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Shakespeare Anyone?: Daily Summaries Delivered
by Kourtney Smith & Elyse Sharp
Shakespeare Anyone? is co-hosted by Elyse Sharp and Kourtney Smith, two professional actors and hobbyist Shakespeare scholars. Join us as we explore Shakespeare's plays through as many lenses as we can by looking at the text and how the text is viewed through modern lenses of feminism, racism, classism, colonialism, nationalism… all the-isms. We will discuss how his plays shaped both the past and present, and look at how his work was performed throughout various periods of time–all while trying our best to approach his works without giving in to bardolatry. We examine one play at a time for an extended window of time, interspersed with mini-episodes about Shakespeare's time for context.
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- 3 days ago36 min
Bonus Episode: Interview with Mya Gosling, author and artist of Good Tickle Brain
Want to support the podcast? Join our Patreon or buy us a coffee. As an independent podcast, Shakespeare Anyone? is supported by listeners like you. In this episode, we are joined by Mya Lixian Gosling, the creator, author, and artist of the internet's favorite stick-figure Shakespeare webcomic, Good Tickle Brain. We chat with Mia about how Good Tickle Brain came to be and her creative process. Join us as we get to know the brain behind Good Tickle Brain. You can find Mya's comics and merchandise at goodticklebrain.com. About Mya Lixian Gosling Mya Lixian Gosling (she/her) is the author and artist of Good Tickle Brain, the world's foremost (and possibly only) stick-figure Shakespeare webcomic. Since 2013, Good Tickle Brain has been entertaining and subversively educating people with Shakespeare-related comics, including full-length play adaptations, extremely short and reductive summaries, song parodies, pop culture mash-ups, infographics, and much more. Mya thinks Shakespeare is super fun, and wants other people to also think that Shakespeare is super fun. Shakespeare Anyone? is created and produced by Kourtney Smith and Elyse Sharp. Music is "Neverending Minute" by Sounds Like Sander. For updates: Join our email list Follow us on Instagram at @shakespeareanyonepod Visit our website at shakespeareanyone.com Support the podcast: Become a patron at patreon.com/shakespeareanyone Buy us a coffee Bookshop.org: Since 2020, Bookshop.org has raised more than $38 million for independent bookstores. Shop our Shakespeare Anyone? storefront to find books featured on the podcast, books by our guests, and other Shakespeare-related books and gifts. Every purchase on the site financially supports independent bookstores. Libro.fm: Libro.fm makes it possible to purchase audiobooks through your local bookshop of choice. Use our link for 2 free audiobooks when you sign up for a new Libro.fm membership using our link. Find additional links mentioned in the episode in our Linktree.
- 2 weeks ago1h 2m
Julius Caesar: Wrap Up
Want to support the podcast? Join our Patreon or buy us a coffee. As an independent podcast, Shakespeare Anyone? is supported by listeners like you. In this wrap-up episode, we reflect on our exploration of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar by watching and discussing three distinct productions. We start with Phyllida Lloyd's ground-breaking 2012 all-female production at Donmar Warehouse, which sets the action of the play within a women's prison. Then, we explore The Bridge Theatre's 2018 production, directed by Nicholas Hytner and starring Ben Whishaw and Michelle Fairley, which combined dynamic staging with a contemporary setting. Finally, we will discuss Shakespeare's Globe's 2014 production directed by Dominic Dromgoole and featuring Luke Thompson. As we discuss each of these productions, we will examine how their production choices illuminate the themes and story of Shakespeare's play. Shakespeare Anyone? is created and produced by Kourtney Smith and Elyse Sharp. Music is "Neverending Minute" by Sounds Like Sander. For updates: Join our email list Follow us on Instagram at @shakespeareanyonepod Visit our website at shakespeareanyone.com Support the podcast: Become a patron at patreon.com/shakespeareanyone Buy us a coffee Bookshop.org: Since 2020, Bookshop.org has raised more than $38 million for independent bookstores. Shop our Shakespeare Anyone? storefront to find books featured on the podcast, books by our guests, and other Shakespeare-related books and gifts. Every purchase on the site financially supports independent bookstores. Libro.fm: Libro.fm makes it possible to purchase audiobooks through your local bookshop of choice. Use our link for 2 free audiobooks when you sign up for a new Libro.fm membership using our link. Find additional links mentioned in the episode in our Linktree. Works referenced: Shakespeare, William. Julius Caesar. Digital Theatre, https://www.digitaltheatre.com/watch/vod/37661691/julius-caesar. Accessed 2026. Shakespeare, William. Julius Caesar. National Theatre Live, https://www.ntathome.com/julius-caesar. Accessed 2026. Shakespeare, William. Julius Caesar (2014). Shakespeare's Globe, 2014, https://player.shakespearesglobe.com/productions/julius-caesar-2014/. Accessed 2026.
