The Shakespeare Mindset: Calm Your Anxiety In This Stress-Filled World With Help From The Writer You Hated In School

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  How Do We Stop Feeling Anxious about The World? 15.09.2026 24мин

  “O horror, horror, horror! Tongue nor heart cannot conceive nor name thee!” Do you ever find yourself scrolling down your phone and stopping only when something truly terrifying grabs your attention? (You do know that's the economic model for these platforms don't you? You know they're not deliberately trying to scare you, it's just they know your old brain is wired to read the grim stuff so that you stay on their platform and generously hand over you data to them.)Has there ever been a more anxious time to be a member of the human race? Actually yes in Shakespeare's time they had several plagues, a climate disaster, forever wars, fears of big food shortages and angry men arriving at ports to shout at the immigrants fleeing in boats across the English Channel.This week I'm hoping to bring your anxiety levels down from "aaarrggghh" to "ahh", although removing all those rrrgggs was made harder when half way through writing one of those Large Language Model companies currently burning a hole in the whole of America's finances gleefully announced that they were developing a machine that could probably wipe out all of humanity in the next few years or so. Don't Panic. Keep Calm and try not to get too stressed by those annoying tea towels that urge you to keep calm and grow a bonsai tree or whatever. You can start by breathing gently, being aware of your physical needs, but also by seeing how a number of Shakespeare characters coped with the stress of plagues, angry kings and heavy crowns.Plays featured in this episode are Hamlet, Henry the Fourth, Much Ado About Nothing (for the first time I'm delighted to say), Romeo and Juliet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth - all the big anxious heavyweights there. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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  It’s Okay To Disagree 08.09.2026 25мин

  “O I have suffered with those that I saw suffer.’We’re all only trying to be reasonable aren’t we, and yet the whole direction of discourse over the last decade has been steered by half a dozen social media dudes and their platforms towards certainty about our own beliefs and hostility towards anyone who disagrees with us.In this episode I'm looking at empathy. What is it? Should we have more? Or is there already too much? Shakespeare was brilliant at showing both sides of every argument, and I am hoping this week to use his skills at this to ensure that we find the right balance. I feel like I learn something new every episode I write of this, and I feel like I've learned a little more about how to appreciate the views of people I disagree with.Not least with the Bard himself, whose play The Merchant of Venice made my school life a misery.Plays featured in this episode: Measure for Measure, Julius Caesar, As You Like It and yes, The Merchant of Venice, previously known in this household as The Schoolboy Taunting of Cohen. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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  How You Can Become Great 01.09.2026 24мин

  "I have touched the highest point of all my greatness."Have you ever thought about how great it would be to be great? Who among us doesn't at the very least aspire to being the best at what we do?You may be familiar with the Shakespeare line "Some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon 'em". Its popularity has been helped because it chimes with everything we read on the internet that offers advice or solutions for improving our lives.The problem is - it's a scam.It's what we might call fake muse - like so much of the internet, and the Large Language Models that are talking to us like the servile robots they are, tugging their metal forelocks and congratulating us for asking them such brilliant questions. The quote comes from a letter designed to flatter and trick the reader, Malvolio, into thinking his boss loves him.Everywhere you look on the internet is motivational advice telling you that with hard work, discipline and application you can become truly great, but this fails to address the most important question - what do we mean by greatness?This week I'll be reframing the definition of greatness. I'm not promising that I can help you run the hundred metres in less than ten seconds, but by the end of the show you'll have a better understanding of what it means to be truly great, and how you might be able to achieve it.Oh and I'll explain how I was scammed this week just like Malvolio.Plays featured in this episode are Twelfth Night, Twelfth Night and Twelfth Night, with a sprinkling of Hamlet and The Tempest and special guest appearance of Falstaff. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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  Are You A People Pleaser? And Is That A Bad Thing? 25.08.2026 26мин

