Something Shakespeare This Way Comes
This podcast is hosted by a self-proclaimed part-time scholar and full-time nerd who explores the writings, adaptations, and historical context surrounding William Shakespeare. The show takes a fun, approachable dive into the Bard's works and legacy, making classic literature engaging for modern listeners.
Episodes
Ep 41: Awarding Shakespearean Superlatives with Guest Ben Roman
Most likely to rope their brother into recording a ridiculous podcast episode about Shakespeare? That goes to me!I thought it would be fun to run through a list of the superlatives you find in a high school yearbook and award them to various characters in Shakespeare. You know, best couple, mostly likely to succeed, all that fun stuff. Also, apologies to anyone whose high schools were way too into
Ep 40: Is 2025 the Year of Hamlet Core?
Farewell to 2025 – may you meet your fitting end at midnight (drowning in a cask of wine, perhaps).The past couple years have seen an absolute boom in Hamlet adaptations and productions. Why is Hamlet so hot right now?In this episode, I tackle the sheer number of Hamlet productions on the scene and how those adaptations wrestle with Shakespeare’s original work and what that says about the times we
Ep 39: Shakespeare, Queer Theory, and Queer Culture in Early Modern England
Are we so back??? I hope so!Thank you to everyone who has patiently waited while I've been working through personal stuff. And congrats to everyone who caught up on the podcast during the break.I am back with an episode near and dear to my heart about whether Shakespeare was, in fact, a bisexual icon.Okay, not entirely. In this episode I talk about the long history of questions surrounding Sha
Ep 38: Taming of the Shrew in Perspective Over Time
Has the shrew been tamed or was the taming just the friendswe made along the way?I am back with the third and final episode looking at TheTaming of the Shrew! And, phew, it’s been quite a ride.In this episode, I’ll be discussing contemporary reactionsto The Taming of the Shrew, performances of the play across time, and my final take on the play now that I’ve finished reading way too much about it.
Ep 37: 10 Things I Hate About You (1998) with Guest Ben Roman
Hello boys, I’m back!The long-awaited 10 Things I Hate About You episode is here. Please enjoy listening to me and my brother probably defend this movie too hard. Honestly, for being a late ‘90s romcom, it’s doing a pretty good job of being a Shakespeare adaptation. And has the added advantage of being put against a Shakespeare play that is…more problematic than many of his other comedies.While we
Bonus Ep 7: It's the Ides of March (Again)
It’s that time of year again to look back at what happened on the Ides of March many years ago and consider how badly the conspirators fumbled the ball.While I will be celebrating March 15 my favorite way, by posting jokes on social media, I wanted to take the time to collect some general thoughts about the assassination of Julius Caesar and the relevance of Shakespeare’s play.When I covered it la
Ep 36: The Taming of the Shrew, Examining Kate and Petruchio
This episode is a true example of what happens when you don't make yourself stop falling down the research rabbit hole.We're back with more The Taming of the Shrew and looking specifically the two main romantic leads. What is Petruchio's deal? What is Kate's? And why is everyone so obsessed with them?I wade my way through a reading of the play, several books, and a number of articl
Ep 35: The Taming of the Shrew, Context and Confusion
Our long-awaited Shrew series has begun! And I have discovered that I committed myself to doing three episodes surrounding a play that maybe I don’t like?But regardless of whether I’m going to banish Petruchio to my rejected list, there are still interesting things to talk about concerning The Taming of the Shrew, because of course there are! It’s Shakespeare. There’s always something to talk abou
Bonus Ep 6: How Shakespeare Is It? Conclave (2024)
The Academy recently announced its Best Picture nominees,and while there’s been plenty of discussion over how good those nominees are, not even enough people are discussing how Shakespeare these movies are.I’m here to the change that by starting with the only nominee I’ve seen so far: Conclave. How Shakespeare is this movie about electing the pope?Well, seems like it has the potential to be pretty
Ep. 34: Interiority, Narration, Art, and Shakespeare
This episode is brought to you by the newsletters about books
that I subscribe to and my ability to sometimes overthink things. This time around we are talking books! First-person perspective! Theater! Soliloquy!
