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

Sex in Ancient Rome

29 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

How sexually depraved were the Romans?Whilst they were a civlised, stoic and innovative bunch, they were also a promiscuous bunch with very questionab...

Sex in Ancient Egypt

26 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

How did the Ancient Egyptians differ from us? In many ways they did, but in terms of sexuality, perhaps not so much. As we’ll find out, they we...

Robert Burns' Sex Life

22 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

How did an 18th century working class farm labourer climb the social ladder to become the most beloved poet Scotland has produced?By the time he died ...

Kamasutra: The Ancient Playboy Manual

19 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Most people would assume that the Kamasutra is a book of hundreds of fantastical sex positions.They would partly be right, but mostly wrong!Sex is a s...

The Real Outlander

16 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

How real to true events is the Outlander series?The Jacobite uprising of the 18th century was led by Bonnie Prince Charlie to reclaim the thrown of Gr...

Alexander The Great Sex's Life

12 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Was he as great in bed as he was at conquering the Persian empire?Whether he even had time for it, is another question. In today's episode, we're revi...

Swearing: A F**king Long History

09 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Have you ever wondered where the &%@! swear words come from? Well today, Kate is going Betwixt the Sheets to find out.Linguist legend Debora...

The Ancient Origins Of Sex

05 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Going back hundreds of thousands of years, bumping uglies had to start somewhere.What was the first sexual position? Was sex even for pleasure at this...

Napoleon's Penis & Other Iconic Body Parts From History

02 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Perhaps without you realising it, history is marked by iconic body parts.From Frida Khalo’s monobrow, to Queen Victoria's swollen armpit, and let's ...

The Slave Revolt That Created A Country

29 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Haiti was under French colonial rule in 1791 when the revolution began, resulting in the largest and most successful slave revolt in modern history.It...

The Book That Changed Sex Forever

26 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

There had been sex manuals for hundreds of years, but by the 20th century they were quite underground. That is, until the Joy of Sex was released in 1...

The Festive Fetish: Santaphilia

22 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

They say he comes once a year... ahem.Santa is back! To a lot of people that's no bad thing at all, and we're not just talking about the present givin...

King Arthur's Sex Life

19 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The words "the man, the myth, the legend" can easily apply to King Arthur.Today we're looking past the round table, the sword in the stone, and his ma...

17th Century Sci-Fi Writer & 'It Girl': Margaret Cavendish

15 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Margaret Cavendish was extraordinary for any time, let alone the 17th century.She was a trailblazer in fiction, writing and publishing what many belie...

JFK Special 5. | The Kennedy Curse

11 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What was it about the Kennedy's that attracted so much tragedy, that many believed them to be cursed?From plane disasters in World War 2, to drug over...

The Invention of Heterosexuality

08 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Sexuality is a funny thing. It's a social construct just as much as, say, virginity is.We use words like heterosexuality and homosexuality because the...

JFK Special 4. | How Jackie O Defined An Era

04 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

If the Kennedy's were America's first royal family, then Jackie was its queen.She was a style icon who, alongside her husband and president JFK, symbo...

AIDS Epidemic: Life & Death On The Frontline

01 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

How do we understand something as huge as a global epidemic?Similarly to Covid, the AIDS epidemic, which was most destructive in the 1980s and 90s, ha...

JFK Special 3. | The Sex Life of JFK

28 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

“If I don’t have a woman for three days, I get terrible headaches.”That is what JFK allegedly told the UK prime minister, Harold MacMillan, afte...

Section 28: The Anti-Gay Law That Sparked A Movement

24 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The 1980s have a lot to answer for - spandex, for one.It also saw the first new anti-gay law in Britain for over a century.Against the backdrop of the...

Napoleon's Sex Life

21 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Napoleon Bonaparte has been described in many way throughout history. Conquerer. Lover. Legend. Shrivelled Eel?Perhaps you haven't heard the last desc...

Ancient Goddesses of Sex and War

17 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Sex and death are often intertwined: one is the start of creation, the other is the end.And as we’ll learn in today’s episode, ancient battlefield...

JFK Special 2. | The Kennedy Sister They Tried To Hide

13 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This November marks 60 years since President John F Kennedy was assassinated. His name is associated with history defining events, but it’s als...

Love, Lust & Fighting in World War II

10 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

It can be hard to comprehend the magnitude of historical events, with World War Two a prime example of this.By 1945, some 3 million British people had...

