Mythic Mind Fellowship
The Gallery
Every video from Mythic Mind, Mythic Mind Movies, and Mythic Mind Games
These are the conversations of the Fellowship, hung here like pictures in a long gallery: Tolkien and Lewis, Kierkegaard and Augustine, the old northern poems, and the films and games that ask perennial questions in new ways.
Mythic Mind first aired in 2021 and the long Road of fellowship and discussion is still ahead of us. The newest episode always hangs at the front for easy viewing. Wander where your path will take you, or search for something specific below.
I hope you enjoy it, and I welcome you to join the conversation.
Andrew
183 videos8 series to read alongOn the air since 2021
Newest on the wall
Mythic Mind GamesEpisode 55
Is Choosing From a Script Still Freedom? The Stanley Parable
The Stanley Parable offers you freedom, then shows you that every path was already built for you. But a script you did not write is not necessarily a prison: meaning can be discovered rather than invented.
David Teniers the Younger, Archduke Leopold Wilhelm in His Gallery at Brussels, about 1651. Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.
Three wings
Where would you like to begin?
Books, films, and games, each with a room of its own. Every room opens onto the whole collection below.
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Jan Davidsz. de Heem, Still Life with Books, 1628. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Mythic Mind
The Library
Book clubs and read-alongs through Augustine, Tolkien, Lewis, and the Poetic Edda, one part at a time, alongside every Mythic Mind conversation.
Highlights
- Augustine’s Confessions4 parts
- The Poetic Edda7 parts
- The Lord of the Rings7 parts
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Mary Cassatt, In the Loge, 1878. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Mythic Mind Movies
The Screening Room
Mythic Mind Movies talks through films, from Peter Jackson’s Tolkien trilogy to Kurosawa, Wim Wenders, and Dead Poets Society.
Highlights
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Sofonisba Anguissola, The Chess Game, 1555. National Museum, Poznań. Mythic Mind Games
The Games Room
Mythic Mind Games talks through video games, from Final Fantasy and Skyrim to Outer Wilds and Chrono Trigger, and the stories they tell.
Highlights
- Elder Scrolls Creation Myth: Anu, Padomay, and Lorkhan's SacrificeOct 17, 2025
- Video Games and the Psyche: Agency, Anxiety, and UpbuildingSep 12, 2026
- Grief in Video GamesOct 7, 2026
- Expedition 33: Art, Grief, and Sub-CreationFeb 27, 2026
I
The Library
Book clubs and series. Start at the beginning, take up the book, and read along with us. Every part is free to watch.
Book club
Augustine’s Confessions
Our podcast book club read the Confessions together, from the restless heart and the stolen pears to the garden in Milan.
4 parts, 2025
- Books 1 and 2Restless Hearts and Stolen Pears
- Books 3 and 4Friendship, Grief, and False Lights
- Books 5 and 6From Carthage Toward Conversion
- Books 7 and 8Toward Baptism and a New Will
Book club
The Poetic Edda
The old northern poems of gods and heroes, from the world’s beginning to the fall of the Niflungs, read in the light of the true Myth.
7 parts, 2024 and 2025
- Part 1Voluspa and Havamal
- Part 2Vafthrudnir's Sayings, Grimnir's Sayings, Skirnir's Journey, and Harbard's Song
- Part 3Hymir's Poem, Loki's Quarrel, Thrym's Poem, and The Poem of Volund
- Part 4All-wise's Sayings, Helgi Hundingsbani, and Helgi Hiorvardsson
- Part 5Death of Sinfiotli, Prophecy of Gripir and Lays of Regin, Fafnir, and Sigrdrifa
- Part 6Sigurd, Brynhild's Ride to Hell, The Poem and Greenlandic Lay of Atli, and more
- Part 7The Whetting of Gudrun to the Waking of Angantyr
Read along
The Lord of the Rings
Book by book through The Lord of the Rings, from the road out of the Shire to Helm’s Deep.
7 parts, 2026
See all 7 parts
- IntroductionWith Mythic Mind
- Fellowship, Part 1The Fellowship of the Ring, Part 1: Getting on the Road
- Fellowship, Part 2The Fellowship of the Ring, Part 2: Bombadil & Ringwraiths
- Fellowship, Part 3The Fellowship of the Ring, Part 3: Many Meetings to The Bridge of Khazad-dûm
- Fellowship, Part 4The Fellowship of the Ring, Part 4: Lothlórien to The Breaking of the Fellowship
- Two Towers, Part 1The Two Towers, Pt. 1: The Departure of Boromir, King of the Golden Hall
- Two Towers, Part 2The Two Towers, Part 2: Helm's Deep and the Palantir
Read along
The Chronicles of Narnia
All seven Chronicles, with a philosophical reading of each book.
8 parts, 2025
See all 8 parts
- IntroductionIntroduction to Narnia, Books 1-3: Wardrobe, Caspian, Dawn Treader
- The Lion, the Witch and the WardrobePhilosophy of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
- Prince Caspian and the Dawn TreaderPrince Caspian & The Dawn Treader: A Philosophical Reading
- Introduction to Books 4 and 5Introduction to The Silver Chair & The Horse and His Boy
- The Silver ChairThe Silver Chair: Remembering the Signs in a Dark World
- The Horse and His BoyThe Horse and His Boy: A Philosophical Reading
- The Magician’s NephewThe Magician's Nephew: The End of Charn and the Beginning of Narnia
- The Last BattleThe Last Battle: Further Up and Further In
Read along
The Ransom Trilogy
Lewis’s three cosmic novels, with The Screwtape Letters, from Malacandra to Perelandra to the fall of Belbury.
11 parts, 2025
See all 11 parts
- Introduction to Out of the Silent PlanetIntroduction to Out of the Silent Planet: The First Cosmic Voyage
- Out of the Silent PlanetOut of the Silent Planet: Cosmic Hierarchy and Human Bentness
- Introduction to PerelandraIntroduction to Perelandra: Venus, Temptation, and Unfallen Eve
- PerelandraPerelandra: Paradise, the Un-man, and the Great Dance
- Introduction to The Screwtape LettersIntroduction to The Screwtape Letters
- The Screwtape LettersThe Screwtape Letters: Demonic Advice on Distracting the Soul
- Opening That Hideous StrengthThat Hideous Strength: Opening the Final Ransom Novel
- That Hideous Strength, Part 1That Hideous Strength, Pt. 1: Mark, Jane, and the NICE
- That Hideous Strength, Part 2That Hideous Strength, Chs. 7-11: St. Anne's Against Belbury
- That Hideous Strength, Part 3That Hideous Strength, Pt. 3: Logres Against Belbury
- BBC That Hideous StrengthBBC That Hideous Strength: What the Audio Drama Left Out
Read along
Till We Have Faces
Lewis’s last novel, Orual’s case against the gods, in an introduction and two parts.
3 parts, 2025
See all 3 parts
- IntroductionIntroduction to Till We Have Faces: Lewis's Greatest Novel
- Part OneOrual Behind the Veil
- Part TwoOrual Unveiled
Read along
The Abolition of Man
Men without chests, and what happens when we conquer nature and ourselves.
