Best Aubrey Whitlock and Jess Hamlet Podcasts (2024)

1
10 Things We LOVE About Shakespeare (And Us) 1:07:15

1+ y ago1:07:15

1:07:15

Well, friends, this episode marks the last for the pod. We give you a short list of things we love about Shakespeare and about making this podcast together, we play a few games, and we say our goodbyes. With lots of bird-walking and rabbit holes along the way because when we promise Vintage Whamlet, we deliver. Thank you for making the last 6 years…

1
10 Things We Hate About Shakespeare 1:03:00

1+ y ago1:03:00

1:03:00

This week, for our penultimate episode, we decided to get some sh*t off our chests and make a list of 10 things we hate about Shakespeare. That’s it. No other segments. Oh and we list our bottom 5 plays in the canon, too. But don’t worry, as the saying goes, hatred isn’t the opposite of love, it’s indifference. We bitch because we love.…

1
House of Desires 101 1:06:50

1+ y ago1:06:50

1:06:50

For our final 101 episode, we take you back to the Spanish Golden Age with House of Desires and its proto-Mexican, female playwright Sor Juana (a nun!). We tell you a little about this Metal AF nun in Meet the Contemporary, and we summarize the play and read a very silly cross-dressing scene from the second act for A Taste of Text. We compare trans…

1
A King and No King 101 54:58

1+ y ago54:58

54:58

CW: Today’s episode involves one of our classic tangents, this time into the topic of incest and incest porn. That said, today’s episode is a 101 all about dynamic playwriting duo Beaumont and Fletcher’s “tragicomedy” A King and No King. We summarize this bonkers play for you - spoilers: it’s only a fake incest plot to lure you in - and ready a por…

1
Love's Labour's Lost 201 53:18

1+ y ago53:18

53:18

It only took us 4 years, but we have finally circled back to Love’s Labour’s Lost for a deep dive into what some fussy Victorians - Hazlitt and Tennyson - had to say about the play, plus a little bit about the moral implications of the ladies’ “homework” for the boys at the play’s conclusion. There also may or may not be some extensive bird walking…

1
Henry VIII 201 1:24:38

1+ y ago1:24:38

1:24:38

Our winter break is officially over and we hope you did your homework because Dr. Yasmine Hachimi joins us to talk about Henry VIII (the man, and sometimes Shakespeare’s play) and his most infamous wife, Anne Boleyn. In this longer-than-usual conversation we focus on the Netflix miniseries Blood, Sex, and Royalty, but also several other TV series a…

1
City Nightcap 101 1:01:55

1+ y ago1:01:55

1:01:55

This week we’re talking about The City Nightcap by Robert Davenport, a bewildering play by an even more bewildering (read: mysterious) author. We try to help you Meet the Contemporary, but Bobby Davs left us very little to go on; our Taste of Text is sure to amuse (and confuse) you; we talk a LOT about all the kicking happening in this play, as wel…

1
Twelfth Night 302 53:46

1+ y ago53:46

53:46

This week we return to the classic romantic comedy, Twelfth Night, to talk about the recent production at the American Shakespeare Center (directed by the amazing Jenny Bennett) and how it's a great example of how queering your casting and production concept can unlock new takes on a well-known, popular play. We also gossip about Jess's experience …

1
Troilus & Cressida 201

1+ y ago

—

Well, we hope you like feminist rants, because that’s what most of this episode devolved into. In this 201 we go off on Troilus and the rest of the men of Troilus and Cressida to interrogate why the Greeks and Trojans hinged all of their masculinity and self worth on Helen and Cressida’s status as chaste virgins. We also take a brief birdwalk to ex…

1
Fuenteovejuna 101 1:02:50

2y ago1:02:50

1:02:50

It’s our first ever 101 for a Spanish Golden Age play! Today we’re talking about Lope de Vega’s Fuenteovejuna and all the wild, wonderful customs and traditions of the early modern Spanish theatre. Our Meet the Playwright segment takes you through de Vega’s impressive (and horny) biography; Jess delights with her multitude of voices in A Taste of T…

