Myths of the Month Playlist

Myth of the Month 23: UFOs

The UFO has been called a “technological angel” and the central mythic symbol of the modern age; we examine some of the extraordinary stories, from throughout history, of strange lights and objects seen flying through the sky, from medieval Italy to modern New Mexico, and consider carefully the problems that they present — for historians, as well as for government, and for ordinary people who want to fit the strange and anomalous into our understanding of the world.

I came here a skeptic and I’m still one (extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence and all that) but this was so well presented that, contrary to my usual reaction to this subject, I did not even once feel compelled to roll my eyes during the listen, and I say that in the most sincerely complimentary way…Well done!

Kevin M. on Patreon

Myth of the Month 20: Conspiracy Theories

Unlocked after one year for patrons only: Where do conspiracy theories come from? Why do people believe them? What do they mean? Did the CIA drug people with LSD against their will? Is Queen Elizabeth a reptilian? We consider the merits and pitfalls of conspiracy theories, trace the history and evolution of the conspiratorial tradition from rumors about lepers in the 1300s to Alex Jones and Q-Anon, and examine the biases and double standards built into the very concept of “conspiracy theories.” This is it: the most thorough, fair, and impartial examination of conspiracy theories that you will ever find anywhere.

Myth of the Month 22: Culture

What is “culture”? And how did a metaphor from gardening invade social-science discourse in 19th-century Germany and America and then take the world by storm? Am I doing “podcast culture” right now?

However you define it, I make the case that it is the defining myth of our time, and that we should get rid of it.

Myth of the Month 21: The Old West

“Cowboys and Indians.” For most Americans, the words evoke a sinister game, representing a timeless enmity between the forces of civilization and savagery. In actual historical fact, cowboys and Indians were symbiotic trading partners, and many cowboys were Indians themselves; but the image of the cowboy as a conqueror and as the bearer of civilization into the “Wild West” has become central to the American national myth. We trace how the romantic self-image of the 19th-century buckaroos as modern-day knights gradually evolved into the iconography of gunslingers battling on the untamed frontier, from early dime novels to grand “horse operas” to Hollywood Westerns and science fiction, and finally to the new fable of the gay cowboy.

Myth of the Month 18: Robin Hood – pt. 2: Capturing the Fugitive

Released to the public after one year for patrons only: What is the significance of Robin Hood as an outlaw — a person declared legally dead — who lives in the greenwood, where life is constantly renewed? Why does Shakespeare heavily allude to Robin in his Henry IV plays? And most significantly, was there a real Robin Hood, or is he a pure creation of myth and folklore? We consider the possibilities and scrutinize the evidence.

Myth of the Month 19: The Holy Grail – pt. 2

How did the Holy Grail transform from the object of a purifying spiritual quest to a Faustian symbol of the corruptions of power? We consider the evolution of the Grail myth from the later medieval romances through Le Morte D’Arthur, the works of Tennyson, Wagner, and T.S. Eliot, and the portrayals of the Grail by Monty Python, Dan Brown, and Jay-z, and finally we consider the modern quests to uncover the hidden truth of the Grail — whether as a pagan fertility symbol, a Christian spiritual allegory, or a code identifying the secret bloodline of Jesus Christ.

Myth of the Month 19: The Holy Grail – pt. 1

Why did an enigmatic relic discussed in a series of medieval romances of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table leap out of the Arthurian myths and rise to become the most famous object in the history of literature? What does the vessel represent spiritually, morally, and sexually? And what the heck is a “grail” anyway? We begin by examining the medieval legends and what they say about the origin, nature, and miraculous powers of the sought-after holy relic.

Myth of the Month 16: “The Founding Fathers”

The “Founding Fathers” — the most rarefied club in American history — stand in for everything we love or hate about this country, from its civic an religious freedom to its white supremacism. As if carved in stone (which they oftentimes are), they loom over every political debate, even though most of us know next to nothing about them, or even who counts as one of the group. Coined by that immortal wordsmith, President Warren Harding, the phrase “Founding Fathers” serves as an empty vessel for civic emotion, conveniently covering over the actual history of struggle, conflict, and contention that shaped the American republic.

