Podcasts about Norse

Narrator: Thomas Jones

⚡️ Sigurd's journey takes a dramatic turn as he heads into the lands of myth and legend: The Realms of Asgard!In this episode, Ryan and Eric are dissecting the major beats of Thor #801. A mortal with a hardware store hammer on the quest of a Norse god is taking us back to the land of fantasy. Al Ewing's masterpiece continues to build on itself as a “man meeting myth” retelling.We break down how Karnilla is executing a mysterious play for Hel, why Odin is putting Sigurd through the ultimate ringer, and the significance of that haunting image of Thor's skeletal form frozen in ice. Plus, we dive deep into the breathtaking visual storytelling by Pasqual Ferry, Matt Milla, and Alex Ross!Check out PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/u65477484?utm_campaign=creatorshare_creatorCheck out INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/marvelthorpodcast?igsh=Nm15MjQ2dW10cXZ3&utm_source=qrCheck out DISCORD:https://discord.gg/DsKTVAmwuY

Nine Worlds / Norse Cyberpunk | Actual Play, Pt. 2 The Jaunty Mantis is a podcast of creative questions for curious gamers. New episodes every week. Run on Foundry VTT. This video is an independent production under the Nine Worlds Third-Party License and is not affiliated with MetaMorphic Digital Studio.

Deep in the peat hills of Shetland, the old folk won't cross the green mounds after dark. Those hills belong to the trows: small, grey, limping hill-folk descended from the Norse trolls. They'll steal a fiddler for a night that lasts a hundred years, and they'll trade a healthy baby for a sickly changeling. In this episode of Freaky Folklore, we go under the hill. First comes an original story. A wind-farm technician picks up a fiddle tune in the vibrations of the ground beneath a haunted mound. It's the unfinished song his father was playing the night he vanished, thirty years ago at Yule. Then we dig into the real Shetland and Orkney legends behind the trows: Keep a knife by the door. Keep a light in the window. And if you hear music coming out of the ground, keep walking.   #Trows #ScottishFolklore #FreakyFolklore #Shetland #Orkney #Folklore #Changeling #NorseMythology #ScaryStories #HorrorPodcast #Eeriecast   EXPLORE MORE SPINE-CHILLING CONTENT: Freaky Folklore: https://www.eeriecast.com/podcasts/freaky-folklore Carman's Crypt (Original Horror): https://www.carman-carrion.com/ Deadly Intent (True Crime): https://www.carman-carrion.com/ Destination Terror: https://www.eeriecast.com/podcasts/destination-terror SUPPORT THE SHOW: Buy Me a Coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/carmancarrion CONNECT WITH CARMAN: Website: https://www.carman-carrion.com/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CarmanCarrion YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@FreakyFolklore Twitter/X: https://x.com/CarmanCarrion Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carmancarrion/ SUBSCRIBE & REVIEW: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0uiX155WEJnN7QVRfo3aQY iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/freaky-folklore/id1550361184 Your support helps bring you more terrifying tales. DISCOVER MORE HORROR: http://eeriecast.com/ https://www.carman-carrion.com/ MUSIC CREDITS: Music and sound effects provided by: ElevenLabs Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What does it mean to be a "Viking" in 2026? Daniel Farrand and in-house archaeologist Mags Haggar sit down with fitness creator and storyteller Tank Tolman to examine the divide between historical Norse reality and modern warrior culture. Historically, "víking" was a seasonal maritime raid, not an ethnic identity.Today, however, millions look to Norse archetypes to reclaim discipline and mental resilience. The trio breaks down why toxic, shame-based "alpha" gym culture fails, how the Hávamál champions hospitality and self-control, and why the ancient concept of the drengr—honour, loyalty, and quiet competence—is what modern seekers are actually searching for.Tank also explains how his gamified tabletop fitness community helps beginners build lifelong physical strength without shame.Unlock 300+ back-catalogue episodes on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/nordicmythologypodcastHandcrafted historical goods: https://www.hornsofodin.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Join Micah Van Huss and Jon Ruetz for part 3 as we look at ancient memories of mankind's fall and the worldwide Flood. We compare stories such as Pandora and Eve, examine traditions surrounding Lilith, and look at how ancient cultures remembered mankind's decline from an earlier age. Then we turn to Flood traditions from around the world—including Mesopotamia, Greece, India, and Norse mythology—and ask whether these widespread stories preserve a shared memory of Noah's Flood.

Nine Worlds / Norse Cyberpunk | Actual Play, Pt. 1 The Jaunty Mantis is a podcast of creative questions for curious gamers. New episodes every week. Run on Foundry VTT. This video is an independent production under the Nine Worlds Third-Party License and is not affiliated with MetaMorphic Digital Studio.

Episode 310 of Tom Clark's 6M Podcast takes a look at Thor, the 2011 Marvel Studios movie that introduced Chris Hemsworth as the God of Thunder and Tom Hiddleston as Loki. Tom Clark and Phil look back at Thor's banishment to Earth, his relationship with Odin and Loki, his quest to become worthy of Mjölnir, and the events that set up his place in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. They also get into the long road it took to bring Thor to the big screen, Kenneth Branagh's Shakespearean approach to the material, the casting of Hemsworth, Hiddleston and Anthony Hopkins, and the movie's connections to Norse mythology. Tom and Phil look back at this movie's place in Marvel's Phase One, Loki's importance to The Avengers, and whether this first Thor movie still holds up more than 15 years later. Is Thor the most tragic character in the MCU? Dive into that and a lot more! Boink Studios podcasts are created by humans. All hosts featured on our shows are human, and all podcast artwork, logos, and creative direction are created by humans. Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@boinkstudios Appreciate the content? Support the channel: https://buymeacoffee.com/tomclark Visit us at: https://boinkstudios.com Follow the 6M Podcast: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/6mpodcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/6mpodcast/ Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/boinkstudios.bsky.social Listen to Boink Studios' Podcasts: Tom Clark's Main Event: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/tom-clarks-main-event/id910362334 Bare Mode: A Podcast Review of The Bear: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/bare-mode-a-podcast-review-of-the-bear/id1828513020 Two Nations Under Ted: A Ted Lasso Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/two-nations-under-ted-a-ted-lasso-podcast/id16938703 © Boink Studios 2026

1904 VIKINGSNorse Voyages Traversed Atlantic To AmericaMartyn Whittock, author of American Vikings: How the Norse Sailed into the Lands and Imaginations of America: Eighth-century Norse expansion was fueled by population growth, royal ambitions, and an Islamic silver shortage resulting from Caliphate shifts to Baghdad. The Norse expanded across Britain to Iceland in the 870s and Greenlandunder Erik the Red in the 980s. Around 1000 AD, Leif Erikson ventured west, sighting Helluland, Markland, and Vinland. Excavations at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland confirm an 11th-century Norse base camp where timber was felled in 1021 AD. Butternut wood and wild grapes indicate explorations extended south toward New Brunswick or New England. Although sagas record trade and violent conflicts with indigenous "Skraelings," small population numbers prevented permanent colonization. The Maine penny highlights regional trade networks, while Whittock critiques alt-right groups who misappropriate Vinland legends for modern racial ideologies. (1)This episode includes AI-generated content.

