Sex Work in the Klondike Gold Rush

Sex Work in the Klondike Gold Rush

From Betwixt The Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society by History Hit

June 22, 2026 · 39 min · Episode 436

About this episode

This episode explores the role of women and sex work during the Klondike Gold Rush.

Why on earth would anyone make a perilous journey across wilderness and snow covered mountains, all because of a bit of gold? This isn't Lord of the Rings, it's the Klondike Gold Rush, when an estimated hundred thousand people made the journey across Alaska to goldfields in the Klondike region, Canada. Among them, women. But why did women make this journey? How much of their work was sex work? Kate is joined by Brian Castner for this episode about life in the Alaskan Gold Rush. Brian is the author of ‘Stampede: Gold Fever and Disaster in the Klondike’. This episode was edited by Hannah Feodorov. The producer was Sophie Gee. 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. Voting is now open for the Listener's Choice Award at this year's Podcast Awards. Click here to place your vote! Thank you! https://www.britishpodcastawards.com/voting Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

People in this episode

Host: Kate

Guest: Brian Castner

Topics covered

Keywords

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: History Hit, Epidemic Sounds, Acast, British Podcast Awards

Books & works: Stampede: Gold Fever and Disaster in the Klondike

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