- May 6, 202642 min
Mini: Shakespeare and Stephen King with Caroline Bicks, author of Monsters in the Archives
Want to support the podcast? Join our Patreon or buy us a coffee. As an independent podcast, Shakespeare Anyone? is supported by listeners like you. In this episode, we are joined by author and Shakespeare scholar, Caroline Bicks, to discuss her latest book, Monsters in the Archive: My Year of Fear with Stephen King. Caroline will share with us how Shakespeare some of Stephen King's most famous works, and the surprising similarities she discovered between Shakespeare's writing and King's. Monsters in the Archive: My Year of Fear with Stephen King is out now. About Caroline Bicks Caroline Bicks is the Stephen E. King Chair in Literature at the University of Maine, where she teaches courses in Shakespeare, early modern culture, and horror fiction. She is the author of Cognition and Girlhood in Shakespeare's World and Midwiving Subjects in Shakespeare's England; co-author of Shakespeare, Not Stirred: Cocktails for Your Everyday Dramas; and co-host of the Everyday Shakespeare podcast. Her essays and humor pieces have appeared in the Modern Love column of the New York Times, McSweeney's Internet Tendency, and the show Afterbirth. She lives in Blue Hill, Maine, with her family. About Monsters in the Archives: My Year of Fear with Stephen King After Caroline Bicks was named the University of Maineʼs inaugural Stephen E. King Chair in Literature, she became the first scholar to be granted extended access by King to his private archives, a treasure trove of manuscripts that document the legendary writerʼs creative process—most of them never before studied or published. The year she spent exploring King's early drafts and hand-written revisions was guided by one question millions of Kingʼs enthralled and terrified readers (including her) have asked themselves: What makes Stephen King's writing stick in our heads and haunt us long after we've closed the book? Bicks focuses on five of his most iconic early works—The Shining, Carrie, Pet Sematary, ʼSalemʼs Lot, and Night Shift—to reveal how he crafted his language, story lines, and characters to cast his enduring literary spells. While tracking King's margin notes and editorial changes, she discovered scenes and alternative endings that never made it to print but that King is allowing her to publish now. The book also includes interviews Bicks had with King along the way that reveal new insights into his writing process and personal history. Part literary master class, part biography, part memoir and investigation into our deepest anxieties, Monsters in the Archives—authorized by Stephen King himself—is unlike anything ever published about the master of horror. It chronicles what Bicks found when she set out to unearth how King crafted some of his scariest, most iconic moments. But it's also a story about a grown-up English professor facing her childhood fears and getting to know the man whose monsters helped unleash them. Shakespeare Anyone? is created and produced by Kourtney Smith and Elyse Sharp. Music is "Neverending Minute" by Sounds Like Sander. For updates: Join our email list Follow us on Instagram at @shakespeareanyonepod Visit our website at shakespeareanyone.com Support the podcast: Become a patron at patreon.com/shakespeareanyone Buy us a coffee Bookshop.org: Since 2020, Bookshop.org has raised more than $38 million for independent bookstores. Shop our Shakespeare Anyone? storefront to find books featured on the podcast, books by our guests, and other Shakespeare-related books and gifts. Every purchase on the site financially supports independent bookstores. <a href="https://link.shakespeareanyone.com
- Apr 22, 202655 min
Julius Caesar: How Often Did Shakespeare Think About the Roman Empire?
