Story Paths

Join me for a rousing and illuminating conversation with Elias Gold, whom I discovered through his channel, Native Media Theory. Elias takes us through a journey through time, from the written descritions of Viking explorers, to the earliest Spanish colonizers, through romance books, early cinema, and up to the present day, when native people are more and more stepping into roles as writers and di...

Register here A special (time-sensitive) announcement I’m teaching Wisdom Stories April 5 - April 26 Wednesdays, 11am-1pm PST (Watch the video of this podcast instead) Hi, I'm Theodore Lowry, here to invite you to join me in my first ever live online course: Wisdom Stories. This is a course that was written by Leah Lamb, the founder of the School for Sacred Storytelling, in which I've been a stude...

(click the image above for a video preview) Hello friends. I invite you to join me for a storytelling festival! Here is a new episode of Story Paths! Featuring the fantabulous storytellers and poets Kathleen Prophet, EvaMarie Padmanabhan, Jessie White and my humble self. Available from this email, or on your favorite podcast player. You can also find the video version on our youtube channel . ps....

The old myths don't often show Divnity blazing through the sky bellowing instructions. More often the Divine is in hoofprints, bird songs, grains of snow whispering through the pines. The story of Lippo and Tapio is an old myth from Lapland. Today, Stephanie MacKay, co-founder Fianna Wilderness School and long-time student of Martín Prechtel, takes us through this unassumingly profound story...

Science fiction is modern myth, though some say it doesn't have the same old roots as myth. In this episode I compare modern sci-fi visions of artificial intelligence in relation to humans, with myths about humans' relationship to gods. Both are created with creator, only with AI we humans are the creator, and with the gods we're the ones who are created. In the stories, there'...

Watch the video of this podcast here. There's been a lot of talk about the dangers of AI lately, but rather than gossip behind the robots' backs, wouldn't it be better to go to the source? With the help of my good friends Jaya and K.lee, we ask Chat gpt questions about the dangers of AI. And this episode wouldn't be complete without a survey of the ways in which AI (robots) hav...

An unusual 'review' of this popular film, looking at why Hollywood film makers and many others are turning to indigenous culture for a sense of... well, culture? This is less a review, and more a look into what the film says about settler culture in North America. If you haven't seen the film you may still like this, but parts may make more sense if you've seen it. If you'...

 Is it projection to ascribe human characteristics to animals? Maybe, sometimes... but it may also be foundational to storytelling and myth, and a key to deep empathy with beings outside our own species. In this, the finale of Season 2, we dive right into all this geeky storytelling stuff. Share this podcast with a friend by copying this link: https://storypaths.buzzsprout.com/ Also a special anno...

A quick solo episode where I get into what personfication is, and why it's a great way to get a handle on beyond-the-brain-complex trends and patterns in this mystical reality of ours. Share this podcast with a friend by copying this link: https://storypaths.buzzsprout.com/ To support the podcast and get goodies, go on over to Patreon . The podcast Instragram is here. To be notified about upc...

 Leah Lamb teaches how to think in the language of stories. I’ve been taking classes with her for the better part of a year, and I can say it works. In this interview she steps back and looks over two huge stories of our time, the story of climate change, and the story of initiation. A bit about Leah: Leah learned about how stories could be allies and friends when she was a child wandering the fie...

My guest today is Angelo Rosso, a creative mentor, published poet and writer, and a creative writing coach, living on the same island as myself, Salt Spring Island off the coast of Canada, Quw’utsun territory. In this deep and deepening conversation, we wonder whether artists must be solitary creatures, about where creativity may dwell within each of us, and what kind of patient and caring attenti...

Why three episodes about community on a storytelling podcast? Well, community is where storytelling takes place, after all, and it's who stories are about. Stories weave webs between communities, and not just between human communities. Stories also reveal existing connective strands that we might have otherwise missed. And really, all our human stories are within the larger stories of water m...

With Tyson Yunkaporta, Daniel Robert,  Chay Beriault, Jessie White, and John Wolfstone. In part two of Community, we get into the path toward community, a zigzag and emergent pathway that can be confusing and extremely challenging. Which is why the alternate name for this episode is Community is a Pain in the Ass. It's not easy to be building community while dealing with ancestral grief and d...