  "Self-love, my liege, is not so vile a sin, as self-neglecting."Have you ever agreed to do something for someone while your whole body was screaming NO! Are you scared of the consequences of disappointing the people closest to you?Well hello there friend, come and join me here at SOPPY - the Society Of People Pleasing Yes-men. I've always been a people-pleaser and you know what, there've been a few times when it's been really useful. People liked me - which was very helpful for the job I did for ten years of stand-up comedian, and I was pretty good at defusing potentially difficult situations. But on other occasions I've put other people's needs ahead of my own, or taken responsibility for other people's emotions, and there comes a time when you have to prioritise yourself.There's a simple and obvious way to turn people-pleasing to your advantage that I've never seen anyone try but it works for me. I'm hoping that by the end of the episode you'll have learned to check in on your emotions next time you find yourself saying yes when you mean no; you'll learn the power of 'let me get back to you on that' and you'll understand how to sit with your discomfort.Just hoping, thanks to the Shakespeare Mindset I'm no longer judging my own self-worth on whether or not I make you happy. (But I will be delighted if you succeed. Old habits die hard, or as Bruce Willis would say, die hard too.)Plays mentioned in this episode are Antony and Cleopatra, Hamlet, Timon of Athens, King Lear, Coriolanus and Tybalt & Mercutio, otherwise known as Romeo & Juliet. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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  How to Tame The Green Eyed Monster of Jealousy 18.08.2026 25мин

  "So full of artless jealousy is guilt,It spills itself in fearing to be spilt."Jealousy can take many different forms, nearly all of which can be found in a single Shakespeare play, how we can spot it in others and heaven forbid, even in ourselves - and together we’re going to come clean about our resentful feelings in this department, and see if we can find a way, if not to avoid it completely at least to share space with it like the uncle who annoys you at Christmas but who you can cope with from a distance for the rest of the year.I think you're likely to know which play I'm talking about - it's pretty much the set text of jealousy - yet Othello isn't the most jealous character in the play. Ooh given away which play it is now.Key Shakeaways1 The last person to admit they're jealous is usually you. By which I mean me. All of us. You know what I'm talking about here. Acknowledge the feelings, suppressing them won't make them go away.2 Do what Shakespeare's characters did (along with Elsa): let it go. Let it GO!3 Follow the advice of Orlando in As You Like It, stop worrying about other people and concentrate on your own life.Shakespeare plays referred to in this episode: Othello, The Winter's Tale, As You Like ItOther jealous references:A famous John Lennon song. I'm sure you won't struggle to 'imagine' which one. (No, not that one) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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  Why You Should Read More And Scroll Less 11.08.2026 24мин

  "Knowing I lov'd my books, he furnish'd me From mine own library with volumes that I prize above my dukedom."Do you love to read, but only on your phone? Reading books is a key way to making us less anxious. If only we could spend more time with our heads buried in a good book - then again there's always a danger people will think we're a skinny little swot who should stop reading and go out and do something.Along the way you'll discover theKey Shakeawayswhich are:1 Shakespeare was a voracious reader but sometimes he has a bit of a downer on it - in other words, read what others have to say, but you don't always have to agree with what you read, and you can make your own mind up.2 it's not difficult to make it a daily habit, even if it's only ten minutes or so to begin with and3 why stepping away from your phone & immersing yourself in the paper version of a book not only stops you being constantly distracted, but also makes you better at concentrating.Shakespeare plays referred to in this episode: Julius Caesar, Richard III, The Tempest, Hamlet.Other books that also get a look-in:The Hitch Hiker's Guide to The Galaxy, Aristotle's Politics. Warning: occasional reference to Mein Kampf - which, to be fair, is actually a book. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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  Why You Sometimes Feel Sad For No Reason 04.08.2026 23мин

  "Give sorrow words; the grief that does not speak / knits up the o-er-wrought heart and bids it break."Do you sometimes find yourself feeling sad without realising why? You're not alone, like many people there's a chance you're dealing with melancholy. In today's episode I'll be looking at the reasons we sometimes feel this way, why we indulge the feeling and how to make a few small adjustments to make it so much easier to live with.Key Shakeaways1 First thing to do is acknowledge the sadness. Don't pretend nothing's wrong2 Don't overthink it3 Do something! Anything. Get a hobby. That's what I decided to do two years ago and here I am at Episode 26 of theShakespeare Mindset. I had no idea when I picked up that giant fusty old book from my schooldays that had always seemed impenentrable that it would take me on an amazing trip through Shakespeare to a realisation that 425 years ago he had so much to say about how to live our lives with intent, humour and free from anxiety.Shakespeare plays and sonnets referred to in this episode: The Merchant of Venice, As You Like It, Twelfth Night, Hamlet. Sonnets 30, 66, 71 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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  Why You Should Develop A Healthy Attitude To Gratitude 28.07.2026 24мин

