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 the Folger's 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.
Explore by play | Explore by topic
- Episode 202: Lucy Wooding on Tudor England: A History
- Episode 201: Debra Ann Byrd on Becoming Othello: A Black Girl's Journey
- Episode 200: Ian Smith on Black Shakespeare
- Episode 199: Talene Monahon on Her New Revenge Comedy, Jane Anger
- Episode 198: Fiona Ritchie on Sarah Siddons and John Philip Kemble
- Episode 197: Billy Collins on Writing Short Poems and Approaching Shakespeare's Sonnets
- Episode 196: Adrian Noble on How to Direct Shakespeare
- Episode 195: Ian McKellen on Richard III, Macbeth, and Gandalf
- Episode 194: Ian McKellen on Playing Shakespeare
- Episode 193: How Shakespeare Thought About the Mind, with Helen Hackett
- Episode 192: John Adams Gives Antony and Cleopatra the Operatic Treatment
- Episode 191: Brett Dean and Matthew Jocelyn on Their Hamlet Opera
- Episode 190: Shakespeare and Ukraine, with Irena Makaryk
- Episode 189: Leonard Barkan on Reading Shakespeare Reading Me
- Episode 188: Pamela Hutchinson on Asta Nielsen's Hamlet
- Episode 187: How the Commedia Dell'Arte's Actresses Changed the Shakespearean Stage, with Pamela Allen Brown
- Episode 186: Matías Piñeiro on His Shakespeare-Adjacent Films
- Episode 185: Molly Yarn on Shakespeare's 'Lady Editors'
- Episode 184: Stephen Marche on How Shakespeare Changed Everything
- Episode 183: Black Women Shakespeareans, 1821 – 1960, with Joyce Green MacDonald
- Episode 182: Cutting Plays for Performance, with Aili Huber
- Episode 181: J.R. Thorp on Learwife
- Episode 180: Lena Cowen Orlin on The Private Life of William Shakespeare
- Episode 179: Holidays in Shakespeare's England, with Erika T. Lin
- Episode 178: Bringing Latinx Voices to Shakespeare, with Cynthia Santos DeCure and Micha Espinosa
- Episode 177: Shakespeare's Language and Race, with Patricia Akhimie and Carol Mejia LaPerle
- Episode 176: Shakespeare in Latinx Communities, with José Cruz González and David Lozano
- Episode 175: Shakespeare and the British Royal Family, with Gordon McMullan
- Episode 174: Mike Lew on Teenage Dick
- Episode 173: Mona Awad on All's Well
- Episode 172: How We Hear Shakespeare's Plays, with Carla Della Gatta
- Episode 171: Richard Schoch on the Restoration Reinvention of Shakespeare
- Episode 170: Madeline Sayet on Where We Belong
- Episode 169: Geoffrey Marsh on Shakespeare's Neighbors
- Episode 168: Ambereen Dadabhoy on Race and Blackness in Elizabethan England
- Episode 167: Paul Edmondson, All the Sonnets of Shakespeare
- Episode 166: Richard III in Prison
- Episode 165: Simon Godwin on Romeo & Juliet
- Episode 164: David McInnis, Shakespeare and Lost Plays
- Episode 163: Stephen Hopkins and Stephano
- Episode 162: Meme García on house of sueños
- Episode 161: Shakespeare in the Harlem Renaissance
- Episode 160: Naomi Miller on Mary Sidney and Imperfect Alchemist
- Episode 159: Shakespeare and Game of Thrones
- Episode 158: Shakespeare, Science, and Art
- Episode 157: Fat Rascals: In the Kitchen with John Tufts
- Episode 156: The Victorian Cult of Shakespeare
- Episode 155: Black Lives Matter in Titus Andronicus
- Episode 154: The Show Must Go Online
- Episode 153: Writing About the Plague in Shakespeare's England
- Episode 152: Lady Romeo
- Episode 151: Richard II on the Radio
- Episode 150: Maggie O'Farrell on Hamnet
- Episode 149: Directing Shakespeare
- Episode 148: The Booksellers
- Episode 147: Lucy Munro on The King's Men
- Episode 146: Jonathan Bate on the Classics and Shakespeare
- Episode 145: Sandra Newman on The Heavens
- Episode 144: Kathryn Harkup on Death by Shakespeare