What does community mean to you? Is it wonderful? Complicated?  Community is the container for storytelling, and for so much of what we do. It exists in healthy and broken forms, in motion, in transition. It’s critical to our survival, and our flowering. Did I mention it's complicated and frustrating too? Community is infuriatingly, thankfully, necessary.  It is a vast landscape, and today we...

Welcome to Season 2, and a deeper dive into the many facets of story. Tyson Yunkaporta is a member of the Apalech Clan in far north Queensland, Australia. He’s a systems thinker, a traditional carver, an arts critic and a senior lecturer in Indigenous Knowledges at Deakin University in Melbourne. He’s also the author, along with his land and community, of Sand Talk: How indigenous thinking can sav...

I started this podcast to explore the word story, and found that this word is as big as words like culture, god, and Earth. Today I review some of what I've learned thus far in my journey, distilling some essence from what my guests taught me. Thanks muchly for all of you who've joined me in this. The plan is to recommence in February. My wife is becoming a contributor, which is great, a...

Sophie Strand is a writer based in the Hudson Valley who focuses on the intersection of spirituality, storytelling, and ecology. But it would probably be more authentic to call her a neo-troubadour animist with a propensity to spin yarns that inevitably turn into love stories. Give her a salamander and a stone and she’ll write you a love story. Sophie was raised by house cats, puff balls, possums,...

What does Lord of the Rings have to do with China? Can maps grow and change? Metaphors expand within the story sea. A story-eel is guided by tiny fish, gradually changing course until he is in an entirely new part of the sea, as was I, in this solo episode.  To be notified about upcoming creative writing and art workshops, sign up for the Story Paths mailing list here .  Trailer for Creative Writi...

In the old ways, story was woven through landscape. Each peak and valley, river and bay was threaded with stories which interlinked with others, covering the land with a tapestry of narrative. In this age of uprooted peoples and rational thinking, much of this has been lost. Can landscape be storied and restoried? In this solo episode, I weave a wee tale for the island I'm on, on the west coa...

Nations and religions have collective stories which include many individuals. My friend Eliad speaks about the story of Judaism as he's come to know it, and how his own life has interwoven with this larger history and mythology. We touch on union and separation from God, the contrasting stories of ascending and falling, the difference between spirit and soul, and more. Share this podcast with...

A song of candles and caves, lost ancestors and rough initiation. Keep your eye out, as this song is coming out as a graphic novella soon.  To be notified about upcoming creative writing and art workshops, sign up for the Story Paths mailing list here .  Trailer for Creative Writing: Brainstorming Story Ideas Link to the course and a free month on Skillshare. This is a public episode. If you'd lik...

Imagine a school held entirely outdoors, where children learn about wildcrafting as well as homesteading, and days are begun with story and song. Kester Reid is the co-founder of the Fianna Forest School on Vancouver Island, which is just such a school. We speak about story as essential to human development, for children and adults, individuals and socities. And at the end--don't skip forward...

Metaphors as spotlights on the layered, patterned nature of reality. Allegories as ecosystems of metaphors. The relationship between time, clocks and music. All this and more in this riverstone-hopping conversation with sensory-metaphor-joiner Blair Francis. You can find the music of Blair and his partner Elisa on bandcamp and youtube, on these links: https://elisaandblair.bandcamp.com/ https://ww...

Can devices that are ecologically harmful in their creation and disposal truly be called high technology? In this episode I explore fruitful relationships between human technology and the ecology within which it exists.  To be notified about upcoming creative writing and art workshops, sign up for the Story Paths mailing list here .  Trailer for Creative Writing: Brainstorming Story Ideas Link to...

Have you ever been called stupid? How about a loser? Weird? That might have been an unwitting compliment. Let's get to the bottom of these words and see what mysteries we find.  To be notified about upcoming creative writing and art workshops, sign up for the Story Paths mailing list here .  Trailer for Creative Writing: Brainstorming Story Ideas Link to the course and a free month on Skillsh...