3 parts, 2025
See all 3 parts
- Moral BlindnessCharlie Kirk, Iryna Zarutska, and Moral Blindness
- Part 1Men Without Chests
- Part 2Conditioners and the Conquest of Nature
Season
Exploring the Psyche
Our fall 2026 season on the soul: anxiety, home, identity, and becoming a self.
9 parts, 2026
See all 9 parts
- Opening the seasonFall Season: Exploring the Psyche
- A Life Well LivedA Life Well Lived
- Anxiety Means You Can ChooseAnxiety Means You Can Choose
- The Importance of HomeThe Importance of Home
- Identity and Becoming a SelfIdentity and Becoming a Self
- Why Socialism Is Poison to the SoulWhy Socialism Is Poison to the Soul
- Kierkegaard on Man’s Highest PerfectionKierkegaard on Man’s Highest Perfection
- The Death of Ivan IlyichThe Death of Ivan Ilyich: Am I Guilty?
- Eschatology in ArdaEschatology in Arda: Did Middle-earth Know Its Ending?
II
The Whole Collection
Newest first. Choose a show, an author, or a series, or search by title, book, or name.
2026
Mythic Mind GamesEpisode 55
Is Choosing From a Script Still Freedom? The Stanley Parable
The Stanley Parable offers you freedom, then shows you that every path was already built for you. But a script you did not write is not necessarily a prison: meaning can be discovered rather than invented.
Mythic MindEpisode 195
Eschatology in Arda: Did Middle-earth Know Its Ending?
Did the people of Middle-earth know how their story ends? Rev. Jeffrey Wade joins Andrew Snyder and Josh to discuss his master's thesis on eschatology in Arda.
Mythic MindEpisode 194
The Death of Ivan Ilyich: Am I Guilty?
We all know we will die one day. It is another thing to consider that it is I who am going to die.
Mythic Mind GamesEpisode 54
Grief in Video Games
Video games do not merely distract from sorrow. Through time spent with characters, player agency, and participation in sub-creation, they can become a unique art form for facing grief, mortality, and what loss teaches the soul.
Mythic MindEpisode 193
Kierkegaard on Man’s Highest Perfection
We are pressed to dissolve into the mass, to wear a demographic as a self, or to win identity from whatever community we most esteem.
Mythic Mind MoviesEpisode 30
Rashomon: How the Psyche Rewrites the Truth
We tend to think that the past is fixed in memory and that our eyes simply tell us the truth. Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon shows something more unsettling: people can witness the same event and remember it differently, not only...
Mythic MindEpisode 192
Exploring the Psyche: Why Socialism Is Poison to the Soul
Socialism is often sold as justice, necessity, or the only way to win. This Exploring the Psyche episode asks a harder question: what does that bargain do to the soul?
Mythic MindEpisode 191
Exploring the Psyche: Identity and Becoming a Self
Andrew talks with licensed therapists Jeremy Kee and Tyler Finders about identity and becoming a self, freedom, recognition, and who we are becoming in the Exploring the Psyche season.
Mythic Mind MoviesEpisode 29
Dead Poets Society: Kierkegaard and the Self That Cannot Come Home
Dead Poets Society can awaken a self that has gone quiet, and still leave that self stranded between inspiration and a life it cannot inhabit.
Mythic MindEpisode 190
Exploring the Psyche: The Importance of Home
Andrew talks with licensed therapists Jeremy Kee and Tyler Finders about the value of home: roots and responsibility, the fear of committing to the wrong thing, hobbits who leave the Shire in order to save it, and C.S.
Mythic Mind GamesEpisode 52
Video Games and the Psyche: Agency, Anxiety, and Upbuilding
Video games are not only amusement. They are structured existential experiences: forks that press agency, anxiety, identity, desire, and failure on a real self, whether the world on screen is "primary" or secondary.
Mythic MindEpisode 189
Anxiety Means You Can Choose
Anxiety is usually treated as a disease to be eliminated. Medication and psychotherapy have their place, but what if, in our pursuit of so-called mental health, we are lobotomizing something essential to being human?
Mythic Mind MoviesEpisode 28
Carpe Diem Unbounded: Dead Poets Society
The romantic spirit can wake a sleeping life, give verse to the willfully mute, and make the world feel alive again.
Mythic MindEpisode 188
A Life Well Lived
Andrew discusses the good life with two clinical psychotherapists.
Mythic MindEpisode 187
Fall Season: Exploring the Psyche
Something new is happening with Mythic Mind this fall.
Course preview
The Psychology of Søren Kierkegaard: Life in Anxiety and Despair
An overview of what to expect in the upcoming Kierkegaard course.
Mythic Mind MoviesEpisode 27
The Return of the King Film Discussion
In this episode, we discuss the highs and lows of Peter Jackson's The Return of the King
Mythic MindEpisode 186
Inkwell Reading: A Review of the BBC's That Hideous Strength
C.S. Lewis's That Hideous Strength is a profound, still very underread story that provides penetrating insights into the growing forces of dehumanization that drive much of our culture.
Mythic Mind MoviesEpisode 24
Escaping the Truman Show
How do we know what is real? How do we move beyond the artificial worlds crafted by various sectors of society, the internet, and our own minds? In this episode, we discuss one of Jim Carrey's finest works: The Truman Show.
Mythic Mind GamesEpisode 49
Final Fantasy VII Remake
In this episode, we discuss the 2020 remake/reimagining/sequel of the iconic 1997 JRPG. As a fan of the original game for nearly 30 years, I enjoyed the opportunity to discuss this new take with Micah.
Mythic MindEpisode 184
English Romanticism w/ Josh Traylor
In this lecture from his "English Poems and Poets" course, classical teacher Josh Traylor provides a broad overview of literary Romanticism in 19th-century England.
Mythic Mind MoviesEpisode 25
The Fellowship of the Ring as Film and Adaptation
In this episode, we discuss the highs and lows of Peter Jackson's The Fellowship of the Ring.
Mythic Mind GamesEpisode 50
Advent Children
This is a visually engaging project with the potential for great psychological exploration. Even if that potential is mostly untapped, Advent Children is definitely worth your time if you are a fan of the franchise.
Mythic MindEpisode 185
The Mythic Mind Fellowship Is Moving!
Join me on a tour of Mythic Mind's new home, including the members' only section, which, at the time of this recording, is not yet available!
Mythic Mind MoviesEpisode 26
The Two Towers as Film and Adaptation
In this episode, we discuss the highs and lows of Peter Jackson's The Two Towers.
Mythic Mind GamesEpisode 51
Facing Fate in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
How are Final Fantasy VII Remake and Rebirth framing our relationship with fate? Is Rebirth faithful to the spirit of the original?
Mythic MindEpisode 183
What is Romanticism? w/ Josh Traylor
In this lecture from his "English Poems and Poets" course, classical teacher Josh Traylor explains what Romanticism is, what it is not, why it is ambiguous, and how to understand it as a European cultural movement of the late...
Mythic MindEpisode 182
The Two Towers, Part 2: Helm's Deep and the Palantir
Tolkien once wondered whether a film could cut Helm's Deep. In the book it still teaches how hope arrives at dawn, and how a seeing-stone can undo the unwary.
