When William Shakespeare died in Stratford Upon Avon England in 1616, the world lost an incredible soul that would far outlast his 52 years. But how did the greatest playwright die? And why was he not buried alongside other great playwrights of his stature at Westminster Abbey? Here to take us back to 1616 and walk us through the myths, the legend and the facts about Shakespeare's death is our guest Darren Freebury Jones.

William Shakespeare grew up functioning as the oldest of his five siblings, with his parents losing two children before William was born. The stories of his brothers and sisters are brief, but as you might expect from the life of William Shakespeare, they are full of intrigue, mystery, and mirth. Here today to share with us the stories of Shakespeare siblings is our guest, David Kathman.

When it comes to Food in Shakespeare's England, there were superstitions, recipes, kitchens, and even cooking methods attached to the metaphors Shakespeare intended when he used food references in his works. 

All of this effusive history behind food in early modern England is at the heart of the Folger Shakespeare Library’s latest project caled Before Farm to Table. Our guest this week Elisa Tersigni, the Digital Research Fellow for "Before 'Farm to Table': Early Modern Foodways and Cultures", and she joins us today to share what’s going on at The Folger with this new project, and how we can better understand Shakespeare as a result of what they discovered.

The bard has his own bobble head figurines and his likeness has even been made into emojis and memes here in the 21st century, but how much of this likeness is real and what has posterity simple made up? From the famous Chandos Portrait that was the founding acquisition of England’s National Portrait Gallery, to the Droeshout portrait that graced the front cover of the First Folio in 1623, how many portraits do we have of William Shakespeare and can we really tell what he looked like?

Here to help us get a fresh glimpse into what William Shakespeare looked like is our guest Rachel Dankert.

During William Shakespeare’s lifetime, the central spot for gathering news of the day, purchasing the latest books, or catching up on what’s new from your favorite author, poet, or playwright, was the churchyard outside St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. Frequenter’s to this spot were known as “paul’s walkers” and it was a huge number of walkers indeed that crossed the yard to search the various stalls for literature. There are at least 8 references to St. Paul’s cathedral and it’s reputation for promoting the works of authors like William Shakespeare, to be found inside the plays of the bard and today we have our special guest Amy Lidster, a research fellow at King’s College London here with us to share some of what she has discovered during her work into the Shakespearean history of St. Paul’s Cathedral, and to walk us through how Shakespeare would have been impacted by this remarkable place.