Best Salt Institute for Documentary Studies Podcasts (2024)

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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…

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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…

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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…

1
Richard II Part 1 - The Story 24:04

2y ago24:04

24:04

Richard II is at once a masterwork of poetry and a bloody account of political plotting. In the 1590s, Shakespeare wrote a series of eight plays based on English chronicle history. Richard II is the first play chronologically in that series, telling the story of a king whose fall helped set in motion the political contentions and civil wars for dec…

1
Troilus and Cressida Part 2 - The Sources and the Legend 27:38

2y ago27:38

27:38

Part 2 begins with a closer examination of the play’s major sources, especially Homer’s Iliad, a story of war, and the medieval poet Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde, a story of love. It goes to examine how Shakespeare undermines these literary traditions, particularly by showing the overlap of love and war in this play — how erotic relationships bec…

1
Troilus and Cressida Part 3 - The Language 29:32

2y ago29:32

29:32

Part 3 features close-readings of three key speeches that uniquely reflect the corruption and cynicism of this play-world – either in lamenting it, or increasing it. Speeches and Performers: Ulysses, Act 1, “Troy, yet upon his basis, had been down …” (Rob Myles) Ulysses, Act 1, “The great Achilles, whom opinion crowns …” (Rob Myles) Pandarus, Act 5…

1
Troilus and Cressida Part 1 - The Story 27:07

2y ago27:07

27:07

The story of the Trojan War is one of the oldest in Western civilization. Famously recounted by the ancient Greek poet Homer and the classical Roman poet Virgil, it was told and retold throughout the European Middle Ages and Renaissance. Many Troy traditions were available to Shakespeare when he set out to write his own Trojan tale – and in this sh…

1
The Merry Wives of Windsor Part 2 - The Characters and the Place 22:57

2y ago22:57

22:57

Part 2 takes a closer look at Falstaff, the jealous husband Master Ford, and the wives Mistress Page and Mistress Ford. It also discusses the aspects of the play that are attracting new attention from scholars and audiences today: the play’s realistic English setting, its engagement with the rise of the middle class, and the ‘proto-feminism’ we gli…

1
The Merry Wives of Windsor Part 1 - The Story 22:48

2y ago22:48

22:48

The Merry Wives of Windsor has an unusual status among Shakespeare’s comedies: long dismissed by critics, long beloved by audiences. The only one of Shakespeare’s plays to be set in a recognizably contemporary England, the play tells the story of two witty, confident, women who set a revenge plot in motion when they are propositioned by Sir John Fa…

1
The Merry Wives of Windsor Part 3 - The Language 22:25

2y ago22:25

22:25

Part 3 features close-readings of several significant speeches from Falstaff, Ford, and Mistress Page. We explore how the play creates its comedy, as well as how Shakespeare introduces an undertone of darkness in the sexual jealousy he would go on to explore in later tragedies. Speeches and Performers: Mistress Page, Act 1, “What have I ’scaped lov…

1
Henry IV 1 Part 3 - The Language 27:01

2y ago27:01

27:01

Part 3 features close-readings of seven of the play’s most significant scenes and speeches. We trace the arc of Hal’s transformation throughout the play, from his first intention to “redeem[] time” to the thwarted realization of his intentions in the play’s climactic battle scene. We also share key moments with Henry IV, Falstaff, Hotspur, and Hots…

1
Henry IV 1 Part 2 - The Characters 26:17

2y ago26:17

26:17

Part 2 delves further into Hal’s intention to “redeem[ the] time.” It examines the competing value systems that Henry IV, Hotspur, and Falstaff represent, where their strengths lie and where they reveal unexpected limitations, and shows how Hal makes use of all these people – sometimes lovingly, sometimes ruthlessly - to shape himself as a leader. …

1
Henry IV 1 Part 1 - The Story 25:37

2y ago25:37

25:37

Henry IV Part 1 has long been one of Shakespeare’s most beloved history plays. In the 1590s, Shakespeare wrote a series of eight plays based on English chronicle history. This play is named for Henry IV, who deposed Richard II to become king in 1399. But the most captivating characters for many readers prove to be Sir John Falstaff and Henry IV’s s…

1
The Fight Back 19:39

3y ago19:39

19:39

For more than 150 years, Native tribes have been considered nations within a nation. But in Maine, the situation is far more complicated. Maine has restricted the rights of the tribes within its borders more than any other state. And the hardest thing is, the tribes in Maine agreed to this. 40 years ago… when they signed a deal to give away some of…

