The Emerald

337
Arts #41

The Emerald explores the human experience through a vibrant lens of myth, story, and imagination. Brought to life through the wise, wild, and humorous vision of Joshua Michael Schrei — a teacher and lifelong student of the cosmologies and mythologies of the world — the podcast draws from a deep well of poetry, lore, and mythos to challenge conventional narratives on politics and public discourse, meditation and mindfulness, art, science, literature, and more. At the heart of the podcast is the premise that the imaginative, poetic, animate heart of human experience — elucidated by so many cultures over so many thousands of years — is missing in modern discourse and is urgently needed at a time when humanity is facing unprecedented problems. The Emerald advocates for an imaginative vision of human life and human discourse as it questions deep underlying assumptions about societal progress.

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Recent Reviews
  • Curio cabinet
    Fascinating
    Just discovered this podcast and I’m hooked. I love the way it delves into matters of spirituality in such thought-provoking depths.
  • Surreina
    Absolutely Gorgeous!!!
    The Emerald is the most incredible podcast I have ever experienced! Every episode takes me into a deep journey of beauty, mysticism, inspiration, and expansion. Thank you, Josh for sharing your passion and wisdom with the world. The richness and attention to detail is felt and deeply appreciated!
  • Yogi Lily
    Thank you
    Josh, your work is the freshest breath of air I have taken in through the medium of a podcast. Your ability to encapsulate and crystallize the simultaneous magical, mystical, sacred, stinging, and ecstatic nature of being alive is a healing elixir. Thank you from my heart 🥹🙏🏻💖✨
  • Fellini21
    Phenomenal
    A gift of a podcast that succeeds in raising the medium to the level of art. Insightful in ways that are impossible to convey in a brief review. It manages to be part meditation, art lecture, philosophy class, ritual experience and conversation with a friend. Do yourself a favor; take two hours to yourself, sit quietly and really listen. It may just change your life.
  • alliebeauballie
    Water in the desert
    I wish there were as much attention to The Emerald as there is to true crime and the like.
  • losthorizons
    Deep thoughts as a sonic masterpiece
    Every episode is a work of art, makes my world bigger just to listen to. A perfect balance of head and heart. Helping me remember my roots, the depth of life within and beyond me of which I am a part. His narration is so eloquent and the music mixed in really makes it hit deeply.
  • Melogna_likebologna
    Binge worthy!
    Soooooo much creativity, time, passion, heart, art, love,and life seems to be put into this podcast. I am so glad my friend sent me the death episode. After listening to that one, I started binging this podcast immediately. I can hardly wait for more episodes. Thank you for putting your work and gifts out there! My soul is screaming that this is exactly all I needed to hear. I am thinking about becoming a patroon to support the show!
  • Jessica Forman
    Epic
    I LOVE this body of work. Its the podcast I'm most interested in listening to. Its actually the only one I listen to on a regular basis, often listening to one episode multiple times because it is so deep, rich and profound. It speaks to the underbelly of life. This podcast is balm for these fractured times. I am incredibly grateful to Josh and his team for this manna.
  • NoPixOK
    Indispensable
    An experience you didn’t know you needed.
  • 111111for days
    Brilliance
    The Truth when you know it is so odd when you weigh it against the world as most know it but it’s not Truth that’s odd but how we live in relation to it You don’t expect to encounter anything that makes sense of it, that makes sense out of how you had to live it, how what was right with you could seem so wrong or out of place but then there it is. It appears. This is that. It’s beautiful sacred tears also appeared as its gratitude tries to say, ties to express the one thousand thank you’s for this. I love it ♥️🙏
  • Flouer
    Highly recommend
    Great podcast, love the weaving of research, interviews, and music
  • Jennifer & Tommy
    Joshua is an el duende
    Joshua has the innate ability to channel differing spirits in his storytelling. I feel those he’s speaking of in his shows, especially the Divine Mother from 2/7/22. I had magical experiences listening to his art!!
  • SDhltnt
    So much here and I can’t even imagine
    I’m sixty one years and this is so intense from a place of standing deep in the illusion that we are handed by a world looking for a free ride on the backs of us that stand in the trenches and do the task. But my eyes are open and ready to go big if my weak body allows
  • hdhehrhehhdhdhd
    Wow, beauty mind space
    I like where the podcast takes me every time I listen.
