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PODCAST

Living Myth

Mosaic presents Living Myth, a podcast with Michael Meade, renowned mythologist and storyteller. Meade presents mythic stories that offer uniquely insightful and wise ways of understanding the current dilemmas of the world we live in. Living Myth proposes that genuine solutions to the complex and intractable problems of our world require both transcendent imagination and cohering, transformative narratives.

society & culture philosophy

All Episodes

19:09

Episode 422 - Surviving the Maelstrom

Living Myth ·

2025/02/12

This episode of Living Myth begins with the idea that we are experiencing not just radical changes that happen in quick succession, but a maelstrom that threatens to upend life as we know it. The word maelstrom comes from old roots meaning, “a grinding stream or great whirlpool that sucks everything into its downward spiraling vortex.” Being alive at this radical time when extreme changes engulf most areas of life means that we repeatedly risk being overwhelmed and pulled down by events that can

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24:01

Episode 421 - Chaos, Conflict and the Deep Self Within

Living Myth ·

2025/02/05

This episode begins with the idea that we live in times of extreme changes and increasing chaos. When the world around us falls apart the issue becomes not simply a change in lifestyle or shift in politics, but a revelation of the core imagination and original aim hidden within each of our souls from the beginning. Michael Meade tells an old Native American myth about a youth who has a vision of a “singing stone” that gives great medicine to whoever finds it. In order to find the stone and the

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33:02

Episode 420 - A Crucial Test of the Dream of Justice,...

Living Myth ·

2025/01/29

This episode looks at the misuses of power, the dangers of arch narcissism and the ways that the dream of America is now being severely tested. An old proverb states that: Power lacks morals and principles, it only has interests, and the interests of the powerful are often at odds with the genuine principles and the truth and the kind of understanding needed to create community. The troubled times in which we now all find ourselves are the crucible in which we need to learn more about psychology

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22:57

Premium Episode 151 Excerpt - Pathways to the Center

Living Myth ·

2025/01/28

On this excerpt from a Living Myth Premium episode, Michael Meade explores how even in the darkest times, the inner abundance of the soul is ever nearby. The problem is that the pathways to our inner inheritance and instinctive vitality are blocked by received ideas and an over-adaptation to early life conditions. The rigid attitudes of our ego or little-self make it difficult to connect to the imagination and vitality of the greater self within us. The deeper self is our true center that can be

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31:42

Episode 419 - The Redemptive Power of Soul

Living Myth ·

2025/01/22

Michael Meade considers how as the world rattles around us and the soul trembles, balancing symbols and archetypal energies stir deep within us. If we can hold the tension of the immediate limitations, we can connect to the soul’s power of redemption and life’s natural energies of renewal. Archetypes, like instincts, are part of our inner inheritance. They hold all the potentials of life and can initiate creative responses to the challenges and dilemmas we face. As the outside world becomes

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26:59

Episode 418 - The Creative Middle Way

Living Myth ·

2025/01/15

Michael Meade looks at how a living system tends to be most complex in the middle or at the center, while being most open at the edges. Being at one side of a bridge of change opens possibilities of crossing over and reaching a place of greater understanding on the other side. Yet the actual change must happen in the complicated middle which involves both loss and renewal, both chaos and creation. The creative middle way involves the power of becoming; becoming aware of new ways of being as

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25:00

Episode 417 - A Story That Must Not Be Forgotten

Living Myth ·

2025/01/08

Michael Meade recounts an ancient myth that reveals essential knowledge for navigating the turbulent time in which we all now live. The mostly forgotten tale describes the origin of the soul and explains how it is that we keep forgetting the still surprising idea that each soul brings to life a unique story and a destiny that seeks to unfold in the course of each life. When faced with dark times and worldwide troubles, there is no formula that can save us. There is no simple fix or silver

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24:36

Episode 416 - A Touch of the Eternal

Living Myth ·

2025/01/02

Although it may often feel that we are running out of time when it comes to the great issues of the world and the struggles of daily life, Michael Meade suggests that it is not more time that we need but a stronger connection to things that are timeless, and therefore eternal. Meade tells an ancient Bushman story from Africa that depicts the dilemma which humanity faces with each crisis that involves issues of meaning, truth and the human soul. When great troubles abound, whether it be on the

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23:49

Episode 415 - The Inner Speck of Star

Living Myth ·

2024/12/26

This episode begins with an ancient myth from a tribe along the Amazon River. The story tells how the inner soul of each person travels at night all the way the center of the cosmos. Once there, the soul receives a message that is brought back and shared with the tribe as a dream. Meade draws on this link between the individual soul and the cosmos to describe how ancient cultures imagined each person to be born with a speck of star hidden in their soul, buried in their heart, just waiting to become

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18:03

Episode 414 - Solstice and the Tree of Life

Living Myth ·

2024/12/17

On this winter solstice episode, Michael Meade states at the beginning: “This is not just the dark time of the year, but increasingly dark times for everyone, especially for those who care for the souls of other people and for the well-being of the earth we all live on.” He goes on to describe how ancient symbols and practices at the Winter Solstice served as a reminder of the cosmological connection between the human soul and the hidden unity of life. Symbols have the power to bring the

