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On Friday's Football Daily, Phil Egan brings you a full preview of tonight's League of Ireland action - which includes our live game from the RSC where Waterford play Bohemians. We hear from Blues boss John Coleman, Bohs winger Archie Meekison, as well as Stephen Bradley, Jamie Lennon, David Hurley, John Russell, Callum Flynn and more. Liverpool have turned their attentions towards Selhurst Park having practically wrapped up the sale of Jarrell Quansah. And a future Nottingham Forest player fells the Champions League winners in Pasadena.
Waterford made it back-to-back wins over Bohemians at the RSC in OTB's live game, beating the Gypsies by 2-goals to 1. After the game, match commentator Stephen Doyle caught up with the Blues manager John Coleman, his Bohs counterpart Alan Reynolds, and Waterford goalscorer Conan Noonan. LOI on Off The Ball is brought to you Rockshore 0.0 | #ALeagueOfOurOwn
Called “the finest actor of his generation,” Sir Simon Russell Beale has played just about everyone in Shakespeare's canon—Hamlet, Lear, Macbeth, Falstaff, Malvolio, Iago—and most recently, Titus Andronicus, for the Royal Shakespeare Company. In this episode, Beale reflects on the Shakespearean roles that have shaped his career and how his approach to them has evolved over time. He shares what drew him to Titus, and how he found surprising tenderness in Shakespeare's brutal tragedy. The actor revisits past performances, exploring grief in Hamlet, aging and dementia in King Lear, and how time has deepened his connection to the plays and the characters. Beale's memoir, A Piece of Work: Playing Shakespeare & Other Stories, is a moving and often humorous reflection on acting, Shakespeare, and the power of performance to reveal something essential about being human. Sir Simon Russell Beale studied at Cambridge before joining the RSC. Described by the Daily Telegraph as “the finest actor of his generation,” he has been lauded for both his stage and TV work, winning many awards including the Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actor, the Evening Standard Best Actor Award, and the BAFTA Best Actor Award. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast. Published June 17, 2025. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode was produced by Matt Frassica. Garland Scott is the executive producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. We had help with web production from Paola García Acuña. Leonor Fernandez edits our transcripts. Final mixing services are provided by Clean Cuts at Three Seas, Inc.
On today's episode I sit down with TWO spectacular guests, Sideeq Heard and Donathan Walters. We discuss everything from their brand new series "Men Like Us" to their mutual connection of starting their acting careers in the church (Sideeq pushed Jesus and Donathan ate an apple).If you're looking for handmade wooden home decor then my Etsy shop is perfect for you! For a look at my catalog go to: JohnMadWoodworking.Etsy.com You can find more info about my work as an actor and voiceover artist on my website at: www.johnmaddaloni.com Rate and Subscribe to my show on Apple Podcast, Spotify or wherever you're listening to this podcast!Support the show
No Arauto Repórter de hoje, você confere:* Acesso da RSC-287 para BR-471 tem novo bloqueio temporário* Bancos passam a oferecer Pix Automático a partir desta segunda* Prefeitura vai reabrir rua para melhorar acesso à Linha João Alves* Em destaque na segurança pública: Idosa morre atropelada no interior de Santa Cruz
No Arauto Repórter de hoje, você confere:* Acesso da RSC-287 para BR-471 tem novo bloqueio temporário* Bancos passam a oferecer Pix Automático a partir desta segunda* Prefeitura vai reabrir rua para melhorar acesso à Linha João Alves* Em destaque na segurança pública: Idosa morre atropelada no interior de Santa Cruz
On this week's episode of Local Legends, the very last episode of Series 6, Martin is joined around the campfire by award-winning storyteller, performer, author, poet, lyricist, and very nice man, Hugh Lupton!Hugh's career spans over 40 years, both in terms of his solo projects and his partnerships with other artists, writers, musicians, illustrators and performers.As we discussed on Monday's episode, there is a sense in which Hugh is the golden thread that binds together modern British storytelling and several folk traditions, with his glimmer and shine helping to guide the oral tradition into the 21st century.He has, of course, toured both nationally and internationally, and has performed at the RSC, the National Theatre, and the Barbican. His repertoire ranges from Greek epics to the Grimms Fairy Tales, from Norse and Celtic myth to East Anglian folk-tales, and from the Great War to John Clare.Plus, in addition to his award-winning songwriting work, he has also written several excellent books, including Norfolk Folk Tales. You can learn more about Hugh and his work on his website, https://hughlupton.co.uk/, and do check the Diary section - he gets about, so do try to go and see him!For now though, let's gather in close around the Three Ravens campfire, have a sip of whatever's in your nut brown bowl, and listen in, to a chat about the life and work of perhaps the most influential storyteller alive today, the county of Norfolk, and tales such as the Peddlar of Swaffham, Black Shuck, those of fenland folk hero Tom Hickathrift, and so much more, with a true Local Legend: Hugh Lupton!Three Ravens is an English Myth and Folklore podcast hosted by award-winning writers Martin Vaux and Eleanor Conlon.Released on Mondays, each weekly episode focuses on one of England's 39 historic counties, exploring the history, folklore and traditions of the area, from ghosts and mermaids to mythical monsters, half-forgotten heroes, bloody legends, and much, much more. Then, and most importantly, the pair take turns to tell a new version of an ancient story from that county - all before discussing what that tale might mean, where it might have come from, and the truths it reveals about England's hidden past...Bonus Episodes are released on Thursdays plus Local Legends episodes on Saturdays - interviews with acclaimed authors, folklorists, podcasters and historians with unique perspectives on that week's county.With a range of exclusive content on Patreon, too, including audio ghost tours, the Three Ravens Newsletter, and monthly Three Ravens Film Club episodes about folk horror films from across the decades, why not join us around the campfire and listen in?Learn more at www.threeravenspodcast.com, join our Patreon at www.patreon.com/threeravenspodcast, and find links to our social media channels here: https://linktr.ee/threeravenspodcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Hablamos de las estrategias de sostenibilidad de la compañía con Elena Aldana, directora de RSC y Sostenibilidad de Carrefour España.
Jack Herrington, podcaster, software engineer, writer and YouTuber, joins the pod to uncover the truth behind server functions and why they don't actually exist in the web platform. We dive into the magic behind frameworks like Next.js, TanStack Start, and Remix, breaking down how server functions work, what they simplify, what they hide, and what developers need to know to build smarter, faster, and more secure web apps. Links YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@jherr Twitter: https://x.com/jherr Github: https://github.com/jherr ProNextJS: https://www.pronextjs.dev Discord: https://discord.com/invite/KRVwpJUG6p LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jherr Website: https://jackherrington.com Resources Server Functions Don't Exist (It Matters) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPJvlhee04E) We want to hear from you! How did you find us? Did you see us on Twitter? In a newsletter? Or maybe we were recommended by a friend? Let us know by sending an email to our producer, Em, at emily.kochanek@logrocket.com (mailto:emily.kochanek@logrocket.com), or tweet at us at PodRocketPod (https://twitter.com/PodRocketpod). Follow us. Get free stickers. Follow us on Apple Podcasts, fill out this form (https://podrocket.logrocket.com/get-podrocket-stickers), and we'll send you free PodRocket stickers! What does LogRocket do? LogRocket provides AI-first session replay and analytics that surfaces the UX and technical issues impacting user experiences. Start understanding where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com. Try LogRocket for free today. (https://logrocket.com/signup/?pdr) Special Guest: Jack Herrington.
No Arauto Repórter de hoje, você confere:* Nova etapa de obras altera trânsito na RSC-287 nesta semana* Mudança na CNH determina exame toxicológico para primeira habilitação* Semana do Meio Ambiente tem ações ambientais em Santa Cruz * Em destaque na segurança pública: Polícia Federal deflagra operação contra lavagem de dinheiro nos bairros Aliança e Bom Jesus
No Arauto Repórter de hoje, você confere:* Nova etapa de obras altera trânsito na RSC-287 nesta semana* Mudança na CNH determina exame toxicológico para primeira habilitação* Semana do Meio Ambiente tem ações ambientais em Santa Cruz * Em destaque na segurança pública: Polícia Federal deflagra operação contra lavagem de dinheiro nos bairros Aliança e Bom Jesus
No Arauto Repórter de hoje, você confere:* 10 mil santa-cruzenses ainda não declararam o Imposto de Renda * Bloqueios na RSC-287 marcam novo dia de protestos de agricultores* Centro de Bem-Estar Animal realiza feira de adoção neste domingo* Em destaque na segurança pública: Polícia indicia homem que simulou roubo de carro para receber seguro
No Arauto Repórter de hoje, você confere:* 10 mil santa-cruzenses ainda não declararam o Imposto de Renda * Bloqueios na RSC-287 marcam novo dia de protestos de agricultores* Centro de Bem-Estar Animal realiza feira de adoção neste domingo* Em destaque na segurança pública: Polícia indicia homem que simulou roubo de carro para receber seguro
Gincana Municipal e demandas da Amprotabaco e do Conselho de Usuários da RSC-287.
Gincana Municipal e demandas da Amprotabaco e do Conselho de Usuários da RSC-287.
Adam Long, Reed Martin, and Austin Tichenor – the cast of the film version of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) – reminisce about the 2000 filming of the RSC's signature work, and discuss the extraordinary lengths the production went to ensure they were jet-lagged for the entire process. Revelations include the secret cameo from co-author and RSC founding member Daniel Singer; how different actors must play jokes differently; the Spinal Tap observation that relative size is the difference between funny and scary; how to make friends in British and Irish pubs; and how the RSC vibe might best be described as squabbling siblings bound together in a brotherhood of Shakespeare. (Length 21:33) (PICTURED: Reed Martin, Adam Long, and Austin Tichenor enjoying post-show beverages in Shuttleworth's Pub, Charing Cross Road, 1992. Photo by Kent Tichenor.) The post Filming ‘Complete Works' appeared first on Reduced Shakespeare Company.
No Arauto Repórter de hoje, você confere:➡️ Professora da UNISC explica preocupação e detalha riscos a humanos após confirmação de casos de gripe aviária no Estado.➡️ Moradora de Santa Cruz relata vazamento de esgoto em casa após obra pública.➡️ Comercialização da safra de tabaco avança e supera 70 POR CENTO na média dos três estados do sul.➡️ Em destaque na segurança pública: Brigada Militar prende dupla por porte ilegal de arma e uso de CNH falsa na RSC-287 e ainda, faccionado que ameaçava esposa é detido em Santa Cruz.
No Arauto Repórter de hoje, você confere:➡️ Professora da UNISC explica preocupação e detalha riscos a humanos após confirmação de casos de gripe aviária no Estado.➡️ Moradora de Santa Cruz relata vazamento de esgoto em casa após obra pública.➡️ Comercialização da safra de tabaco avança e supera 70 POR CENTO na média dos três estados do sul.➡️ Em destaque na segurança pública: Brigada Militar prende dupla por porte ilegal de arma e uso de CNH falsa na RSC-287 e ainda, faccionado que ameaçava esposa é detido em Santa Cruz.
