Sweetbitter | A Sappho (S1) & Pirates (S2) History Podcast

About Sweetbitter | Sweetbitter is an investigative history podcast with a focus on queer & women's history. Each season, we explore a different corner of history, using historical figures and texts as a starting point to discuss a broader story of erasure of people with marginalized identities. Along with the listener, in collaboration with multidisciplinary experts, we untangle untold histories for a modern audience.

Season 1 | Sappho is the first known woman in the European literary tradition, one of only a few poets we know from antiquity and the o-g lesbian (or rather, where the word “lesbian” originates from). While much of Sappho’s work was destroyed, with only one full poem, Ode to Aphrodite, remaining, she is considered one of the best poets of all time, known as both the “Tenth Muse” and “the Poetess.” Despite her first-person, female-loving poetry, some scholars have fought against the popular image of Sappho as both a woman and lover of women, and still do today.

In the first season of Sweetbitter, we delved into the truth and controversy of Sappho’s life, the Isle of Lesbos and homosexuality in ancient Greece. Was Kerkylas of Andros (translation: “Penis of Mansville”) Sappho’s husband, or a wink to her known love of women? Did she really have a daughter named Kleos, or was she her young lover?

Collaborating with experts in the fields of poetry, queer studies, theatre and Ancient Greece, we will untangle the life of Sappho including the importance of her work and sexuality in modern times.

Season 2 | In our second season, we bring you a high-seas adventure full of surprises as we uncover the queer & women’s history of pirates. Gay love and even marriage were more common in the 17th-century world of pirates than we might expect, and history is full of cross-dressing, swashbuckling pirates who broke gender norms and created their own queer culture. Even Johnny Depp, in the Pirates of the Caribbean series, intentionally played Captain Jack Sparrow as a gay man.

Collaborating with experts in the field, we take a deep dive into the stories you don’t hear in the mainstream, exploring why they have been erased for hundreds of years.

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