  • Sean Ron Don
    Soul Food
    I am continuously returning to listen because this podcast imbues my commutes with a fullness of spirit, thought, life, and alignment.
  • Dayavati Rafter
    Incredible creativity
    Thanks so much for your beautiful projects! I’m trying to get your member readings in my routine. Soon!
  • Laurren H
    Not objective
    I’ve been listening to this show for several episodes, really hoping to add this as part of my spiritual evolution, and trying to be open-minded that some of the small discrepancies could just be differences in thought. In the most recent episode, he compares the absolutism of only trusting people of science to the calls for burning mystics, but in the same breath says there’s absolute grift on the political right but only maybe possibly some on the left. If you can’t be objective on the basics, why would we trust that everything isn’t skewed by opinion or concern about upsetting the audience. Isn’t that inherently what you’re preaching against?
  • KarinaZedalis
    Myth can Move Your Mind
    I have put ‘mythic consciousness’ in an abandoned mental parking lot for as long as I can remember. Even though I am immersed in plant stewardship, integral philosophy, natural law & motherhood, and literally live in a forest…It is The Emerald that has brought the thrill back into my life understanding of the Cosmos. No longer a solitary, depleted little-red hen with an empty nest, I am now awestruck + grateful for Josh’s gift of waking us up with unabashed clarity on our ignored mythic collective continuum in relationship to our current humanist-directed peril.
  • rhythmsofpeace
    Soul Food
    I discovered this podcast a week ago, and I’m hooked, now I’m actually looking forward to my long commute. It’s making me brim with love and remembrance to the point of tears each time. The episode on sound was particularly moving to me. Thank you Josh! I love what you’ve created. Very inspiring.
  • AlisonGreenArtist
    Deeply inspiring and so important
    This is an incredibly rich, soulful, informative, beautiful-to-the-point-of-tears podcast that I have recently discovered. I love the music, the sound effects, Josh’s voice, his articulate, poetic heart and vast knowledge, and of course, the subject matter. It is speaking to me and I am resonating strongly with everything about it. As an artist, painter, nature lover, former art educator, former art therapist, this podcast is soul food. My art is all about this stuff. I’ll be working on a painting and hit play and the episode will synchronistically be about the piece I’m working on… or inform the piece. Can’t recommend highly enough!
  • Kneesocks77
    This is the one
    This is the podcast, the voice, the story, the exploration, the synthesis, the deconstruction, the playful, the terribly serious, the one where the guy talks about the only interesting parts of the universe and existence. He skips the part where we all get warned which is so refreshing. If you have been a seeker a dreamer a reader of myth a doer of strange a lover of the connections between story and physics and spirit and narrative and poetry and hip hop and animism and Buddhism, well then I think you'll find this shockingly excellent. This dude is smart and insightful and super at drawing parallels between all the fields of thought you love already. He jumps in at the deep end without a review and I'm so here for it.
  • Teo-eo-eo
    Love the content, wish the form was more subtle
    I love the content—rare, incisive and urgent ideas—and I strongly wish there was only one “mic drop” boom per episode. The form can be heavy-handed with that type of thing, which feels like a bit of own-horn-tooting, and too much repeated music is applied somewhat haphazardly; these types of thing make it hard for me to share this podcast with some people who I feel could really benefit from these stories and thoughts and who would have a hard time hearing beyond those things. However, I still listen to and deeply appreciate each episode, and do share regularly because there’s so many gems here too.
  • wheatie m
    wonderful..
    really thoughtful, well researched podcast.. so glad it exists! in certain episodes, the music and sound production can be a little distracting. if you can get past that though, there’s so much important insight..
  • Wintery
    For the Intuitives (Part 1)
    I found about this show from an IG post by Alexandra Roxo. I’m so glad I went down the rabbit hole. As a psychic/intuitive from birth I thank you from the bottom of my heart. This episode is a balm, as my gifts often feel misplaced in this time and space. It’s not like it’s something that can be turned off or put away for the day…it’s a part of our being. It’s been my life’s work to create a space for myself but still feel an outlier. As I find my people, the soul family who vision and who respect the seers as I journey through this lifetime, I am grateful to continue providing the healing that I do.
  • apaige7
    Everyone. Needs. To. Listen.
