Well, friends, this episode marks the last for the pod. We give you a short list of things we love about Shakespeare and about making this podcast together, we play a few games, and we say our goodbyes. With lots of bird-walking and rabbit hole

10 Things We Hate About Shakespeare

Mar 20th, 2023 1h 3m

This week, for our penultimate episode, we decided to get some sh*t off our chests and make a list of 10 things we hate about Shakespeare. That’s it. No other segments. Oh and we list our bottom 5 plays in the canon, too. But don’t worry, as th

House of Desires 101

Mar 6th, 2023 1h 6m

For our final 101 episode, we take you back to the Spanish Golden Age with House of Desires and its proto-Mexican, female playwright Sor Juana (a nun!). We tell you a little about this Metal AF nun in Meet the Contemporary, and we summarize the

A King and No King 101

Feb 20th, 2023 54m 58s

CW: Today’s episode involves one of our classic tangents, this time into the topic of incest and incest porn. That said, today’s episode is a 101 all about dynamic playwriting duo Beaumont and Fletcher’s “tragicomedy” A King and No King. We sum

Love's Labour's Lost 201

Jan 30th, 2023 53m 18s

It only took us 4 years, but we have finally circled back to Love’s Labour’s Lost for a deep dive into what some fussy Victorians - Hazlitt and Tennyson - had to say about the play, plus a little bit about the moral implications of the ladies’

Henry VIII 201

Jan 16th, 2023 1h 24m

Our winter break is officially over and we hope you did your homework because Dr. Yasmine Hachimi joins us to talk about Henry VIII (the man, and sometimes Shakespeare’s play) and his most infamous wife, Anne Boleyn. In this longer-than-usual c

City Nightcap 101

Nov 28th, 2022 1h 1m

This week we’re talking about The City Nightcap by Robert Davenport, a bewildering play by an even more bewildering (read: mysterious) author. We try to help you Meet the Contemporary, but Bobby Davs left us very little to go on; our Taste of T

Twelfth Night 302

Nov 14th, 2022 53m 46s

This week we return to the classic romantic comedy, Twelfth Night, to talk about the recent production at the American Shakespeare Center (directed by the amazing Jenny Bennett) and how it's a great example of how queering your casting and prod

Troilus & Cressida 201

Oct 31st, 2022

Well, we hope you like feminist rants, because that’s what most of this episode devolved into. In this 201 we go off on Troilus and the rest of the men of Troilus and Cressida to interrogate why the Greeks and Trojans hinged all of their mascul

Fuenteovejuna 101

Oct 17th, 2022 1h 2m

It’s our first ever 101 for a Spanish Golden Age play! Today we’re talking about Lope de Vega’s Fuenteovejuna and all the wild, wonderful customs and traditions of the early modern Spanish theatre. Our Meet the Playwright segment takes you thro

Birth of Merlin 101

Oct 3rd, 2022 1h 8m

Sooooooo William Rowley’s The Birth of Merlin actually has very little to do with Merlin or any other part of the Arthurian legend, and it’s more of a history play than its title would suggest. We re-introduce you to playwright William Rowley,

Roaring Girl 101

Sep 19th, 2022 1h 9m

Season 6 begins with a ROAR(ing Girl) courtesy of Thomases Dekker and Middleton. The famous city comedy features real-life legend Mary Frith, aka Moll Cutpurse, but not with nearly the stage time such a character deserves; we give you a brief i

As You Like It 301

Mar 21st, 2022 1h 1m

Why As You Like It now? We cover many possible answers to this question, but also take some long, healthy bird walks into other topics both relevant and irrelevant as we make our way through those thoughts. We also dive deep into the New Oxford

Taming of the Shrew 201

Mar 7th, 2022 58m 36s

Today’s episode tackles one issue and one issue only, and that is to refute the assertion that The Taming of the Shrew is about “romance” (whatever the F that means). We examine a variation in the text between First Folio printing and several m

Spanish Tragedy 201

Feb 21st, 2022 1h 2m

Today we put on our teacher hats and model the kind of thinking we ask our students to do. After a four-year hiatus, we return to Thomas Kyd’s ur-revenge tragedy that started them all, The Spanish Tragedy, to discuss how the F*ck we’re supposed

Tempest 301

Feb 7th, 2022 1h 5m

Sometimes when you think you have nothing to say about a play, it turns out you still have a sh*t-ton to say. Today’s 301 episode revisits The Tempest, and we ask the question - what is its genre, really, and also why this play now? Jess posits

201 Roulette!

Jan 24th, 2022 58m 51s

SURPRISE! You thought you were getting a Love’s Labour’s episode but we had a last minute change of plans. Instead, we opted for something new, a way to get a bunch of plays into a 201-ish discussion without dedicating an episode to each indivi

Henriad 201

Jan 10th, 2022 1h 5m

This episode is a Hurly Burly first, both because we’re rolling 201 content for three plays - 1 & 2 Henry IV and Henry V - all into one episode, but also because we have a MAJOR SCOOP in ShakesBubble Gossip that you get to hear all about here f

Hamlet 202: Interred With Their Bones

Dec 20th, 2021 1h 9m

In our second ever 202 episode (reserved for a Shakespeare adaptation or adjacent work), we take you through the suspenseful and sometimes bemusing and frustrating plot of Jennifer Lee Carrell’s mystery thriller Interred With Their Bones. We gi

Midsummer 301

Dec 6th, 2021 1h 7m

It’s not enough to talk to one Bottom about being Nick Bottom, we needed at least 2: utter delights and all-around good humans (and actors) Topher Embry and Gregory Jon Phelps join us to talk about what they love (and hate) about A Midsummer Ni

Knight of the Burning Pestle 101

Nov 22nd, 2021 1h 3m

This week we bring you not one but TWO guest experts to tell us why our tepid feelings about Beaumont's Knight of the Burning Pestle are just plain wrong, Emily Lathrop and Sawyer Kemp. Emily and Sawyer jump right in and not only deliver hot ta

Atheist's Tragedy 101

Nov 8th, 2021 54m 57s

You’re definitely not ready for Cyril Tourneur’s tour de force, The Atheist’s Tragedy: a tragicomedy (?) about the machinations of a dastardly atheist and his terrible family. We bring back all our beloved 101 features for this episode: Meet th

Comedy of Errors 201

Oct 25th, 2021 59m 49s

It’s been sooooooo long since we did a Comedy of Errors episode we nearly forgot it existed. We’re here to fix that today. Today we’re talking about early performances of the play and the great source text mystery! We also bring back another fe

Arden of Faversham 201

Oct 11th, 2021 1h 3m

This week we bring in guest Sheila Coursey, Assistant Professor of English at Saint Louis University who works on late medieval and early modern theater and narratives of crime, to talk to us about how she uses Arden of Faversham to engage stud

The Old Wife's Tale 101

Sep 27th, 2021 1h 50m

SURPRISE! It’s been a hell of a 6-month hiatus and we have sooooooooo much to catch up on (hence the MEGA-EPISODE 2-hour special)! For our Season 5 Premiere, we gathered some brilliant friends to read George Peele’s The Old Wife’s Tale, in full