Gabrielle Falloppia is credited with inventing the condom. He didn’t, but he did discover the fallopian tubes, all while battling academic rivals, accusations of heresy, a syphilis epidemic, and the pirates who kidnapped his boyfriend. He has been accused of vivisecting the criminals given to him by the Medicis—that is, dissecting them while they were alive—but he didn’t do that. To be clear, he *did* kill them…just not in that way. It’s all in a day’s work for legendary anatomist Gabrielle Falloppia. Our guest today is medical doctor and historian Dr Michael Stolberg, retired chair of the history of medicine at the University of Würzburg, Germany. Dr Stolberg’s new book is Gabrielle Falloppia 1522/23-1562: The Life and Work of a Renaissance Anatomist, and it’s out now from Routledge.

Ancient history has traditionally been dominated by the lives of great men, while ancient women are confined to the margins or omitted altogether. In The Missing Thread, award-winning classicist Dr Daisy Dunn pulls these women out of the shadows and puts them center stage, where they belong. This week, we talk about the lives of ancient women: love, marriage, extra-marital relationships, divorce, sex, contraception, same-sex relationships, and even dildos made of bread?! We also talk about women leading armies, ruling nations, and the very first woman to win at the Olympics, long before women were even allowed to compete. Daisy’s book is The Missing Thread: A Women’s History of the Ancient World, and it’s out in the US on July 30th from Viking. [Listen notes for further reading: the women mentioned include poet Sappho, Messalina, the goddess Ishtar, Clytemnestra (wife of Agamemnon), Cornelia (wife of Tiberius Gracchus), orator Aspasia, Olympic victor Cynisca, Tomyris, Pharaoh Hatshepsut, and Artemisia of Halicarnassus] Daisy can be found at daisydunn.co.uk.

Burned, hanged, and symbolically “executed,” tea was a controversial commodity in 1770s America. This week we talk to Dr James Fichter about tea consumption, bans, the protests like the Boston Tea Party in the years leading up to the Revolutionary War. Dr Fichter’s new book is Tea: Consumption, Politics, and Revolution, 1773-1776.

Under the 1913 Mental Deficiency Act, Britain imprisoned 50,000 people as “moral imbeciles.” Many of them were young women—working class, poor or unwed mothers, often victims of sexual assault—and most were confined to so-called Mental Deficiency Colonies for the rest of their lives. It was all down to eugenics; as the middle-class birth rate declined, Britain feared the working classes would outbreed their “betters,” so they imprisoned certain sexually active young people to keep them from having children. Not unlike Ireland’s Magdalene Laundries, the Mental Deficiency Colonies were places of terrible abuse. Today we talk about this terrible chapter in British history with Sarah Wise, author of The Undesirables: The Law That Locked Away a Generation.

Just this week, all but two Senate Republicans voted against the Right to Contraception Act. At the same time, the GOP is calling for a nationwide ban on abortion. But what happens when abortion is banned? It happened in Italy in 1588…but it didn’t work. It was overturned only three years later in 1591. This week, Jess talks to Dr John Christopoulos about Early Modern family planning and the difference between Church doctrine and the sex lives of real people. We cover bans, common practice, extramarital sex, same-sex relationships in convents, and more. Dr Christopoulos’s book is the award-winning Abortion in Early Modern Italy, out now from Harvard University Press.

Nostalgia can be both good and bad—at its best, it manifests in historical reenactment, vintage fashion, and mid-century modern furniture. At its worst, it can drive regressive political policies, fascism, and book bans. But nostalgia itself isn’t a bad thing—it’s a bittersweet, rose-tinted longing for the past, but how did people in the past experience it? In this thoughtful episode, Jess talks to Dr. Agnes Arnold-Forster about historical ideas about nostalgia, nostalgia as a medical condition, and the surprising link to a poltergeist that took the form of a talking mongoose called Gef. Dr. Arnold-Forster’s new book is Nostalgia: A History of a Dangerous Emotion.

During Josephine McCarty’s trial for murder, she was portrayed as an ordinary woman—a mother of six, she was only looking out for her children when she shot her lover in the face in front of dozens of witnesses. Over the course of her trial, she told the story of her life—she had been a lobbyist, an abortion provider, one of the first female doctors in the United States, and a double agent during the Civil War. Josephine was anything but ordinary, but her experiences mirror those of other nineteenth-century women: struggles with marriage, divorce, and child support; the pursuit of higher education and independent income; and navigating a chaotic healthcare system that was never built for women. Half medical history and half true crime, her story will have you on the edge of your seat. Our guest this week is R.E. Fulton, author of The Abortionist of Howard Street: Medicine and Crime in Nineteenth-Century New York, out today from Cornell University Press.

This week we welcome back to the show Susan Wands, author of the Arcana Oracle Series. We’re looking at the extraordinary lives of Florence Farr and Ellen Terry, two incredible women who broke all the rules of Victorian society. Divorce! Affairs! Illegitimate children! And best of all—careers! Ellen was an incredibly successful actress, and Florence was an artist and theater producer who became a high-ranking magician and head of the Golden Dawn. Not only did women like Ellen and Florence exist, but their lives were stranger (and better!) than fiction. We also discuss the possibility that Florence and Ellen inspired Pamela Colman Smith’s High Priestess and Empress tarot cards. Susan’s new book is High Priestess and Empress, and it’s out May 14th.

Following on from Episode 3.19 on sex toys with Hallie Lieberman, this week we talk to clinical psychologist Dr Eric Sprankle about the history and science of masturbation. We talk about the not-so-sexy origins of graham crackers and Kellogg’s Corn Flakes, bizarre conspiracy theories about porn, semen retention myths, and the Founding Father who thought math would keep you from touching yourself. Does masturbating fight fascism? The answer might surprise you! Eric’s new book is DIY: The Wonderfully Weird History and Science of Masturbation.