- Episode 143: Shakespeare and Solace
- Episode 142: The Long Life of Shakespeare's Sonnets (18th century – today)
- Episode 141: Emma Smith on This Is Shakespeare
- Episode 140: James Shapiro on Shakespeare in a Divided America
- Episode 139: Abraham Lincoln and Shakespeare
- Episode 138: Shakespeare and Folktales
- Episode 137: Books and Reading in Shakespeare's England
- Episode 136: The Early Years of Shakespeare's Sonnets (16th and 17th centuries)
- Episode 135: The History of Shakespeare in American Schools
- Episode 134: Peter Brook
- Episode 133: Kenny Leon on Much Ado About Nothing
- Episode 132: Women Performers in Shakespeare's Time
- Episode 131: Pericles and Mark Haddon's The Porpoise
- Episode 130: Shakespeare in Immigrant New York
- Episode 129: Milton's Copy of Shakespeare
- Episode 128: Iqbal Khan
- Episode 127: Shakespeare and Opera
- Episode 126: If Shakespeare Wrote Mean Girls
- Episode 125: Andrew McConnell Stott on the Shakespeare Jubilee
- Episode 124: Lisa Klein on Ophelia
- Episode 123: Casey Wilder Mott and Fran Kranz on their LA Midsummer
- Episode 122: The Gender Politics of Kiss Me, Kate
- Episode 121: Glenda Jackson
- Episode 120: Michael Kahn
- Episode 119: Hamlet 360: Virtual Reality Shakespeare
- Episode 118: Harriet Walter
- Episode 117: Deborah Harkness: A Discovery of Witches
- Episode 116: Acting, Emotion, and Science on Shakespeare's Stage
- Episode 115: Simon Mayo: Mad Blood Stirring
- Episode 114: The Actor and the Assassin: Edwin and John Wilkes Booth
- Episode 113: Olivia Hussey: The Girl on the Balcony
- Episode 112: Duke Ellington, Shakespeare, and Such Sweet Thunder
- Episode 111: The ABCs of Performing Hamlet
- Episode 110: Pop Culture Shakespeare with Stefanie Jochman
- Episode 109: Julie Schumacher on The Shakespeare Requirement
- Episode 108: How to Behave Badly in Elizabethan England
- Episode 107: Shakespeare Uncovered
- Episode 106: Understanding Peter Sellars
- Episode 105: Imagining Shakespeare's Wife
- Episode 104: Steven Berkoff: Shakespeare's Heroes and Villains
- Episode 103: Kenneth Turan: Joe Papp and Shakespeare in the Park
- Episode 102: Still Dreaming: Shakespeare with Seniors
- Episode 101: Elizabeth Norton: The Hidden Lives of Tudor Women
- Episode 100: Stephen Greenblatt on Shakespeare's Tyrants
- Episode 99: Antioch Shakespeare Festival: John Lithgow, Robin Lithgow, and Tony Dallas
- Episode 98: Paterson Joseph: Julius Caesar and Me
- Episode 97: Stephen Alford: London's Triumph
- Episode 96: Astor Place Riot
- Episode 95: How Shakespeare Changed My Life
- Episode 94: Antony Sher
- Episode 93: Dennis McCarthy and June Schlueter on the George North Manuscript
- Episode 92: Derek Jacobi: Acting Shakespeare
- Episode 91: Derek Jacobi: Playing Hamlet
- Episode 90: Bernard Cornwell: Fools and Mortals
- Episode 89: Orson Welles and Shakespeare
- Episode 88: Marketing Shakespeare
- Episode 87: Sights, Sounds, and Smells of Elizabethan Theater
- Episode 86: Tang Xianzu and Shakespeare in China
- Episode 85: Shakespeare and Science Fiction
- Episode 84: Edward St. Aubyn on Dunbar
- Episode 83: Shakespeare in Swahililand
- Episode 82: Barry Edelstein: Thinking Shakespeare
- Episode 81: Shakespeare and War
- Episode 80: Leonard Bernstein and West Side Story
- Episode 79: Shakespeare's Kitchen
- Episode 78: Akala and Hip-Hop Shakespeare
- Episode 77: Creating TNT's Will
- Episode 76: Phyllida Lloyd and All-Female Shakespeare
- Episode 75: The Royal Shakespeare Company's Digital Tempest
- Episode 74: Tracy Chevalier
- Episode 73: The Globe to Globe Hamlet Tour
- Episode 72: Adapting Shakespeare
- Episode 71: Shakespeare 400 Chicago
- Episode 70: The Book of Will