Do you find it true that in the modern books you read, there’s
more action than introspection and thought? Do books seem to be cinematic, already poised perfectly for an adaptation to the
Ep. 33: Beware the Inspirational Shakespeare Quote
How often have you seen a quote on a beautifully colored background with the claim that the words are from William Shakespeare himself?
If you’ve spent any amount of time on the internet, then probably at least a handful of times.
But there are pitfalls when it comes to taking what seems to
be good advice from Shakespeare himself. One of them being that most of what was written by Shakespeare are
Ep 32: Just One of the Guys (1985), Teen Comedies and Shakespeare
Do you consider something to be a Shakespeare adaptation if it
features a female protagonist who dresses up as a boy? Is this basic concept now considered quintessentially Shakespearean? Or does there need to be an added je ne sais quoi to make it count?
That is the central question concerning the 1985 teen comedy
Just One of the Guys, which the internet claims is loosely based on Twelfth Night. T
Ep 31: T.S. Eliot on Shakespeare (CORRECTED)
It has come to my attention that I recently uploaded this with the wrong audio attached. Cool! It's about T.S. Eliot now, I promise.
This episode we are discussing my man T.S. Eliot, who wrote era defining poetry but also penned probably the most famous one-star review of the Hamlet that exists. What was his problem with Hamlet (the play) and Hamlet (the character), exactly?
We’ll be looking at th
Ep 30: Shakespeare Myths, Gossip, and Anecdotes
Happy long weekend surprise episode drop! We are having fun this time with various tales of Shakespeare lore that I've stumbled across in my reading over the last year of doing the show but haven't included because most of these stories have been judged to be dubious in some way.
But just because something isn't true doesn't mean it isn't also a fun story or bit of gossip. And honestly who isn't i
Ep 29: Ben Jonson - Shakespeare's Contemporary, Part 2
We’re back with more Ben Jonson! This episode we consider
Jonson’s works, his plays for public and private theater, his poetry, and his relationship with the court.
When it comes to how he conducted his career, was also look at the how he differed from Shakespeare. Not as a point of judgement, but just to give us a more complete picture about what men did with their writing and how this (ironicall
REPOST Ep 11: High School and Shakespeare
Hi, everyone! Things got a little away from me this week, what with a national election demanding all my attention and energy, so I'm bringing back an old episode.
In this episode, I talk about the Shakespeare we had to read in high school, what those plays were, and some thoughts about why that is.
Whether you loved or hated the Shakespeare unit in high school, you probably had to suffer through
Ep 28: Ben Jonson - Shakespeare's Contemporary, Part 1
Welcome back, gentle listeners, to season 2 and the long-awaited discussion of Ben Jonson! Shakespeare’s colleague, friend, maybe sometimes frenemy, it’s up to us to decide. But definitely someone who knew him and admired (perhaps somewhat begrudgingly) his work.
After diving into the world of biography and various survey and companion type books, I now have a more complete picture of Ben Jonson t
Shorts 3: The Book of Will and the First Folio
What’s it like to go to the theater to see Shakespeare but
then see a play about his works instead of seeing one of his works? Pretty rad, actually! In this episode, I’m covering The Book of Will, a play by Lauren Gunderson about the efforts behind the printing of the First Folio.
The First Folio is one of the most revered books in the
English language and often has this air of grandeur about it t
Shorts 2: My Own Private Idaho (1991) and the Henriad
Are you interested in an early 90s indie film that has some
Shakespearean elements and has also become a queer cult classic? Let’s all just assume the answer is yes here.
In this episode, I revisit the 1991 film My Own Private Idaho, which some people claim is a loose adaptation of Shakespeare’s Henry IV plays, and that’s true…ish.
If you decide to watch because of the Shakespearean elements, then
Shorts 1: Ghostlight (2024) with guest Amanda Bain-Wysocki
Ghostlight is an indie film that at first blush seems to be dealing with some pretty well-worn tropes: we have a family dealing with the aftermath of a traumatic event and has the lead character develops his emotional intelligence through the power of theater.
Sound like a bunch of other movies? It does, but this film is a testament to the fact that if you do a familiar trope well, the result can
Ep 27: Year One in Review
Welcome to the end of season 1 and our year in review!
