Ishmael theorizes our culture is held captive by a story, a mythology we take for granted, act out every day, and is leading to the destruction of the world. So in this episode we tell this story out loud, from beginning, to middle, to end. 

Along the way we chat with a 6-year-old animal expert, discuss adult imaginary games, analyze the subliminal cultural messages conveyed in religion and philosophy, and meet a sassy imaginary top hat with a poorly performed Brooklyn accent.

Taker Mythology, the grand sweeping narrative playing out behind the scenes of our culture, just might explain how we got here and where we’re going… if we don’t find a way to tell another story.

If you’d like to support Human Nature Odyssey, please subscribe wherever you enjoy your podcasts, leave us a review, and visit humannatureodyssey.com.

Join us on Patreon and get exclusive access to audio extras, writings, and notes.

Citations

Ishmael by Daniel Quinn (1992)

A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold (1949)

Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes (1651)

Music: Celestial Soda Pop

By: Ray Lynch

From the album: Deep Breakfast

Courtesy Ray Lynch Productions © Ⓟ 1984/BMI 

All rights reserved.

1.  Amazon: Celestial Soda Pop 

https://amazon.com/music/player/albums/B000QQXURI    

2.  iTunes: 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/celestial-soda-pop/3242445?i=3242425

3.  Spotify:  

https://open.spotify.com/track/2THDVIVytLuGX7S7UghuC1?si=20ea63807bba401f

Why can’t we seem to stop destroying the world? Like seriously though?

Ishmael, the telepathic gorilla from Daniel Quinn’s philosophical novel, suggests we’re captives of a society where our individual society depends on our collective destruction.

As we embark on our quest through the landscape of ideas in Quinn’s novel, we’ll travel to a dystopian future where Nazi Germany won the war, meet our long lost furry and feathery cousins, explore a sinister layer where villainous henchman plot the end of the world, conduct an investigation into a planet-wide crime scene, and meet the gorilla we’ve all been waiting for.

If you’d like to support Human Nature Odyssey, please subscribe wherever you enjoy your podcasts, leave us a review, and visit humannatureodyssey.com.

Join us on Patreon and get exclusive access to audio extras, writings, and notes.

Citations

Ishmael by Daniel Quinn (1992)

Gerta Keller, Professor of Paleontology and Geology in the Geosciences Department at Princeton University

https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/01/world/sixth-mass-extinction-accelerating-intl/index.html

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/un-environment-programme_us_684562

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0959378094900035

Music: Celestial Soda Pop

By: Ray Lynch

From the album: Deep Breakfast

Courtesy Ray Lynch Productions © Ⓟ 1984/BMI 

All rights reserved.

1.  Amazon: Celestial Soda Pop 

https://amazon.com/music/player/albums/B000QQXURI    

2.  iTunes: 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/celestial-soda-pop/3242445?i=3242425

3.  Spotify:  

https://open.spotify.com/track/2THDVIVytLuGX7S7UghuC1?si=20ea63807bba401f

We’re all on our own quest to live more meaningful, healthy, and fruitful lives.

To more fully understand the situation we’re in, we’re going to have to expand our scope in geography and time.

This is a sociological examination of the personal, and a psychological examination of the social.

Alex takes you back in time to a fateful childhood summer when the world was a magical place to explore, yet seemed like it was ending just as he was getting to know it.

It was then that Alex first read Ishmael by Daniel Quinn, the book that begins the quest of Human Nature Odyssey.

If you’d like to support Human Nature Odyssey, please subscribe wherever you enjoy your podcasts, leave us a review, and visit humannatureodyssey.com.

Join us on Patreon and get exclusive access to audio extras, writings, and notes.

Music: Celestial Soda Pop

By: Ray Lynch

From the album: Deep Breakfast

Courtesy Ray Lynch Productions © Ⓟ 1984/BMI 

All rights reserved.

1.  Amazon: Celestial Soda Pop 

https://amazon.com/music/player/albums/B000QQXURI    

2.  iTunes: 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/celestial-soda-pop/3242445?i=3242425

3.  Spotify:  

https://open.spotify.com/track/2THDVIVytLuGX7S7UghuC1?si=20ea63807bba401f

You are living the latest chapter in a 10,000 year story. Join storyteller Alex Leff on a search for better ways to understand and more clearly experience the incredible, terrifying, and ridiculous world we live in.

The first stop on our quest through a landscape of ideas and stories is the 1992 novel Ishmael by Daniel Quinn about a telepathic gorilla with great hope for humanity.

Next episodes every month beginning May 4th, 2023.

===

Music: Celestial Soda Pop

By: Ray Lynch

From the album: Deep Breakfast

Courtesy Ray Lynch Productions © Ⓟ 1984/BMI 

All rights reserved.

Amazon: Celestial Soda Pop 

https://amazon.com/music/player/albums/B000QQXURI   

iTunes: Celestial Soda Pop 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/celestial-soda-pop/3242445?i=3242425

Spotify:  Celestial Soda Pop 

https://open.spotify.com/track/2THDVIVytLuGX7S7UghuC1?si=20ea63807bba401f