
Who Were History’s Queer Seamen? with Dr. Seth LeJacq
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08/02/23 • 71 min
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Sea daddies! Sea queens! Land hoes! This week, we’re getting wet and wild with Dr. Seth LeJacq to learn what life was like for queer sailors in the British navy from the 15th century to the 19th century. How did these sailors express their gender and sexuality? What did they risk—legally and socially—when they pursued queer relationships? And were their ship hammocks really sturdy enough for a night of deep sea “exploration”?
Dr. Seth Stein LeJacq is a historian specializing in the history of gender, sexuality, and medicine. He is currently a Caird Fellow at the UK National Maritime Museum.
You can follow Dr. LeJacq on Twitter @SethSLeJacq, and learn more about his work at sethlejacq.com. His Routledge collection Sexual and Gender Difference in the British Navy, 1690-1900 will be available for pre-order soon.
Here's a portrait of Captain Edward Rigby, here's an etching of Captain Whiffle and Mr. Simper, and here's a rendition of "Backside Rules The Navy." We'll be sharing more resources on our @CuriouswithJVN Instagram account throughout the week.
Curious for more? Check out these episodes from our archives:
Who Were History’s “Female Husbands”?
Do Beauty Standards Need A Glow Up?
Follow us on Instagram @CuriousWithJVN to join the conversation. Jonathan is on Instagram @JVN.
Transcripts for each episode are available at JonathanVanNess.com.
Find books from Getting Curious guests at bookshop.org/shop/curiouswithjvn.
Our executive producer is Erica Getto. Our producer is Chris McClure. Our associate producer is Allison Weiss. Our engineer is Nathanael McClure. Production support from Julie Carrillo, Samantha Martinez, and Anne Currie.
Our theme music is “Freak” by QUIÑ; for more, head to TheQuinCat.com.
Curious about bringing your brand to life on the show? Email [email protected].
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Sea daddies! Sea queens! Land hoes! This week, we’re getting wet and wild with Dr. Seth LeJacq to learn what life was like for queer sailors in the British navy from the 15th century to the 19th century. How did these sailors express their gender and sexuality? What did they risk—legally and socially—when they pursued queer relationships? And were their ship hammocks really sturdy enough for a night of deep sea “exploration”?
Dr. Seth Stein LeJacq is a historian specializing in the history of gender, sexuality, and medicine. He is currently a Caird Fellow at the UK National Maritime Museum.
You can follow Dr. LeJacq on Twitter @SethSLeJacq, and learn more about his work at sethlejacq.com. His Routledge collection Sexual and Gender Difference in the British Navy, 1690-1900 will be available for pre-order soon.
Here's a portrait of Captain Edward Rigby, here's an etching of Captain Whiffle and Mr. Simper, and here's a rendition of "Backside Rules The Navy." We'll be sharing more resources on our @CuriouswithJVN Instagram account throughout the week.
Curious for more? Check out these episodes from our archives:
Who Were History’s “Female Husbands”?
Do Beauty Standards Need A Glow Up?
Follow us on Instagram @CuriousWithJVN to join the conversation. Jonathan is on Instagram @JVN.
Transcripts for each episode are available at JonathanVanNess.com.
Find books from Getting Curious guests at bookshop.org/shop/curiouswithjvn.
Our executive producer is Erica Getto. Our producer is Chris McClure. Our associate producer is Allison Weiss. Our engineer is Nathanael McClure. Production support from Julie Carrillo, Samantha Martinez, and Anne Currie.
Our theme music is “Freak” by QUIÑ; for more, head to TheQuinCat.com.
Curious about bringing your brand to life on the show? Email [email protected].
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Previous Episode

Who Are Hollywood’s Paparazzi? with Dr. Vanessa Díaz
Paris. Lindsay. Kim. We know the celebs in paparazzi photos, but what about the people behind the cameras? This week, Professor Vanessa Díaz takes us inside the world of Hollywood's paparazzi—who are predominantly Latine men, many undocumented—and shares what this profession captures about power, politics, and pop culture in America.
Vanessa Díaz, Associate Professor of Chicana/o and Latina/o Studies at Loyola Marymount University, is a multimedia ethnographer and journalist whose work focuses on issues of race, gender, and labor in popular culture across the Americas. Grounded in her experience as a red carpet reporter for People magazine, Díaz’s award winning book Manufacturing Celebrity: Latino Paparazzi and Women Reporters in Hollywood (Duke 2020) focuses on hierarchies of labor as well as racial and gender politics in the production of celebrity-focused media. Díaz is also the co-creator of the Bad Bunny Syllabus Project and co-author of UCLA’s 2017 Hollywood Diversity Report.
You can follow her on Twitter @vanessajdiaz and on Instagram @drcrazyness, and learn more about her work by visiting manufacturingcelebritybook.com and badbunnysyllabus.com.
Follow us on Instagram @CuriousWithJVN to join the conversation. Jonathan is on Instagram @JVN.
Transcripts for each episode are available at JonathanVanNess.com.
Find books from Getting Curious guests at bookshop.org/shop/curiouswithjvn.
Our executive producer is Erica Getto. Our producer is Chris McClure. Our associate producer is Allison Weiss. Our engineer is Nathanael McClure. Production support from Julie Carrillo.
Our theme music is “Freak” by QUIÑ; for more, head to TheQuinCat.com.
Curious about bringing your brand to life on the show? Email [email protected].
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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What’s The Science Of Sleep? with Dr. Gina Poe
We spend one third of our lives sleeping. But WTF is going on during those hours?! This week, Dr. Gina Poe gives us an A to Zzzz crash course in all things sleep. Dreams, memory, narcolepsy, naps, sleep demons, traveling across time zones, playing video games before bed, how substances like caffeine and alcohol affect our rest—and beyond!
Gina Poe is a neuroscientist at UCLA who has worked on the functions of sleep for over 30 years with an independent research laboratory funded by the National Institute of Mental Health for over 20 years. At UCLA she teaches how the brain becomes biased and one can change one's mind through the powerfully plastic state of sleep, winning the UCLA Distinguished Teaching award in 2022 and the US President's 2014 PAESMEM award for mentoring work through the Society for Neuroscience. Dr. Poe counsels on initiatives and funding priorities for the National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke, has authored nearly 200 publications (papers and abstracts), and has appeared on PBS's NOVA and Netflix's The Mind Explained and other television and podcast venues. She and her husband have four children, two grandchildren (with another on the way!), a dog, and a cat.
You can follow Dr. Poe on Twitter @doctorpoe, on Instagram @poe.gina, and on LinkedIn at Gina R. Poe.
For more information, check out:
Dr. Poe’s Brain Research Institute site
Follow us on Instagram @CuriousWithJVN to join the conversation. Jonathan is on Instagram @JVN.
Transcripts for each episode are available at JonathanVanNess.com.
Find books from Getting Curious guests at bookshop.org/shop/curiouswithjvn.
Our executive producer is Erica Getto. Our producer is Chris McClure. Our associate producer is Allison Weiss. Our engineer is Nathanael McClure. Production support from Julie Carrillo, Samantha Martinez, and Anne Currie.
Our theme music is “Freak” by QUIÑ; for more, head to TheQuinCat.com.
Curious about bringing your brand to life on the show? Email [email protected].
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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