Fireside Folklore with Hades

Send over your dead SMS messages. Hello everyone! My husband has become a bureaucratic nightmare. He says that the podcast must start  following the Orpheus Protocol, and to keep Hermes from paying hefty fines, I would have to adhere to it going forward. I have no idea how anybody's expected to actually make the recipe if we do that, but if it keeps my half-brother out of having to pay off on...

Send over your dead SMS messages. Greetings, listeners! Hermes here! Yes, I said Hermes! I'm here to tell you all that I quit! Yes, I was keeping this podcast running ... sort of ... until I could teach my uncle how to use the Internet, a microphone, and the podcasting host. Now? I'm a traveling god. As a traveling god who has things to do and places to be, I'm hading this thing off...

Send over your dead SMS messages. Greetings, listeners. It's been some time since we've convened on this feed. The production of that Jewish folktale we had intended to produce has been difficult. The anger has been immense, and so has the grief. So, rather than force something, we wrote a song in response to the "ceasefire" that was, at its core, political theater orchestrated...

Send over your dead SMS messages. Greetings, listeners! Just when I thought we'd be getting back to the serious business of telling some real folklore, Mr. President made it very clear he wouldn't be waiting on Pennsylvania Avenue when there was an Underworld to tour. Thus, I asked Thanatos to make sure the man was brought safely to the Underworld. Safely doesn't mean quickly, howev...

Send over your dead SMS messages. Greetings listeners, this podcast has been quiet in the last few months, and I finally have understood why. Quiet doesn't mean death; quiet is a time of reflection and understanding. Our writer has been wrestling with a personal quandary which has prevented her from working on this podcast, and she's finally decided to bring it into the light. As such, w...

Send over your dead SMS messages. Greetings, listeners! In this musical counterpoint, I sing a song that Mr. President will never hear. You see, my singing might scare him off, and I can't do that. Not yet. After all, I'm trying to sell my realm, and if there's no leader to buy it, then I can't take my much-needed retirement. So, within the confines of my chariot, I belt this o...

Send over your dead SMS messages. Greetings, listeners! In this installment of our satirical skit, Mr. President stands outside of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, waiting for Aidoneus to pick him up in that promised chariot. Of course, Mr. President isn't thrilled about the prospect of having to dine on a platter of pomegranates, but buying a ready-made realm with a multitude of subjects eager to b...

Send over your dead SMS messages. Greetings listeners, after silently watching the world burn for the past month, mustering up enough resolve to write has been ... difficult. Indeed, one wonders if ruling the Underworld is worth the trouble. Thus, I decided I needed to shake things up. Perhaps, cede the throne to one who has more vigor in him, not to mention the ambition to rule. Therefore, I took...

Send over your dead SMS messages. Greetings, listeners! After a long hiatus as we figured out our priorities and reconnected with our creativity, we decided to energize this feed with something lighthearted and fun. Our podcast has been classified by Spotify as being very much like those offering sleep stories. So, we thought it might be fun to lean into that a bit. Of course, as you should know b...

Send over your dead SMS messages. Greetings, listeners. This is just a quick update regarding the podcast's direction. I'll be moving away from ElevenLabs due to some decisions they've made that go against my ethos as a creator. The new tech will mean a learning curve and a change to some of the voices. However, it is a small price to pay for my creative soul intact. Thank you to th...

Send over your dead SMS messages. Greetings, listeners. Though my work is grim, I do my best to keep from completely falling into the cliché of the dark and brooding Lord of the Underworld. Not all of my realm’s responsibilities revolve around damnation and torment. I may be stern but cruelty? That’s a mantle for others to don. One way I tried to bridge the divide was through this podcast. I’ve wr...

Send over your dead SMS messages. Greetings, listeners! A few things happened in my absence that compelled me to pause my work on The Wounded Lion, namely the TikTok ban and Amazon essentially deciding to brick Kindles without Internet access so that they could force consumers to purchase new devices they otherwise wouldn't need to buy. As a result, I decided to give my uncompromising comment...

Send over your dead SMS messages. Greetings, listeners! We received a letter from Megaera, who wasn't at all pleased by Hermes's shenanigans last time. Perhaps I should have taken offense to my basso profundo being cloned, but he did finally keep his promise by retelling The North Wind and the Sun in an incredibly clever way. His father Zeus wasn't quite as pleased when he heard tha...

