Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare Unlimited
Home to the world's largest collection of Shakespeare materials. Advancing knowledge and the arts. Discover it all at www.folger.edu. Shakespeare turns up in the most interesting places—not just literature and the stage, but science and social history as well. Our "Shakespeare Unlimited" podcast explores the fascinating and varied connections between Shakespeare, his works, and the world around us.
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Studying Shakespeare Now
11/20/2024
Studying Shakespeare Now
Forget dusty textbooks and silent classrooms—the Folger Shakespeare Library has released new teaching guides designed to make the Bard’s works more engaging, accessible, and inclusive than ever before. In this episode, Peggy O’Brien, the editor behind these guides, and teachers Deborah Gascon and Mark Miazga, co-authors of the lesson plans for Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth respectively, explore how the Folger Method transforms student understanding by focusing on performance, collaboration, and creative engagement with Shakespeare’s language. The discussion also addresses how the guides tackle important topics like race and gender and how to adapt to today’s technological and social challenges, offering fresh strategies to connect with students in meaningful ways about Shakespeare and all kinds of literature. Whether you're a teacher, a student, or simply a Shakespeare lover, this episode sheds light on innovative methods for bringing the classics to life and ensuring they remain relevant for future generations.
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Farah Karim-Cooper on The Great White Bard (Rebroadcast)
11/05/2024
Farah Karim-Cooper on The Great White Bard (Rebroadcast)
Can you love Shakespeare and be an antiracist? Farah Karim-Cooper’s book The Great White Bard explores the language of race and difference in Shakespeare’s plays. Dr. Karim-Cooper also looks at the ways Shakespeare’s work became integral to Britain’s imperial project and its sense of cultural superiority. But, for all this, Karim-Cooper is an unapologetic Shakespeare fan. It’s right there in the subtitle of her book: “How to Love Shakespeare While Talking about Race.” Far from casting Shakespeare out of the classroom or playhouse, Karim-Cooper shows new ways to appreciate him. By drawing connections between the plays and current events, she offers an eyes-wide-open tour of Shakespeare’s continued relevance. Karim-Cooper talks with Barbara Bogaev about the role of race in Titus Andronicus, Othello, Romeo and Juliet, and more. Farah Karim-Cooper, is the new Director of the Folger Shakespeare Library, was previously a Professor of Shakespeare Studies at King’s College London and Director of Education at Shakespeare’s Globe. The Great White Bard is available now from Viking Press. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast. Originally published August 15, 2023, updated and rebroadcast November 5, 2024. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode was produced by Matt Frassica. Garland Scott is the associate producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. Paola García Acuña is the web producer and edited this transcript. We had technical help from Mark Dezzani in Surrey and Voice Trax West in Studio City, California. Final mixing services provided by Clean Cuts at Three Seas, Inc
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How Shakespeare Revolutionized Tragedy, with Rhodri Lewis
10/22/2024
How Shakespeare Revolutionized Tragedy, with Rhodri Lewis
Shakespeare is often associated with tragedy, but did you know that he changed the genre? In this episode, Rhodri Lewis, professor of English at Princeton University and author of Shakespeare’s Tragic Art, explores how Shakespeare redefined tragedy in ways that still feel modern today. Through a close examination of plays like Titus Andronicus, Romeo and Juliet, and King Lear, Lewis explains how Shakespeare shifted the traditional classical form of tragedy, introducing characters who deceive themselves and struggle to understand their own nature. From the slasher-style Titus to the complex interiority of Juliet, Shakespeare experimented with plot, language, and character to push the boundaries of tragic drama, giving audiences an unsettling yet profoundly human insight into the flawed nature of existence. Rhodri Lewis teaches English at Princeton University. His previous books include Hamlet and the Vision of Darkness (Princeton) and Language, Mind, and Nature: Artificial Languages in England from Bacon to Locke. Outside the academy, he writes for publications including The Times Literary Supplement, Prospect, The Literary Review, and The Los Angeles Review of Books. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast. Published October 22, 2024. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode was produced by Matt Frassica. Garland Scott is the associate producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. We had help with web production from Paola García Acuña. Leonor Fernandez edits our transcripts. Final mixing services are provided by Clean Cuts at Three Seas, Inc.
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Tabitha Stanmore on Practical Magic in Shakespeare’s England
10/08/2024
Tabitha Stanmore on Practical Magic in Shakespeare’s England
Forget witches, broomsticks, and cauldrons bubbling over—when it came to real magic in Shakespeare’s time, most people turned to their local cunning folk. These magical practitioners wielded spells to cure illnesses, recover lost items, and even spark a bit of romance. Far from the dark, devilish image popularly associated with witchcraft, cunning folk were trusted members of society, providing magical services as casually as a modern-day plumber or dentist. In this episode, Barbara Bogaev talks with Tabitha Stanmore, a scholar from the University of Essex, about the fascinating, overlooked world of practical magic in early modern England. Drawing from her new book, Cunning Folk: Life in the Era of Practical Magic, Stanmore sheds light on how cunning folk, who served as diviners, astrologers, charm makers, and healers, shaped the lives of both ordinary people and royals alike. These practitioners were called upon for everything from predicting the future to healing the sick, and their magic was seen as helpful, not harmful. Stanmore explains how these magical practices were woven into the fabric of daily life and how cunning folk managed to steer clear of the persecution that plagued so-called witches. Stanmore shares the fascinating methods cunning folk employed—from using bread and cheese to identify thieves to casting love spells with fish (seriously!)—and why their magic was essential in a world that still sought out supernatural help. If you thought magic in Shakespeare’s time was all witches and broomsticks, think again—Stanmore takes us on a magical journey that’s far more practical…and surprising. Tabitha Stanmore is a social historian of magic and witchcraft at the University of Exeter. She is part of the Leverhulme-funded Seven County Witch-Hunt Project, and her doctoral thesis was published as Love Spells and Lost Treasure: Service Magic in England from the Later Middle Ages to the Early Modern Period. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast. Published October 7, 2024. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode was produced by Matt Frassica. Garland Scott is the associate producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. We had help with web production from Paola García Acuña. Leonor Fernandez edits our transcripts. Final mixing services are provided by Clean Cuts at Three Seas, Inc.