JFK Special 1. | The Irish Woman Who Built The Dynasty

06 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This November marks 60 years since President John F Kennedy was assassinated. His name is associated with history defining events, but it’s als...

Victorian Sex

02 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

They’re famously thought of as a buttoned up prudish bunch, but we all know they loved to bump uglies as much as anyone today. Were the spankin...

History of the Witch

31 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

It’s that time of year again, Halloween. A word which conjures up images of pumpkins, ghosts, and of course…witches.But have you ever wondered wha...

Josephine Baker: Jazz Age Superstar to WW2 Spy

27 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Josephine Baker was one of the most extraordinary people of the 20th century - and the first black woman honoured in the French Panthéon in 2021.From...

History of Asexuality

24 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

We live in a hyper-sexualised world. But what if you don't take a sexual interest in anyone?Asexuality makes up roughly 1% of the population, and even...

Hitler's Sex Life

20 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

We all know how the song goes, the one about Hitler having one testicle.And whilst it's disarming to poke fun at someone so evil, there's an interesti...

Spectrophilia: The Ghost Fetish

17 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

If you happen to be a Spectrophiliac, then October must be a particularly exciting time for you.What is a spectrophiliac? Well, it's a fetish for ghos...

The Black Death: the Rise of Women, Witches & the Peasant’s Revolt

13 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

There’s not much good to come out of a plague, especially a bubonic plague in the 14th century. A pandemic which definitely didn't involve zoom quiz...

The WW2 Witch Trial of Hellish Nell

10 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What made a working class woman from Edinburgh become such a threat to British intelligence services during the Second World War, that they tried her ...

Age of Consent: Medieval Meaning, Victorian Scandals & Modern Relevance

06 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

While the age of consent has fluctuated over time, it reveals some fascinating and enlightening things about how we view sexuality in society.Today's ...

Sex: The Medieval Rules

03 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Given that the medieval period covers the best part of 1000 years, there's a fair amount of sexual myth and beliefs to get through.How kinky were peop...

Julius Caesar's Sex Life

29 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

"I came. I saw. I conquered".Perhaps the most famous Julius Caesar quote of all time. But after hearing all about his bedroom antics, it takes on a sl...

Polari: The Secret Language of Gay Men

26 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

It's a credit to the resilience of the gay community that when society tried to outlaw and silence them, they just created a language of their own to ...

Sex & Scandal in Hampton Court

22 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

From Catherine Howard’s affairs whilst she was with Henry VIII, to Charles II’s mistress staging a lesbian wedding as part of a threesome… Hampt...

Sex In Old Age: Myths, Toys & Desire

19 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

As taboos go, sex between two consenting adults should not be up there as one of them.And yet! When we talk about sex in old age many people have an a...

Hate Mail: A Scandalous History

15 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

From tip-off letters about the gun powder plot to village quarrels that lead to jail time - today we’re going Betwixt the Sheets to find out about t...

Victorian London's Hidden Porn Trade

12 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Holywell Street, just off London's Fleet Street, was the hidden epicentre of Victorian pornography.The Daily Telegraph described it as "the vilest str...

Cleopatra to Jane Austen: Perfumes of Powerful Women

08 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Why did Cleopatra soak the sails of her ship in jasmine? How did Queen Elizabeth smell? And why was perfume an essential tool of power for women acros...

Bestiality

05 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When sex between two humans can be many things, how do we define bestiality - that is, sex between a human and a non-human? Especially when the f...

Self Sacrifice in Ancient India

01 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Today we’re looking into self sacrifice in ancient India. Why did people do it? How did people think about death and the afterlife? Who were the god...

History of Sex For Sale

29 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Many people claim sex work to be the oldest profession, but we can likely put that down to being midwifery or medical professionals of some sort.Howev...

How Fear Shaped History

25 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What scares you? Some of humankind’s most common fears and phobias include fear of heights, flying, spiders, snakes, injections, germs, public speak...

Gay Identity in Nazi Germany

22 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Berlin in the early 1930s was a place of incredible liberation for its queer community. There were over 100 gay clubs, and Magnus Hirschfeld’s ...

Superstitions: Witch Marks, Touching Wood & Lucky Pants

18 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Many of them pre-date modern religions and defy what science tells us about the world - from saluting magpies, to wearing lucky pants. Yet why do supe...

Polyamory: From Mormons to 60s Counterculture

15 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The polyamory movement has a long and interesting history. It takes in Pilgrims meeting Native American Indians, Mormons having their take on it, and ...

History of Kissing: Why do we lock lips?