Myth of the Month 14: Astrology

Released to the public after one year for patrons only: Why do we divide history into epochs separated by “revolutions”? Astrology. How did Magellan chart his course around the globe? Astrology. How did Ronald Reagan schedule his acts of state? Astrology. We trace how the highest of the occult arts evolved from interpreting omens in ancient Babylonia, to containing medieval epidemics, to providing fodder for middle-brow magazines. Whether you are a believer or not, is the secret rhythm of our lives.

Myth of the Month 18: Robin Hood — pt. 1: The Master of the Forest

In the first installment on the Robin Hood mythos, we consider how the legend of Robin Hood has evolved from a series of brutal tales of a medieval outlaw bandit in the fifteenth century to that of the swashbuckling champion of the poor of modern pop culture, and how he picked up sidekicks like Friar Tuck and Maid Marion along the way; we consider the literary significance of the early stories as as an expression of the frustrations and aspirations of the yeoman class.

Myth of the Month 12, Finale: The Historical King Arthur

Released to the public after one year for patrons only: Archaeology, geography, linguistics, textual analysis — all of these fields of knowledge must be brought to bear on a centuries-old question: Was there a “real” King Arthur? Answer: It’s complicated. We discuss the likelihood that some “historical” personage underlies the layers of legend.

Myth of the Month 17: Anglo-Saxonism

Who the heck are the “Anglo-Saxons,” and why are Americans getting all lathered up about “Anglo-Saxon institutions”? Find out where the Anglo-Saxon myth came from and how over the past three hundred years it’s been used to justify Parliamentary supremacy, the Rhodes Scholarship, the American entry into World War I, immigration restrictions, and college admission quotas. You never knew you were suffering under the Norman yoke, but now you do.

Myth of the Month 15: “The State”

What did Shakespeare mean when he wrote that “something is rotten in the state of Denmark”? Why do we call independent countries “states” endowed with “sovereignty”? Why do historians and philosophers speak of “state formation” and clashes between “church and state”? How did these concepts come about, and what do they mean in international law and political theory? The answer runs from absolutist royal courts through the French Revolution and the Weimar republic of Germany; after centuries of struggle and democratization, the concept of “the state” has formed to fill the vacuum left behind by the Crown.

Myth of the Month 10, pt. 4: the Shakespeare Authorship Controversy

Unlocked for the public, after one year for patrons only, the final lecture of the series on Shakespeare: Could it be that “Shakespeare” wasn’t Shakespeare? — That someone else, perhaps a highly-educated aristocrat, actually wrote the works attributed to the actor from Stratford? Am I a crackpot for even entertaining such a ridiculous idea? We consider the evidence. I know this is an absurdly long one, but forgive me, it was so much fun to research and record.

Myth of the Month 13: Feudalism

Feudalism – it’s what they did in the Middle Ages! Nobles controlled the land and extracted labor from the serfs, and everyone from peasants to great lords was arranged in a big hierarchical pyramid leading up to the king. Or were they? We examine the ambiguities inherent in the idea of “feudalism,” and the reasons why it simply cannot hold up to examination against the historical record. Finally, we consider why the myth of feudalism developed and has persisted as a way of justifying the inequalities of our own era.

Myth of the Month 12: The Arthur Cycle – pt. 2: The Rise and Fall of Camelot

When Jackie Kennedy told reporters that she and the late President used to listen to the soundtrack of the musical “Camelot,” the word immediately caught on as the name for the Kennedy White House — portrayed as a brief, golden period of wise rule, ended by tragedy. More than a thousand years’ worth of romantic associations could be evoked with three simple syllables. In this second segment, we consider how the chivalric legend of the Round Table and the Court of Camelot was conceived and elaborated, from French courtly romances, through the first English Arthurian epic of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, to the popular novels, plays, and movies of the modern times.

