The Shakespop Podcast

What do Swifties and Shakespeare audiences have in common? In this month's anchor episode, I explore how Taylor Swift fans decode lyrics, Easter eggs, and hidden meanings, and what that can teach us about the ways audiences have engaged with Shakespeare for over four centuries. From Samuel Pepys' theatre diaries to TikTok theories, this episode examines fandom, interpretation, and the plea...

In this episode of The Shakespop Podcast , I’m joined by theatre maker, writer, and director Samir Bhamra to discuss adapting Shakespeare through the lens of British Asian identity, language, music, and performance. We explore the creative and political possibilities of reimagining Shakespeare for contemporary multicultural Britain, from questions of audience and belonging to the legacy of British...

Short clip from Epsiode 18: Interview with British Asian Theatremaker Samir Bhamra

Who owns Shakespeare—and who gets to speak him without explanation? In this episode of The Shakespop Podcast , Dr Koel Chatterjee marks the 10-year anniversary of the 2016 “Indian Shakespeares on Screen” event at BFI Southbank and Asia House, co-organised with Varsha Panjwani, Thea Buckley, and Preti Taneja. Reflecting on that moment a decade later, this episode traces a major shift in Shakespeare...

What happens when Shakespeare becomes the framework for telling a true crime story? In this episode of The Shakespop Podcast , I’m joined by journalist and podcaster Jennifer Miller to discuss her limited series Blood Will Tell — a case centred on identical twins, contested identity, and the unsettling question of who gets believed. From episode titles like “Fortune’s Fool” and “Readiness Is All,”...

What does Shakespeare have to do with true crime? In this episode, we explore how Romeo and Juliet , Othello , and Macbeth continue to shape the way we understand real-world violence — from “star-crossed lovers” to “crimes of passion” and the enduring myth of Lady Macbeth. Drawing on narrative criminology, this episode examines how Shakespeare provides a cultural script for jealousy, ambition, and...

Was Shakespeare an original genius—or an expert remixer? In this episode of The Shakespop Podcast, I’m joined by Darren Freebury-Jones to talk about his book Shakespeare’s Borrowed Feathers, which challenges the myth of Shakespeare as a solitary, self-generating author. Instead, we explore Shakespeare as a writer shaped by influence, imitation, and creative borrowing—working inside a competitive e...

Was Shakespeare the solitary genius he is frequently portrayed to be, or is he more of a showrunner working within a collaborative Early Modern theatre making space? Find out by listening to Episode 13: The Collaborative Bard: Stylometry, Scripts, and Shakespeare.

We love to imagine Shakespeare as a solitary genius: candlelit desk, quill in hand, inventing English literature by himself. The reality is far messier — and far more interesting. In this episode of Shakespop , I explore Shakespeare as a collaborative professional working inside a fast-moving, commercial theatre industry. From co-writing with Christopher Marlowe, to rescuing unfinished scripts, to...

Love's Labours Lost is often treated like a problem child in the Shakespeare canon. It's a comedy with no marriages, a romance that refuses to resolve, and a play so obsessed with language tha the words themselves often become the main event. This play is performed far less frequently than Shakespeare's more familiar comedies, and it's even rarer to see it adapted into other forms....

What happens when the emotional intensity of fandom meets the authority of academia? In this episode, I explore the often-unspoken tension - and surprising overlap - between Shakespeare fandom and Shakespeare Studies . From lecture theatres to A03, footnotes to fanfic, this episode asks: who is allowed to interpret Shakespeare, and on what terms? We unpack how fandom spaces and academic spaces don...

This episode delves into the remarkable creative collision between William Shakespeare, the titan of Western literature, and Osamu Tezuka, the founding "god" of Japanese manga. We explore how Tezuka used the dynamic, accessible medium of manga to not only adapt the Bard's tragedies and comedies but also to critique the moral and political contradictions of post-war Japan. The Shakesp...

We all think we know William Shakespeare. He’s the foundation of the English-speaking canon, the genius whose words define tragedy, romance, and history. But what happens when you take the definitive highbrow text—the soliloquy, the iambic pentameter, the Elizabethan stage—and smash it headlong into a medium traditionally dismissed as juvenile: the comic book, or the graphic novel if you’re a grow...

This 6 Minute Shakespeare Episode introduced by Koel Chatterjee discusses the main themes in Shakespeare Graphic Novels and the difficulty of translating Shakespeare's words into visuals using techniques unique to the art form.

Today we're discussing the Changeling in Medieval folklore and how Shakespeare uses and changes the 'fear of others' trope in Midsummer Night's Dream. Scripted by Koel Chatterjee

In this six minute (or less) episode we discuss why Shakespeare biofiction is quite a popular genre within the speculative fiction genre. Scripted by Koel Chatterjee

In this episode I speak to John Snodgrass and his work on Shakespeare's use of fairytales and the Fae people beloved to the English people in Shakespeare's time. John's work invites us to read Shakespeare not just as literature, but as living ritual—where fairies, witches, and queens aren’t just characters, but cultural echoes of something deeper and older. It’s a reminder that storytelling is nev...

This episode places Shakespeare biofiction in fantasy fiction and explores Shakespeare the protagonist in Neil Gaiman's Sandman comics and Sarah A. Hoyt's Ill Met by Moonlight through the lens Annalisa Castaldo’s argument in Fictional Shakespeares and Portraits of Genius where she invites us to think of genius not as intellect or eccentricity, but as a guiding spirit.

This month is all about Shakespeare and the Folktale. We begin episode 1 with an exploration of the history of Shakespeare and Folklore Scholarship with an examination of the works of Thomas Keightley, Charlotte Artese, and John Snodgrass. A transcript of this episode is available at: https://open.substack.com/pub/shakespop/p/shakespeare-and-the-history-of-folklore?r=54qe2x&utm_campaign=post&a...

Welcome to The Shakespop Podcast, your comprehensive guide to all things Shakespeare and popular culture. I'm your host, Koel Chatterjee, and I'm curious about tracing Shakespeare’s influence on global modern culture. Shakespeare is one of the most celebrated and influential playwrights in history. His plays have been performed all over the world for centuries, and they continue to captivate audie...