Best Maria Devlin McNair Podcasts (2024)

1
The Enemy of Morality Is Not Modernity, It’s Me 44:20

7M ago44:20

44:20

The great English essayist and linguist Samuel Johnson was writing during the Enlightenment – the period some historians identify as the beginning of the modern age. American author and philosopher David Foster Wallace worked more than two centuries later, in the “post-modern” style. But these two writers shared a common problem: once modernity fra…

1
A Genealogy of Gun Violence 51:21

8M ago51:21

51:21

The problem of gun violence is as old as guns themselves. According to historian Priya Satia, America’s present epidemic of gun violence has its roots in the industrial revolution. Satia tells the story of British gun-maker Samuel Galton, Jr., who was called to task by his Quaker community for manufacturing rifles. As a professed pacifist, Galton h…

1
A Medieval Anti-Racist 52:09

8M ago52:09

52:09

What if racism shared an origin with opposition to racism? What if the condemnation of injustice gave rise both to an early form of anti-racism and to the racial hierarchies that haunt the modern era? Rolena Adorno, David Orique, María Cristina Ríos Espinosa tell the story of how Bartolomé de las Casas, a Dominican missionary to New Spain, came to …

1
Picturing Race in Colonial Mexico 1:00:06

8M ago1:00:06

1:00:06

Race is sometimes treated as a biological fact. It is actually a modern invention. But for this concept to gain power, its logic had to be spread – and made visible. Art historian Ilona Katzew tells the story of how Spanish colonists of modern-day Mexico developed theories of blood purity and used the casta paintings – featuring family groups with …

1
Jamestown and the Myth of the Sovereign Family 45:28

8M ago45:28

45:28

What is the “traditional American family?” Popular images from the colonial and pioneer past suggest an isolated and self-sufficient nuclear family as the center of American identity and the source of American strength. But the idea of early American self-sufficiency is a myth. Caro Pirri tells the story of the precarious Jamestown settlement and h…

1
What Is Genealogy? 45:49

8M ago45:49

45:49

Genealogy, in Charles Darwin’s terms, is the study of “descent with modification.” Taken as an analogy for the study of history, genealogy can guard against the potential dangers of claiming modernity. Against the effort to erase the past, genealogy asserts that our ancestry will always be with us. Against the effort to master the past, genealogy r…

1
What Is Modernity? 36:01

8M ago36:01

36:01

We often think of modernity as a distinct time period in history – one that is said to start at different places, but which always includes us. Yet people have been claiming to be modern since at least the third century BC. Harvard scholar Michael Puett takes us back to ancient China, when a series of emperors laid claim to modernity in order to co…

1
Climbing the Mountains of Modernity 46:03

8M ago46:03

46:03

We all know many stories about how modernity came about. But what does it mean to be “modern?” This episode comes at the question through the test case of mountain climbing and rock climbing. Claims to becoming modern through climbing often point back to Italian humanist Francesco Petrarch’s ascent of Mt. Ventoux in 1336, a climb that made him, acc…

1
Antony and Cleopatra Part 3 - The Language 35:04

2y ago35:04

35:04

Part 3 features close-readings of three key scenes in which Antony and Cleopatra articulate their cosmic self-conceptions in language so transcendent that it helps transform their vision into reality. Speeches and Performers: Enobarbus, Act 2, “The barge she sat in …” (Andrew Woddall) Antony, Act 4, “I will o’ertake thee, Cleopatra …” (Scott Ripley…

1
Antony and Cleopatra Part 2 - The Language 27:21

2y ago27:21

27:21

Part 2 explores the play’s varied and conflicting perspectives on its leading characters. From the Roman point of view, Antony and Cleopatra are figures who fall from greatness, and their story is a tragedy or even, at times, farce; but from other points of view, Antony and Cleopatra represent a kind of success that could scarcely be achieved or ev…

1
Antony and Cleopatra Part 1 - The Story 26:21

2y ago26:21

26:21

Antony and Cleopatra, the last of Shakespeare’s Roman plays, is an epic story that begins with the material of politics and history but expands into the realm of romance, poetry, and myth. Following the events of Julius Caesar – Caesar’s assassination and the triumph of Mark Antony and Octavius Caesar in the resulting civil wars – Antony and Caesar…

1
Titus Andronicus Part 3 - The Language 41:00

2y ago41:00

41:00

Part 3 features close-readings of several significant scenes that show how religion, race, and literary tradition function within the violent world of Titus Andronicus and sometimes provoke that violence. Speeches and Performers: Titus, Marcus, and Publius, Act 4, “Terras Astraea reliquit …” (Jonathan Oliver) Aaron, Lucius, and the Goths, Act 5, “A…