Mythic MindEpisode 181
J.R.R. Tolkien and the Long Defeat
What does the future hold? What has been let go by the past? How should we view the moving horizon?
Mythic MindEpisode 180
AI Storytelling: What Remains Properly Human
AI arguments often run tribal: every machine-made frame is "slop," or every model is just a new paintbrush. This Mythic Mind conversation slows down between those poles with a technologist and a novelist.
Mythic MindEpisode 179
The American Heritage: 250 Years of Liberty
For this special episode, Mythic Mind marks the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence and reflects on some of the things that make the United States of America exceptional on the stage of history.
Mythic MindEpisode 178
The Two Towers, Pt. 1: The Departure of Boromir, King of the Golden Hall
We are continuing our Lord of the Rings study with the Book III, Chapters 1-6.
Mythic MindEpisode 177
Tolkien's First Enduring Character: Earendil the Mariner
From Norse legend to Christian Anglo-Saxon poetry to the skies of Middle-earth, we are taking a look at Eärendil the Mariner, the first enduring character of Tolkien's legendarium.
Mythic MindEpisode 176
The Fellowship of the Ring, Part 4: Lothlórien to The Breaking of the Fellowship
We are continuing our Lord of the Rings study with the Book II, Chapters 6-10.
Mythic MindEpisode 175
Sauron and the Passing Shadow
We continue through our 2025 course on The Lord of the Rings with a focused presentation on the character of Sauron.
Mythic MindEpisode 174
The Fellowship of the Ring, Part 3: Many Meetings to The Bridge of Khazad-dûm
We are continuing our Lord of the Rings study with the Book II, Chapters 1-5.
Mythic MindEpisode 173
Tolkien, Plato, and the Ring of Gyges
We continue our Lord of the Rings study with a detour to Plato and a different ring of power.
Mythic MindEpisode 172
The Fellowship of the Ring, Part 2: Bombadil & Ringwraiths
We are continuing our Lord of the Rings study with the Book I, Chapters 6-12 (The Old Forest to Flight to the Ford).
Mythic Mind MoviesEpisode 22
Wings of Desire: An Angel Choosing the Weight of Life
Wings of Desire watches over Cold War Berlin through angels who hear every inner voice and see in black and white, until eternity itself grows hungry for flesh.
Mythic MindEpisode 171
Did Tolkien Really Hate Allegory?
Tolkien is known to despise allegory, but he is also clear that fiction, including his own, has a relationship with the primary world that can be used as a conduit for truth.
Mythic Mind GamesEpisode 48
Final Fantasy VII: Grief, Consolation, and Recovery
Final Fantasy VII is a story of grief, consolation, and recovery: Aerith's death scars the party and the player, Cloud must rebuild an identity that was never simply his, and Sephiroth stands as the nihilistic inverse of the...
Mythic MindEpisode 170
The Fellowship of the Ring, Part 1: Getting on the Road
We are continuing our Lord of the Rings study with the Prologue to Book I, Chapter 5 (A Conspiracy Unmasked).
Mythic MindEpisode 169
The Ainulindalë and the Theology of Tolkien's Legendarium
We begin our Lord of the Rings study with the beginning of Tolkien's world: the Ainulindalë, which tells of the making of Arda and the primordial fall of the devilish Melkor.
Mythic MindEpisode 168
The Lord of the Rings with Mythic Mind
In this new series of Mythic Mind, I will be providing my lessons from the exclusive Lord of the Rings study that we did in early 2025. This is a short introduction to that study.
Mythic Mind MoviesEpisode 21
Luther (2003): Vocation, Conscience, and Empire
Luther (2003) is a Reformation drama that cares less about palace intrigue than about a doctor of theology who wants consciences eased by the gospel.
Mythic MindEpisode 167
C.S. Lewis and the News: Has Science Answered the Religious Question?
Neil deGrasse Tyson told Piers Morgan that we do not need to appeal to God to answer cosmological questions because the empirical sciences have demonstrated sufficient explanatory power.
Mythic Mind GamesEpisode 47
Outer Wilds: Stories and Music at the End of the Universe
Outer Wilds asks what stories we tell and what music we make when the universe itself is ending. On the last day of everything, a 22-minute time loop forces the question: where do you find meaning in the face of mortal fate and...
Mythic MindEpisode 166
C.S. Lewis, Conspiracies, and the Power of Friendship
While it is certain that any number of things may be "really going on," it is not difficult to make the case that the modern internet-saturated culture is plagued by unhealthy conspiratorial thinking.
Mythic Mind MoviesEpisode 20
12 Angry Men: Seeing Past the Story We Prefer
12 Angry Men turns a jury room into a moral pressure chamber: prejudice always obscures the truth, and justice requires the courage to hold reasonable doubt when the easy verdict is already nodding around the table.
Mythic MindEpisode 165
C.S. Lewis on Aliens, A.I., and Personhood
We were recently promised UFO/UAE files that would fundamentally disrupt biblical Christianity. In a shocking turn, these promises were not delivered, but this was a good occasion to discuss what C.S.
Mythic Mind GamesEpisode 46
Final Fantasy Tactics and Demonic Revolutionaries
What looks like politics, and imagines itself to be political, will one day unmask itself as a religious movement. (Søren Kierkegaard)
Mythic MindEpisode 164
C.S. Lewis and the News: ICE Becomes NICE and King Charles Comes to America
In this episode of C.S. Lewis and the News, I discuss the ominous renaming of ICE to the N.I.C.E. and what our reception of King Charles reveals about our democratic ideals.
Mythic MindEpisode 163
C.S. Lewis & the News: Lewis the Conservative
In this episode, I introduce C.S. Lewis and the News, a new series (and hopefully one day new show) that examines the moving pieces of our world through the timeless writing of C.S. Lewis.
Mythic Mind MoviesEpisode 19
Freud's Last Session: C.S. Lewis as Amateur Apologist
Freud's Last Session stages a fictional meeting between Sigmund Freud and C.S. Lewis on the eve of war: faith, pain, wish-fulfillment, and two stubborn minds.
Mythic Mind GamesEpisode 45
Why Video Games Repay Philosophical Attention
Outer Wilds had to wait. Nearly a year into Mythic Mind Games, Dr. Andrew Snyder instead looks back: why he set video games aside, what recovered his appetite for fiction, and why games now repay philosophical attention.
Mythic MindEpisode 160
Augustine on Time, Eternity, and Freedom
As we continue through the Boethius section of "Life, Death, and Meaning with Beowulf and Boethius," we take a look at Augustine's understanding of time, eternity, and freedom.
Mythic Mind MoviesEpisode 18
The Princess Bride: Fairy Stories Taken Seriously
The Princess Bride is a spoof that still takes fairy stories seriously. Under the fencing, giants, and quotable wit sits a framed tale about true love, vengeance, and how comedy can lift a genre without hollowing it out.
Mythic Mind GamesEpisode 44
Chrono Trigger: Time Travel, Lavos, and Childlike Wonder
Chrono Trigger is the SNES all-star package: Toriyama's designs, Mitsuda's melodies, and a time-travel story that still hits with childlike wonder.
