47 episodes
Harlots of History harlotsofhistory
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- History
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4.7 • 73 Ratings
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Every week we tackle the shadier, sexy, and more salacious people in history. We will attempt not to digress too much as alternate between wine, iced coffee, and sparking water. Grab a fizzy drink and some salty snacks, and join us as we take back the word harlot one episode at a time.
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Ma Rainey: Boas, Boll Weevils, and Orgies.
While Ma Rainey is the Mother of the Blues, yet when she died, her occupation was recorded as "housekeeper" and her death was never reported. Most of the press coverage she receives today is in response to the new movie on Netflix (which, while amazing, is based on all fictional characters except Ma herself). Emily tells Karamia about Ma: who always travelled with Peacock feathers; whose music defied heteronormative expectations of the 1920's; and who was once arrested for having an orgy with her female band members. Pour yourself some gin and dive in as we learn that boll weevils are not rabbits; Elvis stole a lot of songs from Black female songwriters; and Ma may have inadvertently inspired Karamia's shoulder tattoo.
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Get Off Your High Tomato: Josephine Baker Part III
Well, we did it. We finally finished the saga of Josephine Baker. In this emotional roller coaster of an episode, we learn about Josephine's 12 adopted children; her friendship with Grace Kelly; and her career as a civil rights activist (among many others). Get out your tissues and your wine coolers; this episode is a doozy, but a perfect way for us to wrap up the thousand lives of Josephine Baker.
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Ostrich Carriages Are The Only Way To Travel: Josephine Baker Part 2
Welcome to part 2 of Josephine Baker! Because her life is SO INTERESTING, we decided to extend it into three parts. In this episode, we will talk about her movie career; her opera performances; her time with the Ziegfeld Follies; her career as a French Resistance fighter; and how she travelled around town in a carriage drawn by an ostrich. Fake Counts with fake monocles; undercover spies in Portugal; Cheetahs named Chiquita: this episode has it all. Grab your Bouillon cubes and a stiff Martini, and settle in for what may be our most interesting Harlot yet!
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Valentine's Day Special: Harlots' Love Stories
Happy Valentine's/Galentine's/Ballantine's day. We are so excited to spend it with all of our harlots! For a special treat, we asked you to send us in your terrible love stories, and boy did you deliver. Grab a box of red wine and 7 cappuccinos as we dive into some truly terrible horrid stories, and regale you with some of our very own worst (and best) dates. Story titles include... Catfish is Only Good Served Deep Fried; Bloody Valentine; and Misogyny? I Don't Know Her. Enjoy!
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Naked in Her Dressing Room Eating Lobster: Josephine Baker (Part 1)
When the lights went up for the show and Josephine Baker was nowhere to be found... it was because she was naked in her dressing room eating lobster. We don't know about you, but we REALLY want to be friends with her. We weren't really sure how to fit someone who lived 1000 lives into one episode, so we decided to split up Josephine's story into two. In Part 1, Karamia tells Emily about Josephine's childhood: from supporting her entire family at age 9; to marrying TWO different men named Willy before age 15; to wowing audiences from St. Louis to Paris with her infectious grin and goofy faces. Grab yourself a plate of lobster; rename all your pets "Tomato"; put on a fake monocle, and get ready to fall in L.O.V.E. with Josephine.
PS... at the end of the episode we get cut off before we can tell you goodbye (but we were probably done saying anything interesting anyway). -
Super Secret Medieval Affair
Welcome to our last medieval episode! Karamia tells Emily about a super scandalous affair in 1300s France that inadvertently caused the 100 years war. Intrigued? You'll just have to listen to find out! Grab your wine flagons, your favorite Brie, your dashing knight, and head to a tower where they hopefully have WIFI so you can listen to this titilating episode!
Customer Reviews
A Comfortable Listen
I like the show a lot. It's a little less formal than pods like stuff you missed in history class and such, which I understand can be frustrating to some listeners. Personally, I like that it's coming from two people who enjoy each other's company and who are obviously engaging their own interests with independent studies.
I was re-listening to the Jane Shore episode, and was once again struck by the dialogue over what a taper is. Because I cannot comment individually, here are some notes (not intended to be talking down in any way, I'm just a linguistic/history nerd and I can't dm ya'll on twitter):
- A taper is a type of candle, not a kind of bell. So named for the shape a candle stick takes. I think the idea here was that she would be dressed essentially in underwear, which was both revealing and uncomfortable, and made to hold a candle so that even in the dark, everyone would see her. Imagine holding a floodlight and walking in your underpinnings. Not a great feeling, even if you look objectively fantastic.
- When pronouncing French words, they have a different cadence to them, not always as complicated as Agnes's name. For example, La Voisenne is pronounced something like "la vwah-sahn". Diane de Poitiers is more like "dee-ahn deh pwah-tee-ay"; "dy-ann" is the English pronunciation! French is quite hard at times, especially since we're normally given a weird English mash-up, but I've had my mother and practical experience to bounce things off of for annunciation.
- There is a new show on ShowStars called "The Serpent Queen" that is well done. Obviously some aspects are highly dramatized, but I'd recommend it.
I can be reached at voidnests@gmail if y'all have any interest in feedback or idea generation. I'm a pretty big history nerd regarding interesting women in general. I heard you wanted to do Marilyn Monroe sometime, and I'd be very interested in recommending some good resources.
Other than that, please keep up your work. :) I know not everyone agrees with me here in these comments, but as stated, I think it's great that you two are trying to manage some extra studying and bonding time and letting your listeners in on it.
Sloppy, poorly researched (unless it’s about wokeness)
To be blunt, they don’t research this well and come across as not that bright. It’s a lot of slurring and giggling at the expense of facts. They don’t know or mention very basic things about their subjects.
Example: They didn’t know if Louis XIV was the sun king. No clue when Shakespeare lived. Pause the recording and google it maybe? It’s just sloppily done all the way around.
But they are VERY focused dropping woke phrases and ideology into almost everything, no matter how unrelated.
Please spend more time researching (and googling pronunciation…) of your subjects and less on a pandering political agenda.
Hard Pass
“So before we talk about Eva Braun we should probably just acknowledge that Hitler was like the worst person ever.”