A conversation with Ada Palmer about building the future with humility, the process of creating a science fiction world, and many spoiler-heavy deep dives into the world of Terra Ignota. Mentioned in this episode Books and works. Ada Palmer, Terra Ignota — Too Like the Lightning, Seven Surrenders, The Will to Battle, Perhaps the Stars · Ada Palmer & Jo Walton, Trace Elements: Conversations on the Project of Science Fiction and Fantasy · Ada Palmer, And Loki in His Prison (forthcoming) · "Somebody Will" (song) · Bill Bryson, At Home · Giorgio Vasari, Lives of the Artists · Ursula K. Le Guin, A Wizard of Earthsea · Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet · Boccaccio, Decameron. People and places. Tyler Cowen · Teresa Nielsen Hayden · Johannes Gutenberg · Francis Bacon · Michelangelo · Villa I Tatti (Florence) · Worldcon · the Terra Ignota Discord. Transcript Ada: Stop telling stories about a thing as if one person did it. Tell the story of how a whole team of people did this. And when we look at the major innovations of the past, recognize their plural and often anonymous origins and shapers — and ask: will we be content if we end up being the anonymous contributor to future generations having this wonderful thing? Introduction [00:00:26] Ben: Today I'm excited and grateful to share my conversation with Ada Palmer. Among many other things, Ada is a professor of history at the University of Chicago and the author of several books, including the science fiction series Terra Ignota, which now lives rent-free in my head. In the words of the inimitable Tyler Cowen, this is the conversation that I want to have — which means the vast majority of it is an extremely nerdy, extremely spoiler-heavy discussion of the Terra Ignota series. The spoiler warning comes around the one-hour mark, but rather than making you stop then, I'd recommend stopping right here, going and reading the entire series, and then coming back. We'll still be here. A podcast about the unwritten workings of a fictional future is a vaguely legitimate segue to noting that I've brought Idea Machines back after a very long hiatus, for a fairly specific reason. I'm still going to dig into the people and systems that turn ideas into reality, but with a particular focus on knowledge and stories that are in people's heads and aren't yet written down or recorded anywhere. Even in the age of the internet and LLMs, there is so much that can only be discovered through conversation — and that, I think, should be the point of podcasts. So with that, here's my conversation with Ada Palmer. "Somebody Will," and making peace with not seeing the end [00:01:57] Ben: This is actually a very selfish question. Your song "Somebody Will" is one of my favorite songs. Ada: I had to practice for six months before I could sing it without crying while singing it. It still requires great concentration. Ben: I sometimes cry a little when I listen to it. If you're listening to this and you haven't heard the song, you should stop and listen to it, because it's amazing, and we will be here when you get back. Okay — assuming everybody has now listened to the song. I think it captures the fact that ambitious projects take many lifetimes and the labor of many people who are only contributing indirectly, in a way that I feel nothing else does. And that fact feels very at odds with the cultural milieu today, where — at least for me — it feels like you personally need to be working on the thing, and if you can't get it done within your lifetime then you're a failure. So how do you internalize that personally? I constantly feel this tension: I believe the message of "Somebody Will" is true, and at the same time I cannot feel satisfied with it. And how would you get more people to internalize it? I feel like the world would be better if more people did. Ada: I have the advantage, as a historian, of being used to thinking on century and multi-century timeframes — of looking at how many of the things we celebrate or think of as important were multi-generational projects, and how few people, even among the ones we talk about as if one person achieved the thing, actually saw that achievement bear fruit, or even near-full fruit, within their lifetime. Lately I've been asked about Gutenberg a lot. From Gutenberg's perspective: I invented the machine, I used the machine, the machine worked great, the sales didn't, I went bankrupt, and I died in poverty. In the later part of his life he got to see other people starting to build printing presses and trying to print — and also going bankrupt. The books were starting to circulate, and everyone was saying, "I don't know about these new weird books, they're different from the old ones." So if he judges himself on his lifetime achievement, he judges himself negatively. The ongoing effects of the Gutenberg revolution mostly happen well after his death, and after the deaths of his first generation of apprentices, in the mid-1500s and moving toward the 1600s — and there are stages of it still happening in the 1700s as it democratizes access to knowledge, which is something one could anticipate it would do, but not see. So many of our best and biggest projects are like that. In fact, you very rarely have a project that comes to fruition within its beginner's lifetime. But it requires us to look at history to feel that. Another factor is that we're so often pressured not just to look short term, but to look very short term. My friend Teresa Nielsen Hayden, a brilliant editor, has a very apt saying that I think about a lot: we always overestimate what we can accomplish in a year, but underestimate what we accomplish in five years. If you look at yourself and ask, "What did I do this year?" you'll always judge yourself harshly and be disappointed. But if you make the list of "What did I do in the last five years?" you'll say, "Oh, wow, I accomplished a lot" — even though each individual year felt like you didn't meet your own standards. And another part of it is that yes, there is a melancholy to "Somebody Will." It's about a kind of surrendering acceptance: that you will not be there to enjoy the thing, that you are working on something so that others will enjoy it in the future. That requires remembering that the same is true of the people in the past who worked to give us what we enjoy — that there is a teamwork across the diaspora of time, in which we all have to love the future generations we are helping and accept that they will get benefits we will not. Because otherwise, what are we doing? Ben: Let me poke at this one more time — and the answer might be that it's impossible. How do you get to serenity with the fact that we're working on a very long-term project that needs many people who are not going to be the person remembered for the thing, and that this is important and worthy? What actually goes on in your head? Ada: Again, there is a mournful side to it. And we therefore need to encourage a culture that celebrates all the contributors. Stop telling stories about a thing as if one person did it. Tell the story of how a whole team of people did this. And when we look at the major innovations of the past, recognize their plural and often anonymous origins and shapers — and ask: will we be content if we end up being the anonymous contributor to future generations having this wonderful thing? Because what matters to me isn't that I get thanked for X. What matters to me is that I helped make sure X happens. That separation of credit is important. I remember thinking vividly about this after reading a book called At Home — by, I think, Thomas Madden, although I may have the name wrong [it's Bill Bryson] — which is a fun popular history about all the objects in your house and how they developed. The history of the table knife, and the chair, and the chest of drawers, and the kitchen; how houses were originally one room and came to be subdivided into multiple rooms, and what the front hall is. It's a really fun, light history, essentially a string of delightful anecdotes. But I noticed that he would sometimes talk about the inventor of something we have — the inventor of the egg whisk or whatever — and then, if the inventor of this useful thing didn't end up rich and famous as a result, he described that as a tragedy. His definition of tragedy was: somebody contributed something that benefited the human race, and they didn't become rich and famous as a result; they lived an ordinary life as X, Y, or Z. Ordinary life was the tragic outcome. I snagged on that. What are we doing if living the life that most people live, having also contributed to the sum total of human happiness, is your definition of tragedy? He had this very strong sense that it was an injustice for someone's name not to travel with their invention, and for someone not to become rich as a result of their invention. And it was such a narrow portrait of what it could mean to contribute to human thriving — one that assumes only the inventor contributes, and not the hundreds of thousands of people involved in the distribution and manufacture and improvement of the egg whisk, who also bring things that help our daily lives. It felt so un-Baconian and unscientific. Bacon, when first arguing for the scientific method, says there is no greater act of charity and love than to do something that helps every human being after you live a better life. In its original articulation, that is its own reward. But the idea that it should be a ladder to fame and social rise, as opposed to something one achieves and is proud of — I think that's where we get snagged, and where we get these stresses. To contribute to humans reaching the stars is to contribute to humans reaching the stars. It is not to be the name that becomes famous. Whose labor counts [00:11:27] Ben: It's an open question to me how you make more of a culture of that. Ada: Part of it is that we have to start evaluating contributions more equally, because we have a really unfair way of thinking about labor, where some types are celebrated and high status and others are low status. This goes way back. It's true in the Middle Ages: any job you do with your hands is low status, and any job that is intellectual work is high status. This is why Michelangelo's father was absolutely rabid against Michelangelo being a sculptor. They came from a banking family, and Michelangelo's father did intellectual work — banking — and it would be a shame upon the family for his son to work with his hands and be an artist. The outcome of this over the course of the Renaissance, via things like Vasari's Lives of the Artists, is that they make the argument for art being intellectual labor — for an artist like Michelangelo to shift status from being thought of as manual labor, like a carpenter, to being thought of as intellectual labor, a peer of a doctor or a scholar. And we now consider art to be a high-status intellectual occupation. But we still have these horrible terms like "unskilled labor." Go watch anybody doing so-called unskilled labor for an hour and you think: holy moly, this person is really good at this. The speed and the elegance with which they have optimized this set of skills is incredible. It takes many kinds of labor to do something. But at an academic institute, we do not celebrate the people maintaining the site or preparing the food in the kitchen as contributors to the thing — even though it's absolutely essential, and without it the thing can't happen. That is a terrible problem. And more and more I see people talking about the world as if only a tiny elite are serious contributors and everyone else is just a dot moving around. An NPC. I was being interviewed about the singularity — this idea of trying to maximize the computing power that Earth produces in order to speed up how quickly we create an AI god. The interviewer asked what one thing would contribute most to maximizing Earth's computing power. And I said: well, obviously it would be UBI, or another way of solving poverty. Because right now the majority of computing power on Earth is human brain cells, which vastly outnumber the computational power of computers. And a large share of that computing power belongs to people living in poverty, whose capacity is being diminished and sidelined onto worrying about where tomorrow's meal is going to come from. When you provide a safety net at a reasonable standard of living, so that people don't have the anxiety that poverty causes, people become way more creative and generative, and start new businesses. All of our UBI experiments show outpourings of art, discovery, entrepreneurship, increased generation — all of which contribute, second order, to Earth advancing. And the crowd who thinks about this was just blown away by thinking of, A, the human brain as computing power, and B, poverty as the largest drain upon the computational powers of the Earth. Ben: People don't think about second-order effects enough, period. Ada: There is no symphony hall without its janitor. There is no symphony hall without the workman in addition to the architect. And we celebrate one of these arbitrarily and not the others. Why is that? Is it because the construction worker is doing something athletic and manual? Well, we celebrate sports people, and they're doing something athletic and manual. It's a totally cultural construction, which of these occupations are celebrated and which are not. Ben: So we just need to celebrate everybody. Ada: Celebrate ninety percent of the occupations — and identify the ten percent where it's actually, this is a waste of a human being. Ben: This is a waste of a human being, and we should not have a human being doing this. That's where we bring in a robot. Ada: Right. But there's all this discussion of "let's have the robots replace everything everyone is doing." No — when human beings are doing things that are stimulating and creative and make them happy, leave it alone. But if we have a robot that cleans out the gutters, that would be great, because nobody is stimulated by cleaning out gutters. Ben: Or does boring paperwork. Ada: Oh, that's the dream. Where the Hives came from: a lunch table in Florence [00:16:44] Ben: Shifting toward Terra Ignota — but not yet to the spoilers. You spent a lot of time in Italy. How did that affect the creation of the Terra Ignota world? Ada: A lot, specifically via Villa I Tatti, an institute owned and run by Harvard but quite independent, in the outskirts of Florence. It's not on the hill where the Decameron takes place; it's on the hill next to the hill where the Decameron takes place — to anchor it in literary geography. It has fellowships, so scholars from all over the world come there, about two dozen a year, for a year-long residency. And one graduate student at a time. I was the graduate student. You're sort of there as a bright-eyed, bushy-tailed mascot. Ben: So it's a bunch of senior scholars and you? Ada: A lot of them are postdocs — they're starting their careers, they've finished their PhDs recently. There are usually two or three senior scholars resident, and then two dozen who are at the next stage from where you as a PhD student are, and from whom you can learn exciting stuff. Some are later career. And they're from all over the place — and they've usually gone all over the place, on similar postdocs and for research. I remember vividly being at a group lunch. There was a married couple there having a conversation with a couple of other people. The mom was Australian and the dad was Spanish. They had two kids, one of whom had been born in the US and another in the UK. They'd lived in France while the kids were little, and now the kids were medium-sized and in Italy, attending a polyglot school. And the parents were discussing the different citizenships the two kids were eligible for, and the benefits and drawbacks of each. "You get this with a UK citizenship, but you can't have that. You can have UK and then US, but you can't have US and then UK. These benefits versus those benefits. And if the kids have two different citizenships, is that bad for them relative to each other? Does it make them feel envious, or unspecial, or special compared to their sibling?" It was such a buyer's-market conversation about citizenship. They were strategically sitting down and asking: which ones do we want to apply for, which ones do they already have, what are the utilities of each one, how do we feel about the governments and the values that they advance? And it made me think: what if everybody had that conversation? What if it were normal, when you're coming of age, to sit down, think about all the citizenships in the world, decide which ones you think are best, and choose — rather than having it fall upon you by accident of birth? It made sense to me using the EU, where people have free movement, as the model. When you're in the EU, you may have been born in France, but your family is Polish and you feel Polish because you grew up with them and visited family and learned the language — or you don't, and you feel French, and that's up to you. That freedom of movement, where who you are isn't where you live, it's what group you identify with, felt so plausible for a future in which technology means mobility is getting faster and more natural, and we choose jobs and homes based on location rather than being limited by geography. Plotters, pantsers, and the tyranny of past you [00:20:42] Ben: I don't know that I've ever heard you talk about your writing process in any detail. Fiction writers — some are plotters, some are pantsers, some are in between. Where do you fall? Ada: I have an essay on Tor.com arguing that the difference is less binary than it feels. For those listening who don't know the definitions: a plotter is somebody who plans ahead, outlines, has a whole plan for the story before they start writing it. A pantser is somebody who plunges in and figures out the story, or the characters, or the details, as they're writing. Here's my argument that these are less different than they sound. If you're a plotter, you're spending extra time planning at the beginning — making your outline, revising your outline, thinking about order and structure, rereading the outline, getting a sense of how it flows and fixing that. Then you implement it, and you do comparatively less revision at the end. Whereas a pantser will plunge into writing six months earlier, figure out those structure questions as they go, get to the end, and then often do more revision — doing to the manuscript the revisions that the plotter would do to the outline. So you're doing the same steps, you're just doing them in a different order. Everybody still does the "hmm, let's think about the pacing; this character has too many chapters where they appear all together and then they don't appear for a long time; I have to think about the balance of that." Everybody does that step. But do you do it before you write the first draft or after? That's the real difference. And you can have a very meticulous story where you figured it out as you went and then went back and put things in earlier to make it all work. I am at the far extreme end of planner. I world-build for at least five years, and then I spend six months doing the outline before I sit down to write the first sentence. I outlined the entire series — chapter by chapter, all four books — and had a complete plan for the whole thing before I wrote the first sentence of the first chapter of the first book. I then followed that outline incredibly precisely. Often when I'm writing I'll get to a point and think, maybe this bit of the outline is wrong, maybe I should do this other thing instead. And I'll start doing the other thing, and work on it, and get more and more frustrated, and wonder why it's going wrong, and whine to my bash'mates about it. And then I'll go back to the outline and realize: oh, of course. Past me is always correct. And I repent of having strayed from the outline. Because past me was in the middle of six months of being zoomed out, looking at the whole structure, really understanding everything being set up short term and long term. Whereas present me, in the middle of writing something, is very immersed in that one chapter and its valences and its emotion, and can lose sight of the work it's doing to continue things from five chapters ago and set things up for five chapters later. I was fully aware of all that when I did the outline, and I might be less aware of it in the act of writing. Which is why the version of me that was outlining is always more correct about what the chapter needs than the version of me sitting down to write the chapter. That's what the outline is for. Five years of worldbuilding, mechanically [00:24:18] Ben: What do you actually do, mechanically, for the five years of worldbuilding? What does that entail? Ada: A lot of it is that I'll have a notion. I'll be sitting at that table at Villa I Tatti listening to the conversation and think, wouldn't that be neat — that would be a really cool thing to explore in a story. I will then take the worlds I'm building, because I'm always building several at once, for several successive series. I'm currently doing the worldbuilding for the series after the series after the series of which the first book comes out next summer. Ben: That's so cool. Ada: I've already fully done the worldbuilding for this series and the series after it, and I'm worldbuilding the series after that, and a couple of others. They're sort of on a conveyor belt: the most assembled, the medium assembled, and the less assembled, as they move forward. I'll take the notion and go to my most assembled world, the one I intend to do soonest, and ask: does this notion fit? Does it combine well with the other stuff I already have in this world? Do they synergize? Are they compatible with each other? And if they are, I'll plop that new idea into the world. So I'll be working on a world where the key ideas are the flying car network, and voluntary citizenship, and a kid who can bring toys to life with a touch, and a revival of eighteenth-century ideas about gender. And then I'll independently get the notion of somebody being a professional living doll. And I'll ask: could that happen in that world? Yes, it could. What would that mean? Well, celebrity culture in a global world would have neat characteristics; the stuff I'm doing with gender would intersect with it in nifty ways. Neat. That notion, totally independent when I came up with it, can live in that world. Or I might have another idea, look at it in that world, and say: you know what, this isn't compatible with this world. The society of Terra Ignota — it doesn't fit. I'm going to take this idea and move on to the next world. And the first world it can go in is where that idea then lives. So worlds accumulate multiple different seeds. You'll notice that it's not that the living doll is derived from the other stuff — it's an independent idea. But once put in, the two connect to each other, the way trees in a forest develop shunts that send sugar to each other and keep each other alive and support the entire forest ecosystem, even though they began as individual and indeed competitive trees. The whole world develops from multiple different central seeds. Ben: Sorry, I'm very interested in the details of this. Are you writing these down on index cards? Ada: A lot of it will just be in my head. I also use OneNote, where I'll jot things down. There will be notes in OneNote that are sometimes a whole table with a chronology that develops over time, but also just a list of words I found evocative, or a reminder note to myself. I also email myself ideas so that I remember them, and there they are, searchably, in my email. I also sometimes write them on Post-it notes and leave them around the house. Sometimes something came to me and felt evocative from a picture — a work of art, or a postcard, or an image. Ben: You have your mood board. Ada: I'll put those by my bed, or in other places, and they'll make me chew on those ideas over time. But the majority of this will be in my head. Nobody could reconstruct the world from those notes. The notes are chaos, until I get to the late pre-outlining stage. I was probably working on the Terra Ignota world for four years before I started writing down the chronology. I do have a long timeline of events, from the present to the completion of the terraforming of Mars, with the dates of when everybody was born, when different cultural movements happened, when this or that historical war that's mentioned began and ended, and so on — a long, color-coded timeline. I'll probably share it at some point, but it's in OneNote, which is hard to export. I also have a custom Google Map which shows the Hive majorities in every major city on the globe, so you can see the distribution of the population. One thing I did deep into the worldbuild, preparing to think through the latter half of the series, was go through all the cities with a population above — I think it's ten million — that exist on Earth now, to figure out the future of each one, and then create several new cities that would be above that threshold by then. Making sure I wasn't skipping any cities. That I did Africa. That I did the Pacific Rim. That I had a global plan for this and not a non-global one. OneNote lets you combine text and note-taking with images, so for example there's one page that is a map of ancient Rome with my own notes on what is in each building in the reconstructed version of Rome in Romanova, where so many events take place. So the note-taking is extensive, but chaotic in my case. Ben: That is incredibly cool. I feel like there's a through-line in great artists and makers of things, where the thing that you see is the tippy-tip of an iceberg. Ada: It has to feel like that — especially for a built world. It has to feel real, it has to feel deep, it has to feel like it has all those things. Big beats, connective tissue, and the management of mood [00:30:35] Ada: Another thing about outlining, briefly. A word I've known a number of authors to use, that I kind of use too: when you're developing the story, there will often be a point at which you know what the big beats of the story are. Let's imagine we're outlining Romeo and Juliet. A big beat is when they meet. A big beat is when they get together. Then there's a sort of midpoint crisis, when the deaths of Mercutio and Tybalt result in crisis and Romeo has to be kicked out. And then there's the dramatic ending in which they die. And then you ask: okay, what other stuff do I want in this story? Well, I need to develop the characters of Mercutio and Tybalt, and that has to happen before the midpoint. And I need some comedy scenes — this is Shakespeare — so I need to put those in at some point. So you can imagine Shakespeare saying: I know what the big beats are. Where am I going to fit the Mercutio characterization scene? Should it be right before his death, or earlier, so that we're invested in his character for a while? I want a comedy scene between this sad major serious beat and this sad major serious beat, to vary the mood. Who can be in that scene? I need a lighter scene between Romeo and Juliet meeting and Romeo and Juliet getting together — what can I put there that will change the mood, so we don't have two passionate romantic sequences in a row? So you figure out the big beats, and then you figure out the in-between connective tissue. And sometimes you'll be aware that there must be a speech: I have this idea for Mercutio making this passionate, weird speech about Queen Mab, it's a lot of fun, where do I put it? There's some flexibility — it can be at any point before his death. It can be early, it could be at the beginning, it could be just before his death. How does the audience — or in my case the reader — feel about Mercutio's death differently if we've just come to love him right before, versus if we came to love him really early on and we like him almost more than Romeo because he had more character for half the play before this crisis comes? Many technically-pantser authors I know have figured out the big beats before they start, and then are filling in and improvising the in-between stuff, and might move it around at the end. So if Shakespeare were a pantser, he might have been writing along, and then: Mercutio's dying soon, I get to give him a speech — oh, this speech is so awesome, I want to move it earlier. And he'd move the Queen Mab speech from right before his death to substantially earlier, so that we care about this character for a longer period of time. That's exactly the kind of revision that a pantser does, and that I would do at the outline level, where I have everything on screen in front of me and I'm thinking: these three Mercutio scenes are really all in a cluster. Do I want that? Do I want a character who gets introduced and then, the moment we love them, they're gone? Or do I want to stretch this out, so this is a character with whom we have a longer emotional relationship? So that's core to the outlining process. We have these big beats. At some point we need to meet Saladin — when do we meet Saladin? Is it before or after the revelation of what Mycroft really did? How does it feel if it's before? How does it feel if it's after? Let's settle that. Because many things that happen in a story are not causally related. Some are: Romeo committing murder has to be before the Romeo banishment scene; those can't be reversed, because one causes the other. The "Juliet is sad because Romeo has been banished" scene follows from those. Those have to be in an order. But Romeo meeting Juliet versus the Queen Mab speech — those can be reversed. They aren't causally related. They're independent, except inasmuch as they both have to be early. And then the author gets to think through which is first and which is second, and what the effects of that are. So a lot of the outlining process is putting in the big beats, figuring out what has to be before and what has to be after, and what can go at any point, and then situating it in the right place — and also realizing when mood needs to alternate. One principle of reading is that we notice changes in mood and tension much more than we notice the absolute level. If you write a book with five super-high-stakes action chapters in a row, the reader gets tired of super-high-stakes action. It all feels homogeneous. It doesn't feel exciting anymore. The beginning will feel exciting, but it will then flatline experientially. Whereas if you have a high-paced action sequence, and then a low-mood piece where people are relaxing and something silly happens, or we cut away to the cooks preparing the banquet who are not at all invested in the action that's going on — then when we return to that high-stakes thing, it feels high-stakes again. You need to alternate sad with happy. You need to alternate tense with relaxed. You need to alternate fast-paced with slow-paced, so that people feel all of them more, compared to having a homogeneous mood. So sometimes I'll be going along and think: we've just had three or four chapters in a row where Mycroft, our narrator, is freaking the heck out and overwhelmed and in despair. We need a nice, calm Martin Guildbreaker chapter here, where he's patiently investigating something and explaining his investigation, because that will let us escape the mood — so that when we return to it, the grief being experienced by our narrator is vivid and exciting again, because we had a break. And also so that the complexity of trying to understand what the hell this narrator is actually saying is enjoyable again, in a puzzle-box way. If you do a puzzle box, you want to then coast and not do a puzzle box next — have something as a break, and then do the next puzzle box. I don't want to give you nothing but puzzle-box chapters in a row. I'm also going to give you a nice linear fidget-toy chapter, where you're enjoying manipulating the thing but there's not a puzzle challenge goal. Ben: Noticing the change in mood rather than the mood itself — I see that across many areas of how people notice things. People notice a thing changing more than the absolute level. Ada: You notice color in places where there is very little color. You notice beauty in places where there's very little beauty. Ben: Or changes in prices. People don't go around