Mythic MindEpisode 156
Tolkien & Athanasius: Arda Healed, not Arda Unmarred
Mythic Mind contributor Jack Keoseyan recently wrote an article titled "Arda Healed, not Arda Unmarred," in which he discusses Tolkien's Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth with reference to Athanasius, the great Church Father and...
Mythic Mind MoviesEpisode 17
Persuasion (1995): Constancy, Second Chances, and C.S. Lewis on Austen
The 1995 Persuasion is not only an Austen adaptation. It is a study of constancy under pressure: how persuasion, prudence, and regret shape a life, and how a second chance can restore what was lost without erasing what was...
Mythic Mind GamesEpisode 43
Red Dead Redemption: Honor, Vengeance & John Marston
Red Dead Redemption (the original) is a focused modernist tragedy: John Marston's shorter path toward an honest life, Jack's vengeance epilogue, and a Nordic-feeling cycle of violence where self-destructive behavior leads to...
Mythic Mind MoviesEpisode 16
Godzilla Minus One: The Life Worth Living
Godzilla Minus One wears a monster's skin to tell a story of shame: a failed kamikaze, survival guilt, and the slow work of learning what a life is worth living for.
Mythic Mind GamesEpisode 42
Forgotten City: Truth, Ethics, and Religion
David and Andrew dig into The Forgotten City beyond the first-pass Golden Rule underworld: ethics, truth, and whether religious claims can be real when the game's "god" is only a superhuman power play. Spoilers for the full game.
Mythic Mind MoviesEpisode 15
Princess Mononoke: Ashitaka Between Forest and Forge
Princess Mononoke is not a simple "nature good, people bad" fable. Ashitaka walks between forest gods and Iron Town with a death curse on him, trying to see with eyes unclouded by hate while San and Lady Eboshi pull the world...
Mythic MindEpisode 146
Introduction to Boethius & Medieval Cosmology
As we continue through "Life, Death, and Meaning with Beowulf and Boethius," we enter into the Boethius sub-unit with an introduction to The Consolation of Philosophy and medieval cosmology.
Mythic Mind GamesEpisode 41
Expedition 33: Art, Grief, and Sub-Creation
In this Mythic Mind Games conversation, the Fellowship takes up Clair Obscur: Expedition 33: the artistic value of video games and of this game in particular, where it directs its players, and which ending might be called the...
Mythic Mind GamesEpisode 40
Skyrim DLC Chat: Dawnguard, Dragonborn, Vampires, Miraak
Skyrim's Dawnguard pits rebuilt vampire hunters against Harkon's Volkihar clan and the Tyranny of the Sun, while Dragonborn sends you to Solstheim against Miraak: All-Maker thralls, Apocrypha's Black Books, and Hermaeus Mora's...
Mythic Mind GamesEpisode 39
The Story of Skyrim: Dawnguard, Vampires, and Tyranny of the Sun
Skyrim's Dawnguard pits rebuilt vampire hunters against Lord Harkon's Volkihar clan and the Tyranny of the Sun: a prophecy to blot out daylight forever.
Mythic Mind GamesEpisode 39
The Story of Skyrim: Dragonborn, Miraak, and Solstheim
Skyrim's Dragonborn sends you to ash-choked Solstheim after Miraak's cultists brand you a false prophet. All-Maker stones enslave the Skaal; Black Books open Apocrypha; Hermaeus Mora bargains as the first Dragonborn steals souls...
Mythic MindEpisode 142
Beowulf, Baldur, and Christ: Myth Became Fact
Baldur the Beautiful dies by mistletoe, waits in Hel, and is promised return after Ragnarok. Beowulf remembers a brother-slaying that looks a lot like Hod and Baldur. What do those northern stories have to do with Christ?
Mythic Mind GamesEpisode 38
Skyrim Chat: Civil War, Dragonborn, Talos, Northern Mythos
Skyrim's base game puts a prisoner on the path of the Dragonborn amid Imperial-Stormcloak civil war: Talos worship under Thalmor pressure, Greybeards and Blades, prophecy against Alduin, and a Nord homeland steeped in northern...
Mythic Mind GamesEpisode 37
Oblivion's Shivering Isles: Mantling Sheogorath and Walking Like a God
In Oblivion's Shivering Isles, mantling Sheogorath means walking like the Mad God until you become him. The Champion of Cyrodiil lives Sheogorath's steps, scripts, and contingency plan, then takes the vacant throne when the...
Mythic Mind GamesEpisode 36
Skyrim and the Northern Mythos: Dragon, Doom, and Northern Courage
Skyrim's Nords draw deep from the northern mythos: Alduin as world-ending dragon beside Ragnarok, Sovngarde as Shor's Hall of Valor beside Valhalla, and Nord courage that stands against fate the way Beowulf's mead-hall circle of...
Mythic Mind GamesEpisode 35
The Story of Skyrim: Dragonborn, Civil War, and Destiny
Skyrim's main story follows the Dragonborn from a Helgen execution amid Imperial-Stormcloak civil war to a prophesied stand against Alduin the World-Eater.
Mythic MindEpisode 135
Silmarillion Course Overview
Starting in February of 2026, I will be leading an 8-week study on The Silmarillion. This course will include:
Mythic Mind GamesEpisode 34
Oblivion's Sheogorath and Kierkegaard's Sickness unto Death
Oblivion's Shivering Isles splits madness into Mania and Dementia. Kierkegaard's The Sickness unto Death names those poles as despair of infinitude and despair of finitude, then diagnoses Sheogorath's defiance as the self that...
Mythic Mind GamesEpisode 33
The Story of Oblivion: Shivering Isles, Sheogorath, and the Greymarch
Oblivion's Shivering Isles is Sheogorath's realm of Mania and Dementia: Bliss and Crucible, the Gatekeeper, and a court of madness that commissions a mortal champion. The Greymarch reveals the secret.
Mythic MindEpisode 133
J.R.R. Tolkien's The Monsters and the Critics
We are continuing through the Life, Death, and Meaning with Beowulf and Boethius course that I led in the Fall of 2024 with Tolkien's essay, "The Monsters and the Critics," in which he argues that Beowulf is best approached as...
Mythic Mind GamesEpisode 32
Clair Obscur’s Score Needs Context, Not Just Theory
Ben Shapiro critiqued clips from the Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 soundtrack from the standpoint of music theory. This episode answers that critique by putting the score back in its dramatic context.
Mythic Mind GamesEpisode 31
Oblivion Chat: Martin Septim, Oblivion Crisis, Mehrunes Dagon
Oblivion's base game puts a prisoner beside Martin Septim as the Oblivion Crisis breaks: Uriel dead, the Amulet of Kings lost, Mythic Dawn gates opening, and Mehrunes Dagon pressing Cyrodiil toward chaos.
Mythic Mind GamesEpisode 30
Oblivion and the Knight of Faith
In this lecture, originally made for the Elder Scrolls & Philosophy study, Dr. Andrew Snyder reads The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion alongside Søren Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling.
