Sex & Shopping

This is the wild story of a 12th century French philosopher, Abelard, who fell in love with his student, Heloise.There are a lot of problematic issues going on. Not least their age gap, the resulting power dynamic, and, oh yes—Abelard was castrated.So why does this love story end ...  Show more

You know her from the perfume, the little black dress, the double C bag clasp, but who was the woman, Coco Chanel? What even was her real name?From her origin story, through her inspirations and affairs, to her connections to the Nazi party - today we find out more about Chanel.K ...  Show more

In this episode, the ladies investigate the history of casual sex and hookup culture. Digressions include the questionable ethics of the Mii plaza, the atrocities of Lamb (2021), and more of your hilarious sex stories. Watch the video episode   Show more

‘The department store is dying,’ Rosemary Hill wrote recently in the LRB, reviewing an exhibition at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris on the origins of the grands magasins. She joins Tom to talk about their 19th and 20th-century heyday as cathedrals of consumerism as well a ...  Show more

How pop-ups, home delivery and fast fashion go back as far as the 1800s. Rachel Bowlby, professor of comparative literature at UCL tells the story of how the pandemic changed the way we shop – with many ‘new’ initiatives actually reinventing old ways of doing things. You can read ...  Show more

Welcome to the Dark History podcast. What do you think of when you think of “Luxury Fashion”? Glitz, glamor, status?…Nazis, perhaps?? Plot twist I know. In today’s episode, we talk about a few luxury fashion brands that have some pretty shady histories of racism, sexual assault, ...  Show more