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Will Tosh on the Hidden Queer Lives of William Shakespeare
09/24/2024
Will Tosh on the Hidden Queer Lives of William Shakespeare
How did Shakespeare engage with the complexities of gender and sexuality in his time? Was his portrayal of cross-dressing and same-sex attraction simply for comedic effect, or did it reflect a deeper understanding of love and attraction? In this episode, host Barbara Bogaev speaks with scholar Will Tosh, who delves into these questions in his new book Straight Acting: The Hidden Queer Lives of William Shakespeare. Tosh, head of research at Shakespeare’s Globe, explores Shakespeare’s work in the context of Early Modern London—a city bustling with queer culture. This conversation touches on Shakespeare’s depictions of gender fluidity, same-sex desire, and the influence of classical literature on his plays. It highlights the cultural and social dynamics of the time, revealing the complex ways in which gender and sexuality were understood and expressed in Early Modern England. It examines Shakespeare's education, shaped by homoerotic classics like Cicero’s De Amicitia (On Friendship) and Ovid’s Metamorphoses, which influenced his writing. Tosh connects Shakespeare’s work with the broader culture of early modern England, where queer desire was both expressed and concealed. He offers a nuanced exploration of how Shakespeare depicted homoerotic relationships, with specific attention to characters such as Antonio and Sebastian from Twelfth Night. Will Tosh is head of research at Shakespeare’s Globe, London. He is a scholar of early modern literature and culture, a dramaturg for Renaissance classics and new plays, and a historical adviser for television and radio. He is the author of two previous books, and he appears regularly in the media to discuss Shakespeare and his world. He lives in London. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast. Published September 23, 2024. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode was produced by Matt Frassica. Garland Scott is the associate producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. We had help with web production from, from Paola García Acuña. Leonor Fernandez edits our transcripts. Final mixing services are provided by Clean Cuts at Three Seas, Inc.
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Throughlines, with Ayanna Thompson and Ruben Espinosa
09/10/2024
Throughlines, with Ayanna Thompson and Ruben Espinosa
How can educators effectively incorporate discussions about race into the study of Shakespeare and other premodern texts in the college classroom? Barbara Bogaev speaks with scholars Ayanna Thompson and Ruben Espinosa about Throughlines, a pedagogical resource developed by the Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies at Arizona State University. This free online tool offers professors a variety of accessible teaching materials for incorporating premodern critical race studies into their teaching. Specifically designed for use in higher education, the materials include lectures, syllabi, and activities on a unique and expansive range of topics that will continue to grow. Espinosa and Thompson share their experiences teaching Shakespeare in diverse higher education settings. Their conversation underscores students' need for open dialogue and provides practical strategies for navigating these discussions. They offer valuable insights for experienced professors and those new to teaching, highlighting the value of integrating premodern critical race studies into studying Bard's works and other literature and history. Ayanna Thompson is a Regents Professor of English at Arizona State University and Executive Director of the Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies. Thompson, an influential Shakespeare scholar, is the author of many titles, including Blackface and Shakespeare in the Theatre: Peter Sellars. She is currently collaborating with Curtis Perry on the Arden4 edition of Titus Andronicus. Thompson's leadership extends beyond the university, serving on the boards of the Royal Shakespeare Company, Play On Shakespeare, and Folger Shakespeare Library. She is a Shakespeare Scholar in Residence at The Public Theater in New York. In 2021, she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Ruben Espinosa is the Director of the Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies and a Professor of English at Arizona State University. He is the author of many titles, and most recently, Shakespeare on the Shades of Racism. He is the current President of the Shakespeare Association of America, and he serves on the Editorial Boards of Shakespeare Quarterly, Exemplaria: Medieval, Early Modern, Theory, and Palgrave's Early Modern Cultural Studies series. He is working on his next monograph, Shakespeare on the Border: Language, Legitimacy and La Frontera. Listen to Shakespeare Unlimited on Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, Spotify, Soundcloud, or your favorite podcast platform. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast. Published September 9, 2024. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode was produced by Matt Frassica. Garland Scott is the associate producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. We had help with web production, including editing the transcript, from Paola García Acuña. Final mixing services are provided by Clean Cuts at Three Seas, Inc.
