If a nation can be thought of as a family, what happens when the family running the nation falls apart? At the exact moment that King James I wanted to unite England and Scotland, Shakespeare answered this question with his masterpiece of tyranny, madness, and betrayal: King Lear. In this third episode of Lend Me Your Ears, host Isaac Butler talks to theater critic Helen Shaw, Yale English professor David Kastan, and University of Roehampton professor Clare McManus about the themes of unification, misogyny, and entitlement found in one of Shakespeare’s greatest works. The actors in this episode are Geordie Broadwater as King Lear, Emily Gardner Xu Hall as Cordelia, and Daryl Lathon as Albany and Kent. Slate Plus members get a bonus episode of Lend Me Your Ears every month. Learn more at slate.com/shakespeare Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices