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

History Hit

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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.


Get 50% off your first 3 months with code BETWIXT. Download the app on your smart TV or in the app store or sign up at historyhit.com/subscribe.


You can take part in our listener survey here.


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Top 10 Betwixt The Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society Episodes

Best episodes ranked by Goodpods Users most listened

Fanny and Stella: The Men Who Shocked Victorian Society

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

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06/21/22 • 41 min

In 1870, two young women were arrested after leaving a theatre in London. These women, so-called Fanny and Stella, were in fact Ernest Boulton and Frederick Park, and they were charged with ‘buggery’.


So who were Boulton and Park? What was the evidence against them? And why did this create such a stir across the front pages and the world?


Neil McKenna joins Kate Betwixt the Sheets to share Stella and Fanny’s extraordinary life stories and trial.


*WARNING: There are adult themes, explicit descriptions of sex and suicide references in this episode*


Produced by Charlotte Long and Sophie Gee. Mixed by Thomas Ntinas.


Betwixt the Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society. A podcast by History Hit.


This episode includes music by Epidemic Sound.

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06/21/22 • 41 min

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Henrietta Maria: The Most Hated Queen Consort?

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

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10/14/22 • 30 min

What does it take to get the reputation as one of the least popular queens in history?


Should we remember Henrietta Maria as the wife of the King executed by his subjects, the Catholic influencer and a serial adulterer? Or as a prankster, a patron of the arts and a mother of two Kings?


Henrietta Maria became Queen Consort of England, Scotland and Ireland aged 15. A quarter of a century and a civil war later she was widowed when her husband, Charles I, was executed. By the end of her life she was restored to court on a generous pension.


Her life, therefore, was a busy one, and in this episode of Betwixt the Sheets Kate is joined by Leanda de Lisle to bring Henrietta Maria out of the shadows. We look into her marriage, her motherhood and her life after the death of her husband.


*WARNING there are naughty words and adult themes in this episode*


Produced by Charlotte Long and Sophie Gee. Edited by Joseph Knight.


For more History Hit content, subscribe to our newsletters here.


If you'd like to learn even more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad-free podcasts, and audiobooks at History Hit - enter promo code BETWIXTTHESHEETS for a free trial, plus 50% off your first three months' subscription. To download, go to Android or Apple store.


For your chance to win 5 Historical Non-Fiction Books (including a signed copy of Dan Snow's On This Day in History), please fill out this short survey.

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10/14/22 • 30 min

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Women Warriors: From Boudicca to Ukrainian Snipers

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

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06/30/23 • 44 min

From Boudicca to Ukrainian snipers, battlefields have always contained a surprising number of women.


Today Kate is joined Betwixt the Sheets by Sarah Percy to get to the bottom of why women were allowed to be astronauts a full thirty years before they were allowed to fight in combat.


From women who disguised themselves as men in order to be allowed to fight, to the Soviet all-female regiments who Nazi Germany learnt to fear, they'll be discussing fearless women warriors on the frontline.


You can find out more about Sarah's book here.


If you're enjoying Betwixt please vote for us at the British Podcast Awards here. It would mean the world to us!


Discover the past on History Hit with ad-free original podcasts and documentaries released weekly presented by world renowned historians like Kate Lister, Dan Snow, Suzannah Lipscomb, Lucy Worsley, Mary Beard and more.


Get 50% off your first 3 months with code BETWIXT. Download the app on your smart TV or in the app store or sign up at historyhit.com/subscribe.

You can take part in our listener survey here.

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06/30/23 • 44 min

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

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

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03/22/22 • 1 min

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.

play

03/22/22 • 1 min

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Psychiatric Drugs

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

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05/03/22 • 40 min

*WARNING this episode includes adult themes and conversations about mental health and drug use.*


In 2020, the UK government revealed that 17% of the adult population of Britain were prescribed medication for their mental health. But when were these drugs invented? How were they tested? And how have they become, in some cases, ‘mother’s little helper’?


From antidepressants and anti-anxiety medications to stimulants and mood stabilisers - Dr David Healy takes us on a journey through the development and use of psychiatric - or psychotropic - medication, and how this development has in turn affected our diagnoses.


David is a psychiatrist and psychopharmacologist, and is a professor of Psychiatry at McMaster University in Canada.


Produced by Charlotte Long and Sophie Gee. Mixed by Aidan Lonergan.


Betwixt the Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society. A podcast by History Hit.


This episode includes music by Epidemic Sound and archive clips from Zoloft commercial 2001.

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05/03/22 • 40 min

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Shoes

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

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04/29/22 • 44 min

I’m something that you wear, I always come in twos, I get put on your feet. I’m not socks, I am ... SHOES.


Humans have been protecting their feet for a very long time.


