In this final episode of the season, I speak with Michael Meade - a renowned storyteller, author, and scholar of mythology, anthropology, and psychology. He combines hypnotic storytelling, street-savvy perceptiveness, and spellbinding interpretations of ancient myths with a deep knowledge of cross-cultural rituals.

He has an unusual ability to distill and synthesize these disciplines, tapping into ancestral sources of wisdom and connecting them to the stories we are living today.

The celebrated author of Awakening the Soul, The Genius Myth, Fate and Destiny, Why the World Doesn't End and The Water of Life; and the creator of the Living Myth Podcast, Michael is also the founder of Mosaic Multicultural Foundation, a nonprofit network of artists, activists, and community builders that encourages greater understanding between diverse peoples.

WEBSITES

• https://www.mosaicvoices.org/
• Podcast: https://www.mosaicvoices.org/podcast
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/michaelmeade_mosaicvoices/

BOOKS

• https://store.mosaicvoices.org/collections/books-1

CHAPTERS

00:00 The Power of Storytelling

02:58 Creativity as an Ongoing Process

05:59 Facing Darkness and the Unknown

08:44 The Role of Mythology in Understanding Darkness

11:56 Navigating Personal and Collective Darkness

14:44 The Concept of Apocalypse and Renewal

17:37 Awakening the Inner Genius

20:49 The Healing Power of Music and Art

23:49 Rites of Passage and Individual Uniqueness

26:43 Finding Your Thread of Creativity

29:49 Breaking Down Barriers to Creativity

33:55 The Journey of the Soul

40:58 Creation and Chaos: The Dance of Transformation

51:47 The Acorn and the Oak: Nurturing Inner Potential

Today, I’m speaking with James Taylor-Foster - a curator, writer, and cultural leader investigating how the creativity of artists, designers, and thinkers reimagines our world – shaping popular culture and public life. Recently appointed Executive Director of Para Site, Hong Kong’s leading non-profit contemporary art centre, James's practice bridges contemporary art, design, architecture, and digital culture.

As a convenor and curator he blurs disciplinary boundaries, exploring unconventional ways of nurturing institutions and their audiences. This expansive approach is both greenhouse and staging ground: cultivating emergent ideas for wider cultural spheres while building ambitious platforms for assembling many forms of making into new ways of seeing, feeling, and imagining.

James’ work shines light on how creativity continually re-envisions reality, and it was in a talk he gave at the Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute earlier this year, that I heard him speak about “world-glimsping” – a phrase he coined to describe the curious, evocative and transporting ways in which artists of all stripes can invite us into alternative experiences that both broaden and deepen our felt sense of the futures we might yet create together.

As our dominant social and generative AI platforms continue to commoditise, capture and corode not only our attention, but also our imaginations, I couldn’t resist asking James to come onto the show and share his vision of the power of creativity to shape what comes next.

WEBSITES

• https://james.tf/
• https://www.para-site.art/2026/03/16/welcoming-james-taylor-foster-as-para-sites-next-executive-director/

CHAPTERS

3:19 Homogenisation and Creativity

5:10 Design and Frictionless Society

7:06 Infantilisation and Technology

10:17 Crisis of Creativity

13:52 Death and Vulnerability

29:11 Transhumanism and Embodiment

30:00 Cultural Spaces and Information Overload

31:55 Monogamous Mind, Polyamorous Terror

39:21 Ritual, Non-Dualism and Initiation

46:34 World Glimpsing and Role-play

54:25 Reflection and Journaling

In today’s conversation, I have the please of welcoming Anthea Lawson back onto the show. Having trained and worked as a reporter at The Times, and studied history at Cambridge, her work as an activist has seen Anthea campaign to shut down tax havens, control the arms trade and prevent banks from facilitating corruption and environmental devastation.

While working at Global Witness, a human rights and environmental organisation, Anthea also launched a campaign that succeeded in changing the rules on secret company ownership, resulting in new laws being passed in dozens of countries around the world.

A lot has changed since then – the geopolitical landscape has shifted, some of these laws have been repealed, and so her new book, How Not to Save the World: Doing Good Without Annoying Everyone is perfectly timed, and it’s coming out on June 4th. And given the theme and where we find ourselves right now, I felt like this would be the perfect moment to invite her back on the show.

I first encountered Anthea in 2022, when I interviewed her on episode 86 about her book, The Entangled Activist. If you’re unfamiliar with her work, that is a fantastic place to start.

BOOKS

• How Not to Save the World: Doing Good Without Annoying Everyone – Anthea Lawson (https://www.anthealawson.uk/how-not-to-save-the-world)
• The Entangled Activist – Anthea Lawson (https://www.anthealawson.uk/the-entangled-activist)

WEBSITES

• anthealawson.uk

CHAPTERS

00:00 The Global Human Psyche and Climate Awareness

02:44 Activism and Personal Motivators

06:52 The Save the World Script

10:56 Navigating Activism and Community Engagement

14:44 Bridging Divides in Activism

18:56 Stories of Change and Resistance

31:36 Navigating Civility in Hostile Conversations

34:02 The Impact of Personal Histories on Activism

37:51 Understanding the Savior Complex in Activism

45:22 Rethinking Service vs. Saving in Philanthropy

50:23 Building Solidarity Through Community Engagement

55:37 The Role of Technology in Activism and Community Building