Part one of a bumper Aesop trilogy out now for your delectation… 👇🎧

“Examine my mind, not my appearance. A doctor feels a man’s pulse, before declaring him a corpse. A jug is measured by the sweetness of the wine it contains, not by its shape. And wit resides, not in stature, but in words.”

Absolutely superb - I urge you to listen, learn and enjoy something special and sparkly… Fascinating stuff, poetically delivered… 🥳

We made Aesop. He is a crowd-sourced literary celebrity. He is the lie that sustains the truth of his stories. At a time when the distinction between fact and fiction is paper thin, how we use fiction to support facts - what we call “a narrative” - matters more than ever.

JOIN ME on Thursday evening for a political talk with an podyssey twist at the monthly online Radix Big Tent - RBT event: radixbigtent.org.uk/events/greek-t… It is FREE to register and I promise you lots and lots of fun facts + plus you can ask me any mythology-related questions afterwards!

"I have no power to injure, no wealth, no army. I am not handsome enough to tell lies and be believed." Aesop is woke, but also fake news. He is a virtue signaller, and propaganda. He is social justice, wearing populsim. A lamb in wolf's clothes. Episode II is out tomorrow.

🆕podyssey AESOP II: A dolphin and a seagull were hurling insults at each other🐬 Is truth a set of facts? Might something fake be authentic? Can you contruct a truth from lies? Why are unreliable narrators so compelling? 🎧open.spotify.com/episode/4hZ8tV… 🍏podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/ale…

Aesop -> Frasier -> Il Trovatore -> Trump -> Slavery -> Dialects -> Golden Girls -> Forrest Gump -> Velazquez -> Zulu -> Sheherazade -> Populism -> Individualism -> New Testament -> Agatha Christie -> Egalitarianism -> Mirroring -> Collective Consciousness -> Memento -> Japan...

Who doesn't love anything that starts with a dolphin and a seagull going at it? Glorious!

Very glad this dropped in time for the long dog walk!

And don't forget: there's also a new episode of Podyssey for your Sunday delectation. "Does the teller of myth exist in that liminal space? By spending so much time in that quantum where fact does not matter, by pouring so much truth into the work, some fiction splashes back?"

If you need to stop scrolling and revive, engage and tickle your brain, may I recommend this excellent podcast from ⁦Alex Andreou⁩

New:🐸 AESOP III - How to Lose a Donkey in 10 Ways 🐇What is the moral of "The Tortoise & The Hare"?🐺What's the warning of "Wolf in Sheep's Clothing"?🦊What does "sour grapes" mean? You're probably wrong about all three. 🍊 open.spotify.com/episode/5hxSG1… 🍏 podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/ale…

This is probably the episode that I would Clockwork-Orange-force every Labour politician to listen to. The amount of work that went into this 75 minutes almost killed me. I hope you get a lot of joy and insight from it. x

This podcast series by ⁦Alex Andreou⁩ is marvellous. It retells and takes apart each Greek myth, and looks at it from multiple points of view. The closeness it creates between us and Ancient Greece is only one of the excellent things about it. podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/ale…

"The Miller, His Son, and Their Donkey" A little visualised Aesop's Fable, dedicated to Starmer, Macron, Merz and politicians like them. Ancient Greece still very relevant to today's challenges. Subscribe to Alex Andreou's Podyssey podyssey today. open.spotify.com/episode/7uJb0f…

"The Miller, His Son, and Their Donkey" A visualised Aesop's Fable, dedicated to Starmer, Macron, Merz and politicians like them. Ancient Greece is still very relevant to today's challenges. Subscribe to Alex Andreou's Podyssey podyssey today. youtu.be/gDOUH3vlCog?si…

🐍MEDUSA - Here's Looking At You, Kid🪦 Before Medusa was monstrous, she was beautiful. And before she was beautiful, she was powerful. She is a riddle that defies solving, from a time before the shape of things was settled. 🍊open.spotify.com/episode/67sRzk… 🍏podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/ale…

At first I was afraid, I was petrified.... I'm genuinely astonished at how good Podyssey has been. You'd have thought that everything that could have been said about these stories since the late Iron Age, has already been said. Alex's show has other ideas.

Ever wondered what the REAL story of Medusa was..? “Here, take my sword!” “Is it special…?” “9+ against gorgons!” Explosive, hilarious and compelling dive into the arms of the most infamous monster of them all from @alexpodyssey “She turns men rock hard…” 👀