Episode 318: How to Read Shakespeare
The Literary Life Podcast
Angelina Stanford
4.7 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 3 March 2026
⏱️ 84 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today on The Literary Life podcast, Angelina Stanford and Thomas Banks are here to offer some helpful ideas for reading Shakespeare plays and how to approach the Bard. They start off sharing their own stories of first being exposed to Shakespeare. Next, Thomas and Angelina address the idea that Shakespeare is too high-brow for the ordinary reader. Angelina also gives her hot take on whether you should watch or read a Shakespeare play first. She also tells some stories about reading the Bard with her children and students. Some other helpful topics they cover are the different types of plays and their forms, the cosmology behind the plays, and potential problems with some modern interpretations of Shakespearean drama.
Please visit our website to view the full show notes for this episode with links to previous episodes we have done on Shakespeare, as well as the books mentioned as resources in this discussion: https://theliterary.life/318.
Join us back again here next week when we begin our series covering Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë!
You can check out all the latest offerings of mini-classes and webinars, both upcoming and recorded in the past, at HouseofHumaneLetters.com.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is not just another book chat podcast. |
| 0:21.6 | Lifelong reader Cindy Rollins joins teachers Angelina Stanford and Thomas Banks for an ongoing conversation about the skill and art of reading well. |
| 0:32.6 | Explore the lost intellectual tradition and discover how to fully enter end to the great works of literature. |
| 0:40.2 | Learn what books mean while delighting in the sheer joy of imagination. Each week, we will rescue |
| 0:47.1 | story from the ivory tower and bring it to your couch, your kitchen, and your commute. The literary life is for everyone because in the |
| 0:55.9 | words of Stratford Caldecott, to be enchanted by story is to be granted a deeper insight into |
| 1:02.2 | reality. Join us for an ever-unfolding discussion of how stories will save the world. |
| 1:09.7 | This is the Literary Life Podcast. |
| 1:30.5 | Welcome to the Literary Life podcast. |
| 1:37.3 | I am Angelina Stanford, and with me, as always, I'm about to try to make a Shakespeare joke. |
| 1:38.4 | It's going to be awkward. |
| 1:40.6 | No, we don't have to go there. |
| 1:43.6 | There will be enough Shakespeare jokes to come, I think. |
| 1:51.2 | Fine. I'm Angelina Stanford, and with me is the increasingly less mysterious Mr. Banks. |
| 1:52.4 | Welcome, Mr. Banks. |
| 1:52.9 | Hello, hello. |
| 1:59.0 | Yes, I was going to make a joke about, you know, men pretending to be women, pretending to be men, but then I just decided not to go there. |
| 2:03.1 | Okay, as long as you weren't going to compare me to a Shakespearean clown or something like that. |
| 2:06.1 | My own little fall staff. |
| 2:07.6 | Yeah, yeah. |
| 2:10.6 | Today's episode... I'm worried about my waistline. |
| 2:14.0 | Today's episode is How to Read Shakespeare, and I'm excited to bring this episode to you guys. |
... |
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