66-Paul Bunyan: Truth in Advertising

Myths and Legends

Jason Weiser, Carissa Weiser

Fiction, History, Arts, Books

4.8 • 25.4K Ratings

🗓️ 12 April 2017

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

You know how to make your stories completely resistant to any ridicule from a future podcaster? Make them as ridiculous as possible. The stories of Paul Bunyan arose from the camps of lumberjacks in the US in the 1880s, but he spread to be a nationwide symbol of American strength and a pioneer spirit. Except that a lot of what we know about Paul Bunyan might actually not be folklore, but stories made up to sell stuff. Also, if someone tells you to put something up your nose that feels like bees and lightning, just say no. Sponsors: Loot Crate this month looks amazing. Batman, Jessica Jones, Stranger Things, and X-files are all fantastic franchises, and I'm super excited for it. You should check it out, too. You can get $3 off your first month by going to http://www.lootcrate.com/legends and entering the promo code "LEGENDS" The Great Courses Plus: Text MYTHS to 86329 to get a free trial of The Great Courses Plus, and while you’re there, check out the course “Great Mythologies of the World”. (Standard message and data rates apply.) Music: "Nothing will grow here" "Wake up, heroic figure" "Fight the apocalypse but before a quick nap" "STOP TALKING AND MOVING" by Komiku "Goodnight Esme" "Three Kites Circling" by Axletree

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This week, on the Mythos and Legends podcast, it's the story of Paul Bungan,
0:04.3	on our first look at Folklar from the United States, and you'll see that it takes a village to
0:08.0	raise a child, or at least the British Navy to keep him from accidentally destroying a seaside
0:13.6	village. And there are actually two creatures this week, both in which are from the US.
0:18.1	And you don't need me to tell you this, but if you see a baboon with long,
0:22.5	nudily arms swinging deadwood at you, run. This is the Mythos and Legends podcast, episode 66,
0:34.8	Truth and Advertising. This is a podcast where I tell stories from mythology and folklore.
0:44.2	Some are incredibly popular stories you think you know, but with surprise and origins.
0:48.2	Although there are stories you might not have heard, but really should. We're nearly 100 episodes
0:52.5	in, and we're just now getting to a story from the United States. That's because, compared to
0:57.2	the rest of the world, America doesn't have a lot of folklore, and that makes sense. The US is
1:02.0	comparatively very young. Sure, we have our cryptids like Bigfoot, some of the creatures of the
1:06.9	week, and they're fairly entertaining for some critters, which are creatures made up by Lumberjacks
1:11.3	to one up stories of other Lumberjacks. We'll see a lot of that this week. Other than a few larger
1:16.5	than life personalities, though, we don't have a lot in the way of folklore. As a quick note,
1:21.2	you'll notice that I'm specifically mentioning the USA, because the Native Americans have folklore
1:25.4	and mythology that is deep, rich, and awesome. I mean, Monster Skunk. Anyway, when you think of the US
1:32.4	folklore, one name probably comes to mind. Paul Bingen. There are statues of that famed multi-story
1:38.6	tall Lumberjack in his massive blue ox all around the North and United States. The quote-unquote
1:43.9	real Paul Bingen is really just an amalgamation of stories Lumberjacks told each other in the
1:48.3	bunk houses. Maybe. I say maybe, because there are definitely aspects to Paul Bingen that are
1:54.4	fake lore. Which, yes, that's a real word. Fake lore is where someone writes a story,
	...

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