1
Birth of Merlin 101 1:08:01

2y ago1:08:01

1:08:01

Sooooooo William Rowley’s The Birth of Merlin actually has very little to do with Merlin or any other part of the Arthurian legend, and it’s more of a history play than its title would suggest. We re-introduce you to playwright William Rowley, who apparently loved to write himself into all of his plays as a “fat clown;” we give you A Taste of Text …

1
Roaring Girl 101 1:09:23

2y ago1:09:23

1:09:23

Season 6 begins with a ROAR(ing Girl) courtesy of Thomases Dekker and Middleton. The famous city comedy features real-life legend Mary Frith, aka Moll Cutpurse, but not with nearly the stage time such a character deserves; we give you a brief introduction to the lesser-known Thomas of this collab team, Dekker, and also a Taste of Text where Moll’s …

1
As You Like It 301 1:01:50

2+ y ago1:01:50

1:01:50

Why As You Like It now? We cover many possible answers to this question, but also take some long, healthy bird walks into other topics both relevant and irrelevant as we make our way through those thoughts. We also dive deep into the New Oxford edition’s notes on AYLI (because it gets real sexist real quick) and attempt to unravel the printing myst…

1
Taming of the Shrew 201 58:36

2+ y ago58:36

58:36

Today’s episode tackles one issue and one issue only, and that is to refute the assertion that The Taming of the Shrew is about “romance” (whatever the F that means). We examine a variation in the text between First Folio printing and several modern editions that seem to either soften or double down on Petruchio’s “domination” of Katherine, and eve…

1
Spanish Tragedy 201 1:02:48

2+ y ago1:02:48

1:02:48

Today we put on our teacher hats and model the kind of thinking we ask our students to do. After a four-year hiatus, we return to Thomas Kyd’s ur-revenge tragedy that started them all, The Spanish Tragedy, to discuss how the F*ck we’re supposed to unpack it for 21st century learners. Jess starts with examining the difference between revenge and jus…

1
Tempest 301 1:05:05

2+ y ago1:05:05

1:05:05

Sometimes when you think you have nothing to say about a play, it turns out you still have a sh*t-ton to say. Today’s 301 episode revisits The Tempest, and we ask the question - what is its genre, really, and also why this play now? Jess posits that maybe The Tempest would feel a little more cathartic at the end if it were staged more like a reveng…

1
201 Roulette! 58:51

2+ y ago58:51

58:51

SURPRISE! You thought you were getting a Love’s Labour’s episode but we had a last minute change of plans. Instead, we opted for something new, a way to get a bunch of plays into a 201-ish discussion without dedicating an episode to each individual one (because, tbh, we’re down to the dregs - mostly plays we just don’t wanna talk about anymore). So…

1
Henriad 201 1:05:19

2+ y ago1:05:19

1:05:19

This episode is a Hurly Burly first, both because we’re rolling 201 content for three plays - 1 & 2 Henry IV and Henry V - all into one episode, but also because we have a MAJOR SCOOP in ShakesBubble Gossip that you get to hear all about here first! The endlessly charming Brandon Carter joins us to talk about tackling the arc of the first Henriad a…

1
Hamlet 202: Interred With Their Bones 1:09:23

2+ y ago1:09:23

1:09:23

In our second ever 202 episode (reserved for a Shakespeare adaptation or adjacent work), we take you through the suspenseful and sometimes bemusing and frustrating plot of Jennifer Lee Carrell’s mystery thriller Interred With Their Bones. We give you a plot and character synopsis as well as all the Shakespearean easter eggs you can handle, with jus…

1
Midsummer 301 1:07:17

2+ y ago1:07:17

1:07:17

It’s not enough to talk to one Bottom about being Nick Bottom, we needed at least 2: utter delights and all-around good humans (and actors) Topher Embry and Gregory Jon Phelps join us to talk about what they love (and hate) about A Midsummer Night’s Dream, playing Bottom and other characters, and so much more. It’s a shenanigan roller coaster for t…

