PEL Presents PMP#215: Hamnet Dramatizes Shakespeare
The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast
Mark Linsenmayer
4.6 • 2.3K Ratings
🗓️ 19 February 2026
⏱️ 64 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
When we don't know much about some genius playwright's life, why not make up some things based on the contents of his plays? Maybe put Shakespearean dialogue right in character's mouths, so the audience will say, "hey, I remember that line!"
Mark, Lawrence, Sarahlyn, and Al talk through the Chloe Zhao Oscar-bait historical drama, Hamnet, and its source, the 2020 novel by Maggie O'Farrell. Is the film great, or just "grief porn"? Plus, Shakespeare in Love and other biopics.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This episode is sponsored by Claude, the AI for Minds that Don't Stop at Good Enough. |
| 0:13.2 | This is pretty much pop, a culture podcast, not in the stars to hold our destinies, but in ourselves. |
| 0:19.2 | Today, we're discussing Chloe Zhao's Oscar-nominated |
| 0:21.2 | film Hamnet, based on the 2020 novel by Maggie O'Farrell in the context of media about Shakespeare's |
| 0:27.6 | biography. This is Mark Linton-Myer. Hey, hey, hey, out! Out! Out, down spot! Wow! This is Al Baker, |
| 0:34.3 | and there is no movie either good or bad, but thinking makes it so. |
| 0:38.5 | Hmm. |
| 0:39.6 | I'm Sarah Lynn Breck. |
| 0:41.3 | Hey, Mark, I have a question for you. |
| 0:43.9 | Where does a pig land after it's been shot out of a cannon? |
| 0:47.8 | Where, Sarah? |
| 0:50.0 | Hamnet. |
| 0:54.4 | I'll just see myself out. |
| 0:55.9 | That is one of the worst jokes I've ever heard in my entire life. |
| 0:59.7 | Ooh, you have no idea. |
| 1:01.8 | Unbelievably bad. |
| 1:02.8 | This is Lawrence where he mostly devastated. |
| 1:05.0 | And I do mean devastated in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. |
| 1:08.5 | It was a moving end of the film. |
| 1:10.3 | I think this is a film where that tells you what's going to happen right at the beginning. |
| 1:14.6 | It doesn't tell you exactly that that's going to be the final scene. |
| 1:18.8 | And I wasn't sure. |
... |
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