Mythic Mind GamesEpisode 29
The Story of Oblivion: Martin, Mehrunes Dagon, and the Amulet of Kings
Oblivion's main story runs from an Imperial prison cell to the Temple of the One: Uriel Septim's dreams, the Amulet of Kings, Martin at Kvatch, and Mehrunes Dagon's bid to swallow Tamriel.
2025
Mythic Mind MoviesEpisode 14
Star Wars Holiday Special: Suffering as Fellowship
The Star Wars Holiday Special closes the Mythic Mind Movies Star Wars run as an ordeal of sincerity: so earnestly made that it becomes something to endure together. Fellowship is the point; Life Day is the excuse.
Mythic Mind GamesEpisode 27
Fallout Prime Conversation: Lucy, Ghoul, Vault Conspiracy
Fallout on Amazon Prime Season 1 follows Lucy out of the Vault into the wasteland beside the Ghoul (Cooper Howard) and Brotherhood squire Maximus: Vault 31-33 conspiracy, Vault-Tec's long game, Shady Sands and NCR scars, and...
Mythic MindEpisode 125
The Last Battle: Further Up and Further In
Tashlan is unmasked. The stable door opens onto the real Narnia, and Lewis ends the Chronicles with judgment, joy, and the hard knot often called "the problem of Susan." This class lecture from The Fiction and Philosophy of C.S.
Mythic Mind GamesEpisode 26
Fallout 4: Sandbox Freedom vs RPG Meaning
In this episode Fallout 4 is read as a rich sandbox (explore, build, customize weapons and settlements) that underfeeds RPG meaning: synth personhood, faction ethics, and dialogue choice are poked more than argued, so freedom to...
Mythic MindEpisode 124
The Magician's Nephew: The End of Charn and the Beginning of Narnia
Before the wardrobe, Digory rings a bell in a dead world and wakes Jadis; then Aslan sings Narnia into being. This class lecture from The Fiction and Philosophy of C.S.
Mythic Mind GamesEpisode 25
Forgotten City: Golden Rule, Time Loop, Underworld Justice
The Forgotten City stages philosophy as play: a Golden Rule so extreme that one sin golden-statues the whole city, an underworld stacked Roman over Greek over Egyptian over Sumerian, and a time-loop confrontation with...
Mythic Mind GamesEpisode 24
Fallout New Vegas: House, NCR, Legion, and Legitimacy
Fallout: New Vegas stages four claims to rule the Mojave: Mr. House's technocratic Strip, the NCR's stretched republic, Caesar's Legion's terror-order, and Yes Man independence.
Mythic MindEpisode 123
The Horse and His Boy: A Philosophical Reading
Shasta runs north not knowing he is Cor; Aravis flees Calormen; Bree and Hwin argue about freedom and courage; and Aslan has been the cat, the lion, and the voice along the road the whole time.
Mythic MindEpisode 122
The Silver Chair: Remembering the Signs in a Dark World
Jill cries behind the gym on a dull autumn day, and Lewis refuses a mere school story. The Silver Chair sends her and Eustace under the earth with four signs to remember, an enchanted prince to free, and a witch who prefers soft...
Mythic MindEpisode 121
Introduction to The Silver Chair & The Horse and His Boy
A short class introduction framing two middle Chronicles at once: The Silver Chair's underworld of signs and enchantment, and The Horse and His Boy's Calormene roads of identity and providence.
Mythic Mind GamesEpisode 23
Fallout 1-3: Vaults, Mutants, and Civilization's Collapse
Fallout 1 through 3 open the Mythic Mind Games Fallout series: Vault life, the Master and the mutant threat, Brotherhood and Enclave power, and the franchise tagline that war never changes.
Mythic MindEpisode 120
Prince Caspian & The Dawn Treader: A Philosophical Reading
A double feature from The Fiction and Philosophy of C.S. Lewis: Prince Caspian recovers Old Narnia (Aslan dances, trees wake, Bacchus rides only safely with the Lion), and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader turns longing seaward...
Mythic Mind MoviesEpisode 13
Solo: How a Scoundrel Learns His Name
Solo is Andrew's favorite Star Wars story that does not chase grand archetypes: a fun heist-origin that still works like a Life Day Carol, walking Han through past, present, and the making of a scoundrel's name.
Mythic Mind GamesEpisode 28
Morrowind Bloodmoon & Tribunal Chat: Solstheim, Werewolves, Mournhold
Bloodmoon takes the Nerevarine to Solstheim: East Empire Company chaos, Skaal faith in the All-Maker, and Hircine's werewolf hunt under the Bloodmoon.
Mythic MindEpisode 119
Philosophy of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
A philosophical pass through The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe: Deep Magic and Deeper Magic, the Stone Table, and the way Lewis wakes desire toward Aslan rather than mere escape.
Mythic Mind GamesEpisode 21
Final Fantasy VI and the Will to Meaning
Final Fantasy VI asks whether a will to meaning can stand against nihilism after the world is ruined. Kefka embodies a self-deifying will to power (Nietzsche's "create your own values"), while the ensemble must face despair...
Mythic Mind GamesEpisode 22
Morrowind Tribunal: Almalexia and the Fall of False Gods
After Dagoth Ur and the Heart of Lorkhan, Morrowind's capital still burns with crisis. Almalexia has lost her source of divinity: without the Heart she is nothing unless they believe she is everything.
Mythic MindEpisode 118
Introduction to Narnia, Books 1-3: Wardrobe, Caspian, Dawn Treader
Narnia may be written for children, but it is still Lewis doing the writing. This introduction opens the first three Chronicles as fairy stories dense enough for grown minds: Wardrobe, Caspian, and Dawn Treader in publication...
Mythic Mind GamesEpisode 22
Morrowind Bloodmoon: Hircine, Werewolves, and the Hunt
Morrowind's Bloodmoon takes the Nerevarine to Solstheim: East Empire Company chaos, Skaal faith in the All-Maker, and Hircine's werewolf hunt under the Bloodmoon.
Mythic Mind MoviesEpisode 12
Rogue One: Heroic Defiance and Sacrificial Courage
Rogue One is the Star Wars story that refuses a free hope: every named face dies so the Death Star plans can live.
Mythic Mind GamesEpisode 20
Vivec’s Lessons: Morrowind’s Manifesto of Postmodern Heroism
As part of the Elder Scrolls and Philosophy study, Dr. Andrew Snyder frames Morrowind's 36 Lessons of Vivec as a manifesto of postmodern heroism.
Mythic MindEpisode 117
The Great Divorce: Heaven, Hell, and the Choice That Divides
A bus leaves a grey town that may be hell, and thin ghosts step onto the solid outskirts of heaven. C.S. Lewis's The Great Divorce is a dream-vision about the choice that divides: heaven or hell, reality or the self we refuse to...
Mythic Mind GamesEpisode 19
Morrowind Philosophy Chat: Vivec, Tribunal, Lorkhan's Heart
Morrowind's main quest puts an Outlander on the path of the Nerevarine: Azura's prophecy, the Sixth House under Red Mountain, the living-god Tribunal, and Vivec's uneasy counsel after the Heart of Lorkhan.
