An honest history of an ancient and "nas...

With levity and profound insight, artist Maira Kalman reflects on life, death, dinner parties, not knowing the right answers, the joys of eating a hot dog from a street vendor and more. This talk, interwoven with her delightful paintings, is itself an artwork that seems to hold t ... Show More

Remember that gut-clenching fear of speaking up in class? Organizational psychologist Rafael Chiuzi reveals how that same feeling shows up in the workplace, limiting productivity and the free exchange of ideas. Backed by decades of research and hands-on consulting, he unpacks the ... Show More

In a conversation about visionary leadership, M-PESA CEO Sitoyo Lopokoiyit speaks with impact investor and Acumen CEO Jacqueline Novogratz about how he grew a nascent mobile payment service into Africa’s largest fintech platform — which now handles nearly 60 percent of Kenya's GD ... Show More

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 taboo words in the English dictionary. In Scotland, it can be a term of endearment, but in the US it's one of the worst offences out t ... Show More

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 ... Show More

Have you ever wondered where the &%@! swear words come from? Well today, Kate is going Betwixt the Sheets to find out. Linguist legend Deborah Cameron is back on the podcast to tell us more about the history of some of your favourite curse words. From the f-word and the c-word, t ... Show More

The word "lady" has undergone a reclamation of sorts in recent years, but it still carries a lot of baggage, thanks to its gender-loaded etymology. Cristen and Caroline get down to the history, use and varying meanings of what it means to be a "lady" today. Learn more about your ... Show More

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 saying go ... "If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck." Do you think this ... Show More

What makes a heartthrob? Is he brooding, flamboyant or a bad boy? And what qualities translate to sex symbol status in society? Which men have made the hearts of young (heterosexual) women flutter over the centuries? And why? Today, Carol Dyhouse joins Kate to talk about the hist ... Show More

In Courtly and Queer: Deconstruction, Desire, and Medieval French Literature (Ohio State UP, 2022), Charlie Samuelson casts queerness in medieval French texts about courtly love in a new light by bringing together for the first time two exemplary genres: high medieval verse roman ... Show More

What did porn look like before the internet? Who was it for? And how has it changed since? In this episode, Kate chats to Kathleen Lubey, a professor at St. John’s University and specialist in eighteenth-century literature. Kathleen talks us through the history of pornography … t ... Show More

In this episode, Neil Johnston and Christopher Day discuss a letter written by Catherine Howard, the fifth wife of Henry VIII, to Thomas Culpeper, a groom of the King's Privy chamber. The document was part of a body of evidence collected against Catherine and Culpeper that ultima ... Show More

From reality television to theatre productions to foreign goods, the word trash has a long history of being used to deride things that are thought to have no value. To find out what this history is, and how this language has been used against women in particular, Kate spoke to Ka ... Show More