In this episode, we present audio from two rare televised lectures from Joseph Campbell’s early public-broadcast career - Dead Sea Scrolls and No God but God - originally aired on WNDT in New York in the early 1960s.

In these archival recordings, Campbell traces humanity’s spiritual crossroads — from Paleolithic caves and Near Eastern temples to the Essene community at Qumran and the dawn of apocalyptic thought.

He examines the Dead Sea Scrolls as the voice of a community bracing for the end of days, and explores how Greek philosophy, Persian dualism, Hebrew prophecy, and emerging Christian teachings collided and transformed one another.

Broadcast decades before The Power of Myth, these talks capture Campbell in a more structured, scholarly television mode — yet still pulsing with the fire of myth, history, and spiritual imagination.

A window into the mythic ferment before the birth of Western religious consciousness — and a glimpse of Campbell before he became a household name.

Host Bradley Olson offers an introduction and commentary at the end of the lecture.

Pathways with Joseph Campbell is hosted by Brad Olson, PhD and is a production of the Joseph Campbell Foundation. It is produced by Tyler Lapkin. Executive Producer, John Bucher. Editing and audio services by Tristan Batt.

For more information on the MythMaker Podcast Network and Joseph Campbell, visit JCF.org.

All music exclusively provided by APM Music (apmmusic.com)

In this episode of Pathways called “Early Europe and the Celtic Tradition,” we travel back to Joseph Campbell’s 1970 lecture at Sarah Lawrence College, where he traces the mythic roots of Europe - from Paleolithic cave art and goddess-centered societies to the rise of Celtic and Arthurian legend. He explores how the meeting of matriarchal and patriarchal traditions shaped the spiritual imagination of the West.

Campbell reveals how the ancient reverence for the Goddess evolved alongside the emergence of the heroic ideal, weaving together mythic threads that still inform our stories of love, power, and transformation today.

Host Bradley Olson offers an introduction and commentary at the end of the lecture.

Pathways with Joseph Campbell is hosted by Brad Olson, PhD and is a production of the Joseph Campbell Foundation. It is produced by Tyler Lapkin. Executive Producer, John Bucher. Editing and audio services by Tristan Batt.

For more information on the MythMaker Podcast Network and Joseph Campbell, visit JCF.org.

All music exclusively provided by APM Music (apmmusic.com)

In this bonus episode, Joseph Campbell speaks about the psychological implications of mythology. Recorded at the Cooper Union Forum in 1963, this lecture is part one of a two-part series. Campbell explores how myth functions as a system of “energy-releasing signs,” drawing on examples from animal instinct, human development, and psychological theory. He connects myth to the imprinting of archetypal images on the psyche, and discusses how Freud and Jung interpreted these imprints in terms of wish, prohibition, neurosis, and symbolic transformation.

Pathways with Joseph Campbell is hosted by Brad Olson, PhD and is a production of the Joseph Campbell Foundation. It is produced by Tyler Lapkin. Executive Producer, John Bucher. Editing and audio services by Tristan Batt.

For more information on the MythMaker Podcast Network and Joseph Campbell, visit JCF.org.

All music exclusively provided by APM Music (apmmusic.com)