11 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A good old smooch. It’s something that we do on a daily basis in one form or another (if we’re lucky), and yet have you ever stopped and wondered ...

History of Make-Up

08 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Most of us present ourselves with some form of cosmetic, so it’s strange that historically there’s been so much judgement around the use of it.It’...

Eleanor Aquitaine: The Life of a Medieval Badass

04 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

You would think that a woman who was queen several times, commanded armies and was possibly the most powerful woman in medieval Europe would need no i...

Lube: A Slippery History

01 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

From the seaweed-strewn shores of Ancient China to the American army camps in the Middle East, lube has been on a long and slippery journey. Wher...

Victorian Abortion & Birth Control

28 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

We’re connected to the past in more ways than you might think. For example, the 1861 Offences against the person Act is an abortion law that is...

Barbie: Feminist Icon?

25 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Barbie is many things: an astronaut, a robotics engineers, a judge, and now a movie star! But can she be considered a feminist icon? For a toy wi...

Scottish Kings' Sex Lives

21 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

One thing royal families strive for is the common touch. Whilst some have struggled with it, King James IV and V in the 15th and 16th centuries excell...

Althea Gibson: The Wimbledon Champion Who Beat The Odds

18 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The world of tennis in the 1940s wasn't made for someone of Althea Gibson's background.She was the descendent of slaves, and grew up in South Carolina...

Mozart's Sex Life

14 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When we think of the biggest pop icons of all time, we might reach for Madonna, Elvis, or yes, even Michael Jackson. One name that’s not thrown...

Victorian Baby Farming Killer: Amelia Dyer

11 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In Victorian Britain, there was no formalised state adoption. Instead, desperate mothers paid other families to take their newborns. This tragic syste...

History of Breastfeeding

07 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

How has our relationship with breast milk changed through history? Why are there associations of shame with this most natural act, of us consuming hum...

April Ashley: Paris Showgirl, Vogue Model & Trans Trailblazer

04 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

As the UK’s second person to go through gender reassignment surgery, April Ashley was a trans trailblazer, breaking new ground fearlessly and with h...

Women Warriors: From Boudicca to Ukrainian Snipers

30 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

From Boudicca to Ukrainian snipers, battlefields have always contained a surprising number of women.Today Kate is joined Betwixt the Sheets by Sarah P...

Stonewall Uprising: Liberation & Mafia Exploitation

27 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 1969 America, it was illegal to be gay in 49 out of 50 states. You could be fired from your job and evicted by your landlord if you were found out ...

History of Camp: From Oscar Wilde to James Bond

23 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

As the old adage goes, attitude is everything. And if there’s one attitude that stands proud above the rest it’s the utterly fabulous, camp. ...

Dick Pics: The History

20 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Depictions of dicks have been an obsession in art for as long as art has been around, but the act of sending a real life image of ones penis is a cult...

Shakespeare's Sex Life

16 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The Bard’s work featured many references to sex and sexuality - some more obvious than others. But what does the work reveal about the sexuality of ...

Anne Lister: The First Modern Lesbian?

13 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

It’s a rare thing to hear first hand the experiences of marginalised people in history. So often their voices are silenced, and their histories eras...

Victorian Pregnancy & Childbirth: The Untold History

09 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Why did Victorian doctors recommend women to lie still in solitary confinement for days after giving birth? What was the 'sit up and cough' method of ...

The Pre-Raphaelites: Art & Sexual Liberation

06 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The Pre-Raphaelites: Art & Sexual LiberationIf there’s one thing we like to embrace on this podcast, it’s a slice of controversy. Which is why tod...

A History of Queer Women

02 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

One thing’s for certain, queer people have always been a part of society. The language may not have always been there to describe them in all of the...

The Rise of Celebrity Culture

30 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Any of us who have happened to see a celebrity in the wild can admit to the strange thrill you get. It doesn’t matter if it’s C, D, or Z-list...

The Giggling Granny serial killer

26 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Picture a serial killer in your mind’s eye. What do you see? More often than not it will be a man.Statistically that’s accurate, but it doesn’t ...

The Real Queen Charlotte

23 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Queen Charlotte is back in the spotlight, thanks to the new Bridgerton spin-off series looking into her life and marriage to King George III.We know B...

Molly Houses

19 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

It’s hard to imagine London’s gay scene before vibrant night spots like Heaven and G.A.Y, but come back with us to the 18th Century to find out ab...

