Dr Kate Lister

“Open,” “Erudite,” and “A voice for those in the past who were underrepresented,” are just some of the ways new podcast presenter Kate Lister, host of Betwixt the Sheets: History of Sex, Scandal & Society, has been described in reviews.

Kate is a historian who was practically a presenting virgin before Betwixt the Sheets - but when we apprehensively listened to her first interview for the pilot episode (which was about the history of vasectomies, no less) it sounded like she had been presenting for decades. Podcasting was clearly a medium made for Kate, The Times even described her as a ‘merrily mucky host and Yorkshire woman,’ in a glowing review of the first episode.

Kate is the creator of Whores of Yore, a sex-positive research project, dedicated to exploring the history of human sexuality and challenging shame and stigma - which has more than half a million followers on Twitter. She has extended that inclusive attitude into BTS, covering subjects which have traditionally been left out of history books.

Kate doesn’t shy away from important, and sometimes uncomfortable, history. From chatting about Churchill’s questionable choices, to following the life of Nzinga, the warrior queen who fought colonialism, Kate is bold with her interviewing, and able to contextualise the history so it’s easy to follow.

History podcasts are still largely male dominated, Kate has a majority female audience, as are her guests for each episode. She holds space for them to share their research, while having a laugh at the same time.