thinking "ah yes, this is expensive" all the time while the price stays the same. But all of a sudden a price changes and people react. Ada: Exactly. We very much operate logarithmically, and notice the change — the integral rather than the absolute amount, or the absolute speed at which something's moving. Designing the Hives [00:38:20] Ben: Related to worldbuilding — and if you've talked about this somewhere and I missed it, I apologize — how did you come up with the Hives in the first place? They feel so specific. Ada: When I had this idea at Villa I Tatti of "what if you choose your citizenship," I was thinking about it as deriving from transit — transit becoming easy. And then I thought: okay, what kinds of organizations would these be? If transit is suddenly really easy, if you can go anywhere on Earth in two hours, people are not going to want to put up with the frustrating, slow passport system. They're going to want that streamlined. I was thinking about the Global Entry program. This is a thing you sign up for, and it vets you, and it's trusted, and it's a third party but semi-governmental and semi-not, and it facilitates you being able to go much faster through the border. What if one of those became even more so, so that when you're a member you really can skip everything and zip around the Earth really easily? Well, if one of those developed, competitors would develop. What other kinds of focuses might a transit thing have? One of the things people would want to travel for is sports matches — people already do that. So there would be something whose whole shtick is: do you want to go see that game on another continent? We will facilitate that so it's easy. I also thought about CouchSurfing, which — I think people do it less now — but you sign up to say "I've got a couch," and others sign up to say "I'm traveling to a place," and the thing itself facilitates being friendly, and there's trusted-person vetting. And that idea became the Cousins: the idea of having a cousin in that town, who you may never actually have met, but they're not going to be too weird, because they're your cousin. You have this slight bridge of trust. So what if there was a company that stepped in to capitalize on what CouchSurfing is, but make it more formal, and called itself the Cousins network, and its motto was "what if you had a cousin in every town — we will hook that up"? I could see that company having started out more like CouchSurfing, where it's about where you're staying, and then branching into facilitating your ticket. And then Gordian being the one that really was just like Global Entry — a simple profit-seeking company that would do this. And then when the moment of the Great Renunciation comes — this is all background to the book, of course — these suddenly become political associations, when they had just been memberships. The way you might have a membership in Costco. The European Union is already this. But if people have a membership in Costco, often that means they have certain values, as well as desiring to buy cheap bulk things. So you could imagine that if suddenly there were a major global crisis, and Costco said, "Okay, everybody who has a Costco membership — we kind of trust you, and we believe you share our values of paying people a living wage and making sure things flow. Do you want to transition to being a politically active group?" And everybody who has a Costco membership would say, "Well, actually, yeah. In fact, it does make sense at this weird juncture in human history to transition my Costco membership into being part of a political association that's in favor of a living wage and making sure people eat." And you could see Costco transforming itself in a real crisis into a big series of pop-up mutual aid and new community kitchen things. That could totally happen. Ben: They already make a lot of hot dogs. Ada: The infrastructure is there, and the number of people with a connection to this thing is there. So it's the sort of thing that in the moment of the Great Renunciation could do that. And I imagined lots of other Hives being born like that. And then I asked: what new ones would be born, when suddenly this is political? Well, one of them would be the Masons — because there's always this sort of "oh no, I'm not in any of these groups, I feel left out," among the large slice of the population that feels drawn to strength and claims of tradition and claims of strong authority. And here are all of these legends about this being that. So if somebody cunning steps in and mobilizes it, they could make the Masons be born at that moment. And meanwhile, science fiction nerds are really well connected with each other. We all have community groups that organize Worldcon and all of this, and authors who can speak up and say, "Hey, all my fans — this thing, it's time to act." So it was plausible to me that Utopia could form very quickly in that moment of crisis as well. So part of it was: what groups and corporations and things that already exist could do this? And I remember wanting a really corporate one — this is the Mitsubishi in the end. What kinds of things last over time? The obvious choice would have been to be like Google or something. But when you look over time at corporations that really last multiple centuries, they tend to do very plural things. They tend to be consortia of multiple corporations rather than one. And they tend to be defined around a market or a world ethic rather than a product. Look at IBM, which has not become one of the giant Earth-owning corporations, but has sure steadily existed and never had a crisis. A big part of that is that IBM defines itself as: we make products for corporations. Whatever new thing needs to be made for corporations, we will start making that. If people develop a completely unprecedented new technology, that is what we will do, and we will orient it around having an established, clear relationship with corporations. So even if the computer ceased to matter economically tomorrow because it was replaced by the genetically modified super-eggplant, they would transition into corporate-focused genetically modified super-eggplants. And they would make that transition fine, in a way that Apple — which defines itself as an electronics company — would have struggled with at the time. Though Apple now is also a media and entertainment company, which is broader. So the Mitsubishi Group, which is not one corporation but dozens and dozens of corporations that make a wide variety of things and are a consortium with each other, is a corporate structure that's likely to withstand multiple multi-decade, multi-century tech tumults and still be coherent. That's why I picked that. Ben: Were there any Hive ideas that got the chopping block? Any that almost made it in? Ada: None got the complete chopping block, because of course one of the structures of this is that there have been fewer over time and they've merged. So the other ideas are the ones that are mentioned briefly as existing — like OBP, which stands for One Big Party. Ben: Which merged with the Humanists. Ada: They merged with the Humanists. But that was globe-trotting so that you could go to concerts and parties and get-togethers, rather than sports matches. There's enough overlap between those ideas — because you're traveling to enjoy an event — that it makes sense those two could merge, with a focus on both sports and art, concerts and performances: a focus on wanting to go enjoy and behold a human being doing something excellent. So you could see how they'd share a compatible ethic. Similarly Greenpeace, merging later with the Mitsubishi — but not fully yet. Would there be a group that would form centered on environmental custodianship, and wanting to take care not of people but of baby elephants? What would that be like? What countries would it have — not just a bunch of enthusiastic members, as it would anywhere, but massive, systemic, big cultural buy-in as opposed to small cultural buy-in? In the same way that sports fandom is bigger in some countries than others, or science fiction fandom is bigger in some countries than others even though it's present everywhere, personal investment in land and the value of land and land custodianship varies a lot. I was interviewing friends from all over the place, and it sounded, from talking with them, like India was the place where people had a very strong cultural investment in land. One interesting quality of India in the international world is that people in India are much more reluctant to sell land to a foreign owner than in most cultures. There is lots of land in India owned by corporations, but they're Indian corporations much more so. And people are likely to turn down a foreign buyer making an offer on property — whether it's large-scale property or even just a house or a bungalow — because of this sense that India's land should belong to India's people, which is stronger than in many other cultures. And this isn't a "we don't want foreigners dwelling here." We'll happily rent to a foreigner. It's the idea that the land should stay in the hands. I thought that would be an interesting place for Greenpeace's big nest of power to be centered, as it values land and land custodianship. And then I was thinking through: in this global future, who inherits all the national parks? If the nation-states are giving way to successor states, do the national parks dissolve, or does one of these say, "We're going to be the one" — and have what become global parks, and a huge portion of the unpopulated world in their ownership and custodianship? [Sponsor break — Seedhouse. "Buying a house is a big decision. Planting one isn't." Seedhouse grows carbon-negative homes from a single architect-designed seed: choose your floor plan, check your soil, and in twelve weeks you're ready to move in. The house faces the morning sun — and also turns toward the morning sun, which takes some getting used to. Need another bedroom? Order the right clipping, graft it, and wait. Visit seedhouse.com and use code IDEAMACHINES for a free guesthouse acorn. Seedhouse: put down roots. Literally, quite extensive roots.] The fandom, and the people who stop after book one [00:49:24] Ben: Last unspoiled question. How do you feel about the Terra Ignota fandom? Ada: It's great. I've never had anything but the most positive interactions with readers, and I love discussing the big meaty questions. A story that is as big and meaty as this one means really thoughtful, interested, eager people who want to chew on ideas. Ben: It feels like it's really touched something in the zeitgeist that even other good science fiction has not. Ada: I think it holds up an example of a future worth having and worth living in, with lots of exciting things one can push for. And a future of strong and respect-worthy values. One of the things about Terra Ignota is that, with very few exceptions, all the characters are philosophically self-examined and noble and have good ideals — ideals worth fighting for. And even though people come into strong conflict with each other, you respect and love both sides, because these are great people and they're fighting for great things. Ben: It's not a "there's a bad guy," which is so common. Ada: It's a neat vision of the future: what if everybody, even the people we fiercely disagreed with, was awesome, and we were disagreeing about important implementation or values — but underneath that, everybody was great? What if we have this high portrait of what humanity is and could become? Because one metric of progress is how rich we are, and another is how long we live. But what if another metric of progress is how excellent our conflicts are — so that we only have conflicts when it's about some really important, worthwhile cause? We don't have conflicts about grievance, or oil, or profit, or moral panic. We have conflicts about important philosophic principles and fundamentals. Wouldn't that, even though there's still conflict, be a form of progress? Ben: Peace is one form of progress, but moving to "this is a war worth fighting" is another form of progress. That's fascinating. Ada: And "I respect my enemy" is a form of progress. I love when Terra Ignota readers embrace and really want to live by some of these principles. I do sometimes feel like we could organize into a political advocacy group and crowdfund a lobbyist who advanced the values of this. Ben: Let's do it. I think that would be really cool. Ada: I would love to see it happen, because there are very important values in it — including the "what if we love the future and work for the future, but aren't vain about it, and do so with humility?" Now, one thing I sometimes run across— Ben: No, say what you were going to say first. Ada: No, I want to hear yours. I'll say what I was going to say anyway. Ben: Okay. The thing that also almost surprised me is how it really has something for everybody — there's a Hive that everyone feels kinship with. The obvious opposite would be Harry Potter, where of course you want to be in Gryffindor; Gryffindor is awesome, maybe Ravenclaw, but everybody else is kind of meh. When I interact with other people who love Terra Ignota — I'm a Utopian, and at first I assumed everybody else who likes this is going to be a Utopian. But no. I've run into people who identify with every Hive. Ada: And also sometimes people who say they would be a Graylaw, or who say "my religious identity is so core to me, I think I'd live in a reservation." I do run into that as well. And — great, there's space for you in this cool world. The world needs to respect you too, and have room in it for that, and needs that population, and needs to interface with them more as the narrative unfolds. I worked hard for there to be breadth. And I worked hard to think through: if these Hives were the Hives that formed from other Hives merging with each other, if there used to be dozens and now there are seven— Ben: What's the spanning set? Ada: Exactly. And what bigger and bigger ideas came together under umbrellas? Ben: Okay — what was the thing you were going to say? Ada: I sometimes run into people who say, "Oh, I'm a big fan of Too Like the Lightning," and who haven't read further. It's a little perplexing to people who are completionists and read the whole thing, but there's a not insignificant swath of people who read book one and haven't read the rest, who are very excited by the glimpse it shows of this future, but didn't continue on to see the way it then critiques the imperfections in this future — and shows the future recognizing its own problems and critiquing itself and becoming dynamic, and by the end being on the path to incremental improvement. I find it interesting talking with people like that, a lot of whom are Silicon Valley people. When you're an author, one thing that's the case is that you can log into Amazon and it'll show you this little map of America with how many copies of your book have sold in each region. So I know how many copies of Terra Ignota have been bought in New York City versus Arkansas versus elsewhere. For practically all books, the largest sales are New York City — New York City is very big, very populous, and they read a lot of books — and usually Silicon Valley is second. With Terra Ignota it's the other way around. So it is disproportionately popular among a world of people who see their technology transforming our lives and want an apparatus for thinking about what its future will be — one that is not just yet another cautionary tale about how the thing they're making could be used by a dystopia to make the world worse, but also how it could be used by a positive future to make the world better. I love that it's popular there, and I love talking to tech people who are eager to talk to me about it. But every so often I'll get this chilling thing, where one of the things in the world-build that for me is definitely negative and should be raising your alarm bells, they will have seen as positive. Ben: I'm sure you know the meme: "Ah yes, we have built the Torture Nexus from the book, Do Not Build The Torture Nexus." Ada: Yes. With its much-needed sequel, No, I Meant Don't Build the Torture Nexus. I had a conversation not long ago with a person who said they loved how Terra Ignota was basically a world without crime — an interesting thing for them to observe, because of course we know that's not the case— Ben: That's not the case, and that's not the mechanism by which it's not the case. Ada: And this was, in their reading, because of the trackers and universal surveillance: that it was an exploration of how universal surveillance could be great and could cause the end of crime. And I said: well, firstly, there is crime. But secondly, the reason the universal surveillance isn't that bad in Terra Ignota is that the governments are so good — because the buyer's market for citizenship holds governments to great degrees of accountability. If they misused this data, there would be public outcry, and then a mass movement against the government that did it, as citizens switched to other Hives. That accountability means that when the data is misused — as indeed it is, as we see over the course of book two — there is a consequence, speedily, for that misuse. The governments, being accountable, cannot abuse it. And the person just looked really sad. Because clearly, to this person who worked for a surveillance tech company, this was a hope that a surveillance tech future could be good, not bad. They hadn't thought through that it's the political change and the levels of political accountability that make it plausible that in such a future, surveillance tech would not do the harm it can do in a future where governments have a lot of power and not a lot of accountability. So I always find it interesting to see people who see a particular thing they're looking for in a future in Terra Ignota — at least in book one — and then didn't follow that journey forward to be challenged by it. But I love the people who read all of the books and followed me through the journey of: what if we have this future, and it's a great future, but it's not a perfect future, and it recognizes that, and it has to go through growing pains and work to become even better? Because one of the things about a utopia in the classic sense is that it's static. It's achieved this perfect state and it's unchanging. A book that is a true classic utopia basically feels like you have arrived in the city and they say, "Hello, stranger! Would you like to learn about our perfect public transit system? Now would you like to learn about our perfect public education system?" Welcome to Finland — we would like to lecture you on the superiority of all of our social and technological institutions. And you're like: actually, Finland, you're really great at all these things, and I wish we could elect you to rule the world and implement all of these things in most of our countries in many ways. But it feels weird getting these tours of perfect worlds that then aren't also self-examining and dynamic. So Terra Ignota is a hopeful future, but not a utopian future, because it has flaws. I remember when the first book came out, a lot of the initial discourse — the first blog posts of its earliest readers — was arguing about whether it was a utopia or a dystopia, trying to put it in one bucket or the other. "It has to be a utopia, everyone's happy, the lifespans are long." "No, it has censorship and surveillance, it has to be a dystopia." People would talk with each other before thinking through that it's an in-between. It has a lot of things that are better than our present and a few things that are worse than our present, and a lot of great achievements and a lot of stuff that still really needs to change. And a realistic future is one that is still changing. ⚠ The spoiler line [01:00:44] Ben: I'm going to transition us to speak about that realistic future. So — this is the spoiler warning. Anybody listening after this point: we expect you have read all the books. You will learn what happens in them. We will not explain anything. This is the part I'm very excited about. Also, sidebar: the fourth book is actually my favorite one. Ada: It's the best one. I needed all the other stuff before I could do that. Ben: The speech about the Trunk War, and the in-path and the out-path — that got me. Ada: Like the composer of a symphony, I needed to introduce all the leitmotifs and establish everything so that I could then do the final movement, in which everything happens at once. So I do setup, and I do more setup, and I do more setup — and then I have the full resources of those three books' worth of background, so that I can jump in and do things with an enormous complexity and depth that can only work when you have built that far. How the economy works [01:01:51] Ben: Something you don't talk about very much in the books, but that I assume exists in the giant iceberg: how does the economy work? There are little hints — clearly there are still black markets, clearly there's some form of buying and selling — but beyond that it's really not explained. And we get hints that it works a little differently for different Hives. Ada: We also know that the Hives resolve police conflicts with each other: when a member of one Hive has committed a crime against a member of another, the Hive that the person in the wrong came from pays the other Hive, and then punishes their own person by their own techniques. So a Mason receives the punishment a Mason normally gets, which might be much harsher than what the Cousins would normally do — but the Cousins get a certain amount of money that is standardized for the crime. So money is used among the Hives to balance out their frictions. That means Hives are incentivized to discourage crimes by their members against other members, because it costs them a certain amount of money. But they're not super-mega-over-the-top incentivized. They would never spend half their budget on policing, because it's resolved. Within that, the economy works quite differently for different Hives. The Mitsubishi and Humanists are on a very capitalist, more corporate model. The Utopians are space communists. Everything you earn goes to space, and you receive back what you need to live. The constellations process things around, and there is enough for everyone to live in comfort, but you do not have private assets and private income. It's set up the way a monastery runs. If you have a job and are a monk, this is just true: if you're a monk and you also have a professorship, your salary goes to the monastery, and you still receive the same meals and support and housing and stipend that any other monk does. It doesn't matter whether you're in a high-profit or low-profit job — you're doing a worthwhile job, therefore the Hive supports you, or the monastery supports you. So they're fully space communists: everything goes into the Hive and comes back out. The Cousins have much more of a safety-net thing, where everybody has a guaranteed income, but you can also have additional income on top of that. And if you do have earned income, the Cousins take a very large slice of it in taxes, because they pay for so many services which both you and the world benefit from — and you feel good that, in a charitable way, you have funded schools and hospitals all over the world in a massive transformation. So that also appeals to somebody who, if they had supplementary income, would choose to give a lot of it to charity. You're sort of signing up in advance to have your income largely routed to charity, while you keep enough to live on and some more, so there's an incentive to earn more, but not a huge one. The Masons have a complicated thing — this is why it's not in the book. It's calculated: the value of your contribution to the empire. How valuable a subject are you to Caesar? A number is put on that. And if you have a job or occupation that earns less than that, then you receive a stipend from the empire in credit for the services you've done to the empire. And if you're working directly for the empire, as the Guildbreakers do, then you receive a stipend from the emperor. What it means is that a lot of Masons will fluctuate during their lifetime between "100% of my income is coming from a salary" and "now half my income is coming from a salary and half from the fact that I am a Masonic traffic guard, or whatever it is, working for Caesar." So Caesar pays this slice of my income, and my salary for something else pays another slice. And it's a point of pride to have more and more of it be your value from the empire — because then you're serving the empire better and doing more. Though there's also a point of pride in having a hundred percent from salary, so that you're not draining Caesar's purse. Ben: I bet there are the two different groups of people — the one high status and the other high status — and they beef a little bit. One currency, and the currencies underneath it [01:07:06] Ben: All of that implies some kind of single cross-Hive currency. Ada: You'll notice all the prices are in euros throughout the book. Whenever any price is named, it's in euros. And the presumption is that Romanova administers a kind of central bank — and that the Censor's office is key to the administration of that central bank. The Censor's office is fundamentally doing economic analysis as well as social analysis. Ben: Which sort of implies that Hives cannot operate like a lot of modern governments, where they print their own currency. Ada: They can and they can't. You can still do currency exchange with the reservations, which are very intentionally not discussed very much in the first three books, so that we're sort of curious and slightly alarmed. And then they become so vividly present at major key moments in the last book, and you have this sort of backwards — I've been thinking of this as the marginal barbarians. Wait a minute, that's the United Nations. That's me. We are those marginal remnants — that's the evolution of the way we live now. The other thing is that Hives can create internal fiat currencies of different sorts, that are tradable only among them and that only they would really care about. So for example, the Mitsubishi have this: you get one vote for owning different amounts of property. Property and votes move together, and there's a unit which is one vote's worth of property — a significant value of a thing. And the Mitsubishi pay a lot of attention to those circulating. So it's not a small currency, in that you would never buy a sandwich with it. It's a currency in which the smallest unit is $300,000 or $200,000, because it's the value of a condominium, basically. But people pay a lot of attention to it, care about it. They can't just generate more without building architecture — but they can generate more by the act of building architecture or buying property. And if Mitsubishi buys property, that transforms it from a thing that has cash value to a thing that has cash value and a vote's worth. And then it moves around. So it operates in a complex way, like a non-fiat currency — a currency where there is a real thing attached to this unit of currency — but they only change hands for big deals, not small deals. And then people commit their vote to a voting bloc, which supports a higher voting bloc, so you're delegating your voting power rather than exercising it independently. The campus system [01:10:26] Ben: I feel like I could talk about this for a very long time, but I have more spoiler questions. How does the campus system work? Ada: A campus is referred to a number of times but never really explained. It's not quite a university, because it's a cluster in one area of multiple educational options. A campus might have a major research university, and three different colleges with different focuses, and several trade schools. So you might choose to go to that campus to attend a research university. Or you might choose to go to that campus to get a trade school degree as an artisan and be a master glassblower. Or you might choose to go there and say: I like the mood of this campus. This is the Romanova campus, so everybody who goes here really cares about politics — but they want to do different things in politics. Some want to go to journalism school, some want to be lawyers and complete law school, some really want to be politicians, some really want to observe, some might want to be architects but are interested in political thought and how it informs architecture, so there's an architecture school there. And you might be going for different lengths of time, because you might be doing different successive degrees. You might say: I really love political thought, I want to be in the city where it happens, I want to be in the community of other people where all my fellow students are into politics. So even though I want to be a doctor, I'll choose to go to medical school there, and make friends with somebody who's there to do architecture, and another friend who's there to get a polylaw degree and wants to be a polylaw. But we get to mix and mingle and enjoy debating and discussing and observing politics, united by that shared ethic for my bash'. And then I made another place that's like: this is a campus designed for people who really love water sports. We're going to have fifteen different educational options — there will be a medical school, and a law school, and small liberal-arts-focused colleges, and a large research university here also — but all of them are structured around a bay that has really good surfing and where there are lots of boats. So if you're somebody who loves that kind of thing, and you think you probably want to have a bash' with people who share that passion, then you might choose to go to that campus. You choose based on the campus and its mood, not based on which school is best for law. You can choose any campus and get a law degree there. So it's more about expecting that this is a personally formative phase of your life, in which you're going to find your bash' and find your bash'mates. So you go to the campus where you expect shared interest with those bash'mates. And there are a few campuses that are dominantly Masons, where you go — you grew up a Mason, you're expected to be a Mason, you want all of your bash'mates to be Masons, and they do Masonic things, and probably you're going to join a hereditary Masonic bash'. But you still do need to go about finding your bash'. You might therefore choose to go to one that's dominantly Masons. But you could also go to the Romanova campus and be in the college that's a Masonic college at the Romanova campus, where one part of your social world is mostly Masons and another part is very mixed. Ben: Administratively, are they all one organization, or just a bunch of co-located organizations? Ada: Co-located organizations, with a central organization that maintains the campus as a whole. That organization doesn't do the admissions, or decide who's there, or what programs there are. But they collect money from all of the schools that benefit from the presence of this campus, and use that to maintain the grounds and the infrastructure and the safety and the boats. Or, in the case of the Romanova one, to have lecture series where they bring in statesmen to talk to the students. So the central organization organizes the infrastructure and incentives that make the campus desirable, but it doesn't run the individual universities and schools. Those are still independent. When a new campus is formed, it buys up a bunch of land and then either sells or leases that land to individual schools that want to develop there. Most often the format would be a hundred-year lease. And then after a hundred years we'll evaluate whether this school actually still is a major contributor to the thing or not — so that it's not constantly uncertain. There's a symbiosis between the campus umbrella organization and the individual schools, but the individual schools are themselves separately run. Ben: I love that. Ada: There are already parts of the world where there are three or four colleges really near each other — like Cambridge, Massachusetts, where there are people from Harvard and people from MIT mixing with each other, and one of the things the two schools do is benefit from each other. And the more your educatio