Want to support the podcast? Join our Patreon or buy us a coffee. As an independent podcast, Shakespeare Anyone? is supported by listeners like you. In this episode, we use Freyja Cox Jensen's Reading the Roman Republic in Early Modern England to explore how early modern readers encountered, studied, and understood ancient Rome, and what that means for how we read Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. First, we ask whether early modern people were truly obsessed with Julius Caesar and ancient Rome, and how Rome became so omnipresent in the early modern imagination. We then trace the roots of that obsession: how Roman history was embedded in early modern education and pedagogical theory, which Roman authors Shakespeare and his contemporaries were actually reading, and how the rise of the printing industry accelerated the spread of classical texts across England. From there, we explore what early modern people actually thought about Rome: how they understood it, idealized it, and argued about it. Last but not least, we'll examine how ancient Rome was reimagined on the early modern stage, and what all of this tells us about Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. Shakespeare Anyone? is created and produced by Kourtney Smith and Elyse Sharp. Music is "Neverending Minute" by Sounds Like Sander. For updates: Join our email list Follow us on Instagram at @shakespeareanyonepod Visit our website at shakespeareanyone.com Support the podcast: Become a patron at patreon.com/shakespeareanyone Buy us a coffee Bookshop.org: Since 2020, Bookshop.org has raised more than $38 million for independent bookstores. Shop our Shakespeare Anyone? storefront to find books featured on the podcast, books by our guests, and other Shakespeare-related books and gifts. Every purchase on the site financially supports independent bookstores. Libro.fm: Libro.fm makes it possible to purchase audiobooks through your local bookshop of choice. Use our link for 2 free audiobooks when you sign up for a new Libro.fm membership using our link. Find additional links mentioned in the episode in our Linktree. Works referenced: Cox Jensen, Freyja. Reading the Roman Republic in Early Modern England. Brill, 2012.
- Apr 8, 202637 min
Mini: Ecological Shakespeare with Katherine Steele Brokaw
Want to support the podcast? Join our Patreon or buy us a coffee. As an independent podcast, Shakespeare Anyone? is supported by listeners like you. In anticipation of Earth Day and Shakespeare's birthday later this month, in this episode, we are joined by Katherine (Katie) Steele Brokaw to discuss how Shakespeare can be used as a tool to create conversations around ecological issues that impact our communities. We discuss how Shakespeare is already well-positioned to be used as an eco-playwright, why it is important to utilize his plays to speak to our current moment, and how theatremakers and educators can incorporate ecological practices into their productions and readings of Shakespeare's plays. About Katherine Steele Brokaw Katherine Steele Brokaw is a Professor of English at University of Texas at Austin and the Director of Shakespeare at Winedale at UT. Her work focuses primarily on the production and study of Shakespearean performance, with a special interest in how modern productions can be used to highlight ecological issues. She is the author of Staging Harmony: Music and Religious Change in Late Medieval and Early English Drama and Shakespeare and Community Performance and she is co-author, with Elizabeth Freestone, of Performing Shakespeare on an Endangered Planet. She was the co-founding artistic director of Shakespeare in Yosemite, where she adapted and directed eight productions. Resources mentioned in the episode: The EarthShakes Alliance Shakespeare in Yosemite's Romeo and Juliet Globe4Globe presentations via EarthShakes Alliance's Youtube Want to hear more about how Shakespeare's world was impacted by climate issues? Check our our episode A Midsummer Night's Dream: Shakespeare & Climate Change with Sydney Schwindt. Shakespeare Anyone? is created and produced by Kourtney Smith and Elyse Sharp. Music is "Neverending Minute" by Sounds Like Sander. For updates: Join our email list Follow us on Instagram at @shakespeareanyonepod Visit our website at shakespeareanyone.com Support the podcast: Become a patron at patreon.com/shakespeareanyone Buy us a coffee Bookshop.org: Since 2020, Bookshop.org has raised more than $38 million for independent bookstores. Shop our Shakespeare Anyone? storefront to find books featured on the podcast, books by our guests, and other Shakespeare-related books and gifts. Every purchase on the site financially supports independent bookstores. Libro.fm: Libro.fm makes it possible to purchase audiobooks through your local bookshop of choice. Use our link for 2 free audiobooks when you sign up for a new Libro.fm membership using our link. Find additional links mentioned in the episode in our Linktree.