Literary nerds rejoice! This week, we have another history/literature episode, looking at sex work in Victorian poetry with Emily Calleja. We’re talking about how sex workers were portrayed, what that can tell us about women’s real-life frustrations, and how it impacted the suffrage movement.

Sex toys have existed for 28,000 years, so why is there still such a stigma around them? This week we’re talking about the history of sex toys from the ancient world to the present, the evolution and cultural significance of the vibrator in the 19th and 20th centuries, Masters and Johnson’s revolutionary research, the ups and downs of the adult entertainment industry, anti-obscenity laws, and censorship. Our guest is Dr Hallie Lieberman, author of Buzz: A Stimulating History of the Sex Toy

You’ve heard it all before—corsets are dangerous, uncomfortable, a tool of the patriarchy meant to oppress women! But are they? Were they ever? This week on DSH, we talk to biological anthropologist about corsets—how they really affect the body, why women wore them, and the surprising reason men wanted to do away with them at the turn of the 20th century. Rebecca’s new book is The Bad Corset, a translation and critique of Ludovic O’Followell’s influential 1905 anti-corset treatise, Le Corset.

In seventeenth-century England, seeing a doctor was a big deal. Before the NHS, people paid doctors, quacks, and even astrological medical practitioners out of pocket for cures that could be dangerous and downright unpleasant. Some people turned to household recipe books to treat themselves at home, but for many serious ailments, this just wasn’t possible. This week, we talk to Dr Jennifer Evans about men’s sexual health in the seventeenth-century—everything from kidney stones and infertility to syphilis and genital gangrene. Plus, just in time for Valentine’s Day, an introduction to early modern aphrodisiacs. Sparrow, anyone?

For women in Renaissance Italy, beauty was everything: it could be a vocation, a way to get ahead, entertainment, or even a weapon. Women of all classes used cosmetics, and many were employed as beauticians, apothecaries, and beauty writers. This week, Jess talks to Professor Jill Burke about Renaissance beauty standards, cosmetics, hair dye, plastic surgery, and how hundreds of women escaped abusive marriages with Aqua Tofana

Between 1848 and 1879, the Oneida Community tried to build heaven in Upstate New York through the principles of communism, free love, and contraception. Under the guidance of charismatic preacher John Humphrey Noyes, the community practiced “complex marriage,” meaning everyone was allowed to sleep with everyone else. But there was a dark side to this seemingly progressive paradise—Noyes was a narcissist who exercised extreme control over the lives of his followers, experimenting with eugenics in his quest for immortality. In this special double episode, Jess covers Noyes’s early life and theology, the structure and sexual practices of the community, and its experiments in birth control and “stirpiculture.” You’ll never look at a spoon the same way again.

What can folklore teach us about history? More than you’d think! This week, Jess talks to Icy Sedgwick about fairies, ghosts, gods, psychopomps, tricksters, banshees, and more. Who was the real Lady Godiva? How did colonialism influence the folklore of the Americas? And why are people so obsessed with Robin Hood? We cover all this and more this week on DSH. Icy is the author of Rebel Folklore: Empowering Tales of Spirits, Witches, and Other Misfits from Anansi to Baba Yaga. For more on Jess’s birthday fundraiser to benefit ARFP, check out our Instagram @dirtysexyhistory or donate directly at arfpnc.com.

He might not be the most famous pirate, but Black Sam Bellamy may have been the most successful: when his ship wrecked in 1717, it took Sam with it, along with an astonishing 4.1 tonnes of gold and treasure. Forbes estimated that at his death, the "Prince of Pirates" was worth more than $120 million. And he did it all for love. This week on the podcast, we talk to Dr Jamie Goodall about Bellamy's doomed romance with the "Witch of Wellfleet," Maria Hallett, his unusual battle tactics, and how the Whydah was found again in the 1980s. Jamie also offers tips for finding pirates in your own family tree--chances are, you may have one or two.

Madame Blavatsky is no longer a household name, but her ideas changed the course of history. A central figure in Victorian Spiritualism, she is credited with starting the New Age movement. She influenced everyone from Aldous Huxley and H.P. Lovecraft to Aleister Crowley and David Bowie. Even Dungeons & Dragons borrows from Blavatsky. Although her “miracles” were debunked in her lifetime, her ideas were far from harmless—her theories about race heavily influenced the Nazis and may have led to the Holocaust. This week, Jess talks to author and horror expert Sian Ingham about the difficult legacy of Madame Blavatsky. Sian’s books include The Age of Miracles: Essays on the Collapse of History, and the Bram Stoker Award-nominated We Don’t Go Back: A Watcher’s Guide to Folk Horror.

Strikes have been in the news more and more lately, but what is a Labor Union and why should we care? Unions have gotten us many of the rights we take for granted today: the eight-hour workday, safer working conditions, better wages, and benefits. Women have played a huge part in this, from teenage girls in the first picket lines, to Mother Jones and Lucy Parsons, to the Uprising of the 20,000 and beyond. This week, we’re talking to journalist and organizer Kim Kelly about the American Labor Movement and what history can teach us about how to change the world today.

What did the 18th Century smell like? You probably think of horses and chamber pots, but do you think of tobacco? How about sulfur? This week, we talk to Dr Emily Friedman about common scents in fiction from the Long 18th Century, mentioned by authors like Frances Burney and Jane Austen. We’re talking snuff, smelling salts, taking the waters at Bath, bathing before showers, Queen Charlotte’s bad habits, Marie Antoinette’s perfume, and more! Dr Friedman’s book is Reading Smell in Eighteenth-Century Fiction. Check out our Instagram for discount codes @dirtysexyhistory