Podcast Benomtad
Open, friendly, philosophical discussions about folktales, society, culture, and wisdom.
Episodes

Mar 18, 2025
Mar 18, 2025
1 min
Jack starts with little, with barely his basic needs met, but he displays ambition even after his initial material successes. This may show something like Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, where, after basic material needs and social success, one may have meaning and political needs.
(Sorry about the bad sound on my end. It’s been corrected in future episodes.)
Please comment, like, and subscribe!
For the full episode:
https://www.podbean.com/eas/pb-nyntt-183a586
For more in this podcast, please go to:
Podbean:
https://benomtad.podbean.com
Apple Podcasts:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/podcast-benomtad/id1748320863
YouTube:
https://m.youtube.com/@scissorsandpaper/videos
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/4kJPGlaJjGVyLa9AKhci6t?si=8XXrX9FUT3CU71reCfA5kQ
I plan to conduct more interviews with various guests, so please check back later for those.

Mar 15, 2025
Mar 15, 2025
5 min
LL thinks the story is about what truly sustains people, things like beauty, order, and truth (in the form of good judgment, which leads to good governance). At first, his parents provide for Jack – a house, an axe, tools, caring, and food. Then he leaves home and begins to negotiate. He crosses the bridge threshold and receives help from a wizard (< ”wise”). Life symbolically proliferates, and Jack’s risk for the first time leads to profit more than his mother’s cautious instincts. Life moves forward. Analyzing the characters, his mother is a protector, the wizard pushes Jack to mature, and the giants challenge, threaten and inadvertently provide for him. The stakes have been raised, and Jack decides to risk a better life.
(Sorry about the bad sound on my end. It’s been corrected in future episodes.)
Please comment, like, and subscribe!
For the full episode:
https://www.podbean.com/eas/pb-nyntt-183a586
For more in this podcast, please go to:
Podbean:
https://benomtad.podbean.com
Apple Podcasts:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/podcast-benomtad/id1748320863
YouTube:
https://m.youtube.com/@scissorsandpaper/videos
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/4kJPGlaJjGVyLa9AKhci6t?si=8XXrX9FUT3CU71reCfA5kQ
I plan to conduct more interviews with various guests, so please check back later for those.

Mar 15, 2025
Mar 15, 2025
3 min
Fleeing the third castle, Jack is pursued by giants from all of them, six giants in total. At the bottom, Jack is finally able to topple the stalk and the falling of the various giants cause tsunamis, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, destroying a small city. With his spoils, Jack eventually becomes a wise king. However, the giants survive and now he must put his wits to governance.
(Sorry about the bad sound on my end. It’s been corrected in future episodes.)
Please comment, like, and subscribe!
For the full episode:
https://www.podbean.com/eas/pb-nyntt-183a586
For more in this podcast, please go to:
Podbean:
https://benomtad.podbean.com
Apple Podcasts:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/podcast-benomtad/id1748320863
YouTube:
https://m.youtube.com/@scissorsandpaper/videos
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/4kJPGlaJjGVyLa9AKhci6t?si=8XXrX9FUT3CU71reCfA5kQ
I plan to conduct more interviews with various guests, so please check back later for those.

Mar 15, 2025
Mar 15, 2025
4 min
Not content with the second, silver castle, intrepid Jack dreams of the old man again, whose riddle, “Who is stronger, a man who builds a house or the one who tells him to build it for him?” feeds his intrigue. On this third journey, he loses track of time. He seems to be among the dark sky and stars, and sees the serpent coiled around the earth far below. This castle is magnificent and translucent, and the lady’s husband is away on his chariot. When he arrives, she distracts him with the music from a golden harp, which disorients and then transports Jack into reverie.
(Sorry about the bad sound on my end. It’s been corrected in future episodes.)
Please comment, like, and subscribe!
For the full episode:
https://www.podbean.com/eas/pb-nyntt-183a586
For more in this podcast, please go to:
Podbean:
https://benomtad.podbean.com
Apple Podcasts:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/podcast-benomtad/id1748320863
YouTube:
https://m.youtube.com/@scissorsandpaper/videos
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/4kJPGlaJjGVyLa9AKhci6t?si=8XXrX9FUT3CU71reCfA5kQ
I plan to conduct more interviews with various guests, so please check back later for those.

Mar 15, 2025
Mar 15, 2025
21 min
We summarize and discuss the Grimms Brothers’ story. We both particularly enjoyed this humorous story that has interesting details and presents a somewhat humanized devil who tries to ensnare three desperate soldiers. These deserters (because of low pay) escape death and live in luxury traveling the world until it’s time to pay the bill. One of them keeps his head and is helped by a passerby, who directs him to a magical place deep in the forest. There he sees the devil without his garb and learns his secret.
(Sorry about the bad sound on my end. It’s been corrected in future episodes.)
Please comment, like, and subscribe!
For more in this podcast, please go to:
Podbean:
https://benomtad.podbean.com
Apple Podcasts:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/podcast-benomtad/id1748320863
YouTube:
https://m.youtube.com/@scissorsandpaper/videos
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/4kJPGlaJjGVyLa9AKhci6t?si=8XXrX9FUT3CU71reCfA5kQ
I plan to conduct more interviews with various guests, so please check back later for those.