- Mar 25, 20261h 13m
Julius Caesar: A People's History Meets Shakespeare's Play
Want to support the podcast? Join our Patreon or buy us a coffee. As an independent podcast, Shakespeare Anyone? is supported by listeners like you. In this episode, we bring together Michael Parenti's The Assassination of Julius Caesar: A People's History of Ancient Rome and Shakespeare's Julius Caesar to explore the real historical event at the heart of the play. Parenti reframes the traditional "tyrannicide" narrative and argues that Caesar's murder was a calculated act by Rome's ruling oligarchs to stop a popular reformer who had become a threat to their wealth and power. Using this people's history perspective, we then discuss how this compares to Shakespeare's depiction of events and how this perspective can inform theatrical productions of Shakespeare's plays. Shakespeare Anyone? is created and produced by Kourtney Smith and Elyse Sharp. Music is "Neverending Minute" by Sounds Like Sander. Sound effects obtained from https://www.zapsplat.com. For updates: Join our email list Follow us on Instagram at @shakespeareanyonepod Visit our website at shakespeareanyone.com Support the podcast: Become a patron at patreon.com/shakespeareanyone Buy us a coffee Bookshop.org: Since 2020, Bookshop.org has raised more than $38 million for independent bookstores. Shop our Shakespeare Anyone? storefront to find books featured on the podcast, books by our guests, and other Shakespeare-related books and gifts. Every purchase on the site financially supports independent bookstores. Libro.fm: Libro.fm makes it possible to purchase audiobooks through your local bookshop of choice. Use our link for 2 free audiobooks when you sign up for a new Libro.fm membership using our link. Find additional links mentioned in the episode in our Linktree. Works referenced: Attar, Rob, host and Barry Strauss, guest; "Caesar | 1. Beware the Ides of March." HistoryExtra Podcast, iTunes app, 15 December 2023. Biemesderfer, Korina, host. "The Ides of March - March 15 2021 - Daily True Crime." Morning Cup of Murder, iTunes app, 15 March 2021 Duncan, Mike, host. "046- Sic Semper Tyrannis." The History of Rome, iTunes app, 27 February 2010 Parenti, Michael. The Assassination of Julius Caesar: A People's History of Ancient Rome. The New Press, 2003. Strauss, Barry, narrator. "The Real Assassination of Caesar." History This Week, iTunes app, 9 March 2020. "TalkingStickTV - Michael Parenti - The Assassination of Julius Caesar." YouTube, uploaded by talkingsticktv, 10 August 2008, www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YNwxZnABzA.
- Mar 11, 202624 min
Mini: Essex's Rebellion: The Plot Against Elizabeth I
Want to support the podcast? Join our Patreon or buy us a coffee. As an independent podcast, Shakespeare Anyone? is supported by listeners like you. In this episode, we dig into one of the most dramatic scandals of Shakespeare's time: the rise and catastrophic fall of Robert Devereaux, the Earl of Essex. Court favorite, military hero, and ultimately, traitor, Essex had everything and managed to lose it spectacularly. We break down who Essex was, his relationship with Elizabeth, and what finally led him to march on London with a small bnad of followers and an extremely bad plan. And of course, we're a Shakespeare podcast, so we touch on the wild connection between Essex's Rebellion and Shakespeare. Shakespeare Anyone? is created and produced by Kourtney Smith and Elyse Sharp. Music is "Neverending Minute" by Sounds Like Sander. For updates: Join our email list Follow us on Instagram at @shakespeareanyonepod Visit our website at shakespeareanyone.com Support the podcast: Become a patron at patreon.com/shakespeareanyone Buy us a coffee Bookshop.org: Since 2020, Bookshop.org has raised more than $38 million for independent bookstores. Shop our Shakespeare Anyone? storefront to find books featured on the podcast, books by our guests, and other Shakespeare-related books and gifts. Every purchase on the site financially supports independent bookstores. Libro.fm: Libro.fm makes it possible to purchase audiobooks through your local bookshop of choice. Use our link for 2 free audiobooks when you sign up for a new Libro.fm membership using our link. Find additional links mentioned in the episode in our Linktree. Works referenced: Bate, Jonathan. Soul of the Age: The Life, Mind and World of William Shakespeare. Viking, 2008. pp. 256–286. BBC Bitesize. "The Rebellion of the Earl of Essex - Queen Elizabeth I and Government - OCR B - GCSE History Revision - OCR B - BBC Bitesize." BBC News, BBC, 6 Feb. 2025, www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/z88fk7h/revision/3. Hammer, Paul E. J. (2004). "Devereux, Robert, second earl of Essex (1565–1601)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on 14 July 2014. Retrieved 29 December 2020. Mr Keir History Teacher. " Essex Rebellion - Causes and Consequences #Education #AQA #ElizabethanEngland." YouTube, 2022, youtu.be/7VPKqvINtz8. Shanette, Heather. "Essex Rebellion (1601)". Elizabeth R : The Life and Times of Queen Elizabeth I. Published 1998-2026. https://www.elizabethi.org/contents/rebellions/essex/ Teysko, Heather. "Episode 201: Robert Devereaux the Earl of Essex - Renaissance English History Podcast." Renaissance English History Podcast - The Original Tudor History Podcast, 22 Nov. 2024, www.englandcast.com/2024/11/episode-201-robert-devereaux-the-earl-of-essex/.
