The Crane Bag Podcast

The story of Orpheus and Eurydice, brought into the here and now by storyteller, poet and musician Jay Leeming.

Who's that stepping out of the bonfire? It's Draupadi, the princess who will change the world permanently and forever; who will witness the end of the third age of time and will even get to laugh hysterically for a few brief and beautiful moments.

Darkness and fire and the tree at the center of all things: storyteller Jay Leeming brings the Norse creation myth to life through music, story, and the power of the spoken word.

Deeper into the forest we go, tracking the story of the wizard-like teacher Drona to its source in water and in fire.

Why do the gods do what they do? What's up with all the weeping and washing in the Odyssey, and can baking five cakes in one day get us some answers? Poet Bethany Dixon and I sat down on a summer's day to explore the feminine characters of the Odyssey, and the result is a wide-ranging exploration of gender, the divine, and the good trouble of being alive.

A blind king, a visit to the king of the fishermen, and yet another hunting trip gone wrong: it's part two of the epic of the Mahabharata, as brought to life by performance storyteller Jay Leeming.

A plunge into the mythic cosmos of the Mahabharata, an epic story in which the destinies of gods and humans intertwine and the roll of a die decides the fate of an entire kingdom.

A king without a queen marries a river goddess who then does a few monstrous things; that's the news straight from the start of the Mahabharata, a beautiful Hindu epic in which gods and humans mingle in both lovely and destructive ways.