We covered so many topics on our Shakespeare Unlimited podcast this year, from a new film adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet directed by Chloé Zhao and starring Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal to a six-part podcast adaptation of Hamlet told solely through the Danish prince’s POV to a look at Shakespeare and his contemporaries with scholar Darren Freebury-Jones.
We talked about reading Jane Austen on the 250th anniversary of her birth; the top pop songs of the 1600s; how a young Shakespeare learned his craft at The Theatre, London’s early commercial theater, and staging Hamlet in the popular video game, Grand Theft Auto.
Conversations with playwright Lauren Gunderson on the women of Hamlet; scholar Nan Z. Da on The Chinese Tragedy of King Lear; and journalist, writer, actor, and poet Al Letson on how he used Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar to tell Malcolm X’s story brought new perspectives on the plays as did novelist Julia Armfield on her book, Private Rites, climate change, and King Lear.
Whether you’re revisiting an old favorite or listening for the first time, find all our podcast episodes on the Shakespeare Unlimited website, major podcast platforms like Apple Podcasts and Spotify, and the Folger YouTube channel.
Here are our top five Shakespeare Unlimited podcast episodes from 2025, ranked by number of listens. Happy listening!
1. Simon Russell Beale on Shakespeare, from Hamlet to Titus
Called “the finest actor of his generation,” Sir Simon Russell Beale has played just about everyone in Shakespeare’s canon—Hamlet, Lear, Macbeth, Falstaff, Malvolio, Iago—and most recently, Titus Andronicus, for the Royal Shakespeare Company. In this episode, Beale reflects on the Shakespearean roles that have shaped his career and how his approach has evolved over time.
2. Shakespeare’s Boy Player Alexander Cooke
In Shakespeare’s time, the actresses were boys—and for the most celebrated of them, fame came early but could end abruptly with a voice change. Author Nicole Galland—whose novel, Boy, follows one of these real-life members of Shakespeare’s company, Alexander “Sander Cooke”—talks about the world of boy players, young apprentices who performed women’s roles onstage in England before 1660.
3. Stephen Greenblatt on Christopher Marlowe
Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare were both born in 1564, rising from working-class origins and finding success in the new world of the theater. Stephen Greenblatt, author of a new biography, Dark Renaissance: The Dangerous Times and Fatal Genius of Shakespeare’s Greatest Rival, explores Marlowe’s audacious works, his entanglements with espionage and power, and his lasting influence on Shakespeare and the stage.
4. Harriet Walter: New Words for Shakespeare’s Women
Acclaimed actor Dame Harriet Walter, in her new book, She Speaks! What Shakespeare’s Women Might Have Said, imagines what his female characters might say if given the chance, inviting us to see Shakespeare’s plays in a new light—reconsidering how we understand his women, and how their voices might transform the stories we thought we knew.
5. Director Rosa Joshi on Julius Caesar Today
Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar felt urgently contemporary in Rosa Joshi’s 2025 production at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, exploring the threat of autocracy by drawing on global histories of dictatorship. Joshi reflects on the production—performed entirely by women and nonbinary actors, the politics of performance, and why Shakespeare’s plays continue to illuminate moments of crisis.
What were your favorite Shakespeare Unlimited episodes from 2025? What should we cover next?
Keep exploring
Mary, Queen of Scots, with Jade Scott
Imprisoned for nearly 20 years by her cousin Queen Elizabeth I, Mary, Queen of Scots, fought her battles between the lines of her correspondence. 57 recently decoded letters show the human and political costs of Mary’s captivity.
Shakespeare’s narrative poems
How did early modern England perceive race? Patricia Akhimie, editor of The Oxford Handbook of Shakespeare and Race, and contributing writers Dennis Britton and Kirsten Mendoza examine race, gender, and power in Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece.
The Yorkist Pretender, with Jo Harkin
Who was Lambert Simnel—the boy who nearly claimed the Tudor throne? Author Jo Harkin explores royal ambition, historical memory, and the fine line between fact and fiction in her new novel The Pretender.
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