Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare Unlimited
About the show
Latest episodes
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Brian Cox and Nicole Ansari-Cox
October 6, 2026 · 35 minLong before his iconic portrayal of Logan Roy in Succession, Brian Cox trod the boards as a Shakespearean actor. For over 50 years, Cox has made his mark on both stage and screen, collecting Olivier Awards, a Primetime Emmy, a Golden…
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The Complete Life of William Shakespeare, with Paul Menzer
September 22, 2026 · 35 minHow do you write a “complete” life of Shakespeare when very little complete information about his life exists? Four centuries after Shakespeare’s death, the legends that have grown up around him have taken on a cultural significance of…
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The Bard in the Borderlands
September 8, 2026 · 33 minIn 1597, the first published edition of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet rolled off the printing press. Only a year later, the Spanish colony of Santa Fe was established. While you might not immediately think Shakespeare had much to do with…
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Shakespeare and the Law, with Len Niehoff
August 25, 2026 · 37 minIf you were Hamlet’s lawyer, would you advise he plead not guilty by reason of insanity? Would you consider his accidental slaying of Polonius to be murder or manslaughter? These are the kinds of questions that University of Michigan Law…
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Stratford Festival's Antoni Cimolino
August 11, 2026 · 34 minNear the end of The Tempest, Prospero vows to retire from practicing the “rough magic” he has mastered, to break his magical staff and drown his spellbooks. After 14 seasons as Artistic Director of Canada's Stratford Festival, Antoni…
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Shakespeare and Stephen King, with Caroline Bicks
July 28, 2026 · 38 minImagine being able to dig through Shakespeare’s manuscripts and ask him about his writing process. Did King Lear survive in the first draft? What if Hamlet originally said, “To live or not to live?” While we can only dream about that…
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Shakespeare's Margaret, with Charles O'Malley and Scott W. Stern
July 14, 2026 · 35 minIt’s been more than 400 years since she first appeared on stage, and she’s still controversial. Margaret of Anjou appears in not one, not two, but four of Shakespeare’s plays—Henry VI Parts 1, 2, and 3 as well as Richard III—maturing from…
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Scholars in Shakespeare, with Sean Keilen
June 30, 2026 · 36 minShakespeare famously never attended university. But not only has his work inspired generations of scholarship, his plays, too, are filled with scholarly characters. Shakespeare, it seems, took an interest in learning. Perhaps that’s why…