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Juliet, Then and Now, with Sophie Duncan
08/27/2024
Juliet, Then and Now, with Sophie Duncan
Was Romeo and Juliet your first brush with Shakespeare? Whether it was on stage, on screen in films by Franco Zeffirelli or Baz Luhrmann or Shonda Rhimes’ Still Star-Crossed, or in the pages of the Folger Shakespeare edition, your early experience probably shaped how you see Juliet. Over 400 years, our thinking about Shakespeare’s first tragic heroine has shifted repeatedly, revealing as much about us as it does Shakespeare’s play. Oxford professor Sophie Duncan, Shakespeare scholar and author of Juliet: The Life and Afterlives of Shakespeare’s First Tragic Heroine, talks with us about the enduring legacy of one of Shakespeare’s most iconic characters. She touches on Juliet’s cultural impact, why Shakespeare may have centered his tragedy around a young woman, and how different eras, particularly the Victorian period, have grappled with Juliet’s rebellious and passionate nature, often reshaping her character to fit their values. Her insights into why Juliet remains a potent symbol of love and tragedy who continues to captivates audiences 400 years after first appearing on stage will have you reconsidering Juliet. Sophie Duncan is Research Fellow and Dean for Welfare at Magdalen College, University of Oxford. She writes about Shakespeare and gender and has worked extensively in theater and television as a historical advisor. She is the author of several books, including Juliet: The Life and Afterlives of Shakespeare’s First Tragic Heroine and Shakespeare’s Women and the Fin de Siècle. She was born in Stratford-upon-Avon and now lives in Oxford, UK. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast. Published August 26, 2024. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode was produced by Matt Frassica. Garland Scott is the associate producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. We had help with web production from Paola García Acuña. Leonor Fernandez edits our transcripts. Final mixing services are provided by Clean Cuts at Three Seas, Inc. Previous: Listen to Shakespeare Unlimited on Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, Spotify, Soundcloud, or your favorite podcast platform.
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Completing the Canon: Barry Edelstein on The Old Globe's Henry 6
08/14/2024
Completing the Canon: Barry Edelstein on The Old Globe's Henry 6
This summer San Diego’s Old Globe became one of only 10 theaters in America who have produced all of Shakespeare’s plays (or 11, depending on how you count it) with their production of Henry 6. Artistic Director Barry Edelstein shares the details of how they tackled staging Henry VI, Parts 1, 2, and 3—three rarely seen works with more than 150 characters, and condensed it into two exciting nights of theater. The epic production includes contributions from nearly a thousand San Diegans, many of whom have participated in the Globe’s community programs. He also talks about producing theater in 2024 America at one of the nation’s largest and oldest Shakespeare companies, both the challenges and the exciting opportunities. Barry Edelstein, the Erna Finci Viterbi Artistic Director of The Old Globe, is one of America’s most experienced Shakespeare directors and has staged more than half the canon himself. Before joining the Globe in 2012, he directed the Public Theatre’s Shakespeare Initiative and was the artistic director for Classic Stage Company in New York City. He is the author of Thinking Shakespeare about American Shakespearean acting and Bardisms: Shakespeare for All Occasions. Henry 6 runs through September 14 and 15, 2024 at the Globe in San Diego, California. For tickets and more information, visit . From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast. Published August 13, 2024. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode was produced by Matt Frassica. Garland Scott is the associate producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. We had help with web production from Paola García Acuña. Leonor Fernandez edits our transcripts. Final mixing services provided by Clean Cuts at Three Seas, Inc.
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Colman Domingo on Sing Sing and the Power of Theater
07/30/2024
Colman Domingo on Sing Sing and the Power of Theater
Can a musical comedy featuring Hamlet and Nightmare on Elm Street’s Freddy Krueger change lives? Actor, playwright, and director Colman Domingo thinks so. In Sing Sing, he stars in a true story about the power of theater. Inspired by the real-life Rehabilitation Through the Arts program at Sing Sing prison, Domingo plays Divine G, imprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit, who finds purpose by acting in a theater troupe. When a wary outsider joins the group, they decide to stage their first original comedy. The ensemble cast stars formerly incarcerated actors and RTA alumni, including Clarence "Divine Eye" Maclin and Sean San José. Domingo takes us behind the scenes of the making of Sing Sing. He also shares how he became an actor after a class at Temple University and his own Shakespeare story including an inventive take on Helena from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Colman Domingo is beloved for onscreen portrayals including Civil Rights activist Bayard Rustin in Netlfix’s Rustin for which he received an Oscar nomination for Best Actor. Other films include Lincoln, Selma, If Beale Street Could Talk, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Zola, and The Color Purple. His breakthrough came as conman Victor Strand on Fear the Walking Dead. He won an Emmy for his performance as Ali on HBO Max’s Euphoria. On stage he was nominated for Tony and Olivier awards for his role as Mr. Bones in The Scottsboro Boys. He wrote the book for the Broadway musical Summer: The Donna Summer Musical. Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2024. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast. Published July 30, 2024. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode was produced by Matt Frassica. Garland Scott is the associate producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. Ben Lauer is the web producer, with help from Paola Garcia Acuna. Leonor Fernandez edits a transcript of every episode, available at folger.edu. Final mixing services provided by Clean Cuts at Three Seas, Inc.