"Asgard Stories: Tales from Norse Mythology" by Mabel H. Cummings and Mary H. Foster invites listeners into the enchanting world of Norse mythology, where gods, heroes, and mythical creatures come to life through captivating narratives. These timeless tales explore themes of bravery, fate, and the intricate relationships between mortals and deities, resonating with the human experience of struggle and triumph. The enduring nature of these stories highlights the universal quest for understanding our place in the cosmos and the moral complexities of existence.

Beth joined us at SFE having lost all confidence in her running due to injury. We quickly identified through our screening process that although very strong in certain areas, she lacked strength and confidence in the areas that would allow her to get over injury and back to running. Over the last 12 weeks we have progressively worked on these ares together, alongside her running program - building back her volume and confidence to successfully navigate the Great Norse Run. She's now backing it up a few weeks later to embark on The Isles Ultra in the Hebrides. 00:00 Catching Up Post Run 01:03 Event Format And Distances 02:36 Fatigue And Recovery Lessons 04:21 Pacing Without Racing 05:29 Strength Training Impact 06:59 Pre Trip Injury Scare 07:52 Next Challenge Hebrides Ultra 08:32 Moonlike Iceland Terrain 10:04 Fueling And Flavor Fatigue 13:43 Hebrides Conditions Ahead 14:33 Post Event Fatigue 15:15 Lego Training Tracker 17:26 Confidence For Hebrides 18:53 Iceland Low Moments 20:54 Goggles And Weather Kit 22:52 Mindset And Community 24:38 Hebridean Way Logistics 26:04 Progress And Sign Off Learn more about Strength For Endurance: Download our FREE Return to Run guide: https://www.strengthforendurance.com/return-to-run-guide Find Out About Online or Face to Face Coaching Programs: https://www.strengthforendurance.com/ Receive weekly coaching tips and masterclasses straight to your inbox:  https://www.strengthforendurance.com/sfe-inner-circle Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Tiktok and Youtube @strengthforendurance