I was delighted to talk to the historian Helen Castor (who writes The H Files by Helen Castor) about her new book The Eagle and the Hart. I found that book compulsive, and this is one of my favourite interviews so far. We covered so much: Dickens, Melville, Diana Wynne Jones, Hilary Mantel, whether Edward III is to blame for the Wars of the Roses, why Bolingbroke did the right thing, the Paston Letters, whether we should dig up old tombs for research, leaving academia, Elizabeth I, and, of course, lots of Shakespeare. There is a full transcript below.Henry: Is there anything that we fundamentally know about this episode in history that Shakespeare didn't know?Helen: That's an extremely good question, and I'm tempted now to say no.Helen told me what is hardest to imagine about life in the fourteenth century.I think it's relatively easy to imagine a small community or even a city, because we can imagine lots of human beings together, but how relationships between human beings happen at a distance, not just in terms of writing a letter to someone you know, but how a very effective power structure happens across hundreds of miles in the absence of those things is the thing that has always absolutely fascinated me about the late Middle Ages. I think that's because it's hard, for me at least, to imagine.Good news to any publishers reading this. Helen is ready and willing to produce a complete edition of the Paston Letters. They were a bestseller when they were published a hundred years ago, but we are crying out for a complete edition in modern English.Henry: If someone wants to read the Paston Letters, but they don't want to read Middle English, weird spelling, et cetera, is there a good edition that they can use?Helen: Yes, there is an Oxford World's Classic. They're all selected. There isn't a complete edition in modern spelling. If any publishers are listening, I would love to do one. Henry: Yes, let's have it.Helen: Let's have it. I would really, really love to do that.Full TranscriptHenry: Today I am talking to the historian, Helen Castor. Helen is a former fellow of Sydney Sussex College in Cambridge. She has written several books of history. She is now a public historian, and of course, she has a Substack. The H Files by Helen CastorWe are going to talk mostly about her book, The Eagle and the Hart, which is all about Richard II and Henry IV. I found this book compulsive, so I hope you will read it too. Helen, welcome.Helen: Thank you very much for having me, Henry.Henry: You recently read Bleak House.Helen: I did.Henry: What did you think?Helen: I absolutely loved it. It was a long time since I'd read any Dickens. I read quite a lot when I was young. I read quite a lot of everything when I was young and have fallen off that reader's perch, much to my shame. The first page, that description of the London fog, the London courts, and I thought, "Why have I not been doing it for all these years?"Then I remembered, as so often with Dickens, the bits I love and the bits I'm less fond of, the sentimentality, the grotesquerie I'm less fond of, but the humour and the writing. There was one bit that I have not been able to read then or any of the times I've tried since without physically sobbing. It's a long time since a book has done that to me. I don't want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't read it, but--Henry: I'm sure I know what you mean. That's quite a sentimental passage.Helen: It is, but not sentimental in the way that I find myself objecting to. I think I really respond viscerally to this sentimentalising of some of his young women characters. I find that really off-putting, but I think now I'm a parent, and particularly I'm a parent of a boy [laughter]. I think it's that sense of a child being completely alone with no one to look after them, and then finding some people, but too late for a happy ending.Henry: Too late.Helen: Yes.Henry: You've been reading other classic novels, I think, Moby Dick?Helen: I'm in the middle of Moby Dick as we speak. I'm going very slowly, partly because I'm trying to savour every sentence. I love the sentence so much as a form. Melville is just astonishing, and also very, very funny in a way I hadn't expected to keep laughing out loud, sometimes because there is such humour in a sentence.Sometimes I'm just laughing because the sentence itself seems to have such audacity and that willingness to go places with sentences that sometimes I feel we've lost in the sort of sense of rules-based sentences instead of just sticking a semicolon and keep going. Why not, because it's so gorgeous and full of the joy of language at that point? Anyway, I'm ranting now, but--Henry: No, I think a lot of rules were instituted in the early 20th century that said you can and cannot do all these things, and writers before that point had not often followed those rules. I think what it has led to is that writers now, they can't really control a long sentence, in the sense that Melville and Dickens will do a long sentence, and it is a syntactically coherent thing, even though it's 60, 70 longer words. It's not just lots of stuff, and then, and then. The whole thing has got a beautiful structure that makes sense as a unit. That's just not obvious in a lot of writing now.Helen: I think that's exactly right. Partly, I've been reading some of the Melville out loud, and having just got onto the classification of whales, you can see I'm going very slowly. Those sentences, which are so long, but it's exactly that. If you read them out loud, and you follow the sense, and the punctuation, however irregular it might be in modern terms, gives you the breathing, you just flow on it, and the excitement of that, even or perhaps especially when one is talking about the classification of whales. Just joyful.Henry: Will we be seeing more very long sentences in your next book?Helen: I think I have to get a bit better at it. The habit that I was conscious of anyway, but became acutely so when I had to read my own audiobook for the first time is that I think I write in a very visual way. That is how I read because mostly it's silent.I discovered or rediscovered that often what I do when I want to write a very long sentence is I start the sentence and then I put a diversion or extra information within em dashes in the middle of the sentence. That works on the page because you can see spatially. I love that way of reading, I love seeing words in space.A lot of different kinds of text, both prose and poetry, I read in space like that. If you're reading to be heard, then the difficulty of breaking into a sentence with, whether it's brackets or em dashes or whatever, and then rejoining the sentence further down has its own challenges. Perhaps I ought to try and do less of that and experiment more with a Melvillian Dickensian onward flow. I don't know what my editor will think.Henry: What has brought you back to reading novels like this?Helen: I was wondering that this morning, actually, because I'm very aware having joined Substack, and of course, your Substack is one of the ones that is leading me further in this direction, very inspiringly, is discovering that lots of other people are reading and reading long novels now too. It reminded me of that thing that anyone with children will know that you have a baby and you call it something that you think only you have thought of, and then four years later, you call and you discover half the class is called that name. You wonder what was in the water that led everybody in that direction.I've just seen someone tweet this morning about how inspired they are by the builder next door who, on the scaffolding, is blasting the audiobook Middlemarch to the whole neighborhood.Henry: Oh my god. Amazing.Helen: It's really happening. Insofar as I can work out what led me as opposed to following a group, which clearly I am in some sense, I think the world at the moment is so disquieting, and depressing, and unnerving, that I think for me, there was a wish to escape into another world and another world that would be very immersive, not removed from this world completely. One that is very recognizably human.I think when I was younger, when I was in my teens and 20s, I loved reading science fiction and fantasy before it was such a genre as it is now. I'm a huge fan of Diana Wynne Jones and people like that.Henry: Oh, my god, same. Which one is your favorite?Helen: Oh, that is an impossible question to answer, partly because I want to go back and read a lot of them. Actually, I've got something next to me, just to get some obscurity points. I want to go back to Everard's Ride because there is a story in here that is based on the King's square. I don't know if I'm saying that right, but early 15th century, the story of the imprisoned King of Scotland when he was in prison in England. That one's in my head.The Dalemark Quartet I love because of the sort of medieval, but then I love the ones that are pure, more science fantasy. Which is your favorite? Which should I go back to first?Henry: I haven't read them all because I only started a couple of years ago. I just read Deep Secret, and I thought that was really excellent. I was in Bristol when I read it quite unwittingly. That was wonderful.Helen: Surrounded by Diana Wynne Jones' land. I only discovered many years into an obsession that just meant that I would read every new one while there were still new ones coming out. I sat next to Colin Burrow at a dinner in--Henry: Oh my god.Helen: I did sort of know that he was her son, but monstered him for the whole time, the whole course of sitting together, because I couldn't quite imagine her in a domestic setting, if you like, because she came up with all these extraordinary worlds. I think in days gone by, I went into more obviously imaginary worlds. I think coming back to it now, I wanted something big and something that I really could disappear into. I've been told to read Bleak House for so many decades and felt so ashamed I hadn't. Having done that, I thought, "Well, the whale."Henry: Have you read Diana Wynne Jones' husband's books, John Burrow? Because that's more in your field.Helen: It is, although I'm ashamed to say how badly read I am in medieval literary scholarship. It's weird how these academic silos can operate, shouldn't, probably don't for many, many people. I always feel I'm on horribly thin ground, thin ice when I start talking about medieval literature because I know how much scholarship is out there, and I know how much I haven't read. I must put John Burrow on my list as well.Henry: He's very readable. He's excellent.Helen: I think I can imagine, but I must go into it.Henry: Also, his books are refreshingly short. Your husband is a poet, so there's a lot of literature in your life at the moment.Helen: There is. When we met, which was 10 years ago-- Again, I don't think of myself as knowledgeable about poetry in general, but what was wonderful was discovering how much we had in common in the writing process and how much I could learn from him. To me, one of the things that has always been extremely important in my writing is the sentence, the sound of a sentence, the rhythm of a sentence folded into a paragraph.I find it extremely hard to move on from a paragraph if it's not sitting right yet. The sitting right is as much to do with sound and rhythm as it is to do with content. The content has to be right. It means I'm a nightmare to edit because once I do move on from a paragraph, I think it's finished. Obviously, my editor might beg to differ.I'm very grateful to Thomas Penn, who's also a wonderful historian, who's my editor on this last book, for being so patient with my recalcitrance as an editee. Talking to my husband about words in space on the page, about the rhythm, about the sound, about how he goes about writing has been so valuable and illuminating.I hope that the reading I've been doing, the other thing I should say about going back to big 19th-century novels is that, of course, I had the enormous privilege and learning curve of being part of a Booker jury panel three years ago. That too was an enormous kick in terms of reading and thinking about reading because my co-judges were such phenomenal reading company, and I learned such a lot that year.I feel not only I hope growing as a historian, but I am really, really focusing on writing, reading, being forced out of my bunker where writing is all on the page, starting to think about sound more, think about hearing more, because I think more and more, we are reading that way as a culture, it seems to me, the growth of audiobooks. My mother is adjusting to audiobooks now, and it's so interesting to listen to her as a lifelong, voracious reader, adjusting to what it is to experience a book through sound rather than on the page. I just think it's all fascinating, and I'm trying to learn as I write.Henry: I've been experimenting with audiobooks, because I felt like I had to, and I sort of typically hate audio anything. Jonathan Swift is very good, and so is Diana Wynne Jones.Helen: Interesting. Those two specifically. Is there something that connects the two of them, or are they separately good?Henry: I think they both wrote in a plain, colloquial style. It was very capable of being quite intellectual and had capacity for ideas. Diana Wynne Jones certainly took care about the way it sounded because she read so much to her own children, and that was really when she first read all the children's classics. She had developed for many years an understanding of what would sound good when it was read to a child, I think.Helen: And so that's the voice in her head.Henry: Indeed. As you read her essays, she talks about living with her Welsh grandfather for a year. He was intoning in the chapel, and she sort of comes out of this culture as well.Helen: Then Swift, a much more oral culture.Henry: Swift, of course, is in a very print-heavy culture because he's in London in 1710. We've got coffee houses and all the examiner, and the spectator, and all these people scribbling about each other. I think he was very insistent on what he called proper words in proper places. He became famous for that plain style. It's