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The Brief Life and Big Impact of the Federal Theatre Project, with James Shapiro
07/16/2024
The Brief Life and Big Impact of the Federal Theatre Project, with James Shapiro
Imagine: a fiercely idealistic, politically progressive artist takes the stand at a hearing of the House Un-American Activities Committee. The chair of the committee is a hard-right demagogue with a gift for sound bites and a fixation with Communism. If you’re picturing Joseph McCarthy’s anti-Communist crusade in the 1950s… think two decades earlier. This story played during the Great Depression. The congressman was Martin Dies, a Texas Democrat. On the stand was Hallie Flanagan, the director of the Federal Theatre Project, Franklin D. Roosevelt’s ambitious program to rescue live theater in America. The project attempted to create jobs for thousands of out-of-work playwrights, actors, directors, and backstage technicians. It commissioned new plays and staged productions all around the country. And, despite logistical hitches and ideological blowback, the Federal Theatre managed to reach millions of Americans, many of whom had never seen a live production ever before. Columbia University Professor James Shapiro’s new book, The Playbook: A Story of Theater, Democracy, and the Making of a Culture War, tells the story of that New Deal program. He discusses it with host Barbara Bogaev. James Shapiro is the Larry Miller Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. He is the author of several acclaimed books on Shakespeare including A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare: 1599, Contested Will; Who Wrote Shakespeare?, and The Year of Lear: Shakespeare in 1606, and Shakespeare in a Divided America: What His Plays Tell Us About Our Past and Future. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast. Published July 16, 2024. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode was produced by Matt Frassica. Garland Scott is the associate producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. Ben Lauer is the web producer. Leonor Fernandez edits our transcripts. Final mixing services provided by Clean Cuts at Three Seas, Inc.
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A Tour of the Newly-Reopened Folger | Part 2: Research at the Folger
07/02/2024
A Tour of the Newly-Reopened Folger | Part 2: Research at the Folger
After a four-year renovation, the Folger Shakespeare Library is now open with 12,000 square feet of new public spaces. But behind the scenes, in our original building, we’ve also revamped the way we serve researchers working with the world’s largest Shakespeare collection. On this episode, host Barbara Bogaev talks with Director of Collections Greg Prickman, Folger Institute Director Patricia Akhimie, and Folger Director Michael Witmore about how research happens at the Folger, from Folger Institute fellowships to the chairs in our Reading Room. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast. Published July 2, 2024. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode was produced by Matt Frassica. Garland Scott is the associate producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. Ben Lauer is the web producer. Leonor Fernandez edits our transcripts. Final mixing services provided by Clean Cuts at Three Seas, Inc.
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A Tour of the Newly-Reopened Folger | Part 1
06/18/2024
A Tour of the Newly-Reopened Folger | Part 1
On June 21, the Folger reopens after a four-year renovation. The reimagined Folger has brand-new public exhibition spaces where we can introduce visitors to Shakespeare and his plays, as well as showcase some of the treasures of the Folger’s collection. Behind the scenes in the original building, we’ve also completely revamped the way we serve researchers visiting the world’s largest Shakespeare collection. In this episode, the first of two parts, celebrate our reopening with us and join Folger Director Michael Witmore and Shakespeare Unlimited host Barbara Bogaev on a tour of our building's public spaces. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast. Published June 18, 2024. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode was produced by Matt Frassica. Garland Scott is the associate producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. Ben Lauer is the web producer. Leonor Fernandez edits our transcripts. Final mixing services provided by Clean Cuts at Three Seas, Inc.
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Fred Wilson on His New Othello-Inspired Work for the Folger
06/04/2024
Fred Wilson on His New Othello-Inspired Work for the Folger
Fred Wilson’s artistic output includes painting, sculpture, photography, and collage, among other media. But his 1992 work “Mining the Museum” at the Maryland Historical Society used the museum’s own collection as its material, radically reframing how American institutions present their art. Wilson went on to represent the United States at the 2003 Venice Biennale. For that exhibition, Wilson commissioned a black glass chandelier from the famed Venice glassmakers on the island of Murano. Wilson titled the piece “Speak of me as I am,” after the line from Shakespeare’s tragic Venetian, Othello. In the years since then, Wilson has made several other pieces that engage with Othello, many of them made from the same evocative black Murano glass. In a new installation piece commissioned by the Folger, Wilson brings together two sides of his artistic practice: institutional critique and glass sculpture. It’s titled “God me such uses send, Not to pick bad from bad, but by bad mend”—another line from Othello, this one spoken by Desdemona. The installation includes a massive black-glass mirror, ornately etched and filigreed. Visitors see themselves reflected in the mirror, along with a portrait of Queen Elizabeth that hangs opposite the mirror in the gallery. On another wall hangs an engraving of the actor Ira Aldridge in the role of Othello, alongside lines from the play written out in Aldridge’s own hand. The piece brings together questions of identity, belonging, erasure, and representation—and lets those facets reflect and refract one another, without easy answers. On this episode, Wilson discusses the piece with host Barbara Bogaev. Fred Wilson’s installation, “God me such uses send, Not to pick bad from bad, but by bad mend,” will welcome visitors to the Shakespeare Exhibition Hall when the Folger reopens on June 21. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast. Published June 4, 2024. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode was produced by Matt Frassica. Garland Scott is the associate producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. Ben Lauer is the web producer. Leonor Fernandez edits our transcripts. We had technical help from Digital Island Studios in New York and Voice Trax West in Studio City, California. Final mixing services provided by Clean Cuts at Three Seas, Inc.
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Second Chances, Shakespeare, and Freud, with Adam Phillips and Stephen Greenblatt
05/21/2024
Second Chances, Shakespeare, and Freud, with Adam Phillips and Stephen Greenblatt
The desire for a second chance provides the engine for many of Shakespeare’s plays. In their new book, Second Chances: Shakespeare and Freud, Shakespeare scholar Stephen Greenblatt and psychologist Adam Phillips argue that this fascination with the second chance links Shakespeare with one of his biggest 20th century fans: Sigmund Freud. Shakespeare helped Freud think about second chances—why we desire them so deeply, and why, sometimes, we push them away. Host Barbara Bogaev talks with Greenblatt and Phillips about how reading Freud alongside Shakespeare can help illuminate both writers’ insights into human nature. Second Chances: Shakespeare and Freud is available from Yale University Press. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast. Published May 21, 2024. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode was produced by Matt Frassica. Garland Scott is the associate producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. Ben Lauer is the web producer. Leonor Fernandez edits our transcripts. We had technical help from Rob Double at London Broadcast and Voice Trax West in Studio City, California. Final mixing services provided by Clean Cuts at Three Seas, Inc.
