Animal Magic

To celebrate Shakespeare's Birthday, I'm joined by Mason Winfield, Western New York's Premier Paranormalist, to discuss Shakespearean faerie-lore, Falstaff's downfall in the Merry Wives of Windsor, and how it relates to...

How might the ancient myth of Persephone's abduction have originated? And what lessons could we learn from it today? (Note: This episode didn't turn out to be very funny, so if you're unfamiliar with "Animal Magic" I...

Are Elephants made of Milk? Or Eggs? Or both? And why don't they have wings anymore? How did Ganesha get his Distinctive Look? In this Episode, we'll search the Scriptures of India for Answers you can't find in a...

Even after centuries of zoology, the Elephant remains defiantly mythical. In this episode, we'll explore some Classical Roman and Christian beliefs about this gentle giant.

My car and my phone get along so well that I feel like a third wheel, and I often feel like they'd be happier without me. Am I an obstacle that the tools have to work around? I recently found this live recording of...

In this Very Special Holiday Episode, we'll Share Something Happily Forgotten, a Christmas Mystery long buried in the snow of the past. We'll also wonder why Pigs are the baddest animals in the Bible.

On December 3rd, 1976, a 30-foot pig flew over England, disrupting air traffic and scaring the manure out of a rancher's cattle. In this special anniversary episode, we'll share the timeless tale of the photo-shoot for...

The absolutely true story of a journey to witness Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds in concert, with some silly and supernatural surprises. This doesn't contain any music samples, but refers to "Jubilee Street" (I recommend the...

In this "Season of the Witch" we'll be looking at the ancient myth of Circe, the Sorceress in The Odyssey. This Enchantress is dangerous (especially to chauvinist pigs) but also a savior who instructs Odysseus and his...

A Heart concert got me thinking about Odysseus and the Sirens. And I wondered - what might the Sirens be saying if they were singing today?

In this Controversial Episode, we'll explore Biblical Bugs, and Creepy-Crawlies of Egyptian, Chinese and Greek Mythology. Plus some personal recollections of that time I got stranded in the middle of the great...

How is a Raven like a Role-Model? In stories Jesus told, rich men come to bad ends, and apparently the fox and the raven know something we don't know about the divine plan. Regardless of heaven and hell, what might...

All life on Earth is linked by water – every human, plant, and animal in the past, present, and future. That's a lot to think about when someone pees in the pool. Water is life, water can be death, and it shows up in...

Bacteria, billionaires and blockbuster action stars of the 80s – all are forms of power. In this episode, we await the most powerful being of all, the electrician, whose 5-minute appointment can eat an entire day from 8...

I wrote a little book, Welcome to Tragedy: A Beginner's Guide to Greek Drama, with brief introductions to all of the surviving scripts by Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides (plus three comedies by Aristophanes). I was...