This is the John Fugel-Sang Podcast.

So I know that Western civilization may be on its last legs right now, but if you need proof

that William Shakespeare's works are still powerfully relevant, consider that these 400-year-old plays can still challenge the powers that be in a place

like Florida where Shakespeare's plays are now being banned or taken off shelves

because of cross-dressing or gender switching characters or people just not really

understanding the dynamics. 400 years after his death, Shakespeare continues to

fascinate, threaten people, his plays and poems speak to us in very, very different eras.

And they speak to very, very different cultures, but as powerful as his plays are, you know.

There's still stuff in there that's hurtful and painful towards women towards Jews towards non-white people and yet

There's so much in these same works that have brought inspiration to these same peoples as well

A very exciting and moving new book lays out how

Shakespeare can and must be reclaimed for the 21st century. Professor Farakaram

Cooper has dedicated her career to the works of Shakespeare. She's professor of Shakespeare studies at King's College

London and Director of Education at the wonderful beautiful amazing Globe Theater.

She curated the Globe Theater's Shakespeare and Race Festivals and its anti-racist Shakespeare webinar series and her new book is

The Great White Bard, Shakespeare, race, and the future and it combines analysis of all the problems

and race and gender and otherness in his famous

plays, but it also shows why it's so essential to stop seeing Shakespeare's work as representative

of just one Anglo-Saxon group.

For the same reason, we must stop seeing Western civilization

as representative of only one Anglo-Saxon group.

She's also got a great new piece in Time magazine called It's

...