  "I can no other answer make, but thanks, and thanks, and ever thanks."There's nothing wrong with gratitude, as far as I'm concerned, but I'm starting to get a bit fed up with privileged middle class people like me walking around expressing gratitude for the universe as though that's going to make everything okay. If I'm sounding a bit grumpy I suppose it's because I always had a bit of a bad attitude towards gratitude. When I was a kid it was presented to me as something I resented. If I didn't thank grandma profusely enough for her latest useless birthday present my mum would tell me off for not showing enough gratitude. (And by the way, when you're trying to type your shownotes at speed one of the hardest words to consistently spell correctly is gratitude.) But how much is enough? Shakespeare understood the dangers of making gratitude dependent on certain flattering behavious. King Lear has three daughters and he famously punishes the third one for not showing him enough gratitude. Oops chose the wrong one there mate. Imagine thinking just because you're the king that people should be forced to show you gratitude. Timon of Athens is the most generous king you'll ever meet, he expects nothing in return - until things start to go a little bit wrong, and debts are called in. Suddenly all those people he thought were his friends, simply because they liked hanging around him when he had money, are nowhere to be seen. Now he rails against their ingratitude. He's like my mum, only a lot angrier, also my mum never got banished from the kingdom, at least so far as i know.At this point I think okay, I get it now. Timon's journey from riches to rags incorporates anger and denial along the way. But as the journey continues he comes to terms with the loss, and realises all that wealth was meaningless. When things go wrong, showing gratitude for the things that matter in life can be empowering. Then again, if you listen to this show all the way to the end, and leave a nice review wherever you listen, I will be eternally grateful to you. Thank you for reading up to now. (Okay Dave this is getting obsequious, leave the poor reader alone.) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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  We're All Going On A Summer Odyssey 21.07.2026 24мин

  "To unpathed waters, undreamed shores."Every story has a beginning a middle and an end. This chestnut is so ingrained into our psyche and from such an early age that we might wonder if it’s included with eyes, legs, arms and the rest under ‘stuff we’re born with’. Long before we learned how to write things down homo sapiens were telling stories through pictures and sounds to teach survival and morality.The Odyssey is nearly 3,000 years old and yet still speaks to us as though very little has changed. If you’re wondering why this three-hours long film is proving such a hit among the attention-deprived smartphone scrolling public, the answer is that the odyssey is a journey we all take, one we’re all familiar with, a story of who we are now, where we’ve come from, and where we’re looking to go. It also gives them a new classic heroic story to tell their friends – "I’ve just spent three hours in the cinema and I didn’t look at my phone once!"In this episode I spend a little bit of time looking at Shakespeare's own journey from Stratford to showbiz, although we know almost nothing about the first few years. It makes more sense to look at the effect the Odyssey itself had on Shakespeare, and how he used the various stories of Homer and Ovid within his own plays. There's Cleopatra in Antony and Cleopatra, who so beguiles the Roman Emperor that he'd rather hang out with her in Egypt than attend to his duties in Rome. I mean, wouldn't you do the same? I'm sure he was treated with great reverence in Rome but wouldn't you rahter be hanging out in Egypt with a fellow ruler, pretending you're conducting great affairs of state when really all you're conductin is affairs?Then there's Titus Andronicus (look away now squeamish people), Troilus and Cressida, and of course The Tempest. Yes I always seem to come back to The Tempest don't I. Hard to avoid that play in this case, shipwrecks landing on desert island are all the rage in The Odyssey.There's also my own personal journey story related to that play - in my valiant battle with Chiltern Railways, did I get to see it on time or had I upset the Gods of train travel so much that they conspired to keep me away? All is revealed at the end of the episode. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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  Let's Talk About The Weather 14.07.2026 26мин

  "Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! Rage! Blow! You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout till you have drenched our steeples, drowned the cocks!"Or as King Lear might have said to you at the time if you'd been standing next to him at the bus stop "Awful weather for the time of year wouldn't you say?" Why are we Brits so obsessed with the weather? Partly because of where we sit on the planet combined with our islands status, it makes us the receptacle of an awful loot of unpredicatable weather.And it was even more the case in Shakespeare's time. The elements played a much bigger part in our lives than they do at the moment, current heatwaves excepted. In a couple of the plays the tone is set by the opening lines - 'Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by this son of York,' Richard the Third says at the start of that play. While Macbeth begins famously with the three witches, the first asking "When shall we three meet again, in thunder, lightning or in rain?"Shakespeare often uses the weather to evoke a sense of personality - think of the stormy nature of Lear, the man and the play, or the dark and broodiness that hangs over the whole of Macbeth.As I often say, Shakespeare isn't so much a man with the answers as someone who knows how to ask the right questions, and he makes us think about how whatever kind of person we are, however much we think we can control events, nature has much greater control than any single individual. Even in a play like The Tempest, where Prospero invents a storm - he literally makes the weather - he can't change people. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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  Why Laughter Is Even Better Than The Best Medicine Part Two 07.07.2026 28мин

