Sexing History Gillian Frank & Lauren Gutterman

In the 1960s, Papa Joe’s in Roanoke, Virginia, became the very first club in the state and among the earliest in the nation to feature topless dancing. While some heralded Papa Joe’s owner, George Christofis, as a sexual revolutionary, many religious leaders and local residents condemned him. But Papa Joe’s history is not a simple tale of moral outrage in a part of the country that birthed the Religious Right. Instead, the story of Papa Joe’s reveals how sexual entertainment flourished on Southern soil while upholding the color line.

For nearly half a century, Curtis Boyd and Glenna Halverson Boyd have devoted their lives to providing safe and affirming abortion care. Curtis, a former Baptist minister, began providing abortions in Texas before the procedure was legal in the state. After Roe, with the help of an interfaith network of clergy, Curtis opened up a clinic in Dallas. In the 1970s, Glenna came to work there as well, and the two eventually fell in love. Their partnership and shared commitment to abortion care has enabled them to withstand the increasing violence of the anti-abortion movement and to continue providing abortions to this day.

Hosts and Creators: Gillian Frank and Lauren Gutterman

Senior Producer: Saniya Lee Ghanoui

Producer and Story Editor: Rebecca Davis

Assistant Producers: Mallory Szymanski

To learn more about our podcast, please visit us at www.sexinghistory.com

In this episode, we’ll be taking a cue from Santa Claus and sketching a naughty and nice history of festive sexual expressions. So, grab your eggnog, curl up by the fire and join us as we explore the ghosts of Christmas nights past.

Hosts and Creators: Gillian Frank and Lauren Gutterman
Senior Producer: Saniya Lee Ghanoui
Producer and Story Editor: Rebecca Davis
Assistant Producers: Stephen Colbrook and Mallory Szymanski
Research Associates: Caroline Azdell, Katie Kenny and Felix Yeung.
To learn more about our podcast, please visit us at www.sexinghistory.com

How do you come out in a religious community that loves you conditionally? What do you tell yourself about your faith and your desires when your Church views your sexuality as disordered? In this episode of Sexing History, we focus on the experiences of three gay men who were priests or seminarians in the St. Louis diocese beginning in the 1990s. Their overlapping stories, their friendships, their faith, and the ways in which they came out to themselves and each other within Catholic institutions, speak to the intertwined histories of desire and devotion.
Hosts and Creators: Gillian Frank and Lauren Gutterman

Senior Producer: Saniya Lee Ghanoui

Producer and Story Editor: Rebecca Davis

Assistant Producers: Stephen Colbrook and Mallory Szymanski

Research Associates: Katie Kenny and Felix Yeung.

Interns: Hugh MacNeil, Ian McCabe and Emily Vaughn.

Thank you to Brian McNaught, Gary Meier, Phil Tiemeyer, and Jeff Vomund for sharing their stories with us.

To learn more about our podcast, please visit us at www.sexinghistory.com

If you enjoyed this episode, please review us on iTunes and share us on social media.

Straight white men’s sexuality is too often imagined as natural, timeless, and unchanging. In The Pickup Artist, we showcase the 1970 bestseller, How to Pick Up Girls, in order to explore the cultural forces that have shaped how white men experienced and publicly expressed their desire for women in increasingly casual and aggressive ways.

How to Pick Up Girls by Eric Weber was a mass-marketed book that advised men on how to introduce themselves to and seduce women. The book spawned several sequels and countless imitators. But more importantly, How to Pick Up Girls represented the triumph of a male-dominated sexual revolution that allowed men to demand ever-greater access to any woman’s time, body, and attention.

Hosts and Creators: Gillian Frank and Lauren Gutterman

Senior Producer: Saniya Lee Ghanoui

Producer and Story Editor: Rebecca Davis

Assistant Producers: Chris Babits, Isabel Machado and Mallory Szymanski
Interns: Katie Kenny, Hugh MacNeil, Ian McCabe, Emily Vaughn and Felix Yeung. Julia Zaksek provided research assistance on this episode.

To learn more about our podcast, please visit us at www.sexinghistory.com

If you enjoyed this episode, please review us on iTunes and share us on social media. 

The story of African American midwifery is part of a larger history of Black women’s struggles to protect their own lives, as well as the lives of other Black women and their children. This episode explores the long history of African American midwives, doulas, and birth attendants who have labored to ensure the safety and dignity of Black mothers and their children in and beyond the maternity ward. These women have worked to provide emotional support and medical advocacy for other pregnant and laboring African American women. Their reproductive advocacy makes clear that the delivery room has become an important site to ensure that Black lives matter.

Hosts and Creators: Gillian Frank and Lauren Gutterman

Senior Producer: Saniya Lee Ghanoui

Producer and Story Editor: Rebecca Davis

Assistant Producers: Chris Babits, Isabel Machado and Mallory Szymanski

To learn more about our podcast, please visit us at www.sexinghistory.com

If you enjoyed this episode, please review us on iTunes and share us on social media.