February 8, 2023

EP. 303 — What’s The Steamy History Of Valentine’s Day? with Dr. Sally Holloway

Roses are red, violets are blue, we have a Valentine’s Day episode for you! This week on Getting Curious, we’re learning all about the history of Valentine’s Day, with returning guest Dr. Sally Holloway. Was the holiday always about love and romance? When did roses and chocolates become go-to gifts? And what would people living in Georgian England think of celebrations like Galentine’s Day?

This episode is a perfect match with Dr. Holloway’s first conversation with Jonathan, all about love and courtship in Georgian England! Here’s a link to listen.

Dr. Sally Holloway is a historian of gender, emotions, and material culture in 18th and 19th century Britain. She is a Vice Chancellor’s Research Fellow at Oxford Brookes University, and the author of The Game of Love in Georgian England (2019).

You can follow Dr. Holloway on Twitter @sally_holloway.

Looking for a Valentine’s Day treat? Grab a copy of The Game Of Love In Georgian England, now in paperback.

Follow us on Instagram and Twitter @CuriousWithJVN to join the conversation.

 

Jonathan is on Instagram and Twitter @JVN and @Jonathan.Vanness on Facebook.

 

Transcripts for each episode are available at JonathanVanNess.com.

 

Our executive producer is Erica Getto. Our associate producer is Zahra Crim. Our editor is Andrew Carson.

 

Our theme music is “Freak” by QUIÑ; for more, head to TheQuinCat.com.

Transcript

Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness & Sally Holloway  JVN [00:00:00] [SINGS] Welcome to Getting Curious! [STOPS SINGING] I’m Jonathan Van Ness and every week I sit down for a gorgeous conversation with a brilliant expert to learn all about something that makes me curious. On today’s episode, I’m joined by returning guest Sally Holloway, where I ask her: What’s the steamy history of Valentine’s Day? Ah, I love that! Welcome back to Getting Curious! Oh my God, I’m so excited. I just got chills on my triceps because we have such a good episode today. [SINGING] We’re learning about stuff! You know I love a history episode. Which: are we going to officially petition in 2023 for it to be changed to “herstory”? I just think, let’s get back into Latin. Let’s, like, change it for the way that it should be. But I digress, that’s for a different episode. Today, you cannot walk through a drugstore almost, like, anywhere in Jan

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