very carefully done, and you can't go wrong reading that out loud. He's very considerate of the reader that you won't suddenly go, "Oh, I'm in the middle of this huge parenthesis. I don't know how--" As you were saying, Swift-- he would be very deliberate about the placement of everything.Helen: A lot of that has to do with rhythm.Henry: Yes.Helen: Doesn't it? I suppose what I'm wondering, being very ignorant about the 18th century is, in a print-saturated culture, but still one where literacy was less universal than now, are we to assume that that print-saturated culture also incorporated reading out loud —Henry: Yes, exactly so. Exactly so. If you are at home, letters are read out loud. This obviously gives the novelists great opportunities to write letters that have to sort of work both ways. Novels are read out loud. This goes on into the 19th century. Dickens had many illiterate fans who knew his work through it being read to them. Charles Darwin's wife read him novels. When he says, "I love novels," what he means is, "I love it when my wife reads me a novel." [laughs]You're absolutely right. A good part of your audience would come from those listening as well as those reading it.Helen: Maybe we're getting back towards a new version of that with audiobooks expanding in their reach.Henry: I don't know. I saw some interesting stuff. I can't remember who was saying this. Someone was saying, "It's not an oral culture if you're watching short videos. That's a different sort of culture." I think, for us, we can say, "Oh yes, we're like Jonathan Swift," but for the culture at large, I don't know. It is an interesting mixed picture at the moment.Helen: Yes, history never repeats, but we should be wary of writing off any part of culture to do with words.Henry: I think so. If people are reporting builders irritating the neighbourhood with George Eliot, then it's a very mixed picture, right?Helen: It is.Henry: Last literary question. Hilary Mantel has been a big influence on you. What have you taken from her?Helen: That's quite a hard question to answer because I feel I just sit at her feet in awe. If I could point to anything in my writing that could live up to her, I would be very happy. The word that's coming into my head when you phrase the question in that way, I suppose, might be an absolute commitment to precision. Precision in language matters to me so much. Her thought and her writing of whatever kind seems to me to be so precise.Listening to interviews with her is such an outrageous experience because these beautifully, entirely formed sentences come out of her mouth as though that's how thought and language work. They don't for me. [chuckles] I'm talking about her in the present tense because I didn't know her, but I find it hard to imagine that she's not out there somewhere.Henry: She liked ghosts. She might be with us.Helen: She might. I would like to think that. Her writing of whatever genre always seems to me to have that precision, and it's precision of language that mirrors precision of thought, including the ability to imagine herself into somebody else's mind. That's, I suppose, my project as a historian. I'm always trying to experience a lost world through the eyes of a lost person or people, which, of course, when you put it like that, is an impossible task, but she makes it seem possible for her anyway and that's the road I'm attempting to travel one way or another.Henry: What is it about the 14th and 15th centuries that is hardest for us to imagine?Helen: I think this speaks to something else that Hilary Mantel does so extraordinarily well, which is to show us entire human beings who live and breathe and think and feel just as we do in as complex and contradictory and three-dimensional a way as we do, and yet who live in a world that is stripped of so many of the things that we take so much for granted that we find it, I think, hard to imagine how one could function without them.What I've always loved about the late Middle Ages, as a political historian, which is what I think of myself as, is that it has in England such a complex and sophisticated system of government, but one that operates so overwhelmingly through human beings, rather than impersonal, institutionalized, technological structures.You have a king who is the fount of all authority, exercising an extraordinary degree of control over a whole country, but without telephones, without motorized transport, without a professional police service, without a standing army. If we strip away from our understanding of government, all those things, then how on earth does society happen, does rule happen, does government happen?I think it's relatively easy to imagine a small community or even a city, because we can imagine lots of human beings together, but how relationships between human beings happen at a distance, not just in terms of writing a letter to someone you know, but how a very effective power structure happens across hundreds of miles in the absence of those things is the thing that has always absolutely fascinated me about the late Middle Ages. I think that's because it's hard, for me at least, to imagine.Henry: Good. You went to the RSC to watch The Henriad in 2013.Helen: I did.Henry: Is Shakespeare a big influence on this book? How did that affect you?Helen: I suppose this is a long story because Richard II and The Henriad have been-- there is Richard II. Richard II is part of The Henriad, isn't it?Henry: Yes.Helen: Richard II. Henry, see, this is-Henry: The two Henry IVs.Helen: -I'm not Shakespearean. I am. [laughs]Henry: No, it's Richard II, the two Henry IVs, and Henry V. Because, of course, Henry Bolingbroke is in Richard II, and it--Helen: Yes, although I never think of him as really the same person as Henry IV in the Henry IV plays, because he changes so dramatically between the two.Henry: Very often, they have a young actor and an old actor, and of course, in real life, that's insane, right?Helen: It's absolutely insane. I always separate Henry IV, parts I and II, and Henry V off from Richard II because it feels to me as though they operate in rather different worlds, which they do in lots of ways. My story with the Henry ad, now that we've established that I actually know what we're talking about, goes back to when I was in my teens and Kenneth Branagh was playing Henry V in Stratford. I grew up very near Stratford.At 15, 16, watching the young Branagh play Henry V was mind-blowing. I went a whole number of times because, in those days, I don't know how it is now, but you could go and get standing tickets for a fiver on the day. More often than not, if there were spare seats, you would get moved into some extraordinary stall seats at-- I was about to say halftime, I'm a football fan, at the interval.Henry V was the play I knew best for a long time, but at the same time, I'd studied Richard II at school. The Henry IV plays are the ones I know least well. I'm interested now to reflect on the fact that they are the ones that depart most from history. I wonder whether that's why I find them hardest to love, because I'm always coming to the plays from the history. Richard II and Henry V actually have a lot to show us about those kings. They bear very close relationships with a lot of the contemporary chronicles, whereas the Henry IV ones is Shakespeare doing his own thing much more.Particularly, as you've just said, making Henry IV way too old, and/or depending which angle we're looking at it from, making Hotspur way too young, the real Hotspur was three years older than Henry IV. If you want to make Hotspur and how-- your young Turks, you have to make Henry IV old and grey and weary with Northumberland.Back in 2013, the really intense experience I had was being asked to go for a day to join the RSC company on a school trip to Westminster Hall and Westminster Abbey at the beginning of their rehearsal process, so when David Tennant was playing Richard II and Greg Doran was directing. That was absolutely fascinating. I'd been thinking about Richard and Henry for a very long time. Obviously, I was a long way away from writing the book I've just written.Talking to actors is an extraordinary thing for a historian because, of course, to them, these are living characters. They want to know what's in their character's mind. They want to know, quite rightly, the chronological progression of their character's thought. That is something that's become more and more and more and more important to me.The longer I go on writing history, the more intensely attached I am to the need for chronology because if it hasn't happened to your protagonist yet, what are you doing with it? Your protagonist doesn't yet know. We don't know. It's very dramatically clear to us at the moment that we don't know what's happening tomorrow. Any number of outrageous and unpredictable things might happen tomorrow.The same certainly was true in Richard II's reign, goes on being true in Henry IV's reign. That experience, in the wake of which I then went to see Henry IV, parts 1 and 2 in Stratford, was really thought-provoking. The extent to which, even though I'd been working on this period for a long time, and had taught this period, I still was struggling to answer some of those questions.Then I'd just had the similarly amazing experience of having a meeting with the Richard II cast and director at the Bridge Theatre before the Nicholas Heitner production with Jonathan Bailey as Richard went on stage. That was actually towards the end of their rehearsal process. I was so struck that the actor playing Bolingbroke in this production and the actor playing Bolingbroke in the production back in 2013 both asked the same excellent first question, which is so hard for a historian to answer, which is at what point does Bolingbroke decide that he's coming back to claim the crown, not just the Duchy of Lancaster?That is a key question for Bolingbroke in Richard II. Does he already know when he decides he's going to break his exile and come back? Is he challenging for the crown straight away, or is he just coming back for his rightful inheritance with the Duchy of Lancaster? That is the million-dollar question when you're writing about Bolingbroke in 1399.It's not possible to answer with a smoking gun. We don't have a letter or a diary entry from Henry Bolingbroke as he's about to step on board ship in Boulogne saying, "I'm saying I'm coming back for the Duchy of Lancaster." The unfolding logic of his situation is that if he's going to come back at all, he's going to have to claim the crown. When he admits that to himself, and when he admits that to anybody else, are questions we can argue about.It was so interesting to me that that's the question that Shakespeare's Richard II throws up for his Bolingbroke just as much as it does for the historical one.Henry: Is there anything that we fundamentally know about this episode in history that Shakespeare didn't know?Helen: That's an extremely good question, and I'm tempted now to say no.Henry: When I left your book, the one thing I thought was that in Shakespeare, the nobles turn against Richard because of his excesses. Obviously, he really dramatizes that around the death of Gaunt. From your book, you may disagree with this, I came away thinking, well, the nobles wanted more power all the time. They may not have wanted the king's power, but there was this constant thing of the nobles feeling like they were owed more authority.Helen: I think the nobles always want more power because they are ambitious, competitive men within a political structure that rewards ambition and competition. The crucial thing for them is that they can only safely pursue ambition and competition if they know that the structure they're competing within will hold.The thing that keeps that structure rooted and solidly in place is the crown and the things that the crown is there to uphold, namely, particularly, the rule of law because if the rule of law starts to crumble, then the risk is that the whole structure collapses into anarchy. Within anarchy, then a powerful man cannot safely compete for more power because an even more powerful man might be about to roll into his estates and take them over. There have to be rules. There has to be fair competition. The referee is there on a football pitch for a reason.The king, in some senses, whether you want to see him as the keystone in an arch that supports a building or whether he's a referee on a football pitch, there are reasons why powerful men need rules because rules uphold their power. What goes wrong with Richard is that instead of seeing that he and the nobles have a common interest in keeping this structure standing, and that actually he can become more powerful if he works with and through the nobles, he sees them as a threat to him.He's attempting to establish a power structure that will not be beholden to them. In so doing, he becomes a threat to them. This structure that is supposed to stand as one mutually supportive thing is beginning to tear itself apart. That is why Richard's treatment of Bolingbroke becomes such a crucial catalyst, because what Richard does to Bolingbroke is unlawful in a very real and very technical sense. Bolingbroke has not been convicted of any crime. He's not been properly tried. There's been this trial by combat, the duel with Mowbray, but it hasn't stopped arbitrarily, and an arbitrary punishment visited upon both of them. They're both being exiled without having been found guilty, without the judgment of God speaking through this duel.Richard then promises that Bolingbroke can have his inheritance, even though he's in exile. As soon as Gaunt dies, Richard says, "No, I'm having it." Now, all of that is unlawful treatment of Bolingbroke, but because Bolingbroke is the most powerful nobleman in the country, it is also a warning and a threat to every other member of the political classes that if the king takes against you, then his arbitrary will can override the law.That diagnosis is there in Shakespeare. It's the Duke of York, who in reality was just a completely hopeless, wet figure, but he says, and I've got it written down, keep it beside me.Henry: