Curated Video
How Every Heroic Story Is Really Just Gilgamesh
We delve into the epic tale of Gilgamesh, the legendary Mesopotamian king. From his incredible strength and bravery to his quest for immortality, the episode explores the timeless themes of friendship, mortality, and the search for meaning.
Curated Video
Why Does Every Culture Have Myths About Trees?
Cultures around the world have venerated trees for thousands of years, often seeing them as gifts from or manifestations of Gods. With their impressive size, longevity, and ability to support life, it’s hard not to see trees as divine....
Curated Video
The Unbelievably Tragic Story of Cú Chulainn
In Irish folklore, Cú Chulainn was one of the greatest warriors ever to live. From his first battle against a vicious hound at the age of 6 to his last against an entire army just two decades later, Cú Chulainn lived a legendary, but...
Curated Video
The Surprising Centuries-old Origins of the Unicorn
Unicorns aren’t all pretty white horses, some of them have scales, fangs, or ox tails. It turns out, cultures around the world have tales of mythical one-horned creatures who often rule over the other beasts of their land. Over time,...
Curated Video
Valkyries: The Real Story Behind These Warriors of Legend
Vikings were some of the fiercest fighters in human history, using their impressive battle prowess to spread Norse influence between the 8th and 11th centuries. Their bravery as warriors was driven by one ultimate desire: to join Odin in...
Curated Video
Chinnamasta: The Headless Goddess of Self-Sacrifice
The Buddhist and Hindu Tantric goddess Chinnamasta is an audacious incarnation of divine feminine energy. She teaches us about giving and receiving, self-preservation and sacrifice, reproduction and death. This video contains mature...
Curated Video
How Mountains Inspire Mythology
Majestic, mysterious forms that hold the secrets of the universe? Or big, inscrutable rocks that take a lot of effort to climb? In pretty much every culture, it’s all about majesty and mystery when it comes to mountains. Home to mighty...
Curated Video
How Ancient Mythologies Defy the Gender Binary
Creation, transformation, and the quest for self-knowledge – these are universal themes that appear across world mythology. But there’s another common thread within these tales: gender fluidity. It’s not only commonplace in many...
Curated Video
How Sun Mythologies Are Universal
Energy from the sun gives heat, offers a bright reprieve from the darkness of night, and serves as the base for our entire food chain. It is no wonder it plays a central role in nearly all world mythologies.
Curated Video
Persephone: Bringer of Life or Destruction?
In Greek mythology, the magnificent mother and daughter duo Demeter and Persephone were the bringers of food and fair weather and were worshiped in lush harvest celebrations. But their story has a darker side – one involving violence,...
Curated Video
Why Aren't Angels Scary Anymore?
As beings that mediate between heaven and earth, angels have been the focus of both fascination and fear for centuries. In the past, they’ve been described as fireballs, forms without substance, or massive beings that collect blood or...
Curated Video
What Constellations Mean to Different Cultures
The stars have guided and entertained us for thousands of years. Here we explore some of the messages people have seen in the stars through the millennia and look forward to how we might relate to the stars in the future.
Curated Video
How Isis Brought Her True Love Back From the Dead
For the Ancient Egyptians, the cycle of life itself began and ended with Isis and Osiris. Their story is one of the oldest known myths, and it informed spiritual beliefs, power structures, and gender roles in Ancient Egypt and beyond....
Curated Video
Why Are Cats Mythology’s Most Popular Creatures?
Not quite deities and definitely not human, cats have stalked our cultural imagination since ancient times. As demons, defenders, evil sidekicks, and sleek companions, they play many roles in culture and myth. But what makes cats so...
Curated Video
The Fates: Greek Mythology's Most Powerful Deities
In this episode, we examine the Fates - three shadowy figures who seem to have a near omnipresent influence in the goings-on throughout the Greek mythical universe - and who show up in stories and religions from cultures whose time and...
PBS
Kasogonagá: Sky Deity and Absolute Cutie
A sky deity falling from the sky sounds bad, right? Not if it’s the Kasogonagá! From the mythology of the Toba peoples of South America, this god of lightning, thunder, and rain appears as a small, hairy anteater-like creature and needs...
PBS
Windigo: The Flesh-Eating Monster of Native American Legend
Explore the symbolic interpretations of the windigo with Dr. Zarka as she explains how this Native American legend can teach us about the spiritual beliefs and social values of the early indigenous peoples of North America.
PBS
Mari Lwyd: The Skeleton Horse's Deep Past with Christmas
The coastal villages of Wales around the winter holidays have a unique nighttime visitor. A grim skeletal equine monster roams the streets with a rag tag group and demands entry to the homes of the citizenry, demanding food and drink....
PBS
The Hidden Origins of Nixie, the Scariest Little Mermaid
The half-human half-fish Nixie may look very familiar at first. But these shape-shifting monsters with their eerie songs that lure humans to the watery depths are much older, and much scarier, than the mermaids we know from pop-culture.
PBS
Creepy Clowns: The Horror Behind the Laughter
When did clowns—the characters who filled our childhoods with juggling and balloons—become so creepy? For centuries, clowns have worn two faces: as irreverent entertainers, and tricksters who could break social norms. So when stories of...
PBS
Beyond the Supernatural Horror of the Nishi Daak Ghost
The lines between demon, spirit, and deity are often blurred in the cultures of the Indian subcontinent, where the clear “good vs. evil” dualism that is seen more commonly in the Western hemisphere don’t exist in quite the same way. The...
PBS
Are Cyborgs Really Monsters?
Advances in technology are always met with some degree of technophobia – and villainization. Anxieties about humans being replaced by machines immediately emerged alongside voices praising their life-enhancing benefits. What is it about...
PBS
How Bloody Mary Turns Fear Into Fun
By some accounts, she’s hideously mutilated but in others she is beautiful but bloody—more commonly though—every aspect of her appearance is vague. There’s even versions where she was a witch burned at the stake in Salem. In some...
PBS
Is Yuki-onna the Most Terrifying Snow Monster?
Yuki-Onna, the icy snow maiden of Japanese lore, might steal your heart, or your life. This harsh winter monster is beautiful and dangerous, the incarnation of winter storms - as beautiful and pale as the falling snow. She may have black...