The Emerald: Currents and Trends Through a Mythic Lens

Founded in May of 2019, The Emerald podcast explores the human experience through a vibrant lens of myth, story, music, and imagination. Brought to life through the wise, wild, and humorous vision of Joshua Michael Schrei, 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.

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, philosopher Bayo Akomolafe, 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.

(Why Mindfulness Isn’t Enough)

In recent years, the practice of ‘mindfulness’ has become ubiquitous. Mindfulness has outgrown its traditional Buddhist roots and now permeates modern wellness and optimization culture, finding its way into corporate boardrooms, therapist’s toolkits, and an ever-increasing number of calmness apps.…

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Guardians and Protectors!

Practices of guardianship — invoking guardian deities, enlisting spirit help, clearing spaces of questionable energies, and establishing boundaries around ritual, communal, and personal space — are common to animate traditions across the world. In many traditions, guardianship is absolutely central...
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Let Us Sing of the Syncretic Gods of Outcasts and Wanderers

The story of human ritual and cultural tradition is one of depth and deep connection to land, to place, and to processes and protocols that remain steady across generations. But it’s also a story of constant mutation, assimilation, and re-expression.…

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On Clouds and Cosmic Law

In the modern world, words like ‘law’ and ‘order’ carry with them a good deal of sociocultural baggage, and are often associated with restriction, burden, and arbitrarily imposed rules. Yet historically, tradition after tradition sees an innate, artful order to…

Oh Justice-Cover art

Oh Justice

In times of global upheaval, ecological destruction, and societal inequity, justice can seem very far away. Justice in the modern world is often viewed as a contract, an agreement forged between human beings rather than something inherent to the natural…

For The Intuitives (Part 2)-cover art

For The Intuitives (Part 2)

Across the globe, the arrival of ‘civilization’ brought with it the persecution of the seer, the shaman, and the visionary. Why?  Perhaps it is because civilization, with its narratives of individual agency and control, its relentless emphasis on forward progress,…

For The Intuitives (Part1)-cover art

For The Intuitives (Part 1)

Across cultures and traditions, there have always been those who speak with the dead, hear voices, enter states of oracular trance, and receive visions of what is to come. Such sensitivity, traditionally, is common. It’s common to have premonitions that…

Reissue: On Trauma and Vegetation Gods-cover art

Reissue: On Trauma and Vegetation Gods

Modern discussions on healing individual minds, cultural wounds, and painful societal histories now revolve around the word ‘trauma.’ Yet addressing trauma is nothing new — traditional cultures across the globe have historically had their own forms of trauma work, without…

Inanimate Objects-cover art

 Inanimate Objects Aren’t Inanimate (Or Objects)

In the myths and fairytales, everything teems with sentience and agency… Everything is alive. There are talking trees and singing stones and hedges that move of their own will. Mirrors speak. Swords dance. There are flying carpets and far-seeing spyglasses…