Very nice.Helen: Kind of ridiculous, but here it is. York says to Richard, "Take Herford's rights away and take from time his charters and his customary rights. Let not tomorrow then ensue today. Be not thyself, for how art thou a king, but by fair sequence and succession?" In other words, if you interfere with, and I know you've written about time in these plays, it's absolutely crucial.Part of the process of time in these plays is that the rules play out over time. Any one individual king must not break those rules so that the expected process of succession over time can take place. York's warning comes true, that Richard is unseating himself by seeking to unseat Bolingbroke from his inheritance.Henry: We give Shakespeare good marks as a historian.Helen: In this play, yes, absolutely. The things he tinkers with in Richard II are minor plot points. He compresses time in order to get it all on stage in a plausible sequence of events. He compresses two queens into one, given that Richard was married to, by the time he fell, a nine-year-old who he'd married when he was six. It's harder to have a six-year-old making speeches on stage, so he puts the two queens into one.Henry: You don't want to pay another actor.Helen: Exactly.Henry: It's expensive.Helen: You don't want children and animals on stage. Although there is a wonderful account of a production of Richard II on stage in the West End in 1901, with the Australian actor Oscar Asche in it, playing Bolingbroke. The duel scene, he had full armour and a horse, opening night. It was a different horse from the one he rehearsed with. He gives an account in his autobiography of this horse rearing and him somersaulting heroically off the horse.Henry: Oh my god.Helen: The curtain having to come down and then it going back up again to tumultuous applause. You think, "Oscar, I'm wondering whether you're over-egging this pudding." Anyway, I give Shakespeare very good marks in Richard II, not really in the Henry IV plays, but gets back on track.Henry: The Henry IV plays are so good, we're forgiven. Was Richard II a prototype Henry VIII?Helen: Yes. Although, of course, history doesn't work forwards like that. I always worry about being a historian, talking about prototypes, if you see what I mean, but--Henry: No, this is just some podcast, so we don't have to be too strict. He's over-mighty, his sense of his relationship to God. There are issues in parliament about, "How much can the Pope tell us what to do?" There are certain things that seem to be inherent in the way the British state conceives of itself at this point that become problematic in another way.Helen: Is this pushing it too far to say Richard is a second son who ends up being the lone precious heir to the throne who must be wrapped in cotton wool to ensure that his unique God-given authority is protected? Also describes Henry VIII.Henry: They both like fancy clothes.Helen: Both like fancy clothes. Charles I is also a second son who has to step up.Henry: With wonderful cuffs and collars. He's another big dresser.Helen: And great patrons of art. I think we're developing new historical--Henry: No, I think there's a whole thing here.Helen: I think there is. What Henry does, of course, in rather different, because a lot has changed thanks to the Wars of the Roses, the power of the nobility to stand up independently of the crown is significantly lessened by the political effects of the Wars of the Roses, not at least that a lot of them have had their heads cut off, or died in battle, and the Tudors are busy making sure that they remain in the newly subjected place that they find themselves in.Henry then finds to go back to Hilary Mantel, a very, very able political servant who works out how to use parliament for him in rejecting those extra English powers that might restrain him. I do always wonder what Richard thought he was going to do if he'd succeeded in becoming Holy Roman Emperor, which I take very seriously as a proposition from Richard.Most other historians, because it's so patently ridiculous, if you look at it from a European perspective, have just said, "Oh, he got this idea that he wanted to become Holy Roman Emperor," but, of course, it was never going to happen. In Richard's mind, I think it was extremely real. Whether he really would have tried to give the English crown to Rutland, his favorite by the end of the reign, while he went off in glory to be crowned by the Pope, I don't know what was in his head. The difference with Henry is that the ambitions he eventually conceives are very England-focused, and so he can make them happen.Henry: Is there some sort of argument that, if the king hadn't won the Wars of the Roses, and the nobility had flourished, and their sons hadn't been killed, the reformation would have just been much harder to pull off here?[silence]Helen: I wonder what that would have looked like, because in a sense, the king was always going to win the Wars of the Roses, in the sense that you have to have a king. The minute you had someone left standing after that mess, that protracted mess, if he knew what he was doing, and there are arguments about the extent to which Henry VII knew what he was doing, or was doing something very different, whether or not he knew it was different, but there was always going to be an opportunity for a king to assert himself after that.Particularly, the extent to which the lesser landowners, the gentry had realized they couldn't just rely on the nobility to protect them anymore. They couldn't just follow their lord into battle and abdicate responsibility.Henry: Okay.Helen: That's an interesting--Henry: How much should we blame Edward III for all of this?Helen: For living too long and having too many sons?Henry: My argument against Edward is the Hundred Years' War, it doesn't actually go that well by the end of his reign, and it's cost too much money. Too many dukes with too much power. It's not that he had too many sons, he elevates them all and creates this insane situation. The war itself starts to tip the balance between the king and parliament, and so now you've got it from the dukes, and from the other side, and he just didn't manage the succession at all.Even though his son has died, and it really needs some kind of-- He allowed. He should have known that he was allowing a vacuum to open up where there's competition from the nobles, and from parliament, and the finances are a mess, and this war isn't there. It's just… he just leaves a disaster, doesn't he?Helen: I think I'd want to reframe that a little bit. Perhaps, I'm too much the king's friend. I think the political, and in some senses, existential dilemma for a medieval king is that the best of all possible worlds is what Edward achieves in the 1340s and the 1350s, which is, fight a war for reasons that your subjects recognize as in the common interest, in the national interest. Fight it over there so that the lands that are being devastated and the villages and towns that are being burned are not yours. Bring back lots of plunder. Everybody's getting richer and feeling very victorious.You can harness parliament. When things are going well, a medieval king and a parliament are not rivals for power. An English king working with parliament is more powerful than an English king trying to work without parliament. If things are going well, he gets more money, he can pass laws, he can enforce his will more effectively. It's win-win-win if you're ticking all those boxes.As you're pointing out, the worst of all possible worlds is to be fighting a war that's going badly. To fight a war is a big risk because either you're going to end up winning and everything's great, or if it's going badly, then you'd rather be at peace. Of course, you're not necessarily in a position to negotiate peace, depending on the terms of the war you've established.Similarly, with sons, you want heirs. You want to know the succession is safe. I think Edward's younger sons would argue with you about setting up very powerful dukes because the younger ones really-- York and Gloucester, Edmund of Langley and Thomas of Woodstock, really didn't have much in the way of an estate given to them at all, and always felt very hard done by about that. John of Gaunt is set up very well because he's married off to the heir of the Duke of Lancaster who's handily died, leaving only daughters.Henry: That's the problem, isn't it, creating that sort of impact? John of Gaunt is far too rich and powerful.Helen: You say that, except he's unfeasibly loyal. Without Gaunt, disaster happens much, much, much earlier. Gaunt is putting all those resources into the project of propping up the English state and the English crown for way longer than Richard deserves, given that Richard's trying to murder him half the time in the 1380s.Henry: [laughs] For sure. No, I agree with you there, but from Edward III's point of view, it's a mistake to make one very powerful son another quite powerful son next to-- We still see this playing out in royal family dynamics.Helen: This is the problem. What is the perfect scenario in a hereditary system where you need an heir and a spare, but even there, the spare, if he doesn't get to be the heir, is often very disgruntled. [laughs] If he does get to be the heir, as we've just said, turns out to be overconvinced of his own-Henry: Oh, indeed, yes.Helen: -specialness. Then, if you have too many spares, you run into a different kind of problem. Equally, if you don't have a hereditary system, then you have an almighty battle, as the Anglo-Saxons often did, about who's actually going to get the crown in the next generation. It's a very tricky--Henry: Is England just inherently unstable? We've got the Black Death, France is going to be a problem, whatever happens. Who is really going to come to a good fiscal position in this situation? It's no one's fault. It's just there wasn't another way out.Helen: You could say that England's remarkably-- See, I'm just playing devil's advocate the whole time.Henry: No, good.Helen: You could say England is remarkably stable in the sense that England is very unusually centralized for a medieval state at this point. It's centralized in a way that works because it's small enough to govern. It's, broadly speaking, an island. You've got to deal with the Scotts border, but it's a relatively short border. Yes, you have powerful nobles, but they are powerful nobles who, by this stage, are locked into the state. They're locked into a unified system of law. The common law rules everyone. Everyone looks to Westminster.It's very different from what the King of France has been having to face, which has been having to push his authority outward from the Île-de-France, reconquer bits of France that the English have had for a long time, impose his authority over other princes of the realm in a context where there are different laws, there are different customs, there are different languages. You could say that France is in a much more difficult and unstable situation.Of course, what we see as the tide of the war turns again in the early 15th century is precisely that France collapses into civil war, and the English can make hay again in that situation. If Henry V had not died too young with not enough sons in 1423, and particularly, if he'd left a son who grew up to be any use at all, as opposed to absolutely none-- what am I saying? I'm saying that the structure of government in England could work astonishingly well given the luck of the right man at the helm. The right man at the helm had to understand his responsibilities at home, and he had to be capable of prosecuting a successful war abroad because that is how this state works best.As you've just pointed out, prosecuting a successful war abroad is an inherently unstable scenario because no war is ever going to go in your direction the entire time. That's what Richard, who has no interest in war at all is discovering, because once the tide of war is lapping at your own shores, instead of all happening over there, it's a very, very different prospect in terms of persuading parliament to pay for it, quite understandably.You talk about the Black Death. One of the extraordinary things is looking at England in 1348, 1349, when the Black Death hits. Probably, something approaching half the population dies in 18 months. If you're looking at the progress of the war, you barely notice it happened at all. What does the government do? It snaps into action and implements a maximum wage immediately, in case [chuckles] these uppity laborers start noticing there are fewer of them, and they can ask for more money.The amount of control, at that stage at least, that the government has over a country going through an extraordinary set of challenges is quite remarkable, really.Henry: Did Bolingbroke do the right thing?Helen: I think Bolingbroke did the only possible thing, which, in some senses, equates to the right thing. If he had not come back, he would not only have been abandoning his own family, his dynasty, his inheritance, everything he'd been brought up to believe was his responsibility, but also abandoning England to what was pretty much by that stage, clearly, a situation of tyranny.The big argument is always, well, we can identify a tyrant, we have a definition of tyranny. That is, if a legitimate king rules in the common interest and according to the law, then a tyrant rules not in the common interest, and not according to the law. But then the thing that the political theorists argue about is whether or not you can actively resist a tyrant, or whether you have to wait for God to act.Then, the question is, "Might God be acting through me if I'm Bolingbroke?" That's what Bolingbroke has to hope, because if he doesn't do what he does in 1399, he is abandoning everything his whole life has been devoted to maintaining and taking responsibility for. It's quite hard to see where England would then end up, other than with somebody else trying to challenge Richard in the way that Henry does.Henry: Why was he anointed with Thomas Becket's oil?Helen: Because Richard had found it in the tower, [chuckles] and was making great play of the claims that were made