Send over your dead SMS messages. Greetings, listeners! We hope you've been enjoying your holidays with ambrosia, nectar, and divine comedy, and 2025 has treated you well. I've been keeping myself busy, spending time with my queen and contemplating new ways to make Tartarus as terrifying as it deserves to be! On this Story Sunday, we present to you a long overdue retelling of The North W...

Send over your dead SMS messages. Greetings, listeners! In this completely unplanned interlude (whose true purpose will become clear shortly), I wish to take a moment to express my gratitude to the patrons of this podcast—those loyal listeners who gather by the fireside to hear the stories of old. Your time and dedication mean more to me than any mortal treasure ever could. It is your continued pr...

Send over your dead SMS messages. Greetings, listeners! After many months, outtakes, and lost paperwork, we've done it! Here is the long-awaited episode, The Golden Pail , a tale from Palestine, adapted from Ibrahim Muhawi's collection of Palestinian folklore, Speak Bird, Speak Again . In this fairy tale, a prince must go on quest after quest, as the asks become outrageously more prepost...

Send over your dead SMS messages. Greetings, listeners! As is customary for Whoopsie Wednesday, (a segment I still question the sanity of), I present to you a song that didn't make it into the final take of  The Golden Pail . Nevertheless, Persephone seemed to think that it was a work worthy of a swoon. So, against my better judgment, (because she really should be saying this about my singing...

Send over your dead SMS messages. Greetings, listeners! My husband is finally done with that long-awaited Golden Pail . Stay tuned because it will be released on Friday, November 22. In the meantime, I'll be sharing a song for Whoopsie Wednesday which won't be featured in the actual program. I loved it though and had to immortalize it here! Just don't tell Hephaestus or my husband t...

Send over your dead SMS messages. Greetings, listeners! Tonight, we make a sojourn into the world of true crime as we look at the true story behind the urban legends about Halloween candy being tainted with drugs or filled with razor blades. Sadly, the Pixy Stix that killed a young boy was given to him by his father. Not a stranger. His father. Why? Because he wanted to collect life insurance mone...

Send over your dead SMS messages. Greetings, listeners! Though Night 10 is in Pluto's hands, and Night 11 is currently unclaimed, Ares waits for no one, so we bring to you the infamous old-time radio episode,  The War of the Worlds  which first aired on October 30, 1938. This clever episode had the world in quite the panic. Its format, a seemingly innocuous orchestral concert interrupted by b...

Send over your dead SMS messages. Greetings, listeners! We know! We're late getting this one out to you, but Halloween is my favorite holiday and having an excuse to prolong my celebrations is always welcome. As we eluded to in the PSA, Pluto and his family were tasked with retelling the famous urban legend, The Babysitter and the Man Upstairs. Of course, in Plutonian fashion, this story didn...

Send over your dead SMS messages. Greetings, listeners! After  Death Robbery ended, my uncle turned and asked me what I meant when I said that Boris Karloff had a voice like molten silver with a sinister undertone. And, as much as I hate to admit it, he was right. This depiction was ... underwhelming. The story itself was a chilling classic, but a grieving scientist overrun by grief is a far cry f...

Send over your dead SMS messages. Greetings, listeners! Thank you for sticking with us through this marathon of episodes! Tonight, my nephew Hephaestus takes the mic and tells us why he chose this old-time radio episode from  Lights Out! which starred Boris Karloff as David, an ambitious scientist who thought he could conquer death. What he didn't realize was that conquering death in the cont...

Send over your dead SMS messages. Greetings, listeners! We're back again and I can't believe I've managed to keep my family together and disciplined enough to get this done! Persephone must have something to do with it. Tonight, we'll be hearing from Chronos (or is that Cronus?), and he'll be reading us the tale of Urashimataro and the Turtle from Andrew Lang's Pink F...

Send over your dead SMS messages. Greetings, listeners! We've reached the midpoint of our celebration! Tonight, Hestia will be telling the old Russian tale of Morozko, otherwise known as Father Frost. In this tale, we learn that kindness actually doesn't kill, and cruelty can chill a person to the bone. Literally! Any feedback via dead letter should be sent to me, Hades@firesidefolklorew...