Mythic MindEpisode 116
Myth Became Fact: The Incarnation as True Myth
Lewis's "Myth Became Fact" argues that Christianity does not abolish myth. It fulfills it: the dying god becomes historical fact in the Incarnation, and the old longings of pagan story find their home in a particular time and...
Mythic Mind GamesEpisode 18
The Story of Morrowind: Nerevarine, Fate, and the Hortator
Morrowind's main story runs from Lorkhan's Heart under Red Mountain to an Outlander who may be Nerevar reborn. Prophecy, Hortator legitimacy before the great houses, Tribunal betrayal, and Dagoth Ur's offer at the Heart: refuse a...
Mythic Mind MoviesEpisode 11
The Rise of Skywalker: Power That Consumes Itself
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is the sequel trilogy’s attempt to land the plane: Palpatine returns, Rey faces a heritage she did not choose, and “somehow” becomes a question about power, resurrection, and whether evil can...
Mythic MindEpisode 115
Till We Have Faces, Part Two: Orual Unveiled
Book Two of Till We Have Faces turns Orual's case against the gods inside out. Dreams, digging, and judgment strip the veil she wore for a lifetime until the complaint itself becomes confession.
Mythic Mind GamesEpisode 17
Elder Scrolls Creation Myth: Anu, Padomay, and Lorkhan's Sacrifice
The Elder Scrolls creation myth begins with Anu and Padomay (order and chaos, form and void) and cascades through emanation, limitation, and the costly making of Mundus.
Mythic Mind GamesEpisode 16
Final Fantasy V: Job System, Friendship, and Fun
Final Fantasy V is the series' playful job-system peak and a transition nexus in the early crystal era. Where Final Fantasy I locked a class and III let you switch, V lets you mix and match skills across jobs until Freelancer...
Mythic MindEpisode 114
Till We Have Faces, Part One: Orual Behind the Veil
Orual writes her case against the gods with a veiled face and a jealous love. Till We Have Faces, Book One, is Lewis's retelling of Cupid and Psyche as a story about the self we hide and the truth we cannot yet bear.
Mythic Mind GamesEpisode 15
Elder Scrolls Cosmogony Told: Anu, Padomay, and the Making of Mundus
Based on in-game texts, Dr. Andrew Snyder presents the Elder Scrolls creation myth: Anu and Padomay, emanation, Lorkhan, and the making of Mundus.
Mythic MindEpisode 113
Introduction to Till We Have Faces: Lewis's Greatest Novel
Lewis thought Till We Have Faces was his best novel. Critics shrugged; readers still finish Book One standing at the edge of a mystery.
Mythic Mind MoviesEpisode 10
The Last Jedi: Burning the Map of Meaning
The Last Jedi is the sequel that most openly refuses the old story's grain: "kill the past," sacred texts put to the fire, Luke as a legend who will not play the part fans brought him back to play.
Mythic Mind GamesEpisode 14
Final Fantasy IV and Cecil's Dark Knight Redemption
Final Fantasy IV is the series' storytelling leap: the first entry with a fully meaningful character-driven narrative.
Mythic MindEpisode 112
The Abolition of Man, Part 2: Conditioners and the Conquest of Nature
Lewis's third essay names the endgame: when "man's conquest of nature" becomes a few conditioners remaking everyone else, humanity abolishes itself. Power without the Tao is not progress.
Mythic Mind MoviesEpisode 9
The Force Awakens: Hope Thinned to an Echo
The Force Awakens reopens the saga as a distant echo: new faces walking an old myth's corridors. For Andrew it barely sticks in memory (a nostalgia grab with promise in Finn that never quite blooms); for others the question is...
Mythic MindEpisode 111
The Abolition of Man, Part 1: Men Without Chests
C.S. Lewis opens The Abolition of Man with a schoolbook that teaches students to distrust their own loves. The result, he warns, is men without chests: intellect and appetite with no trained heart between them.
Mythic MindEpisode 110
The Abolition of Man: Charlie Kirk, Iryna Zarutska, and Moral Blindness
Two murders hit the feed in a way we were never meant to watch: Iryna Zarutska on a Charlotte train, then Charlie Kirk. Grief, rage, and online celebration of evil followed. Dr.
Mythic Mind GamesEpisode 13
Final Fantasy I-III: Order, Chaos, and Early Storytelling
Final Fantasy I, II, and III are the franchise's early laboratory: light on character drama by later standards, yet already advancing title by title in storytelling and systems.
Mythic MindEpisode 109
That Hideous Strength, Pt. 3: Logres Against Belbury
The last chapters of That Hideous Strength throw Mark into Belbury's prison of ideas, wake Merlin as the reverse of NICE, and open the war between Logres and the bent world.
Mythic Mind MoviesEpisode 8
War of the Rohirrim: The Lord of the Rings Anime
When the appendices leave a short winter war, how do you film a legend without breaking the lore? The War of the Rohirrim turns Rohan's deep past into anime spectacle, centering Héra while Helm Hammerhand's name still waits to...
Mythic MindEpisode 108
That Hideous Strength, Chs. 7-11: St. Anne's Against Belbury
Chapters 7-11 of That Hideous Strength force the fork: Jane finds St. Anne's and begins to learn obedience in love, while Mark sinks deeper into Belbury's hollow inside. Two households, two cities, one marriage under judgment.
Mythic Mind GamesEpisode 12
Why Final Fantasy Endures: Wonder, Themes, and Philosophy
Final Fantasy has nearly four decades of staying power because its JRPG stories keep doing something real: literary themes, a sense of wonder, and a franchise that reinvents itself while still resonating.
Mythic MindEpisode 107
That Hideous Strength, Pt. 1: Mark, Jane, and the NICE
Preface through Chapter 6: Mark Studdock is recruited into the NICE, Jane begins to dream, and their marriage frays as Belbury's soft totalitarianism starts to look like ordinary careerism.
Mythic Mind MoviesEpisode 7
Revenge of the Sith: The Fallout of Disordered Loves
Revenge of the Sith is the prequel where the good do not win. Anakin's loves (Padme, power enough to keep her, the Order that will not hold him) fall out of right order; Palpatine pulls the lever; Order 66 falls; Mustafar...
Mythic MindEpisode 106
That Hideous Strength: Opening the Final Ransom Novel
Lewis called That Hideous Strength a fairy-tale for grown-ups, and it feels nothing like Out of the Silent Planet or Perelandra. The last Ransom novel drops from deep heaven onto England: Belbury's technocratic evil, St.
Mythic Mind GamesEpisode 11
Mass Effect 3: Shepard, Reapers, and the Controversial Ending
Mass Effect 3 closes the trilogy under Reaper invasion: genophage and Quarian-Geth reckonings, war readiness, and the infamous ending choice of Destroy, Control, or Synthesis.
Mythic MindEpisode 105
The Screwtape Letters: Demonic Advice on Distracting the Soul
Lewis's Screwtape Letters turn temptation into correspondence: a senior devil coaches a junior tempter on how to spoil an ordinary soul.
Mythic Mind MoviesEpisode 6
Attack of the Clones: When Attachment Becomes Fate
Attack of the Clones is where Anakin's early steps toward the dark side take on the shape of love. Forbidden attachment ripens into fear of loss; a vow over his mother's grave; violence that will not stay buried.