for Thomas. This is one of the interesting things about Richard. He is simultaneously very interested in history, and interested in his place in history, his place in the lineage of English kings, going all the way back, particularly to the confessor to whom he looks as not only a patron saint, but as in some sense, a point of identification.He's also seeking to stop time at himself. He doesn't like to think about the future beyond himself. He doesn't show any interest in fathering an heir. His will is all about how to make permanent the judgments that he's made on his nobles. It's not about realistically what's going to happen after his death.In the course of his interest in history, he has found this vial of oil in the tower somewhere in a locked drawer with a note that says, "The Virgin gave this to Thomas Becket, and whoever is anointed with this oil shall win all his battles and shall lead England to greatness," et cetera. Richard has tried to have himself re-anointed, and even his patsy Archbishop of Canterbury that he's put in place after exiling the original one who'd stood up to him a bit.Even the new Archbishop of Canterbury says, "Sire, anointing doesn't really work like that. I'm afraid we can't do it twice." Richard has been wearing this vial round his neck in an attempt to claim that he is not only the successor to the confessor, but he is now the inheritor of this holy oil. The French king has had a holy oil for a very long time in the Cathedral of Reims, which was supposedly given to Clovis, the first king of France, by an angel, et cetera.Richard, who is always very keen on emulating, or paralleling the crown of France, is very, very keen on this. If you were Henry coming in 1399 saying, "No, God has spoken through me. The country has rallied to me. I am now the rightful king of England. We won't look too closely at my justifications for that," and you are appropriating the ceremonial of the crown, you are having yourself crowned in Westminster Abbey on the 13th of October, which is the feast day of the confessor, you are handed that opportunity to use the symbolism of this oil that Richard has just unearthed, and was trying to claim for himself. You can then say, "No, I am the first king crowned with this oil," and you're showing it to the French ambassadors and so on.If we are to believe the chroniclers, it starts making his hair fall out, which might be a contrary sign from God. It's a situation where you are usurping the throne, and what is questionable is your right to be there. Then, any symbolic prop you can get, you're going to lean on as hard as you can.Henry: A few general questions to close. Should we be more willing to open up old tombs?Helen: Yes. [laughs]Henry: Good. [laughs]Helen: I'm afraid, for me, historical curiosity is-- Our forebears in the 18th and 19th century had very few qualms at all. One of the things I love about the endless series of scholarly antiquarian articles that are-- or not so scholarly, in some cases, that are written about all the various tomb openings that went on in the 18th and 19th century, I do love the moments, where just occasionally, they end up saying, "Do you know what, lads? Maybe we shouldn't do this bit." [chuckles]They get right to the brink with a couple of tombs and say, "Oh, do you know what? This one hasn't been disturbed since 1260, whatever. Maybe we won't. We'll put it back." Mostly, they just crowbar the lid off and see what they can find, which one might regret in terms of what we might now find with greater scientific know-how, and et cetera. Equally, we don't do that kind of thing anymore unless we're digging up a car park. We're not finding things out anyway. I just love the information that comes out, so yes, for me.Henry: Dig up more tombs.Helen: Yes.Henry: What is it that you love about the Paston Letters?Helen: More or less everything. I love the language. I love the way that, even though most of them are dictated to scribes, but you can hear the dictation. You can hear individual voices. Everything we were saying about sentences. You can hear the rhythm. You can hear the speech patterns. I'm no linguistic expert, but I love seeing the different forms of spelling and how that plays out on the page.I love how recognizable they are as a family. I love the fact that we hear women's voices in a way that we very rarely do in the public records. The government which is mainly what we have to work with. I love Margaret Paston, who arrives at 18 as a new bride, and becomes the matriarch of the family. I love her relationship with her two eldest boys, John and John, and their father, John.I do wish they hadn't done that because it doesn't help those of us who are trying to write about them. I love the view you get of late medieval of 15th-century politics from the point of view of a family trying to survive it. The fact that you get tiny drops in letters that are also about shopping, or also about your sisters fall in love with someone unsuitable. Unsuitable only, I hasten to add, because he's the family bailiff, not because he isn't a wonderful and extremely able man. They all know those two things. It's just that he's a family bailiff, and therefore, not socially acceptable.I love that experience of being immersed in the world of a 15th-century gentry family, so politically involved, but not powerful enough to protect themselves, who can protect themselves in the Wars of the Roses in any case.Henry: If someone wants to read the Paston Letters, but they don't want to read Middle English, weird spelling, et cetera, is there a good edition that they can use?Helen: Yes, there is an Oxford World's Classic. They're all selected. There isn't a complete edition in modern spelling. If any publishers are listening, I would love to do one. [chuckles]Henry: Yes, let's have it.Helen: Let's have it. I would really, really love to do that. There are some very good selections. Richard Barber did one many years ago, and, of course, self-advertising. There is also my book, now more than 20 years old, about the Paston family, where I was trying to put in as much of the letters as I could. I wanted to weave the voices through. Yes, please go and read the Paston Letters in selections, in whatever form you can get them, and let's start lobbying for a complete modernized Paston.Henry: That's right. Why did you leave academia? Because you did it before it was cool.Helen: [laughs] That's very kind of you to say. My academic life was, and is very important to me, and I hate saying this now, because the academic world is so difficult now. I ended up in it almost by accident, which is a terrible thing to say now, people having to-- I never intended to be an academic. My parents were academics, and I felt I'd seen enough and wasn't sure I wanted to do that.I couldn't bear to give up history, and put in a PhD application to work with Christine Carpenter, who'd been the most inspiring supervisor when I was an undergraduate, got the place, thought, "Right, I'm just going to do a PhD." Of course, once you're doing a PhD, and everyone you know is starting to apply for early career jobs, which weren't even called early career jobs in those days, because it was a million years ago.I applied for a research fellowship, was lucky enough to get it, and then applied for a teaching job, utterly convinced, and being told by the people around me that I stood no chance of getting it, because I was way too junior, and breezed through the whole process, because I knew I wasn't going to get it, and then turned up looking for someone very junior.I got this wonderful teaching job at Sidney Sussex in Cambridge and spent eight years there, learned so much, loved working with the students. I was working very closely with the students in various ways, but I wasn't-- I'm such a slow writer, and a writer that needs to be immersed in what I was doing, and I just wasn't managing to write, and also not managing to write in the way I wanted to write, because I was becoming clearer and clearer about the fact that I wanted to write narrative history.Certainly, at that point, it felt as though writing narrative history for a general audience and being an early career academic didn't go so easily together. I think lots of people are now showing how possible it is, but I wasn't convinced I could do it. Then, sorry, this is a very long answer to what's [crosstalk] your question.Henry: That's good.Helen: I also had my son, and my then partner was teaching at a very different university, I mean, geographically different, and we were living in a third place, and trying to put a baby into that geographical [chuckles] setup was not going to work. I thought, "Well, now or never, I'll write a proposal for a book, a narrative, a book for a general readership, a narrative book about the Paxton family, because that's what I really want to write, and I'll see if I can find an agent, and I'll see if I," and I did.I found the most wonderful agent, with whose help I wrote a huge proposal, and got a deal for it two weeks before my son was due. At that point, I thought, "Okay, if I don't jump now, now or never, the stars are aligned." I've been a freelance medieval historian ever since then, touching every wood I can find as it continues to be possible. I am very grateful for those years in Cambridge. They were the making of me in terms of training and in terms of teaching.I certainly think without teaching for those years, I wouldn't be anywhere near as good a writer, because you learn such a lot from talking to, and reading what students produce.Henry: How do you choose your subjects now? How do you choose what to write about?Helen: I follow my nose, really. It's not very scientific.Henry: Why should it be?Helen: Thank you. The book, bizarrely, the book that felt most contingent, was the one I wrote after the Paston book, because I knew I'd written about the Pastons in my PhD, and then again more of it in the monograph that was based on my PhD. I knew having written about the Pastons in a very academic, analytical way, contributing to my analysis of 15th-century politics. I knew I wanted to put them at the center and write about them. That was my beginning point.The big question was what to do next, and I was a bit bamboozled for a while. The next book I ended up writing was She-Wolves, which is probably, until now, my best-known book. It was the one that felt most uncertain to me, while I was putting it together, and that really started from having one scene in my head, and it's the scene with which the book opens. It's the scene of the young Edward VI in 1553, Henry VIII's only son, dying at the age of 15.Suddenly, me suddenly realizing that wherever you looked on the Tudor family tree at that point, there were only women left. The whole question of whether a woman could rule was going to have to be answered in some way at that point, and because I'm a medievalist, that made me start thinking backwards, and so I ended up choosing some medieval queens to write about, because they've got their hands on power one way or another.Until very close to finishing it, I was worried that it wouldn't hang together as a book, and the irony is that it's the one that people seem to have taken to most. The next book after that grew out of that one, because I found myself going around talking about She-Wolves, and saying repeatedly, "The problem these queens faced was that they couldn't lead an army on the battlefield."Women couldn't do that. The only medieval woman who did that was Joan of Arc, and look what happened to her. Gradually, I realized that I didn't really know what had happened to her. I mean, I did know what--Henry: Yes, indeed.Helen: I decided that I really wanted to write about her, so I did that. Then, having done that, and having then written a very short book about Elizabeth I, that I was asked to write for Penguin Monarchs, I realized I'd been haunted all this time by Richard and Henry, who I'd been thinking about and working on since the very beginning of my PhD, but I finally felt, perhaps, ready to have a go at them properly.It's all been pretty organic apart from She-Wolves, which was the big, "What am I writing about next?" That took shape slowly and gradually. Now, I'm going to write about Elizabeth I properly in a-Henry: Oh, exciting.Helen: -full-scale book, and I decided that, anyway, before I wrote this last one, but I-- It feels even righter now, because I Am Richard II, Know Ye Not That, feels even more intensely relevant having now written about Richard and Henry, and I'm quite intimidated because Elizabeth is quite intimidating, but I think it's good, related by your subjects.[laughter]Henry: Have you read the Elizabeth Jenkins biography?Helen: Many, many years ago. It's on my shelf here.Henry: Oh, good.Helen: In fact, so it's one of the things I will be going back to. Why do you ask particularly? I need--Henry: I'm a big Elizabeth Jenkins fan, and I like that book particularly.Helen: Wonderful. Well, I will be redoubled in my enthusiasm.Henry: I look forward to seeing what you say about it. What did you learn from Christine Carpenter?Helen: Ooh. Just as precision was the word that came into my head when you asked me about Hilary Mantel, the word that comes into my head when you ask about Christine is rigor. I think she is the most rigorous historical thinker that I have ever had the privilege of working with and talking to. I am never not on my toes when I am writing for, talking to, reading Christine. That was an experience that started from the first day I walked into her room for my first supervision in 1987.It was really that rigor that started opening up the medieval world to me, asking questions that at that stage I couldn't answer at all, but suddenly, made everything go into technicolor. Really, from the perspective that I had been failing to ask the most basic questions. I would sometimes have students say to me, "Oh, I didn't say that, because I thought it was too basic."I have always said, "No, there is no question that is too basic." Because what Christine started opening up for me was how does medieval government work? What are you talking about? There is the king at Westminster. There is that family there in Northumberland. What relates the two of them? How does this work? Think about it structurally. Think about it in human terms, but also in political structural terms, and then convince me that you understand how this all goes together. I try never to lose that.Henry: Helen Castor, thank you very much.Helen: Thank you so much. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.commonreader.co.uk/subscribe
