Friendship, domestic violence, power dynamics in the home, and debates about the ethics of war - all topics we can find in the dramas of Shakespeare. Scholars Emma Smith, Patrick Gray, and Emma Whipday share insights from their research, with Lisa Mullen.

Professor Emma Smith is the author of This is Shakespeare. She has presented the Radio 3 Documentary, First Folio Road Trip - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03s4jm7 - and an Essay called The Art of Storytelling https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07cypjl

Dr Patrick Gray teaches at Durham University, is the author of Shakespeare And The Fall Of The Roman Republic and has co-edited Shakespeare And Renaissance Ethics.

Dr Emma Whipday teaches at the University of Newcastle and has published Shakespeare's Domestic Tragedies: Violence In The Early Modern Home.

You can find a playlist with other discussions about Shakespeare on the Free Thinking programme website - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p06406hm Plus a podcast series with productions of the plays recorded for radio: The Shakespeare Sessions -https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0655br3/episodes/downloads

This episode was made in partnership with the AHRC, part of UKRI.

Producer: Emma Wallace