The podcast relaunches with an episode all about Shakespeare’s first tragic heroine. This season 2 premiere explores what makes Juliet extraordinary: she’s brave, playful, confident, and resourceful — all at age 13. Also discussed: Romeo and Juliet’s popularity among Latinx theater-makers, Juliet’s relationship with her parents and the Nurse, whether Juliet is really a character who exhibits agency, and the Taylor Swift song “Love Story.”

Guests on this episode are Naire Poole (she/they), who played Juliet for Shakespeare & Company’s Northeast Regional Tour earlier this year; Alejandra Escalante (she/her), who starred in an 1840s Alta California-set Romeo and Juliet at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in 2012; and Dr. Sophie Duncan (she/her), Research Fellow and Dean for Welfare at Magdalen College, University of Oxford and author of 2023 book Searching for Juliet: The Lives and Afterlives of Shakespeare’s First Tragic Heroine.