In this revealing episode of Unlock U with Dr. Shannan Crawford, we dive deep into the often‐hidden dynamics of narcissistic grooming—from a psychoanalytic lens—and uncover how early relationship templates can leave us especially vulnerable. You'll learn how to spot the red flags, understand the unconscious roots, and put practical safeguards in place. What Is Narcissistic Grooming? Definition: A gradual process by which someone with narcissistic traits gains your trust, isolates you, and then exploits your emotions and boundaries for their own validation and control. Often including intense amounts of verbal praise "Idealizing you", in which they give you signifiant amounts of attention, time, gifts, acts of service, and praise that, many people have described as, "intoxicating." Some have described that "it almost felt like he adored me so much and so suddenly that it was overwhelming. It was so flattering that I ignored all red flags because the life he described we would have was exhilarating! He sent huge flower arrangements and flashy expensive gifts to me at work so my coworkers could see it. He messaged me multiple times a day with the most amazing complements and telling me everything I always wanted to hear. He came into my life, so strong and so fast... he literally came out of nowhere and now, boom, this amazing man is telling me he wants to marry me and take me around the world and I would never need to work again because he wants to spoil me! I was so enraptured that I didn't notice that his current life didn't match up to the fantasies he was creating in my mind of how our life would be..." Another woman says, "He convinced me that he loved me so much that he couldn't be without me... I didn't notice that he was starting to isolate me... I had to give up friends and family who did not fully "support" our relationship. I was so overwhelmed by the intensity of his attention and praise, that I started to subtly build my life around him... eventually I lost my other relationships... By the time he discarded me, I was COMPLETELY alone." Can you resonate? Psychoanalytic Perspective: Splitting & Idealization/Devaluation: Narcissists first “idealize” you as perfect, then “devalue” you once they feel threatened. Projective Identification: They project their own unacceptable feelings onto you, making you feel responsible for their emotions. Object Relations Roots: Early caregivers who were inconsistent or overly enmeshed can leave you craving approval and slow to see manipulation. Why Some of Us Are More Susceptible Drawing on the Restoring‑Self‑Cohesion (RSC) model, Dr. Crawford explains how unconscious templates from childhood shape our adult relationships: Caretaker Role: You learned to put others' emotional needs first to feel safe or worthy. People‑Pleaser Template: Seeking external validation became your primary way to soothe childhood anxieties. Rescuer Script: You believe “fixing” others proves your value—making you an easy target for someone who preys on empathy. Unconscious Sabotage Loops: Old patterns pull you back into dynamics where your boundaries blur and your self‑worth hinges on pleasing someone else. Practical Safeguards to Protect Yourself Strengthen Your Boundaries Practice saying “no” and notice your discomfort. Use “I” statements to express needs: “I feel… when you…” Build an Early‑Warning System Keep a journal of interactions that feel off—look for patterns of praise turning into blame. Share concerns with a trusted friend or therapist to get an outside perspective. Cultivate Healthy “Mirror” Relationships Surround yourself with people who reflect empathy, consistency, and genuine care. Schedule regular check‑ins with your support circle. Deepen Self‑Awareness with RSC Tools Identify your primary relationship template and notice when you slip into old roles. Use grounding rituals (breathwork, journaling, somatic check‑ins) to stay connected to your own needs. Build Community Be honest with your friends and family. Try not to sugar coat the relationship. A healthy relationship can withstand reality testing. When you're early on in a relationship, you're infatuated which means you're literally not thinking clearly. So build healthy relationships with those who can see clearly and have permission to speak into your life! Seek Professional Partnership Consider one‑on‑one RSC coaching to map unconscious blocks and restore internal alignment. Subscribe & Stay Connected
In this revealing episode of Unlock U with Dr. Shannan Crawford, we dive deep into the often‐hidden dynamics of narcissistic grooming—from a psychoanalytic lens—and uncover how early relationship templates can leave us especially vulnerable. You'll learn how to spot the red flags, understand the unconscious roots, and put practical safeguards in place. What Is Narcissistic Grooming? Definition: A gradual process by which someone with narcissistic traits gains your trust, isolates you, and then exploits your emotions and boundaries for their own validation and control. Often including intense amounts of verbal praise "Idealizing you", in which they give you signifiant amounts of attention, time, gifts, acts of service, and praise that, many people have described as, "intoxicating." Some have described that "it almost felt like he adored me so much and so suddenly that it was overwhelming. It was so flattering that I ignored all red flags because the life he described we would have was exhilarating! He sent huge flower arrangements and flashy expensive gifts to me at work so my coworkers could see it. He messaged me multiple times a day with the most amazing complements and telling me everything I always wanted to hear. He came into my life, so strong and so fast... he literally came out of nowhere and now, boom, this amazing man is telling me he wants to marry me and take me around the world and I would never need to work again because he wants to spoil me! I was so enraptured that I didn't notice that his current life didn't match up to the fantasies he was creating in my mind of how our life would be..." Another woman says, "He convinced me that he loved me so much that he couldn't be without me... I didn't notice that he was starting to isolate me... I had to give up friends and family who did not fully "support" our relationship. I was so overwhelmed by the intensity of his attention and praise, that I started to subtly build my life around him... eventually I lost my other relationships... By the time he discarded me, I was COMPLETELY alone." Can you resonate? Psychoanalytic Perspective: Splitting & Idealization/Devaluation: Narcissists first “idealize” you as perfect, then “devalue” you once they feel threatened. Projective Identification: They project their own unacceptable feelings onto you, making you feel responsible for their emotions. Object Relations Roots: Early caregivers who were inconsistent or overly enmeshed can leave you craving approval and slow to see manipulation. Why Some of Us Are More Susceptible Drawing on the Restoring‑Self‑Cohesion (RSC) model, Dr. Crawford explains how unconscious templates from childhood shape our adult relationships: Caretaker Role: You learned to put others' emotional needs first to feel safe or worthy. People‑Pleaser Template: Seeking external validation became your primary way to soothe childhood anxieties. Rescuer Script: You believe “fixing” others proves your value—making you an easy target for someone who preys on empathy. Unconscious Sabotage Loops: Old patterns pull you back into dynamics where your boundaries blur and your self‑worth hinges on pleasing someone else. Practical Safeguards to Protect Yourself Strengthen Your Boundaries Practice saying “no” and notice your discomfort. Use “I” statements to express needs: “I feel… when you…” Build an Early‑Warning System Keep a journal of interactions that feel off—look for patterns of praise turning into blame. Share concerns with a trusted friend or therapist to get an outside perspective. Cultivate Healthy “Mirror” Relationships Surround yourself with people who reflect empathy, consistency, and genuine care. Schedule regular check‑ins with your support circle. Deepen Self‑Awareness with RSC Tools Identify your primary relationship template and notice when you slip into old roles. Use grounding rituals (breathwork, journaling, somatic check‑ins) to stay connected to your own needs. Build Community Be honest with your friends and family. Try not to sugar coat the relationship. A healthy relationship can withstand reality testing. When you're early on in a relationship, you're infatuated which means you're literally not thinking clearly. So build healthy relationships with those who can see clearly and have permission to speak into your life! Seek Professional Partnership Consider one‑on‑one RSC coaching to map unconscious blocks and restore internal alignment. Subscribe & Stay Connected
Peter Pistorius, co-creator of RedwoodJS, talks about the evolution from RedwoodJS GraphQL to the new Redwood SDK, a React framework built for Cloudflare. They dive deep into serverless architecture, React Server Components, durable objects, AI-assisted development, and the challenges of modern deployment and hosting. Learn how Redwood SDK is empowering developers to focus on building and shipping, instead of managing infrastructure. Links https://rw-sdk.com http://peterp.org https://github.com/peterp https://bsky.app/profile/p4p8.bsky.social https://x.com/appfactory https://cursor.sh https://neon.tech Resources https://rwsdk.com We want to hear from you! How did you find us? Did you see us on Twitter? In a newsletter? Or maybe we were recommended by a friend? Let us know by sending an email to our producer, Em, at emily.kochanek@logrocket.com (mailto:emily.kochanek@logrocket.com), or tweet at us at PodRocketPod (https://twitter.com/PodRocketpod). Follow us. Get free stickers. Follow us on Apple Podcasts, fill out this form (https://podrocket.logrocket.com/get-podrocket-stickers), and we'll send you free PodRocket stickers! What does LogRocket do? LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com (https://logrocket.com/signup/?pdr).
No match reports in this one as we've got the Juz-Line, Christine Allen's women's team update and a double author feature, starting with Cian Manning's "I Love Me County: Waterford Sporting Stories", ahead of Friday's trip to the RSC. Then, for our Goodbye Goodison series, you'll hear from Steve Zocek on his book 'Goodison Memories: Looking Back Before Looking Forward', before another Everton fan, Ben Winstanley (A View From The Bullens) talks Sunday's emotional farewell to the famous ground. PS: all recorded before Tuesday's news. PPS: Happy Birthday Shannon~!
Expo Router v5 was released, which dramatically improves authentication flows and finally allows to use RSC in production - although still in beta. Beyond that William Candillon shared epic updates about Skia and WebGPU, making even more powerful React Native apps possible in the future.Also in this episode:- Galaxies Lifetime pricing with one-time payment- Receiving Feedback on Podcast & Apps- Sharing my next app projects- Flutter devs love React Native
The great actor Sir David Suchet is Gyles's guest today: and this conversation gets behind Hercule Poirot - Sir David's most famous role - and delves into David's childhood, his schooldays and his early acting career at the National Youth Theatre and the RSC. Gyles finds out about David's difficult relationship with his father, the great doctor, Jack Suchet. He finds out about his close relationship with his mother and his grandparents, and the influence they had on him. He finds out about David's schooldays, his prowess on the rugby pitch, and how a teacher at school spotted his acting talent. Gyles also hears about how David's work ethic and attention to detail has sometimes led to tricky moments in rehearsals. The episode ends with a surprise which you won't want to miss!This is a fascinating, candid and sometimes very touching interview - thank you very much to Sir David for your time and for your honesty. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
The great actor Sir David Suchet is Gyles's guest today: and this conversation gets behind Hercule Poirot - Sir David's most famous role - and delves into David's childhood, his schooldays and his early acting career at the National Youth Theatre and the RSC. Gyles finds out about David's difficult relationship with his father, the great doctor, Jack Suchet. He finds out about his close relationship with his mother and his grandparents, and the influence they had on him. He finds out about David's schooldays, his prowess on the rugby pitch, and how a teacher at school spotted his acting talent. Gyles also hears about how David's work ethic and attention to detail has sometimes led to tricky moments in rehearsals. The episode ends with a surprise which you won't want to miss! This is a fascinating, candid and sometimes very touching interview - thank you very much to Sir David for your time and for your honesty. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Galway United have dropped to eighth in the SSE Airtricity League Men's Premier Division following a 1-0 defeat to Waterford at the RSC on Friday (9th May 2025). Darragh Leahy's goal on 27 minutes gave the hosts the three points and condemned United to a third consecutive loss. However, Galway are still just six points behind leaders Shamrock Rovers and Derry City. Galway Bay FM's match commentary were Jonathan Higgins and Brendan White. == Galway United's next game is against Sligo Rovers on Friday (16th May 2025). Kick-off at Eamonn Deacy Park is 7.45pm and we'll have LIVE coverage on 'Over The Line' on Galway Bay FM.