  "With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come. And let my liver rather heat with wine, than my heart cool with mortifying groans."In the second part of this conversation with my former Sitcom Geeks co-host James Cary (pictured) we talk about how it's possible to use humour to explore the most difficult subjects. James is one of the most successful audience sitcom writers in the UK, having worked on a host of TV and radio audience shows including Miranda, My Hero, Think The Unthinkable and My Family. Together we nerded out for 222 episodes about all matters sitcom.James's own sitcom Bluestone 42 ran on the BBC for three seasons, and was set among a bomb disposal unit in Afghanistan. Really you can't get much darker than that can you? Well you can, and another hit show that James worked on Miranda, did just that. Miranda was a massive hit show and had a deceptive lightness of touch that allowed Miranda Hart and the writers to explore the darkest aspects of what it means to be a single woman in her 30s and all the pressures she is under to get married, have children and have a good job. We talk about the many examplesin Shakespeare where the subjects of life and death are as likely to be explored in the tragedies as they are in the comedies.Since becoming obsessed with Shakespeare I have come to understand how so much of the audience TV show, my favourite form of comedy, owes its debt directly to the plays of Shakespeare. I thought I might struggle to persuade James of this latest theory but it turns out that he has his own favourite Shakespeare obsessions as well.In the first part of the interview, we talked about what an audience sitcom is and how it sits as a direct descendant of the old English music hall and the plays of Shakespeare. In this week's episode we talk about comedy and religion, funny characters and the parallels between Shakespeare characters abndsitcom greats.To find out more about what James is currently up to checkout his website jamescary.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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  Here's The Knight In Shining Armour Come To Save Us 30.06.2026 22мин

  "That tragedy from which she rescues him gratuitously for the sake of their mutual welfare."Once upon a time there was a bad man who ruled the kingdom, and the people were unhappy. Just when everything seemed lost a knight in shining armour arrived, the kingdom was saved and we all lived… well most of us did. Who is this mysterious new character in our lives? What are the chances that in the wake of his arrival, we all live happily ever after? Are we possibly getting a bit old to believe fairy stories?In this week's episode I look at one of the oldest fairy tales in English folklore, that first found its way into the stories of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, recorded almost a thousand years ago. In a previous episode I talked about the ways in which we become disappointed very quickly with our new leaders, today we're taking a step further back as we investigate what happens in the build up to getting rid of the bad guy and replacing them with the knight in shining armour.The reason these stories remain so popular is because they still resonate for us in the 21st century, It’s not difficult to see ourselves in each of the main characters in this story. You and I and almost everyone is the poor beautiful young princess, yes even me, a 67-year-old white bloke with hairy legs and an occasional weight problem. The bad ruler, or ugly sister, or wicked stepmother represents a person we know who seems to have too much control over our lives. The knight in shining armour, in the fantasy that is this story, is the handsome young Amazon driver, here to deliver that control back to us. Yes it’s a story, as believable as the fairies at the bottom of the garden who tell it. In reality more often than not it’s the lesser evil who still controls our lives but in a slightly less controlling way.There are many ways in which Shakespeare approaches the story - there's the person who thinks they're the knight when they're clearly knot (sorry), sometimes there's more than one knight battling for the honour of the title, sometimes we just like the idea of a knight, other times there really is a knight but they don't win, and then there's the world where there's no such thing.Is it all a bunch of fairy stories, a waste of time? Well, occasionally we really do all live happily ever after. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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  Why Laughter Is Even Better Than The Best Medicine 23.06.2026 35мин

  "The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool."... "They laugh that win"In this episode I talk to my former Sitcom Geeks co-host James Cary. James is one of the most successful audience sitcom writers in the UK, having worked on a host of TV and radio audience shows including Miranda, My Hero, Think The Unthinkable and My Family. His own show Bluestone 42 ran for three series on the BBC. Together we nerded out for 222 episodes about all matters sitcom. We stopped making the show in 2023, in the time since I've become obsessed with Shakespeare, but have also come to understand how so much of the audience TV show, my favourite form of comedy, owes its debt directly to the plays of Shakespeare. I thought I might struggle to persuade James of this latest theory but it turns out that he has his own favourite Shakespeare obsessions as well.In this, the first part of the interview, we talk about what an audience sitcom is and how it sits as a direct descendant of the old English music hall and the plays of Shakespeare. We talk about what we love about audience sitcom ("I like laughing" is James's excellent answer to the question), and how this relates to some of the best aspects of Shakespeare - including the feeling engendered by being in the room when the show is happening.We discuss how flawed characters are at the heart of the best sitcoms, and talk of how this is also true in a lot of Shakespeare. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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  Why Is There So Much Rage? 16.06.2026 25мин

  "I understand a fury in your words, / But not the words."Why is there so much rage in the world? Since I started making this podcast I have forced myself back to social media, in case you’re wondering why I reached that earth shattering conclusion. I left because I’d been wondering why my mental health seemed to have been deteriorating slightly and as soon as I stopped, it got better. Simplest experiment ever undertaken.Anyway I came back to facebook because they have millions of fans following several Shakespeare pages and I thought ‘these are my people’, not realising that I’d still be getting the feed from friends I used to follow three years ago. And you know what? They’re still posting exactly the same enraging stuff they were posting back then. Every now and then some new invention comes along that brings deep disorder to the world. It took around 10 years for the iPhone to revolutionise our lives, and turn us all into a giant universe of hunched miniature screen starers. Things moved a little slower in Shakespeare’s time but around a hundred years after Johannes Gutenberg had invented the printing press in 1440 it began to disrupt… well, everything. Like Steve Jobs the man was revered and reviled in equal measure.There was no shortage of rage in Shakespeare’s time. And boy did that man know how to write it in a scene.In this episode I look at the many aspects of rage and how Shakespeare shows it in the plays. There’s the performative rage of Henry V, proving that rage isn’t necessarily a moment of spontaneous fury, you can learn to switch it on in a moment. There’s nothing performative about Coriolanus. This man is a simmering cauldron of indignation, but it’s okay because that’s exactly what is needed for his chosen profession of soldier. His character trait that’s perfectly admirable in war isn’t quite such an asset in a politician. But this episode isn’t all about kings and leaders. What about us. Like Coriolanus, we learn a lot about who we become from the actions of our parents.There are many more ways in which rage can be triggered. So many possibilities out there. Whatever flips your switch, it’s almost always something that is caused by factors over which you no longer have any control. Or maybe you always had control and never realised until you lost it, possibly on account of your own stupid actions, you damn fool.That’s you, King Lear, and also, if I admit it, me too. How? Listen on… Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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  Enjoy A Good Night's Sleep 08.06.2026 25мин

  "Sleep that knits up the ravelled sleave of care, The death of each day's life, sore labour's bath, Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course, Chief nourisher in life's feast." Today’s episode is all about sleep.Did you know that we’re currently going through a global sleep crisis. Up to 30% of the adult population in developed nations live with sleep disorders and chronic insomnia. And it isn’t all book writers lying awake while ruminating over the poor sales of their how to sleep books in an overcrowded market. Why is it happening? We’ve got a pretty good idea. Those darn screens.To break the cycle of sleep deprivation, experts recommend establishing a strict wind-down routine: Stop using phones and laptops at least an hour before bed.Yeah right. Don’t you realise we’re only scrolling down those screens to avoid having to deal with all those anxieties in our lives that’ll only surface when we put those phones down and try and get some sleep!I’m not saying Shakespeare has the answers, I never do, he’s not a philosopher or a self-help guru, he’s not wearing a white lab coat or running a wellness clinic, he’s a writer who spent his life interrogating everything around what it means to be a human being. And since like every other person before or since he spent around a third of his entire life asleep, it’s not surprising that he devoted a huge amount of time investigating what’s happening to us during our non-waking hours. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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  Life's Not As Bad As You Think 02.06.2026 25мин