Myth of the Month 12: The Arthur Cycle – pt. 1: Creating “King Arthur”

Why does the earliest known picture of King Arthur show him riding on a goat and charging towards a deadly cat-monster? How has the tale of King Arthur and his knights evolved since it first emerged from Celtic folklore? We consider the shaping of the Arthur story from the songs of mysterious Welsh and Breton bards to the high medieval romances of French courtier-poets.

Myth of the Month 8: “The West”

The notion that there is a coherent society that can be called “the West” or “Western Civilization” — running from Greco-Roman antiquity to modern North America — originated during the upheaval of World War I, thanks to an eccentric German history teacher named Oswald Spengler. We consider whether any common thread or trait can be said to unite “the West,” and why different nations like Egypt or Poland get tossed in or out of the basket of “the West” at different times. Finally, we consider why the idea of “the West” is often linked to conspiracy theories involving Jews, Marxists, post-modernists, or Jewish-Marxist-banker-Freemason-postmodernists. (Yes, I make an oblique reference here to Jordan Peterson.)

Myth of the Month 11: The “1619 Project” and the place of slavery in American history

The 1619 Project — an essay collection published in last August’s New York Times magazine — has ignited intense debate about American history, raging outside the walls of academia. Commemorating the 400th anniversary of the first African captives landing in Virginia, the various authors the case for the central importance of slavery and African-Americans to the meaning of America. We examine how the project reinforces the traditional myths of American exceptionalism and continual progress, while casting African-Americans in the starring role of Whig history, as the embattled tribe leading the quest towards liberty.

Myth of the Month 6: Political Left and Right

A discussion of our fixation with organizing political views into an axis “left” against “right”. As new political parties — left-populists, neo-fascists, and secessionists — rapidly rise and fall across Europe and other Western countries, and spontaneous protests blur partisan boundaries in the streets of Paris, the old left-to-right scale of political ideology is just not working. What value does this one-dimensional model of politics have, and where did it come from? In fact, it has to do with where you sit at a formal dinner party.

Myth of the Month 10: Who Was Shakespeare? pt. 3: “The Maiden’s Organ”

How could Shakespeare have possibly allowed his sonnets — personal, sexual, and often scandalous — to be published? I advance my own theory to account for the printing of the most shocking book of poetry in the history of literature, and discuss the possibilities as to the identities of the alluring Young Man and Dark Lady. Finally, we consider the light that the Sonnets shed upon Shakespeare’s plays, particularly his obsession with gender ambiguity and androgyny.

Myth of the Month 10: Who Was Shakespeare? pt. 2: “Comfort and Despair”

What do Shakespeare’s sonnets actually say? What can they tell us about the life or character of the man who penned them? Not only romantic and philosophical, the sonnets are erotic, desperate, and often angry, laced with shocking sexual imagery and emotional confession; as a group, they break all conventions of Elizabethan poetry, and trace the ghostly outline of two passionate affairs — one a brief, tawdry fling with a mature voluptuous woman, and one a long, fraught relationship with an androgynous young man. This will be followed by a discussion of the publication of the sonnets, the possible identities of the “Dark Lady” and “Fair Youth,” and their relation to the plays; and then by a discussion of the “authorship controversy.”

Myth of the Month 10: Who Was Shakespeare? pt. 1: The Monument and the Man

Who was William Shakespeare? He is far more elusive, and his life more obscure, than his fans and biographers will admit. We consider the massive, bloated mythology that has built up around the great Bard over the centuries, and then examine the remarkably scant surviving documentary records from the writer’s own lifetime, which tend to paint a both bizarre and unflattering picture. The first of three installments examining the reality of Shakespeare.

Myth of the Month 9: The US Constitution and the Origins of the Senate and Electoral College

Why does our government work the way it does? Is it supposed to represents citizens, or states? We consider the origins of the U. S. Constitution, particularly the creation of the controversial bodies (Senate and Electoral College) that represent the public in skewed and disproportionate ways. We dispel the false notion that these bodies were created in order to protect small states, tracing instead the Framers’ quest to tamp down the “excess of democracy” of the 1780s, wrest control over monetary policy away from the poor majority, and strike a careful balance between slave and non-slave states.