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Mary Zimmerman on Adapting Ovid and Directing Shakespeare
05/07/2024
Mary Zimmerman on Adapting Ovid and Directing Shakespeare
When Mary Zimmerman's adaptation of Ovid's Metamorphoses was on Broadway in 2002, it won a host of awards, including the Drama Desk, Drama League, and Lucille Lortel awards for best play. Zimmerman took home the Tony award for best director. This spring, director Psalmayene 24 and an all-Black cast stage a new production of the play interpreted through the lens of the African diaspora. Zimmerman joins us on the podcast to talk about the process of adapting Metamorphoses and The Odyssey, directing Shakespeare, and more. She is interviewed by Barbara Bogaev. Beyond Metamorphoses, Zimmerman has adapted other ancient texts for the stage, like The Odyssey, Jason and the Argonauts, and Journey to the West. She has directed many of Shakespeare’s plays, as well as operas at the Metropolitan Opera. She co-wrote the libretto for the Phillip Glass opera Galileo Galilei. The Matchbox Magic Flute, her new adaptation of Mozart, plays at DC's Shakespeare Theater Company this month, in association with the Goodman Theatre. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast. Published May 7, 2024. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode was produced by Matt Frassica, with help from Kendra Hanna. Garland Scott is the associate producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. Ben Lauer is the web producer. Leonor Fernandez edits our transcripts. We had technical help from from Northwestern University and Voice Trax West in Studio City, California. Final mixing services provided by Clean Cuts at Three Seas, Inc.
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Judi Dench: Looking Back at Seven Decades of Shakespeare, with Brendan O'Hea
04/23/2024
Judi Dench: Looking Back at Seven Decades of Shakespeare, with Brendan O'Hea
In her new book, Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent, Dame Judi Dench and actor/director Brendan O’Hea chat about her long history with the Bard. On this episode, Dench and O’Hea join host Barbara Bogaev to talk about Dench’s experiences playing Ophelia, Gertrude, Lady Macbeth and Titania. Plus, parrots, Polonius, dirty words, hijinks with Sir Ian McKellen, why it’s easier to laugh while working on a tragedy, and more. Dame Judi Dench has played nearly all of Shakespeare’s great roles for women, plus a few non-Shakespearean parts, too, including the title role in Stephen Frears’ Philomena, M in 8 of the James Bond films, Granny in Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast, and Queen Elizabeth in Shakespeare in Love, for which she won an Academy Award. Brendan O’Hea has acted in and directed multiple productions at Shakespeare’s Globe in London, and appeared with Dench in the film Quantum of Solace. Their book Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent is available from St. Martin’s Press. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast. Published April 9, 2024. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode was produced by Matt Frassica, with help from Kendra Hanna. Garland Scott is the associate producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. Ben Lauer is the web producer. Leonor Fernandez edits our transcripts. We had technical help from London Broadcast Studios and Voice Trax West in Studio City, California. Final mixing services provided by Clean Cuts at Three Seas, Inc.
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Shakespeare and the Environment, with Todd Andrew Borlik
04/09/2024
Shakespeare and the Environment, with Todd Andrew Borlik
Land enclosure. Wildlife management. Erosion. Pollution. Mining practices. Today, we’d call these environmental issues. But, hundreds of years before the modern environmental movement coalesced, these issues also appeared in Shakespeare’s plays. We talk to Todd Andrew Borlik, a professor at the University of Huddersfield and author of Shakespeare Beyond the Green World, Drama and Ecopolitics in Jacobean Britain, about ecology and environmentalism in Shakespeare’s works. Shakespeare Beyond the Green World: Drama and Ecopolitics in Jacobean Britain is out now from Oxford University Press. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast. Published April 9, 2024. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode was produced by Matt Frassica, with help from Kendra Hanna. Garland Scott is the associate producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. Ben Lauer is the web producer. Leonor Fernandez edits our transcripts. We had technical help from Voice Trax West in Studio City, California. Final mixing services provided by Clean Cuts at Three Seas, Inc.
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Ramie Targoff on Women Writers of the English Renaissance
03/26/2024
Ramie Targoff on Women Writers of the English Renaissance
In A Room of One’s Own, Virginia Woolf famously imagined what might have happened if Shakespeare had a sister who was as gifted a writer as he was. She invents “Judith” Shakespeare, and concludes that this female genius would have been doomed. But that’s not the end of the story. If Woolf had read Mary Sidney, Aemelia Lanyer (nee Bassano), Anne Clifford, and Elizabeth Cary, she might have thought differently about the fate of her fictional Judith Shakespeare. Ramie Targoff's new book, Shakespeare's Sisters: How Women Wrote the Renaissance, explores the lives and works of those four women. Targoff tells us about them and reflects on why reading their work is so important. Ramie Targoff teaches English and Italian literature at Brandeis University. She is a member of the Folger’s Board of Governors. Her book Shakespeare’s Sisters: How Women Wrote the Renaissance is available from Knopf. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast series. Published March 12, 2024. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode was produced by Matt Frassica. Garland Scott is the associate producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. Ben Lauer is the web producer. Leonor Fernandez edits our transcripts. We had technical help from Digital Island Studios in New York and Voice Trax West in Studio City, California. Final mixing services provided by Clean Cuts at Three Seas, Inc.
