Why people recommend it
Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare is a classic romantic comedy exploring mistaken identity, love, and gender confusion in the fictional kingdom of Illyria. Adrian Edwards referenced the play on The Book Review while discussing the immense significance of Shakespeare's First Folio, noting that without this crucial historical collection, dramatic works such as Twelfth Night, The Tempest, and Macbeth might have been entirely lost to history. On SmartLess, actor Josh Brolin shared a humorous personal memory of performing in the play during his high school years, admitting that he could not understand a single word of his lines until he experienced the live reactions of an audience. Meanwhile, on On Purpose with Jay Shetty, the host and guest Chris Paul engaged in a wide-ranging conversation about work ethic, resilience, family history, and professional basketball life, during which Paul discussed his own autobiographical book Can't Give Up Now. Although the podcast episodes touched upon different literary works—ranging from Shakespearean drama to modern sports memoirs—the discussions collectively highlighted the enduring power of performance, whether through mastering classical theatrical roles in a school auditorium or overcoming intense personal and professional pressures in the public eye.
Who recommended it
- Adrian Edwards Discussed
Adrian Edwards — 1 mention
“well if we didn't have the first folio given that all the manuscript versions of the place are lost we wouldn't have Place such as the Tempest or 12th night or a Winter's Tale or Julius cesa or anti Cleopatra or MC Beth”
Mentioned on the show without a named speaker — 18
“I did this play, I did Twelfth Night, Shakespeare's Twelfth Night in high school! I didn't understand a word I was saying! And I... and until there was an audience!”
“You talk about hard work and work ethic in the book all the time, but how is this different? How do you set yourself up?”
“In the book, you said you think the game, and when I read that, it was interesting to me. I've sat down with so many athletes on the show and behind the scenes as well, but I'd never really heard anyone say it that way.”
“I played football, I mean, I was on my AAU basketball team; I think I talk about this in the book, and everybody on my team was on varsity except for me, right? And so I was a little bit slower, right, than some of the other guys.”
“Yeah, that work was just obvious through your grandfather who just lived it every day, and I'm—when you took the kids back to see the service station and the space, that part of the book is really special because you reminded me.”
“The part in the book that really got me was when—not because I don't have kids yet and me and my wife have been together for around 10 years now, and we moved from London to New York to LA and now we live in LA.”
“It's called 'Can't Give Up Now' because, like I said in the book, I grew up in church. I was in church four or five days a week, and I remember listening to that song and getting emotional, and it was like, look, the trade didn't happen, ESPN, everybody talking about it or whatnot.”
“There's so many lessons in the book that you learned from your grandpa, and I think people should read the book to learn the depth of it.”
“I want them to read the book, but I also want them to listen to the audiobook because I did the audiobook so they can actually hear my voice.”
“Not the end because the end is the hard part, but yeah, the journey is tough because in the immediate reaction, oh yeah, like I said in the book, I had some family members who were going to handle it themselves.”
“Like it's such a beautiful honoring of a person that you loved, and I've never, I don't think I've ever read a memoir that felt like an honoring of someone else.”
“And even the name, like I remember when the book first came on my desk, and I was trying to figure out, like, I didn't get the physical version but the digital version when it first came to me, I was like, 'Oh, 61, interesting.'”
“And what's crazy is in the book, I think I said something about one of his favorite scriptures being Philippians 4:13, 'I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me,' and that video I just found when he's standing up thanking everybody for coming to his birthday thing, he says that.”
“Just for everyone who's listening, Chris's whole book is about what his granddad told him off the court, which applies on the court, and then on the court lessons that play off the court, right?”
“You know, I gotta talk about in the book, the craziest thing, probably one of the craziest things in my career was that injury in Houston when I got hurt and we were a game away from going to the NBA Finals.”
“No, just the appreciation for this and being able to talk and tell my story through the book, and I hope people can really feel that it was really about that.”
“Because like I said in the book, my dad spent his entire 401k on me and my brother playing travel basketball.”
“And those that I see doing it, you know, when will—right now, Will Smith, good friend of mine—Will's book had a tremendous amount of success; Will sold a million books. It's not just because of the Will Smith factor; Will Smith is telling you the truth.”
Also mentioned in the same episodes
Other mentions (1: passing, ad reads, own books)
“so I mean there you have in someone like in 12th night you have someone like Viola who's played by a young man pretending to be a young woman who in fact in the play is pretending to be a young man”