119. Aaron Mahnke (of 'Lore') – The Hunger for Mystery

Think Again - a Big Think Podcast

Big Think / Panoply

Arts, Society & Culture

4.6 • 594 Ratings

🗓️ 7 October 2017

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

For thousands of years, all over the world, tales of monsters and the undead have populated the "whitespace" beyond the borders of our understanding. As the enormous popularity of the podcast 'Lore" demonstrates, we're still hungry for those stories today. Why? Today's guest Aaron Mahnke and host Jason Gots talk about the hunger for mystery, a human need almost as powerful as our thirst for knowledge. We also get into the meaning of work in people's lives, and how Aaron started the podcast as a "last ditch effort" at turning his passions into a sustainable career. Surprise conversation-starter clips in this episode: Andrew Taggart on the cultural obsession with work, Stephen Greenblatt on the power of the Adam and Eve story About Think Again - A Big Think Podcast: Since 2008, Big Think has been sharing big ideas from creative and curious minds. Since 2015, the Think Again podcast has been taking us out of our comfort zone, surprising our guests and Jason Gots, your host, with unexpected conversation starters from Big Think’s interview archives. You've got 10 minutes with Einstein. What do you talk about? Black holes? Time travel? Why not gambling? The Art of War? Contemporary parenting? Some of the best conversations happen when we're pushed outside of our comfort zones. Each week on Think Again, we surprise smart people you may have heard of with short clips from Big Think's interview archives on every imaginable subject. These conversations could, and do, go anywhere. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Huh, have you ever wondered what a sandwich sounds like?
0:03.0	Not much to it, is there?
0:06.0	Unless, of course, it's a Walker's sandwich.
0:10.0	Mmm, that is good.
0:13.0	Now that's what Asani should sound like.
0:16.0	Go all crisp in with walkers.
0:18.0	Delicious.
0:20.0	Hey there, I'm Jason Gatz and you're listening to Think Again, a Big Think podcast.
0:29.6	Big Think is a kind of online think tank of big ideas from some of the most creative thinkers on the planet.
0:35.6	And on this, the Think Again podcast, we revisit
0:38.3	these ideas in new and unpredictable ways. Our producers surprised me and my guests with short
0:43.2	interview clips from Big Thinks Archives, ideas that we didn't come here expecting to discuss.
0:48.5	Today I'm joined by Aaron Manke, the creator and host of Lore, a critically acclaimed and
0:53.2	enormously popular podcast about
0:55.0	the frightening history behind common folklore. Some of lore's most chilling stories are collected
1:00.5	in Aaron's new book, The World of Lore, Monstrous Creatures, and there's an Amazon television
1:06.0	series launching on Friday the 13th of October. Welcome, Aaron. Thanks for having me. Yeah, I'm so glad to have you on the show.
1:14.4	I was idly wondering as I was writing that description whether you find yourself running out of
1:20.9	adjectives sometimes like eerie, chilling, terrifying, monstrous, blood curdling, and so...
1:28.3	Right.
1:29.3	No, I hope not.
1:30.3	That's a frightening thought to consider.
	...

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