The Emerald

My new favorite podcast

A friend of mine, Randall, who organizes the Men’s Rendezvous I recently went to, told us about his new favorite podcast, The Emerald. I listened to one episode and it became my favorite podcast.

I am accustomed to the discussion podcast format, two or more people talking about a topic. Joshua Michael Schrei is the host, he occasionally interviews someone, otherwise it is his creative project, supported by a number of musical artists to give it greater depth and beauty. Josh is wise beyond his years, an expert in the history and practice of mythology, and as much of a magician as any I have encountered. He is very much attempting to reanimate the world, to re-enchant the world, and he does it as well as anyone. The universe is awake and alive, Joshua knows it and speaks about it with intelligence, humor and grace.

From Apple Podcasts:

The Emerald explores the human experience through a vibrant lens of myth, story, and imagination. Brought to life through the wise, wild, and humorous vision of Joshua Michael Schrei — a teacher and lifelong student of the cosmologies and mythologies of the world — the podcast draws from a deep well of poetry, lore, and mythos to challenge conventional narratives on politics and public discourse, meditation and mindfulness, art, science, literature, and more. At the heart of the podcast is the premise that the imaginative, poetic, animate heart of human experience — elucidated by so many cultures over so many thousands of years — is missing in modern discourse and is urgently needed at a time when humanity is facing unprecedented problems. The Emerald advocates for an imaginative vision of human life and human discourse as it questions deep underlying assumptions about societal progress.

You can listen also on Spotify:

From his Patreon page:

Founded in May of 2019, The Emerald podcast explores the human experience through a vibrant lens of myth, story, and imagination.

Brought to life through the wise, wild, and humorous vision of Joshua Michael Schrei — a writer, teacher, and lifelong student of the cosmologies and mythologies of the world — The Emerald draws from a deep well of poetry, lore, and mythos to challenge conventional narratives on politics and public discourse, meditation and mindfulness, art, science, literature, and more. Schrei looks at the most salient issues of our day through a timeless prism — you’ve probably never heard the issue of gun control explored through the medium of the ancient yogic texts and Arthurian legends, or Neil DeGrasse Tyson’s assertions about science and civilization rebutted with Siberian folklore.

At the heart of the podcast is the premise that the imaginative, poetic, animate heart of human experience — elucidated by so many cultures over so many thousands of years — is missing in modern discourse and is urgently needed at a time when humanity is facing unprecedented problems. The Emerald advocates for an imaginative vision of human life and human discourse as it questions deep underlying assumptions about societal progress.

As likely to source from the Wu Tang Clan as the ancient Indian Vedas, and featuring guests such as anthropologist and award-winning author Wade Davis, award-winning author Ann Wroe, noted indigenous author Tyson Yunkaporta and more, The Emerald offers a green glint of wonder in a world that needs to be reacquainted with its own beating heart.

“Animism is normative consciousness.” How does he venture to say that? Animism is seeing consciousness, person-hood in all things, from pets to ants to stones. We have been human for something like 300,000 years. Reason and logic are a recent phenomenon, a blip in the historical record, and not even that well seeded in society. Animism is the norm, the reality, whatever our logical and reasoned experts have to say about it (if reason and logic is evolutionary superiority, why is the world so polluted and such a psychological mess?)

Stones have consciousness? Josh says it better than I do, but look at your phone. What about the metals in that phone? Everything in your phone is derived from “stone”. Silver, gold, crystal, diamond, etc conduct energy. To say that matter is dead, without consciousness, is a lack of imagination, a disconnection and separation from reality, and that disconnection and separation is self-evident throughout the culture.

So you want to be a sorcerer in the age of mythic powers? This episode is a bout AI, but it is also about the importance of initiation. The techies working on AI are working with energies they do not understand, that they do not have the power to control. They are like sorcerer’s apprentices, knowing enough to unleash power but not how to manage it or control it. Initiation is a process of discernment, to know what energy can be managed, what I am capable of and what I am not.

The rise of Artificial Intelligence has generated a rush of conversation about benefits and risks, about sentience and intelligence, and about the need for ethics and regulatory measures. Yet it may be that the only way to truly understand the implications of AI — the powers, the potential consequences, and the protocols for dealing with world-altering technologies — is to speak mythically. With the rise of AI, we are entering an era whose only corollary is the stuff of fairy tales and myths. Powers that used to be reserved for magicians and sorcerers — the power to access volumes of knowledge instantaneously, to create fully realized illusory otherworlds, to deceive, to conjure, to transport, to materialize on a massive scale — are no longer hypothetical. The age of metaphor is over. The mythic powers are real. Are human beings prepared to handle such powers?  While the AI conversation centers around regulatory laws, it may be that we also need to look deeper, to understand the chthonic drives at play. And when we do so, we see that the drive to create AI goes beyond narratives of ingenuity, progress, profit, or the creation of a more controllable, convenient world. Buried deep in this urge to tinker with animacy and sentience are core mythic drives —  the longing for mystery, the want to live again in a world of great powers beyond our control,  the longing for death, and ultimately, the unconscious longing for guidance and initiation. Traditionally, there was an initiatory process through which potentially world-altering knowledge was embodied slowly over time.  And so… what needs to be done about ‘The AI question’ might bear much more of a resemblance to the guiding principles of ancient magic and mystery schools than it does to questions of scientific ethics — because the drives at play are deeper and the consequences greater and the magic more real than it’s ever been before. Buckle up for a wild ride through myths of magic and human overreach, and all the kung fu movie and sci fi references you can handle. Featuring music by Charlotte Malin and Sidibe. Listen on a good sound system at a time when you can devote your full attention.

There is a lot of alchemical gold in The Emerald. If you are interested in a mythological perspective, in expanding your consciousness, in broadening your imagination, in strengthening your will and understanding, I highly recommend the work of Joshua Michael Schrei.