Lend Me Your Ears: Julius Caesar

Slate Culture

Slate Podcasts

Arts, Tv & Film, Music

4.4 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 15 June 2018

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Lend Me Your Ears is a six-part podcast miniseries exploring how Shakespeare’s works have shaped our modern views on politics. Each month, host Isaac Butler will dig into a different Shakespeare play to explore how Shakespeare was responding to his current events, and how they map onto our own. In this first episode, Lend Me Your Ears is looking at one of Shakespeare’s most accessible works: Julius Caesar. Why was the Bard so fascinated with the fall of the Roman Republic? Why do we tend to turn to this play when we worry about society’s future? How have contemporary theater makers reinvented Shakespeare’s version of the story for their audiences, especially in troubled political times? Subscribe to Lend Me Your Ears on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Slate Plus members get a bonus episode of Lend Me Your Ears every month. Learn more at slate.com/shakespeare Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi there Culture Gabfest listeners, I want to introduce you a new slate podcast
0:05.0	mini-series that just launched last month. It's called Lunmere Years and it's hosted
0:09.8	by occasional Culture Gabfest co-host, Isaac Butler.
0:13.2	It explores how Shakespeare wrote about the political anxieties
0:16.0	and fears of his time and how his plays have come to shape
0:18.9	our own social and political views now.
0:21.5	Each month, the podcast will dive deep into a different
0:24.0	Shakespeare play to see how his words, characters, and stories still resonate in
0:28.8	our troubled political age today. You can find out more at slate.com slash Shakespeare, but for now I've got the first
0:34.9	episode on Julius Caesar here for you.
0:38.2	Subscribe to lend me your ears now and you'll be able to listen to the second episode on
0:42.2	Richard the second too.
0:44.0	Thanks for listening. I'm Isaac Butler.
1:10.0	In this episode, we're going to be talking about a play that still has the power to upset theater goers today.
1:16.0	And of course, we know Julius Caesar's character as the lead, when that character was brought forth and it was Donald Trump I mean they
1:25.6	didn't specifically say it but his hair blonde reddish had the tie tied too long
1:30.4	he was obviously the leader. Knowing where that was going, I was appalled.
1:37.0	Act 1. That part of tyranny that I do bear. Right after the election I sat down and
1:49.6	re-read Julius Caesar. It's actually where the idea for this podcast was born. I re-read it because I was deeply worried about the state of our republic.
1:58.0	And I was struck by this speech where Brutus is contemplating killing Julius Caesar,
2:02.7	because he's worried Caesar will become a dictator.
2:06.3	The abuse of greatness is when it disjoins remorse from power
	...

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