What's in our medicines? There are active ingredients, and there are excipients, which is everything else. From colorants to emulsifiers to adjuvants, excipients hide many horrors, and it's not even possible to know which ones are in your meds (or foods). Dairy that has been fortified with vitamins A & D also has seed oils and emulsifiers, but those things aren't on the label. The government database that should have all the information is full of errors. Polysorbate 80, a common emulsifier in food and drugs, is so complex that it hasn't been fully characterized, and is known to be cytotoxic generally, including being hemolytic—it breaks apart red blood cells. Meanwhile, Moderna's Covid “vax” has even more contaminants than previously recognized.*****Our sponsors:Masa Chips: Delicious chips made with corn, salt, and beef tallow—nothing else—in loads of great flavors. Go to http://masachips.com/DarkHorse, use code DarkHorse, for 20% off.Dose for your Liver: Tasty drink with milk thistle, ginger, dandelion & turmeric to support liver health. Save 30% of your first month at http://dosedaily.co/DarkHorse.Jolie: Beautiful showerheads that filter out the garbage without reducing water pressure. Go to http://jolieskinco.com/DarkHorse to get free shipping; free returns within 60 days.*****Join us on Locals! Get access to our Discord server, exclusive live streams, live chats for all streams, and early access to many podcasts: https://darkhorse.locals.comHeather's newsletter, Natural Selections (subscribe to get free weekly essays in your inbox): https://naturalselections.substack.comOur book, A Hunter-Gatherer's Guide to the 21st Century, is available everywhere books are sold, including from Amazon: https://amzn.to/3AGANGg (commission earned)Check out our store! Epic tabby, digital book burning, saddle up the dire wolves, and more: https://darkhorsestore.org*****Mentioned in this episode:FDA to ban petroleum-based dyes: https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/hhs-fda-phase-out-petroleum-based-synthetic-dyes-nations-food-supplyMilk fortified with seed oils and Polysorbate 80: https://x.com/strong_sistas/status/1906085634357236222Abrantes et al 2016. An overview of pharmaceutical excipients: safe or not safe? Journal of pharmaceutical sciences, 105(7): 2019-2026: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0022354916004470Betty Pezzimenti on DarkHorse, Nov 26, 2021: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qA0wZD0iPwKinsella et al 2024. Inconsistent excipient listings in DailyMed: implications for drug safety. Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's Archives of Pharmacology, 397(9): 6851-6854: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00210-024-03067-xRFK on Dr. Phil: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZofNzZ8UoPkOn Food and Cooking by Harold McGee: https://amzn.to/3EFZBAj (commission earned)Sun et al 2017. Component-based biocompatibility and safety evaluation of polysorbate 80. RSC advances, 7(25): 15127-15138: https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlepdf/2017/ra/c6ra27242hMore contaminants in the Moderna vaccine: https://x.com/kevin_mckernan/status/1917252562442506303Support the show
Playwrights and RSC artistic directors Reed Martin and Austin Tichenor discuss the updates they've been making to all their scripts (including All the Great Books (abridged), featuring Doug Harvey, Tré Zijuan Tyler, and Michael Faulkner, below) and how their writing process begins with coming up with material that's personal resonant. Martin and Tichenor reveal the despair of artists listening to the mortgage when evaluating their work; how not all laughs are created equal; how the great job of making people laugh now feels like an supremely important job; and how hearing the audience gasp at the turns in the narrative is even more satisfying to us. (Length 24:21) The post Funny To Us appeared first on Reduced Shakespeare Company.
Journalist Siân Pattenden & critic Stephanie Merritt join Tom to discuss Self Esteem's third album A Complicated Woman, which features collaborations with Nadine Shah and Moonchild Sanelly. Ahead of the release, Self Esteem AKA Rebecca Lucy Taylor showcased the album by staging a five-night theatrical presentation at London's Duke of York theatre. Tom and guests also talk about the Belgian film Julie Keeps Quiet, where a star player at a top tennis school deals with the aftermath of her coach being suspended. And they review the RSC's Stratford-upon-Avon contemporary production of Much Ado about Nothing which is set in the world of elite football. Plus, presenter Tom Service talks about the line up for the 2025 BBC Proms.Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Claire Bartleet
Actor Sir Simon Russell Beale is widely acclaimed as one of the greatest actors of his generation. He has played many leading roles at National Theatre and RSC, including Hamlet, Macbeth and King Lear. He is currently starring in Titus Andronicus at the RSC. His awards include three Olivier Awards, two BAFTAs, and a Tony Award in 2022 for his leading role in The Lehman Trilogy, which had transferred from London. Simon Russell Beale was knighted in 2019 for services to drama. Simon tells John Wilson about his childhood and his visits to his family in the boarding school holidays at their home in Penang and Singapore. Trained as a chorister from an early age, he reveals how J.S. Bach's St Matthew Passion evokes the thrill of singing at his choir school. Simon very nearly embarked on a career in music before switching to drama and tells John about the significance of the Macbeth soliloquy that began a lifetime love of Shakespeare. He also reveals the central role that pubs play in the learning of his lines.Producer: Edwina Pitman
Scott and Wes break down the current state of React Server Components — what they are, how they work, and why they're so controversial. From framework support to bundling complexity, it's everything you need to know about RSC in 2025. Show Notes 00:00 Welcome to Syntax! 01:01 Brought to you by Sentry.io. 01:55 What exactly are React Server Components? 02:18 Server components rendering. 03:17 Server components are async. 03:45 Server components can be suspended. 05:05 Server components send RSC payloads to the browser. 06:08 This feels like HTMX? 06:54 Client components are still server rendered. 07:58 Server Functions. 08:52 useActionState. 09:12 Frameworks and React Platforms. 09:16 NextJS. 09:42 Waku. 12:26 candycode.com Daishi Kato 14:23 React Router. Michael Jackson Tweet. 19:29 Vite. vite-plugin-react-server 20:54 Tanstack. Syntax Ep 833. 22:39 Bun. 23:01 DIY. 23:39 Why so much hate? 25:28 I want it my way. 27:46 React Server Components lock-in. Hit us up on Socials! Syntax: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Wes: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Scott: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Randy: X Instagram YouTube Threads
Welcome Back to TBOTA!Dan Milne trained as a theatre practitioner after studying English at Cambridge and training at the Drama Studio, London. He has acted with leading UK theatre companies including the Royal Shakespeare Company, National Theatre, Young Vic, and Complicité, as well as regionally with the Royal Exchange Manchester, Birmingham Rep, and Liverpool Everyman. His international tours have taken him to Broadway and festivals in the US, Mexico, India, Australia, and New Zealand. Screen credits include Eastenders, The Nevers, and Star Wars: The Acolyte.As a director, Dan has worked with the RSC and Young Vic and presented work at BAC, Trafalgar Studios, and off-Broadway. He produced the documentary The Longest Game and two features, Never Here and Widow's Walk, and is currently developing The Gate with Camille Thoman and Tobias Menzies. He also co-founded Narativ, a storytelling company born from his acclaimed New York theatre piece Two Men Talking. The company's mission is ‘a world connected by listening and sharing personal stories' - a mission to support people to explore, tell and reflect on the stories of their personal experience.Jane Nash is Director and Lead Trainer of Narativ in London. She believes passionately in the transformative power of Listening & Storytelling and brings a rigorous, compassionate ability to listen in all situations, creating trainings that her clients say are practical, inspiring and always human. Jane developed her love of story and her expertise in the behaviours of personal impact in a career spanning many decades, working internationally as an actor, writer, director and theatre maker. She has appeared in film and on television, and in theatre spaces as diverse as Greenwich Park, St Pancras Station and the Olivier Theatre. She has created many pieces of theatre drawing on elements of personal storytelling - such work includes ‘Big Space', ‘Small Space', and a piece about family currently being developed with Dan and her daughter, entitled ‘All Those Things'.Support this show:Become a patron and help me make this show. Bonus episodes every week: >> Robert Neumark Jones | creating podcasts and extra content | PatreonBuy me a coffee ☕https://paypal.me/robertneumarkOr support me through other ways:Bliss of the AbyssGive us a rating & review:Write a review for Bliss of the Abyss Like and follow us on Facebook or InstagramMy Webpage:Robert Neumark Jones | Actor | Voice Artist (robertnj.com)© Robert Neumark Jones
Short one today; and I don't mean Violet. We learn just how the group did on their RSC field test. Spoiler alert: they did terribly. Violet and Rhi have a bit of a spat and we just miss seeing Xaden. We talk a little about plants and how neat they are. We are looking for guests! If you want to be on the pod, just send us a message! Email – readersquadpod@gmail.com Instagram - @readersquadrantpodcast Discord – https://discord.gg/xuDZAjWHPh Tiktok - @readers.quadrant BlueSky - @readersquadpod Samantha's BlueSky - @nestasorrengail Tip Jar - https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/readers-quadrant The Pyre by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Support The Readers Quadrant by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/readers-quadrant
What role have fossil fuel lobbyists really played in climate negotiations over the past three decades? And what impact do they continue to have on climate progress today?In this episode, Christiana Figueres, Tom Rivett-Carnac and Paul Dickinson explore the history of this often unseen influence, ask why fossil fuel lobbyists have become so embedded in the COP system, and consider what levers are emerging to disrupt their involvement in domestic and international politics.This episode also features another panel from our live event at The Conduit, inspired by the RSC's Olivier-nominated production of Kyoto, and hosted by the Financial Times' Pilita Clark. She's joined by climate lawyer Tessa Khan, climate finance and energy expert Kirsty Hamilton, and historian of climate change negotiations and former UNFCCC secretariat Joanna Depledge, to unpack how industry lobbyists - from oil majors to car manufacturers - used misinformation, procedural manipulation, and political influence to undermine progress in Kyoto and beyond.So, how have fossil fuel lobby tactics changed in the years since Kyoto? Have they achieved everything they set out to? And what might the world look like if the industry had never sought to delay and derail climate negotiations - or, better yet, had taken responsibility for its role in the green transition?Learn more
Following his match winning heroics at the RSC on Friday night we catch up with St.Patrick's Athletic star Brandon Kavanagh. Meanwhile, Dundalk FC manager Ciaran Kilduff chats to us about the need for more support for First Division clubs as the second tier continues to breed some of the leading young talent in Ireland at present. Kieran & Gaz reflect on a hugely dramatic weekend across both divisions with controversies and drama everywhere you look. We also read out your latest tweets and of course, there is the BTS Predictions League. All of this is brought to you with thanks to our sponsor QuinnAv.ie
Next.js had a security vulnerability scare last week due to an internal header in its middleware that allowed for skipping middleware (like auth validation) before reaching routes. The Next.js team responded quickly and patched the security holes, but this serves as a reminder to stay vigilant, keep dependencies updated, and implement multiple layers of security.Michael Jackson, co-founder of Remix and React Router, is calling it quits for Remix support React Server Components. Lots of React-based frameworks built prior to RSCs have been struggling to support the new paradigm shift - and lots of devs have bemoaned the fact because of the added complexity it introduces, and MJ is over it. This isn't the first time framework authors have made bold claims to not support new breaking changes, so we'll have to wait and see if he sticks to it.Rsdoctor, a build analyzer tool by ByteDance, has hit v1.0. Rsdoctor goes beyond other build analysis tools offering a visual view of the build process and smart analysis to help dev teams identify bottlenecks, optimize performance, and improve overall engineering quality.News:Paige - Rsdoctor 1.0 is available nowJack - Remix bailing on RSC?TJ - Next.js's security vulnerabilityBonus News:Redwood JS enters maintenance modeBrowser Use Raises $17MFire Starters:CSS interpolate-size: allow-keywordsWhat Makes Us Happy this Week:Paige - Mythic Quest TV seriesJack - Relearning guitar and the Katana Go headphone ampTJ - Open AI image generation and Studio GhibliThanks as always to our sponsor, the Blue Collar Coder channel on YouTube. You can join us in our Discord channel, explore our website and reach us via email, or talk to us on X, Bluesky, or YouTube.Front-end Fire websiteBlue Collar Coder on YouTubeBlue Collar Coder on DiscordReach out via emailTweet at us on X @front_end_fireFollow us on Bluesky @front-end-fire.comSubscribe to our YouTube channel @Front-EndFirePodcast
The guys open the pod talking about illness, Disneyworld & life. Then it's on to the nights beers, and a discussion about the Loons draw against LAG. They discuss the changes to the lineup with 5 players being on international duty, the terrible officiating to start the match, a Yeboah goal, a defensive mistake, Dotson getting injured, playing some great ball for 5-10 in the second half, a hand ball leading to a Yeboah PK, and a late equalizer by LAG that was both lucky & unlucky. They then make their predictions on the Loons matchup against RSC, which is followed by some MN soccer history. They end the podcast with a story about a man who tried to get through airport security with a turtle in his pants.