Myth of the Month 4: Secularization – or, Send in the “Nones”!

We examine the long-debated “secularization thesis” — ie, the notion that as societies modernize they become less religious. From Max Weber’s belief that science and rationality disenchant the world, to Charles Taylor’s and other current scholars’ argument that religious views have become relative and debatable where in the past they were taken for granted, the secularization thesis has evolved and adapted with the times. We carefully examine Pew Research data showing that education does not particularly correlate with loss of religious commitment, especially among Christians, and observe that instead, a new, younger generation of “nones” has given up on traditional institutions even as they remain interested in religious ideas and practices. We also uncover some of the long history of skeptical and even atheistic ideas in the West running back to the 1600s and earlier, which suggest that our own day is not necessarily any more “secular” than what came before.

Myth of the Month 2: The Exodus

We examine the origins and the political and theological meanings of the myth of the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt. We consider the possible real historical events that might underly the exodus story, including the argument put forward in Richard Elliot Friedman’s new book, The Exodus. Finally, we trace some of the many ways that peoples around the world, from the early Christians to Rastafaris, have adopted the exodus myth and cast themselves as the new Israelites.

Myth of The Month 7: Game of Thrones

We examine George R. R. Martin’s new mythology for the middle class: the TV series Game of Thrones and the series of books upon which it is based. Martin and his collaborators draw on the 15th-century Wars of the Roses and later dynastic struggles in Britain to present an amoral world, lacking in honor, bereft of cosmic justice, and eerily reminiscent of the contemporary West. We examine historical precedents for the “Red Wedding,” and the symbolic resonance of characters such as the Starks and Littlefinger. Finally we consider the possible historical meaning of the show’s final-season premier date of April 14th.

Myth of the Month 5: Capitalism

There is no such thing as capitalism. With debates over the relative meanings and merits of socialism and capitalism currently flaring up in the United States, we examine why “capitalism” is an undefinable and meaningless concept, and how it came nevertheless to hold a mythic and almost magical power over the minds of academics and ordinary citizens alike.

Myth of the Month 3: Race

We examine the origins of racism, or the notion that the human species can be subdivided into distinct and observable biological categories. The notion of human “races” began as a strategy for dividing and controlling workers in European colonies, particularly 17th-century Virginia. We consider the basic logical incoherence of belief in race, and compare it against the new information that we are gaining from genetics, which shows a fairly closely interrelated human species, with all people living today sharing the same set of ancestors as of about 3,400 years ago. Finally we consider the recent flare-up of controversy over the difference in average IQ between “racial” groups in the US, which neuroscientist Sam Harris helped to spark on his podcast earlier this year.

Myth of the Month 1: The Enlightenment

There was no Enlightenment. Steven Pinker’s new book, “Enlightenment Now,” is a classic re-statement of the myth of the Enlightenment which holds that in the 1600s and 1700s, Europeans threw off the tired dogmas of the Middle Ages and embraced a new philosophy of Reason, Progress, Science, and Humanism. In fact, the 1700s were a period of confusion, with no clear unifying ideas or trends: occultism, mysticism, and absolute monarchy flourished alongside experiments in democracy and chemistry. “The Enlightenment” forms one of the central pillars of Whig history, serving to re-affirm the notion that our present-day beliefs and values are rational and coherent.

The Myths We Make: Using the past as an ideological tool

All of history is, to one degree or another, mythology – the weaving of a coherent, usable narrative out of the chaos of people’s lives. We consider how societies all over the world, since before the beginning of civilization, have developed myths to explain the world that they experience. We also trace some of the major schools of academic history, which have tried to fashion overarching storylines to give meaning to human struggles – from Biblical providential history to Marxism to postmodernism. We begin by examining the most central myth of the origins of American society: the “first Thanksgiving.”