Everyday Shakespeare

It's human nature to love the spectacle of a power couple, whether it's a celebrity marriage proposal or corporate heavyweights having some adulterous fun at a Coldplay concert. But how did people get their fix before social media, kiss-cams, and People Magazine? In this episode, we explore Shakespeare's juiciest stories of famous men and women--including Henry VIII, his multiple wives, and G.O.A.T power couple Antony and Cleopatra—as well as the fans who gobbled up all their faults and follies.

We've gone a little nuts when it comes to celebrating our kids' milestones, like their birthdays and graduations. We've even started inventing new ones (hello, Bed Parties??), which means we're buying even more party swag. In this episode, we explore how families in Shakespeare's day celebrated their kids' big rites of passage. Did they make themselves crazy planning the best christening party ever? How did they mark little William's gold medal in pee-wee fencing? What did life look like before bouncy castles and Gender Reveal cakes?

Why mess with Shakespeare's perfectly good script of Romeo and Juliet? In this interview, Tim Bogart, writer and director of Juliet and Romeo (release date, May 9, 2025), explains his reasons—historical, personal, and otherwise—for getting down and dirty with some wild revisions of Shakespeare's tragedy. He's got big ideas--and big stars--for what is the first of a planned film trilogy. Not to mention that Rebel Wilson's turn at Lady Capulet might be the best example of "playing against type" in recent memory. 

From Frankenstein to The Shining, tales of extreme wintery conditions have always been a hit. In this episode, we talk about some of the real-life fun people had when things got very cold in Shakespeare's day—like going to frost fairs on the frozen Thames river—and we discuss some of the not-so-fun tragedies they endured. Finally, we turn to the story of Demeter and Persephone (a Greek myth that explained why we have winter) and to Shakespeare's late play The Winter's Tale, which harnesses the joys and tragedies that underlie all of these real and mythical tales of winter.    

Thanks to modern technology, tracking your children (and anyone else willing to join your Life360 Circle) has never been easier. But even in Shakespeare's pre-iphone days, people found ways to keep tabs on their kids. Sometimes this involved enlisting your child's friends to spy on him, or sending the family Clown or wet-nurse to locate your stray daughter. And sometimes the job called for throwing on a fake beard yourself to make sure your son's fling with the hot shepherdess he met on his gap year wasn't turning into something serious. We'll be looking at all of these methods and more as we explore the timeless anxieties that grip parents and guardians when they send their precious charges into the world—and then track their every move.

We're getting our Season Three Party started by exploring the origins of a terrifying creature: the Childless Cat Lady. Whether she has warts and a broom, or she's selling out concert stadiums, this woman means Trouble. But when and how did this connection between single ladies and their feline friends get started? And was it always a negative thing? In this episode, we discover some answers as we travel back in time from the Target Halloween aisle to the Medieval Church and the Shakespearean stage. We guarantee you're in for some surprises. BOO!

These days, everyone seems to be talking about polyamory-- the practice of engaging simultaneously in more than one romantic and/or sexual relationship, with the full consent of everyone involved. According to a recent study, 1 in 9 Americans has tried polyamory, and 1 in 6 would like to try it. This got us wondering: Could people in Shakespeare's day have known about and experienced anything resembling what we now identify as polyamorous desires and lifestyles? In this episode, we take a deep dive into two of Shakespeare's cross-dressing comedies, As You Like It and Twelfth Night, to explore some potential polyamory prototypes.

It's time to bust out the dried macaroni, glitter glue, and home-made Foot Rub "Coupons," because Mother's Day is just around the corner. Mothers are missing from a lot of Shakespeare's plays, but he's still got a lot of moms who are very much alive and kicking (unless they're buried alive). In this Very Special Holiday Episode, we give shout-outs to some of Shakespeare's most suffering, unsung moms and imagine what kinds of Mother's Day gifts their ungrateful kids and partners might have given them. Trust us, these ladies all deserve a 16-year spa vacation.

Long before Photoshop and the Varsity Blues scandal, wealthy families have been trying to game the college admissions process. In this episode, we explore why affluent families started to outnumber "poor scholars" like Hamlet's friend Horatio during the mid-sixteenth century and how money and social class affected life at Oxford and Cambridge. Shakespeare, who never attended university, has an interesting perspective on all this, which we take a look at alongside a document that is the early modern equivalent of an insider's guide to college life. From rich slackers who believe themselves "above the law" to kids who come home from college preaching their "superior" knowledge to their weary parents, there's a lot that will sound familiar.    Want more? Check out: https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/i-am-lady-macbeth-and-your-facebook-post-about-your-kids-early-acceptance-to-harvard-really-pisses-me-off   https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/common-app-essays-by-shakespeare-characters  

They may not have called it "memoir," but early modern English authors were producing all kinds of life-writing, from snarky private diaries to published accounts of religious conversion and manifestos on breast-feeding. Whether or not Shakespeare's work contains anything autobiographical remains a matter of speculation, but he certainly understood the desire to control how your life story would be recorded for posterity. In this episode, we talk about the theme of life-writing in Shakespeare's work and look at some actual autobiographies written by his contemporaries. A wealthy and well-educated daughter of country gentry, Elizabeth Isham wrote her Book of Remembrance at age thirty. Although her intended readers were her family members and not the public, her nearly sixty-thousand-word book bears the closest resemblance to our modern memoir genre, with its familiar themes--sibling rivalry, mental illness, societal pressure on women--and its contemporary style of self-reflection. Michelle, whose new book is Green World: A Tragicomic Memoir of Love & Shakespeare, explains how Isham's ability to make sense of her life was truly ahead of her time. 

