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.
Race and Blackness in Elizabethan England, with Ambereen Dadabhoy
Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 168 When did the concept of race develop? How far should we look back to find the attitudes that bolster white supremacy? We ask Dr. Ambereen Dadabhoy, an assistant professor of literature at Harvey Mudd College, and…
All the Sonnets of Shakespeare, with Paul Edmondson
Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 167 Over 400 years after Shakespeare’s sonnets were first published in 1609, what is left to learn? All the Sonnets of Shakespeare, a new edition of the sonnets published in 2020, takes some bold steps to help…
Richard III in Prison
Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 166 Frannie Shepherd-Bates founded Shakespeare in Prison in 2012. Nine years later, SIP is the signature community program of the Detroit Public Theatre and has worked on a total of eight plays with a women’s ensemble at…
Simon Godwin on Romeo & Juliet
Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 165 The National Theatre’s new production of Romeo & Juliet was meant to premiere in the summer of 2020. But when the COVID-19 pandemic began, Simon Godwin, the production’s director, was tasked with turning it into a…
Shakespeare and Lost Plays
Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 164 Today, the texts of roughly three thousand plays from the great age of Elizabethan theater are lost to us. The plays that remain constitute only a sixth of all of the drama produced during that period.…
Stephen Hopkins and Stephano
Shakespeare Unlimited: Epsiode 163 He was in a shipwreck. He was at Jamestown. He was on the Mayflower. And maybe, just maybe, he’s in Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Stephen Hopkins was the only passenger on the Mayflower who had previously been…
Meme García on house of sueños
Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 162 For generations, artists have been shaping and changing Shakespeare to fit their times. The best adaptations add specific textures of place and culture, or a fluidity of language that can take centuries-old work and make it…
Shakespeare in the Harlem Renaissance, with Freda Scott Giles
Freda Scott Giles tells us how the artists and thinkers of the Harlem Renaissance regarded the Bard.
Naomi Miller on Mary Sidney and Imperfect Alchemist
Naomi Miller’s novel Imperfect Alchemist is about one of early modern England’s most significant literary figures: poet, playwright, translator, and scientist Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke.
Shakespeare and Game of Thrones
Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 159 Based on his knowledge of Shakespeare’s Henry VI plays, Harvard’s Dr. Jeffrey R. Wilson knew just how HBO’s Game of Thrones would play out. Jon Snow, the illegitimate son, was a Richard III type, who would win…
Shakespeare, Science, and Art
Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 158 Does Hamlet live in a Ptolemaic or Copernican solar system? Is Queen Mab a germ? Which falls faster: a feather or the Duke of Gloucester? In Shakespeare’s time, new scientific discoveries and mathematical concepts were upending…
Fat Rascals: In the Kitchen with John Tufts
Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 157 Actor John Tufts was playing Hal in a production of Henry IV, Part 1 at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Every night, he would call Falstaff a “roasted Manningtree ox with the pudding in his belly.” Hal means…