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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

31:16

Episode 445 - The Spirit of Life

Living Myth ·

2025/07/23

This episode of Living Myth begins with the story of the Spirit in the Bottle in which a youth must confront a powerful and angry spirit in order to claim his own genius and natural gifts. One point of the tale is that we cannot become who we are intended to be unless our genius becomes conscious and is confirmed by someone other than our parents. If our inner spirit remains bottled up too long, it has no choice but to turn against us. Whereas the spirit in the old tale erupts with anger, in

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37:34

Episode 444 - An Act of Truth

Living Myth ·

2025/07/16

This episode of Living Myth addresses the rise of conspiracy theories and spread of falsehoods in conjunction with the phenomenon of a widespread loss of personal identity. Recent studies show that amidst radical social changes and growing levels of personal insecurity many people feel a greater need to feel part of a group. While being part of an in-group can relieve underlying feelings of insecurity, it can also involve a loss of true identity. As hostilities between polarized sides

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34:12

Episode 443 - Facing Inner Fears

Living Myth ·

2025/07/09

On this episode of Living Myth Michael Meade tells a fairy tale about a realm that is rapidly becoming a wasteland because its king has become seriously ill and there is no simple cure. The only way to heal the realm is to find the Water of Life. Doing that requires the seeker let go of all arrogance and accept the condition of not knowing. For only then will the mysterious dwarf provide the guidance and resources that are needed for the quest. Part of the essential guidance involves

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30:10

Episode 442 - Your Lot in Life

Living Myth ·

2025/07/02

This episode of Living Myth begins with the ancient idea of each soul receiving a “lot in life.” Lot basically means “a chip of wood,” but in this case, the chip comes from the roots of the World Tree, that also used to be known as the Tree of Destiny. Thus, each of our souls secretly carries a “divine word” or living symbol drawn from the Tree of Life that makes each person a divine experiment in life. We are human by lot, but we are divine by origin. We must begin life with the hand that fate

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27:41

Episode 441 - A Light Within Dark Times

Living Myth ·

2025/06/25

On this episode of Michael Meade recounts a myth from ancient Persia, the name by which Iran was known for centuries. The ancient tale predates all historical hostilities and battles in the Middle East and offers surprising insights into the origins and nature of the kind of conflict that can plunge whole peoples and entire epochs into darkness. Way back at the beginning, the original clash of opposite forces and the presence of great uncertainty about the future of life entered the world

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25:44

Episode 440 - The Orphan Boy and the Heedless King

Living Myth ·

2025/06/18

This episode begins with one of the great scenes in the mythologies of India. Indra had become King of the Earth by winning a great battle; he also became obsessed with power and increasingly demanding. Just when all the people were being reduced to dust and bones by the endless orders and sudden changes, the self-proclaimed lord of the earth has a surprising encounter with a ragged beggar boy. Although young and seemingly an outcast, the orphan boy knows more than the king about the use of power,

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32:04

Episode 439 - In a World Gone Wrong

Living Myth ·

2025/06/11

Increasingly, we are caught in the shattering of the world and in the broken heart of tragedy. The loss of soul in the world leaves people not only divided but turned against each other. The world we used to know is gone and we are suspended betwixt and between chaos and creation. We are in a series of crises and events that seem to turn the world upside down. For it is our mutual fate to be alive at a time of radical transformation that affects all levels of nature and all aspects of human

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34:32

Episode 438 - Heart Within the Heart

Living Myth ·

2025/06/04

As nature and culture rattle and old forms crumble, a crisis of imagination occurs and we are called to see the world with different eyes. Finding and following a genuine vision requires an open heart as well as an open mind. Thus, transforming our lives involves a genuine “change of heart.” While the heart fosters feelings and love, the heart within the heart is also the seat of imagination and the place of wisdom. What was known as the “eye of the heart” sees with a kind of vision that opens to

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31:45

Episode 437 - On the Road of Fate and Destiny

Living Myth ·

2025/05/28

On this episode, Michael Meade considers how finding and following the thread that connects our fate to our destiny ultimately involves a pilgrimage to the center of the Self where the dream of life speaks in mythical tones. Seen this way, fate and destiny form an essential arc of meaning that carries a person out into the world and back to the inner treasure of the human soul. Fate and destiny are the two great agreements that shape the core issues we struggle with throughout our lives

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22:43

Episode 436 - In the River of Time

Living Myth ·

2025/05/21

This episode of Living Myth begins with recent scientific reports which seek to explain why humans may be inclined to put their trust in leaders who claim to be strong and omniscient and will submit to those who are manipulative and deceitful. Studies in anthropology and psychology reveal age-old biases that lead people to believe what others believe in order to “fit in” and idealize and imitate those who appear to be highly successful. These “hardwired” biases become activated during times of

