming Queen of England.Out of all of Henry's wives it could be argued that the young queen, who was a cousin of Anne Boleyn, is most deserving of our sympathy.How did her past come back to haunt her? What would it have been like for this young woman to be with Henry VIII - an older man with a stinky leg ulcer? And what was the truth behind the scandal of her downfall?In the fifth and penultimate episode of our limited series, Secret Wives of the Six Wives, Kate is joined by Tudor export Nicola Tallis, to help us find out more about the young woman who had to deal with so much drama and tragedy in her short life.This episode was edited and produced by Stuart Beckwith. The senior producer was Charlotte Long.All music from Epidemic Sounds/All3 Media.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.  You can take part in our listener survey here.Betwixt the Sheets: History of Sex, Scandal & Society is a History Hit podcast.

The history of lonely hearts ads might be a lot deeper than you'd expect.For as long as people have been printing newspapers, people (read: men) were enquiring about potential partners.By the time the culture took off in the 18th century, how were people looking for love? How did the First World War boost the medium? And what are some of the strangest dating stories from this history?Joining Kate today is Francesca Beauman, author of Shapely Ankle Preferr’d: a history of the Lonely Hearts advertisement, to find out how lonely heart ads created a new way to date. In part two of the episode, Kate's joined by Ana Kirova, CEO of the dating app Feeld, who recently published a report with the Kinsey Institute on where dating culture is today, and where it could lead in the future.This episode was edited by Tom Delargy, the producer was Stuart Beckwith. The senior producer was Charlotte Long.All music from Epidemic Sounds/All3 Media.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.You can take part in our listener survey here.Betwixt the Sheets: History of Sex, Scandal & Society is a History Hit podcast.

Anne of Cleves gets a pretty raw deal in the history books.She's often accused of being ugly, after Henry VIII claimed the painting he had made of her was overly flattering.While their marriage was short-lived, is it time we give Anne of Cleves, who hailed from a small state in Germany, the props she deserves?Just who was this woman who came from relative obscurity into the madness of the Tudor court, and came out one of life's winners?In the fourth episode of our limited series, Secret Wives of the Six Wives, Kate is joined once again by Tudor export Nicola Tallis, to help us find out more about the woman who arguably played the game of being Henry's wife better than any of the five others.This episode was edited and produced by Stuart Beckwith. The senior producer was Charlotte Long.All music from Epidemic Sounds/All3 Media.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.  You can take part in our listener survey here.Betwixt the Sheets: History of Sex, Scandal & Society is a History Hit podcast.