    The Emerald is salve for the dehydrated skin of the modern psyche. In an age of secular science worship and orphaned origin story, the existentialism of myth-to-remember yields this podcast imperative. Allow these musical myths to tantalize your tightly wound reality… and loosen.✨
  • Allthingsmainy
    One of the most important…
    …pieces of media I have ever discovered or has ever discovered me. To Josh and all the forces working through him I am deeply grateful. I feel the impact of this will continue to shape me for years to come as it calls me deeper into the truth at the center of it all. Thank you for such a life giving gift.
  • coeuredge
    Resonance of the healer
    The Emerald is truly a precious gem, an offering of deep devotion to the sweet mystery of beloved unity.
  • BaruchRoter
    A Precious Gem!
    Rich, deep, delicious. Nourishing salve for heart and soul. Josh weaves eloquent prose and trance inducing poetic transmissions into remembrance spells of ancient wisdom, so needed during these times inundated with forgetfulness spells. More than a podcast, The Emerald is medicine for mind and Spirit. Thank you Josh for your dedication to consistently share this goodness.
  • Truthloom
    What a great show
    Really love it
  • The lost mystique
    Depth and poignancy
    THE BEST podcast out there for mythic enthusiasts, thinkers and healers, seekers and students of the messy time and place we find ourselves in. Josh weaves truth and fact with meditation and music in a way that no other has. It’s a thrill every single episode.
  • J.Tyramin
    One of my favorites
    A beautiful, meaningful podcast. I really appreciate the deep work that goes into each episode, on all levels, and have been pleased, surprised, and enthralled in turn by your unique perspectives and storytelling.
  • 5parky1
    Deeply impactful
    I was moved and inspired by this production. Thank you.
  • Lorde of ANTz🙏❤️🐜
    A Must for Deep Lessons on the Shamanic Ways
    This Podcast really WOkE-up myself and the spirits within. Spirit and I learnt so much from the episodes titled “The Revolution will not be psychologized” and “So you want to be an apprentice”. Joshua is the real deal and the TRUTH💯 in our opinion.
  • ARIAofNY
    wow.
    what a gift to the world. thank you.
  • vestafire
    disappointed by ableism
    First: I wish there were another way to provide this feedback besides a public review. My intention is to encourage the host to consider the impact of his words on marginalized communities. I have really enjoyed past episodes of this podcast. They usually offer an interesting perspective, and I can filter or scroll past parts I disagree with. It is generally very well-researched and produced, with a lot of intention. The host weaves together stories from across cultures in fascinating ways that sometimes shift how I approach my own relationship with life on both a material and spiritual level. I appreciate what its creator is doing on the whole. I was shocked when I heard the host, in a recent episode, describe AI as “global scale, technology-induced autism; the spectrum magnified exponentially.” That segment not only made the host’s disdain for autistic people very clear, but also belied an ignorance of what autism is/what the spectrum is. This misinformation is extremely harmful to autistic people directly, and indirectly to anyone who believes that we are not as human, or not as embodied, as other people. We autistics are embodied beings who feel things deeply. We are not machines. Our minds are no more and no less computer-like than allistic minds. We are not a threat to society or to the human spirit. We are not broken, and we are not the enemy. We are humans, too. We are part of this story, woven into it from the beginning. We are every bit as of nature as anyone else. At best, using us as a shorthand for the condition of feeling disconnected from the natural world was careless. At worst, it shows a willingness to dehumanize an already marginalized population* for the sake of making a point, which in turn renders the point suspect. *While some may associate autism solely with the very small subset of us who are also wealthy, cishetero, usually white men** who have focused their mental power on questions of how to control and subjugate others for profit, the vast majority of us cannot find stable employment and are ostracized and misunderstood. On top of that, we are currently dealing with a wave of increased discrimination due to the narratives about us being pushed by non-autistic people. **Autism is not a moral failure or evidence of a lack of morality. At this moment, a small number of autistic people who are otherwise from the most highly privileged identities on the planet right now (white, cisgender, heterosexual men who come from generational wealth) have been very successful in a system that rewards ruthless exploitation and unchecked egos. It is not their autism that is the problem, and they do not represent us as a community. I lost trust in the host after hearing this and could not in good conscience continue listening to this episode or continue subscribing to this podcast. Any framework for understanding reality (especially on a spiritual level) that rests on the dehumanization of those you do not understand is limiting. I hope the host takes the time and energy to explore this topic and broaden his own mind, so that he can see us, not as some AI/algorithmically-generated notion of what autism is, but as the human beings we autistics are.