Daniel Farrand and archaeologist Mags Havgar sit down with Viking art specialist Luciano Pezzoli (co-founder of Children of Ash) to decode "The Language of Viking Art." Rather than viewing Norse knotwork and animal styles as abstract decoration, Pezzoli reveals how Scandinavian craftsmen operated within a structured linguistic system designed to communicate lineage, mythology, and cultural identity without written text. ​The conversation explores how 6th-century Vendel brooches depict recurring mythological "memes," how the stern carvings of the Oseberg ship encode multi-generational ancestral genealogies leading to a narrative climax, and why Norse artisans embraced composite beasts that defied rigid species boundaries. ​Unlock our full back-catalogue of 300+ episodes and the exclusive extended bonus Q&A with Luciano on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/nordicmythologypodcastAuthentic handcrafted historical horns and jewelry: https://www.hornsofodin.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this gripping episode, we sit down with Tyrone Ellington—a historian, mythologist, independent researcher, combat-wounded veteran, and the creator of Rebirth of the Word.Driven by a lifelong curiosity about our ancient past, Tyrone investigates the hidden connections between early civilizations, their gods, and their origin stories. Through his website, podcast, and bestselling book, Journey Through the Origins of History, he explores Mesopotamian, Mesoamerican, Norse, African, and Indigenous mythologies and cosmologies.His research takes us deep into ancient texts, forgotten symbolism, and remarkable cross-cultural parallels—touching on the Anunnaki, Atlantis, giants, extraterrestrials, Bigfoot, the paranormal, and the enduring mystery of humanity's true origins.We explore the experiences that first sparked Tyrone's fascination with these extraordinary subjects. He also opens up about his military service, sharing powerful and deeply personal insights from his deployment in Afghanistan.Then, we confront a chilling question: Could giants be hiding in the mountains? Tyrone takes us inside the legend of the Kandahar Giant as we examine the astonishing claims surrounding one of Afghanistan's most mysterious modern stories.Tyrone also reveals his thoughts on the paranormal and recounts his own startling encounters—experiences that blur the boundary between the everyday world and the unexplained.Welcome to Let's Get Freaky Podcast! We explore strange encounters, paranormal phenomena, cryptids, UFOs and the unexplained. If you enjoy the show, you can support us by buying us a coffee. Every contribution helps towards producing new episodes and keeping the podcast going. Thank you for being part of the Freaky Family! https://buymeacoffee.com/letsgetfreakypodcastGear up and get freaky with official Let's Get Freaky merchandise! Our spooky-cool collection features hoodies, t-shirts, mugs, stickers, and more—perfect for showing your love of the paranormal while staying comfy and stylish. Dive into the full range now: https://tee.pub/lic/wX4lEJj3DMIGot a mind-blowing paranormal encounter, cryptid sighting, UFO experience, or any high-strangeness story that still gives you chills? We want to hear it—and we want YOU on the show! Become a guest on Let's Get Freaky and share your true story with our growing freaky community. Drop us a line at: letsgetfreakypodcast@mail.com Or slide into our DMs on socials: Facebook, Instagram, X, TikTok, or YouTube → @tcletsgetfreakypodcast.

