Jason Weiser, Carissa Weiser, Nextpod
334 episodes listed below
Old stories, modern timing, stranger monsters.
Myths and Legends turns old stories into clear, funny narrative retellings. Recent episodes range from Japanese samurai tales and Albanian fairy tales to Grimm stories, King Arthur, German folklore, and a West African monster story.
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Myths and Legends presents traditional stories as active narrative, not museum copy. The show moves through myths, fairy tales, folklore, and legendary cycles with a narrator who is comfortable stopping to point out when an old plot has become wonderfully unreasonable. That balance is the appeal. A listener gets the shape of the source tale, but also the pleasure of hearing its odd choices noticed in real time. Recent episodes include Japanese samurai stories, an Albanian fairy tale, a Sorko story involving a monstrous hippo, Grimm material, German folklore, King Arthur, and a Japanese tale centered on Princess Moonlight. The range is broad, but the handling is consistent: characters want too much, magical bargains go sideways, creatures behave badly, and the narration keeps the action readable. It can be violent. The show usually signals that plainly before the story begins. The humor is dry rather than chaotic, with modern comparisons dropped into older worlds where they sharpen the absurdity. A sumo wrestler hiding in a chest, naked warriors descending with armpit wings, a hippo outrunning almost anyone, and a wounded knight asking for vengeance all fit the same storytelling appetite. These are not solemn retellings. They are energetic versions that let monsters stay monstrous and fairy-tale logic stay strange. Context appears when it helps, such as a note about medieval Japan or the Sorko people, but the story remains the center. The recurring Creature of the Week gives the show a second engine. It adds creatures from Japan, Ireland, Greece, and elsewhere, often with the same mix of danger and comic disbelief. The show is especially good at making less familiar tales feel as easy to enter as famous ones. It also revisits major worlds, including King Arthur, without requiring the audience to treat continuity as homework. Myths and Legends suits a listener who wants folklore with plot, texture, and jokes that do not flatten the source material. It is old storytelling with contemporary timing.
Made for: Suits a listener who likes folklore, fairy tales, and mythic adventure told with momentum and clean, wry humor. It also fits someone who wants broad story range without a dense academic frame.
What sets it apart: The show pairs broad folklore coverage with narrative retellings that keep the plot moving while calling out the absurd edges. Its Creature of the Week segments give each episode an extra pocket of monster lore.
A magical hippo with ovens on its back is your cue to expect folklore with a raised eyebrow.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A samurai folktale spins drinking, piracy, toothpaste sales, and a sumo wrestler in a chest into one strange comic ride.
Japanese folklore becomes an Edo-period adventure as Juiemon moves from samurai life into a messy run of drinking, swordplay, piracy, and household suspicion.
An Albanian fairy tale where dragon poison meets lightning-wielding men with wings in their armpits.
This Albanian fairy tale gives a peasant family's strange origin story the shape of a brisk, darkly funny trek through forests, witchcraft, dragon danger, and the poisonous Kuchedra.
A fiery hippo, a rising magician, and a crocodile make this Sorko folktale gloriously unpredictable.
A village's hippo trouble turns into a brisk folklore adventure when a young man is hired to confront the Babamik, a bloodthirsty monster with fire burning from its back.
Peter Monk's riches turn cruel, then a Japanese dog makes every stumble dangerous.
Myths and Legends gives Peter Monk's ambition a hard, vicious landing. After the Little Glass Man's wishes and Dutch Michael's influence, wealth does not refine him; it makes his cruelty blunt and practical.
Peter's dark forest chase grows delightfully strange once Michael, a giant, and a glass-clad stranger enter the tale.
German folklore opens this two-parter in a dark forest, where a giant kidnaps men and Peter's escape from Michael keeps slipping from danger into odd little reversals.
Myths, monsters, drama, and side-eye.
Loose talk from the weird edge.
Folklore with shadows and a human pulse.
Spooky stories with sharp, chaotic company.
Myths and Legends episode 432, 'Sort it Out,' follows Juiemon, an Edo-period samurai whose drunken sword fight starts a long run of bad luck.
["Myths and Legends episode 242, \"Two Roads,\" pairs an Albanian fairy tale about two brothers with the Chilean creature La Calchona.", "Hondo finds a false-bottom chest in the family's one-room shack and uncovers a ring, a silver sword, and proof that his parents were exiled royalty.", "Jeremy meets Zef, hears that one in 10,000 boys is born with armpit wings, and learns that the Kuchedra is a forty-oxen-sized monster fed a maiden each month.", "The episode closes with La Calchona, whose salve turns her family into foxes and leaves her as a sheep-faced night wanderer."]
Myths and Legends episode 241, "Hippopotamaster," turns a Sorko tale from the Songhai Empire into a fight between Nana Miriam, her father Faramaka, and a hippo with ovens on its back.
Myths and Legends episode 240B, "Heart of Stone," follows Peter Monk from the Black Forest to a bargain with Dutch Michael, the devil who offers wealth in exchange for Peter's heart.
Myths and Legends episode 240A, "Man of Glass," follows Peter Munch as a Sunday-child legend turns his envy of Big Ezekiel and the Dancing King into three literal wishes.
In Myths and Legends episode 239, Jason and Carissa Weiser tell three Grimm stories about people giving others a hand.
Vikram, the Raja of India’s first-century-BC story, is changed into a dog by a sorcerer whose cult threatens his kingdom.
This episode of Myths and Legends returns to the world of King Arthur with a soft reboot, covering his Golden Age and a humorous tale about a young warrior and a princess rescue gone wrong.
This episode of Myths and Legends tells the Japanese folktale of Princess Moonlight, where a woodcutter finds a mysterious child in a bamboo shoot, leading to a story about love and a dangerous quest.
This episode of Myths and Legends explores a standalone Robin Hood tale involving a secret society, Little John in a too-small habit, and a lesson about keeping promises to avoid an iron-toothed rat monster.
This episode of Myths and Legends tells the story of two Viking best friends and the origin of the word 'purse' from a king's illegitimate son.