1
Knight of the Burning Pestle 101 1:03:20

2+ y ago1:03:20

1:03:20

This week we bring you not one but TWO guest experts to tell us why our tepid feelings about Beaumont's Knight of the Burning Pestle are just plain wrong, Emily Lathrop and Sawyer Kemp. Emily and Sawyer jump right in and not only deliver hot takes about Pestle, they also give us the goods in our Happy Hour and Gossip segments, and grace us with the…

1
Atheist's Tragedy 101 54:57

2+ y ago54:57

54:57

You’re definitely not ready for Cyril Tourneur’s tour de force, The Atheist’s Tragedy: a tragicomedy (?) about the machinations of a dastardly atheist and his terrible family. We bring back all our beloved 101 features for this episode: Meet the Contemporary (spoiler: ol’ Cyril’s kinda boring…); A (sexy and ghoulish) Taste of Text; we summarize the…

1
Comedy of Errors 201 59:49

3y ago59:49

59:49

It’s been sooooooo long since we did a Comedy of Errors episode we nearly forgot it existed. We’re here to fix that today. Today we’re talking about early performances of the play and the great source text mystery! We also bring back another feature we forgot about for a long time: How 2 Grad School! And instead of choosing the topics for that ours…

1
Arden of Faversham 201 1:03:42

3y ago1:03:42

1:03:42

This week we bring in guest Sheila Coursey, Assistant Professor of English at Saint Louis University who works on late medieval and early modern theater and narratives of crime, to talk to us about how she uses Arden of Faversham to engage students in conversations about contemporary true crime narratives. We rabbit hole (just a little) into which …

1
The Old Wife's Tale 101 1:50:24

3y ago1:50:24

1:50:24

SURPRISE! It’s been a hell of a 6-month hiatus and we have sooooooooo much to catch up on (hence the MEGA-EPISODE 2-hour special)! For our Season 5 Premiere, we gathered some brilliant friends to read George Peele’s The Old Wife’s Tale, in full, for your enjoyment. We skipped a few of the usual 101 features to allow time for the reading, but we sti…

1
Friar Bacon & Friar Bungay 101 1:02:02

3+ y ago1:02:02

1:02:02

The votes are in: The Queen’s Men play the fans wanted for our Season 4 finale is Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay! We Meet the Contemporary, Robert Green, and give you all of the underwhelming details of his life and career; we summarize this very strange play and give you a Taste of Text with the iconic Brazen Head scene; we discuss the many staging …

1
Othello 202: American Moor

3+ y ago

—

This is our inaugural 202-style episode, reserved for plays adjacent to or adapted from one of Shakespeare’s, and what better play to start with than Keith Hamilton Cobb’s American Moor! Since it is a “new” play (i.e. one we’ve never discussed before in depth on the pod), we give you some key 101-style features like a dramatis personae, a brief sum…

1
Edward II 101 1:03:25

3+ y ago1:03:25

1:03:25

This week we’re talking about Marlowe’s Edward II, all about King Edward and his boy toy Gaveston and how trying to have your cake and eat it, too, goes very, very wrong for the ill-fated monarch. We celebrate a queer author for our Happy Hour; we re-introduce you to the very queer Christopher Marlowe in Meet the Contemporary; we read a rather prog…

1
Shakespeare's Sonnets 101 1:06:00

3+ y ago1:06:00

1:06:00

By your powers combined (aka the multiple emails we received requesting this topic), we bring you a 101 episode on Shakespeare’s Sonnets! In our Taste of Text feature, we read you our favorites (57 and 130) and snippets of a few others; Jess gives us a rundown on the difference between Petrarchan and Shakespearean sonnet style; Aubrey pleads with t…

1
Kim F. Hall-apalooza! 1:01:35

3+ y ago1:01:35

1:01:35

This episode represents a departure from the norm, but hopefully the beginning of a thread of episodes to feature one major scholar and their contributions to the field of Shakespeare studies. Who better to start with than Dr. Kim F. Hall? Dr. Hall’s prolific body of work has impacted the field (and many other fields of study) in so many ways that …

