History’s favourite sex toys
6/14/202626 min
*CONTENT WARNING* This episode explores mature themes such as sex and masturbation.
When the wooden object was unearthed, the archaeologists were stumped. What was this thing? It looked like a club and was found among bits of cloth so they thought it was a darning tool.
But it was another kind of tool. One that would raise eyebrows and cause some people to blush.
Sex historian Dr Kate Lister (Flick: The Story of Female Pleasure) charts the history of female pleasure with Marc Fennell (Stuff The British Stole), unearthing sex toys from archaeological digs to nunneries.
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Transcript preview
First 90 secondsSpeaker 10:00
[upbeat music] ABC Listen: podcasts, radio, news, music, and more.
Rob Bergen0:05
[suspenseful music] Jack McLennan was 27, fit, and visibly strong. He was trained well. He knew how to hit, and I was gobsmacked. He seemed ready for anything, but then he suddenly vanished.
Marc Fennell· Host0:20
I was just talking to him last night. Like, how the hell does that happen?
Rob Bergen0:24
I'm Rob Bergen. Join me as I investigate what became of Jack in the new season of Unravel. There has to be something more nefarious going on. Search for the Unravel podcast on ABC Listen or wherever you get your podcasts.
Marc Fennell· Host0:36
[upbeat music] It's 1992, [camera clicking] and two archaeologists are digging in a second-century fort ditch in Northumberland.
Kate Lister· Guest0:50
It's a Roman fort called Vindolanda, and it's in the north of England, and it's where the Romans hung out near Hadrian's Wall, and they had big defenses, and it's a big ... It's like our Pompeii, basically, except, you know, we didn't have the volcano.
Marc Fennell· Host1:01
And they're finding all kinds of stuff: uh, shoes, clothing, tools. And then they unearth an artifact that looked, well, different but also familiar.
Kate Lister· Guest1:11
There was an item that was excavated that got categorized as a darning tool, so something as an aid to sewing somehow.
Marc Fennell· Host1:21
Hmm. Yeah, so if you were to look at this thing, you would immediately realize that it was no sewing tool.
Kate Lister· Guest1:27
That doesn't look like something that any woman is using