Harlots of History

Welcome to part 2 of Josephine Baker! Because her life is SO INTERESTING, we decided to extend it into three parts. In this episode, we will talk about her movie career; her opera performances; her time with the Ziegfeld Follies; her career as a French Resistance fighter; and how she travelled around town in a carriage drawn by an ostrich. Fake Counts with fake monocles; undercover spies in Portugal; Cheetahs named Chiquita: this e...

Happy Valentine's/Galentine's/Ballantine's day. We are so excited to spend it with all of our harlots! For a special treat, we asked you to send us in your terrible love stories, and boy did you deliver. Grab a box of red wine and 7 cappuccinos as we dive into some truly terrible horrid stories, and regale you with some of our very own worst (and best) dates. Story titles include... Catfish is Only Good Served Deep Fried; Bloody Va...

When the lights went up for the show and Josephine Baker was nowhere to be found... it was because she was naked in her dressing room eating lobster. We don't know about you, but we REALLY want to be friends with her. We weren't really sure how to fit someone who lived 1000 lives into one episode, so we decided to split up Josephine's story into two. In Part 1, Karamia tells Emily about Josephine's childhood: from supporting her en...

Last week, we talked about the War of the Roses. This week, we are going back a little bit further... Emily tells Karamia about Alice, who came from nothing (literally, we know nothing about her) but rose through the ranks to quickly become the richest woman in England. Along the way we will discuss Edward III. Phillipa the Phertile, and how Karamia once ran into a window in Armani Exchange. Grab your turkey legs, 400 gallons of ga...

Hey, remember season 5 of Game of Thrones when Cersei had to do the literal walk of shame? Turns out, like a lot of Game of Thrones, it actually happened! (well, without the dragons and ice monsters). Emily tells Karamia about Jane Shore, the mistress of Edward IV who was punished for Harlotry by walking through the streets Cersei-style! Along the way, we attempt to unravel the sticky time web of War of the Roses, and ask....why di...

Welcome to Medieval Mistress Month! We are excited to let our Apple Dumpling Shops loose and talk about some pretty peachy mistresses. To kick it off, Karamia tells Emily about Agnes Sorel, the original ORIGINAL royal mistress to King Charles VII, who ruled the country (while Charles was in the corner being creepy); invented fashion and forks; and was the victim of a 600-year-old secret mercury poisoning plot. So grab your Meade an...

Welcome to the end of 2020! We are so happy this year is almost over, and while we all have a lot of work to do in 2021... we wanted to kick off the  New Year by telling you about one of the craziest CIA covert ops EVER and it's super-secret code name: Operation Midnight Climax. Yup. That's it, that's the real name. Karamia tells Emily about this sub-project of MKUltra, and how the CIA opened "safe-houses" (brothels) in San Fr...

Hi Harlots! After a few diva moments of exhaustion, we FINALLY bring you... Beulah Annan and Belva Gaertner... aka the inspirations behind Roxie Hart and Velma Kelly. Emily tells Karamia about what happens when you mix gin, sex, revolvers, and too-tight curls. (Hint: It ain't good.) Beulah watched her lover die while drinking cocktails and listening to cocktails, and Belva once threatened to kill her husband for walking in on her w...

Happy Christmas Eve! We hope that you are in good spirits, or at least have a lot of spirits! Today we are bringing you the finale of our Naughty Aughts Month and the Conclusion to our favorite Diva. All we want for Christmas is to talk about her infamous 2001 "breakdown", Diva Moments of Exhaustion, mermaid themed living rooms, and what really happened with the Eminem-Mariah-Nick Cannon Feud. Pour yourself some red wine and Captai...

Welcome to Naughty Aughts: The Christmas Week Edition! We figured there was no better way to kick this week off than by covering the Queen of Christmas. If all you know about Mariah is that she is really good at hitting high notes, loves butterflies, and was the only person that David Rose every said I love you to, then we are right there with you. But Mariah is so much more than her Diva moments, and if you join us down the rabbit...

Welcome to Part 2 of Naughty Aughts: Paris Hilton edition. In this episode, we continue our journey through the early 2000s, and re-think everything we thought we knew about Paris. As we re-examine the platinum-blonde Mother of Social Media, we find more than a vapid heiress, who was the victim of revenge porn, the Bling Ring, and a "Paris Exposed" storage unit fiasco. We will sort through the heavy silver eyeshadow, Dior purses, a...

Welcome to Naughty Aughts: the platinum edition. This year Paris Hilton revealed to us that she is more than an heiress, more than a reality star, more than an IT Girl, and more than a DJ... She is also a survivor who was cycled through the ‘troubled teen industry’ at Provo Canyon school in the mid -90’s. We thought that this was a good time to set our DeLorean Flux Capacitors for the early 00s and revisit Paris’ life because it se...

You might know her as the powerhouse behind the iconic songs that played at your middle school dances, on the school bus, or through the headphones of your 4th generation pink iPod Nano. You might know her as the amazing female rapper who had us all picking our jaws off the floor and baby teenyboppers asking ‘WHO is THAT?’ at the Superbowl and Video Vanguard Awards.  Missy Elliott is an American treasure (duh), but what do you...

If you were super excited for our December Naughty Oughts... don't worry. They are still coming! Due to some technical difficulties, we decided to release one of Patreon episodes, and give you an exclusive into what's going on over there. Tune in Thursday to get back to our regularly scheduled program of 2000's Pop Harlots. But for now... let us give you another reason to deadbolt your doors. We wanted to tell you all about Liz Ken...

Ahoy! Ahoy t' Harlots o' History. Today we 'ave a mighty special episode fer ye! Ye know Blackbeard, right? Th' infamous, much a-feared pirate who commanded 300 scallywags 'n 4 whole ships, th' greatest pirate in history...Enter Ching Shih. She was a madame turned pirate who commanded 70,000 scallywags, 2000 boats, 'n would 'ave laughed Blackbeard right off th' plank into Davy Jone's Locker. Pour yourself some rum, grab yer pet pol...

Happy Thanksgiving Harlots! We hope that you are staying safe and home and having thanksgiving with your cats. But dinner is dinner and even if it's just you, your 14 chinchillas, and a boatload of mashed potatoes, you should still be using proper etiquette! Enter Emily Post. You may know her as Miss Manners; she quite literally wrote the (900 page) book on the proper way of life. We want to make sure you are not combing your hair ...

Happy Thanksgiving 2020! Are you curious about how to cure your own leather couch for all your guests (AKA your Himalayan cats and your computer Zoom screen)? Would you like to know how to get the mud off of your fine silver (for your dinner for two)? Have you ever wondered how to make your own flour from the wild grains you have growing in your farm (to make boatloads of bread to eat with your pet Chinchillas) ? Well, don't worry ...