Myths and Legends

Two (originally children's) tales that underscore the shocking brutality of the world in which these stories were told. The first one is that of three roommates: a sausage, a bird, and a mouse, who de...

18 Dec 201938min

The story of a weaving contest between a goddess and a woman challenging the cruelty and tyranny of the Olympians leads us into three more stories: Pandora's box; the great flood of the ancient Greek ...

11 Dec 201941min

A short supplemental that finishes the story of Lady White Snake...because there wasn't enough story left for a full episode. There's still a full Myths and Legends episode coming out on Wednesday! Th...

9 Dec 201910min

Xu Xian is dead. He discovered the truth about his wife and he died. I mean, yeah, he's dead...but he's also unwittingly married to a 1700 year old magical demon snake on a redemption arc, so...you kn...

4 Dec 201931min

The legend of the White Snake is one of the four great folktales of China. Today, we start that with an act of kindness, demons lurking in the places we can’t look, and a (misguided?) monk hoping to b...

27 Nov 201934min

There's a surprising amount to the story of Hansel and Gretel. There's your average fairy tale weirdness, like load-bearing cake and aquatic duck Uber, but there's an unexpected humanity in the story ...

20 Nov 201934min

The story of the 47 Ronin is a historical tale where a powerful daimyo is shamed and killed by a greedy official…the only issue? The victim had dozens of loyal samurai, and they’re not about to forget...

13 Nov 201938min

Two stories from Japanese folklore today dealing with the consequences of our actions. The first has a woman chasing a dumpling across her floor…and into a mysterious, far-away land. The second is wha...

6 Nov 201932min