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26:08

Episode 413 - From Polarization to Re-Creation

Living Myth ·

2024/12/11

This episode begins with the word polarization being chosen as the dictionary word of the year and ironically being the one thing that both sides of the political spectrum agree upon. The Merriam Webster Dictionary defines polarization as “a division into sharply distinct opposites in which opinions and no longer range along a continuum, but become concentrated at opposing extremes.” When polarization becomes the key word, extreme levels of tension are being experienced, both on the collective

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26:11

Episode 412 - Living in Two Worlds

Living Myth ·

2024/12/04

This episode begins with the recognition that, what the United Nations calls “the biggest election year ever recorded,” has left most countries on Earth more divided and less free. Any issue that arises quickly becomes another example of two opposing attitudes or conflicting views of life. As increased polarization fractures any sense of civil society, people come to believe that they literally live in two different worlds that are essentially unreconcilable. Following a line from

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39:07

Episode 411 - The Necessity of Gratitude

Living Myth ·

2024/11/26

Michael Meade answers questions about the sources and meanings of grace and gratitude. Gratitude used to be called the “parent of all virtues” and its presence indicates the natural nobility of the human soul. We are most human and most alive when we allow ourselves to be touched by the beauty of the world and when we feel genuine gratitude for the life we have been given, no matter how hard or how dark the world around us has become. In this way, expressing gratitude helps to bring grace

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30:53

Episode 410 - On Hope and Despair

Living Myth ·

2024/11/20

This episode begins with the old idea that emotions travel in pairs. Sorrow tends to travel with joy, so that if we allow sorrow to penetrate us, it will pull us to a deep level of our soul where joy can provide a renewal of spirit that lifts us back up. On the other hand, when we deny the grief and sorrows that enter our lives, we wind up losing our capacity for joy. Another natural pairing of emotions occurs with hope and despair. While despair can mean to “lose all hope,” it is not simply a

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32:29

Episode 409 - The Law of the Fish vs. The Rule of Law

Living Myth ·

2024/11/13

Michael Meade turns to an ancient myth from India to show how elections can have such dire consequences that the rule of law becomes replaced with the “law of the fishes.” In the great oceans the big fish endlessly devour the little fish and the same drama is often replicated in the realm of culture, where every pond has its big fish and the small fry continually become fodder for the big shots. The law of the fishes was used by ancient people to describe periods of cultural disorder when there is

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23:55

Episode 408 - To Not Be Lost

Living Myth ·

2024/11/07

It is our mutual fate to live in a time of such disorientation and upheaval that the institutions we hoped would protect us cannot keep up with the flood of changes pouring through both nature and human culture. It makes sense that we could feel lost when the present is full of chaos and fear, while the future looks increasingly uncertain. In the long run, we are not simply in a battle between Democrats and Republicans or conservatives and liberals, but rather we are in a struggle for meaning and

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25:58

Episode 407 - Antidotes to Uncertainty

Living Myth ·

2024/10/30

This episode of Living Myth begins with excerpts from a new psychological survey that a majority of American adults are worried that the upcoming presidential election could be the end of democracy in the United States. More than 7 in 10 people fear the results could lead to widespread violence. While it is clear that the political stakes are high, the levels of uncertainty and fear are even higher. Across the board, people feel less able to predict and control things, much less integrate

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27:14

Episode 406 - Men, the Soul and the Search for Truth

Living Myth ·

2024/10/23

This episode addresses the issue of the “strongman” in politics and the way it exemplifies and contributes to a loss of authenticity, a lack of integrity and a loss of soul in modern cultures. “As a storyteller and someone who studies mythology, I carry stories around, maybe in the same way that someone might carry food or medicine or equipment in a backpack in case a need arises. To follow the metaphor, I need stories for nourishment. I need stories for medicine. And stories equip me with

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24:36

Episode 405 - The Symptoms We Suffer, The Symbols We...

Living Myth ·

2024/10/16

This episode is about the need for living symbols that can give us a sense of unity and wholeness in a divided world. Symptom is an old Greek word that refers to something that “falls upon us or strikes us” in a way that wounds us or divides us against ourself. At this critical time on Earth, almost anything can suddenly become symptomatic and leave us more personally wounded and more collectively divided. The word symbol derives from Greek roots, meaning “to throw together or bring things

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27:14

Episode 404 - Finding Shelter from the Storms

Living Myth ·

2024/10/09

This episode of Living Myth begins with the idea that the old terminology of 100-year storms and 1000-year storms makes little sense, since events of that magnitude now happen so often. It becomes difficult to deny that we now live in a world that is more unpredictable, more chaotic, and sadly, more dangerous. As the storms occurring in nature grow greater and move faster, a parallel intensification of cultural conflicts and political storms have also been growing greater and changing with

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