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.
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.
Surekha Davies on the Making of Monsters
What do monsters reveal about how we define humanity? Historian Surekha Davies explores how early modern ideas of race, colonialism, and the monstrous shaped European thought—and how echoes still shape our world today, from The Tempest to AI.
Reimagining Judith Shakespeare with Grace Tiffany
Judith Shakespeare’s untold story comes to life in The Owl Was a Baker’s Daughter. Tiffany imagines Judith’s journey through rebellion and scandal in a world of political upheaval and Puritan rule. Explore the history, fiction, and legacy of Shakespeare’s daughter.
Julia Armfield Reimagines King Lear in a Drowning World
How does King Lear resonate in a world reshaped by climate change? Julia Armfield’s Private Rites, set in a flooded London, explores inheritance, power, and queerness amid disaster. Longlisted for the 2024 Climate Fiction Prize, she shares how Shakespeare influences her work.
Lauren Gunderson on the Women of Hamlet
What if Gertrude had more power than we thought? What if Ophelia’s fate wasn’t sealed? Playwright Lauren Gunderson reclaims the voices of Hamlet’s women in A Room in the Castle, a sharp, feminist reimagining of Shakespeare’s tragedy.
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.
Nisha Sharma on Adapting Shakespeare for Modern Romances
In her If Shakespeare Were an Auntie trilogy, Nisha Sharma reimagines The Taming of the Shrew, Much Ado About Nothing, and Twelfth Night as contemporary romances in the South Asian diaspora.
Olivia Hussey: The Girl on the Balcony
Olivia Hussey was just 15 when Franco Zeffirelli cast her in Romeo and Juliet. When the film was released in 1968, it catapulted Hussey and Leonard Whiting, the young actor playing Romeo, to global stardom. For many, it’s still the definitive film adaptation of the play.
Shakespeare and his contemporaries, with Darren Freebury-Jones
Darren Freebury-Jones explores the ways in which Shakespeare reshaped the works of contemporaries like John Lyly, Thomas Kyd, and Christopher Marlowe into something distinctly his own.
Directing Romeo and Juliet, with Sam Gold
Director Sam Gold reflects on the challenges and joys of reinterpreting a well-known story for Broadway and shares the creative process behind staging a Romeo and Juliet that feels relevant to a whole new generation of theatergoers.
The Tragedy of Richard II and Henry IV, with Helen Castor
What happens when a king loses his people’s trust? Historian Helen Castor delves into the 14th century drama behind Richard II’s fall and Henry IV’s rise, the events that inspired Shakespeare’s celebrated history plays.
Studying Shakespeare Now
Discover how the Folger’s new teaching guides make Shakespeare’s works more engaging, accessible, and relevant, with strategies for teaching the plays, tackling topics like race and gender, and meeting the needs of today’s students.