Supersluts of History: First World War Spy Mata Hari
Episode Date: June 19, 2026Mata Hari was a dancer and courtesan who was executed in 1917 for being a spy during the First World War.How did she get involved in such dangerous bu...
Join sex historian Dr Kate Lister on Betwixt the Sheets as she gets intimate with the stories that would make your history teacher blush.What were the Victorians really like behind closed (bedroom) doors? How did the Black Death favour women in medieval England? And what was Caesar like in the sack? Join Kate as she bed-hops 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.Betwixt the Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society - a podcast from History Hit.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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
432 episodes transcribedMata Hari was a dancer and courtesan who was executed in 1917 for being a spy during the First World War.How did she get involved in such dangerous bu...
Has Burlesque always meant the same thing? Where did it come from? And how has it changed?Kate is joined by Dr Marissa Vigneault, Associate Professor...
Madam du Barry's life was remarkable: from rags, to riches, to... revolution. And she pi**ed off Marie Antoinette along the way, too.How did this cour...
What really went down in the Garden of Eden? Was there an apple? Was there a snake? Was the 'original sin' all that bad?To answer these questions and...
In this new mini-series, we're exploring and celebrating women whose sexuality was used to define them.First up is Roman Empress Theodora. How did "Th...
Sex in the distant past is often thought about with all the fun taken out of it.Pleasure must have been a part of the sex lives of women and men in th...
How do you not only lose your own reputation and career, but also tank the reputation and freedoms of your entire industry?Today we’re exploring the f...
It’s got many names: giving head, going down, eating out, dining at the Y, muff diving.Why has cunnilingus been stigmatised and feared so consistently...
Who was Lettice Knollys? And why was she expelled from Elizabeth I's court?Kate is joined by Estelle Paranque in this episode to find out how a man ca...
There will be giggling and gasping galore! And that's just when you listen to this episode!Dan Snow quizzes Kate on all things female pleasure. When w...
What do you have to do wrong to be specifically named in a law? In the 14th Century, one of the mistresses of King Edward III found out. So who was Al...
Has there ever been a time when homophobia did not exist? And what causes it to rise and fall?Kate is joined by Dr. Harry Tanner, author of 'The Queer...
What do we know about Jesus? Kate is joined for this episode by Professor of Christian Origins, Helen Bond, to find out more about the historical reco...
What you'll hear in today's episode is a story that strikes to the dark heart of the British Empire.Despite being set in the time of Jane Austen's ear...
When the British Empire colonised India, how did it treat their different ideas about sex? How did they treat sex workers like the Devadasi, meaning '...
Faces covered, identities unknown - masquerade balls sound like a place of anonymity and, therefore, SCANDAL.But how true is this in the 18th Century?...
In today's episode we're taking you back to the brothels of 19th century St. Petersburg.Sex work was legalised under the Emperor Nicholas I, but what...
Was Sappho queer? Or was this Ancient Greek poet just really really good friends with women?Today on Betwixt the Sheets, Kate is joined by Katherine H...
Where the American War of Independence raged, the camp followers...followed.Among them were sex workers, for both the American and British troops. Wha...
Sadism - the derivation of pleasure from inflicting pain, suffering and humiliation on others - is named after this man. So what exactly did he do?Kat...