Podcast episodes on Shakespeare’s life:
Recounting Shakespeare’s life https://www.folger.edu/podcasts/shakespeare-unlimited/shakespeare-unlimited-episode-22/ is an interview to Brian Cummings, Anniversary Professor of English at the University of York.
The private life of William Shakespeare https://www.folger.edu/podcasts/shakespeare-unlimited/private-life-shakespeare-orlin/ is an interview to Lena Cowen about her biography of the dramatist.
Uncovering Shakespeare’s house tells us of an archaeological dig at New Place, Stratford https://www.folger.edu/podcasts/shakespeare-unlimited/new-place-house-archaeological-dig/
It is difficult to say whether Imagining Shakespeare’s wife is more biography or ficton, but here you are https://www.folger.edu/podcasts/shakespeare-unlimited/shakespeares-wife/
Geoffrey Marsh on Shakespeare’s Neighbors is much more factual: https://www.folger.edu/podcasts/shakespeare-unlimited/neighbors-marsh/
Lucy Munro on The King’s Men https://www.folger.edu/podcasts/shakespeare-unlimited/munro-kings-men/ is about the company that first performed Shakespeare’s plays, and included, beside the Bard himself, Richard Burbage and Will Kempe.
Episodes Shakespeare’s world, starting from everyday life:
Two episodes on food: Fat rascals https://www.folger.edu/podcasts/shakespeare-unlimited/fat-rascals-john-tufts/ and The food of Shakespeare’s world https://www.folger.edu/podcasts/shakespeare-unlimited/shakespeare-unlimited-episode-53/. The latter is the more interesting, as, beside food as such it explains how cooking was seen as a crucial part of healthcare. It also explores women’s literacy, which was definitely not as rare as one may expect.
As for medicine proper (so to speak, considering the theories and remedies) here is Elizabethan Medicine https://www.folger.edu/podcasts/shakespeare-unlimited/elizabethan-medicine/. I was strongly reminded of Ian Mortimer’s comment in his chapter on medicine in The time traveller’s guide to Elizabethan England: it is difficult to decide whether it was better to find a doctor or not, when one fell sick.
Again on women: Elizabeth Norton on The hidden lives of Tudor women, which holds some unexpected facts: https://www.folger.edu/podcasts/shakespeare-unlimited/elizabeth-norton-hidden-lives-tudor-women/ .
Something completely different: How to behave badly in Elizabethan England https://www.folger.edu/podcasts/shakespeare-unlimited/behave-badly/ and Elizabethan street fighting https://www.folger.edu/podcasts/shakespeare-unlimited/elizabethan-street-fighting/, which connects the rise of the middlle class to changes in the rate of street violence in England.
There is everyday life, and everyday death: https://www.folger.edu/podcasts/shakespeare-unlimited/kathryn-harkup-death/
In the same realm of pain and violence, Sights, sounds and smells of Elizabethan theatre https://www.folger.edu/podcasts/shakespeare-unlimited/sights-sounds-smells-elizabethan-theater/. An episode I found shocking: it is one thing to know vaguely that bear baiting existed (it still esists, I found, which is unspeakably horrible), and then laugh at the stage direction, Exit, pursued by a bear. It’s quite another to learn details, and to realize that most people found it very exciting – in all likelyhood, the man who wrote Hamlet, too. We know Philip Sidney detested it, though.
Let’s try to go back to a less gloomy mood: here is Holidays in Shakespeare’s England https://www.folger.edu/podcasts/shakespeare-unlimited/holidays-early-modern-england-lin/
Cultural background and ideas – all interesting, some surprising
Shakespeare and religion https://www.folger.edu/podcasts/shakespeare-unlimited/religion/
Books and reading in Shakespeare’s England https://www.folger.edu/podcasts/shakespeare-unlimited/books-reading/
Shakespeare and magic https://www.folger.edu/podcasts/shakespeare-unlimited/shakespeare-unlimited-episode-43/
Finally, Writing about the plague in Shakespeare’s England spans all the three areas of biography, everyday life and ideas.
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