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.
Juliet's Answer
Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 66 Starting in the 1930s, people began sending letters asking for advice on love and romance to Verona, Italy. The letters were all addressed to Juliet and for years, no one knew what to do with them. …
Shakespeare in California
Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 65 When we think of Shakespeare in the American West, Hollywood immediately comes to mind, but this podcast episode also takes us back to the California Gold Rush and the Americans who brought Shakespeare with them when…
Q Brothers - Othello: The Remix
Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 64 Since 2002, Gregory and Jeffery Ameen Qaiyum, better known as GQ and JAQ – the Q Brothers – have been using hip-hop to adapt and update the plays of William Shakespeare. At the time we recorded…
Uncovering Shakespeare's House: The Archaeological Dig at New Place
Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 63 Since 2002, a major organization in Stratford-upon-Avon, the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, has supported an archaeological dig on the former grounds of a house called “New Place.” New Place was one of the biggest houses in Stratford…
Shakespeare and YA Novels: Ryan North and Molly Booth
Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 62 While print sales of adult fiction are down in the last decade, the juvenile market – which includes YA – has actually gone up 40 percent. In this episode, two YA authors talk about their writing,…
Stephen Greenblatt: Shakespeare's Life Stories
Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 61 There are a surprising number of characters in Shakespeare who propose or ask or even demand that someone tell their life’s story. (Think of Hamlet’s dying words to Horatio: “And in this harsh world draw thy…
Shakespeare and Girlhood
Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 60 How does Shakespeare portray girls and girlhood in his plays, and what do those portrayals tell us about life in Elizabethan and Jacobean England? Our guest for this Shakespeare Unlimited episode, Deanne Williams of York University…
Shakespeare in Sign Language
Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 59 Many people would probably tell you that what they love most about Shakespeare is his language. So what does Shakespeare become when the words are translated into a different language, one that uses visual signs rather…
Shakespeare in Solitary
Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 58 For ten years, Laura Bates, a professor at Indiana State University, taught Shakespeare to a group of inmates considered the “worst of the worst” – men incarcerated in the solitary confinement unit at Indiana’s Wabash Valley…
Anecdotal Shakespeare
Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 57 The curses associated with the Scottish play. Using a real skull for the Yorick scene in Hamlet. Over the centuries, these and other fascinating theatrical anecdotes have attached themselves to the plays of William Shakespeare. Many…
How Shakespeare's First Folio Became a Star
Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 56 Today, the first collected edition of Shakespeare’s works, printed in 1623, can sell for millions of dollars. But the First Folio wasn’t always valued so highly. In this podcast episode, two experts in the First Folio…
Elizabethan Medicine
Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 55 Being a patient in Shakespeare’s time was an adventure. You might be told to drink liquid gold or syrup of violets. You might undergo a violent purgation to take the bad humors out of your body.…