Mythic MindEpisode 104
Introduction to The Screwtape Letters
Did you know that Lewis once began an angelic companion to The Screwtape Letters?
Mythic Mind GamesEpisode 10
Are Video Games a Waste of Time? Art and Upbuilding Value
Are video games just a waste of time, or can they carry real artistic and upbuilding value? Dr. Andrew Snyder is joined by Master Samwise and Josh Traylor for an early Mythic Mind Games conversation on games as art, story, and...
Mythic MindEpisode 103
Perelandra: Paradise, the Un-man, and the Great Dance
Ransom is shot from Malacandra to the wave-world of Venus: floating islands, an unfallen Lady, the Un-man, and a temptation to seize the Fixed Land instead of receiving the gift.
Mythic Mind MoviesEpisode 5
The Phantom Menace: Where the Republic Learns to Rot
The Phantom Menace opens the prequels where Star Wars suddenly has real politics: Trade Federation blockade, Senate theater, and a child marked by prophecy.
Mythic MindEpisode 102
Augustine's Confessions, Books 7-8: Toward Baptism and a New Will
Books 7 and 8 bring Augustine to the edge of conversion: Neoplatonic light that still cannot save, the bondage of a divided will, and the garden where "take and read" finally breaks the deadlock.
Mythic Mind GamesEpisode 9
Mass Effect 2: Shepard’s Resurrection and the Question of the Soul
Andrew Snyder, David Rutledge, Kit Callis, Ian Miller, and guests Megan Maldonado and Michael Kane discuss Mass Effect 2 in this Mythic Mind Games conversation.
Mythic MindEpisode 101
Introduction to Perelandra: Venus, Temptation, and Unfallen Eve
Before Ransom lands on Venus, Lewis wants you oriented: desire as echo, glory as telos, and a story driven by the end it aims at rather than by plot twists alone.
Mythic Mind GamesEpisode 8
Mass Effect 1: Shepard, the Geth, and Dangerous AI
Mass Effect 1 opens the trilogy with Spectre politics and a Citadel ban on AI research. Shepard faces the Geth, Sovereign's false name, and Paragon/Renegade choices that refuse cartoon good-vs-evil.
Mythic MindEpisode 100
The Stories That Enchant Us: Myth, Meaning, and Formation
For Mythic Mind's 100th episode, author and teacher Aaron Bair asks what fairy-story enchanted you young and still shapes who you are.
Mythic Mind GamesEpisode 7
Legend of Zelda: Mythopoeia, Tolkien, and the Triforce
The Legend of Zelda can feel like playing Tolkien: home, adventure, and a return that leaves you looking at the primary world differently. What if that is mythopoeia, not nostalgia?
Mythic MindEpisode 99
Out of the Silent Planet: Cosmic Hierarchy and Human Bentness
Ransom is kidnapped into the heavens and discovers that Earth is the silent planet: bent, cut off, and haunted by a cosmology modernity forgot how to see.
Mythic Mind GamesEpisode 6
Legend of Zelda: Triforce Virtues and the Cyclical Hero
The Legend of Zelda keeps returning because it works like a modern mythology: a public dream of courage, destiny, and a hero who rises again whenever darkness returns.
Mythic Mind MoviesEpisode 3
Return of the Jedi: Luke Rescues his Father from the Underworld
Return of the Jedi completes the original trilogy's descent-and-return pattern: after Empire's underworld turn, Luke goes into the dark to bring his father back, facing the Emperor while Vader chooses mercy over the machine of...
Mythic Mind
Tolkien's Mad Hobby that Spawned Middle-earth
In this freebie episode, I discuss a 1916 letter to Edith Bratt in which Tolkien mentions his "mad hobby" that would one day lead to the creation of Middle-earth.
Mythic MindEpisode 98
Augustine's Confessions 5-6: From Carthage Toward Conversion
Books 5 and 6 move Augustine from Carthage toward Milan: rhetoric as career, Manichaean disappointment, Ambrose on the horizon, and Monica's tears that will not let him go. The restless heart is still traveling.
Mythic Mind GamesEpisode 5
Red Dead Redemption 2: Honor, Loyalty & Arthur's Redemption
Red Dead Redemption 2 is a story about honor and redemption under Dutch van der Linde's noble lie of freedom. Arthur Morgan, raised in the Van der Linde gang, prizes loyalty until tuberculosis forces him to see through Dutch...
Mythic MindEpisode 97
Introduction to Out of the Silent Planet: The First Cosmic Voyage
The door into Lewis's so-called Space Trilogy: why Out of the Silent Planet begins the Ransom series, what to expect from the course arc, and how to enter that first cosmic voyage without treating the novel as mere pulp adventure.
Mythic Mind MoviesEpisode 2
The Empire Strikes Back: Luke's Underworld Descent
The Empire Strikes Back is where Star Wars stops being only a victory story and becomes a descent: Luke's training in a murky underworld, Vader in full flower, and a father-revelation that reorders everything the first film...
Mythic Mind GamesEpisode 4
Red Dead Redemption 2: Arthur Morgan, Ivan Ilyich & Memento Mori
Red Dead Redemption 2's Arthur Morgan and Tolstoy's Ivan Ilyich both teach memento mori: facing death can renew how you live.
Mythic MindEpisode 95
Star Wars: A New Hope as Myth and Modern Fairy Tale
Episode IV draws on fairy tale: farm boy, empire, mentors, and a Force that asks whether you turn toward reality or into the shadow. Dr.
Mythic Mind GamesEpisode 3
SWTOR: Jedi, Sith, and the Moral Nature of MMO Gameplay
Star Wars: The Old Republic (SWTOR) closes the Old Republic mini-series: eight fully voiced Jedi and Sith class stories, companions who question your choices, and a Force war where light and dark play collide with politics...
Mythic Mind MoviesEpisode 1
Introduction: Christian Humanities and the Movies
Mythic Mind Movies begins here: a Christian humanities show for film (and, when it fits, television), splintered from the main Mythic Mind podcast so series can breathe without crowding literature, games, and everything else into...
Mythic MindEpisode 94
Why the Christian Humanities Matter
In this episode, Dr. Andrew Snyder takes a break from the current series to give an update on Mythic Mind and to discuss briefly why the Christian humanities matter.
Mythic MindEpisode 93
Knights of the Old Republic: Choice, Jolee, and the Light
Knights of the Old Republic lets the player live in the galaxy through moral choice, companions, and relationships that change the fate of worlds.
Mythic Mind GamesEpisode 2
KOTOR II: Kreia, the Exile, and Killing the Force
Andrew, Josh, and Ian continue the Old Republic mini-series with Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords.
Mythic Mind GamesEpisode 1
Video Games as Fairy-Stories: Tolkien and Subcreation
Can video games be more than empty amusement? Tolkien's On Fairy-Stories suggests they can: as secondary worlds of subcreation where escape, recovery, and a return to the primary world are possible.
