The Surprising History of 'Karens'
What do Alexa, Adolf and Karen have in common?
They're all names that have plummeted in popularity.
The most recent, Karen, is largely due to the meme-powered phenomenon of calling out white privilege by calling someone a 'Karen'.
What is the history of calling out privilege in this way? Is this a force for good, or has it become sexist?
Today Kate is joined by Senior Lecturer of Language and Linguistics at Leeds Trinity University, Linda Walz, who has researched this social phenomenon in great depth.
This episode was edited and produced by Stuart Beckwith. The senior producer was Charlotte Long.
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Betwixt The Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society
Join sex historian Kate Lister on Betwixt the Sheets as she gets intimate with the stories that would make your history teacher blush.
What were the Victorians really like behind closed (bedroom) doors? How did the Black Death favour women in medieval England? And what was Caesar like in the sack?
She'll be bed-hopping around different time periods; from ancient civilisations, to the middle ages, to renaissance and early modern...right up to now.
You’ll laugh, you’ll wince, and you’ll ask yourself how much has actually changed.
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- No. of episodes: 318
- Latest episode: 2025-05-09
- History
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