1
Yorkshire Tragedy 101 1:16:09

3+ y ago1:16:09

1:16:09

It’s our ONE HUNDREDTH EPISODE EXTRAVAGANZAAAAAAA!!! To celebrate, we brought in new and returning friends of the pod, Charlie Bell, Courtney Parker, Molly Seremet, Patrick Harris, and Sawyer Kemp to read Thomas Middleton’s Yorkshire Tragedy in its entirety, purely for your listening pleasure. This week, you get your Summary, Taste of Text, and Tip…

1
Insatiate Countess 101 1:04:13

3+ y ago1:04:13

1:04:13

So there’s this Countess, and she’s horny AF…and thus begins Marston’s The Insatiate Countess. We dish a little happy with some signal boosts in our Happy Hour segment; we tell you everything we know about John Marston and the other writers who had a hand in this text in our Meet the Contemporary feature; our Taste of Text is extra tasty because th…

1
Lear 301 59:50

3+ y ago59:50

59:50

In this episode we give you a run down of all the other versions of the King Lear (or Leir) story that have existed before and after Shakespeare wrote his own version. The Queen’s Men had one, Nahum Tate adapted one, as did William Charles Macready. We also list some Shakespeare-themed gift ideas for your holiday shopping list, gossip a little, and…

1
1 Henry VI 201 55:49

3+ y ago55:49

55:49

We return to the War of the Roses with this 201 dive into 1 Henry VI, a history play that even Jess likes. We learn all about the real St. Joan of Arc and how her story and image got twisted to conform to English propaganda and the patriarchy (eye roll), and Aubrey illuminates the moment between Margaret and Suffolk in act 5 that demands to be deli…

1
The White Devil 101 1:01:24

3+ y ago1:01:24

1:01:24

In our first 101 episode in…a while…we take a minute to remind you of who the F* John Webster even is (spoiler: he’s the creepy, dirty, mouse torturer from “The Documentary” Shakespeare In Love); we give you a good old-fashioned short-is summary; we bring you A Taste of Text (and some dumbshows) from The White Devil; Jess and Aubrey each pose some …

1
A Queen's Men Romp! 48:41

4y ago48:41

48:41

This episode is a little different from the norm - come with us as we explore the wild world of early modern playing companies! What were they? Why were they? Who were they? And other W words as well. Our look at the Queen’s Men (aka the all-star troupe of actors commanded by Her Majesty) will set us up for the rest of the season, throughout which …

1
Cymbeline 201 53:25

4y ago53:25

53:25

IN A WORLD full of pandemic podcasts…Whamlet makes our triumphant return with our Season 4 premiere: CYMBELINE 201! We introduce a new feature: Happy Hour; we talk about the evil queen trope and the Cymbeline’s Celtic “roots” in pre-Roman king Cunobelin; we shamelessly self-promote our other current projects and generally revel in reuniting for wha…

1
Season 4 Announcement! 2:21

4y ago2:21

2:21

Did you miss us? We missed YOU! We return from our LOOOONNGGG summer break with a vengeance on October 5, 2020. We have so many (good) surprises in store, Season 4 promises to be our best yet. See you October 5!By Whamlet

1
Clyomon & Clamydes 101 1:04:25

4y ago1:04:25

1:04:25

For our Season 3 grand finale, we would love to introduce you to Clyomon and Clamydes, the bro-nemies that predate all others of this period and whose play is nothing by rhyming fourteeners. We re-meet the contemporary, that prolific Anonymous, “waltz” our way through a summary, and give you a Taste of Text you will never forget. Jess also delivers…

1
Bonus: Secret Werewolf 6:58

4+ y ago6:58

6:58

Favorite guest expert and fellow #LadyAcademic Molly Seremet returns to talk to us about why Fletcher and Massinger’s goofy pirate collabo, The Sea Voyage, should be on everyone’s “must” list. We introduce you to the elusive and myste”By Whamlet