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Green World: Michelle Ephraim on Discovering Shakespeare and Reevaluating The Merchant of Venice
03/12/2024
Green World: Michelle Ephraim on Discovering Shakespeare and Reevaluating The Merchant of Venice
In her new memoir, Green World, Shakespeare scholar Michelle Ephraim tells the story of how she came to Shakespeare relatively late in her education. Although she didn’t grow up with Shakespeare, Ephraim became transfixed by The Merchant of Venice as a grad student. In particular, she found herself drawn to Jessica, Shylock’s daughter, and the mysteries of their relationship. That curiosity led Ephraim to discover a novel Biblical interpretation of some lines from the play as she researched her dissertation. In Ephraim’s memoir, Merchant refracts through the changing dynamics of her own family, as her Holocaust-survivor parents age and she becomes a mother herself. She shares her story with host Barbara Bogaev. Michelle Ephraim teaches Shakespeare at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts. She’s the co-author of a cocktail recipe book called Shakespeare, Not Stirred, and the co-host of the Everyday Shakespeare podcast, both with Caroline Bicks. Her memoir, Green World: A Tragicomic Memoir of Love & Shakespeare, won the Juniper Award for Creative Nonfiction, and is out now from University of Massachusetts Press. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast series. Published March 12, 2024. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode was produced by Matt Frassica. Garland Scott is the associate producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. Ben Lauer is the web producer. Leonor Fernandez edits a transcript of every episode, available at folger.edu. We had technical help from WICN in Worcester and Voice Trax West in Studio City, California. Final mixing services provided by Clean Cuts at Three Seas, Inc.
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Eddie Izzard on Performing Hamlet Solo
02/27/2024
Eddie Izzard on Performing Hamlet Solo
Eddie Izzard has a long record of dramatic roles. She has starred in two plays by David Mamet, and earned a Tony nomination for her Broadway debut in the play A Day in the Death of Joe Egg. She had a recurring role in Ocean’s Twelve and Thirteen, and even played the title character in Christopher Marlowe’s Edward II. But it’s her decades of experience as a stand-up comedian that prepared Izzard for her recent solo shows—first Great Expectations, and now Hamlet. Performing every role in those shows requires a marathoner’s stamina. Fortunately, Izzard also runs marathons. Eddie Izzard is interviewed by Barbara Bogaev. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast series. Published February 27, 2024. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode was produced by Matt Frassica. Garland Scott is the associate producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. Ben Lauer is the web producer. Leonor Fernandez edits our transcripts. We had technical help from Digital Island Studios in New York and Voice Trax West in Studio City, California. Final mixing services provided by Clean Cuts at Three Seas, Inc.
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Shakespeare and Disgust, with Bradley J. Irish
02/13/2024
Shakespeare and Disgust, with Bradley J. Irish
Maybe there really was something rotten in Denmark. On this episode, we talk with Bradley J. Irish about disgust in Shakespeare. In his new book, Irish identifies the emotion, which combines physical revulsion and moral outrage, as one of the central thematic emotions in Shakespeare’s plays. In his close readings across the canon, Irish finds disgust everywhere: in Caius Martius Coriolanus’s disdain for ordinary Romans, in the over-indulgent food Antony eats in Egypt, in Henry IV’s preoccupation with sickness and disease in Henry IV, and beyond. Bradley Irish is interviewed by Barbara Bogaev. Bradley J. Irish is a professor at Arizona State University. Shakespeare and Disgust: The History and Science of Early Modern Revulsion is out now from Bloomsbury Publishing. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast series. Published February 13, 2024. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode was produced by Matt Frassica. Garland Scott is the associate producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. Ben Lauer is the web producer. Leonor Fernandez edits our transcripts. We had technical help from Voice Trax West in Studio City, California. Final mixing services provided by Clean Cuts at Three Seas, Inc.
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Rita Dove on Shakespeare and Her Poem of Welcome for the Folger
01/30/2024
Rita Dove on Shakespeare and Her Poem of Welcome for the Folger
When the Folger reopens on June 21 and you come to take a walk in our new west entrance garden, look down. There, you'll see a new poem, written for the Folger by former US Poet Laureate Rita Dove. Dove joins us on the podcast to read that poem aloud for the first time. Plus, she reflects on how writing for marble is different from writing for the page, and remembers the moment she discovered Shakespeare. Rita Dove is interviewed by Barbara Bogaev. Rita Dove served as the US Poet Laureate for two terms, from 1993 to 1995, and as a special bicentennial consultant to the Library of Congress in 1999. Her third collection of poetry, Thomas and Beulah, won the Pulitzer Prize. She is the only poet ever to receive both the National Humanities Medal and the National Medal of the Arts, from presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. In 2021, she received the Gold Medal for Poetry from the American Academy of Arts and Letters—the first African American poet in the medal’s history. She teaches at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. Dove has also read in the Folger's O.B. Hardison Poetry series four times, and contributed a poem to our 2012 collection Shakespeare’s Sisters: Women Writers Bridge Five Centuries. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast series. Published January 30, 2024. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode was produced by Matt Frassica. Garland Scott is the associate producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. Ben Lauer is the web producer. Leonor Fernandez edits a transcript of every episode, available at folger.edu. We had technical help from With Good Reason, Virginia Humanities, and Voice Trax West in Studio City, California. Final mixing services provided by Clean Cuts at Three Seas, Inc.