- Episode 69: How 'King Lear' Inspired 'Empire'
- Episode 68: Something Rotten
- Episode 67: Shakespeare and Marlowe
- Episode 66: Juliet's Answer
- Episode 65: Shakespeare in California
- Episode 64: Q Brothers
- Episode 63: Uncovering Shakespeare's House
- Episode 62: Shakespeare and YA Novels
- Episode 61: Stephen Greenblatt on Shakespeare's Life Stories
- Episode 60: Shakespeare and Girlhood
- Episode 59: Shakespeare in Sign Language
- Episode 58: Shakespeare in Solitary
- Episode 57: Anecdotal Shakespeare
- Episode 56: How Shakespeare's First Folio Became a Star
- Episode 55: Elizabethan Medicine
- Episode 54: American Moor
- Episode 53: The Food of Shakespeare's World
- Episode 52: Recreating the Boydell Gallery
- Episode 51: Worlds Elsewhere
- Episode 50: Othello and Blackface
- Episode 49: Shakespeare and Religion
- Episode 48: Shakespeare in Africa
- Episode 47: Creating Shakespeare's First Folio
- Episode 46: Kill Shakespeare Comics
- Episode 45: Reduced Shakespeare Company
- Episode 44: Inside the Folger Conservation Lab
- Episode 43: Shakespeare and Magic
- Episode 42: Shakespeare and World Cinema
- Episode 41: Pop Sonnets
- Episode 40: Shakespeare in India
- Episode 39: Auditioning for Shakespeare
- Episode 38: Portraits of Shakespeare
- Episode 37: William Shakespeare's Star Wars
- Episode 36: The Millionaire and the Bard
- Episode 35: Shakespeare in the Caribbean
- Episode 34: Great Shakespeare Actors
- Episode 33: Music for Shakespeare's Lyrics
- Episode 32: The Year of Lear
- Episode 31: Editing Shakespeare
- Episode 30: Shakespeare Not Stirred
- Episode 29: Great Shakespeareans
- Episode 28: Shakespeare and The Tabard Inn
- Episode 27: Shakespeare in Hong Kong
- Episode 26: Shakespeare on Film
- Episode 25: Shakespeare's France and Italy
- Episode 24: Elizabethan Street Fighting
- Episode 23: Myths About Shakespeare
- Episode 22: Recounting Shakespeare's Life
- Episode 21: Designing Shakespeare
- Episode 20: African Americans and Shakespeare
- Episode 19: Shakespeare in Black and White
- Episode 18: Rarely Performed Shakespeare
- Episode 17: A New First Folio Discovery
- Episode 16: Pronouncing English as Shakespeare Did
- Episode 15: The Shakespearean Moons of Uranus
- Episode 14: Codes and Ciphers from the Renaissance to Today
- Episode 13: When Romeo Was a Woman
- Episode 12: Romeo and Juliet through the Ages
- Episode 11: Music in Shakespeare
- Episode 10: Artistic Directors Talk Shakespeare
- Episode 9: Shakespeare and Insane Asylums
- Episode 8: Why Shakespeare's Stories Still Resonate
- Episode 7: Shakespeare LOL
- Episode 6: Shakespeare in Translation
- Episode 5: Punk Rock Shakespeare
- Episode 4: Shakespeare Outdoors
- Episode 3: In Search of the Real Richard III
- Episode 2: Actresses on Shakespeare
- Episode 1: The Robben Island Shakespeare
Shakespeare Unlimited is produced for the Folger by Richard Paul, an award-winning public radio documentary producer and author. Garland Scott, who heads up communications and marketing for the Folger, is the associate producer. Gail Kern Paster, consulting editor of Shakespeare Quarterly and director emerita of the Folger, edits the series. For many episodes, Esther Ferington, who writes for Folger Magazine and has developed online, print, and other projects for the Folger and other institutions, also edited the series. The team first worked together on the Folger’s three-part documentary for public radio, Shakespeare in American Life. Ben Lauer is the web producer, with Esther French before him. Shakespeare Unlimited hosts include Barbara Bogaev, Neva Grant, and Rebecca Sheir, with introductions by Folger Director Michael Witmore.