Our Sexual History

Episode #4 | A Short History of Syphilis

By Shawna Scott
This month we have HeadStuff history columnist, Ciaran Conliffe to tell us about how Syphilis has shaped the Western world for the past 500 years. And we play a game called “Who in History has had Syphilis?” Spoiler alert: a LOT of them!

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Episode #4 BONUS | Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment

A lot of the research for this episode came from the following sources:

Book: HISTORY, SEX AND SYPHILIS: Famous Syphilitics and Their Private Lives.

HeadStuff articles about some of the people mentioned, and historical figures who had Syphilis:

Abe Sada

Charles Baudelaire

The Campbells (divorce over him infecting her with syphilis).

Here’s an article on The Irish Independent from last year about a 20% rise in Syphilis cases in Ireland.

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Our Sexual History original artwork by Sheena Flynn
Music by Shane O’Sullivan
This episode was produced by Alan Bennett.
Shawna Scott 12 posts 0 comments

Shawna Scott is the proprietor (though she prefers 'Smut Peddler') of Sex Siopa, Ireland's multi-award winning sex toy retailer. Since founding Sex Siopa in 2012, Shawna has traveled around Ireland giving talks about everything from the sex toy industry, to modern feminism, to the her sold out show at Kilkenomics "The Economics of Sex." She has been featured on RTE, in a number of national newspapers & magazines, and has been a guest on Newstalk and TodayFM. Shawna is delighted to have found a home in HeadStuff where she can focus her sights on the past, and discover how sexual politics have evolved and how we got to where we are today.

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