The Tempest: Travel Narratives, Cultural Encounters, and Shakespeare’s Inspirations
Release Date: 07/16/2025
Mini: Ecological Shakespeare with Katherine Steele Brokaw
Shakespeare Anyone?
Want to support the podcast? or 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...
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Julius Caesar: A People's History Meets Shakespeare's Play
Shakespeare Anyone?
Want to support the podcast? or 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...
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Mini: Essex's Rebellion: The Plot Against Elizabeth I
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Want to support the podcast? or 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...
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Julius Caesar: The "Falling Sickness" and Shakespeare's Understanding of Epilepsy
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Want to support the podcast? or 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...
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Mini: Astrology in Shakespeare's Time
Shakespeare Anyone?
Want to support the podcast? or As an independent podcast, Shakespeare Anyone? is supported by listeners like you. In Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, Cassius argues that "Men at some time are masters of their fates: The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves, that we are underlings." In this week's episode, we are exploring early modern ideas of fate and the stars and the practices and beliefs of astrology in Shakespeare's time. We'll discuss the difference between the early modern concepts of natural and judicial astrology, the popularity and influence of...
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Julius Caesar: Honor and Virtue of Brutus & Portia in Shakespeare's Play
Shakespeare Anyone?
Want to support the podcast? or As an independent podcast, Shakespeare Anyone? is supported by listeners like you. In Julius Caesar, Shakespeare repeatedly reminds us that Brutus is an honorable man. In this episode we will explore if this is true, how Shakespeare depicts both masculine honor and its early modern counterpart, feminine virtue, in the characters of Brutus and Portia, and how Portia's characterization by editors and theatremakers has changed over time. First, we unpack how honor was defined for Shakespeare's audiences and how the play incorporates Early Modern anxieties...
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Julius Caesar: Stuff to Chew On
Shakespeare Anyone?
Want to support the podcast? or As an independent podcast, Shakespeare Anyone? is supported by listeners like you. As we start off another one of Shakespeare's plays, we will first take a look at the themes, motifs, and production history of Julius Caesar in this Stuff to Chew On episode. This will provide a basis for future conversations as we dive deeper in later episodes. Shakespeare Anyone? is created and produced by Kourtney Smith and Elyse Sharp. Music is "Neverending Minute" by Sounds Like Sander. For updates: Follow us on Instagram at Visit our website at Support the...
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Julius Caesar: Synopsis
Shakespeare Anyone?
Want to support the podcast? or As an independent podcast, Shakespeare Anyone? is supported by listeners like you. It's time for our eleventh play! Today we are starting our series on Shakespeare's Julius Caesar with a synopsis episode. In this episode, we will provide a detailed summary of the plot, breaking down the action of the play scene by scene. Shakespeare Anyone? is created and produced by Kourtney Smith and Elyse Sharp. Music is "Neverending Minute" by Sounds Like Sander. Special thanks to Nat Yonce for editing this episode. For updates: Follow us on Instagram at Visit our...
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Bonus: Twelfth Night Wrap-up Redux
Shakespeare Anyone?
Want to support the podcast? or As an independent podcast, Shakespeare Anyone? is supported by listeners like you. Back in 2021, we recorded our second ever wrap-up episode for our second play series: Twelfth Night. We both watched two versions of Twelfth Night: Trevor Nunn's 1996 film and She's the Man, then we also each watched an additional version. Kourtney watched the The Globe's 2012 production starring Mark Rylance, and Elyse watched National Theatre's 2017 production featuring Tamsin Greig. But then, tragedy struck when Kourtney went to edit the episode! The audio...
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Bonus: Revisiting Henry V and The Tempest
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Want to support the podcast? or As an independent podcast, Shakespeare Anyone? is supported by listeners like you. At the end of each year, we revisit the Shakespeare plays we covered over the past twelve months. We've gone back and re-read both Henry V and The Tempest, and we will discuss what has changed in our readings of these plays after completing our research as well as what we would like to see more (or less) of in future productions or research relating to these two plays. Shakespeare Anyone? is created and produced by Kourtney Smith and Elyse Sharp. Music is...
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Did Shakespeare write The Tempest in response to a shipwreck, or was something bigger at play? In this episode, we explore the early modern travel narratives that many scholars believe inspired Shakespeare’s final solo play.
We begin with lesser-known travel accounts that focus on cultural encounters in Russia, Southwest Asia, Central America, and India—narratives that shaped how early modern England imagined the world beyond Europe. Then we turn to one of the most famous stories of the time: the 1609 Sea Venture shipwreck on the coast of Bermuda, often cited as a direct influence on The Tempest.
Along the way, we examine how these texts reflect English perceptions of unfamiliar peoples and cultures—from fascination and admiration to fear and misunderstanding—and how those attitudes echo throughout the world of The Tempest.
If you’d like to explore more about Shakespeare’s engagement with proto-colonialism and early travel writing, check out these past episodes from our archive:
Whether you're encountering The Tempest for the first time or revisiting it with a global lens, this episode offers rich context on how Shakespeare’s world was shaped by the stories of travelers, survivors, and empire-builders.
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 or visit our website at shakespeareanyone.com
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Works referenced:
Judkins, David C. “Travel Literature of the Early Modern Period.” CEA Critic, vol. 64, no. 1, 2001, pp. 47–58. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/44378330. Accessed 3 July 2025.
Vaughan, Alden T. "William Strachey's "True Reportory" and Shakespeare: A Closer Look at the Evidence." Shakespeare Quarterly, vol. 59 no. 3, 2008, p. 245-273. Project MUSE, https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/shq.0.0017.