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John Guy and Julia Fox on Their New Biography of Anne Boleyn
01/16/2024
John Guy and Julia Fox on Their New Biography of Anne Boleyn
Even after appearing in a Shakespeare play, historical romance novels, a Broadway musical, and prestige TV dramas, there's still more to learn about Anne Boleyn. A new biography by the team of husband-and-wife historians John Guy and Julia Fox takes a scholarly look at the evidence surrounding Anne’s rise and fall. They freshly examine well-known accounts, and also take in passing references in neglected sources. In particular, they focus on Anne’s years of training in the courts of Europe, which shaped her into the formidable woman whom Henry VIII came to regard as an intellectual equal. It also prepared her for the ruthless politics of the English court, where Anne’s ambition and cunning won her some powerful enemies. Fox and Guy are interviewed by Barbara Bogaev. John Guy is a fellow at Cambridge University and a Tudor historian who has appeared on many TV and radio documentaries about the period. He’s written biographies of Henry VIII, Thomas More, and Queen Elizabeth I. His biography of Mary Queen of Scots was adapted into a film in 2018. Julia Fox has written biographies of Henry VIII’s first wife, Catherine of Aragon, and Anne’s sister, Jane Boleyn. Hunting the Falcon: Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn, and the Marriage That Shook Europe is out now from Harper. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast series. Published January 16, 2024. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode was produced by Matt Frassica. Garland Scott is the associate producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. Ben Lauer is the web producer. Leonor Fernandez edits our transcripts. We had technical help from Voice Trax West in Studio City, California. Final mixing services provided by Clean Cuts at Three Seas, Inc.
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David and Ben Crystal Share Shakespeare Quotations for Everyday Life
01/02/2024
David and Ben Crystal Share Shakespeare Quotations for Everyday Life
Shakespeare has the perfect lines for riding into battle or stumbling around a stormy heath. But does he have the right stuff to take us on a daily commute or a trip to the grocery store? On this episode, David and Ben Crystal join us to talk about their new book, Everyday Shakespeare: Lines for Life, which offers daily Shakespeare quotes you can apply to your everyday existence. The Crystals—David is a linguist, Ben is an actor—are the father-son duo behind the Oxford Illustrated Shakespeare Dictionary; Shakespeare's Words: A Glossary and Language Companion; and The Oxford Dictionary of Original Shakespearean Pronunciation. Host Barbara Bogaev asks them about the quotations they included, why they chose to forego the typical contextual notes, and how you can improve your memory for Shakespeare’s words. Everyday Shakespeare: Lines for Life is available from Chambers Books. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast series. Published January 2, 2024. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode was produced by Matt Frassica. Garland Scott is the associate producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. Ben Lauer is the web producer. Leonor Fernandez edits our transcripts. We had technical help from Voice Trax West in Studio City, California. Final mixing services provided by Clean Cuts at Three Seas, Inc.
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What Happened to the Princes in the Tower, with Philippa Langley
12/19/2023
What Happened to the Princes in the Tower, with Philippa Langley
The most unforgivable crime in Richard III has to be when the king orders the murder of his two young nephews, Edward and Richard. But what if Richard III was framed? Philippa Langley is the amateur historian whose commitment to righting a historical wrong led to the discovery of Richard III’s remains a decade ago. Langley wasn’t a scholar—she was a screenwriter and a member of the Richard III Society. Langley convinced academic historians and archaeologists at the University of Leicester to excavate the parking lot where she believed Richard was buried. There, they found a body, and DNA analysis confirmed that the remains belonged to Richard III. The discovery led to further insights about the historical Richard. For example, the physical deformities of Shakespeare’s character were Tudor inventions. Far from being a “bunch-backed toad,” the real Richard III had nothing more than a case of scoliosis. Since discovering the body in 2012, Langley and a team of collaborators have worked on cleaning up Richard’s reputation. Her new book, The Princes in the Tower, examines Richard’s most famous alleged crime: the murder of his two nephews, the sons of Edward IV. Investigating their disappearance as a 500-year-old cold case, Langley explores evidence that the princes survived Richard III’s reign… and points to another suspect for their eventual deaths. Langley talks with Barbara Bogaev about tracking down two of history’s most famous missing persons. Philippa Langley’s new book, The Princes in the Tower: Solving History’s Greatest Cold Case, is out now from Pegasus Books. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast series. Published December 19, 2023. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode was produced by Matt Frassica. Garland Scott is the associate producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. Ben Lauer is the web producer. Leonor Fernandez edits our transcripts. We had technical help from Voice Trax West in Studio City, California. Final mixing services provided by Clean Cuts at Three Seas, Inc.
