Inside the Brothels of New Orleans
Betwixt The Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society
History Hit
4.8 • 2.1K Ratings
🗓️ 3 April 2026
⏱️ 52 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Storyville was the red-light district in New Orleans, created in 1897.
What was it like in this neighbourhood, and inside the brothels there? How was race and segregation a factor in Storyville? And what triggered the downfall of Storyville?
Joining Kate today is the wonderful Dr. Alecia P. Long, Professor of History at Louisiana State University, to take us back to this time and place.
This episode was edited by Hannah Feodorov. The producer was Stuart Beckwith. The senior producer was Freddy Chick.
Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.
You can take part in our listener survey here.
All music from Epidemic Sounds.
Betwixt the Sheets: History of Sex, Scandal & Society is a History Hit podcast.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Do you want even more shocking and scandalous history? |
| 0:03.2 | Like why the ancient Greek statues had such small manhoods? |
| 0:06.8 | Or what went on behind closed doors in the Georgian era? |
| 0:10.8 | We'll sign up to History Hit, |
| 0:12.5 | where you can see me discover the scandalous side of history, |
| 0:15.3 | as well as hundreds of hours of original documentaries, |
| 0:18.7 | plus new releases every week, covering everything from prehistoric |
| 0:22.8 | Scotland to the Treaty of Versailles. Sign up to join me in locations around the world and explore |
| 0:29.2 | the past. Just visit history hit.com forward slash subscribe. |
| 0:35.4 | Hello my lovely betwixters. It's me, Cade Lister, welcome back. Hello, thank you for returning. You are listening to Betwixta Sheets. Is that what you meant to do? Is this the podcast that you were meant to listen to today? Well, hurrah! And if it's not, just stay with us because you might actually enjoy it. But before we can go any further, I do have to tell you, this is an adult podcast book by adults to other adults about adultery things and an |
| 0:54.5 | adulty way of coming away, adult subjects, needs to be an adult too. |
| 0:56.5 | Right, let's get on with it. |
| 1:04.4 | Hello, betwixters. |
| 1:06.0 | We are strolling down Basin Street in the heart of New Orleans at the turn of the 20th century. |
| 1:11.6 | The air is thick with perfume and jazz spilling out from the brothels all along here, |
| 1:16.6 | because in this part of New Orleans, sex work is given city-sanctioned space to do its thing. |
| 1:23.6 | So who are the women who run this world? |
| 1:26.6 | And what goes on inside the saloons and the brothels in the area known only as Storyville? |
| 1:32.3 | Well come along with me, Kate Lister. |
| 2:05.3 | It's always fascinating to see how cities and towns try to control sex work, and if history has proven one thing, it's going to happen whether you want it to or not. |
| 2:14.2 | And in Storyville, in New Orleans, they attempted to regulate sex work by confining it to a small |
| 2:20.4 | area and giving it its own set of rules. So did it thrive? Was that a success? Could we even |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from History Hit, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of History Hit and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.