What was it like to be a cunning woman during the witch trials of Renaissance Europe? Or a eunuch priest of Cybele in ancient Rome? Or a cross-dressing shaman in Siberia when Europeans first came knocking?
That’s the kind of thing we’ll be exploring in the new podcast The History of Sex.
Sex and gender issues lie at the core of the Neopagan movement, not to mention the pre-Christian Pagan religions that have inspired it. Anyone interested in these basic questions will find something rewarding to discover in this show.
For example, did you know the Nazis encouraged young women to bear a child out of wedlock for the Fatherland? Or that pre-contact Hawaii had no such thing as marriage? Or that ancient Romans had no concept of orientation, only a vague sense of “preference” for one sex or the other?
To whet your appetite, here are just a few of the episodes already out:
- What the Zombie Apocalypse Teaches Us About Sex: Hunter-gatherers and the Walking Dead
- The History of Gay Bars, Feat. Born Yesterday
- A Real-life Handmaid’s Tale: Sex in the Third Reich
We’ll have much more coming up in the following year, so be sure to subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, or wherever you get podcasts. You can also listen at our website: www.historyofsexpod.com.
Image Credit: Rachel Westhoff
The History of Sex is a podcast uncovering sex and gender. We explode gender norms by exploring their incredible variety across time. Listen on iTunes, Stitcher, and other podcast apps, or at deadideas.net.
The Author
B. T. Newberg: Since the year 2000, B. T. has been practicing meditation and ritual from a naturalistic perspective. He has served as Education Director for the Spiritual Naturalist Society, where he created an online course in naturalistic spirituality (including Naturalistic Paganism!). His writings can also be found at Patheos and Pagan Square, as well as right here at HP.
He also hosts two podcasts: The History of Sex, covering sex and gender across world history, and Dead Ideas: The Podcast of Extinct Thoughts and Practices, exploring ideas once believed to be true, but no longer.
Professionally, he was an ESL teacher for 12 years and now works in customer service. After living in Minnesota, England, Malaysia, Japan, and South Korea, he currently resides in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with his wife and cat.
After founding HumanisticPaganism.com in 2011 and serving as managing editor till 2013, he now serves as advising editor, and feels blessed to be a part of this community.
After founding HumanisticPaganism.com in 2011 and serving as managing editor till 2013, he now serves as advising editor, and feels blessed to be a part of this community.