Mar 11, 2025
Mar 11, 2025
5 min
The next day Jack is driven to climb the stock and on three trips he sees three castles which progress from roughly-hewn to radiant. The boy defies irate heavenly man-eating giants (helped by their wives), acquiring bronze, and then a silver egg-laying chicken. He is able to gain food and wealth through his exploits.
(Sorry about the bad sound on my end. It’s been corrected in future episodes.)
Please comment, like, and subscribe!
For the full episode:
https://www.podbean.com/eas/pb-nyntt-183a586
For more in this podcast, please go to:
Podbean:
https://benomtad.podbean.com
Apple Podcasts:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/podcast-benomtad/id1748320863
YouTube:
https://m.youtube.com/@scissorsandpaper/videos
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/4kJPGlaJjGVyLa9AKhci6t?si=8XXrX9FUT3CU71reCfA5kQ
I plan to conduct more interviews with various guests, so please check back later for those.

Mar 11, 2025
Mar 11, 2025
3 min
Jack’s dead father has left him and his mother a house, a cow, an axe and other tools. He reasons with her a cow provides them milk, but she convinces him they need more, so he goes out to the market, but at the bridge he’s approached by an old man who convinces him to trade the cow for three beans because they will proliferate. Jack rejoices but his mother is crestfallen and tosses them out the window. The next day Jack is driven to climb the stock and on three trips he acquires bronze, a silver egg-laying chicken, and a heavenly harp, defying boy-eating giants and being hid by their wives each time. He is able to gain food, wealth, reputation and finally political power through his exploits and judgment, and at the end of the story he sits on the throne, battling the elemental forces of the fallen giants for his kingdom.
(Sorry about the bad sound on my end. It’s been corrected in future episodes.)
Please comment, like, and subscribe!
For the full episode:
https://www.podbean.com/eas/pb-nyntt-183a586
For more in this podcast, please go to:
Podbean:
https://benomtad.podbean.com
Apple Podcasts:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/podcast-benomtad/id1748320863
YouTube:
https://m.youtube.com/@scissorsandpaper/videos
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/4kJPGlaJjGVyLa9AKhci6t?si=8XXrX9FUT3CU71reCfA5kQ
I plan to conduct more interviews with various guests, so please check back later for those.

Mar 11, 2025
Mar 11, 2025
26 min
We summarize and discuss Jonathan Pageau’s The Tale of Jack and the Fallen Giants. Jack’s dead father has left he and his mother a house, a cow, an axe and other tools. He reasons with her a cow provides them milk, but she convinces him they need more, so he goes out to the market, but at the bridge he’s approached by an old man who convinces him to trade the cow for three beans because they will proliferate. Jack rejoices but his mother is crestfallen and tosses them out the window. The next day Jack is driven to climb the stock and on three trips he acquires bronze, a silver egg-laying chicken, and a heavenly harp, defying boy-eating giants and being hid by their wives each time. He is able to gain food, wealth, reputation and finally political power through his exploits and judgment, and at the end of the story he sits on the throne, battling the elemental forces of the fallen giants for his kingdom.
This story is about growing up, with basic needs, courage, rationality, helpers, and truth, order and beauty all playing parts. This also seems like a Christian story of triumph of will, divine order and beauty over primordial, greedy, and destructive forces; the triumph occurs through a once-lowly character that becomes the ruler of a great earthly kingdom.
(Sorry about the bad sound on my end. It’s been corrected in future episodes.)
Please comment, like, and subscribe!
For more in this podcast, please go to:
Podbean:
https://benomtad.podbean.com
Apple Podcasts:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/podcast-benomtad/id1748320863
YouTube:
https://m.youtube.com/@scissorsandpaper/videos
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/4kJPGlaJjGVyLa9AKhci6t?si=8XXrX9FUT3CU71reCfA5kQ
I plan to conduct more interviews with various guests, so please check back later for those.

Mar 11, 2025
Mar 11, 2025
2 min
I thought the story might be a bit complete, then we analyze it as the girl being the protagonist. It’s partially about her death and rebirth, being made whole.
(Sorry about the bad sound on my end. It’s been corrected in future episodes.)
Please comment, like, and subscribe!
For the full episode:
https://www.podbean.com/eas/pb-jtnzf-182a0d5
For more in this podcast, please go to:
Podbean:
https://benomtad.podbean.com
Apple Podcasts:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/podcast-benomtad/id1748320863
YouTube:
https://m.youtube.com/@scissorsandpaper/videos
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/4kJPGlaJjGVyLa9AKhci6t?si=8XXrX9FUT3CU71reCfA5kQ
I plan to conduct more interviews with various guests, so please check back later for those.

Mar 4, 2025
Mar 4, 2025
4 min
Like in “Rumpelstiltskin,” several men with responsibility around the girl make huge moral mistakes that cost the central female much suffering. This story emphasizes her piety, as opposed to her cleverness and luck. The appearance of gold treasure from dealmaking is also prominent here.
(Sorry about the bad sound on my end. It’s been corrected in future episodes.)
Please comment, like, and subscribe!
For the full episode:
https://www.podbean.com/eas/pb-jtnzf-182a0d5
For more in this podcast, please go to:
Podbean:
https://benomtad.podbean.com
Apple Podcasts:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/podcast-benomtad/id1748320863
YouTube:
https://m.youtube.com/@scissorsandpaper/videos
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/4kJPGlaJjGVyLa9AKhci6t?si=8XXrX9FUT3CU71reCfA5kQ
I plan to conduct more interviews with various guests, so please check back later for those.

Becoming Human
I view having deep, open conversations as perhaps the primary way I explore my and others' humanity. I am looking for self-transcendence, knowledge, depth and love though exploration of experience, stories (such as myths and folktales), and ideas. I hope you enjoy these conversations for personal growth and happiness, and thank you for listening.