In this episode, we're talking with Austin Tichenor, co-Artistic Director of the Reduced Shakespeare Company, and longtime actor, author, podcaster, and Folger Shakespeare Library blogger. Austin takes us back to the early Renaissance Faire days of the RSC, and tells us about the Company's experiences reducing other Great Works and Notable Events—from being banned in Belfast for their Bible play to revising their "Compete History of America (Abridged)" to meet our current political moment.

We're kicking off our second season by spotlighting the work of bookmakers and booksellers — in Shakespeare's day and ours. We recorded this episode in front of a live audience at the Brookline Booksmith, a fabulous independent bookstore just outside of Boston, where we took the standing-room-only crowd into the wild world of bookstall shenanigans, bawdy ballads, and book banning. It's only fun 'til someone loses a hand.

Ever wonder where the line "My kingdom for a horse!" came from? Shakespeare wrote it for King Richard III when he decided to dramatize England's bloodiest civil war, ending it with the tyrant Richard fighting on foot, abandoned by his horse and all his former followers. It's just one of many ways Shakespeare spun the story of Richard and helped turn him into the notorious villain he remains today in our popular imagination. In this episode, we explore the blurry lines between fake news and recorded facts by taking a close look at Richard III, the man and the myth. We'll explore the "history" of his ominous birth and physical deformity, and we'll talk about how Shakespeare's theater was a political platform —a stage that rivals our modern-day media outlets. Shakespeare wasn't above using it to spread biased narratives, but he also used his history plays to reflect on why these stories are so seductive, and how they can erode civil discourse.  

For many of us, the New Year means new resolutions about getting in shape. But often the goal isn't just to improve our health: there's a lot of magical thinking at work telling us that shedding five pounds will turn us into happier, more successful people. Shakespeare and his contemporaries didn't track their BMI, but, like us, they attached profound significance (and sometimes judginess) to people's eating and drinking habits. In this episode, we look at some general advice about diet and exercise back in the day, and talk about how Shakespeare's plays give us the real skinny on early modern "fat shaming." We'll also attempt to answer some burning questions, like:  "What exercise fad would Lady Macbeth sign up for?" and "What if Romeo and Juliet had matching Apple Watches?"  

Shakespeare wasn't eating leftover Thanksgiving turkey and doing online shopping on Black Friday, but he definitely would have been gearing up for the Christmas season, which included twelve full days of festivities. In this episode, we explore the wild side of Christmas celebrations in Shakespeare's England, including the appointment of a Lord of Misrule as a designated agent of chaos. We also take a look at the Puritan Scrooges who wanted to cancel the holiday altogether, and read some dramatic defenses of Christmas inspired by all the controversy.    Want more Shakespeare for the holidays?  Check out Caroline and Michelle's "Letters To Santa Written By Shakespeare Characters" on McSweeney's.net.  

Two Shakespeare professors travel back in time to offer funny, fresh insights into some of your most pressing modern problems. What would the Capulets hoard during a plague outbreak? Could a 16th-century remedy for staying young work for me? (And am I willing to drink the urine of a male child to find out?) How would Lady MacBeth secure her kid's spot as pee-wee soccer team captain? Whether you're dealing with an aging libido, a pandemic, or a dysfunctional family gathering, you'll feel a little bit better when Bard meets life. New episodes drop every other Monday. Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. Want more Everyday Shakespeare? Check out Caroline and Michelle's website at www.everydayshakespeare.com, and follow them on Twitter at @EverydayShakes.  "The Everyday Shakespeare Podcast" is produced by Jill Ruby.   Series launches April 23, 2023.

Shakespeare's great tragedy Hamlet is having a moment. Between director Chloe Zhao's film adaptation of Maggie O'Farrell's bestselling novel, Hamnet, and Taylor Swift's song "The Fate of Ophelia," two of Shakespeare's most tragic characters have hit pop culture payday. In this episode, we explore these creative iterations of Shakespeare's life and work, and why Hamlet and Ophelia continue to resonate. We talk about the concept of Catholic Purgatory, and how Zhao's film captures the emotional power of this in-between spiritual space — one that haunts Shakespeare's original play and (as we discuss) his original audiences. In the second half of the episode, we give Ophelia extra time in the spotlight as we mine the Victorian origin stories that solidified her reputation as nothing more than a beautiful, hysterical girl who drowns herself; and then we turn to the play itself, where she's alive and fully sane most of the time, and listen to what she's really saying.

In this episode, James Shapiro, award-winning author and Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, joins us to talk about his most recent book, The Playbook: A Story of Theatre, Democracy and the Making of a Culture War. With his characteristic investigative research and sleuth work, Shapiro has uncovered the truth behind the spectacular rise and fall of Roosevelt's New Deal-funded Federal Theatre Project in the late 1930s. At the heart of Shapiro's work is his point that theater is essential to a democracy. The shocking details behind the demise of the public, progressive FTP, Shapiro makes clear, lay the groundwork for the threats to democracy in America today. 

It's the Jewish High Holiday season, and we're wrapping up our first season with a look back at what Shakespeare and his contemporaries would have known and thought about Jews and their religious practices. Although English Protestants expressed plenty of anxiety and hostility towards Jews, continuing a long tradition of the same, they also respected the Jews' status as God's chosen people and their fundamental role in the scripture. In this episode, we explore these complexities by looking at a piece of travel writing by an Englishman in Venice and talking about Shakespeare's play The Merchant of Venice.

We're excited to introduce you to Play On Podcasts—epic audio adventures that harness the power of live performance.  Enjoy this act from Twelfth Night, directed by Christopher Liam Moore and starring the phenomenal Amy Brenneman as Olivia. This slice of Shakespeare's comedy touches on many of the themes we've explored on our podcast, including sad male friendships, dealing with drunken houseguests, and navigating tricky courtship rituals. Bonus challenge: keep an ear out for Olivia's comparison of love to the plague—a topic we took on in our very first episode!