Hidden in bedside tables or proudly displayed on mantelpieces, wherever you keep them (if you do), sex toys have come a long way since the first phallic-shaped object was found around 30,000 years ago.

But before they were arriving through our post boxes in unmarked, tracked packages, what did sex toys look like? What were they made from? And why were doctors using them to treat... back pain?!

Kate is joined Betwixt the Sheets by writer, sex and gender historian Hallie Lieberman to discuss the first dildo, the myth of the vibrator, and more…

Find out more about Hallie's book, Buzz: The Stimulating History of the Sex Toy, here.

*WARNING this episode includes fruity language and themes of an adult nature*

Produced by Charlotte Long and Sophie Gee. Mixed by Seyi Adaobi.

Betwixt the Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society. A podcast by History Hit.

This episode includes music by Epidemic Sound and an archive clip from public vocational video from 1940.