  "Men must endure their going hence, even as their coming hither."In this episode I suggest if you could define Shakespeare in one word that word might possibly be – stoic. I think the philosophy comes closest to what guides the plays is because of the most famous phrase associated with stoicism – memento mori: remember you must die. At this point I make a joke about memento mori that’s my favourite in the entire 17 episodes to date, which probably means no one else will like it. Anyway it comes around four and a half minutes in so you decide. There are four main strands of stoicism, Number one: Wisdom. There’s no shortage of characters in Shakespeare for whom wisdom is the best definition. People, often women, whose lives are shaped by the actions of others, but who admit the reality of the choices they have to make. Accepting life as it is, rather than how they might want it to be.These are not the big beasts, the flawed characters who lend their names to the titles of the play. They tend to be the people who hold up a mirror to those egotistical heavyweights and show them the error of their ways. For every self-obsessed Lear there’s a generous Cordelia, every scheming Macbeth has a well-adjusted Banquo and every jealous Othello has a trusting Desdemona.Number two: Justice.In this section I talk about a man I’ve barely mentioned, if at all, up until now – Fortinbras Probably one of the least known but most stoic characters in the whole of Hamlet. Like Hamlet, he wants to avenge the death of his father. Who was killed, as bad luck would have it, by Hamlet’s father. But that was in good old-fashioned honest combat. Not like Hamlet’s, poisoned by his own brother, who then went on to marry his own mum. No wonder Hamlet’s struggling to make sense of his own future. He’s a man of action, unlike Hamlet who is a man of thoughts.So far it’s been all about supporting actors. Why are some of the best known stoics merely footnotes in the great works? Part of the answer comes with virtue number three – courage.Courage is often about standing up to authority. And here’s a thing you may have noticed, authority, what we might call a king for example, doesn’t like it when someone stands up to them.Stoics focus on performing the task right in front of them to the best of their ability, rather than fretting about what happened yesterday or what might happen tomorrow. Antony, at the funeral of Julius Caesar. Isabella in Measure for Measure, who has to find a way to save her own brother without having to sleep with the corrupt deputy leader Angelo.Number Four – Temperance.Prospero, in the Tempest, is an old man who has come to understand the rewards of patience.  In practical terms, we’re talking about self-restraint, modesty and propriety.He’s found the right moment to bring together his old enemies and loyal friends, they arrive shipwrecked on his island, where he practises his magic. He’s seeking vengeance for the evil done to him by King Alonso and his brother Antonio. 12 years he has waited for this momentProspero has shown great patience here, but what’s he going to gain from all this. What about courage? And wisdom? Now that I’ve got you here, Prospero says, d’you know what, I forgive you all.Spoken like a true stoic. He knows he hasn’t got long to live, and this is going to be how he will be remembered. Memento mori. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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  Get Off Your Backsides And Say The Words 26.05.2026 41мин

  "My love is thine to teach; teach it but how"Top podcaster Tim McIntosh, host of The Play's The Thing, talks about how we can all learn to love Shakespeare, especially after bad experiences at school. We both admit we initially found Shakespeare dull and inaccessible when taught as literature in classrooms. Our lightbulb moments came through performance. Tim says watching film versions such as Hamlet and Othello first showed him Shakespeare’s energy, but acting scenes himself truly transformed his understanding. Memorising and physically performing the lines made the text come alive in a way silent reading never had.Tim believes that Shakespeare is often taught incorrectly. He argues teachers approach the plays as if they were novels rather than scripts meant for actors and audiences. Instead of students sitting silently analysing text, Tim believes they should be on their feet, speaking the lines, reacting to each other, and treating Shakespeare as active theatre. Try it yourself! Do it with a friend!Tim describes several practical techniques he uses in teaching. One of his most effective exercises removes students’ fear of embarrassment: he asks everyone to perform lines “as badly as possible.” Students mumble, overact, shout, and exaggerate deliberately. By the fourth repetition they have already absorbed the text and become less self-conscious, making real performance much easier. This creates a classroom “culture of performance” where everyone participates together rather than worrying about looking foolish.Another important aspect of his teaching is blocking — the physical positioning and movement of actors on stage. Tim explains that the distance between characters fundamentally changes the emotional meaning of a scene. Two people shouting from opposite sides of a room create a completely different atmosphere from two people speaking quietly shoulder to shoulder. He wants students to experience Shakespeare physically, not just intellectually.I always try and keep out of the 21st century but here we are discussing a scene that's like the start of so many rom coms, here's another scene that could have been lifted directly to be the plot for Indecent Proposal. Tim argues Shakespeare originally belonged to lively, unruly popular entertainment rather than the “gilded” reverence surrounding it today. Audiences at the Shakespeare's Globe were active participants, much like modern comedy crowds.This chat reminded me of the effect real proper acting had on me when I had to'do' anger. Tim shows how so many scenes highlight Shakespeare’s fascination with conflicting value systems, power, honour, ambition, and human weakness.By the end, Tim’s core message is clear: Shakespeare becomes meaningful when treated as living drama rather than sacred literature. If people simply try performing the plays aloud with others, he believes “they’ll fall in love — there’s nothing they can do about it.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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  How To Fall In Love 19.05.2026 27мин