True male initiation does not end with organizational ranks or degrees. It begins when a man meets the magical woman—the muse, Valkyrie, and dream partner who ignites creative genius and spiritual liberation. Bro. Angel Millar returns to discuss his book, Supernatural Woman and the Male Initiate. Moving beyond male-centric warrior models, this conversation explores Memento Mori, sacred intimacy, the body as the vessel of the soul, and the timeless female archetypes that guide men through death into immortality.Show notes and links: Join us on Patreon. Start your FREE seven day trial to the Craftsmen Online Podcast and get instant access to our bonus content! Whether it's a one time donation or you become a Patreon Subscriber, we appreciate your support.Visit the Craftsmen Online website to learn more about New York Masonic History and our Masonic Education blog!Follow the Craftsmen Online Podcast on Spotify.Subscribe to the Craftsmen Online Podcast on Apple Podcasts.Follow Craftsmen Online on YouTube, hit subscribe and get notified of new recordings!Yes, we're on Instagram.Get our latest announcements and important updates in your inbox with the Craftsmen Online Newsletter.Email the host, RW Michael Arce. Yes, we will read your email and may even reach out to be a guest on a future episode!Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/craftsmen-online-podcast--4822031/support.

Get ready to question everything you thought you knew about history!

Almost everyone who sees him describes the exact same thing. A tall shadow in a wide brimmed hat, sometimes a top hat, sometimes a bowler (he's a man of many hats I guess you could say), standing in the doorway at two in the morning, watching, while you lie there unable to move. This episode is the Hat Man in the witnesses' own accounts. A woman woken by her own mother's voice, sisters who both saw him from their bunk beds, a little girl who watched him stand over her dying grandmother.This time we took it a step further than first hand accounts. We track him backward through every culture that's already met him, because it keeps looking like one visitor under a laundry list of names. Odin wandered the old Norse world as a tall man in a broad hat who appeared in doorways right before someone died. Papa Legba stands at the Haitian crossroads, and that same crossroads figure became the tall stranger in black you meet at midnight in the American South. Baron Samedi waits at the grave in his top hat. El Sombrerón haunts a girl's window in Guatemala. The Alp stands over your bed in Germany.Same hat, same threshold, from cultures that never touched. If you've ever woken up and felt someone in the room, this one's for you. Real firsthand Hat Man encounters, the cross cultural entity behind him, and the sleep paralysis science, all in one. Be sure to share your personal experiences with the hat man in the comments below for a chance to make it into our Hat Man Listener Stories episode which is coming down the road once we collect enough stories from all of you! Buckle up, this ones a doozy. We'll see you on the other side.CHAPTERS:0:00 - The Same Visitor, One Hundred Names1:01 - Intro2:33 - Too Tall Jones / Welcome Back Tangent Warning5:30 - EPISODE STARTS HERE5:45 - Who Is The Hat Man?7:55 - EYEWITNESS ACCOUNTS: THE ONES WHO WOKE UP TO HIM10:45 - Enter: Odin, The Norse Wanderer13:25 - Displacing the old gods (courtesy of the Lord)16:00 - You Like Historical Hat Facts?17:00 - EYEWITNESS ACCOUNTS: THE HAT SHOWS UP WIDE AWAKE20:20 - Papa Legba, Baron Samedi, Robert Johnson & A Man At The Crossroads24:00 - THE NEXT 8 MINUTES ARE PRETTY TANGENT HEAVY, PLEASE STFU24:04 - Chocolate Thunda / The Cat In The Hat Is Absolute Cinema25:00 - Crossroads, The Pick of Destiny, Robert Johnson Again & Supernatural27:00 - Anyone Under a Microscope is a Horrible Person28:30 - Actually Back on Topic (Let The Angry Tangent Haters Comment Away!)29:30 - Christian Wants Hat Man Romance Books 31:40 - Let's Get Back to the Actual Episode Again32:00 - El Sombrerón & The Alp34:37 - STORY: HE CAME FOR GRANDMA36:34 - Christian Mentions The Old Hag (Okay)37:30 - Is The Hat Man Just a Bald Shadow Person?41:00 - Did Christian Have a Glimmer Man Experience as a Child? 42:25 - SKEPTIC TAKES / SLEEP PARALYSIS & OTHER THEORIES46:40 - Scott Scared a Shadow Person While Living in Las Vegas50:00 - Are Shadow People Astral Projectors That We Can't Fully Decipher?51:30 - Please Share The Show on Socials, Repost Reels on IG!54:00 - Sweet Dreams, Mr Hat Man________Become a Member at www.talltalesocialclub.com Shop Merch at www.talltalesocialclub.com/merch Follow us on Socials @talltalesocialclubFollow Mothy on X @heymothySubmit your story → mothy@talltalesocialclub.com

What if one of the fastest ways to feel calmer, clearer, and more grounded is something you are already doing nearly 20,000 times a day? Today, we turn to the breath. Throughout this week, we've been exploring what northern wisdom can teach us about living with greater resilience, conserving energy, and working with the body rather than constantly pushing against it.

CAPTION VIKING SILVERViking Beliefs and Dramatic EndingsEleanor Barraclough, Part Two: Barraclough explains Norse mythological systems recorded after Christian conversion by Snorri Sturluson, such as creation from fire and ice. She discusses archaeological sites like the Surtshellir lava cave, where offerings were left to a fire giant. Finally, she examines the decline of the Viking era, referencing 1066, the 1263 Battle of Largs, and Greenland's Herjolfsnes cemetery, where preserved clothing tells of their isolated, long and freezing final days. (2)

In northern cultures shaped by long winters, survival depended not only on endurance, but on knowing when to conserve energy. There was a season for movement. And there was a season for stillness. A season for gathering. And a season for turning inward. Modern life often teaches us to override those natural rhythms. We keep pushing, stay available, and fill every open space. But restoration requires a different rhythm. Today's practice is centered around a simple affirmation designed to support rest, soften internal pressure, and remind you that replenishment is not something you have to earn. Today's Technique: Rest & Repair Affirmation You'll work with a calming affirmation focused on allowing yourself to receive rest rather than constantly push forward. The practice invites you to pair slow breathing with phrases that reinforce safety, restoration, and permission to pause. The intention is simple: to shift from effort into receiving. Today's affirmation centers around the reminder: Rest is part of my strength. Use it throughout the day whenever you notice yourself rushing, overextending, or feeling as though you should be doing more. Today's Reflection Where in your life have you been treating rest as something you have to earn? Notice whether you tend to rest only after everything is finished. Then consider this: What if rest were not the reward at the end of your life? What if it were part of how you live it well? Choose one small way to honor restoration today. Drink something warm without multitasking. Step outside without your phone. Sit quietly for a few minutes. Go to bed a little earlier. Let your nervous system experience what it feels like to be supported rather than driven.

Gwyn and Ode say goodbye! The website will remain up until the end of December 2026: 3pagansandacat.fireside.fm The discord server will remain up permanently: discord.gg/ENF867k Thank you for almost 9 years!

Some of the happiest people in the world live in some of the harshest conditions. Across the Nordic lands, generations have learned how to live with long winters, bitter cold, shifting light, and powerful natural elements. Rather than constantly fighting these conditions, traditional northern cultures developed ways of creating warmth, rhythm, refuge, and restoration. This week, we begin a new journey inspired by that northern wisdom as we explore simple practices to help calm your nervous system, replenish depleted energy, and return to a steadier inner rhythm.

In today's episode of Talk Heathen, Jamie The Blind Limey, Jim Barrows, and Scott Dickie tackle questions of religious plagiarism, flood myths, and the epistemology of belief!Chloe in NV, a Norse pagan, argues that Christianity didn't plagiarize pagan traditions as much as skeptics claim. The hosts explore cultural blending versus direct copying, asking what evidence distinguishes borrowed traditions from independent development. How do we determine which religious narratives influenced others? When similar stories appear across cultures, does that validate or undermine their truth claims? The conversation shifts to epistemology: how do we know what we know about ancient religious practices?Nick in IL claims flood stories are central to all religions and connects this to AI sentience and UFO phenomena. The hosts challenge his sweeping generalizations and ask for evidence supporting these connections. Why assume flood myths prove a universal truth rather than common human experiences with water? How does AI relate to ancient mythology? The call becomes confrontational as Nick resists providing specifics. What would it take to demonstrate these claims reliably?Thank you for joining us this week! We'll see you next time!Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/talk-heathen--3195702/support.

Today's sermon, by Rev. David Norse, was offered on Sunday, September 6, 2026. The scripture passages this morning were Matthew 6:24-34 and Matthew16:24-28. To listen to the full Lord's Day service, search YouTube for "Swarthmore Presbyterian Church."

Send us Fan MailTrent and Peaches are back, and somehow the episode starts with Valhalla, Norse paganism, Air Force beard waivers, and whether everybody suddenly developed shaving trauma at the exact same time.The boys talk about the lengths Airmen will go to for beards, shaving waivers, religious accommodations, fake individuality, and why spending half your professional life trying to dodge grooming standards might be more damaging than the beard itself. Peaches, as the only truly bearded member of Ones Ready, gives the hard truth: beards are not magic, they are more expensive, more maintenance, and your daughter might still roast your old clean-shaven photos.Then it turns into a bigger conversation about military culture. Why has so much of the U.S. military, especially special operations, adopted the whole Norse/Viking/Valhalla thing? Trent and Peaches push back on the cosplay version of warrior identity and make the case that the American military fighting legacy is already heavy enough. You do not need to pretend to be a Viking, samurai, or anything else. The legacy is already right here.From there, they move into fitness, running, and the idea that being better at physical training absolutely makes you better at leadership. It shows discipline, commitment, consistency, and the ability to lead from the front. They break down why most candidates hate running because they train like idiots, why every run does not need to be a death sprint, why heart rate zones matter, and how slowing down can make you faster over time.Also included: maintainers tracking macros, cinnamon rolls with chili, treadmill lies, pavement reality checks, San Antonio hills, Taylor Starch blood-doping at Colorado altitude by existing, the Manitou Incline, and Peaches nearly getting saved by a Ones Ready fan on a mountain trail.Links:OnesReady.comOperatorTrainingSummit.comChapters:00:00 - Ones Ready Intro01:03 - What Is Valhalla?01:23 - Norse Pagan Beards in the Air Force02:46 - Why Do People Care This Much About Beards?03:13 - Peaches Explains Beard Reality04:38 - Shaving Waivers and Razor Shenanigans06:23 - Trent's Anti-Beard SIMSAF Policy07:54 - Do Beards Make Us More Lethal?08:53 - Arguing About Beards Is the Problem09:39 - Individuality or Narcissism?10:22 - When a Bearded Airman Is Actually Squared Away11:20 - Maintainers Tracking Macros12:44 - Cinnamon Rolls With Chili14:20 - Why Special Operations Loves Viking Stuff15:44 - American Warrior Legacy Is Enough18:00 - The 13th Warrior Prayer18:54 - The Weird Side of Norse Cosplay19:54 - PT Makes You Better at Everything21:13 - Learning to Stop Hating Running22:20 - Heart Rate Training Changes Everything23:50 - It's Not the Time, It's the Miles25:48 - Zone Two Is Humbling27:00 - Treadmill Running vs. Real Running27:59 - Hills Change the Game30:10 - San Antonio Hill Country Breakdown31:16 - Taylor Starch at Altitude32:28 - The Manitou Incline35:06 - Lightning, Trails, and Podcast Fans36:05 - OTS Updates and Partner Discounts37:28 - Members Only TeaseSupport the showJoin this channel to get access to perks: HEREBuzzsprout Subscription page:  HERERegister for our Operator Training Summit:  OperatorTrainingSummit.comFind an Air Force Recruiter: AirForce.comCollabs:Ones Ready - OnesReady.com 18A Fitness - Promo Code:  ONESREADY ATACLete - Follow the URL (no promo code):  ATACLeteDanger Close Apparel - Promo Code:  ONESREADYDFND Apparel...

Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com. Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpod Facebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover. To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button.   You can find Marian Yee at marianyee.com or on IG at @mariangyee   Remember the 1996 film Jerry Maguire and its famous line, “You had me at hello?” Well, our guest this week, Marian Yee, had me at hello with her novel 4 Janes, which is a genre- and time-bending re-imagining of Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre. It is a novel that you'll want to read a second time (or even a third) and discuss with others because there are so many layers.    And our book rec segment features female authors in translation. August was Women in Translation month and yes we missed it by a few days, but we still have some great suggestions to last you all year long. We've got historical fiction set in a brothel in early 20th century Japan, a fantasy filled with Norse mythology, a psychological thriller set in Iceland, a family saga set in early 20th century Mexico filled with magical realism, the story of an old woman and her neighbors living outside Chernobyl, and the plight of young women in a mental asylum in Paris.   Books Mentioned in This Episode:   1- 4 Janes: A Novel by Marian Yee  2- Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë  3- The Lioness of Boston by Emily Franklin  4- Love and Other Monsters by Emily Franklin  5- Thirteen Perfect Fugitives: The True Story of the Mob, Murder, and the World's Largest Art Heist by Geoffrey Kelly  6- One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez  7- The Whisper Man by Alex North  8- War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy  9- War and Peace: The Graphic Novel by Leo Tolstoy, Alexandr Poltorak, and Dmitry Chukhrai 10- The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley  11- Say Hello to My Little Friend by Jennie Capo Crucet  12- Sister Novelists: The Trailblazing Porter Sisters Who Paved the Way for Austen and the Brontës by Devoney Looser  13- Snap by Susin Nielsen 14- 5 Star Read by Fellow Book Lover Brenna Julian - Echo by Pam Muñoz Ryan  15- The Murmur of Bees by Sofía Segovia, translated from Spanish by Simon Bruni 16- The Mad Women's Ball by Victoria Mad, translated from French by Frank Wynne  17- Baba Dunja's Last Love by Alina Bronsky, translated from German by Tim Mohr  18- A Woman of Pleasure by Kiyoko Murata, translated from Japanese by Juliet Winters Carpenter  19- The Night Guest by Hilda Knutsdottir, translated from Icelandic by Mary Robinette Kowal  20- Odin's Child by Siri Pettersen, translated from Norwegian by Siân Mackie and Paul Russell   Media Mentioned: 1- The Last Seen Podcast - https://www.wbur.org/podcasts/lastseen/last-seen-season-one 2- One Hundred Years of Solitude (Netflix, 2024 - present) 3- The Whisper Man (Netflix, 2026) 4- The Mad Women's Ball (Amazon Prime, 2021)      

Anyone who is new to modern Heathenry has probably already encountered the eddas, sagas, and histories of the Nordic world.  Join your host for a short walk through what these are, why they matter, and more!Want to support this podcast and my other work?  Sign up for my Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/c/wayw... or contribute to my KoFi here: https://ko-fi.com/ryansmithwfiI am teaching classes in Heathen spirituality!  You can find out more and sign up at www.onblackwings.com/classes

In this special Saga Brief recorded live at the University of Central Oklahoma, we explore an often-overlooked pillar of Viking Age society: the horse. (John wanted to call this presentation "A Horse for the Norse, with Sources (of course)," but Andy shot that down.) While our discussion is grounded in saga narratives and archaeology, we offer a wide-ranging discussion of how horses helped shape the literature, culture, and history of medieval Iceland. Along the way, we cover the following categories: Everyday Use Status Masculinity Horse-Fighting Ritual Action and Religious Belief Of course, any one of these could be a book-length study on its own. We've done our best here to provide a broad overview of the horse's place in medieval Iceland and beyond. Naturally, that “beyond” allows us some wiggle room to talk a little about Anglo-Saxon England (and to maybe squeeze in a Beowulf reference or two). As you'll hear, horses are far more than livestock and convenient tools. They emerge across the literary, historical, and archaeological record as vital mediums for social, political, and spiritual identity. More than that, this talk explores a relationship between the human and horse that is deeply personal. We hope you enjoy! A very special thanks to Reid Weber and the sponsors of this event: The Medieval Society at the University of Oklahoma University of Oklahoma College of Liberal Arts Scandinavian Club of Oklahoma Sons of Norway The slides for this presentation, including a brief bibliography, are available as a .pdf in our show notes for this episode at sagathingpodcast.wordpress.com. Once you've listened, reach out via our social media and share your thoughts on horses in the sagas: Sagathingpodcast on Facebook Sagathingpodcast on Instagram Sagathingpodcast on Bluesky Saga Thing's unofficial official Discord Music Credits: Introduction – from Icelandic Folk Music: Tröllaslagur Outro – Ólafur Liljurós

What happens when the Norse gods know the end of the world is coming, but there's nothing they can do to stop it?We're diving into Ragnarök through the stories of two very different deities: Balder, god of light, beauty and joy, and Heimdall, the watchful guardian of Asgard. We explore Balder's tragic death as the first unmistakable sign that Ragnarök is coming, Heimdall's role in sounding the final warning, and how these two gods effectively bookend the Norse apocalypse.We also chat about Balder's connection to grief, hope and the return of light, alongside Heimdall's associations with protection, boundaries, perception and discernment. Plus, we discuss ways to work with both deities, their offerings, symbols and correspondences.Join us over on our Patreon for bonus content based around this series, magical downloads, bonus episodes and unhinged side quests: https://www.patreon.com/demystifymagic

What motivated people to leave their homes and risk their lives on Viking raids?In this episode of Exploring the Viking Age, we welcome historian and Viking Age specialist Terri Barnes to discuss the people, motivations and social structures behind the Viking expansion. Using Walter White from Breaking Bad as an unexpected comparison, Terri explores what happens when people discover that they are good at something—and that it pays.We talk about:• What Breaking Bad can teach us about the Vikings• Wealth, reputation and status as motivations for raiding• Viking groups as criminal networks, cartels and businesses• Slavery and its role in the Viking economy• How Viking raids were organized and supported• Adaptability as a defining feature of Scandinavian society• Common misconceptions and the romanticization of the Vikings• Terri's research, teaching and Vikingology podcastWhether you're interested in Viking history, archaeology, Norse culture or the psychology behind the Viking expansion, this episode offers a thought-provoking perspective on what may have driven the people of the Viking Age.

IT'S HERE!!! What happens when cyclical nature of Norse mythology collides with Al Ewing's Thor? In this episode, the ATB guys (including a return Will) break down the massive milestone release of Thor #800.From the mind of writer Al Ewing to the breathtaking visual storytelling of Pascal Ferry and Alex Ross, we dissect how this single issue reshapes everything we know about the gods, mortals, and the burdens of worthiness.

The Big Mates discuss song labels, Norse mythology, single edits, and Homogenic by Björk. Adam, Steve, and Lucas continue their exploration of the career of Björk and their track-by-track analysis of her third studio album. They explore the composition, tone, lyrics, meaning, and context for each song in turn - all from three differing perspectives, from being deeply into music and analysis, to not caring for art or critique, and everything in between!They also look at how the album was received at the time, how that legacy has been shaped over the intervening years, and how critical acclaim can affect opinion.What do we make of the album? What did Björk do next? Should you play this in the office? Find out on this episode of What Is Music?Our next episode is out next week, Monday September 7th, and will see us watch some Homogenic related media!Join the conversation on:Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/whatismusicpod.bsky.socialThreads: https://www.threads.net/@whatismusicpodInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/whatismusicpodE-mail: whatismusicpod@gmail.comGet access to more shows, exclusive bonus content, ad-free episodes of this show, and more music discussion by subscribing to our Patreon!Head to patreon.com/whatismusicpod and receive up to two new episodes of our various shows every week (including our album club and monthly themed playlists!), ad-free archives of What Is Music?, and access to our Patron-only Discord server for even more music (and non-music) discussion!Support our show when starting your own podcast!By signing up to Buzzsprout with this link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=780379Check out our merch!https://whatismusicpod.redbubble.comDonate to our podcast!https://ko-fi.com/whatismusichttp://whatismusic.buzzsprout.com/ Support the show

In this episode, we welcome Thea Prothero — Heathen author, solitary practitioner, and writer of ghost tales — to discuss her newly released book Heathenry for the Solitary Practitioner, published by Moon Books as part of the Pagan Portals series. Thea shares her personal journey from Druidry and shamanic practice into Heathenry, the role of Odin in her practice, the influence of runes, and why she felt it was important to write the foundational guide she wished had existed when she started on her solitary path. Whether you're investigating Heathenry as a possible path for your spiritual journey or been traveling along the path for a while, our conversation is a good way to get to know of this resource to inform you or maybe help reset some ideas about Heathenry as a solitary practice.   Thea Prothero is a Heathen and a pilgrim. She spends most of her free time walking in the wildest remotest lands, places that still make the gods tremble, and she loves the challenge of finding connection through nature to the divine. Her book is published by Moon Books and is available via Amazon or Barnes & Noble. Check out her Substack at Heathen Pilgrim , Facebook at Thea Prothero - Author, and Instagram @heathen_pilgrim. Look for Thea's Norse-inspired folk horror story in the anthology Ghosts & Scholars: A Book of Horror from Sarob Press in late 2026.    # # # Create your podcast today! #madeonzencastr Subscribe to Substack: https://giftsofthewyrd.substack.com/ Instagram: @wyrdgifts1 Facebook: @GiftsoftheWyrd Email: giftsofthwyrd@gmail.com Order The Christmas Oracle Deck created by me and artist Vinnora at https://feniksshop.etsy.com follow FB/IG: @thechristmasoracle Rune sets also available at the etsy shop. Also look for a Nehalennia pin and challenge coin. Music. Royalty free music from https://www.fesliyanstudios.com  Intro: Land of 8 Bits. Outro: JPOP.   Gifts of the Wyrd Logo Created by Xan Folmer.  Logo based on the Vanic boar created by Vanatru Priestess Ember of the Vanic Conspiracy. Studio recordings using Zencastr and Audacity.

We're continuing our celebration of Jack Kirby's incredible legacy with two conversations that explore very different corners of the worlds he helped create.First, we go back to the Baltimore Comic-Con's virtual 2020 convention, held during the COVID lockdown, for a discussion of Kirby's Fourth World. Writer Tom King and Cecil Castellucci join moderator Robert Meyer Burnett to talk about the ideas, characters, mythology, and lasting impact of Kirby's sprawling New Gods saga.Then we jump back to 2012 for a Marvel press conference featuring writer Kathryn Immonen and editor Lauren Sankovitch, discussing Lady Sif stepping into the spotlight as the lead of Journey Into Mystery. Sif may come from Norse mythology, but her Marvel identity was shaped in large part by the creative imagination of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, and this run gave her a chance to carry a book of her own.Two generations of creators, two very different takes on Kirby's characters and concepts, all part of the continuing conversation about the King of Comics.This is Voices of Kirby, Part Three, on Word Balloon.

Kenn makes his Unexplained Inc. debut and does not disappoint. If you like the discussions about a grounded and reasonable breakdown of spirituality that doesn't get caught up too high in the clouds and foregoes a lot of the fluffy and empty 'buzz words' than this chat is for you!Kenn grew up as a Morman in small-town Utah and knew this wasn't his destined path. Ken has shifted into becoming an uthor, artist, podcast host, psychic medium, and a teacher. But he prefers going by the moniker 'The Rune Walker' as he feels it encompasses all that he is about and how he is of service.Here are some conversation pieces in this eclectic chat:- How reading runes came on to his radar in the desert of Utah- How runes can help people find their centre and help assist embodiment- What did the runes say before this recording with stunning accuracy?- The importance of storytelling and safe community...connecting it to Contacticon 2026.- How AI is shaping up in all of this- Why Kenn prefers the term 'Endarkenment' or 'Enlightenment'- The fun of writing the books 'Get Your Sh!t Together 101'- Why he doesn't prescribe to guidance outside of one's self- Why 'shadow work' is a cringy term to himPlus so much more...Connect with Kenn Here:Websitehttp://www.runewalker.comFacebook URLhttps://www.facebook.com/NorthernEuropeanRunesYouTube URLhttps://www.youtube.com/@therunewalkerInstagramhttps://www.instagram.com/therunewalkerConnect with Unexplained Inc. here:https://www.unexplainedinc.com/Watch the video episode on Rumble here:https://rumble.com/user/Unexplainedinc

Send us Fan MailWe're reacting to all things related to the cover and overview releases for ACOTAR 6: A Court of Splintered Harmony, AKA The Valkyrie Cycle: Movement 1, AKA: ACOSH, annnd ACOTAR 7: A Court of Forgotten Melody, AKA The Valkyrie Cycle: Movements 2 & 3, AKA ACOFM, by none other than our lord and savior Sarah J. Maas. If you're new to us, the book community in general, or the SJM fandom, just know that we love our abbreviations. #cantstopwontstop

Narrator: Thomas Jones

Gwyn and Ode discuss how their practices have evolved over time.

