Everyday Shakespeare
Arts & Culture Podcasts
Hosts Caroline Bicks and Michelle Ephraim are Shakespeare professors and close friends who love to bond over the ways Shakespeare’s plays help them through their everyday dramas. In each episode, they go back to Shakespeare’s day to bring you some funny, fresh insights into a pressing modern problem. They’ll explore popular Renaissance writings – from parenting books to cosmetics manuals – and, of course, plays – and talk about their uncanny connections to our everyday struggles. 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. Caroline is the Stephen E. King Chair in Literature at the University of Maine, and Michelle is Professor of English at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. They've shared their unique brand of Bard-meets-life humor everywhere from the New York Times and the Moth Radio Hour to McSweeney's Internet Tendency, and are the co-authors of Shakespeare, Not Stirred: Cocktails for Your Everyday Dramas. Who says an English major is useless? "The Everyday Shakespeare Podcast" is produced by Jill Ruby.
Location:
United States
Description:
Hosts Caroline Bicks and Michelle Ephraim are Shakespeare professors and close friends who love to bond over the ways Shakespeare’s plays help them through their everyday dramas. In each episode, they go back to Shakespeare’s day to bring you some funny, fresh insights into a pressing modern problem. They’ll explore popular Renaissance writings – from parenting books to cosmetics manuals – and, of course, plays – and talk about their uncanny connections to our everyday struggles. 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. Caroline is the Stephen E. King Chair in Literature at the University of Maine, and Michelle is Professor of English at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. They've shared their unique brand of Bard-meets-life humor everywhere from the New York Times and the Moth Radio Hour to McSweeney's Internet Tendency, and are the co-authors of Shakespeare, Not Stirred: Cocktails for Your Everyday Dramas. Who says an English major is useless? "The Everyday Shakespeare Podcast" is produced by Jill Ruby.
Language:
English
Episodes
Shakespeare's Unsung Moms
4/29/2024
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.
Duration:00:26:49
Ye olde Varsity Blues
4/8/2024
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
Duration:00:32:55
“Think me not vain for writing my life”
3/11/2024
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.
Duration:00:37:07
Reduced Shakespeare with Austin Tichenor
2/19/2024
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.
Duration:00:39:45
Shakespeare's Books: Live!
2/6/2024
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.
Duration:00:50:11
Staging "History": The Case of Richard III
1/22/2024
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.
Duration:00:42:23
Lady Macbeth's Fitbit, and Other New Year's Resolutions
1/1/2024
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?"
Duration:00:36:08
Home for the Holidays
12/4/2023
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.
Duration:00:34:40
Shana Tova with Shakespeare
9/25/2023
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.
Duration:00:41:32
"If music be the food of love ..."
9/11/2023
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!
Duration:00:29:49
James Shapiro on Shakespeare in America
8/28/2023
In this episode, New York Times-bestselling author and Shakespeare scholar James Shapiro joins us to talk about his book Shakespeare in a Divided America and his work with the New York Public Theater. Dr. Shapiro explains how and why Shakespeare has been a lightning rod for the American culture wars—from the 1849 Astor Place Riot to a recent state ban on A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Duration:00:38:25
What to Expect When You're Expecting
8/14/2023
Beliefs about labor, delivery, and postpartum care differ widely between cultures and eras. In this episode, we talk about how these stages were experienced and imagined in Shakespeare’s day. We start with an example of a woman writing to her unborn child and then talk about the first English-language “What to Expect When You’re Expecting” book. Finally, we dive into Shakespeare’s many references to problematic births—including the tragedies that unfold when the rituals and support-systems surrounding childbirth are violated.
Duration:00:44:44
Clowning Around with Rachel Dratch
7/31/2023
Shakespeare loved to give people a good laugh and had an arsenal of methods to do so. And his humor isn't confined to the plays labeled "comedies"; even the great tragedies deliver moments of hilarity. Actor and comedian Rachel Dratch joins us here to talk about the business of being funny and to help us see how Shakespeare's witty comebacks and jig-dancing clowns connect to the comedy world today.
Duration:00:38:01
Put a Ring on It
7/17/2023
When it comes to the stages leading up to marriage, in Shakespeare’s day and in ours, there’s a recurring theme: the importance of having your commitment witnessed by other people every step of the way. In this episode, we take a look at the often tricky rituals of courtship, engagement, saying “I do,” and celebrating the couple by flinging them around the dance floor and stalking them on their wedding night—and talk about what has and hasn’t changed.
Duration:00:35:26
"O Bro-meo, Bro-meo"
7/3/2023
According to a recent study, American men are in a "friend recession." In this episode we explore ideals of male-male friendship back in Shakespeare's day. Why did they falter, and when did they blossom? We'll look at some compelling examples of true male bonding from Shakespeare's plays, and also consider some epic friendship fails (hint: if your name is Antonio, you might think twice about lending your younger, hotter ‘bestie' all your money).
Duration:00:35:47
Staging Race
6/19/2023
In this episode, we talk to Dr. John "Ray" Proctor, Assistant Professor of Theatre at Tulane University. Dr. Proctor is an expert on the intersection of race, casting, and the peculiarities and specifics of Identity-Conscious casting practices, especially in Shakespeare. He shares his experiences with us as a director, actor, teacher and researcher to help us take a deep dive into representations of blackness and whiteness on stage—then and now.
To learn more about Dr. Proctor and his work, go to www.drjohnrayproctor.com.
Duration:00:44:04
Party Like It's 1599!
6/5/2023
It’s June, and the official public health emergency is over. That means it’s time to turn up the dial on entertaining! In this episode, we comb Shakespeare’s plays in search of advice on how to deal with some timeless party-throwing dilemmas. We’ll take a close look at his most unsung beleaguered hostesses and talk about everything from disastrous dinner parties to guests who can’t control their booze or their uninvited plus-ones. We wrote the book on this topic. Literally: Shakespeare, Not Stirred: Cocktails For Your Everyday Dramas.
Duration:00:39:15
Let's Talk About Sex
5/22/2023
Sex can be fun and exciting, but it also raises all kinds of issues about power, control, and freedom. In this episode, we’ll be looking at how people in Shakespeare’s day were understanding sexual anatomy, pleasure, and reproduction, and discuss how the debates and anxieties that surfaced back then connect to some of our present-day divisions. We’ll be using doctor-approved language—from multiple centuries—but we’ll also be talking about sexual pleasure and consent, and referencing scenarios that some may find difficult to hear. Listener discretion advised.
Duration:00:44:42
Age Cannot Wither Her
5/12/2023
What does Andie MacDowell’s dewy skin have in common with Cleopatra’s unwithered agelessness? In this episode we tackle the everyday challenges of getting old and explore how people in Shakespeare’s day were thinking about – and fighting – the signs of aging. If you couldn’t just Google it, how did you know when a woman was “past her prime”— especially if she was plastering her face with makeup? And what about all of those older men in Shakespeare’s works who lose their hair, their memories, and their grips on solid retirement plans? We’ll take a look at his sonnets and plays, along with a popular health guide and an anti-cosmetics treatise, as we uncover a few fabulous age-defying tricks and discuss some enduring double standards.
Duration:00:41:05
Plague Life
4/28/2023
What does an $8,600 GOOP wholeness medallion have in common with a popular plague amulet from 1603? Find out in this episode as we discover the uncanny connections between our COVID-19 experiences and the plague lives of people in Shakespeare’s world. We’ll talk about how Shakespeare’s plays and a best-selling plague guidebook shed light on our own pandemic behaviors — from hoarding toilet paper to virus-shaming.
Duration:00:37:12