In this episode, I reflect a little on the year I just had, how I got the podcast started and chose a title, the topics I’ve covered, any new opinions or insight I have and a look into my most (and least) popular episodes.
We close out with some pretty awesome questions asked by all of you! Just stumbled across this episode and didn’t get a ch
Ep 26: Anonymous (2011) with guest Ben Roman
Another episode, another silly movie about Shakespeare. This time, I forced my brother to watch Anonymous, the 2011 Roland Emmerich film that puts forth the hypothesis that Edward de Vere was the real author of Shakespeare’s plays.
Whatever you think about the authorship question and the validity of the Oxfordian theory of authorship, can we all agree that this movie is not very good nor very conv
Ep 25: Shakespeare in Adaptation
We are back and this week we are talking Shakespeare adaptation! What are the different types of adaptation, what do they accomplish, and what makes some stand out from the rest?
We’re talking movies, books, and plays in this episode, featuring a collection of Shakespeare content I’ve been consuming as I try to think through what makes something stand out and what makes something merely meh.
On th
Ep 24: Judi Dench on Shakespeare
Spoiler alert for this week’s episode: Judi Dench is super cool and also has a ton of interesting stuff to say about Shakespeare.
This episode we’re talking Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent, a collection of conversations about Shakespeare’s plays and character between Judi Dench and Brendan O’Hea, a longtime actor and director who has a history of working with Dench.
Even if you are not the
Ep 23: What Astrological Sign are Iconic Shakespeare Characters with Guest Gabbi Miller
Would you classify yourself as a straight up astrology nerd
or someone who barely knows your sign and that’s where you’d like to leave it? What about when it comes to Shakespeare?
In the spirit of having fun, in this episode I talk to repeat guest Gabbi Miller about which astrological signs different Shakespeare characters would be. I come supplying the knowledge about Shakespeare, she comes with
Ep 22: The Shakespeare Jubilee and Our Changing Perceptions
In 1769, a famous actor decided to host a giant event in honor of the man who helped make him famous: Shakespeare.
It did not go as planned.
While the Shakespeare Jubilee ended up being kind of a disaster, its aim to uphold the genius of Shakespeare ended up panning out pretty well. After all, a few hundred years later, we are all singing the praises of this immortal poet.
In this episode, we talk
Ep 21: Portrayals of Achilles in Shakespeare and Elsewhere
Say what you want about Achilles, but everyone definitely does know his name.
This episode we're talking all things Achilles. What the ancient Greeks thought about him, how he shows up in The Iliad, extreme fanboy Alexander the Great, his character in Troilus and Cressida, and some more modern takes on him as well.
We'll be talking a lot about the nature of his relationship with Patroclus
Bonus Ep 5: The Role of the Gods in Mythology
Bonus content for my fellow Greek mythology nerds out there! This episode we are talking the role of the gods in the Trojan War, how they appear in The Iliad, and how they show up in other retellings of the war, including Shakespeare, of course.
Really, this was all an elaborate excuse for me to talk about the 2004 movie Troy.
Join me as we consider why the gods are involved in mythology and the T
Ep 20: One-Star Shakespeare, Twelfth Night Edition with Guest Ben Roman
Why do people dislike Twelfth Night? Because it's the internet, sometimes the reasoning is silly, but as when it comes to any piece of art, there's always a valid reason to dislike something. Could it be because you dislike the genre of the play? Maybe!
I'm on vacation this week, so bringing you a previously recorded episode before finding our way back to the mythology discussion. Plea
Ep 19: Greek Mythology Retellings and Troilus and Cressida
Lovers of Greek mythology (and Shakespeare), rise up! If you thought you might like Shakespeare better if he just talked about a mythological figure for once, you’re in luck.
In Troilus and Cressida, Shakespeare covers some of the last days of the Trojan War, including some of the mythical heroes you all know and love, turns most of them into complete jerks, and then features a pair of young lover
Ep 18: Close Reading Much Ado About Nothing
Ever have to do close reading for a literature class and did you find it kind of fun or incredibly painful? Maybe you just spun some masterful BS to hit the word count.