1
Sea Voyage 101 57:23

4+ y ago57:23

57:23

Favorite guest expert and fellow #LadyAcademic Molly Seremet returns to talk to us about why Fletcher and Massinger’s goofy pirate collabo, The Sea Voyage, should be on everyone’s “must” list. We introduce you to the elusive and mysterious (and neckless) Philip Massinger in our Meet the Contemporary segment; we read a smidge of Act 2, scene 1 for A…

1
Jovial Crew 101 48:14

4+ y ago48:14

48:14

The characters in Richard Brome’s play A Jovial Crew do exactly what most of us cannot in this ‘Rona Age: they go cavorting about in large groups! In Public! So we use this play to get out a little cabin fever of our own. We invite you to Meet the Contemporary, Richard Brome, about whom the only thing we really know for sure is that he was Ben Jons…

1
Duchess of Malfi 101 59:50

4+ y ago59:50

59:50

Welcome to the werewolf-filled world of Webster’s Duchess of Malfi (#alliteration)! In Meet the Contemporary we tell you what we know about that guy John Webster (not much); we go a little long in the summary but that’s only because the play itself is sooooooo long; we read murderous moment in A Taste of Text; Jess reads from a real-life German acc…

1
The Alchemist 101 53:23

4+ y ago53:23

53:23

This week we pay our obligatory respects to Ben Jonson and his insanely relevant comedy The Alchemist. We give you a brief biography of the famously pugnacious playwright in our Meet the Contemporary segment, summarize this very long play for you, and give you a Taste of Text with a reading of Act 1, scene 1. We decided to forego a game this time b…

1
Fair Maid of the West 101 51:05

4+ y ago51:05

51:05

We’re not gonna lie…#coronavirus got us like WTF and we talk about it before diving into Thomas Heywood’s Fair Maid of the West. We shout out some resources for getting your artsy fartsy fix online while you’re practicing social distancing and STAYING THE F*K AT HOME AND WASHING YOUR HANDS. We summarize the play for you and give you A Taste of Text…

1
Titus Andronicus 201 56:39

4+ y ago56:39

56:39

Today we ask you to lean into discomfort as we tackle the fraught issue of race in Titus Andronicus. We give you some thoughts from prevailing scholars on the subject, as well as a few approaches for this play in your classroom, and we also talk about Ira Aldridge’s contribution to the play (and to theatre in general) in the 19th century.…

1
Women Beware Women 101 44:36

4+ y ago44:36

44:36

Women, beware those women! A solid title and admonition, no? We take you step by step through Thomas Middleton’s gruesome tragedy, Women Beware Women, with a summary, a Taste of Text, and more than you ever wanted to know about the significance of chess in the play. We also play a round of F*k, Marry, Kill (just in case you were looking for some da…

1
Tis Pity 101 53:35

4+ y ago53:35

53:35

If you love incest plots, you’re in luck! John Ford’s immortal Tis Pity She’s a Whore is the Romeo and Juliet of incestuous, misbegotten, star-crossed love. We tell you what little we know of Ford in Meet the Contemporary; we give you a rather complete and detailed summary; we read Act 5, scene 5 for A Taste of Text; and we play the Playlist game w…

1
Winter's Tale 301 58:25

4+ y ago58:25

58:25

In this in-depth 301 episode, we dive right into the strange little mind of David Garrick, the famous 18th century Shakespeare actor and super-fan, and his adaptation of The Winter’s Tale: “Florizel and Perdita.” We read a few scenes side-by-side for you from Shakespeare and Garrick so you can judge for yourself who did it better. Equally important…

1
Maid's Tragedy 101 54:38

4+ y ago54:38

54:38

This episode is all about the AMAZING Beau-Fletch collabo The Maid’s Tragedy! We love this play sooooo much, so we start by Meeting the Contemporaries and tell you all about Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher’s epic, early modern bro-mance; we give you a Taste of Text (and a great “your mom” joke); Aubrey plays a round of Line Roulette; and we have…

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Aubrey Whitlock And Jess Hamlet Podcasts

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