  "Hear my soul speak: The very instant that I saw you, did my heart fly to your service..."Shakespeare understood the irrational nature of love centuries before modern neuroscience explained it. Using examples from Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Twelfth Night, and As You Like It, we see how falling in love makes people behave foolishly because powerful brain chemicals temporarily override logic and self-control.Romeo’s sudden switch from obsessing over Rosaline to worshipping Juliet demonstrates how attraction can shut down rational thinking. Modern neuroscience explains this through surges of dopamine, norepinephrine, and reduced serotonin, creating obsession, euphoria, impulsiveness, and emotional dependency. Shakespeare instinctively captured these effects long before scientific terminology existed. Why else would Romeo want to be a glove touching Juliet’s cheek, the weirdo.In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, magical love potions symbolise the chemical chaos of attraction. Characters fall instantly and irrationally in love, showing that desire often has little to do with logic or compatibility. Similarly, plays like Antony and Cleopatra and Twelfth Night portray powerful people acting immaturely, obsessively, and destructively under love’s influence.Shakespeare is aware of the terrible negative power of unrequited love, jealousy, and emotional confusion, suggesting that rejection intensifies irrational behaviour because stress hormones disrupt clear judgment. Across his works, love is portrayed not as a perfect ideal but as a biological, emotional, and social force capable of both comedy and tragedy.But he's not a complete misery guts when it comes to love. Genuine love develops when people move beyond fantasy and obsession. In As You Like It, characters learn to accept each other realistically, flaws included. Shakespeare suggests that time, self-awareness, and emotional honesty—not infatuation alone—are what transform foolish passion into lasting love. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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  If You Can't Escape The Bullies, You Can Find A Way To Avoid Them 12.05.2026 25мин

  "And live a coward in thine own self-esteem".Is your life being made miserable by a bully? One that you can't easily escape from - for the time being?Shakespeare, writing in the dangerous and politically volatile world of Elizabethan London, understood bullying both as personal cruelty and institutional oppression. Fellow playwrights such as Christopher Marlowe and Thomas Kyd suffered persecution, torture, and even death, demonstrating how fear and intimidation shaped the creative world Shakespeare inhabited.This week you'll discover 1 ...how bullies are often driven by insecurity, resentment, or feelings of inadequacy. 2 ...how to view them not as monsters, but as damaged and vulnerable people whose actions still cause immense harm and3 ...why quiet honesty and forgiveness may sometimes be more powerful than dramatic revenge.Which doesn't mean you have to like them. The selfish, self-centred, whingeing victimhood-claiming narcissists. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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  The Joy of Texts 05.05.2026 26мин

  "To climb steep hills requires a slow pace at first." For long periods of time I actively disliked Shakespeare. Especially when I was at school. they really didn't know how to teach it proper when I were a lad. The thing about school is that it’s rarely the subject that’s the problem, more the way it was taught. The reason I didn’t fully give up on Shakespeare was that having struggled with Richard the second the following year I was studying Antony and Cleopatra and we had a teacher who really brought the play to life for us.The language is difficult, but honestly, it's like any new language, or new thing. The more you look at it the more you get out of it, and the easier it gets to understand. Who's your favourite actor? Chances are, there's a clip on YouTube of them performing something or other of Shakespeare. Lucky for me my favourite is Judi Dench. Can't move for the clips.While we're at it, don't come running to me moaning that the plots are too complicated. Have you been to see a Superhero movie recently? Quite apart from the fact that nowadays actors tend to mumble their words to sound just like ordinary inaudible people, some of those plots make no sense whatsoever. Romeo and Juliet? Boy meets girl, they die. What could be simpler?Why should you bother with Shakespeare? I mean what is the point of this podcast? Perhaps that’s a question I should have asked right at the beginning of episode one. I'm still quite new to this Shakespeare fanboy business, but the more I read and see the more I find out about who I truly am. Imagine a world full of self-aware people. Go on, dig deeper with me, you'll thank me for it. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.