
Show Notes
In 1948, Dr. Alfred Kinsey wrote the book on sex. “The Kinsey Report”, as it came to be known, was a pioneering scientific study on the sexual habits of ordinary Americans. Divided into Male and Female Volumes, it challenged longstanding myths about sex and the religious ideology that upheld them. In this first installment of a three-part series, we explore the life, times and motivations of the enigmatic man behind the Kinsey Report – Dr. Alfred Kinsey.
SOURCES: Allen, Judith A. The Kinsey Institute: The First Seventy Years. 2017. Brenot, Phillipe. The Story of Sex. 2016. D’Emilio, John. Freedman, Estelle. Intimate Matters: The History of Sexuality in America. 1988. Donna J. Drucker, “‘A Noble Experiment’: The Marriage Course at Indiana University, 1938-1940,” IMH September 2007 Gary, Brett. Dirty Works. Obscenity on Trial in America’s First Sexual Revolution. 2021. Hardy, Gathorne. Sex: The Measure of All Things: A Life of Alfred C. Kinsey. 1998. Hegarty, Peter. Gentlemen’s Disagreement. 2013. Jones, James H. Alfred C. Kinsey: A Life. 1997. Wimpee, Rachel. Iacobell, Teresa. “Funding a Sexual Revolution: The Kinsey Reports.” Jan 9 2020. Rockefeller Archive Center. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
More from Conflicted: A History Podcast
After the humiliating rejection by King Phillip Augustus at Paris, the Children’s Crusade is forced to carry on without political support and find a different road to the Holy Land. Moving east into Germany, the Crusade amasses new followers, including a scrappy young boy named Nicolas from the shrine city of Cologne. But Pope Innocent III, the powerful head of the Catholic Church, is monitoring the Crusade closely from Rome, weighing his response to this unsanctioned movement…
In the late spring of 1212, a spontaneous mass movement of 30,000 children arose in medieval France. Led by a 12-year-old shepherd boy named Stephen from the small village of Cloyes, the “Children’s Crusade” swore to march on the Holy Land and peacefully reclaim the city of Jerusalem from Muslim control. In this first episode of a two-part series, we examine the origins of the Children’s Crusade, the historiographical controversy surrounding it, and the enigmatic figure at its center, Stephen of Cloyes.
In the third and final installment of the series, President Theodore Roosevelt mobilizes the full industrial might of United States to “make the dirt fly” in Panama and succeed where the French Syndicate failed. But many perils await them in “The Zone”. From disease-bearing mosquitos and intractable terrain, to labor problems and lethal accidents, the Panamanian jungle will not be tamed without a fight.
After the French project to build a canal through Panama collapses in 1889 amidst disease and financial scandal, US President Teddy Roosevelt resolves to pick up where they left off. However, powerful interests in Washington are aggressively lobbying for a different route – not through Panama, but Nicaragua. As debate rages and backdoor deals are made, Panama becomes a lightning rod for controversy…and revolution.
In August of 1914, the United States of America completed a man-made waterway through the Panamanian isthmus, linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans for the first time in history. But that engineering triumph was the culmination of decades of toil, conflict and death. In this first episode of a multi-part series on the Panama Canal, we trace the origins of its construction, beginning with the doomed French attempt and its tragic protagonist, Ferdinand de Lesseps.