- Feb 25, 202656 min
Julius Caesar: The "Falling Sickness" and Shakespeare's Understanding of Epilepsy
Want to support the podcast? Join our Patreon or buy us a coffee. As an independent podcast, Shakespeare Anyone? is supported by listeners like you. In today's episode, we are exploring how Shakespeare depicts Julius Caesar's "falling sickness," commonly believed by historians and scholars to be epilepsy. First, we'll discuss how the play Julius Caesar can be read as a disability narrative and how it reflects early modern anxieties around invisible disabilities like epilepsy. Then, we will look at how Shakespeare depicts falling sickness or epilepsy across the canon and determine whether or not the depictions are as accurate as they are often celebrated to be. Finally, we will share an alternative diagnosis for Caesar's symptoms based on what is known of historical Caesar's medical history. Content Warning: Emetophobia, brief discussion of eating disorders Shakespeare Anyone? is created and produced by Kourtney Smith and Elyse Sharp. Music is "Neverending Minute" by Sounds Like Sander. For updates: Join our email list Follow us on Instagram at @shakespeareanyonepod Visit our website at shakespeareanyone.com Support the podcast: Become a patron at patreon.com/shakespeareanyone Buy us a coffee Bookshop.org: Since 2020, Bookshop.org has raised more than $38 million for independent bookstores. Shop our Shakespeare Anyone? storefront to find books featured on the podcast, books by our guests, and other Shakespeare-related books and gifts. Every purchase on the site financially supports independent bookstores. Libro.fm: Libro.fm makes it possible to purchase audiobooks through your local bookshop of choice. Use our link for 2 free audiobooks when you sign up for a new Libro.fm membership using our link. Find additional links mentioned in the episode in our Linktree. Works referenced: Breuer, Horst. "Bilder Der Epilepsie Bei Shakespeare / Representations of Epilepsy in Shakespeare." Medizinhistorisches Journal, vol. 37, no. 1, 2002, pp. 5–19. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25805304. Accessed 16 Feb. 2026. Hamlyn, Tim. "The Nature of Caesar's Illness." Latomus, vol. 73, no. 2, 2014, pp. 360–67. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/24858427. Accessed 16 Feb. 2026. Hobgood, Allison. (2009). Caesar Hath the Falling Sickness: The Legibility of Early Modern Disability in Shakespearean Drama. Disability Studies Quarterly. 29. 10.18061/dsq.v29i4.993.
About Shakespeare Anyone?
Shakespeare Anyone? is co-hosted by Elyse Sharp and Kourtney Smith, two professional actors and hobbyist Shakespeare scholars. Join us as we explore Shakespeare's plays through as many lenses as we can by looking at the text and how the text is viewed through modern lenses of feminism, racism, classism, colonialism, nationalism… all the-isms. We will discuss how his plays shaped both the past and present, and look at how his work was performed throughout various periods of time–all while trying our best to approach his works without giving in to bardolatry. We examine one play at a time for an extended window of time, interspersed with mini-episodes about Shakespeare's time for context.
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