Mythic MindEpisode 92
Augustine's Confessions, Pt. 2: Friendship, Grief, and False Lights
Books 3 and 4 of the Confessions follow Augustine into Carthage: theater that feeds tears without mercy, Cicero that awakens a hunger for wisdom, and a friendship whose death exposes how hollow his loves still are.
Mythic MindEpisode 91
Introductory Latin with Hannah Gilmore: Why the Dead Language Lives
Hannah Gilmore opens Mythic Mind Introductory Latin with the course vision and the first grammar lesson: inflection, nouns, and the nominative subject.
Mythic MindEpisode 90
A Brief History of Ideas: Mapping the Philosophical Story
Philosophy means love of wisdom, not a pile of disconnected theories. This Mythic Mind course intro maps a brief history of ideas from Athens toward the present: how thought shapes habit, appetite, and the kind of people we...
Mythic MindEpisode 89
Josh Traylor on Paradise Lost: Entering Milton's Epic
Josh Traylor opens Paradise Lost as England's great Christian epic: cosmic war, the Fall, freedom and glory, and Adam learning hope after Eden.
Mythic MindEpisode 88
Lewis, Star Wars, and Postmodern Storytelling (feat. Spencer Askew)
How do you keep your feet on the real while a culture prefers the shadow? Dr. Andrew Snyder (professor of philosophy and theology) talks with Spencer Askew about C.S.
Mythic MindEpisode 87
Star Wars Livestream: Why These Stories Still Hold Us
A Mythic Mind Fellowship livestream kicking off the Star Wars journey: myth and fandom, the original films, Knights of the Old Republic ahead, and why these stories still hold us.
Mythic MindEpisode 86
Augustine's Confessions, Books 1 and 2: Restless Hearts and Stolen Pears
Augustine opens the Confessions with a restless heart and a sixteen-year-old's theft of pears: desire, memory, and the first turns of a soul toward (and away from) God.
Mythic Mind
The Poetic Edda: The Whetting of Gudrun to the Waking of Angantyr
We finish the Edda with the last heroic poems, Gudrun urging her sons to revenge and Hamdir's doomed ride, and then range through the poems gathered at the end of the collection: Odin riding to learn why Baldr dreams of death...
Mythic MindEpisode 82
BBC That Hideous Strength: What the Audio Drama Left Out
The BBC's audio drama of That Hideous Strength looked like a gift to Lewis readers. Listening closely, the production often leaves behind the fairy tale Lewis said he was telling, including the academic "progressive element" that...
Mythic Mind
The Poetic Edda: Sigurd, Brynhild's Ride to Hell, The Poem and Greenlandic Lay of Atli, and more
After Sigurd's death the story darkens. Brynhild rides to Hel to tell her side of it, the Niflungs fall at Atli's court, and Gudrun, Oddrun, and the two Atli poems carry grief and vengeance to their bitter end.
Mythic MindEpisode 80
Tolkien, Sub-Creation, and the Case for Video Games
Are video games only a waste of time, or can they share in what Tolkien called sub-creation? Dr. Andrew Snyder (professor of philosophy and theology) reads his essay "Video Games as Sub-Creation" and rethinks an old prejudice...
Mythic MindEpisode 78
The Art of Video Games: Craft Worth Taking Seriously
Video games as a medium: enchantment, craft, story, and whether play can expand the imagination the way literature does. Dr.
Mythic MindEpisode 77
The Future of Mythic Mind: Building the Fellowship's Next Chapter
Where Mythic Mind has been, and where it could go if the fellowship were fully funded: podcasts, Discord, independent courses outside institutional tuition, and a long dream of shared study in Lewis, Tolkien, myth, and philosophy.
Mythic Mind
The Poetic Edda: Death of Sinfiotli, Prophecy of Gripir and Lays of Regin, Fafnir, and Sigrdrifa
Here the Sigurd story begins in earnest: Sinfiotli's death, Gripir's foretelling of Sigurd's whole life, the cursed gold of Andvari, the slaying of the dragon Fafnir, and the valkyrie Sigrdrifa's counsel to the young hero.
Mythic MindEpisode 75
Tolkien's Long Defeat: Northern Courage and Christian Hope
Tolkien did not expect history to be anything but a long defeat, though it may contain glimpses of final Victory.
Mythic MindEpisode 96
It's All in Plato: The World of C.S. Lewis
With an added introduction, this is the first lesson in my "Fiction & Philosophy of C.S. Lewis" course, which is now being released to the public podcast.
Mythic MindEpisode 72
Sauron and the Passing Shadow
This look at the rise and fall of Sauron provides a sense of the general direction of my book-in-progress: Divine Honor in The Lord of the Rings.
Mythic Mind
The Poetic Edda: All-wise's Sayings, Helgi Hundingsbani, and Helgi Hiorvardsson
Thor keeps a dwarf talking until the sunrise turns him to stone, and then the Edda turns from the gods to the heroes: Helgi, the valkyries Sigrun and Svava, and the dead Helgi's strange return from his grave mound.
2024
Mythic Mind
The Poetic Edda: Hymir's Poem, Loki's Quarrel, Thrym's Poem, and The Poem of Volund
Thor goes fishing for the World Serpent and carries home a giant's cauldron, Loki insults every god at Aegir's feast, Thor dresses as a bride to win back his stolen hammer, and the smith Volund takes a terrible revenge on the...
Mythic MindEpisode 65
Legacy and the Hero's Journey feat Chris Jackson
Dr. Andrew Snyder talks with Chris Jackson about his recently written book on legacy and the hero's journey.
Mythic MindEpisode 64
Middle-earth Mixer: What Makes Tolkien Great
What still makes Tolkien great when the fandom and the academy keep trying to remake him? In this conversation, the Middle-earth Mixer joins Mythic Mind for a candid talk about wonder, ideology, and belonging in Middle-earth.
Mythic MindEpisode 62
A Joyful Outpost of Christian Household Life (feat. Aaron Bair)
Aaron Bair's A Joyful Outpost reads the Beavers' lodge in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe as a vision of household economy: warmth against winter, table fellowship, and a home that still knows its calling.
Mythic Mind
The Poetic Edda: Vafthrudnir's Sayings, Grimnir's Sayings, Skirnir's Journey, and Harbard's Song
Odin wagers his head in a contest of lore with a giant, sits between two fires and reveals the shape of the nine worlds, sends a servant to win a bride for Freyr, and trades insults with Thor across a ferry crossing.
Mythic MindEpisode 66
The Poetic Edda: Voluspa and Havamal
We open the Edda with the seeress’s vision of the world’s beginning and its end in Völuspá, and then the hard-won wisdom of Odin’s sayings in Hávamál.
2023
Mythic MindEpisode 36
On Fairy-Stories: Subcreation, Escape, and Consolation
Tolkien's "On Fairy-Stories" is the essay that radicalizes how many of us think about fantasy: not childish escape, but recovery, consolation, and the making of secondary worlds.
Mythic MindEpisode 35
Leaf by Niggle: The Little Painter and the Great Tree
Leaf by Niggle is Tolkien's quiet parable of making: a little painter who never finishes his tree, a neighbor who keeps interrupting, and a journey that turns distraction and duty into something larger than either alone.
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