Will Somer: Peter K. Andersson on Henry VIII's Court Fool
What comes to mind when you think about a "court jester?" What if we told you that fools in the Tudor court didn’t look or sound anything like the zany clowns you have in mind? Historians don’t know...
5 Des 202331min
Isabelle Schuler on Lady Macbeth and Queen Hereafter
Isabelle Schuler’s debut novel Queen Hereafter attempts to fill in a backstory for Lady Macbeth. The book takes place in 11th century Scotland, where a king’s reign tended to be short and brutal. For ...
21 Nov 202330min
400 Years of Shakespeare's First Folio, with Emma Smith
The First Folio—the first collected edition of Shakespeare’s plays—hit bookstores 400 years ago this November. Emma Smith of Oxford University tells us just what this famous book has been up to for th...
7 Nov 202329min
The Bloomsbury Group and Shakespeare, with Marjorie Garber
We talk with Harvard Professor Marjorie Garber about how modernist writers of London’s Bloomsbury Group made Shakespeare their own. Garber’s most recent book—her twentieth—is Shakespeare in Bloomsbury...
24 Okt 202331min
Patrick Stewart on a Life Shaped by Shakespeare
Sir Patrick Stewart joins us on the podcast to talk about how Shakespeare has shaped his life. Stewart tells host Barbara Bogaev about his Yorkshire youth, his audition for the Royal Shakespeare Compa...
10 Okt 202331min
Michael Patrick Thornton on Learning to Breathe Again with Shakespeare
Sometimes, the beauty of Shakespeare’s poetry takes your breath away. In the case of today’s guest, Shakespeare gave him his breath back. You may recognize actor Michael Patrick Thornton from his rol...
26 Sep 202329min
The Many Lives of John Donne with Katherine Rundell
We talk with author Katherine Rundell about the extraordinary life —or should we say lives? — of John Donne, who wrote some of the 17th century’s most complex and intellectually dazzling poetry. Runde...
12 Sep 202334min
Shakespeare and the Ocean, with Steve Mentz
Today, we sail the seven seas with Shakespeare. In addition to being a dedicated swimmer, Steve Mentz is a professor at St. John’s University. His books, including 2009’s At the Bottom of Shakespeare’...
29 Aug 202333min
