The true identity of the person who wrote Shakespeare's plays has long been debated. At least 87 potential authors - from Daniel Defoe to Sir Francis Drake to Anne Hathaway to Sheikh Zubar - have been proposed as candidates, but all of these proposals suffer from the same problem - they don't quite fit the historical facts and so have to be stretched, ill fitting, to even be considered. Only one of the theories seems to make sense in context of history and biography, and it is that the true author of the plays was Sir Thomas North, soldier, lawyer, and translator. Returning guest Dennis McCarthy is joined by journalist Michael Blanding and author Derek Hunter for a conversation about uncovering the true identity of Shakespeare, the life and times of Thomas North, and the tangled thread of politics, philosophy, and liberty that stretches from the printing press to ChatGPT by way of the Old Globe.

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Support the podcast by buying Michael Blanding, Dennis McCarthy, and Dennis Hunter's books:

North by Shakespeare: https://amzn.to/4a3xp4n

Thomas North, the Original Author of Shakespeare's Plays: https://amzn.to/3wF1nNx

Anonymous Agnostic Antichrist: https://amzn.to/3v17rj7

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(00:00) Go!

(00:03:22) The man & the myth

(00:16:08) Repurposing of ancient tales

(00:29:27) Conventional Shakespeare Story

(00:49:11) Lost Plays of Other Authors

(01:04:39) Ressurection of ancient mythology

(01:10:25) Theory without a home

(01:19:41) Thowing out the good with the bad

(01:23:33) Cycles of secular idealism

(01:42:42) Telling theory in fiction

(01:49:46) Essex rebellion

(02:04:20) How to move the needle?

(02:16:48) Modern renaissance in the future?

(02:28:22) Pendulum of history

(02:30:46) Where to find more

#Shakespeare #authorshipdebate #SirThomasNorth #DennisMcCarthy #MichaelBlanding #DerekHunter #history #biography #literature #myths

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PODCAST INFO: Anastasia completed her PhD studying bioelectricity at Columbia University. When not talking to brilliant people or making movies, she spends her time painting, reading, and guiding backcountry excursions. Shilo also did his PhD at Columbia studying the elastic properties of molecular water. When he's not in the film studio, he's exploring sound in music. They are both freelance professors at various universities.

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