But over the years the types of footwear we choose have developed and multiplied. Each new shoe has a new use, and often a new social meaning.


So what is the history of shoes? To find out about the masculine beginnings of heels, the reclamation of crocs, and the political ideals of docs, Kate chats to Elizabeth Semmelhack, creative director and senior curator of the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto.


Produced by Charlotte Long and Sophie Gee. Mixed by Thomas Ntinas.


If you'd like to learn more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad-free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe today! To download the History Hit app please go to the Android or Apple store.


Betwixt the Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society. A podcast by History Hit.


This podcast includes music by Epidemic Sounds and archive clips from The Wizard of Oz, 1939.

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04/29/22 • 44 min

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Medieval Sex

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

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04/19/22 • 42 min

*WARNING this episode includes explicit language and adult themes*


What were your medieval ancestors getting up to in the bedroom? Join sex historian Kate Lister, Betwixt the Sheets, to find out.


Medievalist and George Michael super-fan Dr Eleanor Janega is on the podcast to chat all things aphrodisiacs, sex diaries and religious rules.


Hear about bizarre fertility treatments involving actual fish in places they should never go, medieval chat up lines, and much, much more.


You can watch Kate and Eleanor on screen together in History Hit's documentary, Medieval Pleasures here.


Produced by Charlotte Long and Sophie Gee. Mixed by Annie Coloe.


Betwixt the Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society. A podcast by History Hit.


This podcast includes music by Epidemic Sounds and archive clips from The Princess Bride 1987, Angela MacNamara's Sex Education for Girls 1980.

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04/19/22 • 42 min

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Bedlam

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

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05/10/22 • 38 min

Bedlam: a scene of uproar and confusion, a noisy situation with no order or, originally, the slang name for a mental hospital in London... which for a while also happened to be a popular tourist attraction.


From chains on the wall to leeching - the history of mental health treatments is a lesson in questionable science and humanity.


Bethlehem hospital, founded around the 11th century in London, is a study of this history.


Kate is joined Betwixt the Sheets by Catharine Arnold: journalist, academic, popular historian and author of ‘Bedlam: London and Its Mad’.


*WARNING this episode includes adult themes and conversations about mental health*


Produced by Charlotte Long and Sophie Gee. Mixed by Matt Peaty.


Betwixt the Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society. A podcast by History Hit.


This episode includes music by Epidemic Sound and an archive clip from an American public service announcement from 1952.

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05/10/22 • 38 min

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Tudor Sex

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

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05/06/22 • 45 min

WARNING: This episode includes adult themes and explicit words.


Why did Henry VIII want everyone to know about his wet dreams? What animal product were condoms made from? And was coffee really ruining the sex lives of wives?


Suzannah Lipscomb from our sister podcast, Not Just the Tudors, joins Kate Betwixt the Sheets to talk all things sex in the 16th century.


Find out whether sex back then really was just to reproduce, the ‘discovery’ of the clitoris, and the truth about royal syphilis.


Produced by Charlotte Long and Sophie Gee. Mixed by Seyi Adaobi.


Betwixt the Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society. A podcast by History Hit.


This podcast includes music from Epidemic Sounds and an archive clip from The Private Life of Henry VIII, 1933.

play

05/06/22 • 45 min

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Sex Toys

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

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05/13/22 • 43 min

Hidden in bedside tables or proudly displayed on mantelpieces, wherever you keep them (if you do), sex toys have come a long way since the first phallic-shaped object was found around 30,000 years ago.


But before they were arriving through our post boxes in unmarked, tracked packages, what did sex toys look like? What were they made from? And why were doctors using them to treat... back pain?!


Kate is joined Betwixt the Sheets 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.


*WARNING this episode includes fruity language and themes of an adult nature*


Produced by Charlotte Long and Sophie Gee. Mixed by Seyi Adaobi.


Betwixt the Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society. A podcast by History Hit.


This episode includes music by Epidemic Sound and an archive clip from public vocational video from 1940.

play

05/13/22 • 43 min

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FAQ

How many episodes does Betwixt The Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society have?

Betwixt The Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society currently has 170 episodes available.

What topics does Betwixt The Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society cover?

The podcast is about Sex, Society, History, Podcasts, Education and Scandal.

What is the most popular episode on Betwixt The Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society?

The episode title 'Fanny and Stella: The Men Who Shocked Victorian Society' is the most popular.

What is the average episode length on Betwixt The Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society?

The average episode length on Betwixt The Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society is 42 minutes.

How often are episodes of Betwixt The Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society released?

Episodes of Betwixt The Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society are typically released every 3 days, 19 hours.

When was the first episode of Betwixt The Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society?

The first episode of Betwixt The Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society was released on Mar 22, 2022.

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