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28:20

Episode 435 - Why We Resist Change

Living Myth ·

2025/05/14

Even when change is greatly desired, it is not easily accomplished. This episode of Living Myth considers the problem of resistance to change from psychological and mythological viewpoints. While we are facing radical changes that threaten both nature and culture, we are also challenged by the dilemma of human resistance to change at both personal and collective levels. The issue is not simply a lack of commitment to change. Rather, resistance arises precisely where we have the best intentions to

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26:11

Episode 434 - Soul and the Waves of Change

Living Myth ·

2025/05/07

This episode uses two ancient stories to show how humans have repeatedly had to deal with periods of worldwide upheaval and fears of drowning in the seas of life. A creation myth from India, depicts how the original sage fell out of the dream of life and into the seas of oblivion. He found himself in an existential condition and metaphysical version of sink or swim. In order to survive he had to face his innermost fears of annihilation and learn to let go of those things that were not

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34:06

Episode 433 - The Necessity of Empathy

Living Myth ·

2025/04/30

On this episode of Living Myth the deep-seated feeling of empathy is viewed in several contexts: as it appears in a traditional story, as it occurs in personal experience, how it is currently being attacked as “toxic and sinful” and how as "suicidal empathy” it is being called “the existential threat to Western civilization.” The idea that truly caring about other people could end civilization is a new extreme in this era of extreme beliefs and what appears to be an endless onslaught of

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43:48

Episode 432 - Waking the Living Soul

Living Myth ·

2025/04/23

This episode begins with an often asked question: What is the soul? Michael Meade describes the soul as “the animating and connecting force without which we cannot live,” yet that “cannot be seen directly or simply be proven to exist.” He further describes the soul as “a betwixt and between thing, neither simply physical nor strictly spiritual,” but rather “the third element in the trinity of existence, that fills the subtle space between spirit and matter.” Soul is the connecting tissue and the

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24:58

Episode 431 - Opening Pandora's Box Again

Living Myth ·

2025/04/16

This episode of Living Myth considers the oldest versions of the tale of Pandora’s Box as a way of understanding how it is that all the ailments and troubles of the world seem to be loosed upon us again. The name Pandora is connected to the abundance of the Earth and carries meanings like “all gifted” and ‘the one who sends up gifts.” It turns out that it was not Pandora who lifted the lid and released all the anxieties, chaos and suffering that can plague life on Earth. Pandora married

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01:04:22

Episode 430 - Re-Creation and Renewal on Earth

Living Myth ·

2025/04/09

This episode of Living Myth explores how as humans we live and die in the context of the stories we tell ourselves about the world and our place in it. Two great stories happen at the same time, the great drama of the world and the unique story trying to unfold from each individual soul. At this critical time on earth, something essential to the story of the world is trying to be re-discovered and something crucial in each life story is trying to be revealed. People are increasingly fearful

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26:10

Episode 429 - A Lack of Elders, A Loss of Wisdom

Living Myth ·

2025/04/02

This episode begins with the idea that in traditional cultures worldwide the search for wisdom would be a necessity for developing genuine leadership. It would also be a primary practice for those who would become elders. Genuine elders were considered a valuable living resource, without whose guidance entire societies could become trapped in short term thinking, mired in materialistic aims and in danger of entirely losing their way. Traditionally, elders lead by remembering further back than

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32:10

Episode 428 - Being Worth Your Salt

Living Myth ·

2025/03/26

This episode of Living Myth begins with an unassuming teacher finding herself in a public controversy for refusing to take down posters that state that everyone is “welcome, important, respected, encouraged, valued and equal” in her classroom. As she said in an interview, "I would do anything to protect my students. I love all of them unconditionally, and as teachers, we protect them from danger, quite literally. This is the one small thing I can do to stand up for them, to protect them from being

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24:31

Episode 427 - Finding a Place to Stand

Living Myth ·

2025/03/19

This episode begins by tracing the evolution of propaganda from the creation of a papal agency entitled The College of Propaganda just over 400 years ago to the current process of “flooding the zone” to gain “full spectrum dominance of the news.” What is described as “rapid fire propaganda” aims, not simply to reframe the collective narrative, but rather to drown out all other narratives. In addition to being emotionally and psychologically exhausting, the flood of emotionally charged language,

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25:27

Episode 426 - The Deeper Self Within

Living Myth ·

2025/03/12

At this critical time on Earth, we are caught in storms of change that involve the shattering of norms and a loss of orientation as unprecedented events tear at the heart of humanity and ravage both the body politic and the face of the earth. The sense that we might just turn away from the troubling news of the day does not simply save us, for the polarization and fragmentation that trouble the outside world are also felt deeply within us. As the rational mind reels from the cascade of

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