Darren Freebury-Jones's fascinating new book, Shakespeare’s Borrowed Feathers: How early modern playwrights shaped the world’s greatest writer, contextualizes Shakespeare’s writing and examines how it expands upon and diverges from the other plays being written at the time. In this fun conversation, Darren, a lecturer in Shakespeare Studies in Stratford-upon-Avon, considers alternate ways of identifying Shakespeare’s artistry; dispels the myth of Shakespeare as a solitary genius; likens this kind of early modern study to examining the output of a single band’s music without reference to other bands making music at the same time; and reveals how Shakespeare, as part of a thriving theatrical community, was less an upstart crow than a brilliant magpie. CONTENT WARNING: There will be math(s). (Length 24:28)