In this episode Scott talks about the recently completed Rob-See-Co Forage Book, how you can use it to confidently select products, and why it demonstrates RSC's commitment to forage.
Veteran Shakespearean actor Geoffrey Barnes joins the Reduced Shakespeare Company to play Yorick and Ophelia's mother in the regional theatre premiere of The Comedy of Hamlet! (a prequel). The RSC's 11th stage show marks the company's seventh appearance at Merrimack Repertory Theatre, as well as MRT's 300th production, and Geoffrey discusses how his many years at Cincinnati Shakespeare Company and Oregon Shakespeare Festival – as well as his background in musical theatre and experience performing RSC scripts at CSC – serve him well in this comic prequel to Shakespeare's greatest tragedy. Geoffrey reveals the value of a comedian not thinking he's funny; how he finds the rhythms and music of the language, whether it's Shakespeare, vaudeville, or August Wilson; and the importance of letting the music and the jokes serve the characters and the story. (Length 21:05) The post Meet Geoffrey Barnes appeared first on Reduced Shakespeare Company.
Gone Medieval begins a gripping 4 part series exploring scandal, power, and betrayal in the Plantagenet Court.This one of England's most dramatic royal sagas; from the ill-fated reign of Edward II to the rise of his son, Edward III, Matt Lewis and Dr. Eleanor Janega uncover how love and the Crown do not make good bedfellows.Each episode brings to life the key players in this enthralling saga and today Matt and Eleanor explore the disastrous reign of Edward II.With exclusive behind the scenes access to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre's rehearsals of their stunning new production of Edward II, Matt and Eleanor dissect the intricate balance of power and personal desire, detailing the king's conflicts with his barons, his disastrous military campaigns, and the role of his infamous favourites.Gone Medieval is written and presented by Matt Lewis and Dr. Eleanor Janega. Lines performed by Daniel Evans. Audio editor is Amy Haddow, the producers are Joseph Knight and Rob Weinberg. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.All music used is courtesy of Epidemic Sounds.Gone Medieval is a History Hit podcast.Tickets are available for the RSC's new production of Edward II: https://www.rsc.org.uk/edward-ii/Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe. You can take part in our listener survey here: https://insights.historyhit.com/history-hit-podcast-always-on
It turned out to be another dramatic night in the League of Ireland, with Shamrock Rovers taking the spoils in a nervy Dublin derby at Tallaght Stadium. Elsewhere, Bohemians picked up their first win since the opening weekend with a Colm Whelan hat-trick giving them a 3-0 win at Waterford. You can hear all the post-match reaction from that here. But on a packed LOI Late Night, Cameron was joined by the likes of Barry Murphy, Shane Keegan, Jonathan Higgins (who almost gets locked inside the RSC!!), and a host of fans from up and down the country.
Sean Baker made Oscar history, becoming the first person to win four Academy Awards for directing, editing, writing and producing a single film, Anora. Larushka Ivan-Zadeh joins Samira to look at this year's Oscar winners and what they say about cinema today. The RSC's co-artistic director Daniel Evans discusses playing Christopher Marlowe's Edward II. Filmmaker Laura Carreira talks about her award-winning debut feature On Falling, about the social isolation and the injustices faced by a Portuguese woman working in the gig economy in Scotland. And, we look back at the work of late artist Jack Vettriano with Rachel Campbell Johnson. Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Ruth Watts
This week the boys start off talking about Ronnie Garvin, yes that Ronnie Garvin. Why did the boys spend so much time talking about Ronnie Garvin? Also at the beginning of the show, the boys have a couple of questions from the listeners. Also the boys jump the gun and start talking about the Road Warriors from Ringside collectibles. Also this past week was Scott's birthday, what did he purchase? In the news, baseball fans in New York and Pittsburgh will have the opportunity to get their mascot in Yeet gear. FOCO also showed their latest bobbleheads. And trust us, you don't want to miss this. Mattel welcomes DC back into the family. Also Loyal Subjects jumps into the game with a big signing. Who is this signing? La Toonies announced their pre order date for their 12 inch macho Man. The boys do have a question from the wrestling figs message boards regarding the crowd fund. In the nostalgia segment the boys talk about RSC exclusives from 2024 part 1 Pre Orders: Big Rubber Guys - Collectmajor.com Earl Hebner Road Warriors are available at Big Bad toy store Demolition - Ax, Smash and Crush Fig Collections - shop.figurecollections.com The patriot Buff Bagwell Zombie Sailor - Just head over to pro wrestling tees. KWK Shopkwk.com use code Fullyposeable to get 10 percent off your order Thank you to everyone for keeping this show going!
This week the boys start off the show with rating the new Mat Maniacs Road Warriors and Steiner brothers. What ratings did they give the new set of figures? The boys also discuss the most recent names for Wrestlecon. And another name has signed on to the WWE legends deal In the news, Rugged Ronnie Garvin gets his first figure. Demolition gets another set of BRG's but who is joining them in that series? The big name for Superstars series 14 was announced. And the boys read off a couple of questions from the wrestling figure message boards. In the nostalgia segment the boys talk about RSC exclusives from 2022 and 2023 Pre Orders: Big Rubber Guys - Collectmajor.com Earl Hebner Road Warriors are available at Big Bad toy store Demolition - Ax, Smash and Crush Fig Collections - shop.figurecollections.com The patriot Buff Bagwell Zombie Sailor - Just head over to pro wrestling tees. KWK Shopkwk.com use code Fullyposeable to get 10 percent off your order Thank you to everyone for keeping this show going!
This week the boys start off talking about the superbowl. The boys also answer a question from Josh Thompson. Josh asked “What are some of your hot takes for wrestling figures”? The boys also discuss Demolition going into the HOF. Also more names are announced for Wrestlecon. And who were the big names that popped up? In the news, Scott 2 Hotty is getting another figure. La Toonies coming in with a new style of figure. And who was their first name for their new style figure? Mattel shows off Monday night wars series 7 In the nostalgia segment the boys talk about RSC exclusives from 2022 Pre Orders: Big Rubber Guys - Earl Hebner Road Warriors are available at Big Bad toy store Fig Collections - The patriot Buff Bagwell Zombie Sailor - Just head over to pro wrestling tees. KWK Shopkwk.com use code Fullyposeable to get 10 percent off your order Thank you to everyone for keeping this show going!
RSC artistic directors Reed Martin and Austin Tichenor discuss their return to Merrimack Repertory Theatre with the company's 11th show, The Comedy of Hamlet! (a prequel) as MRT's 300th production. Reed and Austin reveal the RSC's deep connections to New England; how this will be the RSC's third show to premiere at MRT (after The Complete World of Sports (abridged) and The Ultimate Christmas Show (abridged) and seventh visit overall; and share insights into the creation of the show and why they changed the title; how the show's roll-out and script development got interrupted by the pandemic; what milestone anniversary will be celebrated by our first MRT performance; and how creating a prequel to Shakespeare's greatest play brought unexpected emotional connections to the characters. (LENGTH 18:24) The post Returning To MRT! appeared first on Reduced Shakespeare Company.
This week, the boys talk about their 9 year anniversary. The boys also talked about the royal rumble. The boys also go over their figures that they picked up this past week. In the news, Jordan Grace was announced for series 2 of the Major pods Stars line. Zombie also shows off his next set a retros, hint, it is not wrestling related. Zombie also had an update to his Sandman figure that was limited to 1,776. Youtooz also showed off their next series of AEW figurines. And Ozer answers a few questions from the wrestling figure message boards. In the nostalgia segment the boys talk about RSC exclusives from 2019-2021 Pre Orders: Big Rubber Guys - Earl Hebner Road Warriors are available at Big Bad toy store Fig Collections - The patriot Buff Bagwell Zombie Sailor - Just head over to pro wrestling tees. KWK Shopkwk.com use code Fullyposeable to get 10 percent off your order Thank you to everyone for keeping this show going!
On today's (Friday 2 of 2) Episode of the Steak for Breakfast Podcast, we are covering: Promises Made, Promises Kept: President Trump signs a historic Executive Order protecting women and girls in sports The President returns to the National Prayer Breakfast and we check in on the latest from inside the Beltway and around the Country Guests: In Order of Appearance All profile handles are for X (formerly Twitter) Congressman Andy Biggs: (@RepAndyBiggsAZ) U.S. Representative, AZ-5; Member, Republican Study Committee; Member, HFC Website: http://biggs.house.gov/ Congressman Ralph Norman: (@RepRalphNorman) U.S. Representative, SC-5; Member HFC, RSC Website: https://norman.house.gov/ Congressman Mike Haridopolos: (@RepHaridopolos) U.S. Representative, FL-8; Member, RSC Website: http://haridopolos.house.gov/ Steak for Breakfast: SUBSCRIBE on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/steak-for-breakfast-podcast/id1498791684 SUBSCRIBE on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3MXIB2s8IWLoT4tnBMAH9n?si=izN0KShBSAytW5JBBsKEwQ email the show: steakforbreakfastpodcast@protonmail.com Steak for Substack: https://steakforbreakfastpodcast.substack.com linktree: https://linktr.ee/steakforbreakfastpodcast MyPillow: Promo Code: STEAK at checkout Website: https://mystore.com/steak Website: https://www.mypillow.com/steak Via the Phone: http://mypatriotcigars.com/usa/steak Man Rubs Enter Promo Code: STEAK15 and save 15% https://manrubs.com Beard Vet Coffee Enter Promo Code: STEAK and save 10% https://www.beardvet.com/ BattleBorn Coffee Roasters enter promo code: STEAK and save 20% off your first order https://www.battleborn.coffee New Hope Wellness use this link or enter promo code: STEAK during intake for free consultation and $100 off your first order https://www.newhopewellness.com/steak Call: 1-800-527-2150
This week, the boys talk about the Rumble that was yesterday. How did the boys do predicting the Rumble. Scott and Jef talk about the next season of dark side of the ring. Also, is Macho Man back in the family? In the news, Ryback shows off his own retro. La Toonies shows off three different variations of Andre the Giants. Fanatics exclusives showed off a new John Cena Pillow buddy. The pillow buddy was made by big shot pillow buddies. Grapplers and Gimmicks announced a surprise that no one had on their 2025 bingo card. Title run toys announce Ernest the cat Miller. Did you pick up your Vlad retro in Indianapolis? mat Maniacs announces their next tag team in their line. And Steve answers a couple of questions on the wrestling figure message board. In the nostalgia segment the boys talk about RSC exclusives from 2016-2018 Pre Orders: Big Rubber Guys - Earl Hebner Road Warriors are available at Big Bad toy store Fig Collections - The patriot Buff Bagwell Zombie Sailor - Just head over to pro wrestling tees. KWK Shopkwk.com use code Fullyposeable to get 10 percent off your order Thank you to everyone for keeping this show going!