What happens when love, beauty, war, magic and chaos collide in Norse mythology? In this episode, we're diving into Freya and Loki, two figures who both exist on the edges of the worlds they inhabit.We explore Freya as the powerful goddess of love, beauty, war, death and seiðr magic, including her famous necklace, her connection to Odin and her role among the honored dead. We also discuss signs Freya may be reaching out and ways to work with her energy.Then we turn to Loki, the trickster, shapeshifter and blood brother of Odin, exploring his outsider status, his role in Ragnarok and what his chaos can teach us. Plus, we explore the fascinating duality of these two complex figures and what they reveal about power, identity and embracing the parts of ourselves that don't fit neatly into one box.Check out Molly's new space and book in if you're local to the Saco area for a 1:1 session: https://mollydonlan.as.me/sacosanctuaryJoin us over on our Patreon for bonus content based around this series, magical downloads, bonus episodes and unhinged side quests: https://www.patreon.com/demystifymagic

Who are Thor and Ragnarok in Norse Mythology? How did the Vikings fuse their own spiritual beliefs with Christianity? And how do Norse spiritual practices continue in some ways today through Scandinavian indigenous cultures? In Episode 6 of this series, Anita Anand and William Dalrymple are joined by Dr Eleanor Barraclough, author of Embers of the Hand, to discuss the sunset of this era, and how Vikings infused Christianity into their own spiritual practices. Try Attio for free at attio.com/empire Summer sale is here: get an annual Empire Club membership for an extra 20% off with code SUMMER26. That's ad-free listening, early-access, every bonus episode, and full access to our exclusive members' series. Sale ends August 31st, so grab it before summer's over.   For more Goalhanger Podcasts, head to www.goalhanger.com. Email: empire@goalhanger.com Instagram: @empirepoduk Blue Sky: @empirepoduk X: @empirepoduk Assistant Producer: Imogen Marriott Editor: Charlie Rodwell Social Producer: Charlie Johnson Producer: Anouska Lewis Executive Producer: Dom Johnson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I'm sure most of you have written a few rock musicals in your day, but WE HAVEN'T! That's why we were so excited to speak with Portland multi-instrumentalist and composer Justin Radford. He takes us deep into the strange, joyous, and ambitious world of In Odin's Name, his Norse mythology-inspired rock musical that has been 15 years in the making. We learn the origins of the work that connected Justin with a far-off French lyricist; we chat about the valid and proper disdain of rock operas, the lost art of the Mexican pizza, the Short Kings of the monster truck world, and navigating the song-to-sex pipeline. Plus rock effing musical, bro!!!Music this week:“Dance of Swords” by Justin Radford / In Odin's Name (21:42)“Such Great Reward” by Justin Radford / In Odin's Name (42:15)“Angel” by HYD (1:14:20)“By the Blood in My Veins” by Justin Radford / In Odin's Name (1:30:24)

What does protection look like when you can't simply fight your way through the problem? In this episode of our Norse Pantheon series, we explore Thor and Tyr, two powerful Norse gods of protection who approach it in very different ways.We explore Thor, the god of thunder, strength and protection, including his infamous hammer, his battles with giants, and the surprising lessons hidden in his greatest “failures.” Then we turn to Tyr, the god of law, justice and oaths, and the story of how he sacrificed his hand to keep his word and bind Fenrir.We also chat about what it might look like to work with Thor and Tyr in your own practice, from protection magic and physical strength to oath work, justice, contracts and doing the right thing when it comes at a cost. Plus, we get into their offerings, correspondences, signs they may be reaching out, and why Pilates might just count as devotional practice.Join us over on our Patreon for bonus content based around this series, magical downloads, bonus episodes and unhinged side quests: https://www.patreon.com/demystifymagic

In this episode of The White Witch Podcast we step into the woods of August to explore two powerful allies of witchcraft, mythology and folklore - Bay and the Wild Boar. We begin with Bay a plant long associated with prophecy, protection, purification and victory. We explore the many ways Bay can be incorporated into your craft, from cleansing and divination to protection and banishing before following its mythological threads through Circe, Apollo and Daphne and into the sacred world of the Priestesses of Delphi. We also work with Bay practically finishing this section with a simple banishing spell using its leaves - ritual can be found here - https://witchesofthecraft.com/tag/bay-leaf/ Then we travel deeper into the ancient forest to meet the Wild Boar, a creature whose image appears again and again across European mythology as a symbol of ferocity, courage, sovereignty, abundance, protection and the mysteries of the Otherworld. We follow the boar through the story of Odysseus before travelling north into Norse cosmology and its connections with Freyr and Freyja including the golden boar Gullinbursti and Freyja's companion Hildisvíni. We visit the great hall of Valhalla where the fallen warriors feast upon the endlessly renewed cosmic boar and explore the animal's possible connections with the earth and mother goddess Nerthus. From there we wander through continental and British folklore, meeting the boar god Moccus, seasonal customs such as the Jouluporsas and the animal's importance within Celtic and Druidic traditions. We explore its links with warriors, death, the afterlife and the Otherworld alongside stories involving Merlin, the Devil, Cerridwen, Manannán mac Lir and the great boar hunt found within the Welsh tale of Culhwch and Olwen. We also venture into Greek mythology with Heracles and the Erymanthian Boar before looking at what the Wild Boar may represent spiritually when it appears within our own lives, dreams or practice. Our book review this month is Circe by Madeline Miller. We finish the episode with a collection of journal prompts inspired by The Odyssey inviting you to consider your own journeys, trials, transformations and homecomings. The journal prompts came from the Instagram page - @the_edit_experience_ What song do your sirens sing? What bow can only you string? What is your Troy? What is your Calypso? What is your Ithaca? Why can't you go back there? Can you forgive yourself for the last seven years? Can you accept yourself? So light a candle, gather your Bay leaves, and come with me into the old woods — where gods, witches, warriors and wild creatures are never quite as far away as they seem. Join Me for Our Mabon Coven Gathering If you've ever wanted to experience witchcraft in person, I'd love to invite you to our very first Coven Gathering in Lincoln. Together we will celebrate Mabon, the Autumn Equinox through seasonal folklore, magical teachings, practical witchcraft and a guided journey inspired by Baba Yaga's ancient forest. You will create your own Mabon Harvest Charm to take home, receive beautifully illustrated grimoire pages and spend the afternoon connecting with a wonderful community of like-minded witches over homemade herbal teas. Whether you are completely new to witchcraft or have been walking the path for many years, this gathering has been created as a welcoming space to learn, practise and celebrate the turning of the Wheel of the Year together. You can find the booking link below if you would like to join us. I would absolutely love to see you there. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1995695286324?aff=oddtdtcreator Join us in The Hedge & Hollow for a Circe Summer with our August theme - This month we journey to the mythical island of Aeaea to meet one of the most fascinating witches in mythology – Circe. Often remembered as the enchantress who transformed men into pigs however there is far more to her story. Circe is a woman of solitude, exile, herbal wisdom, magick, transformation and self sovereignty. Her island becomes a place of initiation where those who arrive are forever changed. Throughout the month we will explore Circe through mythology, folklore and practical witchcraft discovering what her story can teach us about reclaiming our own power and embracing the transformations life asks of us. Across this month we will look at - A deeper exploration of Circe's mythology - looking beyond the familiar tales to uncover the symbolism and wisdom hidden within her story. A guided meditation transporting you to Circe's island where you will meet Circe herself and discover the messages she has waiting for you. Two Hedge Witch studies exploring the magical folklore, history and correspondences of Hellebore and Cypress. Two plants deeply connected with liminality, death, rebirth and the ancient witch's path. Practical witchcraft including a beautiful Transformation Oil inspired by Circe's magick alongside banishing practices, reflection and spellcraft to support your own personal transformation. This month will lean into embracing our own transformations and moving towards them with courage, wisdom and compassion. I'll see you on Circe's island. Find my Patreon The Hedge & Hollow here - https://patreon.com/TheHedgeandHollow?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLink Find my Etsy store here for zines, witch boxes, spell candles and altar posters here - https://www.etsy.com/shop/TheWhiteWitchCompany?ref=seller-platform-mcnav Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/thewhitewitchpodcast/?hl=en For PR enquiries etc please email carly@thewhitewitchcompany.co.uk   Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Laylla and Chelle sit down with Heathen practitioner, writer, teacher, and full-blown folklore nerd Ash Glasse for a conversation about what it means to practice Heathenry in the modern world.Ash is a spiritual leader for the inclusive Elk Ridge Kindred, serves on the Board of Directors for The Troth, and is a member of the Pagan folk band Kindred Crow. Together, the witches talk about the difference between reconstructing an ancient religion and creating a living spiritual tradition, working with Gods, ancestors, land spirits, folklore, magic, and the values that shape Heathen community today.They also explore some of the harder questions modern Heathens face, including inclusivity, ancestry, cultural identity, and the ways Norse symbols and traditions have been misused by extremist groups.Whether you already walk a Heathen path or you just want to know what exists beyond Thor, Odin, and a suspicious number of ravens, this episode offers a thoughtful, grounded look at a tradition that is still very much alive and evolving.Got a question? Send the witches a message here!Support the showWant to send us a letter? Witchy things to review?Our mailing address is:Back on the BroomstickPO Box 21Tioga, PA 16946Email: backonthebroomstick@gmail.comYoutube FacebookInstagramBack on the Broomstick Website

In the 284th episode of Supernatural, Gabriel goes looking for revenge on the Norse gods who sold him to Asmodeus, including the Trickster of Tricksters: Loki.Intro/Outro performed by Aaron BarryFollow us on Instagram and Facebook!Or send us an email: ghostfacerspodcast@gmail.com!Part of the The Sonar Network!And now...support us on Patreon! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Stephen Moss, Part Two: Moss explores the Raven, a bird of deep mythology and intelligence, appearing in Norselegends as Odin's messengers and in modern culture like Game of Thrones. Though often seen as harbingers of doom in works by Shakespeare and Poe, Ravens are highly adaptable and have successfully recolonized urban areas. The narrative shifts to the Cormorant, whose guano fueled a 19th-century fertilizer boom that enriched businessmen while exploiting Chinese indentured laborers. This led to synthetic fertilizers, which Moss argues have caused a decline in farmland birds like the Gray Partridge and Skylark. A tragic highlight is Mao Zedong's campaign against the Tree Sparrow, which triggered a massive insect population boom and a famine killing up to 50 million people. Moss also recounts the "Emu War," where the Emu successfully evaded the Australian army's machine guns. The Snowy Egret's near-extinction due to the fashion industry's demand for plumes is credited with sparking the founding of the Audubon Society by women activists. Finally, the Emperor Penguin is presented as a modern "miner's canary," signaling the urgent threat of the climate crisis to global biodiversity. (2)

Episode 789 brings the full buffet of gaming chaos, hot takes, and community energy. Mark, Stuntmaster and Darren dive into a stacked week of games, news, and Discord‑fuelled discussion, all wrapped in that classic 360G vibe.

DJ Qualls (Garth) returns to the podcast to talk about his role as Garth. He shares behind the scenes stories about scheduling issues with Man In The High Castle, challenges of being a werewolf, and his disgust of mayonnaise. Rob and Rich learn a little something about Norse mythology. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Narrator: Thomas Jones