Erin Welsh

What could pox be used to describe or label in terms of our modern classifications of disease?

You talked about how pox was, or venereal disease, was so common in this era.

I mean, like 20% possible lifetime risk, which is mind-blowing, again.

Why was it so high?

Like, how was sex changing in London during the 17th and 18th centuries?

As you describe, sex was transactional in nature, but it was also a private matter.

Like it wasn't necessarily something that was discussed openly.

And venereal disease was also called the secret disease, which kind of denotes, again, its shameful nature.

And so given these intense pressures to remain silent about sex or about the pox, I'm guessing it's not something that was openly written about

for many people, whether in diaries or not.

And so I'm curious about your sources and what types of sources did you find helpful in researching for this?

And how often did you have to read between the lines?

Let's take a quick break.

And when we get back, there's still so much to discuss.

Healing is the shift from survival into choice.

Welcome back, everyone.

I've been chatting with Dr. Olivia Weiser about her book, The Dreaded Pox, Sex and Disease in Early Modern London.

Let's get back into things.

not just what this disease, the effect of this disease on someone's body, but the effect that it had on their social standing, on their relationships, on how they viewed themselves.

And there was early on in your book a really fascinating kind of series of diary entries where Samuel Pepys writes about his brother and there's this kind of question of does he have venereal disease?