Shakespeare Unlimited podcast
William Shakespeare and his works are woven throughout our global culture, from theater, music, and films to new scholarship, education, amazing discoveries, and more. In our Shakespeare Unlimited podcast, Shakespeare opens a window into topics ranging from the American West, to the real history of Elizabethan street fighting, to interviews with Shakespearean stars. As you’ll hear, he turns up in surprising places, too—including outer space. Join us for a “no limits” tour of the connections between Shakespeare, his works, and our world.
Worlds Elsewhere
Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 51 In 2012, Andrew Dickson watched a Shakespeare play in London that set him off on a quest. When it ended, he had traveled to Poland, Germany, India, China and all across the United States. He chronicled…
Othello and Blackface
On the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast, Ian Smith and Ayanna Thompson talk about Elizabethan modes of blackface—which included covering a performer’s body with dyed cloth to simulate blackness—and how Smith’s insight changes how we understand Othello.
Shakespeare and Religion
Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 49 The period when Shakespeare was writing was one torn by disagreements over the proper method of observing Christianity in England. Protestantism was at war with Catholicism and the Church of England often employed coercion and even…
Shakespeare in Africa
Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 48 When the British came to colonize the African continent in the middle of the 1800s, they brought Shakespeare with them. But after the British left power, it was often Shakespeare who leaders in African countries summoned…
Creating Shakespeare's First Folio
Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 47 We likely wouldn’t have half of Shakespeare’s plays without the 1623 First Folio. Imagine a world without Macbeth, Twelfth Night, or Julius Caesar. Emma Smith offers an intimate, step-by-step story of how it was created.
Kill Shakespeare Comics
Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 46 Imagine a comic book series in which Shakespeare’s most popular characters team up in rival, warring camps bent on seizing control of the kingdom that is the world of Shakespeare’s plays. It’s called Kill Shakespeare,…
Reduced Shakespeare Company
Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 45 Discovered in a treasure-filled parking lot in Leicester, England, an ancient manuscript proves to be the long lost first play by none other than the young William Shakespeare from Stratford. That’s the premise of the latest…
Inside the Folger Conservation Lab
Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 44 The Folger is the world’s largest Shakespeare collection, and the crown jewels of that collection are the 82 First Folios. To celebrate 400 years of Shakespeare, eighteen of these rare books are traveling the country throughout…
Shakespeare and Magic
Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 43. Teller of Penn and Teller joined Barbara Mowat, director of research emerita and co-editor of the Folger Editions, to talk about magic in Shakespeare’s plays.
Shakespeare and World Cinema
Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 42 Shakespeare, of course, is not just performed in English, and his work is not just acted on stage. Foreign-language adaptations of Shakespeare on film have a tradition that goes back as long as talking pictures have…
Pop Sonnets
There’s something that never ceases to astound when it comes to Shakespeare – the way he continues to pop up in popular culture. Erik Didriksen takes hit songs from artists like Taylor Swift and Coldplay and rewrites them as Elizabethan-style sonnets.
Shakespeare in India
Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 40 What impact has Shakespeare’s writing had on Indian theater? And, how has Indian theater shaped and altered Shakespeare’s work? Shakespeare’s interaction with India came, of course, in the context of India’s experience with British colonization and…