  • kellyzilla
    Over all one of my favorites.
    I was a quick fan of this informative and immersive podcast. I appreciate the way the host connects what we view as modern with the enduring knowledge and understanding of history and cultures throughout the world. However, thus most recent episodes about AI took me more than a week to get through, not Bcz if the topic but Bcz of the music chosen for the background of about the first half. The repetitive strings are grating and shrill , to the point where I had to turn it off after about 10 mins each time I tried listening.
  • Fertilemytrtle
    Pure magic
    Storytelling, science, myth, mystery, culture, spiritual awakening, poetry, social change, truth, and more. This podcast is a one-of-a-kind journey that gives me hope for the world. For us, as people.
  • mauikath
    Beautiful, thought provoking
    I love The Emerald. I haven’t heard anything like it. It’s a deep dive into a way to see the world and life here that resonates deeply with me. It’s also just beautiful to listen to.
  • chep2m
    A challenging, brilliant, re-humanizing invitation
    What a gift to find this wild, courageous voice. It’s the antidote I’ve been seeking – a counterpoint to the linearity and dryness of an increasingly outcome-oriented world. At least that’s how I experience it. There’s so much richness here you may find your own unique medicine, magic and remembering that’s only here for YOU. Do this for yourself: listen.
  • turtle wisdom
    all eyes are on you
    thanks, josh. this podcast buzzes with life and mystery. a mesmerizing production. the exchange with rose b simpson, the whispered voices of the others, the responsibility that comes with everyone watching, the question of who is the agent.... i've listened multiple times. it takes me to a reality i long to inhabit. gratitude.
  • Fauxmantic
    Portal
    Beautiful….I listened mesmerized, all goose bumps and crown chakra tingles. Thank you so much. 2 episodes in a row that made me completely fall in love with this podcast. On Birds…. YES! And Inanimate Objects aren’t so inanimate 🌙 Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.
  • smedley67
    A gift
    The Emerald is a joy to behold— a hypnotic auditory wonder, a beautifully produced meditation on the animate substrate of all that is. I am deeply grateful for this podcast.
  • catherineliggett
    Transfiguration serum in a podcast
    I don’t have words for what’s happened to me and the friends I’ve shared this stunning magical creation with. Nothing less than growing new sense faculties. Consciousness, expanded, in ways we never considered but that feel as close as bone. Because of this podcast, we have shared vocabulary and story for what we’ve always felt but never could express. There is so much I could say. But for now, I’ll stick to “thank you.” Thank you, Josh, and all who contribute to this gift to humanity. With love and deep gratitude, Catherine
  • thehoneyedwell
    Brilliant
    This is the kind of honest reflection humanity needs so desperately in these times. There is a riveting discomfort woven through that grates the mind in a medicinal way, dislodging stuck places, transforming thought and opening perspective in ways that are rarely found when solely engaging the intellect. This podcast goes beyond the mind though - it creates an experience for the listener that evokes change and elicits a deeper, and perhaps unfurling, state of being to emerge.
  • beetlebath
    Perfect
    Everything about this podcast is on point. The writing, the insights, the cadence, the research, the use of music, the storytelling, the bone-chilling, trance-inducing realizations that we are both a part of and completely separate from the animate forces that our species has connected with throughout time.
  • buttlicker666
    Best podcast ever
    Well researched and thought provoking aural delight with a wise and wholesome host.
  • Linda Detsal Joy
    The Emerald
    Get ready for a treat, a magical, mythological journey that marries the ancient history of culture and Spirit while bringing it all into the present life we are in now. I always feel touched in a way as if seeing or hearing a master artist or tasting the most exquisite meal and dessert. In this way Joshua is a master story teller that inspires and nourishes the soul.
  • Loro88
    Amazing
    This is what the nightly news should be. Incredible, always.
  • catiyagainor
    Beautiful, thought-provoking word journeys
    What a word and sound weaver you are, thank you so much Josh. I am transported with each episode to new (and also strangely familiar) places, keep up this good good work.
  • Aaaggg888
    Captivating
    Wow, thank you so much for these journeys! Incredible production, exquisite prose, and totally evocative. I am so grateful you are sharing your gifts with the world!
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