Murder in the Roman World

16 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The Ancient Romans are often thought of as ahead of their time. They invented concrete, sophisticated road systems and even underfloor heating.But the...

Witch Hunts of Scotland

12 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 1603, James VI & I became the first king of Scotland and England. But this isn’t the only reason he was remarkable. Because he also had a big, no...

Perfume

09 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What did Napoleon smell like? How many pairs of scented gloves did Marie Antoinette get through a month? And how did the study of perfume become the s...

Coronation Fashion: Crowns, Orbs & Pubic Wigs

05 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

From significantly sized cod-pieces to revenge dresses, the Royal family have used clothes to send a message to the public for centuries, and a corona...

Incest

02 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Incest. It’s not the lightest topic of conversation, we wouldn’t recommend bringing it up as an icebreaker on a date, or when you’re trying to i...

Pop's Golden Era: Success & Scandal

28 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What made the decade between 1996 and 2006 a pop breeding ground? And what was this time like for the pop stars involved?From the Spice Girls to Girls...

Human Emotion

25 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Happiness, sadness, anger, surprise, disgust, fear... we all know what these emotions feel like, right?But what is emotion? Do we all feel the same th...

The Pirates' Code

21 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

How common was it for a pirates to walk the plank? Was there a lot of rum? And were relationships allowed on ships?Kate is joined by Rebecca Simon, au...

Heirs, Affairs & Exiles: The Powderham Scandal

18 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Why would a man embroil his own nephew in a sex scandal? What was it like for a Georgian man to have his affair with another man shared in the papers?...

Victorian Wardrobe Secrets

14 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

If someone from the future looked inside your wardrobe, what could they find out about your life? That you like going out to parties? Maybe your work ...

Bond Girls

11 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

‘Bond girl’ is quite a loaded term. Why aren’t they women? What makes them part of this homologous team? And what does it mean if they have red ...

Sports Bra

07 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

REAL LIFE INVENTOR ALERT!!!Two jockstraps cleverly sewn together. That was how the very first sports bra was made in 1977. The product built out from ...

A History of the C-Word

04 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

WARNING: This episode includes adult content and explicit language. As offensive terms go, you are entering a hard hat area.It’s one of the most tab...

Early Modern Murder

31 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What was the early modern version of CSI? Why might whole pubs have been singing an executed person’s final words? And was the crime of murder diffe...

Pestle or Sex Toy? The Roman 'Dildo'

28 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

You may have seen the news that archaeologists have been reassessing a phallic object from Vindolanda Roman Fort in the north of Britain.How does the ...

Sordid Soho

24 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

From the Chevalier de Saint-Georges to the Merry Monarch to Madame Jojo and Madame Trenti, the district of Soho in London has played host to many of t...

Lord Byron: Incest, Adultery & Daddy Issues

21 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

How debaucherous do you have to be to be remembered as the original bad boy? How mad, bad and dangerous to know was Lord Byron? And how much of it did...

Female Nudity & Modesty

17 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Why is the naked body of a life model more respected than a glamour model? Why has there been a resurgence in virtue policing? And why was Kate comple...

Medieval Women: Beauty, Work & Pubic Hair

14 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

How would a medieval woman achieve a Brazilian bikini line? Why can’t you trust a nun in the night time? And what were women doing at Medieval unive...

Drag Queens

12 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

RuPaul. Lily Savage. Bianca Del Rio. Dame Edna Everage. These iconic drag queens are household names, but have you ever heard about Princess Seraphina...

Women Rebels: The Spanish Civil War

10 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

From aristocratic rebels to Civil Rights activists, tens of thousands of people travelled to Spain during the Civil War - and not all of them were men...

From Eve to Austen: Women in Literature

07 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Why might a woman have willingly confined herself to a cell for the rest of her life? Why have so many female authors in history published under alias...

The History of Periods

03 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

‘It’s my time of the month’, ‘the painters are in’, ‘aunt flo is visiting’, or a simple ‘I’m on the rag’Periods are a fact of life...

The Real Bridgerton

28 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The first series of Bridgerton broke viewership records and became the biggest series on Netflix ever when it first came out. But a raunchy period dra...

Wedding Dresses

24 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In the UK, just over half of people above the age of 16 are married. Whether in a registry office, a place of worship or a remote beach somewhere sunn...

Cooking for Churchill: Georgina Landemare

21 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Clear soup, Irish stew and steamed puddings - this was the war work of Georgina Landemare, the Churchills’ longest-serving cook.Throughout the war y...