1
Titus Andronicus Part 2 - The Characters 27:29

2y ago27:29

27:29

Part 2 opens with a discussion of the place of Rome in Renaissance culture. It then analyzes the Roman classical sources – sources his audience knew well – that Shakespeare uses to construct his plot, and how Shakespeare’s use of those sources calls their moral values into question. It goes on to discuss the elements of the play that have generated…

1
Titus Andronicus Part 1 - The Story 26:48

2y ago26:48

26:48

Shakespeare wrote numerous plays and poems engaged with ancient Roman history. Shakespeare’s Renaissance culture had ancient Rome as its foundation stone. Roman language and literature were at the heart of English Renaissance education, and Rome was held up as a model for English civilization. But in Titus Andronicus, the earliest of his Roman work…

1
Cymbeline Part 2 - The Characters 26:06

2y ago26:06

26:06

Part 2 begins with a discussion of the sexual violence and jealousy depicted in the play. It goes on to examine how the play’s sprawling romance plot represents, in symbolic but recognizable form, origin stories for some significant historical phenomena: Britain’s own monarchy, the Renaissance culture of Europe, and what would have been for Shakesp…

1
Cymbeline Part 3 - The Language 37:54

2y ago37:54

37:54

Part 3 features close-readings of three key speeches that reflect together the central structuring element of the story: how characters fall in order to rise. Speeches and Performers: Iachimo, Act 2, “The crickets sing …” (Mark Quartley and Donald Sumpter) Imogen, Act 3, “Why, I must die…” (Gabrielle Sheppard) Posthumus, Act 5, “Yea, bloody cloth…”…

1
Cymbeline Part 1 - The Story 25:25

2y ago25:25

25:25

Cymbeline is an epic romance that spans British history, the Roman Empire, religious epochs, and the central themes of Shakespeare’s career. Set in ancient Britain at the time of Augustus Caesar’s reign, it begins with two plotlines that in other of Shakespeare’s plays lead to tragedy: an enraged king disowns a beloved daughter, and a faithful wife…

1
All's Well That Ends Well Part 3 - The Language 25:28

2y ago25:28

25:28

Part 3 features close-readings of three key speeches from Helen that reveal her own mingled virtues and flaws and the “remedies” she hopes to find. Speeches and Performers: Helen, Act 1, “O, were that all! …” (Amanda Harris) Helen, Act 1, “Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie …” (Maya Smoot) Helen, Acts 3 and 4, “Why then tonight … Yet, I pray you …

1
All's Well That Ends Well Part 2 - The Characters 26:07

2y ago26:07

26:07

Part 2 discusses the play’s most significant images, of sickness and death, of medicine, and grace. It asks how these themes are reflected in the complicated relationship between Helen and Bertram, focusing particularly on the deceptive plot that Helen uses to secure him in the “dark house” that becomes a place of mystery and renewal. The episode g…

1
All's Well That Ends Well Part 1 - The Story 25:45

2y ago25:45

25:45

All’s Well That Ends Well reverses the usual fairy-tale trope and depicts a young woman on a quest to win a man. Helen, an extraordinary character with elements of the modern professional and the medieval saint, sets out to secure Bertram, a nobleman, for her husband. But the fairy tale plot is further reversed when Helen appears to win Bertram, on…

1
Love's Labours Lost Part 3 - The Langauge 24:05

2y ago24:05

24:05

Part 3 features close-readings of three key speeches from Berowne, the most reflective of the lords. Taken from the beginning, middle, and end of the play, these speeches chart his imperfect but growing awareness of ideals beyond the “fame” that comes from study. Speeches and Performers: Berowne, Act 1, “I can but say their protestation over …” (Es…

1
Love's Labours Lost Part 2 - The Characters 24:01

2y ago24:01

24:01

Part 2 discusses both the play’s humor and its serious engagement with Renaissance culture, especially the humanist-style program of education that the lords pursue. This Renaissance model inspired many of the educational programs we continue today, but as the episode discusses, the play questions what goals lie behind the Renaissance ideal: does i…

1
Love's Labours Lost Part 1 - The Story 23:21

2y ago23:21

23:21

Love’s Labours Lost is one of Shakespeare’s funniest comedies and at the same time one of his most morally serious. The King of Navarre and three of his lords vow to spend three rigorous years studying and fasting – and isolating themselves from women. But no sooner are the vows made than four noblewomen of France turn up and tempt the men to break…