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Will Somer: Peter K. Andersson on Henry VIII's Court Fool
12/05/2023
Will Somer: Peter K. Andersson on Henry VIII's Court Fool
What comes to mind when you think about a “court jester?” What if we told you that fools in the Tudor court didn’t look or sound anything like the zany clowns you have in mind? Historians don’t know much about Will Somer. We know he was Henry VIII’s court fool, but the details of his biography—and, crucially, his comedy—were never recorded. By Shakespeare’s time, Somer had become famous. Whenever a poet or playwright needed to reference a long-lost comedy great, they’d name-check Will Somer—kind of like mentioning Charlie Chaplin or Groucho Marx today. But unlike Chaplin or Groucho, none of Somer’s jokes survived. So later writers just made them up, inventing a comedian to suit their own tastes. Peter K. Andersson’s new biography of Somer, Fool: In Search of Henry the 8th’s Closest Man, digs through the layers of fiction that accumulated over the centuries to reveal is a fool very different from anything we might recognize from King Lear or Twelfth Night. We talk to Andersson about what we know about Somer, how he became a celebrity, and how people with intellectual disabilities were treated in the 16th century. Peter K. Andersson is a historian at Sweden’s Örebro University. Fool: In Search of Henry the 8th’s Closest Man is available from Princeton University Press. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast series. Published December 5, 2023. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode was produced by Matt Frassica. Garland Scott is the associate producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. Ben Lauer is the web producer. Leonor Fernandez edits our transcripts. We had technical help from Frida Anund in Sweden and Voice Trax West in Studio City, California. Final mixing services provided by Clean Cuts at Three Seas, Inc.
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Isabelle Schuler's Queen Hereafter Imagines Lady Macbeth's Backstory
11/21/2023
Isabelle Schuler's Queen Hereafter Imagines Lady Macbeth's Backstory
Isabelle Schuler’s debut novel Queen Hereafter attempts to fill in a backstory for Lady Macbeth. The book takes place in 11th century Scotland, where a king’s reign tended to be short and brutal. For her version of Lady M, Schuler didn’t rely on Shakespeare or his source material, Holinshed’s Chronicles. Instead, she looked to the annals and sagas that predate Holinshed. There, Schuler found Gruoch, who married Macbethad (the historical Macbeth) after her first husband died. Schuler talks with Barbara Bogaev about how she filled in the gaps of Shakespeare’s tragedy. Queen Hereafter is available now from Harper Perennial. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast series. Published November 21, 2023. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode was produced by Matt Frassica. Garland Scott is the associate producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. Ben Lauer is the web producer. Leonor Fernandez edits our transcripts. We had technical help from Voice Trax West in Studio City, California. Final mixing services provided by Clean Cuts at Three Seas, Inc.
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400 Years of Shakespeare's First Folio, with Emma Smith
11/07/2023
400 Years of Shakespeare's First Folio, with Emma Smith
The First Folio—the first collected edition of Shakespeare’s plays—hit bookstores 400 years ago this November. Emma Smith of Oxford University tells us just what this famous book has been up to for the past four centuries. We explore notable collectors like Sir Edward Dering and our founders, Emily and Henry Folger; how the 18th-century slave trade supercharged the book’s value; how the 235 extant copies scattered across the world; and much more. Emma Smith is interviewed by Barbara Bogaev. Emma Smith teaches Shakespeare at Oxford University and is the author of Shakespeare’s First Folio: Four Centuries of an Iconic Book. A new edition is available now from Oxford University Press. Smith is also leading a year-long scholarly program for the Folger Institute called “Next Gen Editing.” From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast series. Published November 7, 2023. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode was produced by Matt Frassica. Garland Scott is the associate producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. Ben Lauer is the web producer. Leonor Fernandez edits our transcripts. We had technical help from VoiceTrax West in Studio City, California. Final mixing services provided by Clean Cuts at Three Seas, Inc.
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The Bloomsbury Group and Shakespeare, with Marjorie Garber
10/24/2023
The Bloomsbury Group and Shakespeare, with Marjorie Garber
We talk with Harvard Professor Marjorie Garber about how modernist writers of London’s Bloomsbury Group made Shakespeare their own. Garber’s most recent book—her twentieth—is Shakespeare in Bloomsbury. In it, she traces the influence of Shakespeare on the members of the Bloomsbury Group, that circle of early 20th-century intellectuals included novelists Virginia Woolf and E.M. Forster, painter Vanessa Bell, director Dadie Rylands, critic and biographer Lytton Strachey, economist John Maynard Keynes, and others. She tells Barbara Bogaev about the threads of Shakespeare that run through Woolf’s novels, how Lytton Strachey changed our perspective on Shakespeare’s late plays, and what got her interested in the Bloomsbury Group in the first place. Marjorie Garber is the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of English and Visual and Environmental Studies at Harvard University. Shakespeare in Bloomsbury is available from Yale University Press. Garber is the inaugural Scholar in Residence of Washington, DC’s Shakespeare Everywhere Festival, happening across the city this fall. Join Garber in-person for through November 16. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast series. Published October 24, 2023. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode was produced by Matt Frassica. Garland Scott is the associate producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. Ben Lauer is the web producer. Leonor Fernandez edits our transcripts. We had technical help from The Sound Company in London and Evan Marquart at Voice Trax West in Studio City, California. Final mixing services provided by Clean Cuts at Three Seas, Inc.
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Patrick Stewart on a Life Shaped by Shakespeare
10/10/2023
Patrick Stewart on a Life Shaped by Shakespeare
Sir Patrick Stewart joins us on the podcast to talk about how Shakespeare has shaped his life. Stewart tells host Barbara Bogaev about his Yorkshire youth, his audition for the Royal Shakespeare Company, playing Starfleet Captain Jen-Luc Picard. Stewart's memoir, Making It So, is available now from Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. From the Folger’s Shakespeare Unlimited podcast. Published October 10, 2023. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode was produced by Matt Frassica. Garland Scott is the associate producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. Ben Lauer is the web producer. Leo Fernandez edits a transcript of every episode, available at folger.edu. We had technical help from Ngofeen Mputubwele in New York and Andrew Feliciano at Voice Trax West in Studio City, California. Final mixing services provided by Clean Cuts at Three Seas, Inc.
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