Myth America

By: Leigh Melander PhD
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  • Summary

  • Cultural Mythologist Leigh Melander, PhD explores ‘the stories that we tell, and the stories that tell us’ – how myth and metaphor shape our sense of who we are.
    ©2016-2021 Leigh Melander. All Rights Reserved.
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Social Sciences
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Episodes
  • On a Birthday!

    On a Birthday!
    Mar 26 2021
    Myth America | Episode Four | On a Birthday! Today (March 26) is mythologist Joseph Campbell's birthday. It's also my birthday! I thought I'd share a musing on the nature of birthdays - mythically, imaginally, metaphorically. On mid life, on how we invent and re-invent ourselves, and we see ourselves and are seen. With poems by the inimitable Mary Oliver, Minnesota Poet Laureate Joyce Sutphen, and former American Poet Laureate Stanley Kunitz. I recorded this episode of Myth America before the COVID pandemic became a part of our lives - hence my mention of a large group gathering I'd attended. For me, remembering this gathering, and the gatherings of many birthdays, is bittersweet this year as I wait for the second dose of the COVID vaccine, and, like most of the world, for the moment that we can all gather again without concern. Every year, my favorite ritual on my birthday is to listen to Ralph Vaughn Williams' The Lark Ascending. Here's the London Philharmic performing it. Or find a piece of music you adore to celebrate your innate 'you-ness.' As always, you can catch this episode here on Myth America (just click the link at the top of this post), via the Joseph Campbell Foundation's MythMythMaker℠ Podcast Network, or on your favorite podcast network. If you're looking for more episodes of Myth America, click here!
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    44 mins
  • Death of an Era (An Episode from the Vault)

    Death of an Era (An Episode from the Vault)
    Mar 11 2021
    Join us for a really cool conversation with longtime music executive Chris Hensley, from our Myth America vault...this show was recorded live on WIOX Community Radio 91.3 FM on January 26, 2016. Among hundreds of other artists, Chris spent years working with both the Eagles and David Bowie. Shortly after David Bowie and Glenn Frey's deaths in early 2016, Chris and I explored metaphors about the death of heroes - icons - archetypes - and how this music created identities for an entire generation, and wondered if this is still true in the music world. Hint: take a listen to Desperado and Life in the Fast Lane by the Eagles and Lazarus by David Bowie. In our original broadcast, we shared each of these tunes, but copyright law for downloadable podcasts prevents us from keeping the music in this version. Who and what are the musical archetypes that shape your tribe's identity?
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    44 mins
  • Chickadees and Small Wonders in the Coming of Spring

    Chickadees and Small Wonders in the Coming of Spring
    Mar 9 2021
    Early March, and spring is maybe, just maybe, on the horizon. The light is changing, and there is a new song in the woods. We think of robins and crocuses as the harbingers of spring, but in the arboreal forests of North America, the chickadee beats them to the punch. Join host Leigh Melander for Episode 3 of the Myth America podcast, Chickadees and Small Wonders in the coming of Spring, as she explores how the tiny chickadee can open a sense of spring - and a sense of how we build story in our lives on this almost-spring episode of Myth America. For the text of the Cherokee story, Spearfinger, click here! And please let us know what you think!
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    56 mins

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