1
A Deal Not Done 22:06

3y ago22:06

22:06

Throughout this podcast series, we’ve been talking about how the tribes of Maine signed away some of their sovereign powers in the 1980 settlement act. That is, except for the Micmacs, Richard’s tribe. The Micmac’s never signed onto the settlement act. But, not putting pen to paper is only half the story. Because the real question is: Were they bet…

1
Maine Land 22:13

3y ago22:13

22:13

For around a hundred years in this country, native tribes have been considered nations within a nation. But in Maine the situation is way more complicated. Maine has restricted the rights of the tribes within its borders more than any other state. And here’s the kicker… the tribes signed off on this agreement. In this episode of Sovereign we ask: W…

1
The Back of the Line 18:05

3y ago18:05

18:05

Sovereignty is the right of a people to govern themselves and make their own decisions. The tribes in Maine have always said they are inherently sovereign. But the powers of sovereignty, like the ability to make and enforce laws, can be taken away. The tribes in Maine have way fewer powers of sovereignty than an average tribal nation in the US.Brou…

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Trailer 1:48

3y ago1:48

1:48

Coming soon from the Salt Institute for Documentary StudiesBy Isaac Kestenbaum

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Shakespeare's Sonnets Part 3 30:20

3y ago30:20

30:20

Part 3 starts with a discussion of general reading strategies to help you discover the poetic techniques and insights of any individual sonnet. It concludes with a close-reading of three sonnets from Professor Michael Schoenfeldt that show the extraordinary range of tone, emotion, and perspective in Shakespeare’s poems. Speeches and performers: Son…

1
Shakespeare's Sonnets Part 2 25:03

3y ago25:03

25:03

Part 2 focuses closely on the two major “characters” to whom the sonnets are addressed: a beautiful young man, and a woman described as black. You’ll learn how the speaker represents his relationship to these figures and his desire for them, and what significance those relationships might have had in Shakespeare’s culture, as Professor Michael Scho…

1
Shakespeare's Sonnets Part 1 20:52

3y ago20:52

20:52

The sonnet — a 14-line poem with a strict rhyme scheme, conventionally associated with love — was one of the most popular poetic forms in late Elizabethan England. In 1609, Shakespeare published a sequence of 154 sonnets that radically reimagined the question of what love can mean, including the question of who one might desire and what the experie…

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The Tempest Part 2: Characters and Questions 22:40

3y ago22:40

22:40

With Professor Laurie Maguire, Part 2 explores the play’s many ambiguities — its uncertain geography, mental space, and genre — and how they reflect the play’s ethical ambiguities. Does Prospero contrast with or resemble the “foul witch” who was Caliban’s mother, or the brother who betrayed him for the sake of power? Is he a figure of spiritual reg…

1
The Tempest Part 1: The Story 22:42

3y ago22:42

22:42

The Tempest, one of the last plays Shakespeare wrote, draws on themes and stories that fascinated him throughout his career while also taking his art form to unexpected new places. Set in the course of a single day on a magical island, the play focuses on a magician named Prospero who plots to punish the enemies who exiled him to the island 12 year…

1
The Tempest Part 3: The Language 27:00

3y ago27:00

27:00

Part 3 features close-readings from Professor Laurie Maguire of some of the play’s key speeches: Caliban’s extraordinarily lyrical description of the island; Prospero’s beautiful and disturbing evocation of theatre, and perhaps the world, coming to an end; and Prospero’s renunciation of his magic. Speeches and performers: Caliban, 3.2, “Be not afea…

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Romeo and Juliet Part 3: The Language 30:40

3y ago30:40

30:40

In Part 3, Professor Simon Palfrey offers close-readings of some of the play’s most significant scenes. You’ll hear the play’s dark energies emerge through Mercutio’s speech about “Queen Mab”; see how Juliet discovers a new, eroticized vision of the world and of herself as she awaits her wedding night, and witness one of the most iconic scenes in l…

1
Romeo and Juliet Part 2: Characters and Questions 21:15

3y ago21:15

21:15

With Professor Simon Palfrey, Part 2 looks closely at the play’s characters, and especially at the intelligence and swiftness of Juliet. You’ll see how the lovers apprehend new possibilities of human life, but also how their social world constrains their possibilities; and how the play might seem to offer the possibility of comedy, but how it’s des…

1
Romeo and Juliet Part 1: The Story 23:18

3y ago23:18

23:18

Children of families who are locked in a fatal feud, Romeo and Juliet risk community, identity, and life to pursue an all-consuming love. Today, Romeo and Juliet is one of the most famous love stories in the world. But the play isn’t simply a celebration of love or an idealization of the lovers. This wild and dangerous play lays bare the link betwe…

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