Today we’re going to be approaching Shakespeare much in the same way, thinking about why we do close reading and then giving it a try. It’s probably not surprising that as an English major, I usually ended up finding close reading
Ep 17: What Your Favorite Shakespeare Play Says About You
Do you have a favorite Shakespeare play? Do you consider
your favorite to be on brand for you? And does anyone else feel extreme pressure when asked what their favorite book is to give a perfect answer even though such a thing isn’t possible?
In this episode, we’ll be having a little fun, looking at a selection of Shakespeare plays and determining what kind of person you are if, say, Hamlet is you
Ep 16: One-Star Shakespeare, Hamlet Edition with Guest Ben Roman
To give or not to give a one-star review? That can sometimes be the question when you are faced with reading and rating a classic that doesn’t live up to the glorious tales everyone has been telling about it.
And that’s especially true when it comes to one of Shakespeare’s most famous and highly renowned plays, Hamlet. Whether you love or hate Hamlet (or even just feel sort of meh about it), we ca
Ep 15: Introduction to Shakespeare's Sonnets
Do the sonnets really prove that Shakespeare was gay? Listen, when has anything ever proven anything about Shakespeare?
More than any other piece of writing he left behind, Shakespeare's sonnets invite a lot of speculation and excitement about his biography. Throughout time people have thought that they would be able to figure out who this young man is and the identity of the woman that he mus
Ep 14: Can Julius Caesar Still Feel Relevant?
The Ides of March have come and gone but I’m not quite done talking about Julius Caesar (the guy) or Julius Caesar (the play).
This play is harder to get into than some of Shakespeare’s other delightful works. To help explain why and to try to figure out where Shakespeare was coming from, I’ve read some Plutarch, gotten more context for how a sixteenth century audience might have thought about Rom
Bonus Ep 4: Beware the Ides of March
Do you get super excited to tell everyone to "Beware the Ides of March" every year or are you normal?
Julius Caesar is a tricky play because I think it largely comes across as boring with a cool stabbing scene tucked into the middle of it. But, the events surrounding the assassination of Julius Caesar were extremely dramatic and held a lot of emotional weight and significance, in additi
Ep 13: Saltburn (2023) and Dead Poets Society (1989) with guest Gabbi Miller
Have you ever watched a movie and thought it was really giving Shakespeare vibes even though it wasn’t based on one of his plays? In this episode we are playing fast and loose with the meaning of adaptation by looking at two movies that are in conversation with Shakespeare but aren’t adaptations in the traditional sense.
Join me and Gabbi Miller as we talk the scandalous and shocking Saltburn and
Ep 12: Tier Ranking Shakespeare Couples
Do Romeo and Juliet belong in the highest levels of Shakespeare canon or are they more mid? I explore this question and more in this episode, as I work my way through some of Shakespeare's most beloved plays and most notorious couples to decide where they should be ranked on a tier system of my own devising.
The main method I used to determine where couples should fall was mostly vibes and ho
Ep 11: High School and Shakespeare
Who wants to relive English class from when you were a teenager? What if I'm the one doing it?
I've been thinking lately about the Shakespeare we read in school and how sometimes that introduction can make or break your relationship with him. And it made me wonder...was my experience reading Shakespeare in high school similar to everyone else? Did we all have to read Romeo and Juliet (spoi
Ep 10: Twelfth Night and Gender Exploration
In the immortal words of Viola, “I am the man.”
That’s right, we are talking about Twelfth Night and everyone’s enduring obsession with how it plays with gender, what it tells us about gender, and how all the gender expansiveness is not something solely conceived of by a modern audience.
You like Viola? We talk Viola. You like hearing about strange biological misconceptions of people living in t
Ep 9: Storytelling and Speculation
What kind of guy do you think Shakespeare was? This episode, we’re delving into the world of imagination as we consider the proud tradition of storytelling and speculation when it comes to Shakespeare biography.
Stephen Greenblatt’s National Book Award Winning biography of Shakespeare weaves a rich tapestry that gets inside the mind of one of England’s greatest playwrights. At times these efforts
Ep 8: Romeo + Juliet (1996) with guest Amanda Bain Wysocki
IN FAIR VERONA we set our scene and Baz Luhrmann presents us a fever dream of a film.