1
Coriolanus Part 3 - The Language 33:20

2y ago33:20

33:20

Part 3 features close-readings of four key speeches and scenes that set out the play’s central dilemma, as they speak for a cooperative political community and the elite warrior ideal that Coriolanus is meant to embody. Speeches and Performers: Menenius, citizens, and Martius, Act 1, “I shall tell you a pretty tale …” (David Collins) Volumnia and V…

1
Coriolanus Part 2 - The Characters 24:44

2y ago24:44

24:44

Part 2 begins with a discussion of those political questions – who should have power in a political community? Is power a right or a reward? – and how they are reflected in the play’s imagery. It goes on to explore the paradoxes within the values of Rome and how Coriolanus reveals and struggles with those paradoxes. It concludes by examining the su…

1
Coriolanus Part 1 - The Story 22:24

2y ago22:24

22:24

The culmination of Shakespeare’s career writing Roman history plays and plays of war, Coriolanus is a searing, relentless story about what happens when a culture gets what it wants. Coriolanus is the elite soldier who’s been shaped by his mother and by his Roman culture to value military service, valor, and honor above all else. But when he’s rejec…

1
Measure For Measure Part 2 - The Characters 26:40

2y ago26:40

26:40

Part 2 begins with the dark patterns of imagery in the play to examine the play’s close proximity to tragedy. It goes on, however, to discuss how the lead characters of Isabella and the Duke function as political protestors or activists undertaking a quest for social reform. This episode culminates in an analysis of how the play adopts a “transcend…

1
Measure For Measure Part 3 - The Language 38:57

2y ago38:57

38:57

Part 3 features actors’ renditions of two key scenes from the play between Isabella and Angelo, the seemingly virtuous but hypocritical governor, with commentary that tracks how the characters commit themselves in these scenes to integrity or evil. Speeches and Performers: Isabella and Angelo, Act 2, “You’re welcome. What’s your will? ...” and “How…

1
Measure For Measure Part 1 - The Story 25:20

2y ago25:20

25:20

Measure for Measure is a comedy that goes places most comedies don’t go. Like other comedies, it ends with marriages, social reconciliation, and the promise of new life. But along the way, love, sexuality, and procreation are linked more closely to death than to life. Measure for Measure confronts the besetting sins of human nature – greed, love of…

1
The Taming of the Shrew Part 3 - The Language 32:22

2y ago32:22

32:22

Part 3 features close-readings of two key speeches, one from Petruchio and one from Katherine. These speeches are performed in two different ways: as originally written, and with the gender pronouns reversed as they were in the 2019 RSC production of Taming, whose lead actors perform the speeches. These double performances help us reflect on our ow…

1
The Taming of the Shrew Part 2 - The Characters 23:29

2y ago23:29

23:29

Part 2 begins by exploring the Katherine-Petruchio relationship in greater depth, examining the most positive and the most negative possible interpretations of it and the different ways of understanding the “taming” plot. It goes on to discuss how Shakespeare’s first audiences might have reacted to the play (and why they might not have reacted in t…

1
The Taming of the Shrew Part 1 - The Story 22:49

2y ago22:49

22:49

The Taming of the Shrew is one of Shakespeare’s most controversial and ambiguous comedies. Written in the early 1590s, it purports to tell the story of how a “shrew,” the strong-willed Katherine, is “tamed” by the even stronger-willed fortune hunter Petruchio. Petruchio marries Katherine and, in the eyes of onlookers, seem to “kill[] her in her own…

1
Richard II Part 3 - The Language 36:44

2y ago36:44

36:44

Part 3 features close-readings of several significant speeches and scenes. We hear from Richard’s opponents and from Richard himself as he narrates his way – dazzlingly – into his new tragic identity. Speeches and Performers: John of Gaunt, Act 2, “Methinks I am a prophet …” (Anton Lesser) Richard II, Act 3, “For God’s sake, let us sit upon the gro…

1
Richard II Part 2 - The Characters 24:19

2y ago24:19

24:19

Part 2 explores the play’s language and imagery and how it reflects the political plot. It discusses the political strategies and goals of Bolingbroke and Richard to ask what the play reveals about power and why Richard seems to gain in power as a literary, tragic figure precisely as he loses power as king – and why Richard seems to desire this tra…

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Maria Devlin McNair Podcasts

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