History's Worst F*ckboys: Casanova

Betwixt The Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society

History Hit

Society, Sex, Scandal, Education, History

4.8 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 22 April 2025

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Can you imagine being SO smooth-talking and seductive your surname becomes an actual noun in the dictionary to describe someone who has a reputation for being an expert at in the sack?

Well today we’re going to be talking about a man who was just that…Giacamo Casanova.

But is his legacy as a f*ckboy accurate? Was he really a prolific ladies man? And did he do anything else in his life other than seduce women…and if he did, why do we only remember him for that reason?

Today we’re bringing you a very special Betwixt the Sheets mash-up episode with History Hit’s very own Casanova, Dan Snow (don’t worry, he has humbly confirmed we could call him that).

Kate and Dan will be discussing why there is much more to Casanova than just womanising - he was a scam artist, outlaw, alchemist, spy and church cleric. He wrote satires, fought duels, and escaped from prison more than once. He even set up the French national lottery. Join Kate and Dan for this special collab episode of History Hit in the Sheets to find out all this and more!

Produced by Freddy Chick, Charlotte Long and Mariana Des Forges. Mixed by Dougal Patmore.

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All music from Epidemic Sounds.

Betwixt the Sheets: History of Sex, Scandal & Society is a History Hit podcast.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, I'm your host, Kate Lister.
0:02.4	If you would like betwixt the sheets, add free and get early access, sign up to History Hit.
0:08.7	With a History Hit subscription, you can also watch hundreds of original documentaries with top history presenters.
0:16.0	And enjoy a new release every single week.
0:19.8	Sign up now by visiting history hit.com forward slash subscribe.
0:24.6	Hello, my lovely betwixters.
0:26.3	It's me, Cade Lister.
0:27.8	I am me, you are you, and this is betwixtor sheets.
0:32.5	Hello, everybody.
0:33.7	I am so glad that you're joining us today,
0:35.6	not just because it's always fabulous to have you around, but because today, wait for it, this is our three-year anniversary. It's our third birthday. It's betwixt's third birthday. Happy birthday to us. And it's the leather year. That feels oddly appropriate. I'll leave the anniversary
0:57.2	presents up to you. But before we can keep celebrating, I do have to tell you, as I have done
1:03.0	for the past three years, that this is an adult podcast spoken by adults to other adults,
1:06.5	about adultery things in an adult you way covering a range of adult subjects and you should be an
1:09.5	adult too. Does that feel safer?
1:11.1	I feel safer.
1:12.1	Right, birthday buddies, let's do it.
1:20.6	Shh, no, I mean it.
1:22.4	We don't want the librarians in here.
1:24.6	Gosh, what does he do with his time?
1:31.6	Count Waldenstein has some 40,000 titles in this library,
1:36.3	and there is no coherent pattern to any of this at all. The organisation is terrible.
	...

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