Amanda Bain Wysocki joins me to discuss the classic 1996 film William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet, the punk rock Shakespeare adaptation many Millennials discovered as their gateway drug to the Bard.
Between Amanda’s special edition DVD and insight into the director’s commentary and me scraping various articles f
Ep 7: Exploring Genre - Tragedy and History
Spoiler alert: Everyone dies. Except when they don't. But the title character does. Except when they don't.
The is the second part of my two part series on how genre applies to Shakespearean drama. (If you haven't listened to the previous episode on comedy and tragicomedy, you might want to check that out first.)
When it comes to tragedies, is it fair to say that those are the plays wh
Bonus Ep 3 - "Of Cannibals" and The Tempest
This episode started as an article, but it turns out you would all prefer to listen to stuff, so now it’s a podcast episode!
You want to listen to stuff, not read stuff, and I respect that. So, I dug out a little article I wrote after doing some research and recording on The Tempest and have created an audio version of it for your listening pleasure.
In this episode, I look at Michel de Montaign
Ep 6: Exploring Genre - Comedy and Tragicomedy
Make ‘em laugh! Make ‘em cry? Make ‘em feel…weird???
We are talking genre! Specifically the genres of Shakespeare’s
plays, how we started to categorize the plays into these genres in the first place, and how that’s affected our reading of and study of the plays since.
I also cover what constituted a comedy in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and how it’s not as straightforward as you woul
Bonus Ep 2: One-Star Shakespeare
Today we are taking a little detour into the world of internet reviews of the classics. What are people saying about The Tempest, Macbeth, and Romeo and Juliet exactly? Sometimes, nothing good.
The internet these days is so driven by the algorithm but in a weird way that forces us to give the things we like five stars and to vigilantly defend against anything one star. The world of book reviews
Ep 5: Shakespeare in Love (1998) with guest Ben Roman
But hark! What light from yonder window breaks? It is Shakespeare
in Love and this episode I’m joined by a guest to discuss it. Join us to hear about historical accuracy (or lack thereof), how Elizabethan in theater could in some way resemble Hollywood, and whether it tracks that Shakespeare became a great playwright because he fell in love with a random noblewoman who just wants to act on stage.
Ep 4: Historical Context and Shakespeare Biography
Who would have thought that picking up Bill Bryson's little Shakespeare biography would unlock so many thoughts in my brain?
I picked up this bio to read because it was available at the library and pretty easy to get through. Then, I had a lot of thoughts and feelings I pursued some other biographical things that turned into this episode.
Today we'll be talking about Bill Bryson's ta
Bonus Ep 1: A Brief Shakespeare Bio
What's this mine eyes spy? A bonus episode? Yea, verily!
My next full episode is going to start getting more fully into Shakespeare biography, as in, biographies that have been written about him and what those works do or don't do with the details we have of his life.
But to better appreciate that discussion, we need to first know what the details of his life are, as we understand them.
Ep 3: The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021)
Knock knock, who’s there? It’s me, with an episode on The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021), the latest film adaptation of the Scottish play.
Directed by a Cohen brother and produced by A24, the movie does give some low-key horror vibes, especially in the creeptastic portrayal of the Weird Sisters. Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand are unsurprisingly great.
But what is this adaptations deal, exactly
Ep 2: The Tempest as a Metaphor for Theater
Our revels now are not ended. They’re just getting started!
After my annual trip to the Heart of America Shakespeare Festival this year to see The Tempest, I ended up talking to my family about how Prospero acts as stand in for a playwright or director and the ties back to the theater. So I thought I’d write an episode about it!
We dip our toes into the post-colonial view of the play but it’s defi
Episode 1: Introduction
Welcome to Something Shakespeare This Way Comes, a podcast made by a nerd who wants to share my love of the Bard. Take a listen to a learn a little more about why I'm making this podcast and why Shakespeare is still relevant in the modern world.
Come back for future discussions of plays, sonnets, characters, movie adaptations, and historical context about Elizabethan theater. Also one day we&
